BusinessMirror February 16, 2022.pdf

Foreign investments pledges up 71.5%

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

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ESPITE the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s foreign investment pledges surged by 71.5 percent year-onyear to P192.34 billion in 2021, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Based on the PSA’s latest report, approved foreign investments grew from P112.12 billion recorded in 2020.

The country’s foreign investment pledges plunged by 71.26 percent in 2020 from P390.11 billion in 2019 as the global economy was nearly at a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Approved foreign investments

refer to the amount of proposed contribution or share of foreigners to various projects in the country.

The Board of Investments (BOI) accounted for the bulk of approved foreign investments at P151.8 billion or 78.9 percent of the total, while P35.83 billion or 18.6 percent came from Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

Meanwhile, total approved foreign investments in the last quarter of 2021 tripled to P133.47 billion from only P36.49 billion recorded in the same period in 2020.

Approved foreign investments spiked along with the nearly sevenfold increase in the approved foreign investments cornered by the BOI to P129.17 billion from only P18.48 billion in the fourth

quarter of 2020.

In the same period, foreign investments from the BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM) grew sixfold to P20 million from only P3 million.

Those from Clark Development Corp. (CDC) also rose by 10.7 percent to P324.2 million from P292.7 million.

Despite these increases, PEZA and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) saw their foreign investment pledges in the fourth quarter of 2021 diving by 76.8 percent and 96.4 percent, respectively.

Foreign investment pledges from PEZA plunged to P3.94 billion from P17.03 billion while those

from SBMA dropped to P8.5 million from P234.2 million.

Majority of the foreign investment commitments for the fourth quarter came from Singapore, which accounted for P79.3 billion or 59.3 percent of the total.

This was followed by the Netherlands and Japan, with investment pledges amounting to P24.54 billion (18.4 percent) and P1.44 billion (1.1 percent), respectively.

Approved projects with foreign interest in the fourth quarter of 2021 are projected to generate 19,447 jobs.

The investment pledges during the quarter were from five investment promotion agencies—BOI, BOI-BARMM, CDC, PEZA, and SBMA.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2022 Vol. 17 No. 131

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

$34.8-B ’21 REMITTANCES ABOVE PRE-COVID LEVEL n

SMC’s SLEX ELEVATED EXTENSION FULLY DONE

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AN Miguel Corp. (SMC) formally inaugurated the P14-billion South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) Elevated Extension project, signaling the full completion of the much-awaited project seen to ease traffic in Metro Manila as economic growth surges in the southern cities and provinces.

President Duterte and other top government officials led the official opening rites for the project together with SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang. The four-kilometer, twolaned southbound alignment of the project was soft-opened

Vehicles clog a portion of EDSA on Tuesday. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has observed heavier traffic on EDSA after the National Capital Region shifted to Alert Level 2 from Alert Level 3. However, MMDA still does not see the need to expand the number coding scheme despite the heavy traffic. NONOY LACZA

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

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@Tyronepiad

MPROVED global recovery prospects and the reopening of more countries were cited among the factors for the rise in personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OF) last year, exceeding pre-pandemic levels and posting an all-time high, as reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

See “Remittances,” A2

to the public in early December, effectively connecting the Skyway in Sucat to SLEX at Susana Heights in Muntinlupa—bypassing the Alabang viaduct, while improving direct access to both the Alabang area and the Alabang-Zapote Road.

With this development, Ang said that the company has fully delivered on the 19 lane-kilometer SLEX Elevated Extension project, realizing its goal of providing a longterm solution to worsening traffic on the Skyway, SLEX, and public roads leading to and See “SMC,” A2

More tourists arrive as PHL eases travel rules

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM

Special to the BusinessMirror

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EFYING predictions of local tourism stakeholders and government officials, an increasing number of foreign tourists have started arriving in the country after being kept away from their loved ones, friends, and pristine beaches for close to two years.

According to data provided by the Department of Tourism (DOT), inbound tourists arrivals reached 9,283 in the first four days since the Philippines reopened to visa-free

“The billions spent testing travelers would be far more effective if allocated to vaccine distribution or strengthening health care systems.”

–IATA Director General Willie Walsh

countries on February 10. Of the number, foreign nationals at 5,074 outnumbered balikbayans (homecoming Filipinos) at 4,209.

Tourists from the United States, at 2,227, accounted for some 44 percent of total the foreign nationals; followed by those from Canada at 661, Australia at 404, the United Kingdom at 344, South Korea at 189, Japan at 169, and Germany at 168. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, the Philippines attracted some 8.26 million foreign tourists.

Earlier, DOT officials, including local stakeholders thought foreign tourists would be slow to arrive, with the bulk coming in toward the end of the year. The US even issued a Level-4 travel advisory against the Philippines. (See, “US warning vs

travel to PHL not seen to be a deal breaker,” in the BusinessMirror, February 2, 2022.)

The Philippines has the most liberal travel rules in Southeast Asia to date. Foreign tourists from visa-free countries just have to test before travel, but no longer have to quarantine upon arrival. Those who get sick with Covid, however, will have to quarantine in their hotels or resorts for a prescribed period depending on the severity of their symptoms. (See, “Covidpositive tourists may quarantine

PESO exchange rates n US 51.3750 n japan 0.4447 n UK 69.5104 n HK 6.5852 n CHINA 8.0810 n singapore 38.1516 n australia 36.6047 n EU 58.1000 n SAUDI arabia 13.6938

See “Tourists,” A2

Source: BSP (15 February 2022)

A2

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

BusinessMirror

DOH warns pols rampant breaches of health rules to fuel Covid rise

By Samuel P. Medenilla

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drastically drop to about 19 percent or maybe 20 percent compared to what we have right now, we may have a high as 7,000-plus [Covid-19] cases by March 15,” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing last Tuesday.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), she said daily Covid-19 cases could shoot up to 162 cases with a 12-percent drop in MHS compliance and as high as 1,255 cases with 19 percent drop in MHS compliance.

“Because it is election time, it is campaign period, we call on our citizens, local officials and candidates to cooperate in maintaining the low number of [Covid-19] cases in the country by complying with all the safety protocols that we have issued through our guidelines.”

The Commission on Elections made the same appeal to candidates, who are conducting physical campaigns.

“In case the candidates need reminding, they are responsible for the safety of their staff and supporters and that the guidelines on physical campaigning

are str ictly fol lowed, that is their lookout,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a statement.

The poll official said they already received reports of some onsite election activities, wherein mandatory wearing of face mask and face shield policy, as well as the strict physical distancing requirements, were not strictly implemented.

As of press time, Comelec has yet to call out any candidate on the violations of its physical campaign guidelines, which is considered an election offense.

An election offense is punishable with imprisonment and perpetual disqualification from holding public office, while an MHS violation can be meted out a fine of not less than P20,000 but not more than P50,000.

tional Air Transport Association (I ATA) urged governments to speed up the lifting of travel barriers such as quarantine and testing for fully vaccinated travelers, as Covid-19 turns endemic.

“With the experience of the Omicron variant, there is mounting scientific evidence and opinion opposing the targeting of

travelers with restrictions and cou nt r y ba ns to cont rol t he spread of Covid-19. The measures have not worked,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh in a recent webinar. “Today Omicron is present in all parts of the world.

That’s why travel, with very few exceptions, does not increase the risk to general populations. The

billions spent testing travelers would be far more effective if allocated to vaccine distribution or strengthening health care systems,” he stressed.

Data provided by IATA showed the continued sluggishness in international travel with revenue passenger k i lometers hav ing dropped between 65 and 72 percent in 2021 from 2019 levels.

Asia Pacific recorded the steepest decline at 93 percent in 2021 versus 2019 due to closed borders in many of its countries.

Walsh described current travel restriction as “a mess,” noting that there were many more unique solutions to managing travel in the time of Covid than there are the number of countries to travel to.

The Migration Policy Institute has counted more than 100,000 travel measures around the world “that create complexity for passengers, airlines and governments to manage,” said Walsh, batting instead for accelerating vaccination as it is a “potent incentive for barrierfree travel.”

As such, governments must come together and agree on the kind of WHO-approved vaccines that should be recognized and their validity, he stressed.

@sam_medenilla

AMPANT violations of minimum health standards (MHS) during the campaign period could bring up the country’s new Covid-19 cases to over 7,000 next month, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire issued the warning amid reports of candidates and their supporters, who violated MHS during their sorties.

“If compliance [with MHS] will

Tourists. . .

Continued from A1

in hotels–DOH,” in the BusinessMirror, February 14, 2022.)

‘Travel restrictions should be lifted’

As this developed, the Interna-

Remittances. . .

Continued from A1

Data released on Tuesday by the Central Bank showed that Filipino migrant workers sent home $34.884 billion worth of remittances last year, which is above the $33.467 billion in 2019. This is also 5.1 percent more than $33.194 billion in 2020, the first pandemic year.

The 2021 remittance figure represents 8.9 percent of the gross domestic product and 8.6 percent of the gross national income of the country.

“Improved global economic recovery prospects until end December 2021, with the further reopening of many countries around the world, including major host countries, also improved employment prospects for some OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] in recent months, thereby also leading

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SMC. . .

Continued from A1

from them, which used to stretch for many kilometers, due largely to the increase in vehicular volume over the decades, and bottleneck traffic at the Alabang viaduct.

“Since we soft-opened the southbound SLEX Extension last December 10, motorists in the south have seen a major improvement in the traffic situation. It has provided relief to thousands of motorists who go home every day to Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas. With both the southbound and northbound section of the SLEX Extension now fully operational, travel to and from the south is easier and faster than ever,” said Ang. Together, the northbound and southbound lanes of the SLEX Elevated Extension project can accommodate 200,000 cars per day.

“We thank President Duterte and his Build Build Build team, especially the Department of Public Works and Highways, headed by Secretary Mark Villar who was with us at the start of the project and through most of its construction, as well as Department of Transportation Secretary Art Tugade. They both recognized the importance of this project and gave us all the support we needed from start to end,” he said.

“I’m also very grateful for the help and cooperation of so many other stakeholders, from the local government of Muntinlupa and their traffic department; our private sector stakeholders, especially Filinvest Land, who made possible the required rerouting of traffic, and the utility companies, among others, for their cooperation,” Ang added.

Ang also expressed gratitude to the public, especially motorists from the south, for their patience over the two-year construction of the project, which suffered delays due to pandemic restrictions.

to more OFW remittances sent to the families/dependents in the country,” RCBC Chief Economist Michael Ricafort said.

The growth in personal remittances was supported by landbased workers with work contracts of one year or more. Their remittances rose by 5.6 percent to $27.005 billion in 2021 from $25.564 billion the previous year.

The sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year also contributed to the attainment of the all-time-high record, sending home $7.138 billion in 2021, or a 2.9-percent improvement from $6.934 billion in 2020.

BSP’s take

“The growth in personal remittances reflected a pickup in OFW deployment, strong demand for OFWs amid the reopening of host economies to foreign workers, and the continued shift to digital support that facilitated inward transfer of remittances,” the BSP added.

BSP sa id t hat cash remittances from OFs have “remained robust” despite the pandemic, noting the growth in annual inward remittances from the Americas (7.1 percent), Eu rope (5. 5 percent), Asia (4.5 percent) and the Middle East

“On behalf of all our Filipino engineers and the workers who made this possible, we thank the public for their patience. With the completion of this project, seamless connectivity between SLEX, the Skyway system, and NLEX is now a reality. With this, we can look forward to faster, more efficient travel, transport of goods, and improved trade throughout our cities and provinces. These will play a significant part in our economic recovery,” Ang said.

He added: “More significantly for commuters and motorists, there will be less stress related to traffic, and more time to spend, not in vehicles, but with family.

We will also cut economic losses associated with traffic,” he added.

Following the opening of the southbound lanes in December, SMC Infrastructure also fully reopened the Alabang-Zapote Road Skyway ramp, which had been closed previously to give way to construction activities.

Both northbound and southbound lanes of the Alabang-Zapote Skyway ramp have since been operating 24/7, with adjustable utilization depending on traffic conditions.

Ang also highlighted the role of Filipino engineers, construction workers, and contractors, who all worked to make the project happen, despite setbacks.

Originally, the project was set for completion by December 2020, a little over a year since it began. However, this was pushed back once the Covid-19 pandemic struck the Philippines in March 2020, necessitating quarantine restrictions which slowed work progress.

Nevertheless, SMC Infrastructure utilized all resources available to accelerate construction, prioritizing finishing and opening the northbound lane last April, and shifting focus on completing the southbound lanes.

(0.7 percent).

In terms of country source, the majority or 40.5 percent of the cash remittances last year came from the United States. This is followed

by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and South Korea.

In total, these 10 countries accounted for 78.9 percent of the total cash remittances last year.

Highest since 2005

Meanwhile, of remittances for December 2021 alone rose 2.9 percent to $3.298 billion yearon-year, the highest monthly level since 2005.

Ricafort said this reflected the “seasonal increase in spending by consumers, households, businesses, and other institutions during the December holiday season.”

Oxford Economics, in a report this month, projected remittances to grow by 5.4 percent this year on the back of a 7.5-percent economic growth forecast.

“The rebound in remittances is important for the country’s economic recovery. While the impact of remittances on the domestic economy has gradually declined over the years, it is still a crucial source of income for households and accounts for more than 10 percent of private consumption,” the think tank said.

The Nation BusinessMirror

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Foundling Welfare Bill now awaits Duterte’s approval

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE proposed Foundling Welfare law, which seeks to recognize “foundlings” as naturalborn Filipinos is now awaiting President Duterte’s signature.

AP Party-list nominee Ronnie Ong said the Foundling Welfare Bill has presented clarity on the current status of foundlings who are regarded as stateless and are not entitled to access to government services.

The bill has been transmitted to the President for signing and will lapse into law after 30 days as long as it is not vetoed.

Ong said the landmark legislation does not only declare foundlings as natural-born citizens of the Philippines but also penalizes acts inimical to their welfare.

“The Foundling [Bill] is a signature away from becoming law.

There’s no longer a need to go to bicam [bicameral conference committee] because we [the lower chamber] have just adopted the Senate version considering that both versions are almost the same, if not completely identical,” Ong said.

“Many people do not know that foundlings, upon growing up, are required to prove the impossible to gain citizenship or even have their own identities under the law. To prove their citizenship, they have to show proof that their parents are Filipinos despite not knowing them all their whole lives,” Ong said.

“These children didn’t even ask to end up in these circumstances, and they don’t deserve to be treated as second-class citizens. Let us once and for all stop this injustice and discrimination that has been going on for many decades already,” the lawmaker added.

Under the bill, foundlings found in the Philippines or Philippine embassies, consulates, and territories abroad shall be accorded with rights and protection at the moment of their birth, and be entitled to every available government program or service. These include registration, facilitation for adoption, legal and police protection, education, proper nourishment,

medical care, and admission to safe and secure child centers.

A foundling, shall, as a matter of right, be entitled to every available government program or service, including registration, facilitation of documents for adoption, education, legal and police protection, proper nourishment and medical care for survival and development, and admission to safe and secure child centers.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development or its accredited child care center or licensed and accredited SWDAs (social welfare and development agency), the concerned LGUs (local government unit), police authority and the finder shall, at all times, consider the child’s best interest in all actions or support services provided for a foundling.

Senator Grace Poe, who herself is a foundling and faced disqualification cases because of it when she ran for President in 2016, expressed her gratitude and support to the Foundling Welfare Act. The proposal also seeks to streamline the registration process for a foundling regardless of age and circumstances and expedite the issuance of a birth certificate. They shall be also declared legally available for adoption if their biological parents cannot be identified and located, subject to existing laws, rules and regulations, and taking into consideration the best interest of the child.

It also mandates finders of abandoned children to report within 48 hours their discovery to local social welfare offices closest to them, or any safe haven provider, such as a licensed child-caring agency, a church, or health and residential care facilities accredited or managed by the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and local government units.

It calls for penalties against persons involved in acts inimical to the welfare of foundlings, particularly for falsification of the registration of the foundling; refusal or delay in the search or inquiry into the parentage or facts of birth of the foundling; and failure to report that a foundling was relinquished within safe havens.

PNP bares alleged Hamas plot vs Israelis, Middle Eastern nationals in Philippines

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

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HE Philippine National Police (PNP) revealed on Tuesday it has foiled an attempt by the Hamas, a terrorist group based in Palestine, to carry out a “proxy war” in the country by killing Western and Middle-Eastern nationals through its Filipino recruits.

The averted plot of the Palestinian international terrorist group was disclosed by the PNP through its spokesman Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Balba, citing a report from the PNP Intelligence Group (IG) to the police leadership.

According to the report of IG director Brig. Gen. Neil Alinsangan to Major Gen. Michael John Dubria, the PNP director for intelligence, the terror group wanted to wage the proxy war in the country by recruiting Filipino affiliates who would wage terror activities against Westerners and Middle Eastern nationals, including Israelis in the country.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has not commented on the report from the PNP, which said

that this was not the first time that the presence of Hamas members was uncovered in the country.

Hamas is directly opposing Israel, especially the latter’s continued occupation of the Gaza Strip, and has been behind or instigated the “on and off” attacks on Israel, the latest of which was in December last year when the group’s rocket rained on the Jewish state.

The IG said it learned of the conspiracy in the country from a local contact of Hamas.

“Our Filipino source identified the Hamas operative as ‘Bashir’ who was reportedly attempting to establish foothold in the Philippines, with pledges of financial support to some local threat groups including militant extremists with links to the international terrorist organizations,” Alinsangan said.

“Coordination and information sharing with foreign and local counterparts disclosed that Bashir’s real name is Fares Al Shikli who, allegedly, is the head of Hamas’s Foreign Liaison Section. He has also an Interpol Red Notice and is charged with an Offense of Terrorism Logistic Sup-

P

The QC rally, organized by Partido Malayang Quezon City led by mayoral aspirant Mike Defensor and vice mayoral aspirant Winnie Castelo, started at 1 p.m. but residents started arriving in droves even before the designated entrance gate of the complex was opened at 10 a.m.

An usher said they started allowing people in at 10 a.m., and estimated that 25,000 were already inside the stadium, with many others outside the complex.

Castelo debunked critics’ claim that “Bongbong Marcos is nowhere to be seen in crisis,” noting that “in [super storm] Yolanda, the SAF 44 [shooting tragedy], the Marawi [siege], the Taal eruption and typhoon Odette, among others, he was there. He is always first to help.”

Defensor introduced Marcos as “the next President” of the country.

In ‘Tiger City’

BEFORE the Amoranto Stadium ap-

port,” Alinsangan added.

International terrorist groups are known to have operated or are present in the country, especially in Mindanao, and one of these groups is the Islamic State, which operates through its local affiliates collectively known as Dawlah Islamiyah.

Other groups like al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah have also established their foothold in the country.

Alinsangan’s report also cited that the IG’s source has made several trips to Malaysia from 2016 to 2018 where he met with Fares Al Shikli “to discuss the possibility of mounting attacks against Israeli nationals in the country in exchange for financial assistance

by Hamas.”

It was in 2016 that Fares Al Shikli started “grooming” the IG’s source as a local contact in the country and introduced to him “theoretical bombmaking training in one of their meetings in Malaysia.”

The report also said that in the latter part of 2017, Fares Al Shikli “expressed his intention with the source to recruit Filipinos with links to local threat groups that

will be utilized to kill Jews residing in the country, conduct rallies at selected embassies and spread a video propaganda in exchange for financial support.”

The IG said this was not the first time that Hamas has attempted to stage its terror activities in the country, as it noted that in January 2018, a chemist with knowledge on explosives closely affiliated with Hamas was arrested in Pampanga.

The suspect was subsequently deported to Turkey by the Bureau of Immigration.

“This is a stern warning to all terrorist groups who plan to conduct recruitment and similar activities in the country. We have a way to know you and you cannot do your plans here because the PNP and AFP, through the active support of the community, are working together to preempt your devious plans,” Alinsangan said.

Israel has been active in the country by supplying the Philippine military with weapons and equipment in its ongoing modernization program.

Lately, it has also installed weapons systems to the vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard.

Sotto: I’ve no power to force any solon to sign panel report on Pharmally case

By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

S

ENATE President Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday debunked talks he coerced his fellow senators to sign a Blue Ribbon Committee report on the chamber’s inquiry into questioned pandemic supply contracts, notably those involving Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp. that bagged an estimated P10 billion in total transactions.

The Senate leader said he would offer to “step down and shoot myself at the Rizal Park” if it were proven that he forced senators to sign the report on the Pharmally controversy, which ran for over eight months and entailed 18 hy-

brid hearings.

Sotto debunked circulating text messages that he “pressured and coerced” fellow senators to sign the draft report of the committee, chaired by Senator Richard J. Gordon, on findings of alleged overprice and favoritism by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). It was to PS-DBM that the Department of Health (DOH) transferred wholesale P42 billion of its pandemic response budget in 2020, justifying it was busy with other tasks in the crisis and relied on PS-DBM to conduct all biddings for supplies like face masks, shields and Covid-19 test kits.

If the loose talk of coercion

BBM, UniTeam draw huge crowds in QC, Mandaluyong RESIDENTIAL aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. received a warm welcome from tens of thousands in two key Metro Manila cities—Mandaluyong and Quezon City —as he continued to dominate pre-election surveys.

On Monday afternoon, a big crowd welcomed the former senator at the Amoranto Stadium in QC, where he proceeded after attending the 98th birthday of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile was one of the leaders of the 1986 bloodless revolt that resulted in the US exile of the Marcoses, but he and Marcos Jr. have since reconciled and even worked together in the Senate. Marcos Jr. was one of only three senators—the others being Joker Arroyo and Miriam Santiago —who voted to acquit then Chief Justice Renato Corona in his 2012 impeachment trial when Enrile, as then Senate President, presided, as required by the Constitution.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, February 16, 2022 A3

pearance, Marcos Jr. received support from residents of Mandaluyong City during the proclamation rally held on Sunday in the area dubbed “Tiger City.”

Mandaluyong City is home to Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr., who recently resigned as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to serve as UniTeam’s national campaign manager.

Abalos also served in the local government of Mandaluyong from 1995 to 2016 as councilor, mayor, and congressman.

“Bright, the most qualified, and above all, a man with a heart [referring to Marcos].... Let’s recall—on May 5, 2016, nearly six years ago on this same spot I was with Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez. How many votes did Marcos get in Mandaluyong?

A rousing victor in all of Metro Manila,” Abalos said.

Now, Abalos added partly in Fili-

pino, “There are more of us, this is the loud clamor of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, [let me introduce] the next president of the Philippines, the Tiger of the North.”

For his part, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas standard-bearer explained that they picked UniTeam for his tandem with Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte because they are united in the vision of resolving the country’s problems.

“We are called UniTeam because unity is our objective and our dream for the Filipino nation. Inday Sara and I are united in resolving the problems of our country.”

Marcos thanked the people of Mandaluyong for the warm welcome and support, as well as the Abalos family, who organized the rally.

Actress and TV host Toni Gonzaga appeared onstage in the middle of the program to sing “Roar,” especially when she came to the line “I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter.”

among senators proves to be true, Sotto said, he would “resign as Senate President and shoot myself at Rizal Park.”

The Senate leader said, “I did not talk to even one senator about that Blue Ribbon report,” adding that he has “no power to force any senator to sign the report.”

He surmised that the real aim of those behind the text messages is to “sabotage senators’ relations with the President,” whom some consider as “a friend.”

The draft Senate committee report, released just before Congress went on recess on February 3, recommended filing charges against DOH and PS-DBM officials involved in purchasing the

pandemic supplies from Pharmally, as well as top Pharmally executives.

It also endorsed filing appropriate charges against President Duterte after his term, for, among others, betrayal of public trust and grave neglect of duty for naming a Chinese national, Michael Yang, as presidential adviser. Yang was linked by Senate probers to Pharmally, a low-capitalized start-up that bagged the biggest share of pandemic contracts owing to what was seen as its strong backers in the administration.

Meanwhile, more senators indicated they are joining the initial eight signatory senators in the Blue Ribbon Committee report.

DOJ unit asks YouTube to preserve Maharlika data for Kiko’s libel case

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

T

HE Department of JusticeOffice of Cybercrime (DOJOOC) has asked the video sharing and social media platform YouTube to preserve its data on the YouTube Channel Maharlika that is now the subject of a cyber libel complaint filed by Senator and vice presidential candidate Francis Pangilinan.

DOJ-OOC Officer in Charge Charito Zamora said the request was made immediately after Pangilinan sought assistance from her office last February 14 in filing the complaint against Maharlika.

“The purpose there is to make sure that the integrity of computer data relating to the account is intact and available in the event that the complainant will pursue

the filing of the case with the prosecution ser v ice,” Zamora said.

Pangilinan accused Maharlika of allegedly violating Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for posting libelous video content attacking his wife, Megastar Sharon Cuneta.

“The contents of the videos are all false, have no factual basis and are intended to destroy or damage my reputation as a senator, public servant, and a husband to one of the most beloved celebrities in the Philippines, Sharon Cuneta-Pangilinan,” he said in his complaint.

The videos reportedly aim to destroy his family and his relationship with his wife and children.

The OOC, however, learned that the subject of the complaint is not based in the Philippines.

House to probe reported overpricing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines

T

HE House of Representatives will summon pharmaceutical companies over the reported market overpricing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs).

In a news statement following the Kapihan ng Samahang Plaridel forum, House Committee on Public Accounts Chairman Jose Singson Jr. said he and four other lawmakers have already filed a House resolution, which aims to dig deeper into the ongoing con-

troversy on alleged overpricing of PCVs. According to Singson, they have filed the resolution following a World Health Organization (WHO) study which showed that pneumo vaccine types PCV10 and PCV13 are noninferior to each other.

The resolution also urged the Department of Health and Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) to gather sufficient data to study, consider, examine and

evaluate the PCVs prequalified, licensed and recommended by the WHO to ensure that the government procures effective PCVs at the most competitive price to ensure universal coverage for the Filipino people.

“This is a confirmation that there are several choices in the market...

However, only PCV13, which is more costly, is the only one available in the Philippine market,” Singson said.

He added that while there might

be reasons for limiting the choices for such vaccines such as pending patents, “everybody can manufacture these vaccines, especially in the interest of public health...but eventually, the formulation of a patent can be shared and should be shared and we cannot allow a monopoly in our national formulary.”

Recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that pneumococcal diseases were the fourth biggest cause of mortality in

the country in 2020.

Singson said the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC) had filed a formal complaint to the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), calling for the review of the PCV procurement. The complaint was made following allegations of misleading the government into procuring only the more expensive PCV13 as the single solution to pneumococcal diseases, which is right now being dubbed as a sort

of “bakuna budol.”

In response, Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III said they have mobilized their resources to look into the PCV tender.

The stakeholders that will be asked to attend a hearing include the manufacturers of the vaccines, the procuring parties, and complainants who contend that the allegations of monopoly and overpricing do exist.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

A4 Wednesday, February 16, 2022 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Concepcion seeks further easing of curbs as tourism season nears

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

P

@TyronePiad

RESIDENTIAL Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria A. Concepcion urged the government to further ease the mobility restrictions soon, especially with the upcoming summer to encourage travel and other tourism-related spending.

At a Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, the Go Negosyo founder said he is hoping that Alert Level 1 will be imposed by March to boost the tourism industry’s recovery from the pandemic.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) recently announced that the National Capital Region and most parts of the country would remain under Alert Level 2 until

the end of February.

More mobility for tourists will allow them to have more participation in economic activities, Concepcion said, which can help the tourism sector, including the tourist guides and souvenir shops.

Other vacation spending he cited are airfare, food and accommodation.

In an earlier statement, Concepcion stressed that “moving to Alert Level 1 will have a big effect on how we recover” as it will help in continuing “the gains we realized in the fourth quarter.”

The presidential adviser, with this, stressed the need to continue vaccination not only for the primary doses, but also for the booster shots as well to ensure protection against the vaccination.

As for the pandemic exit plan, Concepcion said that it is yet to be finalized.

The said plan in-

tends to set the minimum health protocols amid the pandemic to allow “almost all businesses to open,” which is key to economic recovery, he said. In addition, Concepcion said it would also prescribe the operational capacities of the establishments.

Last month, Concepcion and OCTA Research fellow Nicanor Austriaco called on the IATF to begin crafting an “exit plan” for the pandemic in a bid to spur economic recovery.

Essentially, both parties want the government to open up the economy by easing and simplifying travel restrictions. Doing so, they said, will bode well, especially for the micro, small and medium enterprises.

Concepcion also suggested recently that the country might forgo the use of Alert Level System in curbing the Covid-19 infection by March as the recent Omicron variant has resulted in milder cases. Instead, he said that the government should strengthen the implementation of minimum health protocols.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

First phase of million trees nursery project at La Mesa nears completion

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

A

S the election fever heats up, a notfor-profit organization formed primarily to help reforest degraded watersheds in the country is diligently continuing efforts to promote environmental protection.

In a news statement, Million Trees Foundation Inc. (MTFI) President and Executive Director Melandrew T. Velasco announced that the first phase of its project, the MTFI Tree Nursery and Eco Learning Center, is almost complete.

The project is located at the La Mesa Watershed.

The area was granted to the foundation by the government through the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) through a memorandum of agreement between the two entities.

“We have to push for environment protection continuously despite the pandemic,” Velasco said, adding deforestation is a major environmental concern in the country.

The MTFI Nursery and Satellite Office will be the center of all activities of the AMTC. Aside from the production of saplings, it will be the venue for training and seminars as well as a learning hub for environmental protection.

Identified saplings to be cultivated are narra, ilang-ilang, bamboo, and other indigenous trees suitable for forest rehabilitation.

According to Velasco, it is important

to plant the right trees in the right places to ensure the survival of seedlings and saplings.

“Of course, there is a need to strengthen partnerships with the private sector and people’s organizations to nurture the planted seedlings,” he said.

MTFI is the nongovernment organization partner of MWSS in pursuing its Annual Million Trees Challenge even beyond its five-year duration. It aims to promote tree planting as a means of environment conservation and protection.

Inspired by the success of AMTC, it is forging partnerships with other government agencies and civic organizations to help reforest watersheds located throughout the country, especially those in DENR’s list of critical watersheds.

Meanwhile, retired Gen. Rey Velasco, the prime mover of AMTC, is chairman emeritus of MTFI. He is also the co-founder of the Philippine National Police Retirees Association Inc. (PRAI), a party-list seeking a congressional seat in the 2022 elections.

PRAI aims to provide a dignified life after service for all military and uniformed employees and their dependents. It pursues programs that not only benefit its members but also provide them opportunities to be of service to the country even after retirement. One of these programs is on environmental protection.

PRAI endeavors to become defenders of Mother Earth. It is fostering partnerships with environmental protection organizations such as MTFI.

Davao hospital to open off-site centers in two shopping malls

By Manuel T. Cayon

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

AVAO CITY—The Davao Doctors Hospital (DDH) is set to open its primary care centers in two shopping malls here to provide primary and integrated hospital care services.

Celso Bernard Lopez, president and chief executive officer of DDH, said they would open care centers at the two SM Supermalls here by the second semester of this year.

“Davao Doctors Hospital will set up its first mall-based primary care centers in SM City Davao and SM Lanang Premier,” he said. The twin projects were officially launched Tuesday at the SM City Davao in Ecoland Subdivision.

A hospital statement said the Davao Doctors Care Centers “are fulfillment healthcare centers offering integrated health-care services such as consultation, pharmacy, diagnostics and laboratory located in various strategic parts of the city.”

This was “in essence, bringing the DDH brand of care closer to the community,” he added. “This is proof of our commitment to our vision, which is to bring DDH kind of care nearer to you. With this development, shoppers can soon avail of health care-services, including laboratory and testing, from DDH clinics and pharmacy.”

The Davao Doctors Care Center would will be established at the second level of SM City Davao and ground level of SM Lanang Premier.

“We are happy to partner with Davao Doctors Hospital in making quality health care accessible to the communities we serve,” said Engr. Jonathan Nick D. Santos, regional operations manager of SM Supermalls. He added the establishment of Davao Doctors Care Centers “are welcome development as SM Supermalls continue to evolve with the changing demands, needs, and behavioral patterns of our shoppers.”

DFA in talks with EU, international bodies for OFWs exit from Ukraine

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

T

HE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has stopped short of calling for a mandatory evacuation for Filipinos in Ukraine where a confrontation between the United States and Russia may possibly erupt.

In a carefully worded statement released Tuesday night, the DFA said, “the situation at Ukraine’s border remains fluid, and security conditions could change at any moment.”

A diplomatic official who spoke on anonymity said Manila is cautious against calling for a mandatory evacuation of its nationals from Ukraine due to “political sensitivities.” The Philippines long-standing defense pact with the US, and has recently boosted its bilateral ties with Russia during the administration of President Duterte.

For Filipinos who “may wish to return to the Philippines”— the DFA is in close coordination with the embassies and consulates in Europe on “arrangements” to bring home the Filipinos in Ukraine, DFA said.

For Filipinos who “wish to relocate to more secure areas”—the DFA has been in talks with the Filipino community in Ukraine as well as with other governments and international partners.

“The DFA is also working with the European Union in ensuring safe passage of Filipinos across EU borders,” DFA added.

Russia is reportedly planning to invade

Ukraine after the former Soviet satellite applied for membership in NATO. Russia denied this, even as there are at least 100,000 troops stationed at the border.

On Tuesday, the defense ministry of Russia said some of these troops are returning to their bases after completing military exercises. But CNN reported that the build-up of Russian forces—submarines, amphibious landing ships, short-range ballistic missiles, tanks and howitzers—close to the Ukrainian border continues.

A Filipino community leader based in capital Kyiv told the BusinessMirror that they have been urged by The Philippine Embassy in Warsaw to leave Ukraine as soon as possible.

There are around 380 Filipinos in Ukraine. But as of Monday, there are only eight Filipinos who have signed up for repatriation that the government would shoulder, Sherly Santosildes told the BusinessMirror.

We urge Filipinos in Ukraine to keep communication lines with the Philippine Embassy in Poland open, and wait for updates, bulletins, and safety instructions.

Filipinos in Ukraine are advised to contact the Philippine Embassy in Poland as early as possible through the following contact details.

WhatsApp/Viber: Emergency: +48 604 357 396 Assistance to Nationals: +48 694 491 663 E-mail: warsaw.pe@dfa.gov.ph

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Roxas City officials, residents reaffirm support for Robredo

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

C

ITY officials and residents of Roxas City assured their support to Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who was in the city on Tuesday for the start of her two-day campaign in Panay Island.

A news statement released by the vice president’s campaign team said Robredo, who is running for president, said the city’s residents crammed the streets as Robredo’s motorcade passed by.

From the airport, Robredo and her party motored to the Archbishop’s Palace where the candidate met with Diocesan Administrator Monsignor Cyril Villareal before proceeding to the Dinggoy Roxas Civic Center and met members of the Robredo People’s Council (RPC) from all over Capiz.

Addressing the RPC volunteers, Robredo recalled the support that she received from the city in 2016 and the assistance provided by her office to the city and the province.

“Parati pong masayang-masaya ako pag nakakabalik ako dito sa Roxas City saka sa Capiz. Maraming magagan-

dang alaala. Yung pinakauna ko pong bisita po dito noong kumakandidato ako bilang Pangalawang Pangulo. ’Yun po ay pagpunta ko ay hindi niyo pa ako kilala. Nagpapakilala pa lang ako pero napakalaki ng tulong na ibinigay niyo sa akin sa eleksyon,” she said.

Robredo recalled the programs of Angat Buhay in Capiz, such as the farm equipment given to the farmers of Panitan, the livelihood assistance given to fisherfolk in Roxas City, and the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) relief efforts after typhoon Ursula in 2019.

She also mentioned the two community-learning hubs established

by OVP and the PPEs and medical supplies delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas assured Robredo of the vote of Roxas City as he recalled the support that they gave to her when she ran for the post of vice president in 2016.

“In 2016, more than 50,558 of the residents of Roxas City supported her and she won the vice presidency. In the span of six years of her service, her record is clean. There is no hint of corruption. It is guaranteed that she can be trusted and that she cares for us,” Dadivas said.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 A5

SC holds 1st in-person session since Covid onset as judiciary sets return to normalcy

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

C

HIEF Justice (CJ) Alexander Gesmundo on Tuesday finally presided over his first in-person en banc session with 13 other fellow justices since his appointment in April 2021 in what could be an indication to the return to normalcy of the judiciary since the pandemic broke out in March 2020.

Before the in-person en banc session, the SC justices have been holding their deliberations on important cases online through videoconferencing.

Aside from the CJ, also present in the regular en banc deliberations were Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe, Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando, Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, Justice Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, Justice Rodil V. Zalameda, Justice Mario V. Lopez, Justice Samuel H. Gaerlan, Justice Ricardo R. Rosario, Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez,

Justice Japar B. Dimaampao, and Justice Jose Midas P. Marquez.

The deliberations were held inside the Session Hall as it allows better physical distancing compared to the En Banc Conference Room.

CJ Gesmundo, the 27th SC CJ, assumed as chief magistrate on April 5, 2021 at a time when the number of daily cases of Covid-19 infections nationwide was peaking, which led to the physical closure of courts and judicial offices.

However, the Court en banc as well as the three Divisions continued with their regular deliberations online.

Likewise, the SC also announced that it will be increasing its number of employees required to physically report for work to 80 percent starting February 16, even as the National Capital Region remains under Alert Level 2.

Also increasing their on-site capacity to 80 percent are the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Sandiganbayan, citing the steady decrease in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

The SC, CA and Sandiganbayan issued separate memoranda announcing that 80 percent of the total number of their employees would be required to physically report for work.

“Considering that the Covid-19 growth rate in Metro Manila has decreased, notwithstanding the extension of Alert Level 2 therein until February 28, 2022, the working capacity in the Supreme Court beginning February 16 and until further orders, shall be at least 80 percent of the entire workforce of all offices/services/divisions/units,” CJ Gesmundo said.

Gesmundo added that their employees who are not scheduled to report on-site shall be under a work from home arrangement.

For the CA, Presiding Justice Remedios Salazar-Fernando said all court employees would undergo antigen testing, and that negative antigen test results would be valid for 14 days.

They would also now allow onsite raffles and hearings. Videocon-

Two groups seek reversal PRC sustains mobile vaccination drive in select Metro Manila, Laguna localities of Comelec’s decision on BBM’s disqualification case

T

HE Philippine Red Cross (PRC), through the leadership of Chairman and CEO Senator Richard J. Gordon, on Tuesday said the humanitarian organization will continue to deploy Bakuna Buses to administer more vaccine doses in partnership with Lazada Philippines from February 15 to February 19.

According to the PRC Health Services, volunteers are targeting to administer doses for 600 individuals with the deployment of

the Bakuna Buses in the following areas: Barangay Malanday and Fortune, Barangay North Fairview, San Bartolome, and at the Lazada Hub in San Pedro Laguna.

As of February 14, 2022, PRC Bakuna Buses have administered 3,373 doses since launching the program last January 2022. The partnership aims to boost vaccination rates through Lazada’s donations, enabling PRC to support its Bakuna Bus deployments until May 2022.

Meanwhile, the PRC has also achieved another milestone as they have now administered more than a million doses since launching their Covid-19 Vaccination Program last March 2021.

In total, the humanitarian organization has now administered 1,002,041 doses as of February 14, 2022.

“The best way to protect yourself, your loved ones, and the people around you is by getting vaccinated,” Gordon said. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

LCP pitches use of data to boost development continued from a12

Reyes, who developed the tool, was also one of the main speakers of the event.

“The CBMS is designed to highlight what matters most to the community and promotes their active participation in the entire process since the members of the community take part in collecting and validating the data,” Reyes said.

Citing its many features, Reyes pointed out that the tool “facilitates greater transparency and accountability in local governance by providing data at the local level that is accessible to everyone. It taps existing LGU personnel and community members, using freeware customized data collection and processing and establishes a database at each geopolitical level.”

Among the participants and listeners at the event were officials and representatives of the municipalities of Irosin, Cagayan de Oro City, Palimbang, Baybay City (Leyte) and other partners of COLLABDev who were keen on how the national government can help their local government in conducting CBMS, especially because the CBMS will be implemented this year as mandated by RA 11315.

W hile many challenges lay ahead in the implementation of the CBMS, representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine Statistics Authority reassured the public that they are committed to supporting LGUs. Anna Liza F. Bonagua, Director of the Bureau of Local Government Development of the DILG, and Plenee Grace Castillo, Interim Assistant National Statistician, Community-Based Statistics Service (CBSS), of the PSA, said

that their agencies are up to the tasks ahead.

The DILG will give its full support to the LGUs, recognizing that CBMS is essential to craft clear-sighted local plans and budget as well as monitor the performance of LGUs. Meanwhile, the PSA has set up administrative bodies from the provincial level down to the municipalities to ensure an efficient implementation of the CBMS. Data quality is of utmost importance. It has also pilot-tested the system in 90 LGUs in 2021 to gain on-theground experiences that will be invaluable in improving the mechanisms in setting up the CBMS starting this year.

Sharing her experiences, Marissa Cano, the CBMS Focal Person of Baybay City, Leyte said some challenges that surfaced include resolving the boundaries of a barangay, refusal of several residents to participate in the survey despite numerous efforts to convince them, ensuring that interviews are conducted diligently, and the delay of enumerators’ salaries.

Mayor Ofelia Alcantara of Tolosa, Leyte raised some LGUs’ concerns on rthe possibility of merging local data and the prospect of having unified data from the national level down to the municipalities.

The possibility of merging and unifying data exists, but because they were collected and processed using different platforms than the CBMS, it is best for the meantime to store the data and continue to use it. Castillo, however, assured the LGUs that some survey questions, for example, from the RBIM of the Population Commission are integrated in the CBMS. Aside from managing and con-

ducting the CBMS, one major difficulty for LGUs is the cost of running and maintaining the system, which is estimated to run up to P6 million. This is a hefty amount even for better-off LGUs. Although both PSA and DILG will help LGUs that need technical and financial assistance to implement the CBMS, ultimately, it will be the LGU that carries the greater burden of seeing it through especially on funding.

Noel Mercado II, the Municipal Planning and Development Officer of Irosin, Sorsogon, meanwhile shared ways to cut costs like purchasing cheaper tablets, maximizing the municipality’s personnel and equipment, re-aligning the budget; and asking the universities and colleges to help by providing qualified technical people such as statisticians, and mobilizing the municipality’s business and private sector for financial support and communities to render volunteer work.

A reactor from the Oro Chamber of Commerce of Cagayan de Oro City, Avelyn Cahulogan, vice president for Social Services, emphasized the value of evidencebased plans when in 2018, the City crafted its transport master plan to address the traffic situation that was predicated by information from data.

Dr. Allan Jay Cajandig, Campus Director of the Sultan Kudarat State University in Palimbang, expressed his confidence that through datadriven development, the different challenges, despite the pandemic, can be addressed.

“Developing our beloved country will not end with this event but will be fostered. Let us fly high, soar high!” he said. Jonathan L. Mayuga

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

T

HE two groups included in the dismissed consolidated petition for the disqualification of presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. have also appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reverse the decision of its First Division on their case.

On Tuesday, the group led by Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party as well as the Bonifacio Ilagan group both filed their respective motions for reconsideration (MR) before the Comelec en banc on their appeal.

This after Abubakar M. Mangelen, the third party included in the consolidated petition, also filed his MR on February 14, 2022.

The Comelec First Division dismissed the consolidated case of Mangelen, Akbayan and Ilagan after the petitioners supposedly failed to prove Marcos was convicted with a crime, which has a penalty of imprisonment for more than 18 months or involved in moral turpitude.

Accessory penalty

IN its 16-page MR, Akbayan said the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) on Marcos’s violation of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) for failing to file his tax returns from 1982 to 1985 has an accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification, and that such infraction involved moral turpitude.

“The Respondents refusal to file income tax returns could have been

excused as one not involving moral turpitude in the first offense. However, he continued to violate the law for a total of four years. This was an offensive display of his utter disregard of the law and clearly constituted conduct contrary to justice, honesty, modesty, and good morals that manifest baseness, vileness, and depravity,” the Akbayan MR read.

“In view of the totality of circumstances surrounding the Respondent’s failure to file his income tax returns, it is respectfully submitted that the same constituted crimes involving moral turpitude for which he was convicted by final judgment,” it added.

Akbayan also argued the CA did not reverse the decision of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s decision when it convicted Marcos of imprisonment of three years for his failure to file his income tax return (ITR).

Continued violation

FOR its part, Ilagan’s group said Marcos’ failure to promptly settle his unpaid tax before 1986 makes him susceptible to the sanction of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

“While the additional accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification only took effect in 1 January 1986, it must be noted that until then, respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr., continued to violate Sec. 45 of the 1977 NIRC; he did not even try to belatedly file his income tax return,” Ilagan’s group said.

Completion of ‘Yolanda’ housing projects on track, NHA official says

T

HE National Housing Authority (NHA) assured on Tuesday that the completion of housing projects for those affected by the onslaught of Superty phoon “Yolanda’” (international code name Haiyan) in November 2013 is on track.

In a news conference on Tuesday, NHA Assistant General Manager Victor Balba told reporters that the Yolanda housing projects are now 82 percent completed.

“Actually, our commitment is to complete the remaining Yolanda housing projects by the end of the term of the president. ’Yun po

’yung commitment ng NHA and right now we are still on track to complete these projects except for those projects na talagang we have encountered some problems,” Balba said.

Balba admitted that the agency is facing several roadblocks, including titling issues securing the necessary permits and the termination of the awarded contract with some developers due to their non-compliance with the requirements.

However, he added, they are already working with other agencies to quickly resolve these issues.

Bernadette D. Nicolas

ferencing hearings would also be allowed for as long as the presiding justice approves it.

Other meetings concerning adjudicatory and administrative functions may still be conducted via videoconferencing.

For the Sandiganbayan, Presiding Justice Amparo CabotajeTang said all the hearings would be done in-court, but only the parties, their legal counsels and witnesses would be allowed inside the courtroom.

“Hearings via videoconferencing may be conducted only in exceptional cases, upon motion of either or both parties, or upon orders of the court, which shall schedule the said videoconferencing hearings,” Tang said.

The Court of Tax Appeals as well as the second and first level courts has also issued similar issuances, announcing that they would be physically open from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and will operate with at least 80 percent on-site personnel capacity.

Palace cites major considerations for Metro, other areas before AL 1

S

ELF-REGULATION of private establishments and a higher vaccination rate will be among the major considerations of the government before it could start placing areas under Alert Level (AL) 1.

In a virtual news briefing on Tuesday, Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo B. Nograles said the government must ensure that companies will be able to implement minimum health standards (MHS) like wearing of facemasks and social distancing under AL 1.

At the same time, he said a considerable portion of the population, particularly the vulnerable sector, should already be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in areas to be placed under the said classification.

He explained the said measures are necessary since the government plans to remove the operational/seat capacity restriction for establishments under AL 1.

“So under Alert Level 1, we will no longer have 70 percent or 50 percent [operation capacity].

This means establishments must have self-regulation and self-policing because they are compliant with the [government] standards for safety seals,” Nograles said.

He is referring to the Safety Seals issued by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and other concerned government agencies to ensure an establishment is compliant to MHS. Health undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said the government opted to postpone placing any area under Alert Level 1 this month since it has yet to complete the necessary preparations for it.

This includes the “new normal” road map, which are still being developed by concerned government agencies.

The business sector is clamoring for AL 1 in Metro Manila and other parts of the country since it will allow more establishments to reopen or operate at full capacity.

Samuel P. Medenilla

A6

BusinessMirror

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF QUALIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION SALARY RANGE 3M SERVICE CENTER APAC, INC. 17th, 18th, 19th Floors, Bonifacio Stopover Corporate Center, 31st Street Cor., 2nd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree or NGUYEN NU TRAN Y equivalent; 3 or more years of Digitization Specialist (Vietnamese) experience in managing the development, maintenance, Brief Job Description: and/or programming of 1.

Provide insight improve operational efficiency, and increase websites and other digital process quality for product digitization across all content assets & programs (Hybris, needs (i.e. eCommerce, 3M.com websites, channel partners, Celum, SAP Luminar) etc.)

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 A-LINK STEEL MANUFACTURING CORP. Unit 1403-1404 14/f Bdo Equitable Bank Tower, 8751 Paseo De Roxas, Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: CAO, LONGYU College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 2.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: GAO, JIE College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 3.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: HU, BAOQUAN College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 4.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: LEI, JINGPING College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 5.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: LUO, YOUWEN College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 6.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: MEI, LEQIN College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 7.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: SHANG, HUIJIE College graduate; at least 1-2 Roller Machine Specialist years of working experience in the related field; fluent in 8.

Brief Job Description: Mandarin/basic English Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, Salary Range: temper, or reduce gauge of material Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 AMAZING HOUSE, INC. G/f Oceanaire Residences, Cbpi, Sunrise Drive, Barangay 76, Pasay City YANG, LIANG Basic Qualification: Chinese Cuisine Specialist expert in menu planning 9.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: assist head chef and training staff with regards to Chinese Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 menu ZHAO, HONGYAN Basic Qualification: Chinese Cuisine Specialist expert in menu planning 10.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: assist head chef and training staff with regards to Chinese Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 menu BETAINE (PH) B.V - PHILIPPINE BRANCH 11th-21st Flr., Zeta Tower Bridgetowne Ext. E Rodriguez Jr. Ave. Ortigas, 3, Ugong Norte, Quezon City Basic Qualification: KARRI, SANTOSH KUMAR College degree in statistics, Associate Vice President For Business Excellence management, marketing or equivalent course. 10 Brief Job Description: years’ experience in the area 11.

Ensure contractual & non - contractual metrics are identified of process improvement, and monitored across all processes. Continues improvement preferably in the bpo industry. projects are identified and carried out for both contractual and non-contractual metrics that are not met.

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above BIGCAT SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 18/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Avenue Cor. Rufino Street, Salcedo Vill., Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: CHEN, LU know how to speak mandarin Cashier - Mandarin Speaking with good oral communication skill.

12.

Brief Job Description: process sales transactions and accept payments for Chinese Salary Range: customer.

Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: CHEN, LU know how to speak mandarin Cashier - Mandarin Speaking with good oral communication 13. skill.

Brief Job Description: process sales transactions and accept payments for Chinese Salary Range: customer.

Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: CHEN, LU know how to speak mandarin Cashier - Mandarin Speaking with good oral communication 14. skill.

Brief Job Description: process sales transactions and accept payments for Chinese Salary Range: customer.

Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: CHEN, LU know how to speak mandarin Cashier - Mandarin Speaking with good oral communication 15. skill.

Brief Job Description: process sales transactions and accept payments for Chinese Salary Range: customer.

Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 No.

BON JIN LENDING INC. Units A&b 20/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati CHEN, LU Cashier - Mandarin Speaking 16.

Brief Job Description: process sales transactions and accept payments for Chinese customer.

Basic Qualification: know how to speak mandarin with good oral communication skill.

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

CHINA CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY MANILA OFFICE 12/f Times Plaza Bldg., U.n. Ave. Cor. Taft Ave., 072, Barangay 670, Ermita, City Of Manila

No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION WEN, XUELI Mandarin Operations Manager

17.

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Proven experience as mandarin operations manager, familiarity, knowledge and awareness on machinery and heavy equipment used by company. Demonstrate experience in developing strategic business plan.

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

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PHILIPPINES, INC. 2nd, 3rd, And 4th Floors, Science Hub Tower 4 Bldg., Mckinley Hill Cyberpark, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: Knowledge required THUMMALLAPALLI, AKHIL KUMAR on Automation testing; Programmer Analyst Automation framework design and update; Good 18.

Brief Job Description: communication skills; Good Knowledge in Insurance - Annuities Domain, Good Verbal Agile knowledge & Written communication Skills; God in Handling multiple projects & coordination with the client QA leads Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 PEREIRA MORA, ENGELBERT JOSUE Basic Qualification: Senior Process Executive BA or BS Degree (in lieu of degree, 4 years of relevant Brief Job Description: work experience), Native 19.

Service Support Solution includes diagnosis, resolution Spanish Speaker and reporting of customer issues and questions relating to YouTube paid content products. Service is Tier 1 end user Salary Range: support with escalations to google in Spanish language Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 COTTON AND DIAZ INSURANCE SERVICES, INC. U-205 One Corporate Plaza, 845 A. Arnaiz Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati NINOMIYA, YUTAKA Senior Consultant Basic Qualification: Insurance practice specialist Brief Job Description: 20.

Responsible for client retention, analyzing work processes Salary Range: and suggesting improvements, interfacing potential clients, Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 coordinating with insurance provider and contributing to the development and expansion of the company.

CRONYX INC. No. 4th-10th Flr. Yinhope Bldg., Dela Rama Cor. Zoili Hilario St., Seascape Village, Ccp Complex Subd. Zone 10, Barangay 76, Pasay City Basic Qualification: KITH, SIEKLENG With at least 6 months Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk customer service experience, good in oral communication 21.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about products and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: WU, HEFU With at least 6 months Chinese Speaking Program Designer customer service experience, good in oral communication 22.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about products and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: WU, ZHAOLIAN With at least 6 months Chinese Speaking Program Designer customer service experience, good in oral communication 23.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about products and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 EVERSON VISA CONSULTANCY INC. 37/f Lkg Tower, 6801 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: WANG, SHILIN With at least 6 months Chinese Speaking Technical Consultant customer service experience/ good in oral communication 24.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: ZHANG, XIAOLI With at least 6 months Chinese Speaking Technical Consultant customer service experience/ good in oral communication 25.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 EXLSERVICE PHILIPPINES, INC. 6th Floor, One E-com Center, Harbor Drive, Mall Of Asia Complex, Pasay City Basic Qualification: Have professional experience of more than 11 years as SON VEER an automation develop Senior Manager-digital Transformation solution architect and span lead, reengineering Brief Job Description: concepts and tools in depth Solution Architect Experience with in-depth understanding understanding of the RPA/ of application architecture it infra and networks 26.

Cognitive toools (blue prism, understanding of IU element, Apls. Database interfaces, automation anywhere, Uipath ETC. own the technical solution and ensure all technical work Fusion) development aspects are implemented as designed highlight risk and experience along with issues throughout the project life cycle to respective project knowledge of tool capabilities manager, Ensure practices is followed while coding and features and functionalities perform code integration and code review etc.

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

GRAND UNICOM CORP. Unit 1510 One Park Drive, 11th Drive Cor. 9th Ave., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: OU, JIANBO Proven experience as Chinese Marketing Officer marketing officer or similar role. Solid knowledge of 27.

Brief Job Description: marketing techniques and Exclusively handles clients/accounts from Chinese/Mandarin principles. speaking company; Responsible in working on the data entry or information processing field Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: OU, JIANPING Proven experience as Chinese Marketing Officer marketing officer or similar role. Solid knowledge of 28.

Brief Job Description: marketing techniques and Exclusively handles clients/accounts from Chinese/Mandarin principles. speaking company; Responsible in working on the data entry or information processing field Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: OU, JIN Proven experience as marketing Chinese Marketing Officer officer or similar role. Solid knowledge of marketing 29.

Brief Job Description: techniques and principles.

Exclusively handles clients/accounts from Chinese/Mandarin speaking company; Responsible in working on the data entry Salary Range: or information processing field Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: XU, SHUIQING Proven experience as Chinese Marketing Officer marketing officer or similar role. Solid knowledge of 30.

Brief Job Description: marketing techniques and Exclusively handles clients/accounts from Chinese/Mandarin principles. speaking company; Responsible in working on the data entry or information processing field Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

I-PLEX MARKETING INC. 24/f Bgc Corporate Center, 30th Street Corner 11th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling JIANG, CHEN customer questions about Chinese Speaking Admin Associate services or products / excellent 31. mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Prepare and maintain company documents and reports and coordinate for daily administrative reports Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling LI, XIULI customer questions about Chinese Speaking Admin Associate services or products / excellent 32.

Mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Prepare and maintain company documents and reports and coordinate for daily administrative reports Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling AUNG MYO KHAING customer questions about Chinese Speaking Business Analyst services or products / excellent 33.

Mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Planning, maintaining and coordinate the development of primary and secondary market research Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling CHAO, WENBIN customer questions about Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative services or products / excellent 34.

Mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Assist/ help customers, give customers information about products or services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling LUO, MUZHAN customer questions about Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative services or products / excellent Mandarin communication 35.

Brief Job Description: skills Assist/ help customers, give customers information about products or services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling WANG, JING customer questions about Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative services or products / excellent 36.

Mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Assist/ help customers, give customers information about products or services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling YANG, QIUCHAN customer questions about Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk services or products / excellent 37.

Mandarin communication Brief Job Description: skills Enters customer and account data and keeping and maintaining information confidential Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency in handling ZHANG, SHUANG customer questions about Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk services or products / excellent Mandarin communication 38.

Brief Job Description: skills Enters customer and account data and keeping and maintaining information confidential Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 INFOVINE INC. 8th, 9th, 10th/f Aspire Corporate Plaza Bldg., Macapagal Blvd. St., Zone 10, Barangay 76, Pasay City Basic Qualification: LUO, PING With atleast 6 months Chinese Speaking Admin Associate customer service experience/ good in oral communication 39.

Brief Job Description: and written Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 INVECH TREASURE PROCESSING CORPORATION Ground, 2nd, 3rd And 4th Floor, Eight West Campus Mckinley West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: JIN, WEN Able to speak and write in Mandarin Customer Support Representative MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related 40.

Brief Job Description: BPO experience.

Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: LIU, YAKUN Able to speak and write Mandarin Customer Support Representative in mandarin and at least college level with related bpo 41.

Brief Job Description: experience.

Supports customer by providing helpful information, answering question, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: YE, SIRUI Able to speak and write in Mandarin Customer Support Representative MANDARIN/FUKIEN and at least college level with related 42.

Brief Job Description: BPO experience.

Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: NGUYEN DINH LUAN Able to speak and write in Vietnamese Customer Support Representative VIETNAMESE and at least college level with related BPO 43.

Brief Job Description: experience.

Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: NGUYEN VAN QUANG Able to speak and write in Vietnamese Customer Support Representative VIETNAMESE and at least college level with related BPO 44.

Brief Job Description: experience.

Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: NGUYEN VAN THUY Able to speak and write in Vietnamese Customer Support Representative VIETNAMESE and at least college level with related BPO 45.

Brief Job Description: experience.

Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 J-NA ALLOUT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP. 3/f Lipams Bldg., #48 President Avenue, B. F. Homes, City Of Parañaque KIM, JUNG MIN Basic Qualification: Korean Marketing Consultant College Graduate 46.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Work with corporate management to improve, plan & Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 implement effective strategies

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.- PHILIPPINE GLOBAL SERVICE CENTER 23/f Net Plaza, 31st St. E-square Zone, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

TRIPATHI, PANKAJ Operations Director 47.

Brief Job Description: This role is responsible for overall management and oversight of an Operations function, including planning, strategy, structure, budget, and resource allocation.

LERIB SERVICES CORPORATION U-3d Rose Industries Bldg., Choice Market Ortigas, Kapitolyo, City Of Pasig LEE, JUNGMIN Finance Assistant 48.

Brief Job Description: Finance assistant include processing payments, updating financial records and managing invoices.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Strong leadership skills with demonstrated success in managing complex operational functions, Extensive experience in managing multiple functions and or sites, Develops and implements operational plans, actions and programs in support of long term-business objectives and within budget

62.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires

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

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

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

NEO INCORPORATED North Tower Centrum Bldg., Aseana Avenue, Entertainment City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque LI, YUTING Chinese Speaking Business Analyst 63.

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

ZHU, LIUJIE Chinese Speaking Business Analyst 64.

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

GUSFENDI Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 65.

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

HONG, CHENGLONG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk 66.

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

67.

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

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services NONG NHIT LAM Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

68.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customer information about product and services XIAO, LIMING Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

69.

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

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

70.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

ZHANG, WEIFENG Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor

71.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

WANG, YONGCHUN Mandarin Mechanical Superintendent

72.

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

YAN, HONGGUANG Mandarin Project Monitoring Supervisor

73.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Project Monitoring Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

WANG, XINGWEI Mandarin Site Supervisor

74.

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

LI, YINGDA Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst

75.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst will be a strategist and a leader to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

PAN, SHANRONG Mandarin Technical Works Officer

76.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Technical Works Officer will be a strategist and a leader to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

77.

Brief Job Description: Define and deliver the people strategy to achieve the business objectives; Functional leadership of NiM related HR organization and compliance control to ensure delivery against the Nestlé HR Principles/Policies and Standards; Formulate and recommend People plans, initiatives and strategies as part of the Market Business Strategy and aligned with Global HR philosophy and priorities, including compliance, safety and health.

83.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Mechanical Superintendent, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Project Monitoring Supervisor, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Site Supervisor, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Technical Works Officer, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

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

Basic Qualification: International exposure and range of business experiences in different environments, cultures, categories, factory & Industrial Relations experience (ii) Experience in leading significant change and business transition in organizations e.g. Mergers, acquisitions, disinvestment , joint ventures, turnaround, etc (iii) Leadership and exposure in all parts of the HR function e.g. CoC, CoS, HRBP

84.

RAYMOND, JOSEPH VICTOR Talent Development Manager 78.

Basic Qualification: 10 years experience in the BPO in training department & HR.

Brief Job Description: devising strategies in enhancing org, growth sustained Salary Range: profitability of operations and improved business Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 performance.

SHANG SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 11/f Pbcom Tower, Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: WILLIAM Bachelor’s degree in business, Bahasa Indonesian Language-trade Specialist marketing and other relevant 79. courses Brief Job Description: Ensure that all prices changes and delivery of events are Salary Range: timely accurate Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 SHELL SHARED SERVICES (ASIA) B.V. 16/f-25/f Solaris One Bldg., 130 Dela Rosa St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: Tertiary education preferably with a degree in business or LANZ TOH TING FENG engineering comprehensive SC Excellence Lead IGPRES understanding of cp processes, systems and ways of working Brief Job Description: possess strategic thought 80.

Responsible on the implementation of shell’s digital leadership to help contribute a transformation strategy within the manila delivery center. wider business agenda within Develop an effective exchange of best practices within the shell manila delivery center while supporting external networking Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

SHIMIZU CORPORATION 5/f King’s Court Bldg. 1, 2129 Chino Roces Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: MATSUMOTO, SHINICHI Cpo should gave sound Chief Project Manager competences in managing projects programmed and 81.

Brief Job Description: portfolios Oversee business projects and ensure that are completed on time and within budget.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 Basic Qualification: WADA, HIROSHI Ability to maintain and Deputy Administration Manager monitor administrative staffs 82. and the whole department.

Brief Job Description: Maintains administrative staff by recruiting, selecting, Salary Range: orienting and training employees.

Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 SOLIDLEISURE SOLUTIONS INC. Unit 2602-d & 2603-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin

ANDERSON LAI YOOK JOON Mandarin Technical Support Brief Job Description: Monitoring and maintaining computer systems and networks

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both oral and written

THONG CHI CUONG Mandarin Customer Service Specialist Brief Job Description: Customer service

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

SUEZ INTERNATIONAL PHILIPPINE BRANCH Unit Lz-2 19f Tower 1 Highstreet South Corporate Plaza, 9th Ave. Cor. 26th St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: Must have experience on international Design & Built project of water treatment plant; Knowledge on SUEZ’s UCD Package Plant is necessary.

PRUVOST, ANTOINE LEO Commissioning Engineer 85.

Brief Job Description: Supervise commissioning of a drinking water treatment plant and coordinate with French headquarter.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Must have a minimum 10-year experience in commissioning management; Experience on at least 10 international Design & Built large projects of water treatment plants (treatment capacity over 100,000 m3/ day); Ideally previous work experience in China; Knowledge on SUEZ’s UCD Package Plant is necessary.

SAVINEL, LAURENT Senior Commissioning Manager 86.

Brief Job Description: Manage commissioning of a drinking water treatment plant, including its construction and start-up phases, and coordinate with French and Regional Headquarters.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 SUPREME CHENGHAO MANAGEMENT OPC Level 26-a Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati DENG, LIANG Mandarin Administrative Specialist 87.

88.

Basic Qualification: At least two(2) years of working experience in the related field; fluent in mandarin/chinese language

Brief Job Description: Provide support to managers, other employees, and office visitors by handling a variety of task in order to ensure that all interactions between the organization and others are positive and productive.

XU, WENQIANG Mandarin Administrative Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: At least two(2) years of working experience in the related field; fluent in mandarin/chinese language

Brief Job Description: Provide support to managers, other employees, and office visitors by handling a variety of task in order to ensure that all interactions between the organization and others are positive and productive.

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

THER@HEALTH MULTI-THERAPY CENTER INC. 661, Sanggumay, Plainview, City Of Mandaluyong MORALES, MARYANN BALITE Director Of Rehabilitation Services 89.

Basic Qualification: BA or Higher in Allied Health, or Related Field. Minimum 8 years practical, clinical experience preferred.

Brief Job Description: Manage policies and procedure development, provide supervisory techniques, clinic philosophy nd principles, ensure progressive discipline, enhance monitoring and effective interdepartmental collaboration

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

TIANYU TECHNOLOGY INC. 15/f Socialdesk Tower, H.v. Dela Costa St., Bel-air, City Of Makati OU, HONGWEI Chinese IT Support Specialist 90.

Basic Qualification: fluent in Chinese writing and speaking language

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

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

TREASURE CUISINE INCORPORATED 2/f Oceanaire Condo., L7 B Central Business Park, Barangay 76, Pasay City HE, CHUNLAN Chinese Cuisine Specialist 91.

Brief Job Description: Supervise and participate in cooking and the preparation in food.

Basic Qualification: Knowledge in computer and experience in Chinese cuisine specialist.

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

WHOLESOME CONSULTING SERVICES CORP. Unit Ug-02, Ug/f Cityland 10 Tower 2, 154 H.v. Dela Costa Cor. Valero Sts., Bel-air, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: College Graduate. Computer Proficiency. Fluent in CHENG, YONGJIANG Mandarin, Cantonese, Mandarin Business Consultant and Taiwanese Language.

Excellent Interpersonal and Brief Job Description: 92. communication skills. At least The overall goal of a small business consultant is to help 1 year experience as Business make a business better through addressing problems and Consultant. recommending solutions Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above OMEGA HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC. 15th Floor Unionbank Plaza, Meralco Avenue Corner Onyx And Sapphire St., Ortigas Center, City Of Pasig

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

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

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

NESTLE PHILIPPINES, INC. Rockwell Center 31, Plaza Drive, Poblacion, City Of Makati

SCILIPOTI, GREGOIRE DENIS Human Resources Director

No.

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

NEPC POWER CONSTRUCTION CORP. 15/f Cyber One Bldg., Eastwood Cyberpark City, Bagumbayan, Quezon City DONG, YE Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor

A7

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION NIE, LIANG Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

LIZARDBEAR TASKING INC. 17th To 20th Floors, Twenty Four Seven Mckinley Building, 24th Street And Seventh Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig Basic Qualification: A college graduate of any NONGMAITHEM, MEGHANATH relevant field; a master in Vice President Of Workforce managing a large size or 49. multi location workforce Brief Job Description: management team Responsible for mentoring, training, evaluating and developing a team of workforce Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 MAYEKAWA PHILIPPINES CORPORATION 4f Unit A&b Suntree Tower, 13 Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig Basic Qualification: JITOSHO, NOBUYUKI First class refrigeration and air Technical Consultant conditioning engineer 50.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Manufacture and sale of industrial refrigeration machinery Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 MINDSCAPE CREATIVES INC. Unit 19-o, Burgundy Corporate Tower, 252 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati Basic Qualification: WEI, SHUMIN Proficient in SPeaking , Reading Mandarin Customer Service and Writing in Mandarin 51.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Responsible for Handling Service Support Calls Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 LI, YUE Basic Qualification: Mandarin Marketing Specialist Proficient in Speaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin 52.

Brief Job Description: Conduct Research and Marketing Strategies to develop areas Salary Range: of the business Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 YIN, CHENGCHENG Basic Qualification: Mandarin Marketing Specialist Proficient in Speaking , Reading and Writing in Mandarin 53.

Brief Job Description: Conducted Research and marketing Strategies Develop Areas Salary Range: of the Business Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: HSIEH, HSIEN-CHI Proficient in Speaking, Reading Mandarin Technical Support and Writing in Mandarin 54.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: To Troubleshoot Maintain and Monitor the computer system Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: WANG, JIANGUO Proficcient in Speaking, Mandarin Technical Support Reading and Writing in Mandarin 55.

Brief Job Description: To troubleshoot, Maintain and Monitor the Computer Salary Range: System Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: YOU, XIAOFENG Proficient in Speaking, Reading Mandarin Technical Support and Writing in Mandarin 56.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: To troubleshoot Maintain and Monitor the Computer System Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower, C4 Rd. Edsa Ext., Barangay 76, Pasay City Basic Qualification: CHEN, JIANHUI Able to speak, read, and write Chinese Customer Service Chinese language 57.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: CHEN, LIANLIN Able to speak, read, and write Chinese Customer Service Chinese language 58.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: DO HONG VI Able to speak, read, and write Chinese Customer Service Chinese language 59.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: HOANG VAN THANG Able to speak, read, and write Chinese Customer Service Chinese language 60.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: ZHENG, DELIANG Able to speak, read, and write Chinese Customer Service Chinese language 61.

Brief Job Description: Salary Range: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 ZHU, CHAOHONG Chinese Customer Service

No.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

WANG, SHIZHONG Mandarin Coordinator 93.

Brief Job Description: Typically works under a mandarin manager to maintain office equipment, physical space and telecommunications systems for a single building. Handles building-equipment emergencies on an ongoing basis and serve, as a liaison between company employees and outside contractors called in to fix problems.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate. Computer Proficiency. Fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese Language.

Excellent Interpersonal and communication skills. At least 1 year experience as Coordinator.

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

WILLIS TOWERS WATSON GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES, INC. 16/f Bonifacio One Technology Tower, 3030 Rizal Drive, West Corner 31st St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

RAKOTOARISON EP RAZAFIMAHASOLO, HARINIAINA SAROBIDY Bilingual Data Analyst (French), Benefits Data Source 94.

Brief Job Description: Responsible in developing technical knowledge of benefits plans around the world as well as developing data, process, and project management skills.

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in a program with emphasis on mathematics or business; Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint); experience in databases would be an asset; Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above *Date Generated: Feb 15, 2022

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

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

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

A8

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The World BusinessMirror

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

South Korean Covid deaths rise, hope rests on high booster rate B

Myanmar says it won’t attend Asean foreign ministers meeting

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EOUL, South Korea—South Korea reported its highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a month Tuesday as US health authorities advised Americans to avoid traveling to the country grappling with a fastdeveloping Omicron surge.

The 61 deaths reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Tuesday was the highest daily tally since the 74 reported on January 19, when the country was emerging from an outbreak driven by the Delta variant.

While Omicron so far seems less likely to cause serious illness or death, the greater scale of the outbreak is fueling concerns that hospitalizations and fatalities could spike in coming weeks.

The 57,177 new cases reported by the KDCA was another oneday record and more than a 12fold increase from the levels seen in mid-January, when Omicron became the dominant strain.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its travel notice for South Korea to level 4, the highest risk,

adv ising A mer icans to avoid travel to the countr y or to make sure they are fully vaccinated if traveling is necessar y.

Park Hyang, a senior South Korean Health Ministry official, said the country’s hospital resources remain stable, with less than 27 percent of intensive care units designated for Covid-19 currently being occupied.

Officials have expressed cautious hope the country’s high vaccination rate—with nearly 58 percent of a population of more than 51 million having received booster shots—would prevent hospital systems from buckling. They plan to start offering fourth vaccination shots to people at nursing homes and other long-term care settings later this month.

“While unvaccinated people account for only 6 percent of the

People wait for their coronavirus test at a testing station in Seoul, South Korea, on February 15. Kwon Chang-hee/Newsis via AP

population 12 years or older, these people have accounted for 62 percent of serious cases and 66.5 percent of the deaths over the past eight weeks,” Park said during a briefing.

South Korea has reshaped its Covid-19 response due to the unprecedented surge. It has significantly eased quarantine restrictions so essential services won’t be disrupted by having huge numbers of people in quarantine. More than 245,000 infected people were being treated at home as of Tuesday, weeks after at-home treatment was made the standard for mild or moderate cases.

Testing practices are also now centered on rapid antigen tests, with the more accurate laboratory tests reserved mostly for high-risk groups. But there are concerns that infected people may falsely test negative and continue to stay out in public, which could worsen the spread of the virus.

“Compared to PCR (lab) tests, rapid antigen testing has limitations in accuracy. Our new testing policy is based on the thinking that such limitations must be tolerated as a tradeoff for detecting serious cases earlier amid a major viral spread like this one,” Health Ministry official Son Youngrae said. AP

Sliver of hope: Kremlin sees a diplomatic path on Ukraine

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OSCOW—The Kremlin signaled Monday it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current Ukraine crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the US and European allies increasingly fear.

Questions remain about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, however. And countries are evacuating diplomats and on alert for possible imminent war amid the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War. On a last-ditch diplomatic trip, Germany’s chancellor said there are “no sensible reasons” for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.

Britain’s prime minister said Europe is “on the edge of a precipice”—but added, “there is still time for President Putin to step back.” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told French television that “all elements” were in place for a strong Russian offensive, but “nothing shows today” that Putin has decided to launch one.

Despite warnings from Washington, London and elsewhere that Russian troops could move on Ukraine as soon as Wednesday, Monday’s meeting between Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested otherwise.

At the session with Putin, Lavrov argued that Moscow should hold more talks with the US and its allies despite their refusal to consider Russia’s main security demands.

Moscow, which denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, wants Western guarantees that Nato won’t allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe—demands flatly rejected by the West.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend their joint news conference following talks at The Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 14. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine as part of a flurry of Western diplomacy aimed at heading off a feared Russian invasion that some warn could be just days away. AP/Efrem Lukatsky

The talks “can’t go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,” Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures. Lavrov said possibilities for talks “are far from being exhausted.”

His comments, at an appearance orchestrated for TV cameras, seemed designed to send a message to the world about Putin’s own position: namely, that hopes for a diplomatic solution aren’t yet dead.

Putin noted the West could try to draw Russia into “endless talks” and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement. Lavrov replied that his ministry wouldn’t allow the US and its allies to stonewall Russia’s main requests.

The US reacted coolly to Lavrov’s comments.

“The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,” White House principal deputy press secretar y K ar ine Jean-Pier re said. “However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.”

US officials said the Russian military continued apparent at-

tack preparations along Ukraine’s borders. A US defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of the units.

Satellite images taken over the last 48 hours show increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation, according to Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup.

Ukrainian security and defe n s e cou nc i l c h ie f Ol e k s i y Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of “internal destabilization” by unspecified forces. “ Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place

either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,” he told reporters after meeting lawmakers. “We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.”

As if to show defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday would be a “day of national unity,” calling on the country to display the blueand-yellow flags and sing the national anthem in the face of “hybrid threats.”

“Our country today is as strong as ever. It is not the first threat the strong Ukrainian people have faced,” Zelenskyy said Monday evening in a video address to the nation. “We’re calm. We’re strong.

We’re together. A great nation in a great country.”

The country is preparing nonetheless. Kyiv residents received letters from the mayor urging them “to defend your city,” and signs appeared in apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter. The mayor says the capital has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements.

Dr. Tamara Ugrich said she stocked up on grains and canned food, and prepared an emergency suitcase.

“I don’t believe in war, but on TV the tension is growing every day and it’s getting harder and harder to keep calm. The more we are told not to panic, the more nervous people become,” she said.

Others heeded the advice of Ukraine’s leaders not to panic.

Street music f looded centra l Maidan Square on Sunday night and crowds danced. “I feel calm.

You should always be ready for everything, and then you will have nothing to be afraid of,” said Alona Buznitskaya, a model.

During what could be a crucial week for Europe’s security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine on Monday before head i ng to Moscow for t a l k s w it h P ut in on a h ighst a kes d iplomat ic foray. AP

ANGKOK—Myanmar will not pa r t ic ipate in t his week’s meetings in Cambodia of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, spurning an invitation to send a non-political representative instead of its chief diplomat, its government said Monday.

Cambodia, the current Asean chair, said earlier this month that members of the regional group had failed to reach a consensus on inviting Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin to its meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

Wunna Maung Lwin was appointed foreign minister after the militar y seized power in Myanmar last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The decision to restrict Myanmar’s participation reflected a disagreement over Myanmar’s lack of cooperation in implementing measures agreed upon by the 10-member group last year to help ease that country’s violent political crisis following the army’s takeover.

The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was not invited to last October’s virtual meeting of Asean leaders because of the disagreement. That rebuke was issued shortly after Myanmar declined to let an Asean special envoy meet with Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since the military took power.

“Despite the efforts made by the Asean chair and Myanmar to promote cooperation in Asean, it is regrettable to see the return of the decision made last year which Myanmar in principle is unable to accept,” Myanmar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Monday night. “In this regard, Myanmar’s inability to participate or even designate a non-political representative...is inevitable since it contradicts the principles and practice of equal representation in Asean.”

Asean was chaired by Brunei when it snubbed Min Aung Hlaing, but under its annual rotation system, Cambodia now heads the g roup. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he believes it is important that Myanmar attend the next

summit.

Hun Sen traveled to Myanmar in January, becoming the first foreign leader to visit since the military takeover. He has repeatedly declared his interest in resolving the impasse between Asean and Myanmar.

Japan’s foreign minister met in Tokyo on Monday with Hun Sen’s son and agreed to cooperate in dealing with the situation in Myanmar. Hun Manet, who heads Cambodia’s army and is Hun Sen’s favored successor, accompanied his father during his visit to Myanmar.

Japan has taken a softer line on Myanmar’s military than Western nations that have sanctioned the generals. But in a sign that attitudes in Japan are mixed, Japanese brewery Kirin Holdings announced on Monday that it has decided to withdraw from its business in Myanmar and terminate its joint venture with a militarylinked partner.

Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry said the failure to reach a consensus about inviting Myanmar to this week ’s foreign minister’s meeting was due to “little progress in carrying out the Asean’s 5-Point Consensus,” agreed to by a l l the group’s members, including Myanmar.

Asean leaders at a special meeting last April issued a statement expressing a consensus calling for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an Asean special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through Asean channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

Myanmar has not rejected the consensus but has done little to implement it.

Myanmar’s mi litar y counci l has a lso cont inued its ha rsh m i l it a r y act ions aga inst a reas of t he cou nt r y where it faces a low-level insu rgenc y, as wel l as its relent less ef for t to prosec ute Suu Ky i to remove her f rom pol it ica l l ife.

Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday on election fraud charges, the latest in a series of criminal prosecutions by the military-run government in which she has already been sentenced to six years in prison. AP

Japan economy grew last quarter on improved spending, exports

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OKYO—Japan’s economy grew at an annual pace of 5.4 percent in OctoberDecember, boosted by improved consumer spending and exports, the government said Tuesday.

On a quarterly basis, Japan’s real gross domestic product, or GDP, which measures the value of a nation’s products and services, grew 1.3 percent in the last three months of the year, according to Cabinet Office data.

Growth got a boost after measures to curb the spread of coronavirus infections were lifted last year. The restrictions asked restaurants and bars to close early and large-scale events to be canceled or held with limited crowds.

The latter part of last year h ad seen people st a r t i ng to travel again, and venture out for dining and shopping. But the future remains uncertain after Tokyo and other areas of Japan resumed pandemic precautions as cases have rebounded with the Omicron variant.

For 2021, the world’s thirdlargest economy grew 1.7 percent, marking its first calendar year expansion in three years. The economy had contracted at a 2.7 percent annual rate in July-Sep-

tember and expanded 2.4 percent in April-June.

The annual numbers show how the economy would have grown if the quarterly rate were to continue for a year.

Domestic demand grew 1.1 percent on the back of healthy consumer spending in the last quarter.

Exports also grew as recoveries in other economies took off.

Takayuki Toji, an economist at SuMi TRUST, said the latest data show a strong recovery, supported by consumer and business spending, the uptick in exports and a recovery in manufacturing, mainly in the auto industry.

That may be short-lived due to shortages of semiconductors, raw materials and other inputs that are plaguing many industries.

However, if the wave of Omicron cases subsides relatively quickly, as it has in many places, the economy will suffer only a temporary setback, said Tom Learmouth of Capital economics.

“While Omicron will cause Japan’s economy to only tread water this quarter following a rebound in Q4, output should soon resume its recovery and get back on its pre-virus trend by the end of the year,” he said in a report. AP

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Texas AG sues Facebook parent Meta over facial recognition

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he Texas Attorney General is suing Facebook parent Meta, saying the company has unlawfully collected biometric data on Texans for commercial purposes, without their informed consent.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit Monday a state district court claiming Meta has been “storing millions of biometric identifiers”—identified as retina or iris scans, voice prints, or a record of hand and face geometry— contained in photos and videos people upload to its services, including Facebook and Instagram.

“Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being,” Paxton said in a statement. “This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security.”

The filing of the lawsuit coincided with the first day of early voting in a primary election in Texas, where Paxton faces several GOP challengers in the wake of his top deputies reporting him to the FBI for alleged corruption.

Pa xton has been going up against “Big Tech”—a common foe for both Republicans and

Democrats even if their criticisms don’t always align. He earlier launched an investigation of Twitter over its ban of former President Donald Trump and filed several lawsuits against Google.

Under Texas law, the lawsuit says, companies must obtain “informed consent” from people to use their biometric data. This means people have to be informed before their biometric data is captured and it can only be done if they agree to it. Such data also cannot be disclosed for anyone else, although there are some exceptions, such as law enforcement subpoenas.

In a statement, Meta Platforms Inc., which is based in Melo Park, California, called the lawsuit “without merit.”

The company said in November that it was shutting down its facial recognition program and deleting its data.

Texas is asking the court to fine Meta $25,000 for each violation of the informed consent rule and $10,000 for each violation of the state’s deceptive trade practices act.

Meta, then called Facebook, paid $650 million to settle a similar lawsuit over photo the use of photo face-tagging and other biometric data in Illinois last year. AP

Mexico says conspiracy behind avocado ban; US cites violence

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EXICO CITY—Mexico’s president said Monday the US suspension on avocado imports and recent environmental complaints are part of a conspiracy against his country by political or economic interests.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador put forward the conspiracy theory after the US suspended imports of Mexican avocados on the eve of the Super Bowl following a threat against a US plant safety inspector in Mexico.

In fact, the US measure was due to years of worries that drug cartel violence in the western Mexico state of Michoacan— where gangs extort money from avocado and lime growers by threatening to kidnap and kill them—has spilled over to threats against US inspectors.

The out-of-control violence in Michoacan reached a new height Monday, when prosecutors said they were investigating what appears to be the first civilian death caused by land mines being planted by warring drug gangs.

The state prosecutor’s office said the 79-year-old farmer was killed in the front-line township of Tepalcatepec when his pickup truck drove over an improvised explosive device over the weekend.

His 45-year-old son was wounded.

The cartels fighting for control of Michoacan—the only state that exports avocados to the US—have already used trenches, pillboxes, homemade armored cars, rocketpropelled grenades and drones modified to drop small bombs.

But last week an army vehicle was disabled by an IED planted on a road, and 10 soldiers were injured by the mine or other weapons. That was the first known successful use of IEDs against a military target in Mexico.

López Obrador has downplayed the violence, and he sought to do the same with the avocado ban, saying Monday that avocados for game day itself had already been shipped north and consumed. “The truth, the Mexican avocados have already been exported,” he said at his daily news briefing. “They already enjoyed the avocados.”

On the other hand, he said producers who wanted to compete with Mexican products, or political factors, played a role in

the decision.

“In all of this there are also a lot of political interests and political interests, there is competition; they don’t want Mexican avocados to get into the United States, right, because it would rule in the United States because of its quality,” López Obrador said.

He did not explain what those interests were, but noted ominously, “There are other countries that are interested in selling avocados, as in the case of other farm products, so they lobby, they look for senators, professional public [relations] people and agencies, to put up obstacles.”

In fact, the US grows about half the avocados it consumes and to protect domestic orchards from pests, inspects imported avocados—nearly 90% of which came from Mexico in recent years.

It was only in 1997 that the US lifted a ban on Mexican avocados that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a range of weevils, scabs and pests from entering US orchards.

The inspectors work for the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services.

On Saturday, the US government suspended all imports of Mexican avocados “until further notice” after one of those inspectors in Mexico received a threatening message.

Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement that “US health authorities ... made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the department wrote.

US officials say the securityrelated suspension of inspections doesn’t necessarily suspend all exports. Theoretically, Mexican avocados that were already inspected before Saturday could still be exported.

Avocado growers in Mexico have been the victims of drug cartel turf battles and extortion in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the US market.

After a similar incident in 2019, the USDA warned Mexico it would suspend the program if the inspectors’ safety wasn’t guaranteed. AP

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

A9

Trudeau invokes emergency powers to stamp out protests

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TTAWA, Ontario—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers and others angry over Canada’s Covid-19 restrictions, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.

“These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating, the time to go home is now,” he declared.

In invoking Canada’s Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.

His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running; freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts; and suspend the insurance on their rigs.

“Consider yourselves warned,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. “Send your rigs home.”

Freeland, who is also the finance minister, said the government will also broaden its antimoney-laundering regulations to target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the illegal blockades.

Trudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin.

But he gave assurances the emergency measures “will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.”

For more than two weeks, hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters in trucks and other vehicles have clogged the streets of Ottawa, the capital, and besieged Parliament Hill, railing against vaccine mandates for truckers and other Covid-19 precautions and condemning Trudeau’s Liberal government.

Members of the self-styled Freedom Convoy have also blockaded various US-Canadian border crossings, though the busiest and most important—the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit—was reopened on Sunday after police arrested dozens of demonstrators and broke the nearly weeklong siege that had disrupted auto production in both countries.

“This is the biggest, greatest, most severe test Trudeau has faced,” said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and national security expert.

Invoking the Emergencies Act would allow the government to

declare the Ottawa protest illegal and clear it out by such means as towing vehicles, Wark said. It would also enable the government to make greater use of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the federal police agency.

One of the protest organizers in Ottawa vowed not to back down in the face of pressure from the government.

“There are no threats that will frighten us. We will hold the line,” Tamara Lich said.

Cadalin Valcea, a truck driver from Montreal protesting for more than two weeks, said he will move move only if forced: “We want only one thing: to finish with this lockdown and these restrictions.”

Trudeau met virtually with leaders of the country’s provinces before announcing the crackdown.

Doug Ford, the Conservative premier of Ontario, which is Canada’s most populous province and includes Ottawa and Windsor, expressed support for emergency action, saying: “We need law and order. Our country is at risk now.”

But the leaders of other provinces warned the prime minister against taking such a step, some of them cautioning it could inflame an already dangerous situation.

“At this point, it would not help the social climate. There is a lot of pressure, and I think we have to be careful,” said Quebec Premier François Legault. “It wouldn’t help for the polarization.”

The protests have drawn support from right-wing extremists and armed citizens in Canada, and have been cheered on in the US by Fox News personalities and conservatives such as Donald Trump.

Some conservatives pushed Trudeau to simply drop the pandemic mandates.

“He’s got protests right around the country, and now he’s dropping in the polls, desperately trying to save his political career. The solution is staring him in the face,” said opposition Conservative lawmaker Pierre Poilievre, who is running for the party’s leadership.

Millions in donations have poured in supporting the protests, including a big chunk from the US. Hackers who apparently infiltrated one of fundraising web sites,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends news conference on February 14, in Ottawa. Trudeau says he has invoked the Emergencies Act to bring to an end antigovernment blockades he describes as illegal and not about peaceful protest. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP

GiveSendGo.com, dumped a file online that showed a tally of nearly 93,000 donations totaling $8.4 million through Thursday, an Associated Press analysis of the data found.

Roughly 40 percent of the money raised came from the US while slightly over half was from Canada.

In other developments, the Mounties said they arrested 11 people at the blockaded border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana, after learning of a cache of guns and ammunition.

Police said a small group within the protest was said to have a “willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade.” Authorities seized long guns, handguns, body armor and a large quantity of ammunition.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also said protesters in a tractor and a heavy-duty truck tried to ram a police vehicle at Coutts on Sunday night and fled. He said some protesters want to “take this in a very dangerous and dark direction.”

Over the past weeks, authorities have hesitated to move against the protesters. Local officials cited a lack of police manpower and fears of violence, while provincial and federal authorities disagreed over who had responsibility for quelling the unrest.

An earlier version of the Emergencies Act, called the War Measures Act, was used just once during peacetime, by Trudeau’s late father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to deal with a militant Quebec independence movement in 1970.

The demonstrations have inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

US authorities have said that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.

Invoking emergency powers would be a signal to Canadians and

allies like the United States and around the world “who are wondering what the hell has Canada been up to,” Wark said.

Also Monday, Ontario’s premier announced that on March 1, the province will lift its requirement that people show proof of vaccination to get into restaurants, restaurants, gyms and sporting events. The surge of cases caused by the Omicron variant has crested in Canada.

“We are moving in this direction because it is safe to do so. Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa or Windsor but despite it,” Ford said.

The Ambassador Bridge, which carries 25 percent of all trade between the two countries, reopened to traffic late Sunday night. The interruption forced General Motors, Ford, Toyota and other automakers to close plants or curtail production on both sides of the border. Some of them have yet to get back to full production.

The siege in Ottawa, about 470 miles (750 kilometers) away, has infuriated residents fed up with government inaction. They have complained of being harassed and intimidated by the protesters who have parked their rigs bumper to bumper on the streets.

“It’s stressful. I feel angry at what’s happening. This isn’t Canada. This does not represent us,” said Colleen Sinclair, a counterprotester who lives in Ottawa.

Many of Canada’s Covid-19 restrictions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants and theaters, are already falling away as the Omicron surge levels off.

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the US, but Canadians have largely supported them. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated. AP

UN: Horn of Africa drought kills 1.5 million livestock

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NITED NATIONS — D rou g ht i n t he Hor n of A frica has killed more t h a n 1. 5 m i l l ion l ive stock and drastically cut cereal product ion, “a nd we a re most def initely now sit t ing on t he br ink of catastrophe,” a senior of f ic i a l for t he U N Food a nd A g r icu lture Organization sa id Mond ay.

Rein Paulsen, FAO’s director of emergencies and resilience who returned from the region Friday, said a “very small window” exists for taking urgent action,

and a key is whether the region’s long rains between March and May are good—and whether the agency gets the $130 million it needs until June.

The short rains in the region, which includes parts of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, were supposed to come between October and December but “were extremely poor,” he said. “And this represents the third consecutive failed rainy season with lower average rains, all of which has a severe impact on vulnerable households.”

T he resu lt of t he d rought

meant that overall cereal production for the last rainy season in southern Somalia was estimated to be 58% lower than the longterm average, Paulsen said. In agricultural areas in marginal coastal zones in southeastern parts of Kenya, “we’re looking at crop production estimated to be 70% below average,” he said.

In addition, most places for water that have usually been resilient to climate variability have dried up in Kenya, he said during a virtual news conference from Rome.

Paulsen said $130 million in funding is essential now to provide cash for people to buy food until production resumes, to keep livestock alive and to provide drought-resistant seeds for farmers to reap a harvest.

“We have a window to the middle of this year— June, which is a very time sensitive, narrow window for urgent actions to scale up to prevent a worst-case scenario,” Paulsen said. “Agriculture needs a lot more attention. It’s central to the survival of drought affected communities.” AP

A10 Wednesday, February 16, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Helping farmers adapt to extreme weather

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ater availability is going to become more challenging in the next few years, particularly if countries will drag their feet on implementing measures to limit their carbon emissions. The delays in rolling out measures that would cut greenhouse gas emissions would hasten the warming of the planet and result in less predictable weather conditions. According to the United Nations, erratic weather conditions would affect the availability and distribution of rainfall, snowmelt, river flows and groundwater, and further deteriorate water quality.

Extreme weather events, such as droughts, are disastrous for the Philippines, where farmers cultivate water-intensive crops in many areas. These include rice, the country’s staple, and sugarcane that generates export dollars for the country. Rice, in particular, is a popular crop in the country not only because it is the Filipinos’ staple food, but also because farmers can harvest their crop after four months.

Because rice is the most water-intensive crop, it usually bears the brunt of El Niño, which causes drought (See, “Farmers, fisherfolk bear P4.35-B loss from El Niño,” in the BusinessMirror, March 31, 2019). In recent years, farmers have lost billions of pesos because of El Niño, which forced the government to increase rice imports to plug the shortfall in domestic production. El Niño episodes also entail government spending on interventions that will help farmers recover immediately from the devastation caused by the weather event.

While the country cannot immediately resolve issues related to water access and availability, the government can tap drought-tolerant rice varieties to help rice planters in drought-prone areas adapt to extreme weather (See, “Planters must have access to droughttolerant rice varieties,” in the BusinessMirror, February 14, 2022). The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said policymakers should make the technology accessible to planters, as this will allow them to minimize their losses during El Niño episodes.

PhilRice, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, noted that the yield of drought-tolerant varieties is “comparable” with the national average for rainfed areas at 3.28 metric tons per hectare and irrigated at 4.53 MT per hectare.

Policymakers must promote these varieties and identify the areas where farmers can access them. Identifying the sources of financing for initiatives that will increase the supply of these varieties should not be a problem given the existence of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which consists of tariffs collected from rice imports. The seed program should be complemented by an agricultural extension system that would allow farmers to hasten their shift to these varieties and maximize their gains from the technology.

Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a reality due to the continuous warming of the planet, and countries like the Philippines are paying a great price for the inaction of major emitters of greenhouse gases. To meet the food requirements of its growing population, the country must hasten the adoption of available technologies to shield the farm sector from the ill effects of extreme weather events. The government should also increase spending on research and development to help our scientists and researchers discover other ways that will enable our farmers to produce food despite the challenges posed by climate change.

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Alternative lawyering and Neri Colmenares Dennis Gorecho

Kuwentong PEYUPS

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any alternative lawyers are guided by the words of former President Ramon Magsaysay: “Those who have less in life should have more in law.”

Alternative lawyering is legal practice either individually or through legal resource organizations that work with the poor and marginalized groups, identities and communities toward their empowerment, greater access to justice, and building peace.

Alternative lawyers do often take on careers outside of the mainstream, but what differentiates their work is their commitment to a different route to, and conception of, justice.

The poor, who have fewer resources in relation to the rich, will often have to bank on the law to safeguard their rights.

In building a more accessible, inclusive and dynamic justice system, all remedies allowed by law should be completely exhausted for their protection. The semblance of being given “more” in law is imperative to equip them the chance of equality, which they do not enjoy.

I was exposed to alternative lawyering as a volunteer law student for Free Legal Assistance Group led by Chel Diokno.

Lawyers, as professionals, are expected to uphold the ethical and moral values that are said to be es-

sential to the fabric that holds society together.

Perhaps this is also the principle behind the legal advocacies of senatoriable Neri Colmenares, who is my batchmate from the UP College of Law. He finished his Bachelor of Arts in Economics at San Beda College before joining UP Law. Neri considers the law and how it is formulated as very alienating. In an interview, he recalled how even in his days as a UP law student, he would inquire about legal phrases and how they can be simplified to make them understandable to the people.

“Law alienates the people because of the language. So I promised to myself that if I become a lawyer, I will explain and make sure that my pleadings are as simple as possible,” Neri said.

As a lawyer and legislator, he tried to explain issues as simple as possible, including laws that may appear complex attributing to his long experience of working and immersing with the basic sector.

Born in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Neri was active in the struggle against the late former President Ferdinand Marcos’s leadership in 1970s.

Neri considers the law and how it is formulated as very alienating. In an interview, he recalled how even in his days as a UP law student, he would inquire about legal phrases and how they can be simplified to make them understandable to the people.

He was active in the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, and became the Visayas regional chair of the Student Catholic Action.

He was arrested and tortured for protesting the ban on student councils and campus publications.

As a torture survivor, he continued to assert and defend human rights.

Neri is the chairperson of both the Makabayan Coalition and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, a national association of human rights lawyers in the Philippines.

He has been actively assisting families of victims of human rights violations, calling out government abuses, fighting disinformation, and filing relevant legal measures to put a stop to what progressives deem as anti-people policies.

This, despite repeated attempts to discredit him, including relentless red-tagging with his photos plastered in several cities and the filing of trumped-up kidnapping and other related charges.

Neri has been a three-term representative for Bayan Muna and a senior deputy minority leader in the 16th Congress.

He also sponsored the Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Law, the Human Rights Victims Reparation Law, the

Anti-Torture Law, the Local Absentee Voting Act for Media and the Special Election Precincts for PWDs and Senior Citizens Act. He ran but lost in the 2019 midterm elections, coming as 24th with more than 4.6 million votes.

Neri also acted as a petitioner or counsel in the complaint filed by mothers of extrajudicial killing victims in the International Criminal Court, being a human rights lawyer.

The hashtag “#WeWantNeri” became viral as calls for Vice President Leni Robredo to include Neri in their senatorial slate for the 2022 elections emerged online, which was announced on October 8, 2021.

Makabayan officially said that they will be supporting the Leni-Kiko tandem based on their agreement on issues including the pandemic response and health, peace, sovereignty, human rights, and uplifting the lives of the poor workers, farmers and indigenous people.

Neri advocates for free public health services, an established national minimum wage for workers and agrarian reform and agro-industrial development.

Colmenares joins the other senatorial aspirants that were endorsed by 1Sambayan, namely: Senators Risa Hontiveros, Leila de Lima, Antonio Trillanes, Teddy Baguilat, Chel Diokno, Alex Lacson and Sonny Matula.

Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@ sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808 or 09088665786.

Biden’s global vaccine push lags, echoing US struggles

By Josh Wingrove | Bloomberg Opinion

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resident Joe Biden’s effort to vaccinate the world against Covid-19 is falling short, echoing the faltering campaign to inoculate Americans and raising the risk that more dangerous variants of the virus will yet emerge.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged in a virtual meeting with other countries on Monday that the globe is not on pace to meet a goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the entire human population by later this year, a target set in 2021 both by Biden and the World Health Organization.

Low-income countries—particularly in Africa, where the Omicron variant was first detected—remain overwhelmingly unvaccinated.

Wealthy nations awash in shots were slow to equitably share vaccines; as they have, developing nations have run headlong into familiar challenges like hesitancy and logistical

barriers. Stubborn disparities are flaring up anew as effective therapeutic treatments are cleared for use.

Only about 54 percent of the global population is vaccinated so far, according to Our World In Data, a service by a UK nonprofit that advocates of international vaccination use to track progress. Signs are mounting that the problem is increasingly less about supply than last-mile distribution.

“The world is completely failing to reach the goals of getting the vaccine out to the people who need it,” said Tom Hart, president of the ONE Campaign, an anti-poverty group.

“We need a massive new infusion of

Biden administration officials believe supply is no longer the chief bottleneck and is out-pacing global demand. Instead, getting shots into arms is the chief concern, one US official said. The person asked not to be identified discussing internal administration deliberations.

vaccine distribution in the poorest parts of the world.”

Biden administration officials believe supply is no longer the chief bottleneck and is out-pacing global demand. Instead, getting shots into arms is the chief concern, one US official said. The person asked not to be identified discussing internal administration deliberations.

US plan

Blinken announced a “Global Action Plan” on Monday intended to

jump-start international vaccine efforts. The US has donated the most doses abroad, contributing about half of the world total, data compiled by Unicef show. “We know that increasing supply is not enough to turn vaccines into vaccinations. We must also solve last-mile challenges,” Blinken said.

Covax, a global vaccine-sharing initiative, announced this month that it has shipped half a billion doses donated by high-income countries so far. Biden’s administration has pledged to donate a total of 1.2 billion doses globally, and has shipped about 435 million so far, some of which went through Covax.

“The US has been doing more than any other country,” said Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center. “It’s just not enough.”

Biden announced his goal last September during a virtual summit See “Biden,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 A11

Russians scoff at Western Ukraine-Russia crisis: What to know as diplomacy steps up fears of Ukraine invasion

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By Vladimir Isachenkov | The Associated Press

OSCOW—While the US warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don’t expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbor.

The Kremlin has cast the US warnings of an imminent attack as “hysteria” and “absurdity,” and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Putin’s angry rhetoric about Nato’s plans to expand to Russia’s “doorstep” and its refusal to hear Moscow’s concerns has struck a chord with the public, tapping into a sense of betrayal by the West after the end of the Cold War and widespread suspicion about Western designs.

Speaking to reporters after President Joe Biden’s call with Putin on Saturday, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov bemoaned what he described as US “hysteria” about an allegedly imminent invasion, saying that the situation has “reached the point of absurdity.”

The US says that Russia has concentrated over 130,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine and has the necessary firepower to launch an attack at any moment.

Russian officials have angrily denied any plans to attack Ukraine and dismissed Western concerns about the buildup near the country, arguing that Moscow is free to deploy its troops wherever it likes on its national territory.

“We don’t understand why they are spreading clearly false information about Russian intentions,” Ushakov said about the US warnings of an imminent attack.

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula following the ouster of the country’s Moscowfriendly president and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Donbas, where more than 14,000 people have been killed in fighting.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has taken a more combative tone, denouncing Washington’s warnings of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine as “war propaganda” by the US and some of its allies.

Zakharova alleged that the US “needs a war at any price,” charging that “provocations, disinformation and threats represent its favorite methods of solving its own problems.”

She denounced US intelligence claims about an alleged “false flag” operation mounted by Russia to create a pretext for invading Ukraine, comparing them to then US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech before the UN Security Council, in which he made the case for war against Iraq, citing faulty intelligence information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction.

“The US politicians lied, are lying and will keep lying,” Zakharova said.

Such rhetoric has been amplified by state television, where hosts have alleged nefarious US designs, accusing Washington and its allies of planning phony operations of their own to encourage hawkish forces in Ukraine to launch an offensive to reclaim areas controlled

by Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east.

Opinion surveys indicate that the majority of Russians share such views.

More than half of respondents in recent polls conducted by the Levada Center, the top independent opinion firm, consider the US responsible for the current standoff over Ukraine, about 15 percent blame it on Ukraine and only 3 percent to 4 percent believe it’s Russia’s fault, while others were undecided, its director Denis Volkov said in comments broadcast earlier this month. Levada’s nationwide polls of about 1,600 people have a margin of error not exceeding 3.4 percentage points.

“Most people see the conflict as

More than half of respondents in recent polls conducted by the Levada Center, the top independent opinion firm, consider the US responsible for the current standoff over Ukraine, about 15 percent blame it on Ukraine and only 3 percent to 4 percent believe it’s Russia’s fault, while others were undecided, its director Denis Volkov said in comments broadcast earlier this month. a Russia-US conflict,” Volkov said, adding that respondents in focus group interviews said that the US could push Ukraine into attacking the rebels in the east to draw Russia into the fighting.

Asked if she fears a war, Moscow resident Anaida Gevorgyan dismissed it as Western “propaganda.”

“Russia will never do it,” she said.

“We are brotherly people, and we have lived together for so many years.”

Russian political analysts are broadly dismissive of US war warnings, pointing out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would carry a massive price without offering Putin any clear wins.

“For Moscow, risks of an invasion of Ukraine outweigh any possible gains,” Moscow-based security analyst Sergei Poletayev said in a commentary.

Unlike Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 without firing a shot, and the conflict in Donbas, where Moscow has denied playing a military role despite Ukrainian and Western claims to the contrary, a full-fledged invasion is certain to become a political and economic disaster for Russia.

While the Kremlin appears bent on pulling Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit, a massive offensive will inevitably involve huge casualties, undermining Russia’s global standing, leading to its international isolation and shattering Putin’s posture as a leader who cares about ordinary Ukrainians and sees the two people as one.

“It’s impossible to imagine a war with Ukraine,” Moscow resident Vitaly Ladygin said. “We all have relatives there, we have always lived together. I love Ukraine and dream about going there once it all ends.”

An attack on Ukraine would be certain to trigger draconian Western sanctions that would further cripple Russia’s stagnant economy, dent people’s incomes and erode Putin’s support. And while the Russian military could be expected to rout the much weaker Ukrainian army, it will inevitably face massive resistance later, resulting in a protracted conflict that would drain Moscow’s scarce resources.

Sergei Karaganov, a Russian foreign policy analyst with close ties to Kremlin thinking, said in recently published comments that while “it’s necessary to stop Nato’s further expansion and militarization of Ukraine...we definitely don’t have plans to conquer Ukraine.”

Many Russian observers predict that instead of launching an invasion, Putin could try to keep pressure on the West with more troop deployments and drills to keep Ukraine out of Nato.

“Having failed to score a full diplomatic result or dare to use force, Russia could turn its army presence near Ukraine into a constant or regularly renewed source of threat that will incur a damage to Ukraine that Western assistance wouldn’t be able to compensate,” Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said in an analysis. “It will also keep the West under strain, and in the end Ukraine and the West could show a greater flexibility.” Kirill Zarubin contributed to this report.

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By Geir Moulson | The Associated Press

ERLIN—Diplomatic efforts to head off what US officials have warned could be an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine entered a new round on Monday. Russia’s top diplomat advised President Vladimir Putin to continue talks and Germany’s chancellor met the Ukrainian president.

Nonetheless the US announced it is closing its embassy in Ukraine and moving all remaining staffers there to a city near the Polish border.

Earlier, Britain’s prime minister said Europe is “on the edge of a precipice,” citing an American warning that Russia could invade Ukraine in the next 48 hours.

Here’s a look at what is happening where and why:

What’s the message from Russia?

The Kremlin signaled Monday that it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade Ukraine within days as Western officials increasingly fear.

In an appearance orchestrated for TV cameras, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that possibilities for talks haven’t been exhausted. That seemed designed to send a message that Putin himself believes hopes for a diplomatic solution haven’t yet faded.

Lavrov said the talks “can’t go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage.” He noted that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restric-

tions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Asked by Putin if it made sense to continue diplomatic efforts, Lavrov responded that possibilities for talks “are far from being exhausted” and he proposed to continue the negotiations. He said his ministry wouldn’t allow the US and its allies to stonewall Russia’s main requests.

US officials responded they’re looking for actions, not merely talk.

“If Foreign Minister Lavrov’s comments are followed up with concrete, tangible signs of de-escalation, we would certainly welcome that,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “We have not seen that yet.”

What’s the latest US action?

The United States said Monday it will close its embassy in Ukraine and move all remaining staffers there to a city near the Polish border as invasion fears intensify. It also repeated warnings to private American citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately.

The State Department announcement follows a decision it took over the weekend to order the departure of all non-essential diplomats from Kyiv. The embassy will now suspend

operations and the property will be looked after by local Ukrainian security guards.

A small number of embassy staff from Kyiv will relocate to Lviv, where they will provide limited consular services to Americans and keep communications open with the Ukrainian government, the department said.

The State Department also told Americans in Belarus to leave the country immediately due to “unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus’ border with Ukraine.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said the US would offer a loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to Ukraine to help bolster its economic stability “in the face of Russia’s destabilizing behavior.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will go to the Nato defense ministerial in Brussels this week, and will also visit Poland and Lithuania, neighbors to Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Austin will meet with the presidents, defense ministers and other key leaders in Poland and Lithuania, as well as US forces in those countries. Kirby said Austin also is planning to have a trilateral meeting with the defense chiefs of the three Baltic nations, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed the Senate leadership Monday afternoon. Senators are considering a resolution in support of Ukraine’s independence

Clean and green polls in the digital age

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ational and local elections have been held regularly in the Philippines every three years since 1992. Over the past three decades, the amount of garbage generated by this triennial exercise has grown in volume and toxicity to the detriment of our environment.

Based on news reports, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority collected 206.6 tons of election-related trash in 2016. Another 168.8 tons were collected by the MMDA during the 90-day campaign period of the 2019 mid-term polls, plus seven dump trucks filled with 23.4 tons of sample ballots and similar garbage on the day after the election.

Last September, environmental organizations made an appeal to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to “proactively integrate waste and toxic prevention in the conduct of the upcoming elections.” They lamented that election-related activities have added to the problems already plaguing the nation due to plastic pollution, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Led by the EcoWaste Coalition, the group urged then Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas to champion policies and

Biden. . .

continued from A10

in which he called on other countries to step up their own donations as part of a renewed global push.

“And in the four months since that, nothing has happened,” Hart said. “Dose-pledging is no longer the appropriate end of the conversation.

We need to be talking about vaccine production all around the world.”

Biden is to hold another international vaccine summit next month.

US vaccination efforts have been sluggish at home, too. About 64.4 percent of eligible people in the US are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Biden missed his goal last year of giving 70 percent of adults at least one shot by the July 4 weekend; he hit the measure eventually.

Patent restrictions

There’s been little progress on easing patent restrictions on Covid-19 vaccines to expand international production, a strategy

practices that will protect the country’s fragile environment from being further destroyed by the avalanche of partisan political activities leading to the May 2022 elections.

Among their recommendations were: the declaration of a zero waste policy; regulation of campaign motorcades; incorporation of environmental awareness in the Comelec’s public information drive; mandatory use of recyclable materials by political parties and candidates; and compulsory conduct of post-election cleanup.

But it seems their call for “clean and green elections” in the literal sense has fallen on deaf ears. Many candidates could not even wait for the official campaign season to start this month. In fact, tarpaulin banners and other election paraphernalia have sprouted all over the land since October—along with noise pollution from loudspeakers the Biden administration has announced support for but that is opposed by the European Union and shot makers.

In a potential answer to the troubled international campaign, a group of Texas lawmakers asked Biden on February 1 to throw the administration’s weight behind a new, patent-free vaccine, Corbevax, based on technology developed by Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine but not yet authorized for US use. They say the shot could fill yawning demand internationally and counter China, which has sold its vaccines while sometimes using them as leverage for foreign policy objectives.

“Let’s get this out to save lives, but let’s also get this out in terms of a foreign policy effort to counter what China’s engaged in,” Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, among a bipartisan group that wrote Biden, said in an interview.

The Indian government is the only regulatory authority in the world that has cleared the shot so far, and has ordered 300 million doses from Biological E. Limited.

Finex free enterprise Joseph Araneta Gamboa promoting those who filed their candidacies.

Except for former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano who is aiming for a Senate comeback, no other major candidate has bothered to shift to an eco-friendly campaign. At a recent media interview, he disclosed that his team avoids the printing and distribution of posters that would just end up in the garbage pile after May 9.

Cayetano shifted his campaign to the digital media using such platforms as Twitter and Facebook to woo voters. He encouraged fellow candidates to join him in this clean style of campaigning as well as to plant more trees or turn to urban farming to help preserve the environment.

At the same time, he is urging his supporters to stop the wasteful “As we have seen with the emergence of Delta and Omicron, Covid-19 variants will continue to threaten our own domestic health security and full economic recovery,” the lawmakers wrote. “While we recognize existing administration efforts to supply Covid-19 vaccines around the world, the global supply is woefully insufficient to meet urgent and pressing demands.”

Promoting boosters

Experts say that there’s probably enough doses of Covid vaccines in the pipeline to give two doses to 70 percent of the world’s population, but not yet enough for booster shots as well. The US and other wealthy nations have aggressively promoted boosters to their own populations, while insisting the campaign doesn’t detract from international vaccination efforts.

Peter Hotez, dean at Baylor’s National School of Tropical Medicine and one of the researchers behind Corbevax, said the world still needs billions of doses of vaccine to quell the pandemic. And wider availability of vaccines based on older technology

while stopping short of legislation to impose sanctions on Russia.

What’s going on in Ukraine?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz brought a message of solidarity to Kyiv, telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are not negotiable.

Scholz, whose visit came ahead of a meeting with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, demanded “clear steps to de-escalate the current tensions” from Russia. He thanked the Ukrainian government for its “sober and restrained reaction to a very serious and threatening situation.”

Scholz noted that Nato and the US have made proposals to Moscow that Germany supports, “and we now expect a reaction, an answer to them from Russia.” He urged Russia to accept offers of dialogue.

The German chancellor said in case of military escalation, “we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in consultation with our allies” and that “we know what to do” if Russia were to violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity again.

Zelenskyy called the tensions around his country’s future “an unprecedented challenge for Europe and the world.”

“It is in Ukraine that the future of the European security architecture— of which our state is a part—is being decided today.” Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Jill Lawless in London, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report

practice of producing printed materials and instead use social media to campaign for him. This advocacy may turn the tide in favor of ecofriendly election practices.

Considering that there are more than 45,000 candidates who are contesting some 18,000 elective government positions in May, the volume of campaign stuff that will end up in garbage dumps is seen to be massive.

Yet with 63 percent of Filipinos having access to the Internet, it is actually possible to conduct a successful virtual electoral campaign this year. And besides, an unexpected benefit of this pandemic is the acceleration of digitalization in all aspects of our daily life.

Now that we’re deep into the digital age, it’s about time candidates discontinue their reckless acts of leaving tons of campaign trash that contribute to the environmental degradation of the only planet we have.

Joseph Gamboa is the chairman of the Finex Media Affairs Committee and director of Noble Asia Industrial Corp. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions and the BusinessMirror. #FinexPhils www.finex. org.ph

—as opposed to the more advanced messenger RNA technology that underlies shots by Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.—could ease hesitancy, he said.

“The scope and the magnitude of the problem has not been adequately articulated,” Hotez said. “There’s not quite that recognition of the urgency.”

The administration’s $6.9 billion deal with Pfizer to buy one billion vaccines specifically earmarked for donation abroad has created a steady flow of shots, allowing predictable US donations, the US official said.

Advocates say there’s a debate brewing about whether to change the 70 percent target—abandon it, lower it or add an interim goal, such as vaccinating the vulnerable. Manufacturing and disproportionate access to supply are both problems, but the defining issue is how to get shots into arms as supply ramps up.

“That challenge will be huge. It can be done, but it’s a big one,” said Jennifer Kates, director of global health & HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “This is still a global crisis.”

A12 Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Court stops SRA’s importation of 200,000 MT of refined sugar

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court Branch 73 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the implementation of the government’s 200,000-metric ton (MT) refined sugar importation program.

The court’s Executive Judge Reginald M. Fuentebella issued the ex-parte TRO, which is effective for 20 days starting February 11 or until March 2.

Fuentebella issued the ex parte TRO on the basis that Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) Sugar Order (SO) 3, which authorized the importation program, would result in “great or irreparable injury” to the plaintiffs.

Fuentebella has set the motion for the writ of preliminary injunction on February 24 at 9 a.m. through video conference.

The Rural Sugar Planters Association Inc. (RSPA), a memberorganization of the United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed), sought the issuance of the TRO. SO 3 was issued by the SRA board on February 4 and took effect on February 7.

“We must put a stop to the damage already caused by the SRA and Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica with SO3 and their inaction on our various appeals to avert an agricultural crisis,” Unifed President Manuel Lamata said in a statement on Tuesday.

Unifed claimed that SO 3 will not stabilize the local market prices of sugar for the benefit of the consumers since only bottling companies will be able to use imported sugar under the latest importation program.

“If you look at SO3, it does not answer directly the so-called complaints of these vendors as half of the imported supply will go to bottling companies. That alone sends an alarm that something fishy is going on,” Lamata said.

Lamata lamented that the government has not intervened to help

sugar planters cope with the high prices of farm inputs.

“For the first time in so many years, diesel fuel alone, which is an essential commodity in farming, has breached the P60 per liter mark. Compounded with skyrocketing prices of fertilizers that have tripled in just two years, how can you expect sugar farmers to survive under this condition?” it said.

Unifed Director Joseph Edgar Sarrosa said sugar planters are “barely making even” today despite the reported “all-time-high” retail prices of sugar due to high production costs.

“Worst hit are the small farmers [comprising] 90 percent of sugar producers, who are already suffering from skyrocketing prices of farm inputs and will suffer more due to the drop of sugar prices,” Sarrosa said.

“Since last year, we have been appealing to SRA, the DA and other government agencies to help us with the high price of farm inputs, whether through a price freeze or subsidies, but nothing came through,” he added.

The average retail price of sugar continues to increase as the country grapples with a tightening supply of the sweetener that drove wholesale prices to all-time high.

Latest SRA data showed that

the average wholesale price of refined sugar as of February 2 has reached an unprecedented level of P3,037.50 per 50-kilogram bag (LKg) or P60.75 per kilogram.

Retail prices of refined sugar in Metro Manila have averaged at P57.81 per kilogram in supermarkets and P66.43 per kilogram in wet markets, based on SRA data.

Last week, Serafica defended the issuance of SO 3, arguing that it was pursuant to the government agency’s mandate to ensure sufficient supply of sugar in the country and stable sweetener prices.

The SRA recalibrated its pre-final crop estimate of raw sugar production to 2.072 MT down from the 2.099 MT pre-final crop estimate after the damage caused by Typhoon Odette to the sugar industry.

Furthermore, Serafica noted that the Philippine Association of Sugar Refineries revised downward its refined sugar production forecast for crop year 2021-2022 to 16.748 million LKg from 17.572 million LKg. “According to SRA’s projections on sugar supply and demand, this will give the country a very tight sugar stock balance at the end of milling, which will not be enough to cover the two to three months’ demand for refined sugar in between the milling seasons,” he said.

ILO, ECOP IN JOINT BID TO BOOST COMPLIANCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS

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HE International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) launched on Tuesday a series of webinars in a determined bid to boost the compliance with labor standards in rural areas.

T he init iat ive is par t of ILO’s Project on Improving Workers’ Rights in the Rural Sectors of the Indo-Pacific, which is funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).

The first of the webinars for agriculture workers was held last Tuesday (farming), while the online seminar in the fishing sector will be held on February 22, 2022.

The last of the scheduled webinars will be for miners and will be held on March 1, 2022.

“This initiative is undertaken in line with the goal to improve promotion of labor laws compliance, occupational safety and health (OSH) and gender equality in the agriculture, fishing and mining sectors,” ILO said in a statement.

Better access

THE webinars are expected to raise awareness on the benefits and importance of compliance with labor standards and sectoral good practices and provide a platform for dialogue between government and businesses.

SC finally releases copy of Dec ruling upholding terror law

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan157

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FTER two months, the Supreme Court finally released to the public on Tuesday the copy of its promulgated decision dated December 7, 2021 on the controversial Republic Act No. 11479 or AntiTerrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, which it declared “not unconstitutional” except for specific phrases of two of its provisions.

In a 235-page decision penned

by Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang, the Court said it took into consideration the government’s “immense responsibility” to defend the country against terrorism as well as the noticeably improving capabilities of terrorists to wreak havoc through weapons of mass destruction.

However, the Court said it is also mindful of its duty to strike the balance between upholding the mandate of the government to ensure security and public safety and protecting constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people.

“The pervasive problem of terrorism requires interventions that not only punishes an act when it is done but also anticipates risks to disrupt and preempt a terrorist act before irreversible harm is done, without sacrificing and undermining fundamental freedoms recognized in the Bill of Rights,” the SC said.

“Nonetheless, this Court is ever mindful that hand in hand with its obligation to give due regard to the inevitabilities of national security and public safety, as well as the effectiveness of law enforcement, is its constitutional mandate to safeguard substantive democracy, as expressed in fundamental values and human rights and to temper the excesses of the other branches,” it added.

The Court expressed belief that “it has faithfully exercised this responsibility in the case.” Thus, it struck down the provisions of the ATA that it said “have gone beyond the boundaries” set under the Constitution.

These include the phrase in Section 4 (Terrorism) that states, “which are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a

person, to endanger a person’s life, or to create serious risk to public safety”; second mode of designation found in paragrah 2 of Section 25 (Designation of Terrorist Individuals, Groups of Persons, Organizations or Associations); and “as a necessary consequence, the corresponding reference/provisions in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 11479 relative to the foregoing items.”

The SC announced last December 9, 2021 that the magistrates voted 12-3 against the first provision; and voted 9-6 in the second provision.

The Court has also directed the Court of Appeals (CA) to prepare the rules to be observed for judicial proscription proceedings under Section 26 (Proscription of Terrorist Organizations, Associations or Group of Persons) and Section 27 (Preliminary Order of Proscription), with the objective of upholding the rights of groups of persons, associations or organizations which may be subjected to the proceedings under these provisions.

Several magistrates also gave their separate concurring and dissenting opinions.

It may be recalled that the petitions also assailed the constitutionality of ATA’s Sections 5 (threat to commit terrorism); Section 6 (planning, training, preparing and facilitating the commission of terrorism); Section 9 (inciting to commit terrorism); Section 10 (recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization); Section 11 (foreign terrorist); Section 12 (providing material support to terrorists); Section 26 (proscription of terrorist organizations, associations or group of persons); Section 27 (preliminary order of proscription); and Section 29 (detention without judicial warrant of arrest).

A total of 37 consolidated petitions were filed before the Court seeking to declare the entire ATA or some of its vital provisions unconstitutional.

However, the Court dismissed two petitions, namely G.R. 253118 filed

by Balay Rehabilitation Center, Inc. and one undocketed petition filed by “Yerbo.” The ATA was enacted on July 3, 2020 and implemented 15 days later starting July 18, 2020.

ILO hopes this will allow the Philippine government to access new markets, “requiring compliance and due diligence.”

Currently, ILO said the country’s agriculture, fishing and mining sectors, are “highly characterized by poverty and poor working conditions, especially at the lower tiers of the supply chains.”

There are currently 9 million Filipinos working in the agriculture, fishing and mining sectors, 22 percent of whom are women.

Pilot phase

IN a SMS, ILO media and public information office Minette Rimando told BusinessMirror the initiative will initially cover 60 participants from agricultural enterprises that are members of ECOP, which includes members of the Banana Industry Tripartite Councils.

She said the participants from areas with “challenges with internet connection” were provided “data allowance” by ECOP. The outcome of the webinar series will be used by ILO to create a model on how to improve the working conditions in its identified sectors. `“Within four years, the project will focus its efforts in building intervention models in these pilot enterprises and communities, which the project hopes to replicate in other areas later on,” Rimando said. Samuel P. Medenilla

LCP pitches use of data to boost development

‘D

ATA needs to be translated into stories that will prompt local policy makers and decision makers to act and create local policies targeted to deliver the most efficient services to their constituents,” according to Veronica C. Hitosis, Executive Director of the League of Cities of the Philippines.

An appropriate tool that can look at the numbers and curate compelling stories behind the numbers, is by fully maximizing the community-based monitoring system to improve operations, drive innovation and deliver even better services, she added.

Hitosis was among the speakers during the recent 2022 Learning Initiatives for Policy and Data (LIPAD) series with the topic “Empowering Communities through Data: Utilizing CBMS for Local Development.

Organized by CollabDev or Coalescing Organizations towards Locally Led Actions to Boost Development (COLLABDev), a partnership initiative of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote human-centered, datadriven development in the Philippines, LIPAD is part of the push for government and communities’ use of data for development through CBMS, a tool that shows data on multidimensional poverty and the means to address it through an organized system of collecting, processing, and validating data.

In a news release, Dr. Celia Reyes, head of the CBMS Network, introduced the CBMS as one that “generates the necessary local level data and desired disaggregation for evidence-based decision making, which it is able to do because it uses two questionnaires: the household profile and the barangay profile.”

Continued on A5

Companies

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

B1

SCG posts higher revenues despite rising energy costs

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

S

@TyronePiad

iam Cement Group (SCG) Philippines registered P16.241 billion in revenues last year on the back of the double-digit growth in its topline in the fourth quarter.

In a recent statement, the cement manufacturer reported that its revenue from sales surged by 31 percent to P3.966 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The group’s total assets in the country grew by 6 percent yearon-year to P19.752 billion in the fourth quarter.

The group was able to book an income growth “despite inflation-

ary pressures, rising energy and raw materials costs, and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” SCG said.

SCG Marketing Philippines introduced in the past year The Decormart, a one-stop shop for interior and exterior decorations.

Mariwasa Siam Ceramics Inc. also launched a tile ground product and a new vinyl tile collection.

The group’s overall full-year revenues last year improved by 33 percent to $16.756 million (P816.782 billion) as all its businesses performed better, particularly the prices and sales volume of chemical products.

As a result, profits in 2021 rose by 38 percent year-on-year to $1.475 billion or P72.684 billion.

In implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, SCG said it adopted a four-target approach that includes efforts in reducing carbon footprint, promoting green measures, reducing inequality and furthering collaboration.

SCG said it has committed an initial investment of 70 million baht ($2.17 million) by 2030 to improve its production process and develop low-carbon businesses. This is in line with its goal of achieving net-

zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050.

The group said its greenhouse gas emissions declined by 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide last year.

“At the same time, SCG increased the proportion of SCG Green Choice product sales from 33 percent in 2020 to 41 percent.”

Meanwhile, SCG President and CEO Roongrote Rangsiyopash warned businesses that their operational costs could rise.

“Businesses should be prepared for higher energy and raw material costs due to inflation. As purchasing power begins to recover, market forces drive up the prices of goods and services,” he said.

“Thus, business strategies in each industry must be appropriately optimized and businesses must have the financial discipline to cope with rising interest rates.”

AirAsia: Travel poised for rebound

BusinessMirror file photo

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

udget carrier AirAsia Philippines expects travel demand to pick up within the year, saying it recorded a “38-percent increase in forward bookings for the next three months” from last month.

Steve F. Dailisan, the spokesperson of AirAsia Philippines, said the carrier also observed an 18-percent growth in “15 to 30 days booking especially for top

summer destinations.”

Boracay leads the carrier’s most booked destinations, recording a 24-percent increase in booking requests. It is followed by Cebu, Panglao, Kalibo, and Tacloban.

“Travel is set to rebound this year and we are in full throttle to maintain the momentum. We are opening local and international routes to cater to the rising demand for travel as more countries relax border protocols. AirAsia Philippines will continue to champion inclusive and safe travelling as we work together with

DOE clears 5 projects for SIS

Fresh franchise for IBC gets nod

@lorenzmarasigan

B

F

ive renewable energy projects received the green light of the Department of Energy (DOE) to proceed with the conduct of system impact study (SIS).

As of January 31 this year, the 150megawatt (MW) Tayabas South wind energy project of Cleantech Global Renewables Inc., 124M W L ag una L a ke 2 floating solar power project of PV Sinag Power Inc., 36MW San Vicente solar power project of PAVI Green Renewable Energy Inc., 36MW Caraga wind power project of Caraga Wind Energy Corp., and the 57MW Samal solar power project of Samal Solar Renewable Energy Corp. were cleared by the DOE. In all, the proposed renewable energy projects could add 403MW of capacity in the country. Lenie Lectura

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

T

he House Committee on Legislative Franchises on Tuesday approved the bill renewing for another 25 years the legislative franchise of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC), a state-owned television network under the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, principal author and sponsor of House Bill 5404, said the expected approval of the IBC franchise by the 18th Congress will extend the broadcaster’s franchise by another 25 years.

The bill will be transmitted to the plenary when session resumes in May for approval.

The network’s existing franchise under Republic Act 8954 granted

national and local agencies on tourism recovery in the post-pandemic era,” Dailisan said.

He added that the budget carrier “is keen on further propelling the buoyancy of the local travel market with the opening of new domestic routes.”

Next month, AirAsia Philippines will restart its flights to Bali, Bangkok, and Incheon. The month after, the carrier will introduce services from Manila to Dumaguete and Roxas.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for

IBC a franchise to operate until September 2025.

“Once we extend their franchise, they will be authorized to operate until 2050. I hope their franchise extension gets enacted this Congress, so that we no longer have to rush it in the next Congress,” Salceda said in a statement.

Salceda said he envisions a stronger role for an expanded IBC in disaster preparedness and participative governance, “given its design as a corporation without a profit motive.”

“I envision IBC TV and state media in general to play a more significant role in disaster preparedness. As being close to the organs of government, the station is uniquely positioned to be the first source of government announcements, requests, and instructions,” he said.

“That unique position is most

the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has relaxed rules for travel and mobility following the decline in Covid-19 cases in the country.

“Our government’s simplified travel requirements and protocols have greatly influenced inbound travel and domestic tourism. As one of the country’s most trusted air carriers, we are very glad with this progress. The adaptive approach applied in our pandemic response is exactly what our country needs to move forward,” Dailisan said.

crucial during a disaster. That’s why I think programming has to be geared towards disaster announcements. The airing of the Laging Handa briefings in the network is a prime example of what can be sustained as it repurposes.”

The network was also tapped to air educational programs to aid remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Salceda said IBC can serve as an avenue for the public to air out their concerns on pressing or relevant issues and directly interact with concerned officials.

“In this role, the IBC can be a ‘tanungan at sumbungan’ for the public. We could even create programs in line with the thrusts of Hotline 8888 or the Presidential Complaint Center. We can have programs where members of the public can call in to express their concerns, and have them addressed by their officials.”

DoubleDragon amends primary purpose of unit

D

oubleDragon Properties Corp., the property development arm of businessman Edgar Sia II, on Tuesday said it was able to amend the primary purpose of its offshore unit, Hotel 101 Worldwide Pvt. Ltd. The company said the change is a step forward towards the company’s aspiration to export the Hotel 101 brand and concept globally.

The expansion may be done directly

by Hotel 101 Worldwide or through partnerships and joint ventures with other property developers in other countries.

The change and update of its primary and secondary activities at the Singapore’s Regulatory Authority now allows Hotel 101 to conduct acquisition, investment and development of real estate properties and ventures, as well as conduct real estate sales, marketing, operations and management of the group’s projects outside the Philippines.

DoubleDragon said it expects to acquire its first property for development in Asia by the second quarter this year, and launch by the second half.

The company said it has shortlisted sites where Hotel 101 is expected to be patronized by local and foreign tourists as well as Filipinos who visit that country for business or leisure.

The first Hotel 101 project outside the Philippines is also expected to give Filipino investors a chance to make their first offshore real estate investment with affordable payment terms for their hybrid condotel Hotel 101 investment.

“We have observed that the US has Holiday Inn, Europe has Novotel, China has Jinjiang Inn, Malaysia has

Shangri-La, Thailand has Dusit, Japan has Nikko, Singapore has Raffles, but the Philippines has none,” Sia said.

“We have also observed that in other countries, many have a strong mindset of gearing their businesses for export. Pursuing business ventures, brands and concepts that are geared to be exported to the 195 countries globally is truly admirable.”

The concept patent of Hotel 101’s pioneering condotel has already been filed. The Hotel 101 trademark and domains have been secured in various countries.

The Hotel 101 concept is a hybrid condotel model where all the units, which it called Happy Rooms, are identical, allowing all unit owners to have an equal share in the revenues of the Hotel 101 property. The Hotel 101 smart phone application for both Apple iOS and Android will be launching soon, it said.

The hotel’s asset light concept allows DoubleDragon to generate revenue and income twice--first from the pre-selling of the units, and after the project is constructed as it generates long term recurring revenue from hotel operations.

Hotel 101-Manila in last year has achieved an average occupancy rate of 96 percent, the company said.

“Hotel 101 has the potential to manifest and promote the unique and exceptional Filipino brand of service as the chain expands all over the world. Hotel101 could very well serve as an international goodwill ambassador of the hospitality industry for the Philippines, the same way Jollibee outlets that have made their mark for food in various corners of the globe,” Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said. VG Cabuag

B2

Companies

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SPNEC targeting to raise ₧10B via stock rights offer

By VG Cabuag

T

@villygc

he board of Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC) has approved the company’s stock rights offering (SRO) as part of its efforts to raise as much as P10 billion for its solar projects.

The company said it plans to file documents for its SRO in the second quarter and that the timing of its offer would depend on regulatory approvals. The company may also raise capital from private placements with institutional investors, to complete the capital required for the company’s expansion plans.

An SRO allows existing owners to buy additional shares of the company depending on its shareholdings. The company has yet to announce the number of shares that it will offer.

“We need at least P10 billion to complete the development of 10 gigawatts of solar projects. This is only a small percent of project cost,

but we believe is a large percent of the value, with development being the bottleneck for the energy transition of the Philippines,” Solar Philippines Inc. President and CEO Leandro L. Leviste said.

“As a developer, SPNEC’s business model is to make projects shovel-ready, then bring in jointventure partners who can help fund the construction. That said, we could also invest a much larger amount, and would take the opportunity to raise such if this is seen to be accretive to shareholders,” Leviste said.

SPNEC also approved the acquisition of land as part of its developments, to be funded from the proceeds of the SRO and from its recent initial public offering.

The company’s developments are located primarily in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tar-

lac, Batangas and Quezon, where its parent, Solar Philippines, has spent the past years consolidating land suitable for solar in relative proximity to the Greater Manila Area.

These developments would be supported by a potential assetfor-share swap between SPNEC and Solar Philippines, which has a portfolio of over 20 solar project companies, including over 10 GW in development.

SPNEC has not yet approved any asset-for-share swap, which is subject to a third-party valuation and fairness opinion by an independent financial advisor.

The proposed fundraisings and asset-for-share swap are part of SPNEC’s plan to increase its authorized capital stock to 50 billion shares, subject to approval at a stockholders’ meeting set on March 7.

CREC, Shell renew power supply deal mutual funds

February 15, 2022

NAV

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

235.51

6.04%

-4.14%

-1.28%

1.04%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.546

16.71%

-0.47%

2.13%

-7.1%

6.04%

-7.89%

-4.04%

0.6%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7599 -2.11%

-6.95% n.a.

0.45%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.756

-4.76% n.a.

-1.93%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.2573

First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a

7.2%

5.2344

First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

C

iticore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) will continue to supply Shell Energy Philippines Inc. (SEPH) with renewable energy to be sourced from its solar power facilities.

The new partnership is an extension of the short-term power supply agreement (PSA) earlier signed between the two parties and covers several PSAs that will complement SEPH’s supply stream.

“We are happy to have this strengthened partnership with CREC as we provide cleaner energy to our customers,” said Shell Energy Philippines President Bernd Krukenberg.

CREC currently operates and maintains eight strategically located solar-energy producing assets across the country, generating a combined power of 163megawatts (MW). The company is expanding its renewable energy capacity by an additional 1,500 MW

over the next five years.

“We are very grateful for this renewed partnership with Shell as we share the same vision of a future powered by clean and renewable energy. This development is a testament to the very high customer satisfaction and excellent service we provide our clients, who continue to trust and believe in us since 2017,” said CREIT President and CEO Oliver Tan. Shell Energy is a retail electricity supplier under the Shell Group offering competitive and cleaner environment-friendly energy solutions to various businesses in the Philippines.

Citicore’s subsidiary, Citicore Energy Solutions Inc., recently renewed its Retail Electricity Supplier’s license from the Energy Regulatory Commission and secured the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) operating permit from the Department of Energy under the agency’s GEOP, ensuring CREC’s viability as a steady and stable supplier of renewable energy products to a wider customer base.

8.51%

-2.04%

0.49%

1%

0.788

9.46%

-3.82%

-2.95% -2.27%

92.29

-7.14%

-9.02% n.a.

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

48.2006

5.25%

-2.81%

0.17%

0.15%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

505.76

5.83%

-2.6%

-0.24%

1.01%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.3828

20.15%

1.53%

2.6%

1.95%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

36.809

8.05%

-1.84%

1.17%

0.58% 1.88%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9591

7.9%

-2.73% n.a.

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.9809

6.3%

-2.06%

0.89%

0.41%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

830.21

5.9%

-2.13%

0.82%

0.21%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7571

6.95%

-5.94%

-2.2%

0.6%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.7825

6.59%

-4.32%

-0.57%

0.19%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9458

5.44%

-2.47%

0.58%

United Fund, Inc. -a

6.04%

-2.26%

1.33%

0.8%

3.4648

0.6%

0.14%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a

1.1831

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

10.92% n.a. n.a.

1.75%

1019.29 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Exchange Traded Fund (shares) First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c

111.9335

6.38%

-1.86%

1.33%

0.41%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) $1.1098

-17.52%

3.81%

4.15%

-1.48%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.7274

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

-3.76%

12.11%

9.81%

-6.44%

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a

1.6769

0.66%

-1.02%

-0.43%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2885

1.67%

-0.43%

0.16%

0.31%

4.77%

0.65%

1.66%

0.64%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.7081 First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

0.21

2.0232

3.44%

-0.89%

7.64% n.a. n.a.

1.86%

2.06%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.7766

1.07%

1.22%

0.88%

0.31%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.9071

1.14%

0.85%

0.84%

0.37%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.1345

3.08%

-0.32%

0.77%

0.62%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.6436 3.11%

-1.64%

0.22%

-0.1%

-0.3%

0.74%

0.45%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

0.9585

9.08%

0.48%

0.32%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a

0.9745

-3.39%

-0.69% n.a.

-1.55%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a

0.9423

1.25%

-1.68% n.a.

-0.23%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a

0.932

2.01%

-2.02% n.a.

-0.2%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a

$0.03621

-6.8%

0.5%

0.51%

$1.0702

-10.97%

3.05%

3.04%

0.29%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.5553 -4.34%

8.49%

7.15%

-5.14%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,2 $1.1488 -5.15%

4.03%

3.37%

-4.15%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

-4.56%

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

374.22

0.65%

2.72%

2.46%

-0.02%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.8863

-0.92%

0.45%

0.13%

0.08%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2454

0.82%

2.77%

3.77%

0.04%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2329

-2.72%

1.33%

1.22%

-0.83%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4205 -1.11%

2.82%

1.78%

-0.23%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.63%

1.18%

-0.84%

4.3588

-5.88%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3216

-0.11%

3.68%

2.86%

0.19%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9635

-0.57%

3.48%

2.61%

-0.06%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-0.42%

1.0239

-1.42%

4.01%

1.85%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1841

-0.64%

4%

3.08%

-0.1%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.25%

3.16%

2.38%

-0.2%

1.7271

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$487.66

0.46%

2.65%

2.3%

-0.39%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є218.09

-0.66%

0.58%

0.83%

-0.87%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1618

-8.48%

0.45%

0.97%

-3.5%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0255 -3.41%

0.66%

0.48%

-1.92%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$0.9798

-10.09%

-2.18%

-1.56%

-4.2%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.3966

-5.33%

2.6%

1.75%

-4.35%

$0.0616716

-1.51%

2.43%

1.7%

-1%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.0152 -6.29%

1.03%

0.52%

-5.66%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a

Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (shares) 131.36

1.03%

2.6%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

1.0593

0.99%

2.54%

1.88% n.a.

0.13%

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3181

1.49%

2.48%

2.52%

0.15%

0.19%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0613

0.72%

1.37% n.a.

0.07%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

46.3373 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a 1.3444

13.55% n.a. n.a.

-2.78%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

$0.9338

-5.68% n.a. n.a.

-3.73%

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

1 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last July 8, 2021 (formerly, Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc.).

2 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last November 25, 2021.

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Entrepreneur BusinessMirror

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, February 16, 2022 B3

Start-ups, small-scale enterprises mentored on biz growth acceleration, waste reduction Roderick L. Abad

Contributor

S

@rodrik_28

TART-UP founders, entrepreneurs, and owners of micro, small, medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have gained knowledge on how to accelerate business growth and mitigate waste in their operational processes during the first leg of a learning series held online.

The participants in the Virtual Homeroom Sessions under the Shell LiveWIRE program were trained by established industry mentors, namely, AllCare Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cindy Burdette and Uproot Urban Farms Founder and Chief Urban Farmer Robi Del Rosario about achieving higher levels of success with the Lean Start-up

Methodologies.

This module enables companies to shorten development cycles while testing their feasibility. Its main principle holds that firms that invest their time to create products or services in this smart, systematic way can reduce market risks, expensive product launches, and financial failures.

Butuan LGU program helps MSMEs endure pandemic catastrophe

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio Contributor

T

he Butuan City mayor’s office has launched the Palit Ka Lokal, Suporta Ka Lokal program to help the city’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Frederick Blancas, Head of City Trade, Industry and Investment Promotion Office (CTIIPO), told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview that Butuan City Mayor Ronnie Vicente C. Lagnada believes that there should be a balance between health and economy during the pandemic.

“While the LGU [local government unit] has programs to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, it also assists the business sector, especially the MSMEs, in this difficult time,” Blancas said.

Palit Ka Lokal, Suporta Ka Lokal program started in February 2021 when the lockdown was almost a year already.

Blancas pointed out it was a challenging time for entrepreneurs as the lockdown affected both the supply of raw materials and demand for their products and services.

Through the CTIIPO, the local government unit of Butuan thought of introducing a program that could boost the local economy, which gave birth to the program. It consists of small trade fairs, enterprise promotion on radio and Internet, and capability building webinars.

The program started through collaboration with private and other government organizations. The program’s first project was a Valentine’s Day 2021 bazaar and trunk show organized by social enterprise One Closet and convention center The Pavilion at Watergate, and sponsored by Globe myBusiness, Rotary Clubs Area 3I and 3J, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of Agusan del Norte and Dinagat Islands.

The MSMEs warmly received the project and were excited to do actual selling. Moreover, CTIIPO and the other partners made sure the health protocols were followed. “Since the MSMEs did not have to pay anything to join the event, 100 percent of sales went directly to them,” Blancas said The bazaar was participated in by 26 MSMEs that sold food and non-food products. The trunk show highlighted fashion items from One Closet, The Trading Post and Gina Bagasbas from Butuan City as well as from Binuhat Arts and Crafts from Dinagat Islands. Actual and booked sales for the one-day event reached P120,000.

As a follow up, CTIIPO orga-

nized monthly small trade fairs from March to August in 2021, except for the month of June when the number of Covid cases in the city surged. Just like the first event, all these trade fairs were held in places that strictly implement health protocols.

Blancas commended CTIIPO’s partners like The Pavilion at Watergate, SM City Butuan and Robinsons Place Butuan for hosting the events. He said local enterprises like One Closet, Custodio Medical Clinic and Derma Circles Clinic also played an important role as sponsors of the events. “The total gross sales for these events exceeded P2 million, giving the MSMEs confidence to forge ahead in the pandemic,” Blancas said.

Consumer and business confidence cannot fully bounce back until the uncertainty on the duration of the pandemic begins to subside. This is why there is a need to focus on protecting MSMEs and their employees. The Palit Ka Lokal, Suporta Ka Lokal program provides selling platforms, promotes micro and small enterprises, and helps them upgrade their skills to adapt to the new normal.

This helps the businesses survive the pandemic and keep employing people,” Blancas added.

Aside from holding small trade fairs, Butuan City is also focused on providing free enterprise promotion. CTIIPO has tapped radio stations Bombo Radyo Butuan, Magik FM, and Love Radio Butuan as well as local vloggers to promote MSME entrepreneurship. Bombo Radyo Butuan has featured every Sunday since March 2021 an MSME with the twin goals of promoting an enterprise and inspiring existing and potential entrepreneurs. He said CTIIPO also provides relevant webinars like Coping with the New Normal, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Branding to Create Value, Online Selling and Social Media Marketing.

Moving forward, CTIIPO will collaborate with the malls for small trade fairs in 2022. Blancas said CTIIPO would continue its enterprise promotion program with the radio stations. CTIIPO will also be showing advertisements on electronic billboards.

For capability building, CTIIPO’s focus will shift from merely conducting webinars to holding one-on-one mentoring of MSMEs, cooperatives and associations. “We will intensify our business matching activities as well,” Blancas said.

“On top of these initiatives, we are finishing a strategic plan for economic recovery and growth, a feasibility study for government buying and selling station for agricultural products, and a business plan for a new public market,” Blancas stressed.

Established industry mentors share their knowledge, experience, and other learnings to assist business owners achieve higher levels of success during the first leg of the Shell LiveWIRE Virtual Homeroom Sessions. Upper row, from left: Serge Bernal, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. vice president of corporate relations; and Cindy Burdette, chief executive officer and cofounder of AllCare.

Bottom row, from left: Robi Del Rosario, founder and chief urban farmer of Uproot Urban Farms; and host Bettina Gayoso.

“It helps get your product to market and then let’s you see how it is doing and how viable it is,” Del Rosario said, while citing that this early assessment of the start-up offering is vital to the development of

the business, “as the crucial thing facing them is limited funds.”

Addressing the problems that arise in an emerging economy like the Philippines is very challenging for start-ups and MSMEs. Never-

theless, these business players can gain significant advantage in growth with the right capital, experience, and connections in their respective industries.

Since one of the reasons why startups fail is the lack of expertise of the emerging leaders and workforce alike, mentorship and guidance from a peer network or industry experts like what the Virtual Homeroom Sessions bring to the attendees are also helpful.

“Every day [in business] is a challenge and struggle. No entrepreneur goes into a journey fully prepared and knows which challenges to solve,” Burdette noted: “My goal is to share what I have done so you don’t have to go through the same thing.”

These online discussions open doors to a broader range of audience and are offered beyond the Shell LiveWIRE program, which centers on the categories of energy, environment, circular economy, and local prosperity. Helping build capabilities of various start-ups for free, these learning sessions are anchored on

the principle that entrepreneurs are the economy’s lifeline.

“Shell LiveWIRE is here to be a partner, mentor, and strong support system for the young, growing, and driven business owners who are continuing to power the nation’s economy and development.

The Virtual Homeroom will equip them further to be a lean and mean team, teaching them effective methods to scale up their companies in the continuously evolving business landscape, allowing them to become leaders and innovators in their field,” Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Vice President of Corporate Relations Serge Bernal said.

“Shell remains committed to helping Filipino start-ups and enterprises adapt, innovate, and thrive. I encourage you to keep learning, building your ambitions, and motivating others. Through the partnerships forged, we can do our share in building a better future for the country. Together, we can keep moving the Philippines forward,” he added.

API commits to deliver financial services closer to ‘unbanked’ entreps, consumers

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PPLICATION program interface (API) economy, one of the emerging solutions that can provide financial access to the more than underserved Filipinos, including aspiring entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that lack funding and support to expand their businesses, is gaining ground in the Philippines.

With over 71 percent of Filipinos who remain unbanked and have zero access to financial services based on the 2019 survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), this kind of an enabler provides benefits to both consumers and businesses.

“By connecting services, products, and data, practically the whole business becomes faster and more accessible for our partners and customers,” Esquire Financing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajan Uttamchandani said during the recent webinar, dubbed “Teching Up Consumer Financing: Consumer Protection in Financing in an API Enabled World,” held by Fintech Philippines Association (FPH) and Digital Pilipinas.

“The biggest challenge MSMEs face is the ability to get access to credit. API economy does make it convenient—the customer can get all the information that he was talked about, so they don’t have to wait weeks and months to collect information,” added Grover Pte Ltd Founder and CEO Krishan Grover.

Apart from easy way of financing, API protects consumer data and confidentiality, especially now that cybersecurity issues are on the rise.

INDUSTRY leaders talk about how the application program interface (API) economy provides financial access to the underserved while protecting consumer data, confidentiality, and financing at the “Teching Up Consumer Financing: Consumer Protection in Financing in an API Enabled World” webinar. They are: (top row, from left) Mitchell Goh, chief executive officer of GetPaid; Mark Vernon, vice chairman of Fintech Philippines; Krishan Grover, CEO of Grover Pte Ltd; (middle row, from left) Jerome Eger, CEO of Smile API; Jove Tapiador, trustee of Fintech Philippines; Todd Schweitzer, CEO of Brankas; (bottom row, from left) event host Bettina Gayoso; Amor Maclang, Digital Pilipinas and World Fintech Festival convenor and FPH trustee and executive director; Rajan Uttamchandani, chairman and CEO of Esquire Financing.

“Your data is yours. Usually when you see silo data these days, it is not available to you as an end user. What APIs are about is the removal of these thresholds and to make your own data available for the best use, and in your interests,” noted Smile API CEO Jerome Eger.

In the era of Open Finance, even the unbanked will have access to financial services, as APIs’ functionality can check on alternative data points such as e-wallets.

Not only that it allows the data owner to manage their own information, it connects businesses to empower them to extend their

reach, influence, and market.

“In this day and age, if you want to be a master in your own vertical, you need partnerships, and to transact in partnerships securely and effectively, you’re going to need APIs,” GetPaid CEO Mitchell Goh pointed out.

At present, the government is dealing with Open Finance and API development in the country.

“In the Philippines, they’re following a great trajectory. What they are doing is they’re building a fence and they are saying: ‘Here is the fence, the perimeter, there are certain IT [information technolo-

gy] and operational tech standards that need to be in place. And as long as you have those in place, we, the regulators, will allow innovation to happen,’” said Brankas Founder and CEO Todd Schweitzer.

Why this strategy is an advantage, he explained: “You’re not forcing a requirement, you’re not going through years of consensus-building with the bankers’ association, and you’re giving a green light to the more digitally focused banks to proceed. That’s the approach that the regulators are taking in the Philippines, which I think is amazing.”

The implementation and future of APIs in the country look bullish, with some initiatives that have to be taken immediately.

“We need a credit scoring system like in the US [the United States], something that the user can submit data to, or that can be tapped from different locations. It would be nice to have an API for an online NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) clearance setup. We really need a National ID. It’s also a problem that we can’t do automated KYC [know your customer] in the Philippines,” Fintech Philippines Association Vice-Chairman and Co-Founder Mark Vernon said.

“We hope to be able to surface best practices that will help us transform our industry together, and in the process create a virtuous cycle that will be more proconsumer,” Digital Pilipinas and World Fintech Festival Convenor and FPH Trustee and Executive Director Amor Maclang added.

Roderick L. Abad

PEF extends P3.5-million aid to storm-hit MSMEs in NegOcc

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he Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) has allotted P3.5 million to assist distressed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Negros Occidental and help them recover in the aftermath of typhoon “Odette” (international code name: Rai).

PEF Area Manager Peter Nabong told the BusinessMirror the foundation has been regularly helping MSMEs engaged in the cultivation of coffee, cacao, and coconut, among others.

After supertyphoon “Yolanda”

(international code name: Haiyan), Nabong said PEF provided immediate disaster response in the form of relief support.

Nabong said some small enterprises received additional support for the recovery of their communities. “There were housing repair loans/grants, production loans, and livelihood support not only for the social enterprises but also for the communities,” he said.

Right now, Nabong said PEF is more focused in other provinces like Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Caloo-

can, Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat, and Zamboanga. He said PEF is providing interventions and on social enterprises and collaborating with the stakeholders in these areas.

“But despite this new approach of PEF, it is still committed to provide support to its partners and network of civil society organizations, especially in times of calamities such as typhoon Odette. We will wait for further assessment of our partners on the ground. If our partners intend to develop projects on disaster recov-

ery, PEF may consider participating,” Nabong said.

Aside from the provincial and municipal-based organizations and small enterprises, Nabong said PEF partnered with national and regional organizations and networks such as the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies and Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas for the recovery of communities affected by Odette.

Rizal Raoul Reyes

Banking&Finance

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 • Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

B4

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Govt raises ₧120.76B from initial RTB sale

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Bureau of the Treasury sold an initial P120.76 billion in its latest offering of 5-year Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) as the market hedges against a potential interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve next month.

The latest RTB offering fetched an annual interest rate of 4.875 percent during its rate-setting auction on Tuesday.

Total bids for the RTBs reached

P183.44 billion, making the auction six-times oversubscribed.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters the auction showed strong interest in RTBs. De

Leon added that the “coupon penciled in rate liftoff and emerging higher inflation risk.”

The US inflation rate in January, which notched a fresh 4-decade-high at 7.5 percent, is fueling speculations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 50 basis points in its March meeting to address the spike in prices.

During the launch of the 27th RTB offering on Tuesday, De Leon also said in her speech that the government is aiming to raise P2.2 trillion, of which around 75 percent will be sourced from the domestic market.

“In addition to financing the government’s resilience and emergency programs, the funds will also be used to continue the trajectory of the massive infrastructure push

of our ‘Build, Build, Build’ program aimed at maximizing economic efficiency and contribute to achieving GDP [gross domestic product] growth of 7 percent to 9 percent,” the Treasurer said.

De Leon also said the Treasury will also be launching in a few weeks its own financial planning application that aims to make investment tools readily available to those who are keen on fulfilling their financial goals.

The national government has been issuing RTBs since 2001 as part of its efforts to support financial inclusion and literacy among Filipinos.

Last year, the government raised over P800 billion from the sale of RTBs. De Leon said RTBs now account for over 30 percent of the govern-

SEC rakes in ₧119.07M via cashless-payment portal

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HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it has collected P119.07 million in fees and penalties through a web-based system that allows cashless payment of business registrations, fees and other charges.

SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino said they were able to rake in an average of P11.9 million per month via the agency’s “electronic system for payments to SEC,” or eSpaySec, which recorded 16,898 transactions since the project was first implemented on March 1, 2021 up to January 26, 2022.

The system allows online payment of fees, penalties and other charges using debit and credit cards, digital wallets and other cashless payment options, Aquino said in a report, copies of which the Department of Finance provided to the media.

The SEC chief said they are also coordinating with the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines

(DBP) for the inclusion of the SEC in the shared cyber defense strategy of the financial sector. Aquino said the DBP and the SEC will hold knowledge-sharing exercises on cybersecurity.

Apart from its eSpaySec, the SEC also said an “electronic filing and submission tool,” or “eFast,” processed 169,323 enrollments from the time of its launching on March 15, 2021 up to January 26, 2022, with a total of 185,127 reports submitted electronically. The eFast covers the online submission of the audited financial statement, general information sheet and other reportorial requirements for businesses.

Meanwhile, 48,266 applications from April 11 last year to January 26, 2022, were also processed by the agency’s “electronic system for processing and registration of companies,” or “eSparc,” which makes it faster and convenient for corporations to register.

Another digitalization initiative of the SEC is the “OneSEC” tool, which was able to register 3,288 new corporations from September 15, 2021 to January 26 this year. The tool ensures 1-day submission and electronic registration of companies and requires minimal encoding of data on the part of the registrants, as most of the company information is already pre-filled.

The OneSEC processing “is completely seamless and fully automated in the absence of human intervention on the part of the Commission starting from the name verification on the proposed corporate name, until the issuance of the digital copy of the Certificate of Incorporation,” Aquino said.

Moreover, the Commission’s mobile app called the “Check App,” reported 2,705 installations on smartphones and other mobile devices.

“Check App” provides the public with on-the-go and latest SEC investor alerts, rules and regulations and

other updates.

Moving forward, Aquino said the SEC will aim to achieve its goal of zero face-to-face transactions by fully shifting to online services as outlined in its “Digital Transformation and Technology Modernization Roadmap.”

He added the SEC will ensure the proper regulation of financial technology companies through the PhiliFintech Innovation Office and will, likewise, put in place measures to expand the access of small and medium enterprises to the capital markets.

Likewise, Aquino said they will also continue to push for the congressional passage of the Capital Market Development Act to help increase the level of funded pensions and encourage the participation of institutional investors in the capital market and the Financial Consumer Protection Act to strengthen the SEC as a protector of consumers against investment scams. Bernadette D. Nicolas

BSP, Comelec working to address vote-buying

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

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OMELEC Spokesman James B. Jimenez said recently that the Commission on Elections is still working on crafting an agreement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to prevent votebuying through electronic wallets (e-wallets).

However, Jimenez said it is taking them some time to come out with the accord since it is difficult to prove if e-wallets are being used for criminal purposes.

“It is a little difficult to work around the fact that there is almost no proof [of] wrongdoing,” Jimenez explained in a virtual news briefing last week. “This is different from when you are giving out money in a

street corner. What is its counterpart in the situation for e-payments? It is a little trickier.” The poll official noted the best way to tackle the issue is to first define the criminal activity being committed when the e-payment system is used for illegal transactions such as vote-buying, which is an election offense under the Omnibus Election Code.

Last Monday, the Anti-Money

Laundering Council instructed banks and other financial institutions to be wary on how online payments can be used for digital vote buying and selling. It said among the “unusual transactions” they should monitor structured cash deposits and money transfers, use of multiple accounts by a single transactor and the use of several money service businesses to send funds.

ment’s outstanding securities.

Generally considered low-risk investment instruments, RTBs allow investors to earn a fixed interest based on prevailing market rates that are paid quarterly during the term of the bond.

The latest RTB offering, which is set to mature on March 4, 2027, is made available to retail investors in minimum denominations of P5,000.

Eligible investors for the RTBs may include individuals, cooperatives, retirement funds, and provident funds. For the holders of maturing debt papers (FXTN 20-02 and FXTN 3-24), they may also swap these with the latest RTBs. The public offer period for the RTBs that started last Tuesday would end on February 28.

Interested retail investors may purchase the RTBs via over-thecounter or traditional channels through the branches of the selling agents, via online channels through the RTB ordering facility, which can be accessed through the Treasury website or through the mobile applications of Land Bank of the Philippines and the Overseas Filipino Bank or the Bonds.PH app.

The joint lead issue managers for the latest RTB offering are Development Bank of the Philippines and LandBank while the joint issue managers are BDO Capital & Investment Corp.; BPI Capital Corp.; China Bank Capital Corp.; First Metro Investment Corp.; SB Capital Investment Corp. and UnionBank of the Philippines.

S&P upgrades outlook for BPI from negative

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

S

&P Global Ratings upgraded its outlook for Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) to stable from negative on the back of strong capital buffers.

The debt watcher also affirmed the “BBB+” long-term and “A-2” short-term issuer credit ratings of the Ayala-led bank.

“The bank has a solid franchise and leading market position in the Philippines. It has a track record of consistent profitability across economic cycles, and is on a path to recovery from the pandemic,” the S&P said in a statement it issued last Tuesday.

That day, BPI shares fell by 1 percent, or P1, to P99 each amid the 0.70-percent drop for the main index on February 15.

While BPI may deal with some pandemic-induced challenges that can adversely impact its asset quality, S&P said that the bank is ready to “weather residual stress from a position of strength, with good capital and liquidity buffers.”

The credit rating agency said that BPI’s nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio is also better compared to industry average, which shows its “prudent” underwriting and lending practices.

As of December 31, 2021, BPI’s NPL ratio declined to 2.49 percent from peak 2.94 percent in June 2021.

Still, this is higher than 1.66 percent prior to the pandemic.

“BPI’s credit costs fell significantly to 0.93 percent in 2021, from 1.96 percent in 2020, in tandem with the industry’s, reflecting improved macroeconomic conditions,” S&P said. “The bank has already covered substantial ground in building up loan loss reserves against a deterioration in asset quality related to the pandemic.”

S&P projects the bank’s riskadjusted capital ratio to be at 10.5 percent to 11.5 percent in the next two years. The forecast is based on BPI’s tier 1 and total capital ratios of 16.8 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, as of Sept. 30 last year.

Both figures are above the minimum regulatory requirement.

The Ayala-led bank saw its net income increase by 11.5 percent to P23.88 billion last year due to reduced bad loan provisions and improved collection of fee income.

Provisions were 53.1 percent lower to P13.13 billion in the same period, with NPL coverage ratio at 136.1 percent.

This year, the debt watcher expects the banking industry to book higher profits due to higher credit growth, hike in fee income amid more business activities and lower credit costs.

S&P projects credit growth of the sector to reach 5 percent to 7 percent this year due to better economic performance.

SEC orders 8 more illegal CIC sets new pricing schemes for access to credit lenders to stop operation T

By VG Cabuag

T

@villygc

HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered eight more online lending operators to stop conducting lending activities without the necessary license.

In an order issued last February 8, the SEC ordered the companies that operates CashWill, PesoBee, Peso T-Safe Online Cash, RushLoan, SkyMart, SpendCash, Tapa and WithU, to immediately cease and desist from its operations until they have registered their activities with the agency.

The companies, their agents, representatives and promoters, as well as the owners and operators of their hosting sites, were also asked to stop its activities.

The SEC issued the order after finding that none of the groups were registered as a corporation with the agency and they also lack the certificate of authority to operate as a lending and/or financing company.

The Lending Company Regulation Act of 2007 (LCRA), requires persons or entities operating as lending companies to register as corporations and to secure from the SEC the necessary authority to operate. “[T]he Commission finds that the continued operation of the Online Lending Operators constitutes a clear violation of, and should be penalized pursu-

ant to the [LCRA] because it engages in or carries out a lending business without the required license form the Commission,” the SEC said in its order.

“The acts of the unregistered online lending operators in illegally offering and providing loans to the public, charging high interest rates, and subjecting its debtors to unfair treatment through abusive and even libelous language in collecting the loaned amount,” the order read.

The SEC said it found that the online lending operators have been imposing onerous and unreasonable terms, charging high interest rates and performing acts that violate the right to privacy of their borrowers. The SEC regularly monitors lending and financing companies for their compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, as it seeks to protect borrowers from abusive, unethical and illegal lenders.

To date, the regulator has canceled the licenses of 36 financing/lending companies due to various violations of applicable rules and regulations.

It has also revoked the certificate of registration of a total of 2,081 lending companies for their failure to secure the requisite certificate of authority, pursuant to the LCRA. In total, 73 online lending applications have been ordered to cease operations for lack of authority to operate as a lending or financing company.

HE Credit Information Corp.

(CIC), the country’s sole public credit registry and repository of credit information, announced it will implement a new pricing scheme for its credit data used by its Accessing Entities (AEs) and Special Accessing Entities (SAEs).

A wholesale price of P20 per credit report inquiry may be availed through a pre-purchase of a minimum of one million reports annually and a new retail price of P30 per credit report will apply for all other cases of access to the database starting April 1, the CIC said through a statement.

Basic credit reports purchased under this new pricing scheme will have a 12-month expiration period, the agency added.

The CIC further explained that a new pricing scheme, as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) en banc, is based on the value of the bureau’s continuously growing and improving database, which contains the credit data of 30.7 million unique individuals and with well over 100 million loan contracts.

To ease the transition, the corporation extended its current inquiry fee— a wholesale price of P10 and a retail price of P15—which was set to expire last January 31 and may be availed by AEs and SAEs until March 31, 2022.

CIC President and CEO lawyer Ben Joshua A. Baltazar said they are inviting AEs to take advantage of the cur-

rent promotional pricing during this 2-month transition period “to maximize their use of CIC Credit Reports throughout the year.”

Credit reports purchased at the current promotional price will be valid for use until December 31, 2022.

Largest database

BALTAZAR also underscored in the statement “how the continued improvement of reportorial compliance of its covered entities has allowed the CIC to consolidate credit data into the single largest, most comprehensive and diverse credit database in the country.”

The CIC said it has also implemented “various reforms to continue the data quality improvement process and develop a more effective credit reporting system such as the data quality and usability assessment, or DQUA.” According to the CIC, the DQUA ensures the adequacy, accuracy and usability of the credit data it receives and process.

Baltazar said these initiatives “enable access to accurate, timely and consistent primary information directly establishing creditworthiness.”

“We believe that the new credit report pricing scheme better reflects the quality and value of CIC data. This information is essential to the financial sector’s credit risk management and ‘credit decisioning,’ especially amid the continuing pandemic,” he was quoted in the statement as saying. “The CIC

credit data is still the most cost-effective way for lenders to properly evaluate their borrowers.”

Almost a million credit reports were already pulled by CIC’s AEs and utilized for their “credit-decisioning” activities from 2020 to 2021, attesting to their usefulness in evaluating the financial standing of borrowers, the government-owned and –controlled corporation said.

The CIC announced preparations

FINTECH SEEKS FUND

to roll-out the direct-to-consumer (D2C) credit reports through AEs (“D2C thru AE”) initiative to provide borrowers the convenience of securing their credit report from their chosen lender. This facility will initially cover a select pilot batch of Accessing Entities and will be expanded to include more lenders throughout the year.

To note, banks or other financial institutions could provide assistance to accessing credit reports.

The skyline of the Makati Commercial and Business District is shown in this undated Bloomberg photo. Bloomberg News cited anonymous sources in saying that fintech firm Voyager Innovations Inc. is considering raising $150 million to $200 million to help finance its expansion. Bloomberg News

Image BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Wednesday, February 16, 2022

B5

Your employees, your brand T 12 TIPS FOR A FRESH START IF you wish for a new beginning, you must focus on certain aspects of your life.

Dan Matthews, a Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP) with an extensive background in community-based rehabilitation, advised to not compare yourself with others. Instead, he suggested to take a hard look at one’s own life to identify and focus on the facets they hope to change.

Benilde Well-Being Center (BWC) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde understands and recognizes that starting over does not happen immediately.

From the professional observations of Matthews, the team has compiled 12 brief yet powerful tips to restart at square one: 1. Always learn something new. Try to expand your horizons. Be competitive in diverse career fields. Pursue further education. Enroll in online classes. Participate in workshops.

2. Take steps to face your fears. Fear and apprehensions of the possible outcomes affect our decision-making. These may result to missed opportunities. Do not be afraid to take risks within reason.

3. Maintain a meaningful social circle.

Identify the circles and relationships that positively affect you. Initiate conversations. Meet interesting people. Make new friends. Nurture both new and existing networks.

4. Find ways to cope with anxiety. Choose a healthy activity that helps relieve your anxiety.

Do it in moderation. It may be reading, writing, exercising or even watching Netflix. Engage in new hobbies.

5. Become part of a movement. Allot time and energy in a cause you feel passionate about.

Participating in a group that contributes to the common good can make a big impact in your life.

6. Take ownership. Free yourself with passivity. Believe you can rely on yourself. You don’t have to give up anything in your life to regain control over it. Be the captain of your own ship.

7. Pay attention to your dreams. Dreams can unravel sensible hopes and fears. But consider that these are products of life forces that we cannot truly comprehend. Thus, it is best not to base your life decisions on these.

8. Unplug to tap into creativity. Technology creates mental fatigue. It leaves little energy for creative processes. Engage in interesting offline activities. Spend more time in nature. It allows a certain part of your brain to be refreshed.

9. Challenge comfort zones. Discover what you are capable of. Step out of your comfort zone.

Focus on your next attainable goal.

10. Practice daily mindfulness. Incorporate practices such as meditation, yoga, journaling, or breathing exercises into your daily routine. Take deep breaths at your desk amid a stressful work day. It lowers blood pressure and helps regain your mental focus and clarity.

11. Assess your budget. You need to know what your financial limits are. Plan and set up a budget.

12. Manifest goodness. Target a new version of yourself. Create a vision board. Revisit this to remind yourself of your goals.

HE best people who can promote your business are your employees. Often, organization leaders spend so much on hiring personalities and so-called influencers that they forget the best people to talk about their organization are their employees. If wordof-mouth is the best way of promoting a product or service, some organizations might not be leveraging their most valuable promotional asset—their people.

Your employees do not talk about your organization out of the blue. They do so because of several reasons but much of it is because of your organizational culture. Culture is built through people, and how you build your employees affects the way they talk about you with others. More so when they talk to others outside the office about what they do, and if they are aware that they carry the organization’s image whether they like it or not. When your employees speak highly of your organization, this indicates that they are highly engaged and productive.

But how do you get your employees to talk to others about your products and services without having to resort to incentivizing everything they promote? How do you empower them to organically endorse your organization?

It all starts with your organization’s vision and mission. People need to own the vision of the organization. They need to have a personal stake in where the organization is headed, and they can connect their work to why the organization exists in the first place. Simon Sinek in his Ted Talk, titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” said that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Your employees need to understand how their work contributes to the overall vision of the company and how significant they are to the organization.

The best way for employees to have their buy-in with the organization’s vision is to involve them in crafting it. By asking for their opinion on where they think the organization is headed, they become accountable for its fulfillment. If the organization’s vision is from the top down, the challenge will be for middle managers to translate it in a way that their teams will understand. The executive leadership needs to provide the necessary support to their middle managers if they are expected to embody the organization’s vision.

Whether the employees were involved in crafting the organization’s vision or not, there needs to be a mechanism for collecting employee feedback and suggestions. This promotes transparency, teamwork and adaptability as management learns more about their employees and vice versa. As employees are heard and improvements are implemented, employees will feel they are appreciated and empowered which will create a positive working environment and an engaged work force. This in turn

will produce employees who will talk positively to others about where they work.

As the leader of the organization, walk the talk.

There is nothing more disappointing than a leader who does not embody their organization’s vision.

Your employees see you as the prime example of how the vision is translated into action. Show them how it is done, and they will start emulating your example.

When leaders are authentic and passionately driven, employees will naturally be drawn and follow their example.

Before launching a promotional campaign outside your organization, make sure your own employees know it first. They cannot support something they do not know anything about. It also puts your employees in an awkward situation when they learn of your new products and services from others or even the customers themselves. So, before you promote your product to others, make sure your employees are the first to know.

Let your employees pursue their passions and interests. Creating an authentic culture means letting your employees find their niche in the organization where they can grow to their full potential. Just as much as the organization tries its best to meet customer expectations, they must also seek to put people in a career path where they will grow and succeed. You can provide learning sessions or brown bag sessions where people can learn from each other while creating working relationships within the organization.

You can also develop a social responsibility program that your team is interested in and develop it as an advocacy. Special interest groups provide a venue for employees with similar activities to connect and see a different view of the organization.

Employees will then have a better appreciation of how different departments contribute to the organization’s success. Having an advocacy also provides a venue for your employees to be in touch with their communities and make a difference in other people’s lives.

If you have artworks or videos that you want your employees to share, make it easily accessible to them and easily shareable on their social-media pages.

Before releasing anything, ensure that it has been reviewed by your communication experts because once you make it available online, it will be extremely difficult to retract it. You can also allow your employees to create their own content but make sure you have guidelines in place for how they package their messages, so your message remains clear and consistent.

Richard Branson once said that “if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Your employees are the best representation of what your organization stands for. Conversely, your organization’s vision and purpose are shown by how your employees treat your customers and how they talk about your organization behind your back. And whether you like it or not, your organization will be known by the employees you keep. n

PHOTO BY CHRISTINA @WOCINTECHCHAT

WORLD NTD day was marked by iconic landmarks, such as The Colosseum in Italy and SM Mall of Asia Globe in the Philippines, being lit up.

MOA Globe lights up for World NTD Day ONE hundred landmarks in 34 countries, including the iconic SM Mall of Asia Globe in the Philippines, recently lit up for World NTD Day to highlight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which affect more than 1.7 billion worldwide, including 1 billion children.

The Great Wall of China, Niagara Falls in Canada, The Colosseum and Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Carter Presidential Library in the US, and the Windmills of Kinderdijk in The Netherlands were among the iconic landmarks that participated in the global light-up for the third annual World NTD Day. Several monuments, universities and notable buildings were also lit up in Abu Dhabi, where World NTD Day was originally announced in 2019.

The 100 “light ups” aim to shine a light on NTDs in

support of the World Health Organization’s goal to eliminate at least one NTD from 100 endemic countries by 2030. The Philippines is endemic to 6 of the 20 identified NTDs in the world. NTDs are a group of communicable diseases including dengue, chikungunya, leprosy, rabies, and lymphatic filariasis.

While these diseases can debilitate, disfigure and even be fatal, they are preventable and treatable.

World NTD Day was officially recognized by the WHO in May 2021. The UAE with the commitment of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, helmed diplomatic efforts to obtain official recognition of the day, and several WHO member-states were instrumental in building consensus to support it.

The Department of Foreign Affairs Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy-Cultural Diplomacy Division assistant

director Emmylou Felimer and SM Mall of Asia mall manager Ly-anne Salazar graced the light-up in the Philippines. In her message, Department of Health Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, Health Promotion Bureau Concurrent Director IV Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho said “the day marks a momentous moment as we hold our very first celebration of the Philippines’s World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day as part of our commitment to the World Health Assembly resolution last May 2021.”

The World NTD Day light-up in the Philippines was held in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, and SM to help raise awareness on neglected tropical diseases, and support the global call to end NTDs to enable a healthier and brighter future for all.

B6 Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Mark Villar tops latest senatorial survey Finally it’s here! A Taste of Sandari: The 8th anniversary edition this March

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HIS March, A Taste of Sandari: The 8th Anniversary Edition is finally happening as it celebrates Club Ananda’s 8th year in the wedding industry. For this whole-day affair, Club Ananda Events Venue has partnered with two major players -- Juan Carlo The Caterer and Kim Torres Events. Together they will mount a grand bridal event that will showcase the biggest names in the wedding event industry as they put on display their latest works, products, and services.

On March 20, soon-to-wed couples are invited to walk through to fabulouslystyled venues at Club Ananda by indemand stylists Gideon Hermosa and Teddy Manuel, sample the special menu at the food tasting courtesy of Juan Carlo The Caterer, and get in touch with sought-after wedding suppliers ranging from wardrobe, photo and video coverage, light and sounds, wedding cakes and specialty food, and car rental services. Guests will also be treated to a special bridal fashion show to cap the day’s program.

Soon-to-wed couples also get the chance to meet wedding planners Sweet Comforts Events Management, Princess Apple Events, and The Wedding Tip Sheet.

Also to be featured are hand-picked suppliers such as Mobile Bar Manila

Craft, Waveforce Lights and Sounds, Cake Honeyglaze, Niceprint Photography, Shoepatos, Leo Alomodal, Marsha Berbon, Tent King, Forrent, Donut Wall By Hazel, Darlene Tan Salazar, Pose and Print Photobooth, Florescents, Manila String Machine, RR3, Don Robert’s Bridal Car, and Styletech by Robin Medina.

The grand bridal event will be giving away freebies for on-the-spot bookings as well as exciting raffle prizes and discount packages from the long list of suppliers.

A Taste of Sandari: The 8th Anniversary Edition is supported by media partners BusinessMirror, Philippines Graphic, CNN Philippines, 98.7 Home Radio, DWIZ 882, Pilipino Mirror, and the bridal sites The Wedding Venue PH and Wedding Essentials.

Soon-to-wed couples may sign up on a first-come, first-served basis. Slots are limited so attendees are encouraged to preregister early. For more announcements, please go to Club Anada’s official accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

What’s next for the hospitality and tourism industry in the Philippines? you’ll find yourself back on your feet in no time.”

For employers, as the saying goes: invest in your people, they’ll invest in you. Retaining the best talent and providing continuous training and benefits is just as important as attracting new hires. Capistrano stresses the need to make a difference to our employees.

Due to the present situation, they may need to take a pay cut today. However, as the economy opens up, remember to give them back what is due.

Adapt to the growing demands of the market

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UST a couple of months back, things were looking up for the hospitality and tourism industry. Systems were in place to satisfy the travel bug in us, and people were slowly going out again after years of city borders and heightened restrictions. However, the recent surges of the COVID-19 Omicron variant have forced players to once again approach 2022 with more cautious optimism.

For affordable hotel booking platform RedDoorz Philippines, resiliency has defined its road to recovery. Looking forward to new opportunities, country manager Miguel Capistrano III has put together crucial learnings that will hopefully continue to carry the company and guide its peers towards a better normal of travel.

Look inward into domestic travel

IN Asia, where most tourist-favored places are beaches, mountains, and isolated sites, going granular means going more local. “Economy and budget hotels offer travelers practical and achievable experiences to these locations,” said Capistrano. “As such, these play a key role in encouraging more domestic travel and that can help regenerate local tourism and keep up the country’s GDP.” Currently, RedDoorz properties are located in key cities across the region and the company has focused on growing more hotel partnerships in tourist destinations and places of interest – from Manila, Cebu, and Davao to Tagaytay, Palawan, Bohol, and Baguio.

Digitization is revolutionizing the travel industry

“IT’S time to look AI in the eye,” Capistrano claimed. Investing in the right technology can dramatically transform your operations and how you connect with customers. For instance, the RedDoorz app allows users to book and pay directly, as well as access more flexible promos and in-demand pricing.

This led to more opportunities to engage with customers on a personal level, and that potentially converted to sales. “The more hotels can make traveling easier for customers, the better,” he noted.

RedDoorz also utilizes a tech-enabled management system that creates an algorithm of user behaviors. This allowed its partners to identify patterns that helped maximize occupancy during the pandemic.

Last year, the company generated at least 49 percent occupancy rate for its hotels within the Metros.

Employees are the heart and soul of our tourism industry

MILLIONS of Filipinos lost their jobs because of the pandemic but the hotel and travel industry is actively hiring. Capistrano recognizes that there is a big pool of talented hoteliers who would make a viable candidate here or abroad. In fact, Filipinos are exported all around the world for being very hospitable people.

Capistrano's suggestion to job seekers: “Whether you’re working at a 5-star property or a budget hotel chain, my experience has taught me that it’s all about providing excellent hospitality and going beyond what's needed. Commit to that and

“THE pandemic has reshaped the way we interact with our stakeholders.

Customer demands are ever-changing and it’s on us to keep them interested,” said Capistrano.

Millennial travelers were among the first to go out as soon as they were able to, searching for places that were more colorful, youthful, Instagramable, hip, and vibrant. So, RedDoorz branched out with the opening of Sans Hotels, effectively transforming into a multi-brand company that suits varying needs. The company plans to continue expanding and open more brands like Urban Views for those who prefer a simple hotel with a minimalist design; or Sunnera, a 4–5-star brand that offers all the amenities of a full high-end hotel.

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ORMER Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary and senatorial candidate Mark A. Villar tops the pre-election senatorial survey by RP-Mission and Development Foundation (RPMD), with a 63.7% voter preference.

“Masaya po ako sa resulta ng RPMD survey.

Malaking bagay po sa atin ang suporta at tiwala ng mga Pilipino, isang malaking karangalan po na manguna sa senatorial survey”, Villar said.

Villar was followed by Sorsogon Governor Francis “Chiz” Escudero (58.2%), Antique Representative Loren Legarda (57.9%), broadcaster Raffy Tulfo (55.3%), former House Speaker Alan Cayetano (49.6%) and Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri (46.1%).

In 7th to 12th place were Sen. Win Gatchalian (45.3%), Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon (39.7%), Sen. Joel Villanueva (37.2%), former Senator Jinggoy Estrada (36.5%), Former Presidential Spokesperson Sec. Harry Roque (33.7%) and Sen. Risa Hontiveros (33.5%).

Ranking 13th to 15th were Former Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista (32.8%), former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay (30.1%) and Filipino film actor Robin Padilla (28.3%).

Former Secretary Villar also came up on top of RPMD’s preferred senatorial candidate survey on November 2021, which was conducted from November 16 to 24.

“Maraming salamat po sa mga naniniwala sa atin. Asahan niyo na itutuloy natin ang Build, Build, Build program at ang pagbibigay trabaho sa bawat Pilipino. Sabay-sabay tayong aahon sa pandemya.”, Villar added.

Former Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar was also included in the senatorial slate of the BBM-Sara UniTeam.

Put a quick stop to sore throat with Bactidol

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ORE throat is one of those illnesses that can strike when people least expect it, and is mostly the result of a viral infection such as the common cold or flu. It may also be an indication of a bacterial infection like strep throat or tonsillitis. Depending on the root, a sore throat can cause a scratchy feeling in the throat, pain that worsens when talking or swallowing, and hoarseness of voice. A red flag is that sore throat can also lead to complications

such as kidney inflammation, rheumatic fever, and meningitis if left untreated.

The good news is there are surefire ways to eliminate a sore throat at the onset. One of the most effective methods is to gargle with a medicated mouthwash such as Hexetidine Bactidol®, which has been proven to work in as fast as 30 seconds and protects for up to 12 hours against sore throat-causing viruses.

“Bactidol Gargle’s effectiveness against sore throat has made it the number one sore throat gargle brand in the country,” said Chili Perez, senior brand manager for Bactidol Philippines.

“Using it at the first sign of sore throat will help provide immediate relief and protection against sore throat-causing viruses.”

For those with an on-the-go lifestyle, there is Bactidol® Lozenges which are convenient to take, easy to carry around, and effective in killing sore throat-causing viruses.

Available in leading drugstores and via the Johnson & Johnson e-Pharmacy on Lazada and Shopee.

Celebrate love with Cebuana Lhuillier‘s high-end jewelry line on a nationwide sale

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N Valentine’s Day up to February 19, 2022, Cebuana Lhuillier, Cebuana Lhuillier Premium, and Just Jewels are holding a six-day Valentine’s Gold Rush Sale nationwide. Shop in over 2,500 Cebuana Lhuillier branches nationwide and avail discounts on all items. You can also shop online through Cebuana Lhuillier, Just Jewels, or Cebuana Lhuillier Jewelry Premium Facebook pages.

Get 10 percent off on all on all items and up to 50 percent off on selected jewelry items nationwide. Visit Cebuana Lhuillier, Just Jewels, or Cebuana Lhuillier Jewelry Premium branches nationwide or shop online via Cebuana FB Live Selling or cebuanalhuillierjewelry.com.

If you are looking for ways on how to express your feelings for someone dear or you want to gift it for yourself as a way of loving and spoiling yourself, choose jewelry. It is something one can use and wear everyday and treasure for many years.

“Jewelry is one of the most unique and special presents one can buy, regardless of age

and gender. You can gift it to your special someone, to your friend or even to your parents. It’s that kind of a gift that captures the essence of making someone feel important, precious, and valued”, CEO and President Jean Henri Lhuillier said.

Aside from these jewelry pieces being the perfect gifts for the season of love, this can also be a good investment throughout the years and would come handy during time of emergencies.

To know more about Cebuana Lhuillier’s Gold Rush Sale, go to the nearest Cebuana branch near you or just log on to www. facebook.com/cebuanalhuillierpawnshop or cebuanalhuillierjewelry.com.

Be there for one another

WITH the support of hotel and government partners, RedDoorz recalibrated its plans and systems to help fellow hoteliers weather the pandemic.

For instance, RedDoorz had already acquired 100 new hotel partners in the past year. Rather than closing down, the company was able to help these independent owners recover through partnership – sharing its resources from digital marketing to operations. RedDoorz also launched the HygienePass certification program that is accredited with the Department of Tourism and Bureau of Quarantine.

Through HygienePass, RedDoorz can guarantee that all company-owned and partner properties adhere to the strict implementation of hygiene and sanitation practices. Fellow hoteliers can also access this program and use it for their properties.

VACCINATION DRIVE FOR CHILDREN. The government has officially started its vaccination drive for children aged 5 to 11 on February 7, 2022 which recorded a total of 7,416 children who received their first doses. Asia Brewery Inc. actively participated in the event by providing Absolute distilled water for the kids as well as their guardians at a drive-thru site in Pediatrico Westgate Alabang. No less than actress Judy Ann Santos documented in her Instagram account how efficient and enjoyable her kids experience were with the party-themed site complete with mascots, balloons and giveaways for the young participants. Lucho, 11, and Luna, 6, both received Pfizer vaccines. “...this is the first step to give our kids a little bit of normalcy (while still doing the proper safety protocols, even after they get the 2nd dose) and just to be sure na may panlaban ang mga anak namin sa covid, all in kami,” the celebrity mom said.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 B7

Property sector hoping for a V-shape recovery in 2022

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By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

he country’s property sector is hoping to achieve a V-shape recovery and hopefully achieve a rebound in 2022, “We’re wishing for V-shape towards a gradual recovery this year,” Colliers Philippines Associate Director for Research Joey Roi Bondoc said in an online briefing held on February 10.

On his part, Cushman and Wakefield Philippines Director and Head of Research, Consulting and Advisory Services Claro Cordero Jr. said the property management firm is taking a cautious optimistic outlook on the recovery path of the property sector this year. “The discovery and spread of more transmissible variants in the future is the greatest threat to the stability of the market,” Cordero said. He said other challenges that the sector will have to reckon with are the supply chain disruption, the threat of disputes between other countries and the uneven recovery between economic regions putting undue stress on inflation growth will have direct and indirect effects on the recovery of the demand drivers of the major real-estate sub-sectors.

Bright spots and the great return Cordero said the emerging asset classes such as data centers, horizontal residential developments and international grade logistics warehousing facilities have been on the radar screen of international investors who are seeking higher yields and less risks. Moreover, Cordero said the investment trust (REIT) offerings in 2022 are also attracting investors because of its strong growth outlook prospects and offer good diversification benefits. These asset classes are expected to be increasingly sought-after amid a fragile economic recovery by the local investor community, Cordero said.

Colliers Philippines sees growth in office demand to be driven by traditional and outsourcing occupiers and sees office supply to reach 723,400 square meters.

“We see office deals picking up within and outside of Metro Manila starting in 2022,” Bondoc said.

According to Colliers Philippines, any recovery in office leasing will be supported by a successful Covid inoculation program. Notwithstanding the popularity of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements, some firms including outsourcing companies are searching for office space across

the country. “We see these leasing queries materializing over the next 12 months which would anchor a recovery in office space take-up within and outside Metro Manila,” said Bondoc.

In September 2021, Colliers recorded 302,600 sq meters(3.3 million sq feet) of office deals, up a decent 2 percent from the 295,800 sq meters (3.2 million sq feet) recorded in the same period last year. Traditional occupiers covered 61 percent of the total Metro Manila office transactions As a sign of market confidence, the Makati Commerce Tower led a topping off late last year. The 36-story edifice will have a total of 25 floors of office space, two floors with retail units, and a dedicated food court. As a grade office development, Stephen Jones, director at Woods Bagot, said the Grade A office development was conceptualized with business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies in mind as occupants. Designed as green building, the Makati Commerce Tower will have ultraviolet (UV) systems to sanitize indoor air quality; energy-saving features that will help tenants save approximately 22 percent on electricity consumption; and double-glazed, Low-E glass façade to minimize heat in indoor spaces while allowing more natural light to come in.

Construction of the building is scheduled to be completed in Q3 2022.

Colliers is also bullish on the industrial-logistics sector believing it will growth beyond 2021 driven by sustained demand in e-commerce, logistics and manufacturing across the country. “In H1 2021, we recorded industrial vacancy in the CaviteLaguna-Batangas (Calaba) corridor sliding marginally to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent in H2 2020. This can be attributed to the increased demand for warehouse and storage space among e-commerce and FMCG [Fast Moving Consumer Goods] firms as online shopping continues to grow in the country.”

Meanwhile, major logistics and express courier company Airspeed wants to capitalize on the boom by adding Dubai, UAE as a new service trade lane for UnboxMe.

Makati Commerce Tower will be a future power address in Makati City

UnboxMe is a cross-border delivery platform that is part of the international shipping solutions offered by Airspeed.

Launched in 2020 covering the USA to Philippines trade lane, the platform empowers online shoppers in the Philippines to shop on an e-commerce web site abroad.

It enables the registered users to have a local physical delivery address and allow them to make an online purchase, have their purchases delivered to their local address, and avoid expensive direct international shipping charges. The physical address is basically the UnboxMe local warehouse abroad wherein acceptance of the delivered shipments from online merchants, consolidation, and onward connection to the Philippines takes place.

Rosemarie Rafael, chairperson and president of Airspeed group of companies said the addition of Dubai will enable online shoppers in the Philippines to have access to the shopping capital of the Middle East.

“We are happy to be the first crossborder logistics provider in the Philippines to pioneer Dubai as a trade lane for our cross-border e-commerce platform.

Dubai has three annual shopping festivals that will entice every online shopper out there. The opening of UnboxMe in Dubai is proof that we are continuously working to grow our existing trade lanes and are exploring new ones as well,” Rafael said.

The opening of UnboxMe in Dubai by Airspeed will enable online shoppers to have access to the shopping capital of the Middle East.

₧20-million MMDA-Valenzuela City Friendship Parks launched

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By Roderick L. Abad

A L E N Z U E L A M ay or R e x l o n Gatchalian, together with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benhur Abalos Jr., led the recent inauguration of the P20-million MMDA-Valenzuela Friendship Parks at Disiplina Village Bignay (DVB) in Valenzuela City.

In partnership with the MMDA, four parks were built in the model in-city relocation site for informal settler families (ISF) known as Disiplina Village.

Abalos tapped Valenzuela and sought partnership to be the pilot recipient of the Adopt-A-Park Project of the MMDA’s “I Love Metro Manila” advocacy program, which is envisioned to elevate the spirits of Metro Manila residents recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as

VALENZUELA Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian (sixth from left) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benhur Abalos (seventh from left) strike a pose with a “V” sign of their fingers as they lead the recent inauguration of the P20-million MMDA-Valenzuela Friendship Parks at Disiplina Village Bignay (DVB) in Valenzuela City. This event is one of the key events for the full month celebration of the city’s 24th Charter Day Anniversary. Also present in the event are Vice Mayor Lorie NatividadBorja (eighth from left) and other Valenzuela City officials, Bignay Barangay officials and DVB Home Owners Association officers.

well as to beef up initiatives on urban renewal to transform the metropolis into a more livable, greener, and resilient region.

Gatchalian chose to build the parks in DVB to develop its remaining areas.

Established to be a complete community, the village has its own elementary and secondary school, government center, four-covered courts, a multi-purpose building, grocery store, tricycle terminal, and urban farm.

The MMDA-Valenzuela City Friendship Parks utilizes four separate portions of the village with a total area of 2,419.33 square meters. With the launching of the parks, more than 3,200 families will soon enjoy the spacious playsets, shaded benches, exercise equipment, fountain, and multi-function space. Park Rangers will be hired to maintain cleanliness and orderliness of the parks.

“Thank you very much MMDA Chairman Abalos for the projects we both dream of. My dream for Valenzuela City, your dream for Metro Manila. Acquiring open spaces and green spaces like these are timely for Metro Manila and Valenzuela City. This is for our city to breathe. Our next project will be for the open spaces under the fly over that we have already acquired at Nlex [North Luzon Expressway]. We will build more variety of parks to be used by Valenzuelanos and other places,” Gatchalian said.

“We saw in Metro Manila, especially during the pandemic, that our problem was spaces. I told my team, part of our funds come from LGUs [local government units], why don’t we give them back their funds. Let’s create a park in areas that the Mayor will direct and the priority is pocket parks,” Abalos added.

Sports BusinessMirror

PHL footballers get PSC incentive

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| Wednesday, February 16, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

RETIRED champion Alpine skier Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria doesn’t mice words on what could happen in any competition.

JOSEF RAMOS

Ex-world champ on multiple DNF: Athletes should always be ready

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ANQING, China—Taking it from an Olympic medalist and two-time world champion Alpine skier, this weekend’s men’s giant slalom competition that saw about a third of the participants failing to complete the first run because of heavy snow is all part of the event.

“Remember, we’re in a winter sport, they have to be ready at all times, and now it’s the Olympics so they have to be the very best,” the now retired Austrian Alexandra Meissnitzer told BusinessMirror on board one of the gondolas at the National Alpine Skiing Centre on Tuesday.

“They got 30 centimeters of snow and they worked really well, so the snow on the tracks was just really good,” she said. “It’s not easy to work in that amount of snow, but it’s not a problem in the competition.”

Meissnitzer, 48, won gold medals in women’s giant slalom and Super-G at the 1999 world championships in Colorado and silver in giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games. She’s one of the experts commentators covering the Games for an Austrian television network.

The Philippines’s Asa Miller was one of 33 participants in men’s slalom who didn’t finish the event’s first run because natural snow made visibility poor after falling quite incessantly for the first time at the venue over the weekend.

Before the weekend, Japanese organizers had to spray artificial snow on the two tracks on Xiaohaituo Mountain—the Rock for the downhill, Super-G and Alpine combined for Downhill and Ice River for giant slalom, slalom and slalom combined.

On Beijing’s hosting of the Winter Games, Meissnitzer said the Chinese have done a pretty job so far.

“I think it is well organized, we have super tracks for the downhill which is perfect but the lady’s downhill is demanding, with hard slope, but it’s good and there’s a lot of fun,” she said. “For giant slalom and slalom, I think it’s perfect.”

“They just made it easy for us,” added Meissnitzer, whose observations was shared by Switzerland’s women’s coach Beat Tschuor, who was on the same gondola with her fellow Swiss coach Daniel Zueger.

“It’s extremely perfect, all good and fine,” Tschuor said. “The Chinese are extremely friendly even though there’s a language barrier sometimes.

The food is also great and everything.”

Josef Ramos

UKRAINE’S Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin perform the ice dance competition of figure skating at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics late Monday. AP

MILLER RESETS FOR SLALOM ASA MILLER (left) is all set to step on his skis during training on Tuesday with dad Kelly Miller (center) and coach Will Gregorak. JOSEF RAMOS

By Josef Ramos

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ANQING, China— With his giant slalom mishap now buried in his growing list of experiences in Alpine skiing, Asa Miller reset his focus on slalom—his second and last event in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday—hoping to make his mark against more experienced and illustrious opponents.

Miller concentrated on training as he gets a shot at redemption on Tuesday and only smiled or waved his hand when sought for an interview.

So his American coach, 23-time World Cup camapaigner for the US team from 2018 to 2014, took the cudgels for the 21-year-old twotime Olympian Miller on the eve of the competition in slalom that, for the entire season, has become so unpredictable that anyone, anybody can top the podium in these Games.

“Trust your feet and trust yourself as the skier you are,” Gregorak told Miller in between training runs at the

Baldwin black eye to Gilas thrust WHAT has Tab Baldwin done to deserve the coveted post as Gilas coach?

Nothing, except that he made Ateneo the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) champion for three consecutive years.

Norman Black did better by giving Ateneo five straight

National Alpine Skiing Centre. “It’s similar to what I told you before—the best you can possibly ski on race day is to ski like yourself.”

Monday was day off from training for Miller to shake off frustration from his mishap in the giant slalom on Sunday. He took to the course on Tuesday not only to get his legs and arms get the feel of the again, but to reset his focus.

The start list won’t be known until during the coaches’ meeting set later Tuesday, but definitely, Miller will be up against world-class opponents seeking Olympic glory— including the man they call “The Rocket,” Dave Ryding.

Most eyes are on Ryding, whose tough task is to end Great Britain’s

UAAP titles a while back. But he’s still stuck coaching at the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Presently, Black’s doing well mentoring Meralco, his Bolts beating all their first four opponents for a tournament-leading 4-0 card in the ongoing Governors Cup. How did Baldwin fare again in his PBA coaching shift some time ago? So so.

And, yes, not only was Baldwin given the Gilas coaching job. He was also tasked with drafting the nation’s basketball program.

Why the unbridled fascination to pin so much trust on Baldwin, an American in case you’ve forgotten? Colonial mentality at work once again?

But that was before.

Today, Baldwin is out as Gilas coach. And he’s also out as program director of the national basketball strategy.

He was not fired. He resigned. He said he’d focus on Ateneo’s drive to win a fourth UAAP crown this year.

He didn’t say it but all indications point to a decimated Gilas lineup as the major reason for his decision to leave Gilas.

Can we blame Baldwin for refusing to coach an undermanned team that is deemed anyway to absorb debacles in its forthcoming battles against New Zealand

lengthy wait for a first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing. Alain Baxter won Britain’s first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing but was stripped of his slalom bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games for using a decongestant that contained a banned stimulant.

Ryding, now 35, is in his fourth Olympics.

Gregorak was aggressive in helping Miller put his mind on the course.

“You’re not going to become another person and you are already an excellent skier,” the 31-year-old coach told the Filipino-American athlete. “All you have to do is find the feeling that you already know.”

Gregorak added: “When you get into the gate, it’s just you and the course. Go and have some fun by making your best turn.”

Just how unpredictable was Alpine skiing this season? There were six World Cup slaloms with six different winners with only four

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HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) board approved on Tuesday the granting of a P1.25 million special incentive to the members of the national women’s football team for qualifying for the Fifa 2023 Women’s World Cup. The board, according to PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez, unanimously approved the incentive as it “recognizes the significance of their breakthrough performance during the Asian Cup and the qualification to the 2023 World Cup.” The team is composed of 23 players and two reserves who will receive P50,000 each for their historic feat at the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup in India.

Besides qualifying for the World Cup, the Filipina footballers also advanced to the Asia Cup semifinals for the first time in the India edition.

“I’m proud of our women football team members. We met them yesterday and we can feel their humility and strong team spirit. I think this contributed much to their success, among other factors” Ramirez said.

Ramirez and Commissioners Celia Kiram and Arnold Agustin warmly welcomed Philippine Football Federation President Mariano “Nonong” Araneta Jr. and players Chandler and Olivia McDaniel, Camille Rodriguez, Anicka and Sara Castañeda, Hali Long and Inna Palacios during a courtesy visit at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

Magnolia targets win No. 5 as fans return to Araneta

skiers making the podium more than once and no one doing it more than twice.

Miller was one of 33 skiers— out of 84 starters—who were DNF, or Did Not Finish, in the giant slalom on Sunday when natural snow fell incessantly for the first time in the Games during the weekend and rendered visibility poor at the Ice River course.

Besides Ryding, the other favorites include World Cup veteran Lucas Braathen of Norway, 2017 world champion Manuel Ferrer of Austria, 2018 world junior champion Noel Clement of France, and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics team event gold medalist Daniel Yule of Great Britain.

Gregorak, meanwhile, said that the slalom “hill is a little bit an easier place slalom than giant slalom” so he is expecting more racers to finish.

“It’s an easier slalom hill than GS [giant slalom] where the upper and lower pitches were very difficult,” Gregorak said. “This is exactly a mellow slalom, not a particularly a difficult hill so there should be plenty of skiers who will go pretty intensely.”

“GS is the purest form of ski racing and technically the most difficult,” he said. “Slalom comes at you the fastest even though you don’t move as fast as other events, but not technically difficult like GS.” The giant slalom’s first run is also set at 10 a.m. and the second run at 1:45 p.m.

SPECTATORS cheer during a preliminary round men’s hockey game between China and Canada. AP and South Korea, among others?

This came about following the exodus to Japan of some of Gilas’s stars, although Thirdy Ravena and Dwight Ramos have come back to play for the national colors in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifying that begins on February 24 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Together with the 6-foot-9 recently naturalized Filipino Ange Kouame and select TNT players, Ravena and Ramos can look forward to a well-meaning performance under Chot Reyes, who will be in his fourth stint as national coach. Chot made his biggest splash when he steered Gilas to a smashing second-place finish in the 2013 Fiba Asia Cup behind Iran, a feat that sent the Nationals to the 2014 Worlds in Seville, Spain.

Yes, Baldwin balked. But with Chot manning the fort, the flag is in good hands.

THAT’S IT EJ Obiena wins again, this time in Poland, underscoring once more the fact that he’s a world-class pole vaulter and, therefore, deserves all the support that the government can muster to nurture his career. And, yes, his latest feat is proof yet again that athletes win medals for the country—never our leaders, including the pseudo, if not downright bogus, officials.

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AGNOLIA tries to sustain its winning streak as the Hotshots shoot for victory No. 5 against the struggling NLEX Road Warriors in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup that will welcome the fans back at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday.

The Hotshots, coming off a 96-93 squeaker over the TNT Tropang Giga in their last game, square off with the Road Warriors (4-2 won-lost) at 3 p.m.

TNT (2-4) hopes to bounce back against fellow powerhouse team San Miguel Beer (3-2) in the second game at 6 p.m.

Import Mike Harris averaged 31.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists in anchoring Magnolia’s impressive streak.

But Coach Chito Victolero said he’s cautious of NLEX which will be a fierce opponent coming from back-to-back losses.

“We must have our own sense of urgency because they are coming off two consecutive losses,” Victolero said. “So we have to match the level of their intensity and aggression.

Magnolia’s Calvin Abueva is a gametime decision because of left calf muscle strain, while Rome de la Rosa (hamstring) and big man James Laput (bone spurs surgery) will sit out the game.

NLEX also has its woes and will miss rookie Calvin Oftana (fractured hand) and Anthony Semerad (calf strain).

Road Warriors Coach Yeng Guiao said they need to learn from the consecutive setbacks.

“We need good energy from the start and we could not put ourselves in a hole early in the game,” he said. “We cannot make the same mistake against Magnolia, a team that’s still undefeated.”

San Miguel Beer will be parading Orlando Johnson who replaced Brandon Brown, who didn’t live up to the Beermen’s goal. He played for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in 2015 where he averaged 33.7 points and 11.3 rebounds in 12 games, but failed to carry the team to the playoffs.

TNT, on the other hand, is also hoping to bounce back from that frustrating losses to Magnolia and Phoenix Super LPG, 92-93. Josef Ramos

Chinese hosts craft carefully-curated bunch of Olympic venue spectators

EIJING—A spectator’s single clap echoed through the mostly empty National Aquatics Center after the British curling team knocked a Swiss stone out of position, a difficult move that usually would trigger cheers from fans.

The spectator looked around at the audience of about 200, surrounded by thousands of vacant seats, and stopped clapping.

Halfway through 10 sets of curling, as teams shouted in Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Dutch and Italian, the crowd shrank further when more than half stood up and left for another event: The souvenir shop had opened.

Skiing, skating and the other competitions take place before a global TV audience, but limited crowds see them in person after China, which is enforcing strict antivirus controls, decided against selling tickets or allowing spectators to come from abroad.

Instead, organizers said they would invite 150,000 people including schoolchildren, diplomats, businesspeople and what the organizing committee called “winter sports enthusiasts.” This was somewhat of a departure from the Tokyo Games last summer, where pandemic protocols kept most venues all but empty.

An Associated Press journalist was among a handful of Beijing-based reporters invited by the Foreign Ministry to watch the curling on Monday. AP