BusinessMirror February 19, 2020

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Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 132

Source locally, firms told; trade volume dips F

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM & Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

INANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on Tuesday expressed “concern” over the impact on government revenue of initial information that the total trade volume dropped to “a little over half” for the first 15 days of February compared to last year’s volume, amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) scare.

This, as Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, in a separate event, told reporters he has been pressing manufacturers to shift to sourcing more inputs locally, as relying heavily on imports for their

production puts them at risk of global economic disruptions like China’s factory closures due to COVID-19.

L opez sa id t he tempora r y shortage in inputs from China,

mostly of electronic and automobile parts, should serve as a reminder for manufacturers to expand their sourcing. Local firms must purchase more from domestic suppliers to blunt the

”There will probably be challenges as to the supply chain, but just like people, companies cope. They can do a backup strategy, sourcing from alternative sites...in other parts of China or other parts of the world, including the Philippines.”—Lopez

impact of global disruptions, he added.

Citing a preliminary report from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Dominguez said on Tuesday they observed a year-on-year decline in the twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) or the units of capacity of containers, with China accounting for a good fraction of the drop.

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FINAL CHA-CHA REVIEW SET BY HOUSE PANEL

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE House Committee on Constitutional Amendments is set to approve on Wednesday the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha), which will include the recommendations of Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, committee chairman, said his panel is treating the task force’s recommendations as the administration’s Cha-cha proposals because it was President Duterte who created the group.

Rodriguez said the clamor among local government units for a larger share of tax collections by the national government stems from a recent Supreme Court ruling that provinces, cities, towns, and barangays throughout the country are entitled to allocations bigger

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PESO exchange rates n

where it will hire top graduates —particularly those with Latin honors‚from SUCs and private academic institutions to work at any of the DA family agencies that fit their field of interest and academic attainment. He said the DA’s Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) is establishing a Young Farmers’ Academy that integrates under one roof all their programs and initiatives for the youth.

In particular, the DA secretary said the agency is focusing its efforts on empowering farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FC As) and young agri-entrepreneurs by providing them not only appropriate innovative technologies, but also needed financial support by way of a start-up capital, fund for project expansion, mentor ing or hir ing of professional managers.

See “Fuel farm,” A2

See “Cha-cha,” A2

See “Firms,” A2

LandBank’s loans to agri business hit P138B in ‘19

DA: ₧3B to fuel farm, fishery modernization

HE government has initially allotted P3 billion to fuel the modernization and industrialization of the country’s agriculture and fishery sector, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the DA has been pursuing innovative approaches across all agri-fishery programs, making use of the advances in science and technology (S&T) and inclusive marketoriented development (IMOD).

“We are allotting an initial P3 billion to fund various innovative agri-fishery projects and agribusiness incubation enterprises for millennials, hobbyists, FCAs, and agri-preneurs,” said Dar following a technical meeting on the Global Innovation Index (GII) in the Philippines last February 17.

Dar said the DA will implement a management internship program,

than what they are presently receiving.

At present, the lawmaker said Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) is computed based on “internal revenue taxes,” or those collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, saying they do not include collections by the Bureau of Customs.

The Supreme Court ruling, however, expanded the base to include not only taxes collected by the BIR but Customs as well, and other impositions, including half of value-added tax from the autonomous Muslim region, 60 percent of levies from the exploitation of natural wealth, and half of VAT on the sale of goods and properties.

Moreover, Rodriguez, citing a study done by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said LGUs would have a total of P1.116 trillion in IRA in 2022 with the SC ruling.

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Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III delivers his keynote speech at the 2020 Bureau of Internal Revenue Tax Campaign Kick-Off on Tuesday at the PICC in Pasay City. He expressed concern over what he hoped would be a “temporary” decline in revenue owing to the substantial shrinking of the trade volume amid the spread of COVID-19. ROY DOMINGO

HE Land Bank of the Philippines Inc. (LandBank) extended in 2019 a total of P137.88 billion in loans to small, medium and large agriculturebased enterprises. That amount is about 20 percent of the state-owned bank’s targeted P16.64-billion revenue for 2019.

The LandBank also released P53.61 billion worth of loans to agriculture-related and aquaculture-related projects to local government units and government-owned and -controlled corporations, a statement by the Department of Finance (DOF) on Tuesday said.

Meanwhile, P1.25 billion worth of credit were channeled directly to farmers while P43.57 billion made up loans to cooperatives and farmers’ associations, rural financial institutions and other conduits.

See “LandBank,” A2

US 50.5650 n japan 0.4602 n UK 65.7901 n HK 6.5096 n CHINA 7.2429 n singapore 36.4091 n australia 33.9443 n EU 54.7973 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4822

Source: BSP (18 February 2020)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

OFWs, Filipino students may return to HK, Macau

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

VERSEAS Filipino workers (OFW) and Filipino students are now allowed to return to Hong Kong and Macau, but at their own risk.

The travel ban will still be in place for tourists.

In an ambush interview, Presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo told reporters on Tuesday he was informed by Health Secretary Francisco III that the Inter -A genc y Ta sk Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (I ATF-EID) has approved the resumption of the deployment of OFWs and Filipino students to

LandBank. . .

Hong Kong and Macau.

He said they would have to sign a waiver that they are aware of the risk they could be exposed to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) if they head to both territories, which are special administrative regions of China.

Panelo, however, assured that the government will still provide aid to the OFWs in case they are infected by the dreaded disease.

Continued from A1

This, as LandBank breached its target of providing agricultural credit worth P231.25 billion in 2019 as it extended a total of P236.31 billion in loans to the farm and fisheries sector as of end-December 2019.

Accomplishment MOREOVER, the state lender also registered a 103-percent accomplishment rate in assisting farmers in 2019, exceeding its target of assisting 1 million farmers last year by 32,982 borrowers.

In terms of economic activity, LandBank also extended in 2019 a total of P18.73 billion to the crops subsector, which consists of palay, sugarcane, banana, pineapple, corn, vegetables, among others. Livestock accounted for P34.14 billion of the loans to the agriculture sector while the share of fisheries was P1.92 billion.

Agri-processing and trading got P75.08 billion while P106.44 billion in loans went to projects supporting the agriculture sector, such as the construction of farm-to-market roads, public markets, warehouses, irrigation systems, cold storages facilities and slaughterhouses.

On top of complying with the Agri-Agra Law, LandBank said it has also been working closely with the Department of Agrarian Reform to hasten the distribution of individual land titles to ARBs to help improve their bankability.

The LandBank is also the distribution arm for the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, which provides conditional and unconditional cash transfers or subsidies to the country’s poorest households.

It is also in charge of releasing the fuel subsidy cards for jeepney operators and drivers under a program aimed at easing the effects of the fuel excise tax adjustments under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.

Cash aid RECENTLY, the LandBank gave out a total of nearly P3.27 million in cash to hundreds of farmers in Pampanga and Bataan allegedly affected by depressed rice prices.

A total of 276 rice farmers from Pampanga and 377 rice farmers from Bataan have received on February 3 at Dinalupihan, Bataan, a cash card loaded with P5,000 each or a total of P3.265 million, a statement said.

The national government has allocated P3 billion in 2019 to fund the financial aid program that is expected to benefit a total of 600,000 rice farmers affected by the decrease of palay prices. The so-called Rice Farmer Financial Assistance (RFFA) program also targets rice farmers tilling 0.5 hectares to 2 hectares of land in 33 provinces nationwide.

As a disbursing agent, the LandBank will distribute P1.5 billion or half of the RFFA program fund to 300,000 rice farmers; the balance disbursed by the Development Bank of the Philippines.

As of February 3, 2020, a total of 5,822 LandBank cash cards totaling P29.1 million have been distributed to rice farmers nationwide since the Program was launched in December last year, a statement said. Rice farmers who purportedly received assistance are in the following areas: Pangasinan (499 rice farmers); Ilocos Norte (1,965); Nueva Ecija (480); Zamboanga Del Sur (963); North Cotabato (1,262); Bataan (377); and Pampanga (276).

Palay prices THE funding for the RFFA comes from P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) under the Rice Tariffication Law. Farmers from the provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, Ifugao, Davao de Oro (formerly Compostela Valley), Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, and Davao Oriental were also identified to receive the assistance from future rollouts of the RFFA Program.

Citing Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, the nongovernment Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said that “palay prices continue to plunge despite the reportedly massive funds expended by the government to prop up palay prices.”

The FDC said the PSA data reveled that in the third week of January this year, farm-gate prices were at P15.89 compared to P19.81 on the same week and month last year.

“In the immediate term, the farmers demand for compensation for the loss in incomes for the past 2-3 cropping seasons,” the FDC statement said.

“We also demand that the government act fast and find ways to prop up the farm-gate prices of palay, such as providing subsidies to small farmers to lessen the cost of production.” Bernadette

D. Nicolas and Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

“The government will always protect and, provide support and assistance of all Filipinos whether here or abroad,” Panelo said.

The chief presidential counsel said the exemption from the travel ban will also cover Filipinos and their foreign spouse or children, and holders of diplomatic visas from both places, who will be heading to the Philippines, on the condition they go through the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Bernard P. Olalia confirmed the development, saying they will resume the processing of OFWs as soon as the IATF-EID decision takes effect.

The lifting of the partial deployment ban on Hong Kong and Macau comes a few days after the government completely removed the travel

Firms. . .

Continued from A1

“In fact, I just got the figures: [for] the first 15 days of February, the total, as compared to the first 15 days of February last year, is [a] little over a half only of the TEUs, the containers coming in, so we are concerned but we believe that this lack will be taken up by other markets,” Dominguez told reporters at the sidelines of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s National Tax Campaign Kickoff.

Temporary revenue dip?

While they have yet to know the full extent of the impact of the reduced total trade volume in terms of revenues, Dominguez said:“I am sure the revenues will be down for the BOC. But we hope this does not last too long.”

Nonetheless, Dominguez expressed confidence that this drop in sales and revenues is “just temporary until this coronavirus contagion is defeated.”

The BIR said earlier it expects to lose billions in revenues as large-taxpaying businesses from hotels to malls and even distributors and manufacturers of alcohol products are experiencing weak customer demand.

The BIR is targeting to collect P2.576 trillion this year while the BOC’s collection goal is P730 billion.

Tools at the ready Still, Dominguez assured the public that the government is ready to continuously ramp up spending and use the necessary monetary tools to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus.

“Well, on fiscal policy, our contingency measures are to ramp up our spending and according to Lea, our National Treasurer, we are already up for the first one and a half months. We are already up 25 percent over last year.

That’s pretty good,” he said.

“On the monetary side, we have been discussing with [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor] Ben Diokno to prepare for a real.... I mean if this thing gets worse, the monetary side would be very prepared to handle it.”

Customs Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla confirmed that they have recorded a “very significant” drop in the total trade volume, including exports and imports.

Maronilla said the situation was aggravated by the coronavirus scare on top of the Chinese New Year holiday.

“Of course, China will contribute the largest decline but you have to understand that manufacturing all over the world does also get some of their parts from China so if China’s production slows down, it affects the entire global [production],” Maronilla said in a phone interview with the BusinessMirror.

Asked if they expect the total trade volume to decline further in the coming days or weeks, he said they are still trying to analyze the data and get feedback from their trade partners on the status of production and if work has already resumed in some factories in China.

ban for Taiwan due to the COVID-19 last Friday.

President Duterte ordered the imposition of the travel ban on China, Hong Kong and Macau last month amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in those places. Wuhan City, located in China’s Hubei province, is ground zero for COVID-19, and has been under lockdown, with 50 million people covered.

As of February 17, the World Hea lt h Orga ni zat ion ( W HO) reported there are already 71,429 c o n f i r me d C OV I D -19 c a s e s worldwide.

Of these cases, 70,635 are in China and special administrative areas, which includes Macau and Hong Kong.

The recruitment industry has been lobbying for the lifting of the travel ban, particularly in Hong Kong, since they claimed it could cost a lot of OFWs their jobs.

“But of course, you have to also consider that [in] the Hubei province area, there are many factories and manufacturing, so we are still looking at that as something that would affect the entire trade,”he said, in a mix of English and Filipino.

Supply chain challenge In pressing manufacturers to source more inputs locally, Lopez said on Monday night, “There will probably be challenges as to the supply chain, but just like people, companies cope. They can do a backup strategy, sourcing from alternative sites as well. That can still be in other parts of China or other parts of the world, including the Philippines.” He was replying to a question of whether or not vehicle assemblers are absorbing the impact from the situation in China.

“I think the point also, and the learning to many manufacturers, is not to put all eggs in one basket. I think that’s the learning, too, that it’s really important to diversify your sourcing so that when things like this happen, you’re not too much affected,” he added.

Carmakers in China are struggling to reopen all of their factories after temporarily closing them to protect their workers from possible infection of the novel coronavirus.

Toyota resumed operations for two of its plants on Monday, while Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor, Mercedes Benz and Geely partially commenced work last week. On the other hand, General Motors began production again over the weekend, while Nissan is eyeing to restart this week.

“To find local sources for any eventuality, not to rely on a single source, it’s like part of business continuity planning.

We should diversify sources, as well as diversify the markets. Always try to have that balance and diversify the approach,” Lopez added.

More local content Rommel R. Gutierrez, first vice president of Toyota Motor Philippines Corp.

(TMP), said the firm has enough stocks of automobile parts as of latest inventory. As such, Toyota is not threatened by the production slowdown in China caused by the viral infection, he bared.

He added Toyota has been consistent in trying to increase the local content of its Vios as part of its commitments to the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program of the government.

Under the CARS program, Toyota is provided with incentives for investing in the manufacture of Vios locally, as well as for buying parts from domestic suppliers. Two models are enrolled in the CARS program, one of which is the Toyota Vios.

“The efforts have always been there to strengthen the local parts supplier,”Gutierrez said in an interview with reporters on Monday night. He also said TMP is mostly sourcing its inputs from regional partners Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, and not from China. For instance, TMP is producing transmission gears for export to its regional counterparts, while it is buying engines from them.

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Number of COVID-hit cruise ship Pinoy crew members rises to 35

By Recto Mercene

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@rectomercene

HERE are now 35 Filipino crew members onboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess who have tested positive for COVID-19, including eight new cases, the Embassy in Tokyo confirmed to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday.

The DFA said the Filipinos who tested positive for COVID-19 were immediately transferred to Japanese hospitals and are now undergoing treatment.

“The Embassy constantly communicates with all patients current-

DOE. . .

Continued from A8

power supply needed in households in Luzon during times of challenged supply,” said Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga when sought for comment.

Meralco also encourages customers to practice energy efficiency and join the Peak-Off Peak Program, to transfer power consumption to the nighttime.

The DOE estimates that red alerts may be issued from April 18 to 21 and May 20 to 22, and that an additional capacity of 256 megawatts to 821 MW is needed in the Luzon power grid to avoid the yellow or red alert in the region.

A yellow alert is issued when power supplies are low but may not lead to power outages, while a red alert is issued when the power supply in power grids is insufficient and may result in rotational brownouts or manual load dropping in areas covered by particular grids.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) warned the other day of rotational brownouts that could last for an hour on days mentioned by the DOE.

Electric co-ops

NEA has called on all electric cooperatives (ECs) in Luzon and Visayas to prepare their respective contingency plans like the demand-side management programs and maximizing embedded power plants to reduce, if not

Cha-cha. . .

Continued from A1

“We will decide what recommendations of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform we will include in our report to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and the plenary,” he said.

He said the common recommendations include electing senators by region, fixing a five-year term of office for local officials and House members, and lifting foreign ownership restrictions.

“In the case of the regional election of the Senate, the task force is proposing the creation of 17 regions with two senators each for a total of 34, while in our initial report, we recommended nine regions with three senators each for a total of 27. But at least, there is consensus on the election of senators by region. In the present Senate, there is no representation from Muslim Mindanao,” he said.

Fuel farm. . .

Continued from A1

The DA recently launched the P1-billion Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs (KAYA) loan program to attract young Filipinos, aged 18 to 30 years old, to engage in any agri-fishery project, where they can borrow start-up capital of up to P500,000, payable in five years, with zero interest.

The DA also allotted P1 billion for Agri-Negosyo loan program for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to enable them to scale up their current businesses, as they can borrow up to P15 million, payable in five years, with zero interest.

The DA is also allocating P500

ly confined in Japanese hospitals to ensure their well-being and to provide assistance,” the DFA added.

The Japanese government was scheduled to announce on Tuesday the disembarkation procedures for the end of the ship’s quarantine period.

As such, the Embassy is coordinating with all relevant Philippine and Japanese government agencies and is meeting with senior management representatives of Princess Cruises to ensure an orderly and safe repatriation of Filipinos once they clear the Japanese quarantine requirements, the DFA said. eliminate, rotating brownouts during peak hours.

Embedded power plants are those that are not directly connected to the power grid but still supply power to a specific area.

In Luzon, five ECs—Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (INEC), Isabela I Electric Cooperative Inc. (ISELCO I), Isabela II Electric Cooperative (ISELCO II), Zambales II Electric Cooperative Inc. (ZAMECO II), and Sorsogon II Electric Cooperative Inc. (SORECO II)—have embedded power plants with a combined capacity of 11.696 MW. In the Visayas, three power distribution utilities—Cebu I Electric Cooperative Inc. (CEBECO I), Bohol I Electric Cooperative Inc. (BOHECO I), and Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative Inc. (SOLECO)—have embedded minihydro power plants with a total capacity of 10.42 MW. “We have already advised ECs that do not have embedded power plants to initiate demand-side management programs, wherein the ECs will work with big electricity consumers in order for them to reduce their usage when demand is high or when an alert level is issued,” said NEA. NEA has also recommended that ECs implement load curtailment or load shedding in their respective coverage areas when necessary.

Affected ECs are also directed to encourage large establishments with stand-by generating capacities to participate ILP.

As for the term of office, Rodriguez added that the Año panel is recommending five years with one reelection, while his committee is for two reelections.

“We are one in suggesting the lifting of economic restrictions so the country could attract more foreign investors. More foreign investments will translate into more jobs and income for our people,” he added.

Among the other proposals of the administration’s Cha-cha task force are provisions against political dynasties and turncoats, creation of regional authorities, allocation of a larger share of national revenues for local government units, and state subsidy for political parties.

Rodriguez said the group conducted nationwide consultations before submitting its recommendations to his committee.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año chairs the task force, with Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as its vice chairman. It is composed of nine agencies. million for the Agricultural Technology Business Incubation (ATBI) program that will provide grants to Filipino millennials and agri-preneurs to translate their innovative ideas into farm and fishery products.

The department is setting aside another P500 million for the Inclusive Agribusiness (IA) program aimed at capacitating and empowering FCAs, where they can avail themselves of a grant for institutionbuilding and hire professional managers who will help them run their enterprise.

“We will engage the state universities and colleges, government agencies, and business development services to mentor the beneficiaries of the KAYA, Agri Negosyo, ATBI and IA programs,” Dar said.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

News BusinessMirror

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briefs Trillanes back from u.s., posts bail upon arrival Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV flew in to Manila from the United States via Doha, Qatar, Tuesday morning and immediately proceeded to a Quezon City court to post bail. Trillanes, according to immigration officers, was met by family members and his lawyer to post bail in connection with the in sedition charges against him.

The former senator and staunch Duterte critic is facing arrest over the “Bikoy” videos that linked President Duterte and his family members to the drug trade.

Trillanes was among those ordered arrested by the QC Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 138 in connection with the sedition case filed against him and several others. Recto Mercene

b.i. foils human trafficking attempts at n.a.i.a., m.c.i.a.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) foiled two separate human trafficking attempts with the recent interception of eight victims at the airports in Manila and Cebu.

Reports from the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) said that five of the victims were stopped at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) while three others were intercepted at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

BI Spokesman Dana Sandoval said the five female passengers intercepted at Naia last February 13 and 16, 2020, were all bound for Bangkok when intercepted, but they were actually supposed to proceed to Dubai where they were illegally recruited to work as household service workers.

Meanwhile in Cebu City, three women were stopped from leaving last February 10, 2020, as they were about to board their flight to Japan.

The women were subjected to interviews and later confessed that their documents were merely given to them by their handler. Recto Mercene

denr appeals for public support to curb illegal logging in calabarzon The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 4A (Calabarzon) has appealed to the public to help the agency stop illegal logging activities in the region.

The appeal was made as the DENR-Calabarzon Region seized sawn lumber on February 9, 2020, at the banks of the Kailogan River in Barangay Santa Catallina, Atimonan, Quezon.

The seizure was made by personnel of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) in Calauag, Quezon, with the help of the Sangguniang Barangay and Kapit-Bisig Farmers Associaiton Inc. Approximately 442 board feet of Red and White Lauan were seized by the authorities.

The apprehended forest products were proclaimed as abandoned and are currently in custody of Cenro Calauag for safekeeping.

The lumber was estimated to be worth about P13,279. Jonathan L. Mayuga

‘tax festival’ raises tagum city’s revenue take DAVAO CITY—The capital city of Davao del Norte, Tagum City, collected P176.3 million from business permits and licenses paid in the first quarter of the year, a 20-percent increase than what it collected last year.

The Business Permits and Licensing Office attributed the increase in collection to its monthlong run of the first-ever tax payers festival in January, which attracted business owners to renew 6,900 business permits.

Administrative Officer 3 Marites Casas of the city’s business bureau said the amount was an increase of almost 20 percent higher to its January collection last year of P148.6 million. Manuel T. Cayon

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, February 19, 2020 A3

After EU exit, UK may also negotiate for free-trade pact with PHL, Asean

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

W

@alyasjah

ith its withdrawal of membership from the European Union, the United Kingdom is seeking to forge free-trade agreements (FTA) with economic partners, and it could just negotiate for one with the Philippines.

UK Trade Envoy to the Philippines Richard Graham on Tuesday said the UK’s decision to leave the EU gave trade partners the opportunity to forge FTA with it. He bared one of the terrains explored

by London is Manila, as merchandise trade between the two parties is complementary.

“Great thing about business between the Philippines and the UK is that we are very complementary.

You export a lot of agricultural produce to the UK—tuna, pine-

apples, coconut-based materials for a whole number of different uses—and we export to you primarily aerospace, relatively high tech other products, automotive, as well as consumer goods in the marketplace,” Graham said in an interview with reporters.

“I think the potential for a freetrade agreement is quite strong in the future, but we will have to deal with countries like the United States first,” he added.

In a similar manner, British

Chamber of Commerce Philippines Chairman Chris Nelson said the Philippines will have to make do with its Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus with the EU for now. The UK, in transitioning out of the EU, maintains its grant of GSP Plus with developing economies, including the Philippines, before making its own by next year.

“There will be a new treaty by January of 2021, it’s the same as the GSP Plus, and it will ensure trade between the UK and the Philippines will continue at a growing pace,” Nelson said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.

However, he admitted the UK has its priority trading partners at the moment that it plans to deal with, including China, Japan, Australia, the US and New Zealand.

After forging FTAs with these countries, only then will the UK consider negotiating a trade deal with the Philippines, as well as other Southeast Asian states.

“As for now, I don’t know about an FTA with the Philippines because there are a lot of priorities

for the UK, especially that we’re still in the process of leaving the EU,” Nelson said.

This was echoed by Graham when he ranked who among the Southeast Asian economies will the UK focus on in terms of coming up with a trade deal. He said Singapore and Malaysia are on top of the list, while the Philippines and Indonesia come next.

“I think it’s true to say that in terms of this overall size of bilateral trade, I think probably Singapore is No. 1 for us,” he said. “I think Malaysia is probably second. The Philippines and Indonesia are not far apart and the rest of Asean afterward.”

As for Graham and Nelson, the important thing for the government to do is to keep on rolling out reforms that will make the Philippine business landscape conducive for foreign investors. They both agreed that the tax structure must be clear and transparent, with Graham even disclosing he is expecting no changes in the country’s fiscal bracket.

“We just have to keep making sure the tax rules are transparent

Holistic coastal management approach program pushed in DPWH, Jica meeting

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

T

he Philippines should implement an integrated coastal management program to boost efforts on coastal disaster mitigation, as well as arrest environmental and economic problems related to natural and artificial causes.

This was the consensus during Monday’s meeting between the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), where officials discussed solutions and initiatives to strengthen the Philippines’s coastal management program and policies.

ABS-CBN. . .

continued from A8 This, even as Senator Grace Poe, who

chairs the inquiry to be conducted by the Committee on Public Services, affirmed the senators’ mandate to conduct the hearing set for February 27.

“Our hearing will push through according to our Constitutional mandate,” said Poe, leaving it up to the Supreme Court to “act on that (SolGen) motion under existing laws and jurisprudence where it recognized the jurisdiction of its co-equal branch.”

In a separate statement, Senator Panfilo Lacson aired hopes that the Senate, exercising its mandate, will be spared.

“I hope the Supreme Court will not include the Senate or any of its committees in the gag order, if issued as petitioned by the Solicitor General, in deference to the settled jurisprudence that tackled similar issues in the past,” Lacson said on Tuesday.

He, however, noted that such an order may have a chilling effect on witnesses called to testify at the Senate hearing set for February 27 by the Committee on Public Services.

Lacson said “what may be covered, though, are the resource persons who will be invited to shed light on this instant case involving the franchise of ABS-CBN as they are not exempt from the sub judice rule, which covers litigants and witnesses, members of the bar and the public in general.”

“Thus, they may run the risk of being cited for contempt once they express their opinions that might pose a clear and present danger in the administration of justice by directly influencing the members of the Court in rendering their votes to resolve the pending petition for quo warranto,” Lacson added.

Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon, a former Secretary of Justice, maintained that the SolGen’s move to “gag” ABS-CBN,

Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said in a news statement that the discussion included the adoption of a holistic coastal management program, an initiative that has long been implemented by Japan.

The program aims to “address problems, such as loss of natural sandy beach from artificial modification, acceleration of vulnerability due to climate change, insufficient coastal management, and complications on coastal areas.”

It involves a “holistic approach in achieving social and economic development targets in a number of areas— pollution reduction and waste management; food security and livelihood management; water use and supply

management; habitat protection, restoration and management; and natural and man-made hazard prevention and management.”

Villar recalled that the Philippines learned of its vulnerability to coastal disasters during the height of Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.

“The experience when Supertyphoon Yolanda unleashed her fury in November 2013 made us realized the threat and risk of coastal disasters especially that the Philippines is an archipelagic country,” he said.

Villar added that Jica’s expertise to climate-change mitigation will prove to be “significant” to the Philippines, given its “lack of coastal defense infrastructure.”

a day after the Senate agreed to conduct a hearing on the proposed franchise renewal, would not prohibit senators from requiring witnesses to appear and testify before Public Services Committee. “The Supreme Court cannot prohibit persons to appear and testify before congressional inquiries in aid of legislation,” said Drilon.

He recalled that the Solicitor General’s petition seeking a gag order was filed immediately after Poe’s committee decided to hear the application for the renewal of the franchise of ABS-CBN and the resolution that Drilon filed, extending the validity of the franchise of the broadcasting network until the end of 2022 as the existing 25year franchise of ABS-CBN is set to expire on March 30, 2020.

The Senate Minority Leader added that even if the Supreme Court issues a gag order, it will not cover the hearings in the Senate. “Such gag order, if ordered, cannot serve as a prohibition for ABS-CBN to appear and testify before the Senate panel.”

He asserted that the Constitution and various jurisprudence have many times upheld the power of the Senate to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation and to exercise its oversight power, citing Section 21, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution which provides the Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its respective committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation in accordance with its duly published rules of procedure.

Drilon cited Senate Blue Ribbon Committee v. Judge Majaducun (GR 136760), where the Supreme Court categorically stated that, “no court has the authority to prohibit the Committee from requiring respondent to appear and testify before it.”

The same, said Drilon, was the ruling in Romero vs. Estrada (GR 174105) where the court held that “(it) has no authority to prohibit a senate committee from requiring persons to appear and testify before it in connection with an inquiry in aid of legislation.”

Quo warranto filed

The OSG filed a quo warranto petition before the SC last last February 10 seeking the forfeiture of ABS-CBN Corporation’s legislative franchise and that of its subsidiary ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. Calida accused the company of being engaged in broadcasting for a fee, which is beyond the scope of its legislative franchise.

Calida added that the television network has been allowing foreign investors to take part in the ownership of a Philippine mass media entity, in gross violation of the foreign interest restriction of mass media provided under Section 11, Article XVI of the Constitution.

Calida said the network’s management also violated its franchise when it launched and operated a pay-per-view channel in ABSCBN TV Plus, the KBO Channel, without prior approval or permit from the National Telecommunications Commission.

With regard to its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Convergence, Inc. (formerly Multi-Media Telepony, Inc.), the government accused the latter of resorting to corporate layering schemes in order to transfer its franchise without the necessary congressional approval.

The OSG’s motion cited several news, commentaries, interviews and statements from the network which tend to influence the outcome of the resolution of the petition.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that justices and judges are not immune from the pervasive effects of media. Respondents belong to the biggest media conglomerate in the country whose artists and talents, impervious to the law, freely publish their comments,” Calida pointed out.

“We want a gag order to be issued in this case so that facts can be decided upon evidence produced in court, and that the determination of such facts should be uninfluenced by bias, prejudice, or sympathies,” the chief government counsel added.

and clear and favorable,” the British envoy pointed out, referring to the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira) bill awaiting the legislature’s decision.

The Citira bill will lower the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent by 2029, from 30 percent at present, but in exchange will rationalize fiscal incentives granted to economic zone firms.

Locators, mostly multinationals, warned they will be forced to pack up operations here and relocate to another Southeast Asian country if their tax perks are changed.

“There’s a need for the Philippine government to come to clarity in terms of the tax law. There should be some sort of midway between the government and investors when it comes to the subject of rationalizing incentives,” Nelson added.

Graham is in the Philippines for his annual visit. In his stay here, he is scheduled to hold courtesy calls with the secretaries of public works, of trade and of finance to discuss possible economic cooperation between Manila and London.

Palace EO cuts price of essential meds by more than half–DOH

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Correspondent

T

he retail price of an array of essential medicines have been slashed by more than half, or about 58 percent, following the signing of Executive Order 104 on the Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) by President Duterte, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday.

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said that the retail prices of some 87 high-cost medicines for hypertension, diabetes, cancer, kidney diseases, neonatal illnesses, chronic lung diseases and clinical depression, among others, are now more affordable.

The list also includes high-cost treatments for prematurity, chronic renal disease, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis requested by patient and consumer organizations, as well as several medical societies.

“We are grateful for the support and genuine care of our President in looking out for the health of our people.

This will propel us toward Universal Health Care which will broaden our agenda to make comfortable lives for all Filipinos,” Duque said.

Duque said senior citizens and persons with disability can still claim discounts under the new prices.

The DOH submitted its recommendation to the Office of the President to expand the scope of medicines subject to MDRP to include 122 additional medicines.

DOH, together with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and stakeholders, was also tasked to review the price reduction of the remaining 35 drugs to finalize the list covered by the EO. Meanwhile, the ceiling prices for the 87 medicines (with 133 formulations) at the point of wholesale and retail shall already be imposed in both public and private drug retail outlets, including chain and independent drugstores, hospital pharmacies, health maintenance organizations, and other outlets within 90 days.

The MDRP is still subject to special discounts to senior citizens and persons with disability.

“We will immediately issue an administrative order to ensure the effective implementation of the EO on MDRP and disseminate the implementing guidelines to stakeholders,” Duque added.

He warned that violations of the price caps will be dealt with in accordance with the Cheaper Medicines Act, and other relevant laws together with the DTI and the Food and Drug Administration.

In November 2019, DOH reported the results of the Ulat ng Bayan Survey conducted by Pulse Asia showing that 99 percent of Filipinos do not buy all of their prescribed medicines because of unaffordable costs. The survey also showed that 71 percent of Filipinos are only willing and able to spend less than P1,000 for a month’s supply of medicines, while only 24 percent are willing to spend up to P5,000.

“With the limited ability of many Filipinos to support even their basic needs, how can they even pay for expensive medications which could amount to P5 million to treat cancer, for example? We cannot accept these sky-high prices as the norm. The industry and health institutions must be socially responsible, and ensure that medicines are within reach of the ordinary Filipino. All of us should be sincere in providing fair and affordable access to medicines. The health of our people is primordial over business interests,” the health chief said.

BusinessMirror

A4 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT Regional Office No. IV-A 4th Flr. Andenson Bldg. II, Brgy. Parian, Calamba City Telefax No.: (049) 545-7362

32

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NANG AYE KHAM / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

33

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NGUYEN THI BICH DUYEN / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

34

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. NYI NYI TUN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

35

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NANG SHANG NOON / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

36

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SANBAO LI / Chinese

37

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NGUYEN THI THUY LINH / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

38

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. MOE HNIN PHYU / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

39

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. HOANG THI NAM / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

February 19, 2020

NOTICE OF FILING OF APPLICATION FOR ALIEN EMPLOYMENT PERMIT (AEP) Notice is hereby given that the following employers have filed with this Regional Office application/s for Alien Employment Permit/s.

Name and Address of Company/Employer

Name and Citizenship of Foreign National

Position and Brief Description of Functions

Chinese Customer Service Representative

1

PROCYCLE INDUSTRIAL INC. Brgy. Lantic, Carmona, Cavite

Mr. WEN-KUEI CHEN / Taiwanese

Maintenance Supervisor

2

PLO SCHOOL OF GLOBAL, INC. San Vicente 2, Silang, Cavite

Mr. SEUNG HUN OH / Korean

Korean Language Department Manager

3

ELOM INTERNATIONAL FOODS, INC. Brgy. Maduya, Carmona, Cavite

Mr. SHUANG-HSIEN TSUI / Taiwanese

4

JTEKT PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Mr. SATOSHI SHIMAMURA / LTC-SEZ, Brgy. Santiago, Malvar, Japanese Batangas

5

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. JIANKUN SU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

40

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MAW LE SAW / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

6

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SEN LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

41

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NGUYEN THI UYEN / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

7

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SHUANG BAI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

42

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. HLA MIN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

8

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. PENGJU ZHANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

43

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. THI THI QUYNH / Chinese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

9

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. FEI LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

44

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. LUONG THI HONG NGOC / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

10

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. QIUMEI HUANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

45

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. TRUONG HUE MAN / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

11

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MOUYONG RANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

46

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. THI THI HAN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

12

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. CAIXIAN HUANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

47

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. PAUK YAN PHU / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

13

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. JINGE REN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

48

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. KYIN PHAR FU / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

14

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. DALAI GAO / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

49

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YU YU LWIN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

15

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SHILIN DING / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

50

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. CHO WIN THAN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

16

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YANMING WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

51

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. SANDAR AUNG / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

17

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. QIAN CHEN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

52

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. DANG KIEU LINH / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

18

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YUYE LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

53

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. LU KYAUK TE / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

19

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. HUANFU HUANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

54

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. SANDAR HTWE / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

20

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. QIAO ZHOU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

55

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MAUNG MAUNG LIN AUNG / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

56

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YANLING LI / Chinese

Officer in Charge

Vice Plant Manager

Chinese Customer Service Representative

21

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. LAUK SI / Burmese

22

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. JIEZHE LU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

57

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SAI HTET NAING WIN / Burmese

23

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SIGE MA / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

58

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. QUANSHUI WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

24

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. ZHOU ZHOU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

59

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YANNI LING / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

25

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. GUOSHENG LIANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

60

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. QI LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

26

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. KHIN MAUNG MYINT / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

61

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. TRAN VAN TRUNG / Vietnamese

27

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. GUOZHU LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

62

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. BING YANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

28

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YUNPENG LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

63

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. CHAO CHEN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

29

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YAN REN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

64

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. JING ZHANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

30

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NGUYEN GIA HAN / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

65

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. HAO LUO / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

31

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. FENG LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

66

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SAI LIN SAM / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Name and Address of Company/Employer

Name and Citizenship of Foreign National

Position and Brief Description of Functions

Name and Address of Company/Employer

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 A5

Name and Citizenship of Foreign National

Position and Brief Description of Functions

67

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. PYONE PA PA HLAING / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

101

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. JINGLONG YANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

68

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. VO THI HUONG / Chinese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

102

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. TIANWEI HUANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

69

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. NANG SENG HEIN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

103

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. XIAOYAN LU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

70

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YAN NAING KYAW / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

104

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. ZHENGWEI ZHANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

71

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. CHU THI VIEN / Vietnamese

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

105

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. DONG LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

72

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. THAN SHWE / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

106

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YATING HUANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

73

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. THEIN WIN / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

107

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. TONGZHOU LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

74

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. BIN CAI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

108

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. QIONG YANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

75

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. SENG MAI RA / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

109

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. TIANHAO ZHANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

76

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SHAUK SHIN LE / Burmese

Myanmari Customer Service Representative

110

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. PING WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

77

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. JIAN YU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

111

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. GUIDONG SONG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

78

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YINGFEN YOU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

112

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. ZEYOU ZHANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

79

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. ZIYIN YU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

113

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. RUI LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

80

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SONGJUN YANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

114

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YUANFENG GU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

81

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. BO CHEN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

82

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YANHONG WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MENG LIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. PENGYANG WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

85

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. WEIHANG CHENG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

86

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. FARUI CHEN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

87

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. YUNNING QIU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

NUPON TECHNOLOGY PHILIPPINES Mr. TANG CHEWN HUAT / 120 CORPORATION Malaysian Don Jose, Santa Rosa City, Laguna

88

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. ZHIQIANG LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

Ms. JI HYUN KIM / Korean

89

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. KE FENG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

YOUNG SHIN TRONICS, INC. 121 CPIP, Brgy. Batino, Calamba City, Laguna

Ms. MIYU MATSUO / Japanese

90

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. KAIKAI CUI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

PERSOL GLOBAL WORKFORCE 122 PHILIPPINES, INC. Brgy. Pulo, Cabuyao, Laguna

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. YU FU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

Mr. TAKAHASHI SUDO / Japanese

IJP Procurement Section Manager

91

EPSON PRECISION (PHILIPPINES) 123 INC. SEPZ-LTC, Lipa City, Batangas

92

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. LANG HE / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

BOJIE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION 124 FCIE, SEZ, Langkaan, Dasmariñas City, Cavite

Ms. XUEMEI TANG / Chinese

Deputy Section Chief of QC Inspector

93

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. HUANHUAN FU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

Mr. YUJI TORII / Japanese

Chairman and President

94

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MINGYUAN YUAN / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

DENSO PHILIPPINES CORPORATION 125 CIP I, Canlubang, Calamba City, Laguna LEADER ELECTRONICS (PHILIPPINE BRANCH) 126 INCORPORATED CEZ, Rosario, Cavite

Mr. WEN-HUANG TSENG / Taiwanese

Senior Manager for LED Technical Engineering Department

FUTABA CORPORATION OF THE PHILIPPINES 127 Laguna Technopark, Biñan City, Laguna

Mr. KATSUSHI TOKURA / Japanese

Production Technical Adviser

83

84

95

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. WANLI LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

96

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. MAOLIN LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

97

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Ms. WANSHAN LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

98

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. CHAO WANG / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

99

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

Mr. SONGLIN LI / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

Mr. ANCHENG WU / Chinese

Chinese Customer Service Representative

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 100 Brgy. Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite

FURUKAWA AUTOMOTIVE 115 SYSTEMS LIMA PHILIPPINES INC. LTC, Lipa City, Batangas 116

PILIPINAS KYOHRITSU INC. Bo. Inosloban, Lipa City, Batangas

Mr. YUTAKA HIRATSUKA / Japanese

Material Procurement Department Manager

Mr. HAYATO OHKADO / Japanese

Manager (Production Engineering-Wire Preparation Section)

PHILIPPINE MANUFACTURING CO. OF MURATA, INC. 117 FPIP, Brgy. Pantay Bata, Tanauan City, Batangas

Mr. KOICHI KITTAKA / Japanese

Senior Manager-Process Engineering Section

PHILIPPINE MANUFACTURING CO. OF MURATA, INC. 118 FPIP, Brgy. Pantay Bata, Tanauan City, Batangas

Mr. SATORU NAGAI / Japanese

Manager-Quality Control Section

119

NAKTP, INC. CEZ, Rosario, Cavite

Mr. TATSUYA SASAKI / Japanese

General Manager

Chairman

Admin Manager

Japanese Language Trainer

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 the DOLE Regional Office within 30 days from the date of publication.

Please inform the DOLE Regional Office if you have an information of any criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

HENRY JOHN S. JALBUENA Regional Director

To avail of free job referral, placement, and employment guidance services, visit the nearest Public Employment Service Offices (PESO) or log on at http://www.philjobnet.gov.ph AEP20201007343

A6 Wednesday, February 19, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Thinking out of the hat

F

ilipinos have a big appetite for meat-based dishes that they eat with piping hot rice. Some of the popular Filipino dishes are cooked using chicken, pork or beef. The iconic adobo, for example, is cooked using poultry or pork or both.

Filipino consumers are price sensitive, so it doesn’t come as a surprise if they prefer buying chicken and pork because they are cheaper than beef, which currently retails at P320 per kilogram (for beef brisket). In comparison, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the retail price of pork and chicken at P200 per kg (ham) and P160 per kg, respectively.

However, animal diseases play a role in the changing equation of consumer preference. Take, for instance, the slump experienced by the poultry subsector when avian influenza struck Pampanga in 2017.

Panic and misconceptions about the disease caused the farm-gate price of broiler in Luzon to drop to as low as P15 per kilogram. Consumers avoided poultry despite government assurances that the virus that struck the domestic fowl population won’t affect humans.

The hog industry got hurt when the government declared that African swine fever (ASF), which is fatal to pigs, struck farms in Rizal province.

Some consumers in Luzon avoided pork for a while, but demand eventually returned to normal levels, due possibly to the information campaign undertaken by the government and the private sector. However, hog production was affected as the disease ravaged backyard farms in Luzon—where Metro Manila sources its pork.

The onslaught of these diseases, however, did not significantly dent demand for pork, chicken and beef, based on the country’s projected meat imports (See, “The meat of the matter: New threats compound recurring problems for animal protein industry,” in the BusinessMirror, January 30, 2020). According to the Meat Importers and Traders Association, the country’s purchases of imported meat products last year settled at 850,000 metric tons, the same level recorded in 2018. However, the volume of pork bought by local traders was lower last year due to the disruption in supply caused by the ASF outbreaks.

The challenges presented by the onslaught of animal diseases, as well as the tightness in global meat supply, threaten the country’s food security, which the Department of Agriculture should address.

This probably prompted Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, when pressed by media, to propose rabbit meat as possible alternative to pork and chicken meat. The idea that rabbit meat is a possible alternative didn’t come out of left field because rabbit meat is consumed in some countries in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Every nation on Earth today is being forced to be more creative and innovative to produce more food to feed a growing population amid the challenges posed by transboundary animal diseases, climate change and shrinking resources.

As the Philippines is visited by an average of 20 typhoons a year, the government also has to grapple with the difficulties of producing food while rehabilitating ravaged farmlands or agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation facilities. In the quest for food security, government will make a pitch for alternatives to ease the pressure on the supply of certain food items but, ultimately, consumers’ choice will prevail. We have the power to heed or ignore food suggestions that come our way.

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Unemployment benefit Aurora C. Ignacio

All About Social Security

S

ince the signing of Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, the Social Security System has been implementing one of the law’s landmark provisions—the unemployment benefit. This benefit became the newest addition to the six benefit programs being offered by SSS, which include sickness, maternity, disability, retirement, funeral and death.

It took us five months to calibrate our system for the implementation of this new program and, on August 2019, we started receiving unemployment applications from our 173 branches nationwide.

Even if the acceptance of application started a few months after its effectivity on March 5, 2019, those who were involuntarily separated from work starting on its effectivity date were still covered and allowed to apply.

As of end-December 2019, our latest data showed that more than P177.87 million has been released for the involuntary separation benefit of some 15,151 qualified members.

I’d like to share some of the good news I received during the course of the implementation of the program. It is quite flattering that the program has served its purpose, which is to assist

members who are involuntarily separated from work due to the installation of labor-saving devices, redundancy, retrenchment, closure or cessation of operation, and disease or illness.

A good friend of mine was grateful when he received his benefit in just three days from submission of documents at our Makati-Pasong Tamo branch. “Ang bilis!” he said. His benefits were credited directly to his UnionBank Quick Card, which he also availed from the same branch where he submitted his unemployment benefit requirements.

Also, members who availed themselves of the benefit expressed their gratitude on our SSS Facebook Page —Philippine Social Security System.

One particular member sent us an e-mail saying his unemployment benefit was already credited to his UnionBank account amounting to nearly P16,000. And he’s asking how

the computation of the said benefit was made.

The unemployment benefit is computed based on 50 percent of the average monthly salary credit ​of the member multiplied by two months.

If a member’s ​AMSC is P15,000, he will most likely receive P7,500 if he was unemployed for a month, or P15,000 for two months.

To qualify for unemployment benefit, members must not be more than 60 years old at the time of involuntary separation, except for underground and surface mineworkers, and racehorse jockeys who should not be more than 50 and 55 years old, respectively.

Member-applicant must have paid at least 36 monthly contributions, wherein 12 months of these should have been paid within the 18-month period prior to the month of involuntary separation.

Applicants are required to submit a DOLE-issued certification establishing the nature and date of involuntary separation, as well as the Notice of Termination from employer or the Affidavit of Termination of Employment.

Aside from the government-issued documents, applicants should present an original and photocopy of one primary ID card or document, or in the absence of which, any two ID cards or documents, both with signature and at least one with photo at any SSS local branch or foreign office.

As of now, the benefit will be credited to the savings account ​ under the member’s UMID card

enrolled as ATM or Union Bank of the Philippines Quick Card. If the member has no UMID card enrolled as ATM or UnionBank Quick Card, the member will be instructed by the branch to open or avail himself of the UnionBank Quick Card to have his benefit automatically credited to his savings account, which can be availed through UBP Kiosks in selected SSS branches nationwide.

Within the second quarter of the year, we will be able to credit the members’ benefits on their personal savings account via Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network participating banks, which are SSS accredited banks. We are currently finalizing the implementation of the said facility and, hopefully, by April 2020, we can already disburse payments through PESOnet.

The SSS, as I have mentioned in my previous columns, is not only for your retirement. It is not just for your pension. It is also your safeguard during unfortunate events, such as unemployment, that put to risk your source of revenue. I hope members will continue saving with SSS as we want to achieve universal coverage for all Filipinos, protecting them from various emergencies or contingencies.

Aurora C. Ignacio is SSS president and chief executive officer.

We welcome your questions and insights on the topics that we discuss. E-mail mediaaffairs@sss. gov.ph for topics that you might want us to discuss.

Arabs should welcome a future with less oil wealth

A

By Amr Adly | Bloomberg Opinion

new report from the International Monetary Fund warns that, by 2034, declining oil demand could gnaw away the $2 trillion in financial wealth amassed by the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Unless they act quickly to reform their hydrocarbon-dependent economies, these countries, which collectively account for a fifth of the world’s crude production, will become net debtors.

Inevitably, the report has led to predictions that the evaporation of Arab oil wealth will bode ill for economic development and political stability in an already troubled region.

Beyond the GCC, low oil prices would hamper the progress of populous, but still underdeveloped, oil-rich Arab countries—Iraq and Algeria—that must reorganize their economies and societies toward productive sectors without the cushion of wealth salted away during the boom years.

But declining oil prices and the dwindling of cash reserves are not necessarily bad news for the political economy of the Arab region as a whole.

To start with, the overwhelming majority of the Arab people do not live in oil-rich countries. The most

populous Arab countries are for the most part oil-poor. Many are net energy importers, with relatively diversified economic structures and external sectors. These include Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and war-torn Syria. For these countries, lower oil prices would lower the costs of their production and improve their balance-of-payments positions.

The decline in oil wealth would reinforce the incentives to diversify away from GCC-dependency by countries like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, which have long relied on recycled oil rents—through workers’ remittances, aid and credit from the oil-rich member-states. Lower oil prices may actually improve the longer-term prospects of redefining

the position of the most populous Arab countries in the global division of labor.

Countries like Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan already possess diversified export structures, with non-oil goods constituting the bulk of what they export. They have also developed strong trade, investment and tourism connections with powerful partners in the European Union and the US. For Morocco and Tunisia, lower oil prices would boost their position as energy importers and as exporters of manufactured goods.

Conversely, the outlook for Egypt is significantly tougher given its dense ties with the GCC. But, the overall share of oil-related rents in the country’s GDP, including remittances and foreign aid (predominantly from the GCC), has been constantly declining since the 1990s.

There is near consensus in the literature on the Arab world that oil wealth has been associated with less democracy, and more conflict and repression. This does not mean that all conflict can be traced back to oil wealth, but it has played a central role in deepening and prolonging hostilities. Hydrocarbon wealth since the

oil shock of 1973 has been associated with higher intensity of conflict around the Persian Gulf, with ramifications for the wider Arab world.

Three Gulf wars and the ongoing tensions between Iran and an alliance of the US and several Arab countries attest to this fact. Beyond the Gulf region, oil rents have often been used to fuel arms races and civil conflict through the sponsorship of local militias along ethno-sectarian lines. Hence, lower oil prices in the long term may weaken the financial resource-base for fueling conflict in MENA, whether directly or by proxy.

Since 2011, oil riches have been used instrumentally to shape the outcomes of post-Arab Spring political processes across the region.

Oil-rich governments have supported nondemocratic forces, be they Islamist or non-Islamist, Sunni or Shia, creating prolonged and internationalized civil conflicts. In Syria, for instance, Iran threw its weight behind the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Elsewhere, the GCC monarchies used their money power against people-power movements by backing autocrats. It may not See “Arabs,” A7

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Hello, cancer!

DTI’s strict implementation of standards, good news to consumers Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

Susan V. Ople

MAKE SENSE

Scribbles

I

am 58 years young, a mother with one daughter, and no family history of breast cancer. Yet, here I am, the latest blip on the breast cancer radar screen.

While still trying to come to grips with this disease, I decided to write the beginnings of a new journey, because it is important to me to send this vital message to all women: do not take your breasts for granted.

Whatever the size, no matter how perfect you now feel, take some time off to get “mammogrammed.”

I had my first-ever mammogram the week I turned 58, on February 9.

It was the first I had, because some years back, I was told that a mammogram was painful. “Your breast will be squeezed flat like a pancake. It’s very painful.” A friend of mine told me that. The image of my breast being flattened into a pancake stuck.

The reality was galaxies apart in difference.

At the Asian Breast Center (ABC), they have a free-standing digital mammogram machine. My first experience with it was completely painless. The “squeezing” never happened because the machine stopped short of causing even a sliver of pain. Daryl Gonzales, the young medical technician that conducted the mammogram, was kind and super efficient.

There was no “pancake sensation” at all. I shook my head and thought to myself: All those fears, for so many years, only to discover yet, for the nth time, how technology keeps changing the world.

How sad that I had to undergo a mammogram at such a late stage in my life.

Three days after, the results from the radiology department was in all caps: “IMPRESSION: SUSPICIOUS MAMMOGRAPHIC FINDINGS IN THE LEFT BREAST AS DETAILED ABOVE. NEEDLE CORE BIOPSY UNDER ULTRASOUND GUIDANCE FOR THE LEFT BREAST MASS IS WARRANTED.” Oh, wow, I thought to myself. A biopsy is a serious thing. I grew up in a family that is dead scared of needles. My father described nurses as vampires every time he needed a blood extraction as a stroke victim.

My old family dentist used to give me a sleeping tablet so I won’t be conscious during tooth extractions and other major dental procedures.

That was the only way I could be enticed to go near his chair.

Yes, I am a coward. My threshold of pain is way below zero. And now, a frigging biopsy? OMG to the max, and beyond. But hey, I do love life so opting out is not part of the deal.

At the Asian Breast Center, they gave me a topical anesthesia that was strong enough for tattoo artists to use. The super cool Dr. Max Basco injected a local anesthesia, giving it time to work, before my needle core biopsy. Working in close tandem with Dr. Maria Theresa Buenaflor, they used ultrasound as a guide, avoiding blood vessels, and extracting samples from my left breast for diagnosis.

For all the terror I felt in my heart and the endless doomsday scenario playing out in my overimaginative

Arabs. . .

continued from A6

be a coincidence that the only success story of a post-Arab Spring transition to democracy is Tunisia, which is not only oil-poor but also too small to draw much attention from oil-rich states.

Less access to easy money could curb ongoing conflicts, or at least make them less intense. It’s worth remembering that the end of the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s was hastened by the oil glut of 1986 and the subsequent decline in revenues for

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 A7

head, the only wound that I ended up with after the biopsy was too small to even notice. They sent me home after putting an ice pack on the nearinvisible wound. I didn’t even need a Band-Aid. After the needle core biopsy, I then had a breast MRI with the assistance of a fellow Netflix addict, nurse Maria Elena Isabel Trinidad Legarda delos Santos, also known as “Sunshine.” When you get to meet her, you’ll understand why the name fits the character. In between diagnostic tests, we would chat about Ian Veneracion and Bea Alonzo’s love story, A Love to Last, which still streams on Netflix. Of course, I had to tell nurse Sunshine about Crash Landing on You, which I consider one of the best Kdramas of all time!

Ooops, where was I? Oh. The cancer. Yup, it’s in my left breast. I call it, “Mr. Sneaky.” When I found out about his dark, brooding presence, my first instinct was to simply ask my doctor to carve a door, out of my breast, and just ask Mr. Sneaky to quietly leave the premises. I guess it doesn’t work that way.

On Monday (February 24), I will be having my left breast removed.

They call the procedure mastectomy. The breast surgeon/oncologist blessed with the privilege of taking out my breast is Dr. Norman San Agustin, the founder of Asian Breast Center. He is the breast man, oops! I meant the best man for the job.

Doc Norman has his own “Normanisms.” Whenever I consult him, I come home with notes that include such gems like: “I can see the fear in your eyes. Don’t worry. We will help you get through this. Mas mahirap naman kung sumakay na sa barko ’yung cancer cells at bumiyahe na.”

When I keep badgering him to tell me what stage my cancer was at, he said: “May cancer na naka-wheel chair, may cancer na naglalakad, may cancer na mahilig tumakbo. Malalaman na lang natin ’yan sa araw ng surgery.”

I love my doctors. I trust the Asian Breast Center. But I don’t love Mr. Sneaky.

My daughter, Estelle, sister Baby, and lifetime partner, Fort, agreed that I should include early breast cancer detection in my shelf of new advocacies. If by writing and vlogging about this bump on the road, I would be able to convince even one woman to undergo a mammogram, then sharing this journey is worth my more transparent life.

That I am still a coward, there is no doubt. But hey, I love my God. And He loves me.

So, hello cancer!

I’m ready for you. Don’t even think of making yourself comfortable.

My boob is not your home.

Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues.

She also represents the OFW sector in the InterAgency Council Against Trafficking.

the two belligerents and their regional sponsors.

Civil conflicts are more complicated than international ones, and will likely linger even with declining oil rents, as they have done since 2014 in Syria, Libya and Yemen. Still, the availability of fewer resources may hasten the conclusion of these conflicts—or at least limit their scope and intensity.

For much of the Arab world, and especially in the counties where hydrocarbon revenues have long represented a curse, the decline in oil wealth described in the IMF report might yet be a blessing in disguise.

A

S a consumer advocate, I find the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) strengthened monitoring of products for compliance to mandatory standards gratifying and reassuring.

I am delighted by the DTI’s heightened control of products, which can only be sold in the local market following compliance to mandatory standards, as the country is always facing the threat of the big one, a devastating earthquake that could reach magnitude 8.

The recent DTI-issued list of steel products that allegedly were found to be noncompliant to standards is, therefore, a reassuring development for consumers, knowing that the country’s heightened consciousness

for standards would lead to a safer market for regulated products, especially those that would pose risks to consumers if standards are not followed.

Anent to this, I find the forthcoming April 2020 launch of the Federation of Philippine Industries’ (FPI) consumer magazine named Quality Standards.Ph not only timely, but a strong manifestation of the enhanced public-private partnership for consumerism, as well.

The magazine that FPI will

publish, in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Health, will help rationalize the country’s building industry in relation to Philippine product standard rules and laws. It will also serve as a reference material for all building officials in cities and municipalities.

The magazine is designed to teach consumers the basic understanding of product standards vis-à-vis building rules. It will also help educate readers about the mandatory standards, and the fundamental techniques of distinguishing compliant products from noncompliant products. But utmost care will be exercised in publishing product sampling results.

And talking of timeliness, the Quality Standards.Ph magazine will be launched during the FPI organized Building Summit in April this year. Among those to be invited to the Building Summit are building officials of local government units, DTI-Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) officials, and other concerned

‘A motorcycle can indeed be a safe ride’ Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto’s sponsorship speech on SB 1341: Motorcycles as Public Utility Vehicles, February 18, 2020.

M

R. President: Throughout history, legislation has always marched behind technology. It has always been innovation first, regulation later.

And, most often, government’s

intervention follows this Reagan doctrine: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it And when confronted with something new or unfamiliar, toy with the idea of prohibiting it.

In the case of airplanes, it did not have a smooth takeoff as a sanctioned passenger carrier.

Like biplanes flying through the clouds then, it met turbulence along the way to being permitted by the government to fly paying human cargo.

But you know what: From trains, to planes, to automobiles, it was government regulation that made them safe through the years.

And such, and I say this with certainty, will be the case of motorcycle taxis.

This bill, condensed from five measures, bravely confronts a phenomenon that is here and now.

This is not about merely ratifying what is already existing. The act of Congress to permit and regulate what is now in operation is not a fait accompli.

On the contrary, this bill and the implementing rules it would birth, would improve the status quo,

resulting in a public transport that is safe for the driver, the passenger and other users of the road.

Mr. President: Ours is a motorcycle republic—7 in 10 motor vehicles today run on two wheels.

At almost 19 million, there is one motorbike per family. There are more “motors” than carabaos today. The likes of Hondas have long outnumbered our horses.

And half of these motorsiklos are used for livelihood—to deliver food for the perpetually hungry millennial, deliver packages, and as tricycles that bring people to work, or bring produce to market.

In upland villages in Mindanao, people even ride ten-dem—ten-dem dahil sampu sila—in circus-like fashion, in bikes with wings, or outriggers, that they look like land bancas.

These are the mountain-summiting habal-habals and Skylabs in Mindanao. They’ve been there for four decades in their stratospheric routes.

And there’s this relatively new urban phenomenon, the motorcycle taxi, that zips one paying passenger through our cities’ gridlocked roads.

Like all inventions, the motorcycle taxi is a product of necessity.

When the time to queue for an MRT ticket is longer than the ride itself, when buses are packed like Spam, hindi na po sardinas, when rides are hard to come by, that one has to wake up at 4 in the morning so he can be at work by 8, and leave by 5 in the afternoon, with no guarantee that he can be home by 9, then relief comes in the form of an empty seat behind the motorcycle driver.

There were many independent contractors before some entrepreneurs married ICT with the bike, to create a riding-hailing app, driven by well-trained, carefully curated drivers.

In practice, courtesy of the pilot period government gave them, they proved that with right driver training, a motorcycle can indeed be a safe ride.

There remains one roadblock though for them to operate legitimately—and that is the more-thanhalf-a-century-old law that bans a motorized two-wheeler as a for-hire vehicle.

If this provision in RA 4136 will not be deleted, then millions of de facto motorcycle riders cannot be flagged off as legal paying passenger vehicles. But delisting them, Mr. President, is just part of what is needed to de-colorumize this big subset of the land transport sector.

Congress, as the rule-setting body, must also lay down the minimum specifications of a motorcycle taxi, one with safety as the main benchmark. And this bill sets it— from engine size, to minimum speed, to build, to weight.

officials from both the public and private sectors.

At the same time, the FPI is urging the public to patronize locally made products because they are assured of adherence to quality standards under the supervision of the DTI-BPS. Not only that, the public, especially the contractors and bulk buyers, can purchase on a need basis, so they don’t need to store the products like when they are importing. A good example of this, particularly in the steel industry, is Steel Asia.

By buying locally made products, consumers will not only save money, they are also assured that should there be problems, negotiations for returns or other concerns wouldn’t be a problem because the local companies are here to serve customers.

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza is the chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade; a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.

This is the basic set of rules and requirements which the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) should build on, which will cover not only the vehicle specs but the skill and training a driver must demonstrate before he or she can be licensed.

This bill, however, is not a motherof-all franchises that will mass legalize motorcycle taxis in one stroke of the pen.

Drivers will still have to secure a Certificate of Public Convenience or a special permit from the LTFRB. This bill is also in response to the call of the DOTR that for as long as the ban in RA 4136 exists, their hands are tied in legalizing the likes of Angkas, JoyRide and others.

True, for the river cannot rise above the spring.

Mr. President: The bike was and is apparently the ride of choice of the President.

He is our biker-in-chief.

And by safely logging tens of thousands of kilometers in criss-crossing Mindanao and the Visayas, he had demonstrably shown the motorbike as a safe ride.

Although hundreds of CCs separate the bikes they ride, in general, what is good for the President must be good for the ordinary citizen.

So let us pass this bill, my dear colleagues, not for the sake of the President, but for the people.

And finally, for the record, Mr. President, I continue to ride bikes.

It was what I used in courting the lady who would later become my wife.

China’s closed: Palestinian traders fear losing a good deal

By Joseph Krauss & Mohammed Daraghmeh The Associated Press

H

EBRON, West Bank—The West Bank city of Hebron is separated from the epicenter of China’s virus outbreak by more than 4,000 miles and a ring of Israeli checkpoints. But even here the economic symptoms of the outbreak are starting to appear.

Palestinian markets have long been flooded by low-cost Chinese goods.

Traders in Hebron, the largest Palestinian city and a commercial hub for the territories, fear that if the outbreak and quarantine efforts continue, they will have to switch to more expensive alternatives, passing higher prices on to consumers in an already weakened economy.

Their concerns point to the potential for wide-ranging ripple effects from the outbreak in China, the world’s largest exporter. The health crisis has already thrown the global travel industry into chaos and threatened to disrupt supply chains around the world that depend on China. That a city deep inside the Israeli-occupied

West Bank is so reliant on Chinese goods illustrates the perils of global economic integration.

The illness, recently named COVID-19, first emerged in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Since then, the virus—a new type of coronavirus—has spread to about two dozen countries and infected more than 73,000 people. It has caused more than 1,800 deaths, nearly all in China.

No cases have yet been identified in Israel or the Palestinian territories, but merchants have felt the impact and fear the worst is yet to come.

Samer Abu Eisha, a children’s clothes wholesaler in Hebron, has been importing from China for more than two decades. He has a permit from Israel that allows him to fly from Ben Gurion International Airport to China’s Guangzhou province every two months so he can place orders with factories there and supervise output.

But business ground to a halt last month as the outbreak gathered pace.

Israel and neighboring Jordan have suspended all flights to China, shipments have been put on hold, and Abu Eisha says his agent in China is confined to his home because of a

local quarantine.

If the situation continues he’ll have to explore other options. The effects will vary from business to business, with some already feeling the pinch and others preparing to switch up supply lines—and raise prices—in the coming months.

“There is an alternative in Turkey, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same quality or the same workmanship or the same price,” he said. “It’s hard because all the raw materials also come from China, so things will be more expensive.”

He estimates he’ll have to raise prices by up to 30 percent, which could pose difficulties in the local market.

Decades of Israeli restrictions have hindered economic development in the West Bank, leaving many Palestinians reliant on low-cost imports.

“The economy here is terrible. In Palestine it’s zero, or less than zero,” Abu Eisha said.

Bilal Dwaik, another Hebron merchant who imports women’s clothing from China, was supposed to travel there later this month but had to cancel his trip because of the outbreak. He says if it continues the effects will be

felt across the region.

“The economies of the whole Arab world are not productive, they aren’t self-sufficient,” he said. “It’s all dependent on imported goods, on Chinese goods.”

Palestinian traders began flocking to China in the 1990s after the Oslo accords with Israel allowed the newly created Palestinian Authority to pursue an independent trade policy.

More than $33 million of Chinese goods were imported in 1998. A decade later that figure had quadrupled and, in 2018, total imports from China reached $425 million, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The imports have taken a heavy toll on local manufacturers, especially Hebron’s famous shoemaking industry, which even produced boots for the Israeli army until the military switched to a US supplier a few years back.

Abdo Idrees, the head of Hebron’s Chamber of Commerce, says the number of factory workers making shoes has plummeted from 35,000 in the mid-1990s to fewer than 8,000 today.

“The world is intertwined,” Idrees said. “The entire world is relying on China and no alternative has emerged.”

A8 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

DOE meets NGCP, Meralco on power crunch measures

T

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE Department of Energy (DOE) is meeting officials of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) today to discuss measures being undertaken to mitigate the impact of the power-supply deficiency between April and May this year.

“DOE called NGCP and Meralco to a meeting to discuss the summer 2020 supply-demand situation,” said Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez in an interview Wednesday.

DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola confirmed the meeting will take place on February 19.

“They’ll present their individual updates on their measures to address the summer deficiencies.

We regularly meet with them. This time, it will be with Usec Jess [Posadas]. Just to update him,” he said via text message.

When asked if the agency has any directives to Meralco and NGCP, Delola said the DOE wants them fully prepared to handle foreseeable situations to prevent power outages.

NGCP will include in its ILP (Interruptible Load Program) their directly connected customers, he said. “On the maintenance schedule, the schedules have been moved. NGCP also has to ensure that they have contracted ancillary service. Also, they must fast-track some transmission lines projects to allow generation from incoming plants like GNPD [GN Power Dinginin],” he said.

For Meralco, the DOE will instruct the utility firm “to ensure their requirements are contracted,

to intensify their ILP program as well and work with EUMB [Energy Utilization and Management Bureau] on the energy efficiency side like load shifting, etc...”

Meralco, for its part, said it is ready to activate its ILP, in which it will ask its partner establishments to turn their power generators on whenever the power supply is constricted instead of drawing power from the grid. Thus, power supply that is not consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within Meralco’s franchise area.

“In case there are forced outages by the power generators, Meralco has measures in place to ensure continued, reliable service to our customers. It continues to reach out to partner customers to implement the ILP in order to augment the See “DOE,” A2

5 BI officials relieved over ‘pastillas’ bribery

F

IVE officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) were ordered relieved from their respective posts as the agency digs deeper into the corruption activities dubbed pastillas scheme that

allows easy entry of Chinese nationals into the country in exchange for money.

BI spokesman Dana Krizia Sandoval said Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente ordered the

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING LUZON as of 4:00 am - February 18, 2020

relief of the terminal heads at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), as well as the head of the travel control and enforcement unit following the exposé of Sen. Risa Hontiveros on the

alleged scheme.

Morente also ordered the creation of a fact-finding committee to investigate Hontiveros’s allegations.

Sandoval stressed that the officials were relieved from their posts for “command responsibility.”

She, however, refused to identify them until the investigation is completed.

“I am deeply alarmed hearing reports from the good Senator Risa Hontiveros that this escorting modus is still persistent in our airports,” Morente earlier said.

“I have ordered a full-blown investigation to know if such corrupt practices still exist, and to find out who are possibly part of this syndicate [in order] to file both administrative and criminal cases against them,” he added.

Deputy Commissioner J. Tobias Javier has been tasked to conduct an investigation and submit a report to Morente’s office within 15 days.

“I have also implemented an immediate and total revamp of our airport personnel, all terminal heads, and all travel control and enforcement unit heads.

We will not take this sitting down. We will not hesitate to impose harsh penalties [on] those who are found to be committing corrupt practices,” Morente said.

He noted that during his entire administration, the BI has dismissed and suspended at least 70 BI men for various offenses, while more than 200 cases have been filed against erring personnel.

Since last year, the BI had denied entry to 7,724 foreign nationals as part of the bureau’s intensified drive against undesirable aliens, he added.

The Senate is currently looking into crimes associated with Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), a burgeoning sector that is seen as the source of the surge in Chinese arrivals.

During a hearing on Monday, Hontiveros showed a video of an immigration officer escorting Chinese nationals to BI’s inner office, seemingly validating the Chinese nationals’ identity against a list with a supervisor.

The senator also exposed photos from the whistle-blower of the cash distributions, called pastillas, a milk candy delicacy in the country.

It is called pastillas modus because the grease money is rolled up in bond paper, a similar packaging used for the milk candy.

Joel R. San Juan

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JU ONLINE REALTY HUNTERS OVER THETOLAZY THE PREFER BUY DOG. RATHER LAZY THANDOG LEASE ESTATES

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28

M

AJORITY of property seekers in Metro Manila, just like last year, still look for estates on sale, as 62 percent of Lamudi users search for them online, according to the real-estate platform provider’s data as of January 2020.

Based on the type of property they would want to buy, houses are the most in demand at 51 percent; followed by land, 23 percent; and condominiums, 18 percent.

This could be attributed to the strong presence of affordable housing segments that are widely spread throughout the National Capital Region (NCR) and in key provincial cities, per Lamudi.

In terms of financial capacity, property hunters are willing to spend for an estate worth P1.5 million to P3 million (17 percent).

For the budget-conscious, on the other hand, they prefer to buy those within the P450,000 up to P1.5 million bracket (15 percent).

The moneyed buyers, meanwhile, opt for the more expensive properties costing P3 million up to P4.5 million or even beyond, at the luxury price point of over P20 million (14 percent).

Consistent with Lamudi’s trend report for 2018 and market review for 2019, its searchers continued to show keen interest in Quezon City in January of this year alone, mainly because of its prime location for commercial and residential properties, affordability and livability.

New office spaces located in this largest local government unit in NCR opened in 2019 and will most likely continue this year and beyond.

Outside Luzon, Cebu City continued to be the top searched destination in Visayas on Lamudi, just like in the last couple of years.

Listings for properties for sale on Lamudi take the bigger slice of the pie at 82 percent.

As of the first month of this year, the luxury market is thriving, with properties for sale priced P20 million and up accounting for 21 percent of listings.

Location-wise, Quezon City had

the highest listings in the metropolis due to high requirement in this area.

Angeles City in Pampanga has the most listings as of January 2020 due to the developing informationtechnology and business-process outsourcing industries in New Clark City.

The interest of seekers in the office, residential and retail sectors is, likewise, apparent in properties for lease at 38 percent, according to Lamudi’s data.

Apartments for rent had the most searches at 38 percent, mostly coming from students and working professionals on the lookout for pocket-friendly accommodations near their schools and workplaces.

This was followed by condominiums (33 percent) as demanded mostly by young professionals as a source of passive income; and houses (20 percent) that are ideal for starting families looking to upgrade to bigger spaces or to an actual residence.

The price of properties for lease listed on Lamudi are within the range of P15,000 to P30,000, making up 27 of the total supply.

This is the usual budget of seekers for rented estate (34 percent), followed by the more affordable P5,000 to P15,000 range (28 percent), and P30,000 to P60,000 (13 percent).

In January 2020, houses for rent had the highest turnover, and then condominiums given the number of properties marked as rented over the total inquiries made for the property type within the last 100 days.

It is worth noting, though, that condominiums for lease are threefold the number of houses for rent.

Lamudi’s data at the start of the year also highlighted that the highest count of listings uploaded by one broker during the period is 124.

Foreclosures had the highest turnover, based on the number of estates marked as sold over the total inquiries made for the property type within the last 100 days.

Outside of the Philippines, Dubai is the city with the most number of seekers on Lamudi because of the increasing number of overseas Filipino workers there looking to invest back home.

SolGen seeks gag order on ABS-CBN; senators say hearing will proceed

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

& Butch Fernandez

T

@butchfBM

HE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to issue a gag order enjoining television giant ABS-CBN Corp. and its subsidiary ABS-CBN Convergence, Inc. from issuing statements in connection with the quo warranto petition that it filed seeking the revocation of the companies legislative franchises.

The OSG’s motion was immediately discussed in Tuesday’s regular en banc session by the 15-man High Tribunal.

As a result, SC spokesmanlawyer Brian Keith Hosaka announced that the Court issued an order directing ABS-CBN and its subsidiary to comment within five days on the motion for the issuance of a gag order filed by the OSG. “The motion is basically asking the SC for the issuance of an or-

der prohibiting both parties from engaging media and from issuing statements relative to the merits of the case,” Hosaka said.

“In accordance with the due process of the law, the Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the respondents ABS-CBN Corp and ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. to file their respective comments to the motion filed by the Office of the Solicitor General within a non-extendible period of five days from receipt of notice,” he added.

In its very urgent motion, Solicitor General Jose Calida accused the respondents of engaging in propaganda “to elicit public sympathy, sway public opinion, and, ultimately, to influence the resolution of the case.”

Senators deplore move

Senators lamented apparent moves by the OSG to “gag” witnesses in an upcoming Senate inquiry into the Duterte administration’s alleged plot to shut down ABS-CBN. See “ABS-CBN,” A3

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In the ad material of Notice of filing of application for Alien Employment Permits published on October 19, 2019, the company of Mr. Liu, Zhun under CAPSLOCK INC., should have been read as TIANYU TECHNOLOGY INC., and not as published. In the ad materials published on November 29, 2019, the company address of Ms. Li, Jia under GLOBALLGA BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING located at Ground Level, Level 2-5 Floor, Silver City 4, Ortigas East, Ugong, Pasig City, Metro Manila and not as published.

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 NCR Regional Office located at 967 Maligaya St., Malate, Manila, within 30 days after its publication.

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

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

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Companies BusinessMirror

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

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AllHome confident of nailing ₧1-B profit in ’19 on Q4 record B

Biz groups prod Congress on ABS-CBN franchise

V

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ILLAR-LED home improvement retailer AllHome Corp. said its profit may hit at least P1 billion in 2019 due to its strong fourth quarter performance.

“Historically, our fourth quarter performance is typically our strongest when it comes to sales as our stores would benefit from the holiday season as they are strategically located and are part of our innovative ecosystem of world class retail concepts surrounding it,”

Camille A. Villar, the company’s vice chairman said.

AllHome’s net income more than tripled for the nine months of 2019 to P746.2 million from P229.7 million in 2018. Total revenues increased by 72 percent to P8.2 billion from the previous

P4.8 billion.

The company is looking at a selling space of over 450,000 square meters by the end of the year, some 43 percent larger than 313,000 sq m last year.

“We are set to bring AllHome to more locations in 2020,” company Chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said.

“Our expansion program is both sustainable and strategic by taking advantage of the synergies between our real-estate companies, such as Vista Land, as well as the opportunities in the home improvement industry in the Philippines,” he said.

“When it comes to inventory sourcing for our stores, it was fortunate that we were able to

get funding for our working capital in October last year through our initial public offering which contributed to our increased inventory cover. We already secured the needed inventories for our planned store expansions, as well as for our existing stores which can last between six to eight months,” Benjamarie Therese N. Serrano, AllHome President said.

She said that in case of a prolonged effect of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the company can shift to its other existing sources like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and even the United States.

AllHome mainly sources its wares and goods from China.

DMW signs 50-yr deal with St. Luke’s for hospital’s branch in Aseana City

C

ONSTRUCTION firm DM Wenceslao and Associates Inc. (DMW) on Tuesday said it signed a 50-year lease deal with Saint Luke’s Medical Center for the land of the hospital that it will build in Aseana City, in Parañaque.

The company said the deal involves a 13,896-square-meter parcel of land in Aseana City.

The lease will expand DMW’s leasable portfolio to 261,888 sq m of which 171,974 sq m is total

leased land area and 89,914 sq m is total leasable floor area, the company said.

“DMW’s success has always been based on anticipating the needs of our customers and providing them the solutions they require to make longterm investments to grow their businesses,” Delfin Angelo C. Wenceslao, the company’s CEO, said.

“We are thrilled that Saint Luke’s Medical Center has chosen Aseana City for its flagship

hospital in the Manila Bay area. The signing of this agreement with the country’s leading health-care institution achieves another important milestone toward the development of Aseana City. It will accelerate our ability to deliver a complete community in our next generation city development,” Wenceslao said.

Saint Luke’s currently has two facilities, one in Quezon City, and the second is in Bonifacio

Global City in Taguig. The facilities have a combined total of 1,146 rooms, with 60,321 average in-patient admissions and 2.7 million outpatient consultations annually.

“We see a compelling opportunity for Saint Luke’s Medical Center to expand and scale operations to respond to our customers’ needs,” Arturo de la Peña, president and CEO of Saint Luke’s said. VG Cabuag

USINESS groups on Tuesday called on legislators to look into the franchise renewal of TV giant ABS-CBN, as doing so would sustain press freedom and free enterprise in the Philippines that they find crucial for the flourish of economic activities.

In a joint statement, the Institute of Corporate Directors, Institute of Solidarity in Asia, Makati Business Club and the Management Association of the Philippines aired their support for the “balanced, fair and timely” deliberation of measures to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN. They also called on lawmakers to address any issues raised against the TV network.

“We the undersigned business organizations express our strong support for a balanced, fair and timely consideration of the bills filed by several lawmakers on the renewal of ABS-CBN Corp.’s broadcasting franchise,” the statement read.

“We fervently urge Congress to judiciously address any issues raised against the company while taking serious account of the bedrock issues of media freedom and free enterprise, which allow businesses to flourish for the overall welfare of our economy and our people,” it added.

Sen. Grace L. Poe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services, on Monday said Congress can extend ABS-CBN’s permit to operate while lawmakers are deliberating on the fate of its franchise.

She is acting on the resolution filed by Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, who wants to extend the TV giant’s franchise up to December 31, 2022, to provide both houses of

Congress more time to assess ABS-CBN’s application for renewal.

ABS-CBN’s franchise is set to expire on March 31, and there are roughly 12 session days left before Congress adjourns on March 14. Without a franchise, ABS-CBN’s operations can be deemed illegal and, therefore, disrupted, resulting in the job losses of over 11,000 workers—including both regular employees and contractuals.

Under Republic Act 7966, enacted into law on March 30, 1995, the ABS-CBN was granted a franchise “to construct, operate and maintain, for commercial purposes and in the public interest, television and radio broadcasting stations in and throughout the country. The term of the franchise is for 25 years, which is set to expire on March 30, 2020.”

This is the first time business groups aired their concern over the TV firm’s franchise expiry, supporting a view by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia that ABS-CBN’s shutdown could injure investor confidence in the Philippines.

For his part, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez denied the closure of ABS-CBN will lead to a reduction in investor confidence in the country. He said the franchise can be granted to another group, and its shutdown could pave the way for the growth of its rival companies.

“My understanding, the frequency is there and it’s possible that there can be another [player]. Maybe the other players might grow, or [there will be a]changing of owners. There are a lot of possibilities, but that’s pure speculation [right now],” Lopez told reporters on Monday night. Elijah Felice E. Rosales

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PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

February 18, 2020

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE PHIL STOCK EXCH VANTAGE

53 147.9 83.4 24.95 11.46 58.6 11.66 32 20.45 169.9 58.1 0.8 17.96 3.52 0.405 841 173.5 1.12

53.1 148 83.5 25 11.5 59 11.98 32.15 20.5 171 58.65 0.81 18 3.77 0.425 845 177.7 1.14

53 149 84.2 25 11.44 58.5 11.2 31.95 21.95 170.5 58.65 0.81 18 3.51 0.44 845 178.7 1.12

53.1 150 85 25.05 11.5 59.5 11.7 32.05 21.95 174.9 58.85 0.81 18 3.77 0.445 845 179.3 1.12

53 148 83.5 25 11.44 58.5 11.2 31.95 20.4 170 58.65 0.81 18 3.51 0.405 845 177.7 1.12

53.1 148 83.5 25 11.46 58.6 11.66 32 20.5 170 58.65 0.81 18 3.77 0.405 845 177.7 1.12

960 1461360 1320400 215800 129800 2580790 30900 486800 55400 139580 3600 40000 15000 6000 460000 340 120 33000

50900 216671613 110780968.5 5395120 1488058 151729367.5 360148 15577240 1138820 23818205 211144 32400 270000 21320 192350 287300 21395 36960

-163133798 -23739954.5 -64194 26980929.5 -1951520 -15141268 192958.5 -270000 1777 36960

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.13 2.14 2.16 2.17 2.12 2.13 450000 969460 ABOITIZ POWER 31.6 31.7 32.15 32.2 31.6 31.6 2338500 74377180 BASIC ENERGY 0.22 0.224 0.224 0.224 0.217 0.224 150000 33460 19.94 19.96 20.1 20.1 19.92 19.96 1662700 33193139 FIRST GEN 66.9 66.95 66.95 66.95 66.85 66.9 149300 9,983,052( FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 268.8 269 268.8 268.8 266 268.8 105100 28126892 MANILA WATER 12.44 12.48 12.62 12.78 12.34 12.48 3173200 39641008 3.46 3.47 3.48 3.49 3.46 3.46 907000 3150400 PETRON 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.72 3.6 3.72 19000 68760 PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM 11.58 11.8 11.58 11.8 11.58 11.8 77300 905974 PILIPINAS SHELL 29 29.1 29 29.5 28.6 29 64300 1875695 9.15 9.17 9.15 9.31 9.12 9.17 37300 343185 SPC POWER AGRINURTURE 7.29 7.3 7.25 7.4 6.86 7.3 1580400 11325950 AXELUM 3.01 3.03 2.9 3.08 2.9 3.01 2847000 8567690 BOGO MEDELLIN 88.5 95 88.5 88.5 88.5 88.5 100 8850 CNTRL AZUCARERA 15.6 16.42 15.6 15.6 15.6 15.6 500 7800 15.1 15.3 15.04 15.1 15.04 15.1 106700 1611022 CENTURY FOOD 4.46 4.6 4.5 4.6 4.5 4.6 7000 31980 DEL MONTE DNL INDUS 8.44 8.45 8.52 8.57 8.45 8.45 3370300 28518796 EMPERADOR 7.5 7.51 7.28 7.7 7.26 7.51 1791200 13202395 74.9 76.6 74.85 76.6 74 76.6 266210 20146079 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.66 0.67 0.63 0.66 0.62 0.66 3080000 1995630 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.91 1.92 1.87 1.97 1.87 1.92 35186000 67863970 GINEBRA 34.3 35 35.6 35.6 35 35 14300 502000 185.2 187.5 189.6 189.7 185.2 185.2 500990 94163351 JOLLIBEE 9.69 9.7 9.9 10 9.69 9.7 180800 1779413 MAXS GROUP PEPSI COLA 1.84 1.85 1.84 1.84 1.83 1.84 430000 789940 SHAKEYS PIZZA 9.15 9.3 9.5 9.5 9.14 9.15 2540300 23796996 ROXAS AND CO 1.56 1.57 1.51 1.61 1.5 1.57 564000 865500 5.1 5.19 5.05 5.2 5.05 5.1 5100 25950 RFM CORP ROXAS HLDG 1.51 1.59 1.52 1.52 1.52 1.52 110000 167200 SWIFT FOODS 0.118 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.121 100000 12100 UNIV ROBINA 149.2 150 149 151.8 148.8 149.2 443650 66519880 1.12 1.13 1.12 1.13 1.11 1.13 3203000 3608720 VITARICH CONCRETE A 59.85 67.4 59.9 60 59.85 59.85 1030 61671 CONCRETE B 62.05 63 63 63 63 63 20 1260 CEMEX HLDG 1.54 1.55 1.57 1.58 1.53 1.55 5361000 8336830 11.8 12.28 12.34 12.34 11.8 11.82 1202800 14300522 EAGLE CEMENT 8.45 8.5 8.45 8.64 8.45 8.45 170600 1441663 EEI CORP HOLCIM 12.02 12.06 12.1 12.14 11.94 12.06 620000 7479698 MEGAWIDE 14.76 14.8 14.98 14.98 14.7 14.8 266900 3950842 9.75 9.79 9.94 9.94 9.7 9.8 9600 93294 PHINMA TKC METALS 0.91 0.94 0.95 0.95 0.9 0.94 274000 248520 VULCAN INDL 0.96 0.98 0.96 0.99 0.96 0.98 139000 133930 CHEMPHIL 178 189.9 193.9 193.9 175.1 178 170 30575 CROWN ASIA 2.1 2.13 2.12 2.12 2.1 2.1 85000 179100 2.9 2.93 3.16 3.16 2.89 2.9 3442000 10306320 EUROMED 3.06 3.24 3.13 3.13 3.12 3.12 2000 6250 MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP 4.74 4.97 4.8 4.8 4.74 4.8 32000 153370 GREENERGY 1.48 1.49 1.51 1.51 1.46 1.48 6937000 10268960 6.17 6.2 5.98 6.5 5.98 6.2 4713300 29325144 INTEGRATED MICR 1.17 1.23 1.26 1.26 1.17 1.17 229000 274410 IONICS PANASONIC 4.91 5.23 5.27 5.27 5.27 5.27 2100 11067 SFA SEMICON 1.17 1.21 1.21 1.25 1.15 1.17 819000 984930 8.13 8.14 8.45 8.59 8 8.14 953400 7842075 CIRTEK HLDG

-19350 -53732260 -14703358 2,259,529.5001) 2079684 2443012 -572890 -1426100 7158220 -861000 -135944 -28047455 3118885 -8175842.5 -6500 286280 35000 -45724014 112040.0002 -152250 -193289 -20993108 -2192180 -12035724 -801062 976506 -3447608 -96000 529500 -6250 -7236090 -2064439 -36600 8550

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.9 0.91 0.9 0.92 0.89 0.91 13973000 12677080 ASIABEST GROUP 9.98 10.1 10.18 10.18 9.99 9.99 4300 43017 AYALA CORP 751.5 752 750 755 750 752 211480 158979665 50.4 50.5 51 51 50.35 50.4 913240 46053612.5 ABOITIZ EQUITY 10.28 10.3 10.46 10.46 10.28 10.3 3655400 37676228 ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG 2.46 2.49 2.48 2.5 2.46 2.46 108000 267580 ANSCOR 6.11 6.18 6.1 6.19 6.1 6.19 18200 111790 0.68 0.7 0.67 0.68 0.67 0.68 50000 33800 ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A 0.89 0.9 0.89 0.9 0.88 0.9 403000 359630 ATN HLDG B 0.88 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 100000 90000 COSCO CAPITAL 6.24 6.25 6.29 6.29 6.24 6.24 209400 1309074 5.7 5.72 5.81 5.81 5.68 5.7 11096100 63324650 DMCI HLDG 12 12.58 12.02 12.1 12 12 30900 372138 FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC 0.22 0.228 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 30000 6600 GT CAPITAL 735 735.5 731 739.5 726 735 69530 51091740 JG SUMMIT 74.1 75 74.9 75 73.65 75 1385300 103545020.5 6.15 6.64 6.64 6.64 6.64 6.64 5700 37848 JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR 0.48 0.49 0.49 0.49 0.485 0.49 30000 14650 LOPEZ HLDG 3.77 3.79 3.81 3.81 3.77 3.77 138000 523300 LT GROUP 9.94 9.98 10.2 10.3 9.93 9.98 1118200 11152955 0.56 0.59 0.57 0.59 0.57 0.59 153000 87950 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.14 3.16 3.2 3.23 3.14 3.14 12054000 38196130 PACIFICA HLDG 4.43 4.64 4.8 4.8 4.43 4.43 6000 26950 PRIME MEDIA 1.11 1.12 1.09 1.11 1.09 1.11 24000 26440 1.12 1.17 1.16 1.16 1.13 1.13 50000 57850 SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS 1012 1014 1018 1024 1007 1012 147195 149904045 SAN MIGUEL CORP 132 135 133.2 135 131.1 135 45850 6079480 TOP FRONTIER 163 169.9 163.5 169.9 163 169.9 2340 392401 WELLEX INDUS 0.22 0.222 0.205 0.222 0.205 0.22 1030000 226560 0.186 0.189 0.184 0.205 0.184 0.186 23320000 4501540 ZEUS HLDG

-46425965 21991440 11475062 56120 366060 -19991052 22534595 7792575 -101940 -4658291 -8768800 -12544835 -2771688 -341439 -156740

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.78 0.79 0.79 0.79 0.78 0.78 150000 117270 AYALA LAND 41.1 41.25 41 41.3 40.55 41.1 13736400 564212570 ARANETA PROP 1.59 1.6 1.59 1.59 1.59 1.59 45000 71550 1.61 1.62 1.62 1.65 1.61 1.62 358000 580800 BELLE CORP 0.63 0.64 0.64 0.66 0.61 0.64 555000 346320 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 0.79 0.81 0.82 0.82 0.78 0.81 24000 19170 CROWN EQUITIES 0.175 0.182 0.175 0.175 0.175 0.175 500000 87500 4.48 4.53 4.56 4.56 4.48 4.53 163000 733840 CEB LANDMASTERS 0.475 0.485 0.475 0.485 0.475 0.48 8720000 4181050 CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY 0.385 0.395 0.41 0.425 0.385 0.385 7670000 3054600 DOUBLEDRAGON 18.62 18.86 18.62 19.06 18.6 18.86 119800 2262326 9.12 9.15 9.18 9.2 9.06 9.15 322700 2940044 DM WENCESLAO 0.38 0.39 0.39 0.39 0.39 0.39 20000 7800 EMPIRE EAST FILINVEST LAND 1.4 1.42 1.42 1.43 1.41 1.41 25227000 35782460 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.08 1.09 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 122000 131760 8990 HLDG 14.7 14.8 14.7 14.72 14.7 14.7 1063100 15637300 1.05 1.06 1.02 1.08 1 1.05 3681000 3844250 PHIL INFRADEV 0.73 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.78 23000 17940 CITY AND LAND MEGAWORLD 3.96 3.98 3.98 4 3.96 3.96 4917000 19503690 MRC ALLIED 0.2 0.202 0.2 0.203 0.199 0.2 3630000 727620 0.435 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.42 0.435 750000 324200 PHIL ESTATES PRIMEX CORP 2.08 2.1 2.12 2.12 2.08 2.1 14000 29520 ROBINSONS LAND 24.6 25.15 24.55 25.3 24.55 24.6 735300 18162540 PHIL REALTY 0.31 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.32 140000 44800 1.95 1.96 1.94 1.96 1.94 1.96 161000 315330 ROCKWELL 3.05 3.06 3.13 3.13 3.04 3.06 283000 864910 SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND 2.43 2.51 2.52 2.52 2.5 2.51 70000 175640 SM PRIME HLDG 41.15 41.7 41.6 41.7 40.75 41.7 23553300 968526370 VISTAMALLS 5.02 5.17 5.18 5.18 5.01 5.17 87100 445013 1.67 1.68 1.63 1.72 1.63 1.67 3433000 5760510 SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND 6.84 6.85 6.9 6.93 6.83 6.85 1463000 10023690

4293375 -17830 -820 58500 21000 -412086 -2567569 -21131790 213150 392950 -11072000 -11956915 1950 -802310 380739540 -5000791

SERVICES ABS CBN 17.54 17.58 17.62 18.4 17.54 17.54 750500 13367584 GMA NETWORK 5.38 5.39 5.4 5.43 5.39 5.39 240700 1299903 MANILA BULLETIN 0.455 0.46 0.495 0.495 0.46 0.46 3290000 1537500 10.52 10.6 10.6 10.6 10.6 10.6 1400 14840 MLA BRDCASTING GLOBE TELECOM 1936 1937 1964 1964 1936 1937 33050 64214510 PLDT 1035 1036 1020 1038 1020 1036 61385 63485360 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.047 0.049 0.048 0.049 0.047 0.048 5000000 237500 3.61 4.08 4 4.19 4 4.08 376000 1525650 DFNN INC IMPERIAL 1.53 1.74 1.53 1.53 1.53 1.53 6000 9180 ISLAND INFO 0.1 0.102 0.105 0.105 0.1 0.102 650000 65390 ISM COMM 1.82 1.83 2.04 2.07 1.8 1.82 100125000 192306310 2.13 2.14 2.17 2.27 2.11 2.14 2010000 4350630 NOW CORP 0.236 0.24 0.245 0.245 0.236 0.24 1080000 256480 TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 3.2 3.28 3.35 3.39 3.15 3.28 1226000 4034600 2GO GROUP 8.8 8.85 8.9 8.9 8.7 8.8 52900 465540 CHELSEA 4.46 4.49 4.45 4.53 4.45 4.46 559000 2495640 80.1 80.3 80.5 80.6 79.5 80.3 97760 7851476 CEBU AIR 119.6 119.9 116 121.8 116 119.6 2733210 321393742 INTL CONTAINER LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.87 0.93 0.88 0.94 0.88 0.94 35000 30860 MACROASIA 10.9 10.96 11 11.38 10.76 10.9 5640700 61849542 1.28 1.29 1.17 1.35 1.16 1.29 1060000 1357070 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 1.16 1.28 1.29 1.4 1.27 1.29 74000 95880 PAL HLDG 7.25 7.3 7.25 7.4 7.25 7.4 2900 21265 HARBOR STAR 1.12 1.16 1.15 1.17 1.12 1.16 227000 259370 1.38 1.45 1.34 1.45 1.34 1.45 3000 4240 ACESITE HOTEL BOULEVARD HLDG 0.046 0.047 0.046 0.047 0.046 0.047 9800000 452900 WATERFRONT 0.55 0.56 0.54 0.56 0.54 0.55 647000 354470 STI HLDG 0.58 0.59 0.58 0.59 0.58 0.59 512000 297280 BERJAYA 2.68 2.7 2.68 2.71 2.66 2.68 156000 418690 8.88 8.9 8.72 9 8.72 8.88 3407300 30308045 BLOOMBERRY 1.99 2 2.05 2.05 2 2 54000 108810 PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES 2.08 2.1 2.06 2.1 2.05 2.1 415000 854230 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.52 0.53 0.53 0.54 0.52 0.52 22191000 11658080 8.01 8.94 8.94 8.94 8.94 8.94 100 894 PHIL RACING ALLHOME 9.81 10.78 9.71 10.78 9.71 10.78 3593200 36385369 METRO RETAIL 1.82 1.83 1.86 1.86 1.82 1.82 143000 262670 PUREGOLD 38.2 38.25 38.3 38.35 38.15 38.2 1704000 65115540 71.35 71.4 71 72 71 71.4 191740 13686383.5 ROBINSONS RTL 146 149.9 144 149.9 144 149.9 18900 2748489 PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP 2.22 2.23 2.22 2.25 2.2 2.22 462000 1024940 WILCON DEPOT 18.74 18.76 18.72 18.86 18.72 18.74 2787800 52266846 0.385 0.39 0.395 0.395 0.39 0.39 810000 317950 APC GROUP EASYCALL 7.12 7.3 7.58 7.58 7.11 7.13 10100 72328 GOLDEN BRIA 420 423.8 418 423.8 418 420 340 142754 IPM HLDG 5.41 7.49 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 1400 9100 PAXYS 2.78 2.97 2.97 2.97 2.97 2.97 1000 2970 0.31 0.315 0.315 0.315 0.305 0.315 1260000 388200 PRMIERE HORIZON SBS PHIL CORP 8.79 8.8 8.85 8.85 8.8 8.8 17000 149900

16923315 -24287440 -1050 -1192180 -175000 -462025 -218540 1211109.5 -6634077 5345910 9425 -26680 -3867292 2020 -628170 -237590 -9677186 -40220 44726795.0003 -1967627 807286 -0 3957918 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 11.2 11.48 11.44 11.5 11.4 11.5 5900 67544 APEX MINING 0.97 0.99 0.97 0.98 0.97 0.97 671000 654360 -446880 0.0013 0.0014 0.0013 0.0014 0.0013 0.0014 11000000 14500 ABRA MINING ATLAS MINING 2.24 2.4 2.22 2.3 2.22 2.24 661000 1481070 -1251070 BENGUET B 1.1 1.19 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 5000 5500 5500 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.27 0.275 0.27 0.27 0.27 0.27 100000 27000 3.01 3.02 3 3.02 3 3.01 170000 512240 CENTURY PEAK DIZON MINES 6.61 6.8 6.58 6.85 6.58 6.61 13700 91791 FERRONICKEL 1.29 1.31 1.31 1.31 1.29 1.29 745000 965400 -81590 GEOGRACE 0.2 0.207 0.207 0.208 0.2 0.206 440000 91070 0.092 0.094 0.096 0.097 0.093 0.094 680000 63970 LEPANTO A LEPANTO B 0.091 0.094 0.091 0.091 0.091 0.091 2390000 217490 MARCVENTURES 0.75 0.76 0.76 0.82 0.75 0.75 865000 670930 NIHAO 0.99 1.01 1.01 1.01 1 1.01 3000 3020 NICKEL ASIA 2.61 2.62 2.58 2.64 2.58 2.61 1321000 3453230 164190 2.84 2.88 2.86 2.89 2.83 2.88 16000 45940 -17160 PX MINING 20 20.15 20 20.15 19.9 20.15 110100 2201427 -181778 SEMIRARA MINING ACE ENEXOR 6.9 6.99 6.85 7.45 6.81 6.99 129500 919358 -96660 ORNTL PETROL A 0.0099 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.0098 0.01 8000000 79540 0.01 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 13100000 144100 ORNTL PETROL B PHILODRILL 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 11300000 121600 PXP ENERGY 7.69 7.7 7.85 7.85 7.62 7.7 325100 2505729 77000

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 98.5 99.8 96.6 99.8 96.5 99.8 7790 766490 AC PREF B1 500 505 500 500 500 500 500 250000 103 107.9 103 103 103 103 2000 206000 ALCO PREF C AC PREF B2R 493 500 495 500 493 500 180 89320 CPG PREF A 100.9 102 101 102 100.8 102 8900 897723 GTCAP PREF A 990 999 990 990 990 990 133770 132432300 972.5 999 987 990 987 990 59760 58986920 GTCAP PREF B MWIDE PREF 100.2 100.5 100.5 101 100.2 100.5 73140 7357318 PNX PREF 3B 105 109 107.5 107.5 107.5 107.5 560 60200 53750 PNX PREF 4 1050 1055 1050 1050 1050 1050 2030 2131500 1015 1049 1020 1020 1020 1020 100 102000 PCOR PREF 2B PCOR PREF 3A 1035 1051 1040 1040 1040 1040 5 5200 PCOR PREF 3B 1063 1070 1070 1070 1070 1070 55 58850 SMC PREF 2C 77.5 77.9 77.6 77.6 77.5 77.5 2490 193025 SMC PREF 2D 75.15 75.65 75.65 75.65 75.65 75.65 140 10591 75 76 75 75 75 75 251600 18870000 SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F 76.5 76.85 76.5 76.6 76.5 76.5 15680 1199649 SMC PREF 2H 76 76.2 76 76 76 76 670 50920 SMC PREF 2I 76 76.6 76 76 76 76 1000 76000

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 15.84 15.88 15.9 16.3 15.88 15.88 540800 8621058 -4140774 GMA HLDG PDR 5.23 5.3 5.3 5.31 5.23 5.23 57000 302030 -53600

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 1.12 1.17 1.12 1.17 1.12 1.12 14000 15880

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 3.21 3.25 3.26 3.26 3.21 3.21 36000 117000 KEPWEALTH 9.5 9.54 9.63 9.75 9.5 9.5 321700 3073826 9520 0.78 0.79 0.79 0.8 0.78 0.79 266000 209500 7900 XURPAS

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 110 111.4 110.1 110.7 110 110.1 7580 836075 35232

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSALM sees DOF okay for ADB role in hydropower privatization

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.

(PSALM) is expecting within the month the Department of Finance’s goahead for its plan to tap the services of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the sale of two hydropower assets.

PSALM President Irene Joy Garcia, in a text message, said ADB is ready to extend its help in crafting the best privatization scheme for the CBK-Hydroelectric Power Plant (CBKHPP) and Casecnan multipurpose hydropower plant.

However, PSALM needs to first secure DOF clearance.

“Last January, I had a meeting with ADB Director of Energy Division, Mr. Andrew Jeffries. ADB is ready to engage its consultants to do the study on CBK and Casecnan once it is able to complete the process for approval by DOF. Technical assistance projects go through DOF. We expect that DOF will give the go sig-

Ortigas Land launches its priciest residential devt in Ortigas Center

P

ROPERTY developer Ortigas Land Inc. on Tuesday launched its P16-billion residential tower for the Galleon development, which will be the company’s priciest project to date.

Company President and CEO Jaime E. Ysmael on Tuesday said the Residences at the Galleon is part of the second phase of The Galleon, the only remaining mixed-use development in the Ortigas business district.

It will have 51 floors with 43 residential floors, one amenity floor, five floors of podium parking, two floors of podium retail and 43 retail units.

Unit sizes range from one-bedroom, two-bedroom,and Penthouse units, spanning from 69 to 411 square meters.

The price ranges from P24 million to P46 million for the one- and two-bedroom units, and between P102 million and P162 million for the Penthouse units.

“The project is located along ADB Avenue and strategically located at the heart of Ortigas Center.

The development has a close proximity to Edsa and Ortigas Avenue,” Ysmael said, adding that the building will have smart home features for residents.

Turnover of the project is by 2028.

Ortigas Land, a company owned by the Ayala and SM groups, first launched the office as part of the two-tower development in July last year, which costs about P11 billion.

The company said the project has been fully sold out. VG Cabuag

Jollibee income drops in 2019 despite Q4 push

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OCAL fast-food company Jollibee Foods Corp. on Tuesday said its net income fell 19 percent for the entire 2019 to P6.75 billion from P8.33 billion in 2018, still as a result of the supply chain issues of Red Ribbon and the losses of Smashburger in the United States, as the fourth quarter push was unable to lift its entire year’s performance.

System-w ide sa les rose 15 percent to P243.79 billion, from P212.18 billion the previous year.

“2019 was a very tough year for JFC.... We are very encouraged by the continued rise in customer visits to our stores...the recovery of Red Ribbon product supply in the Philippines and the very good indicators of recovery in Smashburger business in the United States,” Ernesto Tanmantiong, the company’s CEO, said.

Its net income for the fourth quarter alone recovered, reaching P1.8 billion from the P1.31 billion in 2018.

Revenues rose 17 percent to P52.43 billion from P44.56 billion in the previous year, with Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL)—which the company acquired in September

24, 2019—contributing 9 percent to the revenue growth and adding 1,173 stores to the Group’s global store network.

For the entire year, the company opened 497 stores, some 273 in the Philippines and 224 abroad.

System-wide sales increased by 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 to P72.72 billion, from the previous P59 billion, including the impact of CBTL. Without CBTL, system-wide sales for the fourth quarter grew only by 9 percent.

“We look forward to a much stronger sales and profit performance in 2020 and the years ahead even as we consolidate the financial performance of CBTL into our financial results,” Tanmantiong said.

The net income for the fourth quarter also includes the impact of Philippine Financial Reporting Standard (PFRS) 16, which translates leased spaces into assets in the form of rights of use, but not owned.

With PFRS 16, income for the entire 2019 was at P6.33 billion, down just 14 percent from last year’s P7.4 billion. For 2020, the company plans to open 600 stores—250 to 300 in the Philippines and the rest, abroad. VG Cabuag

nal within this month,” Garcia said.

The PSALM Board is chaired by the finance secretary.

The CBK hydro facility consists of the 22.6-MW Caliraya in Lumban, 20.8-MW Botocan in Majayjay and the 684.6-MW Kalayaan I and II in Kalayaan, Laguna.

J-Power and Sumitomo Corp. of Japan operate the CBK power plants.

The 140-MW Casecnan project, meanwhile, was built following the signing of a build-operate-transfer contract between the National Irrigation Administration and California Energy Casecnan Water and Energy Company Inc. in 1994.

CE Casecnan’s contract with the government will lapse on April 5, 2022, while that of J-POWER will end on February 7, 2026. The Casecnan asset is 60 percent owned

by PSALM and 40 percent by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

mutual funds

Garcia said there are concerns raised over the ownership of Casecnan. “Under the current agreement, it’s really the NIA. However, there is a back-to-back agreement between NIA and NPC, [to] transfer to PSALM the 60 percent.”

By virtue of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), Garcia added, “we’re step into the shoes of NPC and we’re supposed to get the 60 percent. That’s precisely why there is a need to study. We need to see how do we best structure the privatization.”

Garcia explained: “Obviously, we need to carve out that 60 percent, so how do you carve it out? How do you divide the assets? Is it going to be an identification of what are the irrigation assets and what are the power assets? If you look at the agreements, there are really no implementing provisions on exactly how to sort of divide the 60-40, so that’s what we need to work on.”

February 18, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 237.42 -10.18% -2.18% -3.23% -5.74% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.2456 -21.35% -3.72% -5.15% -9.87% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.3212 -19.56% -6.32% -5.97% -9.71% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.8253 -12.3% n.a. n.a.

-8% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.8012 -7.34% n.a. n.a.

-5.66% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 5.0163 -9% -0.8% -3.12% -5.86% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,6 0.7971 -9.08% -4.63% n.a.

-6.62% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 95.53 -21.92% n.a. n.a.

-7.55% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 47.975 -7.71% -0.18% n.a.

-6.45% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 501.69 -7.55% -0.89% -2.75% -5.84% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,8 0.9795 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-4.91% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.2136 -7.41% -0.32% -1.8% -5.7% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 35.6593 -7.72% 0.6% -1.63% -5.9% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.9595 -7.03% n.a. n.a.

-5.76% -1.03% -6.38% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.8901 -6.92% 0.51% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 816.43 -6.9% 0.45% -1.19% -6.38% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.7725 -14.29% -3.2% -5% -9.27% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.8992 -8.81% -0.21% -1.96% -7.36% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.937 -7.14% 0.3% n.a.

-6.37% United Fund, Inc. -a 3.4442 -6.43% 1.83% -0.18% -5.72% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 109.5792 -6.5% 1.15% -0.26% -6.31% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $1.0141 2.23% 3.69% 0.14% -1.39% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.4353 9.7% n.a.

4.11% 17.12% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5279 -11.1% -3.86% -4.97% -2.23% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0869 -9.2% -2.94% -2.8% -4.32% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.5456 -3.51% 0.56% -2.72% -3.26% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,5 0.2149 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-5.95% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.9221 0.84% 1.55% -0.26% -2.09% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.6691 1.3% 0.48% -1.31% -3.17% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 16.4183 0.11% 0.35% -1.39% -3.2% -0.03% -0.6% -2.92% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 2.0637 -3.58% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.6892 -3.03% 0.66% -1.14% -4.52% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d,2 0.983 -0.64% n.a. n.a.

-3.22% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d,2 0.9462 -3.87% n.a. n.a.

-5.04% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d,2 0.9404 -4.39% n.a. n.a.

-5.32% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.9196 -4.34% -0.3% -2.53% -5.66% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03891 9.05% 3.35% 2.15% 1.78% -0.15% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -a $1.0363 6.1% 3.85% 0.81% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.0329 13.12% 7.63% 4.29% 3.12% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,7 $1.1527 9.22% 4.55% n.a.

2.12% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 358.84 3.88% 2.71% 2.23% 0.29% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9082 2.54% 0.53% -0.7% 0.33% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1369 4.94% 5.16% 5.17% 0.66% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2359 4.17% 2.17% 1.8% 0.49% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.3632 6.07% 2.16% 1.31% 0.17% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.3875 12.04% 1.49% 0.33% 2.45% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.7868 5.89% 2.83% 1.22% -0.04% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 0.9706 6.66% 1.54% 0.09% 0.65% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.0891 9.14% 4.16% 2.28% 0.43% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.6992 8.04% 3.53% 1.64% -0.11% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $471.4 4.54% 2.74% 2.71% 0.68% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є220.96 3.06% 1.85% 1.3% 0.56% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2153 5.95% 3.13% 2.42% 0.67% 1.36% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.026 4% 1.45% 0.78% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -a $1.107 5.46% 1.49% -0.11% 1.08% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.449 10.32% 3.82% 2.93% 1.88% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0607935 5.93% 2.34% 1.9% 0.79% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2531 11.03% 3.57% 2.84% 2.45% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 126.39 3.89% 2.94% 2.23% 0.48% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a,3 1.0313 2.94% n.a. n.a.

0.49% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a 1.2562 5.94% 3.05% 1.67% -0.04% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2698 3.66% 2.94% 2.44% 0.41% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0397 2.03% n.a. n.a.

0.24% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,4 $1 n.a. n.a. n.a.

1.01% a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Launch date is January 3, 2019. 2 - Launch date is January 28, 2019. 3 - Launch date is February 1, 2019. 4 - Launch date is November 15, 2019.

5 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 6 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.).

7 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019. 8 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

"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 · Editor: Angel R. Calso

Sex-abuse claims drive Boy Scouts of America to file for bankruptcy

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arraged by hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the hallowed, 110-year-old organization to carry on.

The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in motion what could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states’ statute-of-limitations laws.

By going to bankruptcy court, the Scouts can put those lawsuits on hold for now. But ultimately they could be forced to sell off some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a compensation trust fund that could surpass a billion dollars.

The bankruptcy petition listed the Boy Scouts’ assets as between $1 billion and $10 billion, and its liabilities at $500 million to $1 billion.

“Scouting programs will continue throughout this process and for many years to come,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement. “Local councils are not filing for bankruptcy because they are legally separate and distinct organizations.”

The Boy Scouts are just the latest major American institution to face a heavy price over sexual abuse. Roman Catholic dioceses across the country and schools such as Penn State and Michigan State have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.

The bankruptcy represents a painful turn for an organization that has been a pillar of American civic life for generations and a training ground for future leaders. Achieving the rank of Eagle Scout has long been a proud accomplishment that politicians, business leaders, astronauts and others put on their resumes and in their official biographies.

The Boy Scouts’ finances have been strained in recent years by declining membership and sex-abuse settlements.

The number of youths taking part in scouting has dropped below 2 million, down from more than 4 million in peak years of the 1970s. The organization has tried to counter the decline by admitting girls, but its membership rolls took a big hit on January 1 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—for decades a major sponsor of Boy Scout units—cut ties and withdrew more than 400,000 scouts in favor of programs of its own.

The financial outlook had worsened last year after New York, Arizona, New Jersey and California passed laws making it easier for victims of long-ago abuse to file claims. Teams of lawyers across the US have been signing up clients by the hundreds to sue the Boy Scouts.

Most of the newly surfacing cases date to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; the organization says there were only five known abuse victims in 2018.

The Boy Scouts credit the change to an array of prevention policies adopted since the mid-1980s, including mandatory criminal background checks and abuse-prevention training for all staff and volunteers, and a rule that two or more adult leaders be present during all activities.

In many ways, the crisis parallels the one facing the Catholic Church in the US. Both institutions boast of major progress over recent decades in combating abuse, whether by priests or scout leaders, but both face many lawsuits alleging negligence and cover-ups, mostly decades ago.

“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children,” said Roger Mosby, the BSA’s president and CEO. “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process, with the proposed trust structure, will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”

The BSA said it is encouraging all victims to come forward to file a claim in the case. A deadline for filing claims has not yet been set by the bankruptcy court, but the BSA said that would likely happen later this year.

Among other matters to be addressed in bankruptcy court: the fate of the Boy Scouts’ assets; the extent to which the organization’s insurance will help cover compensation; and whether assets of the Scouts’ 261 local councils will be added to the fund.

“There are a lot of very angry, resentful men out there who will not allow the Boy Scouts to get away without saying what all their assets are,” said lawyer Paul Mones, who represents numerous clients suing the BSA. “They want no stone unturned.” AP

The World BusinessMirror

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

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China reports 1,868 deaths, 72,436 new cases as coronavirus impact broadens

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EIJING—China reported 1,886 new virus cases and 98 more deaths in its update on Tuesday on a disease outbreak that has caused mild illness in most people, an assessment that promoted guarded optimism from global health authorities.

The update raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and the total confirmed cases to 72,436.

A study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found more than 80 percent of the cases studied were mild and the number of new infections seemed to be falling since early this month.

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was too early to know if the reported decline would continue, however. “Every scenario is still on the table,” he told a news conference.

The seeming drop in the number of cases follows a large spike last week after hard-hit Hubei province began counting cases by doctors’ diagnoses without waiting for laboratory test results.

Health authorities there said the change was meant to get patients treated faster.

The disease named COVID-19 emerged in December in Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, and the surrounding region has been put under lockdown to try to contain the outbreak. Transportation has been halted, thousands of hospital beds have been added, and military doctors and nurses have been deployed to staff facilities in the overwhelmed local healthcare system.

Despite strict rules on use of masks and safety suits, medical

workers have been among the victims, particularly in the early stage of the outbreak.

On Tuesday, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said the director of Wuhan’s Wuchang Hospital, Liu Zhiming, had died of COVID-19.

Liu had taken part in the battle against the virus from the start and had made “important contributions in the work of fighting and controlling novel coronavirus,” the notice said.

During that process, “unfortunately he became infected and passed away at 10:54, Tuesday morning, at the age of 51 after all-out efforts to save him failed,” it said.

Earlier this month, public outrage was stirred by the death from the virus of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who had been threatened by police after releasing word of an outbreak of unusual respiratory illness in December before it had spread widely and the city was placed under quarantine.

China may postpone its biggest political meeting of the year to avoid having people travel to Beijing while the virus is still spreading. The standing committee for the National People’s Congress will meet February 24 to deliberate postponing the annual event due to start March 5.

One of the automotive industry’s biggest international events

HSBC Holdings seen cutting 35,000 jobs

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SBC Holdings Plc. is set to slash about 15 percent of its work force, and is taking $7.3 billion of charges in its latest attempt to revive its fortunes since the global financial crisis.

The London-based lender is also targeting cost cuts by $4.5 billion as it faces challenges including Hong Kong protests and the coronavirus.

HSBC, which earns the bulk of its profits in Asia, is still hunting for a permanent chief executive officer while interim boss Noel Quinn runs the lender and seeks to convince the undecided board he’s the right person at the top.

“Parts of our business are not delivering acceptable returns,” Quinn said in a statement as part of its full-year earnings on Tuesday. “We are, therefore, outlining a revised plan to increase returns for investors.”

Quinn, who is also exiting several business lines, said in an interview with Bloomberg that “it’s fair to say that our direction of travel will be to move the current headcount of 235,000 to be closer to 200,000 over the next three years.”

HSBC shares had their biggest drop in six months in Hong Kong and dropped as much as 3.2 percent in trading. The bank warned its 2020 outlook is uncertain.

Cutbacks at HSBC will also extend into parts of its European and US investment banking businesses, particularly in fixed income. In the US, assets linked to its trading operations will be nearly halved under the new plan. HSBC is also scaling back its retail network by 30 percent.

The lender will instead bolster its investment banking units in Asia and the Middle East.

A refreshed strategy is a key plank to Chairman Mark Tucker’s plans to transform HSBC as questions have mounted over its relatively poor returns given its exposure to many of the world’s fastest-growing economies, in particular China where it has focused its investment.

The $7.3 billion in charges includes $4 billion linked to its global banking and markets division, which houses the investment bank. A further $2.5 billion stems from its European commercial bank.

HSBC’s adjusted pretax profits of $22.2 billion beat analysts’ forecasts, despite the multibillion-dollar charge taken against the cost of the restructuring. HSBC had been forecast to report an adjusted pretax profit of $21.8 billion, according to the company-compiled estimate of 18 analysts. Bloomberg News

In this Monday, February 17, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, patients infected with the coronavirus take a rest at a temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province. China reported 1,886 new virus cases and more deaths in its Tuesday update on a disease outbreak that has caused milder illness in most people, an assessment that promoted guarded optimism from global health authorities. Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP

already is being postponed. Auto China 2020 had been set for April in Beijing, and its postponement adds to the many sports and entertainment events that have been delayed or canceled.

T he C h i ne s e C D C ’s st udy examined 44,672 cases of the disease that were confirmed in China as of Februar y 11. Severe symptoms such as pneumonia occurred in 14 percent of them and critical illness in 5 percent. The fatality rate was 2.3 percent—2.8 percent for males versus 1.7 percent for females.

The death rate is lower than for SARS and MERS, diseases caused by coronaviruses related to the one that causes COVID-19. But the new virus ultimately could prove more deadly if it spreads to far more people than the others did. The COVID-19 cases include

relatively few children, and the risk of death rises with age or other health problems and was higher in Hubei province versus elsewhere in China.

The study warned that while cases seem to have been declining since February 1, that could change as people return to work and school after the Lunar New Year holidays, typically the biggest travel period for Chinese travelers.

Beijing and other governments have sought to forestall that by extending the holiday break, encouraging telecommuting and self-quarantines and conducting health checks on travelers.

Travel to and from the worsthit central China region was associated with the initial cases of COVID-19 confirmed abroad.

But Japan, Singapore and South Korea have identified new cases

without clear ties to China or p r e v io u s l y k no w n p at i e nt s , ra ising concer n of t he v ir us spreading locally.

The largest number of cases outside China is among passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined at a port near Tokyo. The Japanese Health Ministry has tested 1,723 people among the 3,700 initially on board, and 454 have tested positive.

The US evacuated 338 American passengers, with most of them placed in a 14-day quarantine at military bases in California and Texas. Thirteen who tested positive for the virus were taken to hospitals in California and Nebraska, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said any more passengers who show symptoms will be taken to a hospital. AP

Lung biopsy of deceased China patient shows SARS-like damage

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octors studying a 50-year-old man who died in China last month from the new coronavirus found that the disease caused lung damage reminiscent of two prior coronavirus-related outbreaks, SARS and MERS. The patient died on January 27 after a two-week illness that left him increasingly breathless. His heart stopped following damage to his alveoli, tiny grape-like sacs in the lungs that help bring oxygen into the blood and expel carbon dioxide. Blood tests showed an over-activation of a type of infection-fighting cell that accounted for part of the severe immune injury he sustained, doctors at the Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital in Beijing said in a study released on Sunday.

The new coronavirus has infected more than 70,000 people and killed over 1,700—far larger than the coronavirus outbreaks over the last two decades that caused SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, and MERS, or Middle East

Respiratory Syndrome.

Health authorities have named the disease caused by the new virus Covid-19.

The case study of the Chinese patient, published in The Lancet medical journal, provides new insight into how the virus hurts patients.

Such analysis has been made difficult because of “barely accessible autopsy or biopsy” data, the authors said. Chinese authorities have locked down the province of Hubei, where the outbreak has been centered, and limited access by non-Chinese experts to the front lines.

The authors said the case study might be useful to other physicians treating patients with the new illness. There are no drugs with strong evidence showing they can fight the virus.

The man received a barrage of medicines as doctors in China tried to save him. That included the anti-infection treatment interferon alfa2b, the AIDS medicines lopinavir and ritonavir, and the antibiotic moxifloxacin to prevent a secondary bacterial

infection. He also received the steroid methylprednisolone to treat inflamed lungs and “serious shortness of breath” and lack of oxygen in his blood.

Although his fever eased after the drug regimen began, his breathing worsened and his blood-oxygen levels plummeted in his final day of life.

“He was immediately given invasive ventilation, chest compression, and adrenaline injection,” according to his doctors. “Unfortunately, the rescue was not successful, and he died at 18:31 Beijing time.”

Although corticosteroid treatment isn’t routinely recommended for pneumonia related to Covid-19, the doctors’ pathological findings of pulmonary edema and injury suggest that “timely and appropriate use of corticosteroids together with ventilator support should be considered” for severe patients, to prevent the development of a potentially fatal complication known as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Bloomberg News

B4 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Dongfeng Dealers Summit in China recognized Autokid's world-class service with two awards

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UTOKID has become the leading truck solutions company in the Philippines thanks to its wide range of international truck brands, comprehensive selection of truck parts, and world-class aftersales services.

As the one-stop-shop for everything trucks, businesses and institutions rely on Autokid's service, which recently won two international recognitions.

Last December 2019, Autokid was named Top Overseas Dealer at the Dongfeng Dealer Assembly Summit in China. The homegrown Filipino company bested other Dongfeng

dealers from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Chile, and Pakistan, among others.

The company also received the Best 4S (Sales, Service, Spare parts and Survey) Award for Customer Service.

Founded in 1969, Dongfeng Motor Corporation is one of China’s largest automotive groups with business in commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, new-energy vehicles, engines, auto parts and components. Autokid launched its partnership with Dongfeng Automotive Co., Ltd. (DFAC) and Dongfeng Commercial

Vehicle Co., Ltd (DFCV) in June 2019.

“The awards are the results of all our work as we strive to uphold the trust and exceed the expectations of both our clients and our suppliers,” said Autokid CEO Kevin McHale Yao. Yet even with the awards it continues to reap, Autokid doesn’t stop in innovating and improving its after-sales services.

Headquartered in Quezon City, the company is aggressively expanding nationwide to service more Filipinos in need of truck solutions. As of today, it already operates 11 Service Care Centers located at Roosevelt, EDSA, Quezon City, Bulacan, Zambales, Pangasinan, Batangas, Cavite, Naga, Oas and Davao. It also plans to open new locations in the coming months.

The Service Care Centers have over 200 service bays that can accommodate trucks of all size from all over the country.

Autokid has also partnered with TESDA to set up a training school at its main Service Care Center in Sta. Rita, Bulacan. Not only are the mechanics now TESDA-certified, they are also skilled in repairing Euro IV trucks, allowing them to adhere to international standards.

The company is also making its products and services more accessible to customers and clients. It has introduced its new fleet management system, as well as an online delivery and payment option.

INABASAN HYDROPOWER PLANT RECEIVES CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE. Officials of Ormin Power Inc. (OPI) recently received the Certificate of Compliance awarded by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the company's 10MW Inabasan Hydropower Plant located at San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro. In the photo from left: OPI Compliance Officer Joel Delos Reyes, OPI VP Legal Atty. Rhoda Cuevas, OPI President Jefferson Yao, OPI VP Finance Ortrud T. Yao, OPI Chairman Jolly L. Ting, ERC Chair Agnes VST Devanadera, ERC Commissioner Alexis M. Lumbatan, ERC Commissioner Paul Christian M. Cervantes, ERC Director III - Market Operation Service Sharon O. Montañer, during the simple rites held early this month.

KALDERO PARA SA TAAL!. The effects of the recent volcanic activities of Mount Taal became personal to many Filipinos. This is because of media reports, particularly social media, depicting the challenges that everyone in the affected areas had to go through, often in graphic detail. As a result, many Filipinos far less affected by the volcano wanted to reach out and offer whatever assistance they could.

For example, the employees of Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) who wanted to know what the evacuees needed. Kitchen wares was one item in the list. Launching their very own Personal Social Responsibility (PSR) program, NAC employees pooled together their personal funds and gathered hundreds of ‘kaldero’ (with a few additional ‘kaha’ and ‘takore’) that they are readying to donate to evacuation centers in Batangas and Cavite. NAC employees are big on PSR, pooling together their personal resources to support social activities close to their hearts. This is in addition to some P75M Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds downloaded by the company itself to mining and neighboring communities in 2018 alone. “Indeed, when a company has a big heart, chances are so does its employees,” quips JB Baylon, NAC VP for Corporate Communications.

SSS releases P178M unemployment benefits

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HE Social Security System (SSS) on Wednesday said that P178 million worth of benefits were released in 2019 under its unemployment benefit or involuntary separation insurance program, which is one of the key features of Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018.

SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio said the pension fund received 15,151 unemployment benefit applications in 2019 of which 14,895 were approved and translated to P178 million of benefit releases.

The unemployment benefit program is the newest among the benefits being offered by SSS. This allows qualified SSS members who are involuntarily separated from work to claim for a cash allowance equivalent to two times his average monthly salary credit.

Since its implementation in August 2019, the bulk of the unemployment benefit applications was received in October with 4,596 approved applications corresponding to P54.61 million released to qualified members.

“We are hoping that with the newest benefit, we will help more SSS members during times of unexpected job loss. The program was patterned after the unemployment benefit program in European countries. Our primary objective is to assist them while they are looking for another job after they were involuntarily separated from their work. They may also use the benefit for their retooling and capacity building to find a better job or work that will suit their skills, ” Ignacio said.

To qualify for unemployment benefit, members must not be more than 60 years old at the time of involuntary separation, except for underground and surface mineworkers, and racehorse jockeys whose age should not be more than 50 and 55 years old, respectively.

"The unemployment benefit can be claimed only once every three years starting from the date of involuntary separation from work. If two or more compensable contingencies occurred within the same period, SSS will only pay the highest benefit from the recorded contingencies. They are given one year from the time of their

separation to file for their benefit claim,” Ignacio added.

Member-applicants must have paid at least 36 monthly contributions, wherein 12 months of those should have been paid within the 18-month period prior to the month of involuntary separation.

Ignacio reminded unemployment benefit applicants that to qualify for the benefit, the reason for separation should be any of the following: installation of labor-saving devices; redundancy; retrenchment; closure or cessation of operation; and disease or illness​ of the employee whose continued employment is prohibited by law or is prejudicial to his coemployee's health. Separation from employment because of employee’s serious misconduct, willful disobedience to lawful orders, gross and habitual neglect of duties, fraud or willful breach of trust, commission of a crime or offense and analogous cases like abandonment, gross inefficiency, and disloyalty/conflict of interest will not qualify the employee to receive the unemployment benefit.

Summer in February: The Philippines to host Manhunt International 20th Edition World Final

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ARK your calendars, summer is coming to the Philippines early this 2020! Manhunt International 20th Edition World Final is happening this February 22nd at The New Frontier Theater, Araneta City.

Two decades after hosting the 1999 Manhunt International World Final, the Philippines, through Glam, Artist Management and Events (GAME) and Empire.ph is yet again awarded the honor to host the longest-running male modeling competition in the world.

Thirty-eight (38) gorgeous male models from around the globe, including our very own Daumier Corilla, will bring on the heat to the country as they compete for the prestigious title of Manhunt International. He is 24 years old, 193 cm tall, a Model and Actor from Mandaluyong City.

Running from February 17 to 24, the competition will feature an

exciting schedule of fashion shoots, out-of-town activities, and city tours leading up to the world final!

All these to be made possible by official partners and sponsors: World Balance by Gentrip Islanders as official active shoes provider, Fox as official undergarments, Cetaphil as official sunscreen, Rudy Project as official eyewear, John Guarnes as provider of official fashion swimwear, iSkin Aesthetic Lifestyle as official beauty and wellness partner, Event Estudio Salon as official hair and makeup team, Loo Chang Huat as official gold ring provider.

These, too, are equally made possible by Summit Mineral Water, Vitamilk, Canyon Cove, Canyon de Boracay, Canyon Woods, Brand Ventures, Inc., and the local government of the City of Manila through its Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila (DTCAM).

Visit the Manhunt International page https://manhunt.international/

and the official social media accounts for more information.

Get your tickets at https:// www.ticketnet.com.ph/events/detail/ Manhunt-International-20th-Edition.

‘UNITED BY EMOTION’ T Sports OKYO 2020 will carry the official motto “United by Emotion” for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Organizers said the slogan “emphasizes the power of sport to bring together people from diverse backgrounds of every kind, and allows them to connect and celebrate in a way that reaches beyond their differences.”

To celebrate the release of the motto, a laser mapping display will be projected onto the Tokyo Skytree tower from Tuesday until March 25.

A video featuring Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka has also been released to “share the key messages behind the Tokyo 2020 Games motto with the world.”

The motto will be used in various ways and will only be displayed in English. People can expect to see it at competition venues, on official products and as part of street decorations. It will also be used in digital media.

“The Games motto encapsulates the Games vision, capturing the essence of the ideas and concepts that the host city wishes to share with the world,” a Tokyo 2020 statement said. “’United by Emotion’ expresses the hope that the spectators, volunteers and athletes from over 200 National Olympic Committees and the Refugee Olympic Team gathering in Tokyo this summer, as well as the billions watching on television and online across the globe, will come together and understand that there is more that unites than divides them.”

“In this age where we so often connect with others without physically meeting, the Tokyo 2020 Games will inspire countless new face-toface encounters among those participating in and watching events,” the statement furthered.

“The Games will provide a time and a place where an astounding variety of people—different nationalities, ethnicities, races, genders, cultures, as well as those with and without impairments—can meet and get to know each other, and look beyond their differences.”

The statement added: “Sport gives people the opportunity to experience a variety of emotions and passions, and the Tokyo 2020 Games will allow people to witness the courage and competitive spirit of the athletes and voice their support. This is precisely the power of sport—its ability to connect people through their emotions.”

“And it is what Tokyo 2020 intends to depict with the motto United by Emotion,” it said.

“The moment when the world turns to Tokyo to share the excitement of the Games will soon be upon us. Tokyo 2020 will use this motto throughout the build up to the Games to illuminate the city of Tokyo and its Games venues.”

The first Olympics to adopt a motto was Munich 1972 which used the phrase “The Happy Games.” A slogan has been a regular feature since Seoul 1988 with organizers in South Korea choosing “Harmony and Progress.”

Subsequent mottos for Summer Games have been “Friends for Life” at Barcelona 1992, “The Celebration of the Century” at Atlanta 1996, “Share the Spirit-Dare to Dream” at Sydney 2000, “Welcome Home” at Athens 2004, “One World, One Dream” at Beijing 2008, “Inspire a Generation” at London 2012 and “A New World” at Rio 2016.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 to August 9 with the Paralympics following from August 25 to September 6.

Video-game giant Sega, meanwhile, announced that its mobile title Sonic at the Olympic Games will be released on May 7.

Featuring the company’s famous blue hedgehog, the title will be available on both iOS and Android.

It is the official mobile game of Tokyo 2020 with a preregistration phase now open.

Players will be rewarded depending on how many people register, with 500,000 needed to unlock a badge featuring Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot Miraitowa.

Training Points that can be used to unlock events and special skills will be activated for 300,000 registrations with 100,000 earning the Ocean View music track from the game “Team Sonic Racing.”

In the game, Sonic’s arch-nemesis Doctor Eggman has plans to take over Tokyo and rename it “Eggman City.”

Sonic and other characters from the series must challenge him in various sports, with his enemy promising to leave for good if defeated.

The game features 15 Olympic events, including karate and climbing, which will make their Games debuts in Tokyo.

Leaderboards will allow players, countries and regions to compete against each other.

Another video game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, has already been released on the Nintendo Switch console.

It is the sixth installment of the series which again sees Sonic team up with Nintendo’s famous plumber. Insidethegames

Tokyo 2020 organizers said the slogan “emphasizes the power of sport to bring together people from diverse backgrounds of every kind and allows them to connect and celebrate in a way that reaches beyond their differences.”

BusinessMirror

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| Wednesday, February 19, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

THE motto will be used in various ways and will only be displayed in English.

Japanese economy contracts sharply as Tokyo 2020 preps enter final stage

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Simone Biles is on center stage with Lionel Messi and Lewis Hamilton (center), who share the men’s award.

BILES WINS THIRD LAUREUS TROPHY B

ERLIN—Gymnastics star Simone Biles was named the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year for the third time on Monday, while Lionel Messi and Lewis Hamilton shared the men’s award.

Biles won five gold medals, including a record fifth all-around title, at the 2019 world championships in Stuttgart. That made her the most decorated gymnast ever at worlds with 25 medals.

“There cannot be many sportsmen or women who dominate their sports the way she has in gymnastics,” five-time Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comaneci said.

“We have to keep remembering that she is just 22, and she is likely to win another stack of gold medals in the Tokyo Olympics.”

The men’s award was shared for the first time, with Messi and Hamilton getting an equal share of the votes

from fans worldwide.

Messi became the first soccer player to get the award after helping lead Barcelona to the Spanish league title, while Hamilton won his sixth Formula One championship.

“I am honored to be the first to win this award being a sportsperson coming from a team sport, and not an individual sport which is usually the case,” Messi said in a videotaped message.

Biles was one of three Americans recognized at the award ceremony in Berlin.

Snowboarder Chloe Kim won her second straight Action Sportsperson of the Year award and the Ukraineborn Oksana Masters was named Disability Sportsperson of the Year.

The 19-year-old Kim followed up her Olympic halfpipe gold from 2018 by winning the world

championship title last year, along with the superpipe title at the Winter X Games.

Masters, who was born with deformities caused by radiation from Chernobyl, was adopted at the age of seven by an American single mother from an orphanage in Ukraine.

Last year, Masters won five gold medals and a silver at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, and the overall World Cup title. The 30-year-old Masters also won silver medals in the road race and time trial H5 at the Para Cycling Road World Championships.

German basketball great Dirk Nowitzki, who retired last year after a 21-year career with the Dallas Mavericks, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award and described as the “greatest European basketball player ever.” AP

HE Japanese economy went sharply into reverse in the final months of 2019 with the country entering the last stages of preparations for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter is said to have fallen at a 6.3-percent annual rate.

The decline is being blamed on an increase in consumption tax. This was lifted from 8 percent to 10 percent from early October in a bid to cut the deficit while permitting increased spending on social programs.

Japan is one of a number of relatively wealthy countries experiencing a rapid increase in the number and proportion of elderly people in its population.

This is increasing demand for health and social services, while raising questions about the capacity of the working-age population to continue providing adequate funding to support such programs at existing levels.

The downturn seems unlikely to have a major impact on Games preparations with public support for the project and local ticket demand both high. If anything, the megaevent may now be seen as a well-timed stimulus to demand and, hence, made even more welcome.

Authorities will be mindful, however, that the many problems encountered by the International Olympic Committee in Brazil in the run-up to the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics were almost certainly exacerbated by the recessionary economic environment.

Brazilian GDP shrank by 3.5 percent in both 2015 and 2016.

With the coronavirus outbreak in China—which is already affecting qualifying events for the Games and likely to impact Japanese economic growth in the present quarter and, perhaps, beyond—the timing of the sales tax hike looked particularly unfortunate.

Consumption and business investment in the fourth quarter were both hard hit.

Insidethegames

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Business

C2 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

RISK AND REWARD AT DAYTONA 500

Tokyo race limited to elite runners due to COVID-19

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AYTONA BEACH, Florida—In a single thrilling lap around Nascar’s most storied track, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman displayed the risks and rewards of the dangerous sport they both love.

Hamlin won his second consecutive Daytona 500 and third in five years on Monday night as he surged past Newman on the final lap of a second overtime shootout. The win came as Newman’s car was turned hard into the wall, then flipped onto its roof, where he was helpless as he was hit in the driver’s side by another car.

His car continued to skid upside down along the speedway and it crossed the finish line in flames as safety crews hurried to snuff out the fire and pry Newman loose. It took several minutes for his car to be rolled back onto its wheels, and medical personnel used solid black barriers to block the view as the 2008 Daytona 500 winner was placed in a waiting ambulance and taken to a hospital.

All the while, a sense of dread settled over Daytona and its showcase race, already pushed back a day by rain that dampened a raucous visit

by President Donald J. Trump. There has not been a fatality in Nascar’s elite Cup Series since 2001, but Newman’s crash had everyone worried.

The damage to his Mustang was extensive—it appeared the entire roll cage designed to protect his head had caved—and officials would not allow his team near the accident site. Two agonizing hours after the crash, Nascar read a statement from Roush Fenway Racing that said Newman was in “serious condition, but doctors have indicated his injuries are not life threatening.”

Hamlin, meanwhile, was trying to find the delicate balance of celebrating a milestone victory while showing proper respect to an injured driver. Initially unaware of Newman’s situation, Hamlin did victory burnouts and celebrated with his team.

Not until Fox Sports said it would not interview him did Hamlin learn the severity of the situation. Team owner Joe Gibbs was apologetic for the No. 11 team’s initial reaction.

“I was focusing on our car, and everybody started celebrating around us,” Gibbs said. “So I say to everybody out there, some people may have saw us and said, ‘Well, these guys are celebrating when there’s a serious issue going on.’ I apologize to everybody, but we really didn’t know.”

The crash was a stark reminder of both the dangers of auto racing and the improvements Nascar has made since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt was the last Cup driver killed in a race and Nascar has made massive safety improvements in the nearly 20 years since.

“I think we take for granted sometimes how safe the cars are,” Hamlin said. “But No. 1, we are praying for Ryan.”

During the long wait for an update, Trump took to Twitter to express his concern. A day earlier, he attended the race as the grand marshal, gave the command for drivers to start their engines and made a ceremonial pace lap around Daytona International Speedway before rain washed out the race.

“Praying for Ryan Newman, a great and brave @Nascar driver! #PrayingForRyan,” Trump tweeted. Newman was one of several Nascar drivers who attended a 2016 rally for thencandidate Trump in Georgia.

Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports, acknowledged the delay for information on Newman.

“To hear some positive news tonight is a relief,” Rushbrook said. “He is so respected for being a great competitor by everyone in the sport.”

Newman had taken the lead on the final lap when Ryan Blaney’s bumper caught the back of his Ford and sent Newman hard right into the wall. His car flipped, rolled, was hit on the driver’s side by another car, and finally skidded across the finish line in flames.

Drivers were stricken with concern, including Hamlin, the first driver since Sterling Marlin in 1995 to win consecutive Daytona 500’s.

“It’s a weird balance of excitement and happiness for yourself, but someone’s health and their family is bigger than any win in any sport,” he said. “We are just hoping for the best.”

Runner-up Blaney said he got a push from Hamlin that locked him in behind Newman in a move of brand alliance for Ford.

“We pushed Newman there to the lead and then we got a push from the 11...I was committed to just pushing him to the win and having a Ford win it and got the bumpers hooked up wrong,” he said. AP Ryan Newman (6) goes airborne after crashing into Corey LaJoie (32) at the Daytona International Speedway. AP

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RUNNERS, some wearing masks, compete in a Kumamoto Castle marathon in Kumamoto City in Japan over the weekend. AP

VIRUS FEAR CANCELS MORE SPORTS EVENTS A

BEACH volleyball tournament in Yangzhou, China, originally scheduled from April 22 to 26 has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) said the tournament will be rescheduled after the Tokyo Olympics. That means players hoping to earn points they need to qualify for the Summer Games will have one less opportunity to rise in the rankings.

Another tournament is scheduled in China at Siming the following week and a third is scheduled for Jinjiang from May 13 to 17.

“The FIVB expresses its deepest sympathy and solidarity to the whole volleyball community

in China, following the impact the coronavirus outbreak has had on the country, its people and the millions of passionate volleyball players and fans,” the international governing body said in a statement. “We understand that China is taking all necessary measures to contain the outbreak, so that it can reassume its rightful place on the world volleyball stage as soon as possible.”

The bulk of the Olympic beach volleyball field is filled by two-person teams that earn points on the FIVB tour over a two-year period. Yangzhou and Siming are four-star events, awarding more points than all but the four major tournaments. The Jinjiang tournament is a three star.

The Asian Weightlifting Championships

is being moved from Kazakhstan at less than nine weeks’ notice because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Uzbekistan is taking over as host and will stage the Championships in Tashkent, the venue for the Asian Youth and Junior Championships which are now taking place.

The Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) was forced to act to allow China, from where the potentially deadly virus originated, to compete.

Kazakhstan’s capital city Nur-Sultan—which was known as Astana until March last year— had been due to host the championships from April 16 to 25. But Kazakhstan is not currently allowing entry to any visitors from China and

it was confirmed at the weekend that it has withdrawn as host nation.

Weightlifting becomes the third sport forced to make other arrangements because of Kazakhstan’s policy regarding the virus.

Kazakhstan also declined to host the Fed Cup Asia Zone tennis tournament from February 4 to 8, which has been postponed, and the Asian Water Polo Championships which were to have taken place last week.

The Asian Championships will be held on the original dates in Tashkent, with the AWF Congress on Friday April 17, and the competition running from April 18 to 25.

The third and final six-month phase of qualifying for Tokyo 2020 ends on April 30. AP

Easy for Woods to find perspective even after finishing last

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OS ANGELES—The red shirt. A late tee time on Sunday.

All the ingredients were in place for Tiger Woods at Riviera except for the location.

The closest he came to the leaders was when they were making birdie on the par-five opening hole and Woods was 100 yards away—with a much larger following—as he was about to three-putt the par-five 11th for another bogey.

The closest he got to the winner was on the 18th green to hand the Genesis Invitational trophy to Adam Scott, who held his nerve and holed all the right putts on a course so difficult no one could do better than 68.

Woods finished 68th out of 68 players who made the cut. Only three other times in his career has he posted a 72-hole score higher than his 295 at Riviera, and the most recent was nearly seven years ago. He was 22 shots behind the leader, the widest margin for Woods since the

Tiger Woods finishes 68th out of 68 players who made the cut. AP

2015 Memorial, which also was last time he finished last.

So it wasn’t a good week.

It’s not the end of the world, either.

Riviera was another reminder that Woods is going to struggle from time to time, and this would be the place for that to happen.

Woods never played Riviera that well when he was at his best, which explains why he ran his professional record to 0-12 on the fabled course off Sunset Boulevard.

Think back to Woods at his absolute best. During a stretch from late 1999 until the Masters in 2000,

Woods won or was runner-up in 10 out of 11 events on the PGA Tour.

The exception? A tie for 18th at Riviera.

He probably wouldn’t even be playing if not for Hyundai taking over as title sponsor and wisely signing up Woods’s foundation to run it, and the PGA Tour elevating the status of the event in line with Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill and Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield Village.

The difference is Palmer bought and nurtured Bay Hill. Nicklaus built Muirfield Village. Woods went 12 years without playing Riviera, a course he loves but, for some reason, could never play well.

“I have historically never putted really well here,” he said going into the tournament.

He finished with 117 putts over four rounds,

OKYO—Tokyo Marathon organizers drastically reduced the number of participants for this year’s race on Monday out of fear of the spread of the virus coming from China.

The general public is being barred from the race on March 1. It will now be limited to a few hundred elite participants, organizers said in a brief statement.

“We cannot continue to launch the event within the scale we originally anticipated and we regret to inform you the following: The Tokyo Marathon 2020 will be held only for the marathon elites and the wheelchair elites,” organizers said.

The Tokyo Marathon is the city’s annual race and not to be confused with the Olympic marathon that will take place during the 2020 Tokyo Games. Those races are to be held in the northern city of Sapporo.

The marathon is the latest large sports event to be impacted by the virus. Almost all sports events in China over the next few months have been called off, including next month’s world indoor track and field championships, and a Formula One race in April.

The cancellations in China have a domino effect on Olympic qualifying, both in China and elsewhere, and muddle the picture for thousands of hopeful Olympians, families and their travel plans.

The Tokyo Marathon was expected to attract about 38,000 participants. Only one death in Japan has been attributed to the virus. The latest death toll in mainland China is 1,770.

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and the International Olympic Committee have said repeatedly they will not cancel or postpone the games, and are following the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Certainly the advice we’re receiving externally from the WHO is that there’s no case for any contingency plans or canceling the games or moving the games,” John Coates, the head of an IOC inspection team, said Friday in Tokyo.

The Olympics open on July 24 with about 11,000 athletes participating. About 7.8 million tickets are available for Olympic events, which draw hundreds of thousands of tourists. There are another 2.3 million tickets for the Paralympics.

Much of the focus in now on China. It will further intensify with the next Olympics—the 2022 Winter Games—taking place in Beijing. AP including a four-putt and a three-putt in the same round. He was 67th in the key putting statistic, which stands out even more considering only 68 players made the cut.

Is it alarming? Not at all.

A year ago, Wood started his year in the Pacific chill of Torrey Pines and finished 11 shots behind. He was eight shots behind at Riviera and 13 behind in his debut at Chapultepec for the Mexico Championship. Then, he skipped Bay Hill when his body didn’t feel quite right and he wanted a week of rest.

So he wound up playing five times before the Masters, and it worked out well for him in the end.

Woods was planning to be in Mexico this week for the first World Golf Championship of the year until canceling his hotel room at the last minute and choosing not to enter on Friday.

“The idea is to peak around Augusta time,” he said.

“I just felt I wasn’t going to be ready for next week—a little rundown and playing at altitude, as well, isn’t going to help that. So take the week off.” AP

Clijsters loses to Muguruza on return to women’s tour

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UBAI, United Arab Emirates—Kim Clijsters’s first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour match since 2012 ended with a 6-2, 7-6 (6) loss to Garbiñe Muguruza at the Dubai Championships on Monday.

The 36-year-old Clijsters is making a second comeback—this time after more than seven years away from professional tennis—but was broken in the opening game against Muguruza, a fellow former No. 1.

Muguruza broke again for a 5-2 lead and was two breaks up at 3-0 in the second set before Clijsters found her stride. The Belgian leveled the set at 4-4 but Muguruza then converted her second match point in the tiebreaker.

“I had a good feeling out there,” Clijsters said.

“Second set, I felt I was really in the match.”

The four-time Grand Slam champion announced in September that she was returning to the tour for a second time. She initially retired in 2007, got married and had the first of her three children. She returned about two years later and won her second and third US Opens and an Australian Open. She retired again after the 2012 US Open.

“I felt like for a while I was dominating some of the points,” Clijsters said about her match. “I think that’s a good feeling to have, knowing the way I started the first set and then the way I was able to

The 36-year-old Kim Clijsters is making a second comeback. AP

get back into that second set, with the type of tennis I played, it’s something that is the positive about this match. I’ll take that with me for the next matches.”

Muguruza will play either Veronika Kudermetova or Dayana Yastremska in the next round.

“I think this is just special because I didn’t know how [Clijsters was] going to play,” Muguruza said.

“I’m sure she’s going to get better and better, for sure, give us a lot of trouble.”

Barbora Strycova and Elise Mertens also advanced.

Strycova ousted Amanda Anisimova of the United States, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4, and Mertens eased past Wang Qiang of China, 6-3, 6-0. AP

orts

sMirror

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

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Wide open battle up in Superliga season-opening Grand Prix wars

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THE Grand Prix imports—(from left) Hana Cutura of Marinerang Pilipina, Katherine Briana Bell of Petron, Tatjana Bokan of Chery Tiggo, Lindsay Marie Stalzer of F2 Logistics, Shaina Joseph of Sta. Lucia and Elizabeth Vicet Campos of Generika Ayala—are ready for action. NONIE REYES

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bby Arevalo bucked the heat and the sleek putting surface with a superb allaround game by shooting a bogey-free three-under 68 for a huge five-stroke lead over Rianne Malixi at the start of the Philippine Ladies Open at the Manila Golf Club in Makati on Tuesday.

The 30th Southeast Asian Games team gold medalist flaunted impressive form off the mound and came away with a number of solid approach shots that produced birdies inside 12 feet on Nos. 5, 6 and 10 as she finished with a pair of 34s in her first official tournament at the tight, well-kept layout.

“This is my first time to play this course and I’m happy to shoot a 68 despite the heat,” said the 20-year-old Arevalo, seeking to bounce back from a playoff setback to the young Malixi in the National Stroke Play at Riviera last month and keep the country’s premier championship at home for the fifth straight year.

While the rest of the 70-player cast struggled on the unreceptive greens all day, Arevalo, a product of the San Jose State U in the US, banked on her familiarity with such kind of a surface to turn in the day’s lone under-par card in the 58th staging of the event sponsored

by San Miguel Corp., Diamond Motors, Sunsports and Eva Air. “The greens were a bit fast but I think it suits my game. It’s like playing in the US,” she said, “I just love the greens and I could’ve scored lower had I holed in more putts.”

The rest must’ve wished too, at least to keep the leader within striking distance.

ABBY TAKES CHARGE But with Malixi hobbling with a 73, Kiara Montebon carding a 74, Mafy Singson limping with a 75, and the likes of Eagle Ace Superal, Nicole Abelar, Sam Dizon and Laurea Duque groping with identical 76s, Arevalo could be heading to duplicating Yuka Saso’s five-stroke romp over Thai Yosita Khawmuna also here last year.

Sophia Abarcas turned in a 78 while Mariel Tee, one of the other fancied names in the tournament backed by Globe, the National Golf Association of the Philippines, Copok (Seascape Village), New World Hotel, Pocari, MercedesBenz, Manila Golf Ladies, Regent Travel, Hyundai, Poten-Cee, Pascual Lab, Net25, Lake Shore CCY, FHLCI

and Tagaytay Ladies, failed to get going and skied to a 79 in a tie with FilGuamanian Kristin Oberiano and Martina Miñoza.

Aussie Charlotte Huyn, likewise, wavered and made an 80, the same output put in by Ma. Alexandra Prieto and Rita Hora while Cebuana Junia Gabasa shot herself in the foot with an 81 and will have a lot of catching up to do in the last 36 holes of the event organized and conducted by the Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines.

Perez, Tautuaa form core of natl 3x3 hoops squad

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

ABBY AREVALO is in control with a solid 68.

ROY DOMINGO

new-look Sta. Lucia the opportunity to rule the season-opening conference.

“The team is a perennial title contender.

This time, we will try our best to get back to the championship,” Lontoc, the chief assistant coach of the Philippines team that won the Singapore 1993 Southeast Asian Games gold medal, told the press launch on Tuesday at the Eurotel in Makati City.

Petron will be composed of FilipinoCanadian playmaker Rebecca Rivera, Ging Balse, Roselle Baliton and Jem Gutierrez with Aiza Maizo-Pontillas and Frances Molina returning for another tour of duty.

Explosive Katherine Bell will reinforce the Blaze Spikers.

“Of course, many are saying that we had a total revamp in the off-season. But I still believe in the system that we have. It all boils down to our execution,” Lontoc said.

The Blaze Spikers will kick off the season against the Generika Ayala Life Savers in the 5 p.m. match that follows the 4 p.m. opening ceremony. PLDT Home Fibr battles Sta. Lucia Realtors in the other match at 7 p.m.

The Cargo Movers, on the other hand, are the favorites to rule the conference.

With seasoned reinforcement Lindsay Stalzer back at the helm, as well as the core of Aby Maraño, Dawn Macandili, Majoy Baron and Kianna Dy, F2 Logistics is expected to go all out to finally regain the title from the Petron.

Chery Tiggo will also be marching with a powerful roster after landing national team member Mylene Paat, Jasmine Nabor and Janine Nabor in the off-season while retaining Shaya Adorador, Elaine Kasilag, Rachel Anne Austero and Gyselle Sy. Tatjana Bokan is the import.

Cignal will parade Rachel Anne Daquis, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Cherry Vivas, Fiola Ceballos and Alohi Robins-Hardy, while Sta. Lucia landed Reyes, Bang Pineda, Djanel Cheng and import Shaina Joseph.

“We always say that Petron is the beat-to-beat,” said F2 Logistics Coach Noel Orcullo, whose team has yet to beat Petron in the past two editions of the import-flavored conference.

GlobalPort-PH 2nd in All Asia Cup

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P

ROS CJ Perez and Moala Tautuaa along with Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol make up the national team for the Fiba 3x3 Olympic qualifying tournament in India next month, according to the Samahang Basketol ng Pilipinas.

Perez and Tautuaa were members—with Chris Newsome and Jason Perkins—of the team that won the gold medal in the 30th Southeast Asian Games while Munzon and Pasaol are Fiba ranked players.

Leonard Santillan and Karl Dehasa, both in the top 10 of the local ranking, are the reserves.

The tournament is set from March 18 to 22 in the city of Bengaluru.

The four were selected by a committee chaired

by SBP Executive Director Sonny Barrios with Jong Uichico, Patrick Aquino, Ronnie Magsanoc and Eric Altamirano as members.

Serbian Coaches Stefan Stojajic and Darko Krsman are the team consultants.

“We ask our countrymen to rally behind our team in its quest to be part of the Olympics,” the SBP statement wrote. “It is an honor for the Philippines to be with the top 20 countries vying for seats for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

The Philippines is bracketed in Group C of the qualifiers with Slovenia, Qatar, France and Dominican Republic.

The top 2 teams of each group will advance to the quarterfinals, while the top 3 squads in the tournaments will proceed to the Olympics.

HE Philippine Superliga opens the season with the Grand Prix on February 29 at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan and with reigning champion Petron undergoing a major revamp of its roster, the competition has suddenly become wide open.

Seasoned Emil Lontoc replaced Shaq de los Santos as head coach of the Blaze Spikers while stalwarts Mika Reyes, Rhea Dimaculangan, Chloe Cortez, Carmela Tunay and Denden Lazaro all packed their bags for other teams.

That makes Petron a team that has yet to develop its chemistry, this allowing F2 Logistics, Cignal, Chery Tiggo and

The GlobalPort-PH team members, led by Rep. Mikee Romero (third from left) poses with Thailand Polo Association President Kanoksakdi Bhinsaeng. Also shown are (from left) Adrian Garcia, AirAsia Vice Chairman Sheila Romero, Anthony Garcia and daughter Bailey, and Robert Esguerra.

hilippine polo is moving in the right direction and the leadership of the Philippine National Federation of Polo Players (PNFPP) is extremely happy about the continued rise of the national team in the Asian scene.

Proof of its newfound confidence was the impressive runner-up finish of the GlobalPort-PH team in the recent Fifth All Asia Cup 2020 that saw the squad score a vengeful win over Indonesia at the VS Sports Club & Siam Polo Park in Preng, Thailand.

Although the team was beaten by host in the final of the six-nation tournament, PNFPP founding director and House Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero said their performance was something to look forward to especially after beating some of their Southeast Asian rivals.

“Up against some of the best teams in the Asian region, we proved we can be at par with them,” said Romero, a member of the national team that clinched a bronze medal in last year’s 30th SEA Games held at the world-class Miguel Romero Field in Calatagan, Batangas.

“Given more time to train and play in various tournaments abroad, I strongly believe we can play much better the next time,” Romero said. “The

Ex-champion Galedo back with a mission

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ark Galedo and 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21

by Roadbike Philippines will make a much-awaited return as they try to regain their dominant form in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race unfolding February 23 in Sorsogon and concluding on March 4 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Galedo, 34, vows to go all out to bag the title he won in 2012 as he leads a team that included equally strong Marcelo Felipe and

Rustom Lim in the 10-stage race staking P1 million to the individual champion.

“We will do our best to try to win it,” Galedo said.

Galedo once lorded it over Philippines cycling as he followed up his 2012 Ronda conquest with a Southeast Asian Games gold medal the next year. He then ruled the 2014 Le Tour de Filipinas.

Galedo is actually on a comeback trail

after battling various injuries the past few years and hopes to reap positive results in te race presented by LBC and sponsored by the Manuel V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation.

“I’m feeling good and confident now especially with the team that I have,” said Galedo, whose other teammates are Mervic Corpuz, Aidan James Mendoza, Nichol Pareja, Jhonrey Buccat and Tomas Mojares.

Galedo will also settle a score with

chemistry is there so we just have to sustain it.”

The Thailand event is considered as one of the toughest in the region and many polo players say it is of the same standard as the Asian Games.

After dropping its initial game—also against Thailand—the team composed of Anthony Garcia, Adrian Garcia, Robert Esguerra and Romero beat Brunei, 10-9, in a tense quarterfinal clash.

The Nationals then played their best game in the weeklong tournament by downing Indonesia, 8-5.5, to secure their first finals appearance in the event that gathered some of the rich and famous of the region, including Brunei’s Princess Azemah Bolkiah and Prince Bahar, Shilai Liu and the billionaire Srivaddhanaprabha siblings—Apichet and Aiyawatt—of Thailand.

In last year’s SEA Games, the Indons beat the Nationals, 9-4.5.

The event, initiated by the late King Power Duty Free owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was intended to raise awareness of the sport and elevate the level of sportsmanship.

Also taking part in the event are teams from China and Korea.

Reimon Lapaza, who came out of nowhere to snatch the 2013 title.

Lapaza, like Galedo, is also making a comeback. He will be racing under the Celeste Cycles PH-Devel Project Pro Team.

Also seeing action are powerhouse Standard Insurance (Navy), Go for Gold, Scratch It, Bicycology (Army), Bike Xtreme, Tarlac/Central Luzon, Ilocos Sur, South Luzon/ Batangas and Nueva Ecija.

MARK GALEDO will try to regain the title he won in 2012.

Al Mendoza alsol47@yahoo.com

THAT’S ALL

Southwoods overhauled for PAL Interclub

ONE team is out to prove that its victory last year wasn’t a fluke.

Another is hell-bent on redemption after yielding the crown deemed secured even before the first tee shot was fired.

That seems to be the obvious scenario when the PAL (Philippine Airlines) Interclub Men’s championship gets going on March 4 in Bacolod City.

Cebu Country Club was never given even an iota of hope to win in Cebu last year as it was relegated at the lower-ranked Founders Division at the start of play.

But when the smoke of battle cleared, the Cebuanos found themselves champions of the 72nd edition of the nation’s team golf championship before eyes too unbelieving to witness their coronation.

But in fairness, Cebu CC displayed sterling team cohesion, playing impeccable shot-making virtually all week as it parlayed its course familiarity into a victory that even pundits thought would not happen.

So devastating was CCC’s performance that Manila Southwoods’s “five-peat” bid got horribly quashed in a major upset, triggering a team overhaul from the vanquished captain of 2019.

“Veteran presence was what we lacked last year,” said Thirdy Escano, the captain who had architected Southwoods’s four-year winning streak.

This year, Escano has recalled Vince Lauron, the former pro who was part of Southwoods’s many successes, both at PAL Interclub and the Fil-Am Invitational in Baguio.

Lauron will rejoin his buddy, Jun Jun Plana, as Escano hopes to use the duo as anchor in rebuilding a “lost empire.”

“For us, it’s like we’re starting over again,” said Escano. “Our players know what it is we missed last year.”

Southwoods’s youth-laden squad include Yuto Katsuragawa, the Japanese shotmaker, and former junior world champion Kristoffer Arevalo.

Joining them are Jeff Jun, Sean Ramos, Josh Jorge, Masaichi Otake, Santino Laurel and Aguri Iwasaki. Iwasaki is set to join the qualifiers for the Asian Tour after the tournament.

Escano swears he has a mission not that easy to achieve, but he sounds unfazed—as always.

“We are going all out to get the first of another streak,” he said.

The tournament will be preceded by the PAL Seniors Interclub that tees off on February 27, also at Bacolod’s Marapara and Binitin in nearby Murcia town.

It will be followed by the PAL Media March 2 and 3, a battle that is as action-packed as the other two tournaments, featuring practically all the nation’s sportswriters covering both events.

Even the working class dudes deserve a break.

THAT’S IT The PAL Interclub’s platinum sponsors this year are Asian Air Safari, Vanguard Radio Network, Fox Networks Group and Radio Mindanao Network Inc. The major sponsors are Boeing, UM Broadcasting Network, Avolon Aerospace Singapore Pte. Ltd., Rolls Royce, Manila Broadcasting Company, Primax, Rolls Royce Singapore and Cignal TV. Other supporters are Uniglobe (The Travel Club), Officine Corp., GE Aviation, Seda Hotels, BDO Unibank, Smart Communications, People Asia Magazine, A+E Networks and Allianz PNB Life...Condolences go to Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner Willie Marcial, whose father, Dr. Rogelio Marcial, had passed on at 83, leaving behind a philanthropy-based legacy. Wake is at Trinity Mortuary Chapel, Pallocan West, Batangas City. Inurnment is on February 21. May his soul rest in peace.

s MLB STARS SLAM

‘PIECE OF METAL’ Sports BusinessMirror

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| Wednesday, February 19, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press

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EST PALM BEACH, Florida— Players who have won a World Series—and those who have come up short—seethed Monday at Commissioner Rob Manfred’s reference to the sport’s championship trophy as merely a “piece of metal,” saying that comment reflected a disconnect between baseball’s boss and those who produce the product on the field.

“It bothered me, man. I hated it. It made him sound really out of touch,” said reliever Sean Doolittle, a member of the 2019 titlewinning Washington Nationals. “That’s the holy grail of our sport. That’s what we show up for in the beginning of February, thinking about and working toward.”

Added Doolittle: “I just can’t believe how out of touch that is. You’re the commissioner of our game. You’re the steward of this game.

That’s a really special thing. It’s an iconic symbol of our game. Please don’t say that,

even off-hand, even tongue-in-cheek.”

As with so many things being talked about around the majors as spring training gets started, this all stems from the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scam in 2017 and 2018.

There have been calls for players involved to be punished in some way—the Major League Baseball (MLB) gave them immunity in exchange for cooperating with the investigation.

“I’m sure a lot of people were mad,” threetime American League [AL] Most Valuable Player Mike Trout said at Los Angeles Angels camp in Tempe, Arizona. “They think the punishment should be more or something.”

Some think the Astros should be stripped of their 2017 championship, but Manfred said this on Sunday in an interview with ESPN: “The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act.”

That phrasing did not sit well.

Doolittle and other players noted that the official name of the hardware itself is “The Commissioner’s Trophy.”

“For him to devalue it the way he did yesterday just tells me how out of touch he is

Sounds of spring won’t let Astros forget cheating scandal

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EST PALM BEACH, Florida—These are the new sounds of spring for the Houston Astros—a fan banging on a trash can, another calling José Altuve a cheater.

That’s what greeted the Astros during their first full-squad workout at camp Monday. And with so many around baseball not ready to forgive or forget their sign stealing, this won’t be the last time they hear it.

Meanwhile, the two-time American League champions say they are focused on ignoring the noise, and hope the official start of spring training can signal a step forward for their scandal-ridden team.

“I understand the severity of the situation, I truly do,” outfielder George Springer said. “But I think...the best thing for our game to try to do and, especially, for us is to try to put this behind us, however that’s possible.”

The Astros have been bombarded with questions about the sign-stealing scam since arriving in Florida. A news conference last week with owner Jim Crane, Altuve and third baseman Alex Bregman featuring poorly worded apologies was roundly criticized, and did little to quiet the furor around the league in the wake of the scandal.

The barbs continued Monday when fans were allowed to view Houston’s workout. A man banged on a trash can while a group including Bregman, Altuve and shortstop Carlos Correa took batting practice.

Altuve, considered one of baseball’s most popular players before the scandal was revealed,

quickly discovered the new norm. As he walked past a group of fans, a man yelled out, “Cheater!”

The Astros were found by Commissioner Rob Manfred to have cheated during their run to the 2017 World Series and again in the 2018 season. The investigation found that Houston used the video feed from a center field camera to see and decode the opposing catcher’s signs. Players banged on a trash can to signal to batters what was coming, believing it would improve the batter’s chances of getting a hit.

Manager AJ Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for a year by the Major League Baseball (MLB) and subsequently fired by Crane last month. But many around the league feel that Houston’s players should have faced punishment, too, and have been quick to express those feelings.

Bregman refused to respond directly to any comments about his team from players across the league.

“Everybody has the right to say whatever they want to say, and we put ourselves in that position,” Bregman said. “I think what we can do moving forward is learn and work extremely hard to regain the trust of baseball fans. We know that won’t be easy, but we feel the responsibility to do that.”

Veteran Dusty Baker was hired just before spring training to take Hinch’s place. And though he wasn’t part of the team during the scandal, the 70-year-old

THE Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve carries a bat as he heads out to hit during spring training on Thursday, in West Palm Beach, Florida. AP

with the players in this game. At this point, the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says commissioner on it,” said Justin Turner, whose Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the Astros in the 2017 Series.

“It’s pretty obvious what everyone thinks should happen. I mean, no one in this clubhouse or in this room is asking for a trophy to be handed us, by any means.... But at the same time, we understand how difficult it is to win a World Series. It’s hard. It’s really hard.

And it’s something that you have to earn,” Turner said at LA’s camp in Glendale, Arizona.

“It’s pretty evident to me that it wasn’t earned and it’s not something that a banner should

be hung in their stadium [or] a trophy should be put up wherever their trophies go.”

Like Turner, Evan Longoria has been to a World Series but not won one.

And as with Turner, Longoria was bothered

by Manfred’s words.

“Well, there’s a couple of pieces of metal, right? You get a ring, too. That’s a big piece of metal,” Longoria said Monday after the San Francisco Giants’ first full-squad workout in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I think everybody that plays the game knows it’s not just a ‘piece of metal.’ It’s the blood, sweat and tears that go into the, whatever, 175 games, or whatever it is that it takes to win a World Series. The sacrifices. I don’t know if he said that to make a funny or what, but it’s obviously representative of something much bigger than that.”

Joe Musgrove, currently with the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitched for the 2017 Astros and said he gets others’ frustration with Manfred’s comments.

“They don’t just hand those out, there’s a lot of work that goes into getting one of those. So I can understand why they’re upset about it,” is front and center while the Astros try to put it behind them.

“The players know the formula on how to get there and they just need me to help direct them and navigate them through this course we’re about to take,” he said.

The Astros know they’ve become perhaps the most despised team in baseball, but are trying to stay positive and focus on their loyal fans who are still with them.

“You get different opinions,” Correa said. “When I walk around Houston people are behind us, they love us. So, it just depends what you ask.”

Houston hitters might also be concerned about getting beaned after several pitchers said they’d intentionally throw at the players they consider cheaters.

Manfred addressed the issue Sunday and said there will be no tolerance for such behavior.

“I hope that I made it extremely clear to them that retaliation in-game by throwing at a batter intentionally will not be tolerated, whether it’s Houston or anybody else,” Manfred said. “It’s dangerous and it is not helpful to the current situation.”

The Astros lauded the warning by Manfred and hope it keeps that from happening this season.

“I don’t think that’s the first time he said that,” Altuve said. “He said that multiple times and it’s [good] because that’s dangerous.” AP

THE Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer celebrates with the trophy after Game Seven of the World Series against the Houston Astros in Houston in October last year as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Justin Turner is interviewed by reporters during the Dodger Stadium FanFest recently. AP

Musgrove said in Bradenton, Florida. “For me, personally, I think the ring is something that everyone takes with them and that’s a special piece you can carry with you forever. There’s only one trophy that gets made. That might be more important to the manager than anybody. But at the end of the season, as a team, getting to hold that thing up is pretty special. I understand where their frustration comes in.”

Doolittle spoke Monday about the feeling of first holding the trophy Washington won by beating Houston in Game Seven in October.

“There were tears, man.... It’s hard to put into words what it is like to actually hold that trophy above your head for the first time,” Doolittle said. “We saw how much that ‘piece of metal’ meant to the fans, going up and down the streets of DC. We all know what it means to guys who have spent their whole career in the league, grinding, and they finally got to hold that thing.”

Manfred gets to take another swing at the topic when he holds a news conference in Arizona on Tuesday.

Florida buys time for NCAA on student-athlete pay

T

ALLAHASSEE, Florida—Florida lawmakers sought to delay when college athletes can begin striking endorsement deals, and agreed to extend the game clock on Monday for the NCAA on its own to address the issue of compensation for the 450,000 student-athletes under its purview.

But the move did not slow the momentum that could make Florida the second state in the country—behind California—to allow studentathletes to make money off their names much like professional athletes now do.

While the California law won’t go into effect until 2023, the proposal in Florida would have allowed athletes from some of the country’s highest profile sports programs to be the first in the country to reap the benefits of a growing movement to undo long-standing NCAA prohibitions.

If signed into law as expected, the new rules would have gone into effect July 1.

But a Florida Senate committee on Monday unanimously agreed to push back that date a year, giving the collegiate body some wiggle room.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already expressed his support for the effort. The movement has gained steam not only among lawmakers in Florida, but across several other states.

As a result, the NCAA has been under pressure to address the issue. Last year, it vowed to take up the matter but gave no definitive timeline to do so.

While there are still differing versions of the proposal, the essence of the bills would protect athletes from losing scholarships or being thrown off teams because of endorsement deals.

For years, the NCAA had argued that

allowing athletes to profit from their prowess in the field or arena would do away with the distinction between amateur and professional athletes—a notion that has been increasingly dismissed by advocates who say colleges and the NCAA itself has for years profited from student athletics.

College sports generate billions of dollars in revenue, including $1 billion annually for the NCAA. But none of that money is allowed to go to college athletes.

Republican Sen. Rob Bradley said the legislation was long overdue, adding that advertisers and sports programs are profiting from college athletes “while the players putting themselves at risk aren’t making any money.”

Nevertheless, he said, the NCAA should be accorded more time to address the issue on its own.

“I’d like to see what they come up with,” Bradley said.

The proposal has garnered bipartisan support in the Florida Legislature. A similar proposal has already reached the House floor.

Some lawmakers expressed misgivings about how quickly the NCAA will act, but agreed to give it more time.

Despite the many decades the issue has been swirling around college athletics, said Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Democrat, “they hadn’t come up with anything.... I think they’ve had enough time at this point.”

Ever since California decided to allow college athletes to earn money off their fame, a growing number of states are looking into similar action.

Similar efforts are under way in Georgia, Maryland, New York, South Carolina and Washington, among others. Congress may also be taking up the effort. AP

Your words, Lord, are spirit and life

T

he law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye. The fear of the Lord are true, all of them just. Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before You. Oh Lord my rock and redeemer. Come to me all the days of my life. Amen.

Exploring God’s Word, Shared by Luisa Lacson, SF, MFC.

Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life BusinessMirror

Sui Generis: The pursuit of personal goals D4

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 D1

Nintendo is likely to suffer global Switch shortages from virus

By Takashi Mochizuki Bloomberg News

N

intendo Co. is likely to struggle to supply sufficient Switch consoles to its US and European markets as soon as April due to a production bottleneck caused by the coronavirus outbreak, according to people with knowledge of the company’s supply chain.

Limited component supply coming out of China is affecting output at a Nintendo assembly partner’s factory in Vietnam, which the gaming giant primarily uses to build consoles for the US, said the people, asking not to be named because the details are private. A shortage of components this month would affect Switch units scheduled for arrival in April, after existing inventory and current shipments of the console have sold through.

The potential slowdown would deal a blow to the Kyoto-based company, which is preparing to release a major new installment in the hit “Animal Crossing” game franchise on March 20. These first-party titles are the lifeblood of the Switch system’s popularity, sustaining its sales momentum as it enters its fourth year since launch.

Nintendo apologized earlier this month when it announced that Switch hardware and accessory shipments to Japan would be constrained by a virusimposed production shutdown

in China. Those products are now out of stock across many Japanese retailers, due also in part to aggressive cashback campaigns by local mobile-payment providers.

“We do not see any major impact on the shipment to the US currently, but we will remain vigilant and take steps if necessary,” a Nintendo spokesman told Bloomberg News. “It’s possible the supply would be affected by the virus if it becomes more widespread and prolonged.”

Switch shipments arriving into the US in February and March won’t pose any issue because they’ve already been dispatched from Asia, said the people familiar with Nintendo’s operations. But difficulty may arise with accumulating enough units for the boats departing later this month or next, which would be arriving in the US in April.

Shipments would not completely stop, but would be greatly reduced, according to one person.

The US is the company’s biggest market, accounting for 43 percent of its core business, while Europe and Japan account for 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Suppliers within Chinese factories, which provide components to a wide variety of electronics products, said they expect the virus disruption to last at least a few more weeks before they can resume full operation. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said their primary concern is resuming

production too early and finding a coronavirus infection among their returned workers, leading to an outbreak on factory floors. This exact fear was also voiced by Apple Inc.-supplier Foxconn in a recent conversation with investors.

One supplier said that the supply-demand balance for its component was tight even before the virus outbreak, meaning even a few weeks of reduced production will set it back severely in fulfilling customer orders. The person said they may be forced to decline some orders if customers resume operations all at once and ask for component at the same time.

Facebook, YouTube: Firm must stop scraping faces from sites

By Matt O’Brien The Associated Press

Facebook joined YouTube, Twitter and payment service Venmo on Wednesday in demanding that a facial-recognition company stop harvesting user images to identify the people in them, which the start-up does as part of its work with police.

Facebook said it has demanded New York-based Clearview AI stop accessing or using information from its flagship site and Instagram.

“Scraping people’s information violates our policies,” a company spokesman said.

Clearview has drawn scrutiny following investigative reports in January by The New York Times and Buzzfeed detailing its work with law-enforcement agencies and its

practice of scraping social media and other Internet platforms for images.

Venmo on Wednesday said it is sending Clearview a cease-and-desist letter.

“Scraping Venmo is a violation of our terms of service and we actively work to limit and block activity that violates these policies,” said Venmo spokesman Justin Higgs, who said the Paypal-owned mobile payment service is in the process of sending the letter.

Google-owned video service YouTube sent a similar letter to Clearview on Tuesday.

“YouTube’s Terms of Service explicitly forbid collecting data that can be used to identify a person,” YouTube spokesman Alex Joseph said in a statement Wednesday.

“Clearview has publicly admitted to doing exactly that, and in response we sent them a cease-and-desist letter.”

Clearview CEO Hoan

Ton-That told CBS in an interview that it has a First Amendment right to the roughly 3 billion images it has collected.

“The way we have built our system is to only take publicly available information and index it that way,” he told CBS. He also said the technology is only used by law enforcement to identify potential criminals.

CBS was first to report the YouTube letter Wednesday. Twitter sent a similar letter in January and ordered Clearview to delete all the data it has collected from Twitter, including anything already shared with third parties.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn said Wednesday it is also looking into it and will take “appropriate action” if Clearview violated its terms.

Clearview attorney Tor Ekeland said in a statement Wednesday that the company’s technology “operates much in the same way as Google’s search engine.”

Smart starts preorders for latest Samsung Galaxy phones

The new Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Filipinos can finally take the giant leap in mobile innovation as Smart unveiled its offers for the Samsung Galaxy S20 Series and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip with Signature Plans. Formally launched at the Samsung “Unpacked 2020” event in San Francisco, both devices push the boundaries of mobile technology with their breakthrough display, camera, design and performance.

New and existing Smart subscribers may be the first to experience Samsung’s latest devices by preordering at Smart Stores nationwide. Preorders for the Galaxy S20 Series will run

until February 25, while those for the Galaxy Z Flip will only be until February 20.

The Samsung Galaxy offerings of Smart are all under Signature Plan L, which comes with monthly 15GB data; unlimited texts to all networks; unlimited on-net calls; and 150 minutes of calls to all networks under a 24-month contract.

As bonus, subscribers with approved preorders for Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S20+ will get free Galaxy Buds Plus worth P6,990. Moreover, Smart subscribers who are renewing their postpaid plans also enjoy discounts on their chosen plans.

More information about the new smartphones from Samsung can be found at smart.com.ph/galaxys20 and smart.com.ph/ galaxyzflip.

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Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Pet Corner BusinessMirror

Poodle perfection: Siba wins best in show at Westminster Siba, the standard poodle, poses for photographs after winning Best in Show in the 144th Westminster Kennel Club dog show on February 11, in New York. AP

By Ben Walker

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The Associated Press

EW YORK—Primped and poised, Siba the standard poodle owned the ring.

Even with the crowd at Madison Square Garden chanting for a popular golden retriever, the statuesque Siba strutted off with best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club on Tuesday night.

Adorned with black puffs and pom-poms, the three-year-old Siba was the absolute picture of what many see as the epitome of a show dog.

Not everyone shared that view. As Judge Bob Slay studied Siba in the best of seven final ring, a fan shouted out: “No way, Slay, no way!”

Slay stuck by what he saw.

“She’s beautiful and has that something,” handler Chrystal Murray-Clas said.

Bourbon the whippet finished second. Daniel the golden retriever was clearly the crowd favorite—a golden has never won at Westminster—and fans

University developing hearing protection for military dogs CINCINNATI—Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are working on developing hearing protection for canines on the battlefield.

The head of the project tells WKRC-TV in Cincinnati that the goal is to prevent short-term hearing loss in military working dogs.

The researchers have been testing different materials and designs while trying to find how to muffle high-decibel noise from explosions and gunfire.

The US military contacted University of Cincinnati about creating the special headgear because the school has a unique hearing clinic for animals.

While the headgear is being tested and created for dogs in the military and law enforcement, researchers say they hope it could be available to all dog owners. AP

chanted his name as Slay deliberated.

Bono the Havanese, Wilma the boxer, Conrad the Shetland sheepdog, and Vinny the wire fox terrier also made the final grouping.

Poodles come in three sizes and this was the 10th time one of them has become America’s top dog, the first since 2002. A standard last won in 1991.

Siba put on an entertaining performance in the nonsporting group juding Monday night, doing the downward dog yoga pose before circling the ring. A day later, she was again at her best.

She won’t get much rest, either. Siba was set to wake up early to hit the morning TV shows, eat lunch at famed Manhattan restaurant Sardi’s, pose on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and perhaps walk onto the stage at Broadway musical Beetlejuice.

The Westminster winner receives no prize money in a sport where owners can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their pet. Instead, the reward is a silver bowl, lucrative breeding rights and a lifetime of bragging rights in dog lore.

And in canine competitions, the poodles often rule.

But this is true, too: In the world of dogdom, among all the beagles, retrievers and terriers, there’s nothing that polarizes people like a poodle.

Especially the big standard size, with their fancy coifs that would put the supermodels now in town for Fashion Week to shame.

“I don’t care for the cut. I understand it’s for function, to keep their joints warm, but not for me,” Carol Sebastian of Aberdeen, New Jersey, said earlier in the day.

Sitting with four of her Spinone Italiano pals, snacking near Ring 1, Sebastian offered another view on the pooch pageant.

“I think if they cut the poodle in a different way, they’d have a lot more fans. They’d get beyond froufrou.”

Either way, Siba sure looks the part of the Park Avenue crowd, even though she’s from Allentown, Pennsylvania—sleek, with shiny black hair and a shaved backside.

“I always say, don’t let the haircut fool you. This is a smart, athletic, active dog that was originally developed in Germany as a water retrieving dog,” longtime dog expert David Frei said.

With a more simple trim, he figured, “the world could unabashedly root for them. In the meantime, I will anyway.”

Poodles come in three sizes, and they’ve done just fine at Westminster. Standards have won best in show five times, miniatures three and toys twice.

Siba was showing for the last time, set to retire after this event.

“She had the something extra at a young age,” Murray-Clas said.

Longtime handler Clint Livingston said he saw Siba two years ago at a show in York, Pennsylvania, and predicted a great future.

“I fell in love with her,” Livingston said.

He also understands the poodle predicament.

“They’ve been glamorized and for them, it’s a beauty pageant,” he said. “But underneath all that hair and everything, there’s structure and function.”

To Sebastian and her spinone Italiano friends, there are two sides to the poodles.

“They’re beautiful dogs and super smart. There’s something for everyone,” said Andi Gabler from Fredericksburg, Virginia. “They’re wonderful dogs.

But would I want one? No.” “Our dogs like to roll in the mud,” chimed in Becky Tevis from Portland, Oregon. “We’re not that fancy.”

z

It’s a day for dogs as Brazil ramps up for Carnival

Dogs dressed for carnival attend the “Blocao” dog carnival parade along Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, on February 16. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil is ramping up toward the world’s most famous Carnival celebrations and already the dogs have had their day.

Dozens of costumed dogs joined their owners in a traditional pre-Carnival parade Sunday along Avenida Atlantica bordering Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.

“At first it seemed very strange, they were agitated, but now they enjoy a lot. It’s an opportunity for them to play with other friends,” said Claudia Idelfonso, who arrived with Bianca, a schauzer, and Luna, a mutt wearing what looked like a Hawaiian lei.

Lucia Coutinho’s 12-year-old Maltese, Bebel, came dressed in a mask and a Batman cape.

A dog dressed like a prisoner appeared to be lost, while on another corner, dogs dressed as a sailor, a nurse and a bee advanced in single file.

It wasn’t clear if the owners or pets had more fun.

“I don’t know if she enjoys it, but she barks a lot,” Coutinho said.

The parade is one of many leading up to the formal start of Carnival on February 21. AP

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Benicio del Toro, 53; Seal, 57; Jeff Daniels, 65; Smokey Robinson, 80.

Happy Birthday: Keep marching forward. Your enthusiasm, imagination and desire to bring about positive change will make a difference to whatever you pursue.

Your ability to reach out to others and offer what’s required to turn a negative into a positive will help you excel.

You’ll thrive on unique situations that make you think and encourage new beginnings. Your lucky numbers are 6, 13, 23, 25, 32, 43, 48.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Remain focused on what you need to accomplish. Refuse to let anyone distract or lead you astray. How you handle your responsibilities will make a difference in how others perceive you. Protect your health, wealth and emotional well-being. ««

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Choose to be creative, forward-thinking and willing to take on a challenge. Your insight and determination will help you achieve whatever you set out to do. Trust in your ability to get things done. Share with someone you love. «««««

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Evaluate your life, how you look, what you do and where you see yourself heading. It’s up to you, not someone else, to choose what path you should follow. Don’t trust someone trying to manipulate you to do things his or her way. «««

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You can fine-tune your life. Look at what’s available, consider what you want and strive to achieve the happiness you deserve. Air your thoughts, share with people who can help you reach your goal and be willing to try something new. «««

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Make a change to the way you present yourself to the world. If you aren’t getting the results you want, consider why and figure out how to rectify the problem without going overboard. A subtle change should do the trick. «««

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): It’s up to you to make things happen. Set your sights on what you want. Networking will lead to a meaningful connection that can change the way you earn your living. A personal or business relationship will enhance your life. «««««

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A break will do you a world of good. Rejuvenate and give yourself a moment to figure out what you want to do next.

Don’t feel you have to follow someone’s footsteps. Do what will make you happy. ««

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Invest in yourself. Follow your heart, and put your dreams first. If you love what you do, you will do well. Turn your passion into something substantial. Sign up for courses, touch base with people who have more experience and make things happen. ««««

i j

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Remember what’s happened in the past, and proceed with caution. Don’t trust someone who is pushy or trying to manipulate you. Find out what moves you. Focus on good health, moderation and protecting your reputation. «««

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Use your intelligence to get your way. You can make a change, but you’ll have to do the work yourself.

Take breaks, and protect against fatigue. Common sense, coupled with a vivid imagination, will spark robust and prosperous ideas. «««

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Handle demanding people with care. Know when to say no, and what to offer to encourage others to do for themselves. Your priority should be freeing up your time for the people and pastimes that mean the most to you. «««

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Look at your options, and don’t hesitate to make a move.

Follow your gut feeling, and you will not be disappointed. Helping others will bring high returns. Past partners will have something to offer that’s worth your while. Listen, learn and excel. «««« Birthday Baby: You are imaginative, competitive and confident. You are energetic and ambitious.

‘double and nothing’ by winston emmons The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 End of many family business names 4 Phony 9 Farmer’s caw-se of concern 13 “Taking care of that” 15 Big name in steaks 16 One committing perjury 17 Banjoist Fleck 18 Declare invalid 19 Not pro 20 The perfect guy possibly will?

23 Hauled (off) 26 Address for some generals 27 “Get ___ of this!”

28 DOJ VIPs 31 Martial arts centers 35 What to wear at the mountaintop?

38 Trellis piece 39 Thurman of film 40 Back-to-back dance moves 42 Cow call 43 “Noelle” actress Kendrick 45 Sound from a laid-back cat?

47 Item collections

9 You may turn one into a tank top 4 50 Bridal path 51 Rescuer of endangered species?

53 Harder to see, perhaps 54 Gambler?

60 Berry in a healthy bowl 61 Upper crust 62 Chantilly fabric 66 Hat part 67 Like a moon landing 68 Reverberate 69 Christmas season 70 Some are standardized 71 Perfect number?

DOWN 1 Audibly grieve 2 With 44-Down, “Wait your turn” 3 Zero, to Alex Morgan 4 Get on, like a plane 5 Hilton competitor 6 Group of buddies 7 “Nope” 8 Makes less bland 9 Nice ‘n Easy maker

0 Key holder 1 11 Swear word 12 Court order 14 Orchestral gong 21 Updated, as a kitchen 22 Starter for “week” or “wife” 23 Informal 24 Many college donors 25 Octavia and Claudius 28 Liability’s opposite 29 Cunning 30 Advance furtively 32 Authorizer of the 1611 English Bible 33 Peter who voiced Anton Ego in Ratatouille 34 Shampoo site 36 Jerry’s frenemy 37 In addition 41 Old-fashioned lover?

44 See 2-Down 46 Circulate among the guests 48 ___ Lanka 52 Showed deference to a queen 53 Levels

4 Treat with kid gloves 5 55 Earth tone 56 Place for a scorpion’s stinger 57 Stuff in sticky sticks 58 Storage containers 59 Louisiana, e.g., in Lyon 63 Do something 64 Michael on SNL 65 Indefinitely long time Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

D3

Seventeen holds perfect ‘Ode to You World Tour’ ending in Manila

By Gianna Maniego

hen it comes to watching a K-pop concert, it doesn’t pay to watch with preconceived notions.

For example, if you watch it thinking, “Oh they’re going to sing and dance like all the other K-pop groups,” then you’ll probably be done with the concert in the first 15 minutes. I mean, if you’re a fan you probably know all their songs and faces, and singing most of their songs is probably the most routine you’ve ever done in the long stretch of fangirling you’ve been through.

But if you’re there for the entertainment, the energy, the fun and camaraderie of celebrating a united effort, then attending a concert is quite an event—something you may not truly be prepared for.

As someone who’s been checking out concerts since 2010, I’m pretty familiar with how K-pop concerts are run.

They’re lengthy (much longer than Western concerts), they’re super fascinating, and they’re guaranteed to keep you preoccupied for two-anda-half hours—at the very least.

But if you’ve been watching Seventeen since they’ve been coming here in 2016, you’re used to something more.

Seventeen concerts are conducted like the events that they truly are.

This is because, I think, Seventeen really wants to sing and perform for the crowd, no matter how small or big these are, and pulls something extra to make their concerts really something to watch—not to mention talk, gush and go mad about.

In the case of Carats (what Seventeen fans are called), it’s also the perfect opportunity to meet up with each other, come together, and ooh about biases with significant whines of “miss ko na sila” after the concert.

This time around—February 8, in fact, for their Ode to You World Tour—Seventeen came with so many things to make up for.

Aside from the usual traffic and crowded streets, concertgoers had to deal with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, enforcing concert organizer Pulp to make sure everyone came wearing face masks.

Then also there was the absence of team leader Choi Seungcheol, otherwise known as S.Coups, who was on hiatus because he was suffering from anxiety attacks—a fact no sane Carat could forget during the event.

As concerts go, this one was not really expected to be as big a hit as its usual shows.

But, of course, a lot of these non K-pop fans did not really account for Seventeen and the devotion of Carats.

The venue began filling up really early, as Carats and fansites began arriving at the Mall of Asia area way before lunch. (Of course, it did, as most came to catch up with their fan friends, give away, sell or trade merchandise and meet up with fans from overseas.)

Pulp started things off properly by issuing health notices that each concertgoer had to fill up and submit before getting his and her temperature taken. There were no crowds—opening other entrances made things easier for everyone. Everyone met up and stayed inside to make sure order was kept. To be honest, Carats stayed properly seated until the concert started (which totally surprised me actually).

It took a while, but the seats and the standing areas really filled up—which, unless you’re watching other concerts except for Exo and BTS, was really kind of pleasantly unusual.

The Mall of Asia Arena kept up a stream of Seventeen songs that the audience kept singing along with—from “Don’t Wanna Cry” to “Rock,” and other songs in between. And every time a Seungcheol part came along, everyone started cheering louder than usual.

And can we say the fan chants rocked? They did.

Attendees were armed with their phones, Carat bongs (Seventeen lightsticks), uchiwas (image pickets or fans) and different kinds of banners to show their biases. They swayed to the music even as MOA issued warnings against taking photos and recordings of the group (offenders would be asked to leave the venue without any refunds).

The concert got started with a frenetic edition of “Getting Closer,” as all 12 members danced to the song.

That’s all 12 members, plus the majority of the arena, since everyone sang the song with them.

This was followed by “Rock” and “Clap,” old-time favorites, before they gathered together for their opening ments (speaking parts).

The boys noted that it had been a long time since they performed in Manila and missed Filipino audiences.

“Hello Manila, long time no see. Mahal kita,” acknowledged DK.

Minghao said, “Miss ko na kayo!” while Seungkwan called the crowd, “Beautiful,” earning the undying love of Carats.

Hoshi, who took over the leader chores in the absence of Seungcheol, enjoyed his “wangjanim [prince]” time with the crowd and sent them some “horanghae” (his version of Hoshi love).

He also taught everyone a simple choreo for “Ode to You,” which he asked everyone to practice together.

The group then essayed into “Thanks” and “Don’t Wanna Cry,” with Mingyu doing the Seungcheol parts.

Carats enjoyed a string of videos focusing on the individual units in the group—hiphop, performance and vocal. Each unit then played two of their songs to the enjoyment of the Carats.

The hiphop unit, in red and black outfits, performed “Trauma” and a jazzed up version of “Chilli.” The performance team, in black outfits and white kimonos, followed this up with “Lilili Yabbay” and “Whisper.”

The vocal unit closed things up with “Hug” and “Don’t Listen in Secret.”

You would think people would refrain from recording the performances, right? Nope. It seems like everything was allowed that night (except going up to the boys and hugging them onstage).

Seventeen then sang “Can’t See the End,” with extra cheering and singing from the crowd during the Seungcheol parts, and “Smile Flower” (at one point Hoshi just stood and listened to the crowd singing).

Then came another string of videos before the boys got into the “history” part of the show—the Seventeen Museum—in which they sang all-time faves “Akkinda [Adore You],” “Mansae,” “Pretty You,” “Oh My” and an all-12 version of BooSeokSoon’s “Just Do It.” Everyone in the arena had a rocking time dancing!

More videos were showed before the boys followed up with “Good to Me” and the hippy hippy swaying of “Happy Ending,” which technically ended the concert.

The boys tried to do audience request but when the audience asked them to do “Tala” like Winner, they skipped, mainly because Mingyu couldn’t get what Filipinos wanted them to do. So they decided to just do their ending spiels.

Dino, who was going to celebrate his birthday two days later, enjoyed quite a lot of attention (yes, he’s pretty popular, along with Jeonghan, Josh and Vernon).

Jun, another popular Seventeener, said he was happy to be in Manila and ate pata tim to commemorate things.

Vocal boss Woozi spoke about being excited to see the Manila crowd and was happy that fans came out to watch.

All of Seventeen, most vocally Hoshi, said they were “totally impressed” with the energy in Manila and were so glad to be back here.

They told their fans to await Seventeen’s next promos and not to forget them—something that Carats are unlikely to do—until they come back.

The crowd answered with “Walang uuwi!” and waited for the boys to do their encore—which included “Fear,” “19” and innumerable comebacks (at least 10!) of “Aju Nice”—before they finally filed out of MOA, happy and satisfied, but kind of sad because another concert was done.

Later, Pledis announced it had suspended all following concerts because of the coronavirus and Manila was effectively the last stop in the Seventeen “Ode To You World Tour.”

It was unexpected and oddly poetic that the world tour ended as it did, but the Manila crowd was so happy Seventeen managed to make the show and will remember things until the next Seventeen concert.

BLIND SPOT

“frozen delight,” meaning a star without a project or a future. Some of the other stars would reportedly give gifts amounting to hundreds of thousands, including undisclosed sums of cash. Starlets like her who can’t afford that are definitely on the losing end.

W

BRUCE C.

THE RIFT

ANOTHER TRANSFER?

There’s a rumor that this young actor, who is very popular but whose career has not taken off as it should, will transfer to another network. The actor has been beset by love problems, including a sex scandal that’s even more scandalous than most. Even the actor’s relative, who is helping him with his career, already wants to give up because the actor is stubborn and willful. The actor is lucky that another network seems interested in him and he is seriously considering the transfer. The only thing stopping him right now is the fact that he and his girlfriend (the same one in the infamous sex video) belong to the same network. The actor’s girlfriend has been very patient with him, even during the times that he reportedly dabbled in drugs.

She has stood by him even when everyone told her that she shouldn’t. So there lies his dilemma.

GIFT-GIVING

When the starlet transferred to another network, one of the first things she did was to gift one of the people handling her career with a designer bag. Needless to say, that person was shocked. She was surprised at the gift because she hasn’t done anything yet for the starlet’s career. The person did not hesitate to ask why she was being given such an extravagant gift. The starlet explained that in her old network, in order for them to get new projects, they’d need to give expensive gifts plus cash to those handling their careers. This is reportedly one of the reasons why she became a

Everyone is wondering about the obvious rift between two celebrities who are related. It has reached the point that the younger one has returned things that were given to her by her older relative.

The older celebrity is puzzled at the younger one’s actions. She doesn’t remember them fighting over anything serious. The younger relative is sore at the older one because of her husband. The younger celebrity reportedly knows something incriminating about the older relative’s husband, who she was close to in the past. No one knows what it is that happened between the husband and the younger celebrity which caused the rift between the relatives. It must be serious as they have been through so much together.

It’s just strange and sad that they have come this far only for this to happen when there was a time that they only had each other.

SHE SHOULD’VE LISTENED

When the controversial celebrity fell in love with the multi-awarded actor, well-meaning people told her that he had many issues. One of these issues is that he is a drunkard and when he is drunk, he would lose his dignity. His ex-girlfriend once revealed that the actor once relieved his bowels while drunk and this was at a famous nightspot at that time. The controversial celebrity was in love so she didn’t listen. She gave up her career and defied her family, who had misgivings about the actor. It turns out they were right about him.

The relationship didn’t turn out well. In fact, there was a time that the controversial celebrity needed to take legal action against the actor. All’s well now. The controversial celebrity has decided she would be OK with being civil to her ex just to avoid any trouble—but she would never go back to him. In fact, she has found someone new, someone who is more suited to her.

The boys kept the crowd enamored with their Seventeen Museum sketch PHOTO BY NELEEN CAMAMA

Everyone enjoyed Wonwoo on the big screen

Minghao channels his bboy moves PHOTO BY KEI RUBAYA

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D4 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

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The pursuit of personal goals

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here were so many things I wanted to become when I was a kid. I used to think I would end up as a scientist. . .until I learned I had to memorize so many terms and concepts. Then I wanted to become a writer because I was amazed at how authors could create a world of their own in the characters and scenes they wrote, but relatives told me I would not make it. (Your relatives have obviously been proven wrong.

Ed.) My father had other ideas because he really wanted me to become a lawyer, thus the yearlong stint in law school which helped me decide that it was really not for me. I enjoyed teaching in Sunday school so I thought of giving teaching a try, and I enjoyed it for seven years. I still teach but in a corporate setting and the chalk and the board have given way to the computer as a means of teaching others. I only discovered what I love doing and what I want to do with my life in my mid 30s.

Some people might think that it is already too late for me, but I think I peaked at the right moment when I needed to. I also discovered that if I do not set clear goals for myself, other people will decide it for me—which was pretty much how it was in my younger days because I have always been a peoplepleaser. This started in my family and eventually spilled off to other relatives and friends. It became difficult for me to actually identify clear goals for myself because there were so many people I wanted to please and whose opinions I had to consider.

What helped me was taking the time for myself and thinking through what I wanted to accomplish.

So in order for you to understand yourself and set clear personal goals, take the time to list down what excites you. What are you passionate about, or, to look at it from a different angle, what riles you up?

Sometimes, what makes you angry or heartbroken are your passions, and these point you to goals you may not have thought of before. What are you passionate about? You will know what this is by thinking through your activities and discovering which one invigorates and satisfies you even if it may seem tiring. It may be your career, or the organizations or causes you belong to, or even what you do on a weekend. But one thing should be clear to you: you get a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction from doing it repeatedly even if nobody asks you to.

Setting goals for yourself also does not mean listing down everything you want to accomplish all at the same time. Focus on one goal at a time and let that goal dictate your activities and guide your decisions. Be very circumspect about what you want to achieve, and make sure you understand what it will cost you and that you are willing to pay the price.

Now that you have identified where your life’s passion lies, set clear goals on what you want to

achieve. If you look at success stories, people have clear goals on what they want to achieve and relentlessly push themselves to achieve them because they have a good grasp of where they want to go. So set your goals in such a manner where you can definitely say you have reached your goal and avoid setting goals as if they were just a possibility.

Purpose in your heart to set goals for yourself and pursue them doggedly.

After being clear with your goals, you have to be as specific as you can in outlining action plans to achieve them. People who achieve their goals not only have a good grasp of what they want to accomplish, but they also know how to get there.

One good way is to list down the action plans by working yourself backward from your goal until you reach the state where you are right now. This will help you identify what you need to do to reach your goal, and at the same time this forces you to think of tangible and realistic action plans. Once you have listed them down, it will become easier for you to identify what you need to do next and even have the mindset to say no to activities which detract from your goal.

There will be instances when you will do something opposite to your goals. Once you catch yourself, get back on track. Notice that when you use

How to navigate your most dangerous decade

By Liz Weston NerdWallet

Losing a job is almost always traumatic. In your 50s, job loss can be devastating—and devastatingly common.

More than half the workers who entered their 50s with stable, fulltime jobs were laid off or pushed out at least once by age 65, according to an analyhelprofit newsroom ProPublica and the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Only 10 percent of those who lost a job ever found another that paid as much, and most never recovered financially.

Such concerns may seem remote in a booming economy, when the official unemployment rate is 3.5 percent overall, and just 2.4 percent for those 55 and over. But recessions are inevitable, and even in good times older workers can be more vulnerable to involuntary job loss because of age discrimination.

These realities make it important to have a plan for navigating what could be your most dangerous decade.

STEP UP

It can be tempting after decades of work to think you can coast to retirement. But older workers who aren’t proactively adding skills are more likely to be laid off, says Susan Weinstock, vice president, financial resilience programming at AARP. “If the economy tanks, they’ll be the first to go,” Weinstock says. “Staying current in your field is really important.”

Weinstock recommends that older people take advantage of any training opportunities their employers offer, volunteer for new assignments and become both “a mentor and mentee.” A younger coworker could help you stay up-to-date with the latest technologies used by your office, for example.

“This is a great way for you to learn from someone else and to build more relationships,” Weinstock says.

And when it comes to relationships, more is better. Weinstock urges older workers to keep growing their networks, since most new jobs are found through someone you know.

SAVE MORE, SAVE EARLIER

“Catch up” provisions were created to help workers supercharge their

savings in the years before retirement. In 2020, for example, employees 50 and older can contribute up to $26,000 to workplace retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, compared with the limit of $19,500 for younger workers.

If you can take advantage of these provisions, great, but it’s risky to put off saving for retirement expecting to make up for it later. A better plan is to start saving as soon as possible and to increase your savings rate whenever you can.

You also probably need to beef up that emergency fund. The average length of unemployment for people 45 to 54 is a little over five months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For people 55 to 64, it’s just shy of six months. In a recession, those durations likely will grow.

BORROW LESS

Many people find their ability to save is hampered by the amount of debt they have. Federal Reserve statistics show that households headed by people 45 to 54 years old owed more than twice as much in 2016 as similar households in 1989.

Limiting how much you owe as you age can give you more financial flexibility. If you’re refinancing a mortgage, for example, consider choosing a loan term that allows you to be debt free by retirement, if not before. Be cautious about borrowing money for education, either for yourself or a child, since the loans typically can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, and could be tough to pay back if you lose your job.

WEAN THE KIDS

Many parents provide their adult children with some financial support, and it’s typically for household expenses rather than emergencies. But ongoing handouts could jeopardize your financial health and theirs. Setting clear financial boundaries can help you wean them off the family dole.

REACT FAST

You may find another job quickly if you lose your current one, but it’s best to act as if you won’t by cutting nonessential spending, asking lenders about possible forbearance or hardship programs, and staying in touch with your network.

“If you see this coming, start looking immediately,” Weinstock says. “And actually I would say, always keep your eye out. There’s no reason not to, because you never know what could happen.” AP

these locator apps and you take a wrong turn, the app automatically adjusts its directions based on where you are at the moment and recalibrates so you will still reach your destination. In the same manner, when you lose track of your goals, stop and get your bearings, then proceed from where you are at the moment. Rather than lose your goal altogether, you need to evaluate how the detour can work to your advantage.

Write down your goals as if their pursuit is already in the present. There is merit in doing so because of the positive mindset this projects. Stating as if their realization is happening already helps repel negative thoughts and primes you to take action to make it happen rather than let events or distractions get the best of you. Writing your goal in the present also helps you visualize the end state and will inspire you to continue in reaching your goal.

Setting personal goals will help you stay focused on what you want to achieve and avoid activities which might compromise your success. It takes selfreflection, planning, and the tenacity to incessantly pursue those goals to its fruition for you to achieve the best version of yourself. In the end, your growth as a person and as a professional will rest wholly on how much time, effort and resources you have invested in yourself.

Write down your goals as if their pursuit is already in the present.

There is merit in doing so because of the positive mindset this projects. Stating as if their realization is happening already helps repel negative thoughts and primes you to take action to make it happen rather than let events or distractions get the best of you. Writing your goal in the present also helps you visualize the end state and will inspire you to continue in reaching your goal.

AXA Philippines supports cancer prevention programs within their reach. We believe education is still the best approach to prevention. We are grateful to the Philippine Cancer Society for giving us the opportunity to be part of this program.”

PCS Executive Director Dr. Rachael Rosario pointed out, “The incidence of cancer in the country is growing at an alarming rate. It is important to educate everyone, most especially young people, that a healthy lifestyle is critical to cancer prevention. We need all the help we can get, and we are thankful to have found a partner in AXA.” Under the program, AXA Philippines will hold various initiatives that support cancer prevention by stressing the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

Foremost of these is a health campaign in schools to raise anti-tobacco awareness, plus lectures on obesity and the ill effects of sugar, and a fun postermaking contest for students.

Free cervical cancer screening and clinical breast examination

by PCS health-care providers will be offered to adults in the schools.

Aside from the partnership with PCS, AXA also seeks to create awareness of and promote protection from this deadly disease through insurance products that offer coverage for critical illnesses. The Health Start insurance product (axa.com.ph/ healthstart), for example, offers protection from life-threatening AXA Philippines Chief of Retail Propositions Alok Rungta (from left), illnesses, including cancer, stroke President and CEO Rahul Hora, Philippine Cancer Society Executive and heart attack, at an affordable Director Dr. Rachael Rosario and Education and Information Committee price.

Chairman Emily Altomonte-Abrera

More than 140,000 new cancer cases and more than 80,000 cancer deaths are recorded in the Philippines every year, according to the 2018 Global Data on Cancer.

In light of these alarming numbers, AXA Philippines, one of the country’s leading insurance providers, is working with the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) to increase cancer awareness and preparedness among Filipinos.

The partnership supports Republic Act 11215, National Integrated Cancer Control Act, which aims to prevent cancer and improve cancer survivorship by increasing investments for programs to fight the ailment.

AXA President and Chief Executive Officer Rahul Hora said, “At AXA, we want to help people live healthy lives and know that a better life is

BusinessMirror E1 | Wednesday, February 19, 2020 • Editor : Tet Andolong

“Agriya” project

Revving up ‘agropolis’ living in PHL

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By Roderick L. Abad

equip tourists a real and firsthand take on it, stimulating a sense of adventure and imbibing to children its significance.

According to him, this the first township project for DLI that boasts the province’s vast agriculture industry. As the company anchors it with tourism, the top executive noted of its objective to beef up its position as a developer that innovates the real-estate sector via its heritage and technology, and improving the lives of the community.

@rodrik_28

EADING real-estate company Damosa Land Inc. (DLI) has officially launched its multibillion-peso mixed-use development project called the “Agriya,” which is envisioned to become an agricultural metropolis or “agropolis” that will soon sprout in the fertile land of Davao.

Spanning at a total of 88 hectares, this idyllic township will have, in its 40-hectare initial phase, a 9-hectare residential, 24-hectare commercial, 9-hectare agritourism and another 9-hectare institutional component.

“So, basically, what Agriya is, it’s a master-planned community, whose central theme is agriculture.

And I think that’s something that will really set us apart from a lot of other master-planned projects that you can find all over the country,” DLI First Vice President (FVP) Ricardo F. Lagdameo said during their kickoff event held at the project’s site in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

“No one is really focusing on agriculture. And we figured that with our agricultural expertise and background, that it would only be fitting that a group such as ours would undertake this project,” he added.

This first agritourism city in Mindanao and in the Davao region comes at an opportune time when farm tourism is widely pushed and propagated all over the Philippines. In fact, a total of 203 farm tourism sites has been already accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) as of December 2019, and still counting.

“It’s a noble thing what you are doing here at Agriya, highlighting the merits and importance of agriculture for a great number of people right in the community

where they live and work,” keynoted Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat.

“Congratulations to Damosa Land as you launch this insightful forward-thinking project. I wish nothing but the best for t his l aud able endeavor— one that shares the DOT’s dream of a better tomorrow for all Filipinos,” she said.

Nurturing minds, cultivating commerce

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat (third from left) leads the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the offical launch of Damosa Land Inc.’s first agritourism city project called “Agriya” held at it’s site in Panabo City, Davao del Norte. Joining her are the top executives of DLI, the property developer.

Vibrant community

AGRIYA is a breath of fresh air in township development in the country today, such that it prov ides contemporar y-desig ned dwellings yet grounded in the culture and vibe of its countryside location.

“What we envision here [is] it would be a green, walkable, livable community that your family can grow with,” Lagdameo said.

Its residential village called “Ameria” offers future residents 177 house and lots that boast of wide-open areas that provide not only living spaces but also their own backyards.

They can choose from house models, namely, Acacia, Aurora, Bougainvillea, Caballero, Jasmine, Magnolia, and Molave, with floor areas from 52 square meters to 232 sq m, as well as lot areas from 204 sq m to 450 sq m. Price range is between P6 million to P15 million This gated low-density community has top-notch amenities, such as a central clubhouse with a

DAMOSA Land Inc. First Vice President Ricardo F. Lagdameo delivers his speech during the offical launch of “Agriya” held at the project’s site in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

multipurpose hall, playground and a swimming pool. Also, it has provisions for water cistern to ensure constant supply of water.

Ameria has a big allocation of more than 6,000 sq m for open parks, playgrounds and community garden patches. To achieve exclusivity and privacy, it’s generously landscaped setback from the main road.

“To date, we’re close to 40 percent sold out already,” he said of the take up on the house and lots since they started preselling them in October of 2019. “We’re hoping to be sold out 100 percent within the year.”

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat keynotes the offical launch of Damosa Land Inc.’s first agritourism city project called “Agriya” held at it’s site in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

Depending on the buyers’ readiness to move in, this high-end residential project will commence construction of houses by end of 2020. DLI considers to build two more additional subdivisions to offer a rare opportunity for investors to own a piece of the country’s “Food Basket” that is Mindanao, particularly Davao.

Making agriculture sexy again

U N L I K E ot her convent ion a l mixed-use projects out there, progressive agriculture takes center stage at Agriya. It also opens doors to a bright future for other industries like tourism.

“Why agriculture? For us, it’s really a way of having a project that’s really relevant to the region, especially here in Panabo City. And again, we have to do our part in giving importance to agriculture, or as we always like to say, ‘Let’s try to make agriculture sexy again.’ So this is one way of doing it through real estate and through tourism.

So it is possible to promote agriculture through other kinds of industries and different kinds of means,” the FVP explained.

Championing sustainability via urban farming, the township has in-house agriculturists that will educate its residents on backyard farming and showcase the region’s wealthy produce, such as banana, high-value crops and aquaculture.

“It’s becoming such a trend nowadays. People want to know where their food is from. They want to eat healthy. They want to eat things that are not pumped with steroids and chemicals, and things like that. So we think that moving forward, that’s really going to be the trend of how people eat,” Lagdameo said.

For people to appreciate more of agriculture, Agriya’s theme park called “Naturetainment” will

APPARENTLY, DLI always takes care of the future of its residents and locators across all its development projects.

As such, Agriya will be the home of the country’s premier agricultural institution, the University of the Philippines-Professional School for Agriculture and the Environment (UP-PSAE). This will offer agricultural courses to potential students and granting them lucrative professions in the future.

The homegrown developer is donating around 3 hectares of the total land area of the property to the UP-PSAE for the construction of its campus, housing multiple classrooms, auditorium and other structures, such as greenhouses, laboratories, and more. Construction of the first building will begin in the second quarter of this year.

In a couple of years, a commercial arcade of this agropolis will be built, with a variety of dining places, retail shops and a boutique hotel for the tourists.

“What we hope to achieve over the next few years is we want to see a thriving community that the city can be proud of. We want this to be a tourism destination that can really bring more tourists to Panabo City, and to continue to help the city to grow. And I think, most of all, what we want to see here is that we continue our group’s vision and legacy of uplifting the lives of the people and the communities here in Mindanao, which is something that we’ve been doing for over 70 years now,” Lagdameo stressed.

Business

E2 Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Anchor Land in Manila Chinatown

families convenience, comfort, and a great start in their journey to build their own legacies.

Princeview Parksuites

The perfect balance between life and work is most possible at Princeview Parksuites.

Located along Quintin Paredes Street in Binondo, this 39-story residential development offers spacious residences with two to four bedrooms, complete with access to a wide range of modern amenities that promote indulgence in recreation and wellness.

Princeview Parksuites is designed to provide homes ideal for young professionals, entrepreneurs and starting families.

Amor Maclang

first dibs in real estate

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Part One

ANILA Chinatown will always be one of my favorite places in Manila—gritty, genuine and delicious. It’s one of the final bastions of authentic Manila culture that predates even the coming of the Spaniards.

It is a community built on a glorious past—a community so deeply entrenched in age-old traditions, culture and values that have endured centuries.

Established in 1594, this humble piece of land nestled in the city of Manila became home to hardworking

Chinese merchants, laborers and artisans who served as the backbone of the Spanish colonial economy.

Manila Chinatown flourished as a financial district that has gained an unrivaled reputation not only in the Philippines but also around the world.

Manila Chinatown Skyline—major developments popping up in Manila Chinatown to modernize the old rustic feel of the district

8 Alonzo Parksuites

A few blocks away from Ongpin Street, 8 Alonzo Parksuites towers over Manila Chinatown as a contemporary residential landmark.

Built to witness pursuits of success, this 49-story development offers homes befitting the lifestyle of entrepreneurs who choose to start their lives anew in the flourishing Chinatown business district. The residences have very spacious floor areas, ranging from one-bedroom residences to four-bedroom residences. The property also offers an expansive five-bedroom penthouse residence.

8 Alonzo Parksuites promotes a lifestyle that inspires success, a lifestyle deserved by the hardworking entrepreneurs climbing their way up to the peak of success that’s exclusive at the heart of the world’s oldest Chinatown.

The busy street of Escolta progressed into a business district dubbed as the Wall Street of the Philippines. It saw the emergence of the country’s first foreign commercial banks, business institutions and insurance firms. It also witnessed the rise of trade centers, and of what would become the most prestigious Chinese schools in the country.

However, this is an old city that has grown wild, some say, an example of unmitigated urban blight. Manila Chinatown is steeped in culture. It hosts underground art and food movement, tantalizing architectural bits wide by side with open sewers and a road system that’s confusing to say the least, thick masses of cables and veritably no open spaces.

Now, Manila Chinatown is a community with a unique identity, characterized by resilience, productivity, hard work, and a harmonious blend of influences from the Chinese, Filipinos and Western cultures. Manila

One Financial Center—the 45-story premier development is the first to offer office units to own in Manila Chinatown

Family residences

As families grew, there rose the interest for residences near private schools. To address this, Anchorland developed the Wharton Parksuites and the Oxford Parksuites—condominiums designed with learning-centered facilities that encourage holistic development and family bonding.

Wharton Parksuites

One Legacy Grandsuites—designed with the lifestyle upgrade needs of the residents in mind, the development is complete with two levels of modern amenities and cutting-edge features that ensure an unparalleled experience of luxury and prestige in touch with the residents’ discriminating taste for quality Chinatown thrived on its own amid a constantly changing society.

I am happy to discover one company that has taken it upon itself to champion the redevelopment of Manila Chinatown.

Anchor Land’s influence

In the last 15 years, Anchor Land has gained deeper insights into Manila Chinatown’s discerning market.

Through this market intelligence, we addressed the unmet demands and responded to every unique realestate needs.

Our hard work earned us the trust of the community as a company that creates masterpieces—properties of unparalleled comfort, convenience, functionality and cuttingedge technology. These developments have given families, students, professionals, and business owners spaces that harmonize efficiency, lifestyle, and age-old traditions.

Pioneering developments

Anchor Land began serving Manila Chinatown with our pioneering developments the Lee Tower and the Mandarin Square—spacious, low-density condominiums for the convenience and pleasure of hardworking businessmen and their families.

Lee Tower

This highly exclusive residential condominium is built to provide the

perfect place to raise families, having only 150 residential units. Situated along Sabino Padilla Street in Manila Chinatown, Lee Tower is the first development to showcase the distinct brand of Anchor Land in the country, characterized by a perfected harmony of world-class methods and old-age Chinese traditions.

Mandarin Square

A place for Manila Chinatown’s businessmen and their families, Mandarin Square has provided a highly coveted home address right along Ongpin.

This 39-story development has spacious units that have two to four bedrooms and loft-type units with garden views and quick access to the property’s amenities.

Mandarin Square has been an ideal home for luxurious and convenient living in Manila Chinatown, as it is situated close to churches, schools, temples, hospitals, shopping malls and markets.

Starter homes

Through the years, Anchor Land saw the humble beginnings, not just of businesses, but also of families—families who wanted to venture on their own without leaving their roots.

This is the reason Anchor land developed The Princeview Parksuites and The Eight Alonzo Parksuites.

Modern homes that gave starting

Located at the corner of La Torre Street and Masangkay Street, this 39-story condominium sits close to Manila Chinatown’s private FilipinoChinese schools.

Wharton Parksuites is a highly convenient address for families with children enrolled in the nearby schools. For enhanced security and exclusivity, each floor only has eight residences, with one to three bedrooms.

The property also offers a wide range of amenities, most of which are designed to equip and enable the young residents to be well-rounded in academics and other aspects of their growth.

The property’s close proximity to Manila Chinatown’s business areas allow families to spend more quality time together, nurturing closer ties through their shared living experiences at Wharton Parksuites.

Oxford Parksuites

Situated at the corner of the streets of Masangkay, Benavidez and La Torre, Oxford Parksuites is at the heart of Manila Chinatown’s school belt, tailored to meet the needs of families looking for upscale homes close to the schools where their kids go.

This 39-story luxury condominium has only seven residential units per floor, varying from spacious studio units to units with one to three bedrooms.

The development also brings forth solutions that will enable students to thrive in all areas of development by providing its residents exclusive access to its learning-driven amenities, which include tutor rooms, library cum reading lounge, as well as recreation room.

Oxford Parksuites is designed to provide the best quality of luxury living, while promoting the values and traditions that strengthen family ties in Manila Chinatown.

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Editor: Tet Andolong

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Riding on the momentum of growth

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FTER seeing a surge in income and revenues in 2019, Lucio Tanled Eton Properties Philippines remains bullish on sustaining its growth trajectory in 2020.

In the third quarter of 2019 alone, net income soared 99 percent on the back of a strong performance of its leasing business and real-estate sales, reaching P626 million compared to the P479 million recorded the previous year. In the same period, total revenues were 32 percent higher at P2.46 billion.

Eton Properties is anticipating to sustain its earnings growth by intensifying leasing revenue, enhancing the land values of prime properties, and optimizing land bank assets.

“With its strong results coming off 2019 and its continued momentum, any speculations regarding Eton Properties disposing of assets, or the company itself being offered to interested parties are unfounded and baseless,” said Eton Properties Chief Operating Officer Karlu Tan Say. “Beyond giving us healthy profit margins, our well-balanced portfolio mix allows us to better manage our risks while giving us the oppor-

tunity to gain from the appreciation of land values in the future.

As the Philippine economy grows, it is imperative that we continue strengthening Eton Properties as an organization.”

Strong recurring income streams

Eton Properties strengthened its presence on the commercial front in 2019, as a growing number of tenants across its commercial projects began operations, specifically in Eton Centris in Quezon City, Eton WestEnd Square in Makati City, Eton Square Ortigas in San Juan City, and Eton City Square in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

The company’s office buildings were also delivered, allowing locators to commence operations in Cyberpod Five in Eton Centris, Quezon City, and eWestPod in Eton WestEnd Square, Makati City.

These contributed to the company’s revenues from leasing operations, which continued to grow last year.

Making the right investment with The Acropolis Loyola

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HERE may be no better time to invest in real estate than now.

The Philippine economy, for one, is poised for sustained, strong growth on the back of an aggressive inf rastr ucture spend ing among other reasons, while the overall climate for investments is seen to remain favorable, as well.

The real-estate industry is even forecasted to flourish in the Year of the Metal Rat, which begins on January 25.

It may, indeed, be time to start looking into the different possible property options that will be well worth your hard-earned investment.

One such choice will be this new and exciting offering from Sta. Lucia Land, which is putting up a new upscale residential village within a 40-hectare expanse straddling across portions of Quezon City and Marikina City.

The Acropolis Loyola by Sta. Lucia Land offers the modern urban dweller an exceptional lifestyle that seamlessly blends the best of both worlds because here, prime living means easy access to exceptional modern conveniences, as well as the sought after laidback suburban living. On offer will be 308 residential lots with an average size of 300 square meters, as well as 14 commercial lots averaging 1,000 sq m each.

Smart, practical but world-class amenities, such as swimming pool, covered basketball and tennis courts will be enjoyed by its future residents. Other features of The Acropolis Loyola meanwhile include a fully landscaped entrance gate with guardhouse, wide con-

crete road network, underground storm drainage system, as well as trees and mercury lamps along the roads.

What further makes it more exciting to live at The Acropolis Loyola is the fact that both Marikina City and Quezon City offer a rich history and culture, a haven for foodies, and even a sustainable urban community. Accessibility to most modern conveniences is also exceptional.

For instance, future residents will enjoy proximity to top universities and schools, such as Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College and University of the Philippines, which are all located in Quezon City; as well as St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina.

Large commercial and shopping complexes are nearby, as well as hospitals and churches. Acropolis Loyola’s location also makes it easier for one to travel to some of the Metro’s most popular landmarks, which are mostly half an hour away. These include the La Mesa Ecopark in Novaliches; Quezon Memorial Circle and Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, which are both located along the Elliptical Road in Diliman; as well as Art in Island in Cubao.

Once the planned infrastructure projects within and near these two cities are completed, future residents of The Acropolis Loyola can expect a more improved accessibility to key areas. Among the proposed infrastructure projects are the 414.9-meter Marikina-Vista Real Bridge; JP Rizal-Lopez Jaena Bridge; Mega Manila Subway; and the 5.76-kilometer Katipunan Ave. Extension Project.

Eton Centris in QC

Optimizing land bank assets

The company has made a recent foray into offering its strategically located and extensive land bank assets for lease starting with Eton City in Santa Rosa, Laguna. The sprawling 600-hectare property is ideal for office and commercial land lease with its ready market of existing residential villages within the property and techno parks and industrial estates that herald seamless business operations in the South of

Manila.

Eton Properties also aims to partner with hotel and leisure locators for its 36-hectare beach front property in Mactan, Cebu.

The asset is envisioned to be converted into an integrated mixeduse resort township through the site’s long beach front, crystal clear waters and a wide 9-hectare natural lagoon.

An eye on the future

Clearly, the company’s strong

showing in 2019 indicates that Eton Proper ties is poised to capitalize on emerging industry trends through balancing growth, profitability and shareholder value creation. Eton Properties aims to maintain this in the coming years, as the company sees more of its developments come through.

To date, Eton Properties has 35 projects under its wing and has completed two townships, one nano township, eight commercial centers, six BPO hubs,

one events venue, one hotel, one serviced residences, eight highrise condominiums, one mid-rise development, and six residential subdivisions. Eton Properties currently has a leasing portfolio of around 181,000 square meters of office space and over 39,000 sq m of retail space.

“Eton Properties has its eye on the future as it is poised to deliver more projects that will contribute positively to its growth as a company,” Say said.

POGOs to overtake IT-BPM as a major real-estate driver in 2020

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wenty-twenty will continue to be a positive year for the Philippine real-estate market despite headwinds, with the Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) industry overtaking the informationtechnology and business-process management (IT-BPM) industry as the main real-estate driver.

JLL Philippines—the country’s premier real-estate services firm— shared its 2019 market overview and 2020 outlook during its first Know the P.O.I.N.T. (Predictions, Opportunities, Insights, News and Trends) for the year, with Janlo de los Reyes, JLL’s head of Research and Consultancy, spearheading the discussion. The event was held in partnership with the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

Contributing to the exchange were Michelle Perlas, Common Ground’s head of Real Estate; Sam Peterson, Loc&Stor 24/7’s founder; and JR Yujuico, Point Blue’s CEO. They shared their insights on the conception and evolution “World of COs” or co-working, co-storage, and co-living sectors, respectively.

Aside from the continued momentum of the online gaming industry and its effects to related sectors, the realestate market will also be defined by other prominent factors, such as the demand for sustainability, government policies, and emerging lifestyle trends and technology.

Online gaming to maintain momentum, demands shift to emerging markets

Office take-up of POGOs has been increasing since 2017, growing at a faster pace than the IT-BPM sector. POGO growth rate was at an annual average growth rate of 61 percent from 2017 to 2019, while IT-BPM grew at a slower 36 percent for the Metro Manila realestate market, which demonstrates the slowdown of IT-BPM occupiers in terms of expansion plans or entry to the Philippines.

However, IT-BPM demand is still stable and will remain the leading real-estate demand driver in Metro Manila, mainly due to developments in the POGO industry in 2019, including government restriction of new applications, crackdown on illegal Chinese online gaming activities, and rise in tax collections.

Landlords in Metro Manila have taken prudent measures against any adverse effects of this crackdown by limiting its office space offering to POGOs. This year, these supply constraints and policies will shift POGO office space demand to periphery areas of the Metro and other key cities in the country. In fact, giant POGO hubs are already in place in Cavite City and Angeles City, Pampanga, to accommodate the industry movement.

“With the office space demand shifting outside of Metro Manila come other real-estate opportunities, including residential, hospitality and retail,” said de los Reyes.

“POGO employees take up hotels as an alternative to housing, driving up hotel occupancy. Similarly, housing requirements drive up sales take up, selling prices, and rents of mid-segment developments.”

Residential prices to grow at a slower pace

While 2019 saw the residential sector reach historical highs, JLL projects uneven performance for 2020. Residential prices will grow at a slower pace with an annual average growth of 3.1 percent in Makati and Bonifacio Global City Markets.

“Upscale and low-end segments will maintain their stable performance while the middle-market becomes more competitive,” said de los Reyes.

He said that the sale and lease demand from high-net worth individuals and expatriate employees in the mid-

dle and upscale market are expected to remain solid and is likely to continue propping up residential values.

Demand for resiliency and sustainability

Sustainable or “green” buildings have gained prominence in 2019 and will continue to be so in 2020, JLL forecasts, citing an increasing importance of sustainability and resiliency in real estate decisions.

“A lot of developers are including sustainability as part of their core values, and they are incorporating sustainable features in their upcoming projects,” said de los Reyes.

Average vacancy rate of green buildings in Makati central business district is 3.99 percent, while nongreen buildings is at 6.27 percent, showing a preference and higher demand for green buildings. Because of this, monthly rent per square meter in green buildings in the city has gone up, ranging from P950 to P1,900, while nongreen buildings ranging from P850 to P1,650.

Laws to reshape the narrative of real estate

De los Reyes also cited several government policies that will shape the real-estate market in 2020.

In 2019, uncertainties in policies have impacted the industry. The crack down on POGOs affected the movement of real-estate industry, and the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira) and the Philippine Economic Zone Author-

ity moratorium weighed down the IT-BPM sector, citing a 16-percent dip in the investment pledges from Peza.

But for 2020, de los Reyes said that the recent developments in Citira, along with policies concerning realestate investment trust (REIT) and retail trade, will positively affect the real estate industry.

“Citira, which used to be one of the hurdles of investors in the Philippines, has now been refined. It can better address the concerns and needs of investors, including the elimination of risks of massive unemployment and/ or exit of foreign manufacturers and IT services,” he said.

Lifestyle trends redefining real estate

JLL’s Know the P.O.I.N.T. event touched on co-living, co-working, and costorage, hot sectors which are experiencing an upswing in the country and redefining the real-estate market.

Lizanne Tan, JLL Philippines’s head of Commercial Leasing, and Paul Ryan Isip, JLL Philippines’s head of Capital Markets, talked about co-working and co-living, respectively, to complement the insights of Perlas, Yujuico, and Peterson.

Tan said co-working is gaining momentum in the Philippines as more organizations are seeing the benefits of this setup, and co-working space players are continuously expanding to match the demand. More than 80 percent of co-working spaces are located primarily in central business districts such as in Makati and Taguig.

Entrepreneur

E4 Wednesday, February 19, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Prizewinning PHL chocolate, cacao brands take center stage in the Netherlands exhibit

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he Philippines will showcase its award-winning chocolate makers and cacao producers in country exhibit at the Cocoa Trade Show & Chocolate Festival, also known as Chocoa, at the Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from February 19 to 23, 2020.

The FoodPhilippines delegation will field eight Philippine producers and manufacturers of chocolates and other value-added cacao products, including local brands that have earned global recognition. It will be led by the Department of the Trade and Industry, through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (DTICitem), in partnership with the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Brussels, Belgium, and the Rural Agro-Industrial Partnership for Inclusive Development (RAPID) Growth Project, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad).

“The Philippine chocolate and value-added cacao products have been making waves in the international market for its distinct flavor profile and high-quality beans,” said Citem Executive Director Pauline SuacoJuan. “We want to make a statement that the Philippines is ready to take on the global cacao demand by showcasing some of our top brands in the Netherlands, the world’s leading importer of cacao beans.”

Below are the five award-winning

Philippine firms with their brands to be showcased in Chocoa:

Malagos Agri-Ventures Corp.

Malagos Chocolates is one of the frontline brands of the Philippines in the international market. Launched in 2012, the brand has made a name with its line of single-origin 100 percent, 85 percent, 72 percent, and 65 percent dark and drinking chocolates, earning multiple awards from the Academy of Chocolates, International Chocolate Awards and Great Taste, among others.

Now, they offer chocolate beer and chocolate variants with truffles and tropical fruits. The Puentespina Farm, where its beans are cultivated, earned its heirloom status from the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund in 2019 for growing one of only 16 Heirloom Cacaos in the world. In 2017, Malagos Chocolates’ cacao bean made it to the list of the “Best 50 Beans in The World” under the Cocoa Excellence Programme.

Auro Chocolates/Filipinas Oro de Cacao

Another multi-awarded brand

under the FoodPhilippines roster is Auro Chocolates. The company takes pride for its bean-to-bar process since they have cacao beans that are fully traceable in planting communities in the Philippines.

Their chocolates are made with 100 percent premium cacao butter and premium ingredients with no extenders, and processed in a state-of-the-art facility where it is properly segregated, and classified to optimize the flavors of Philippine cacao.

Its commitment to quality has earned it 23 international awards including the Top 20 Best Cacao Beans Award—a first for the Philippines—in the International Cocoa Awards (ICA) in Salon du Chocolat Paris with their partner farmer, Jose Saguban. Auro shines in the global market as it offers chocolate varieties from their Classic, Heritage, Reserve and Tropical collections living up to its name which is taken from the chemical symbol of gold and the Spanish word Oro.

Dark Chocolates Cashew and Coffee Granules; 100 percent Dark Chocolate Cacao Tablet (2019 Academy of Chocolates); Unsweetened Chocolates (2018 Academy of Chocolates); and 75 percent Dark Chocolate with Coco Sugar (Top 10 Finalist in the 2019 SIAL Food Innovation Awards in Middle East).

Touted as the “Philippines’s Best Cacao Tablet Producer” in the Asia Halal Brands Awards in 2017, the company is made up of farmers unified with a cause to create thriving cacao communities from the valueadded products that they produce and offer to their patrons.

Kablon Farm Foods Corp.

Kablon Farms is a chocolate brand that adheres to sustainable methods of farming and is known for producing spicy dark chocolates made available in 60 percent and 70 percent variants. The cacao flavor profile of Kablon Farms is enhanced by the tropical vegetation that grows alongside it, including coconut, mangosteen, guava, jackfruit, durian and passion fruit. Its 70 percent Dark Chocolate won in the Academy of Chocolate Awards and was a Double Gold Star Winner in Great Taste, in 2017.

Theo and Philo Chocolate Factory Inc.

Theo and Philo takes pride in its use of high-quality local ingredients from the cacao beans of Davao and the sugar of Bacolod molded into perfection. The company sets itself apart with its fearless use of tropical fruits and ingredients.

It takes inspiration from local cuisines to create flavors that are undeniably Filipino. Among its treats that garnered recognition from the London Academy of Chocolates and the International Chocolate Awards are their 65 percent Dark Chocolate with Labuyo; Milk Chocolate with Pili Nut & Pinipig; 65 percent Dark

Emerging cacao and chocolate producers

Chocolate with Calamansi; Milk Chocolate Turon; 65 percent Dark Chocolate with Black Sesame; and Milk Chocolate Adobo.

MS3 Agri-Ventures Corp.

MS3 Agri-Ventures Corp. is a newly emerging chocolate brand in the Philippines, recognized for its

The FoodPhilippines Pavilion shall also sample products from Tigre y Oliva Chocolates (Tiger Craft Food and Beverage Co.), another emerging chocolate brand in the country.

Likewise, Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative and Kennemer Foods International Inc. are also looking to showcase their cacao beans and other value-added products.

SMEs urged to invest in pro-environment DOST team upgrades SETUP proficiency training technologies amid climate-change threat

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

By Roderick L. Abad

Contributor

@brownindio Contributor

@rodrik_28

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team from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recently received further training to enhance their capabilities in promoting and expanding the coverage of the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP).

The DOST has recently partnered with the Development Academy of the Philippines to conduct the five-day workshop on the use of technology scanning and benchmarking tools in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

The objective of the training was to give more capacity to regional of-

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mid persistent threats from climate change, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to take a more proactive approach in doing business by always considering their impact on the environment while meeting customer expectations.

Epson, in its SME Study on Digital Transformation in Southeast Asia, found that almost 30 percent of respondents in six of the largest Asean member-nations in terms of gross domestic product agreed managing customer experience as their top business challenge. About half of the participants in the Philippines considered this to be a lead concern.

Knowing the increasing importance of environmental concerns among their customers is high among the corporate SMEs in the region, especially when purchasing office equipment, the study showed, as nearly 70 percent of them said they think about it when choosing a printer. This is more apparent among Thai SMEs, according to the research, the study showed.

While “going green” is gaining momentum in the region’s business community, the same study noted, investing in new innovations, though, seems lacking.

The Epson survey, for instance, revealed that more than 60 percent of Asean SMEs do not move forward with updating existing technologies due to cost.

This is a discouraging result despite the fact that an “upgrade” can lessen the organization’s environmental footprint and total cost of ownership, the survey showed.

Newer heat-free inkjet printers, for example, have become faster and more energy efficient than laser

A typical modern-day office work space.

printers which require a lot of electricity and heat to operate, the study added.

High capacity ink tank printers today, on the other hand, the study said, mitigate resource consumption, carbon-dioxide emissions and waste generation. With the adoption of interactive projectors, meanwhile, companies contribute to lowering their carbon footprint via reductions in travel for meetings.

Latest laser projector technologies also have a brighter, longer-lasting light source over standard projectors with bulbs, which lowers the total cost of ownership.

To make a notable transition to a company’s environmental consumption and footprint, the survey results indicated that SMEs in Southeast Asia should commit themselves to create business environments that enable them to take advantage of innovation to facilitate meaningful change that also delivers positive results on their entities.

Being the lifeblood of the Asean economy, they will play a pivotal part to the environment as the regional economy keeps on growing.

For manufacturers, this means ensuring their products are environmentally conscious and that supply chain and production processes use energy and water efficiently.

Because transportation and logistics are key contributors to global warming, they must be carefully considered

by SMEs importing components and exporting finished goods.

There is really a need for individual SMEs across the Asean to do their part, whether big or small, in decreasing the region’s carbon footprint.

Clearly, environmental commitment must be far more than just an altruistic gesture. Epson’s study showed that Asean SMEs can build on their awareness of the ecological concerns that matter most to consumers by choosing digital technologies that have negligible effects on the environment.

fices’ staff on the creation of tools and conduct of perception surveys, focused group discussions, and technology scanning which are essential data gathering tools for S&T roadmapping activities.

Both national and regional S&T road maps will be generated at the end of the project. These S&T road maps will be the basis of the provision of S&T interventions both for the firm and industry levels.

The DOST office in the National Capital Region has been designated as the lead region for the implementation of the Project 1 component of the Transition Program for SETUP 2.0.

SETUP enables micro, small and medium enterprises to address their technological requirements

and challenges to boost productivity and efficiency through—Infusion of appropriate technologies to improve/develop products, services and/or operations; human resource training, technical assistance and productivity consultancy services; design and execution of functional packages and labels; assistance for compliance to regulatory and market standards, including testing services; and provision of financial assistance to facilitate acquisition of appropriate technologies.

SETUP gives special assistance on the following priority sectors—food processing; furniture; gifts, decors, handicrafts; agriculture/marine/ aquaculture; metals and engineering; ICT; pharmaceuticals, health and wellness products.

Study shows diverse start-ups raise more cash, return more to investors

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tart-ups with ethnically diverse founders are eventually able to raise more operating cash and return more capital to investors than those formed by all-white executives, even as they were less likely to win funding in the first place, a study shows.

Companies with diverse founders ultimately outperform others by 30 percent when they go public, or are acquired, according an analysis of nearly two decades of data by the Kauffman Fellows Research Center. While diverse firms have less access to venture capital in the early going, they tend to raise more money in subsequent rounds, the report concludes.

“Ethnically diverse teams do have a harder time fund-raising, they get opportunities far less, but when they’d successfully

fund-raise, the median amount they raise tends to be more across all stages,” said Collin West, cofounding partner of the Kauffman Fellows Fund and a coauthor of the report with Los Angeles-based MaC Venture Capital.

While individual firms with diverse leadership can outperform others once they manage to survive the early rounds, they still represent a small slice of companies vying for capital. That’s how white-run companies win about 80 percent of funding deals at each level, the study shows. More than 79 percent of start-up executives are white, around 16 percent are Asian, and blacks and Latinos together account for less than 5 percent, the study found.

The problem is not in the pipeline. The study also looked at the educational attainment of the

potential start-up work force over that same time period and determined that the concentration for Asian, black and Hispanic graduates is rising, displacing white graduates in the technology work force and potentially enabling more diverse teams.

“We did a lot to deconstruct the pipeline myth,” West said. “When these folks actually do successfully raise funds, these ethnically diverse teams, they financially return more capital, specifically in the start-up space.”

Kauffman examined deals from 2001 to 2018. It analyzed the profile images of more than 260,000 startup founders and executives in the US at more than 20,000 companies from researcher Crunchbase, using publicly available demographic models created by Clarifai.

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