BusinessMirror January 14, 2020

NAIA CLOSURE AFFECTS 80K PASSENGERS

By Recto Mercene

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N estimated 80,000 arriving and departing passengers from 516 flights were affected by the closure of the premier airport Sunday as ashfall blanketed Batangas, Cavite, and parts of Laguna and Metro Manila following the eruption of Taal Volcano.

According to airport manager Ed Monreal, as many as 25,000 passengers remain at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) as of Monday, hoping to be accommodated on their carriers while authorities struggled to clean the runways of tons of sand delivered by clouds from the erupting volcano.

PASSENGERS affected by the ashfall-induced closure of the Naia cram the premier airport on Monday. NONIE REYES

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@rectomercene

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He said there is uneven distribution of sand, with runway 06 on the Parañaque side having about an inch thick, tapering toward runway 24, on the Southern Luzon Expressway side, having a thinner cover of sand.

“The cleaning crew vacuumed the runways starting at 4 a.m., then blasted it further with hose from firemen we have requested to assist to make sure airplanes [do not] ingest the fine particles,” Monreal added.

In times such as this, the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) does not fully utilize their own fire and rescue services to assist in case of emergencies, and simply request the assistance of neighboring fire and rescue services,

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 96

BIR, BOC miss 2019 targets, collect ₧2.8T T

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC)—the main collection agencies of the government—both failed to hit their collection targets in 2019 but managed to exceed their actual collections in 2018.

In a statement on Monday, the Department of Finance (DOF) cited preliminary data showing that BIR and BOC collected a total of P2.8

trillion in 2019. However, this still fell short of their total target of P2.99 trillion last year.

The DOF said the BIR’s actual

collections breached the P2-trillion mark in 2019 at P2.172 trillion, which is equivalent to 93.2 percent of their collection target of P2.33

Total target for BIR and BOC for 2019

trillion for that year.

Nonetheless, the amount is 10.67 percent higher than their actual collection of P1.962 trillion in 2018.

Meanwhile, the BOC collected P630.57 billion in 2019, representing 95.4 percent of its target of P661.04 billion. This is also 6.32 percent higher than its actual collection in 2018 at P593.11 billion.

See “2019 targets,” A2

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

HE eruption of Taal Volcano may only have a minimal impact on the country’s GDP growth unless the disaster becomes prolonged, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and local economists.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told the BusinessMirror on Monday that the eruption will have “some negative effect” on the performance of the economy in the first quarter of the year.

However, given its current scale and intensity, Pernia said this will not have a significant impact on first-quarter GDP growth.

“The unpredictable behavior of Taal Volcano is that [it’s] just like other risks and uncertainties impinging [on] the economy and society,” Pernia said via SMS. UnionBank Chief Economist Ruben Carlo Asuncion told the BusinessMirror that the most immediate

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@sam_medenilla

See “Funds,” A2

TAAL’s IMPACT ON GDP NOT SO BIG, UNLESS TANTRUMS LAST LONG impact of the Taal Volcano is on prices of various goods and services.

Further, given that the eruption affected Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon, Asuncion expects disruptions in the operation of firms in Central Business Districts (CBDs) and export processing zones.

This includes financial and service firms, such as banks, other financial and business-process outsourcing (BPO) firms. It will also affect manufacturing and industries in general.

The worst-case scenario which takes into consideration seven months of volcanic activity, Asuncion said, will require the government to “rethink” its GDP targets this year.

Based on historical data from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), Taal Volcano’s longest eruption was between 1605 and 1611. The eruption involved its main crater, similar to the ongoing eruption.

See “Taal’s impact,” A2

Firms hit by cancellation of orders of frozen meat

By Samuel P. Medenilla

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See “naia closure,” A8

P25.00 nationwide | 4 sections 20 pages |

₧2.99T T

‘Govt has funds for Taal relief efforts’ RESIDENT Duterte ordered the Department of Budget and Management to provide the funding requirements of national government agencies assisting people affected by Taal Volcano’s activities.

“The President’s order is to make sure that funds are available in this kind of situation and we have them,” Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado told the BusinessMirror via SMS. Currently, Avisado disclosed the agencies involved in the relief efforts for those affected by Taal Volcano are using their emergency response fund. “If this becomes insufficient [for their needs], then that is the time they could request for augmentation [fund].”

He noted that Duterte’s directive will not cover local government units, which rely on their Internal Revenue Allotment.

The eruption of Taal Volcano on Sunday, as it spewed hazardous volcanic ash on Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces, brought government operations and business activities in affected areas to a standstill.

such as those of Pasay and Parañaque.

Monreal said that as of 10 a.m., Monday, the Naia was partially open, giving priority to departing aircraft that have been cleared by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), while arriving aircraft were expected to follow at 12 noon “subject to the terminal clearance.”

Director General Capt. Jim Sydiongco said the airlines in Manila were told to have the engines of their planes which Monday, examined for the presence of ashes, with a warning that the silica in the ash melts and it could gum up the engine.

The ash is also an abrasive material

@jearcalas

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SCIENCE Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and Ma. Antonia V. Bornas, chief of the Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division of PhivolcsDOST brief journalists on the Taal Volcano eruption on Monday. Government scientists have been tracking the volcano for a year, but noted that the escalation in Taal’s activity on Sunday was rather sudden. NONOY LACZA

Tourism in Tagaytay, Cavite, Batangas uncertain

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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NUMBER of tour ism properties in the Tagaytay and rest of Cavite are opting to remain closed while they face uncertainties in the eruption of Taal Volcano, which spewed plumes of harmful fumes

and ash on Sunday.

A number of these properties said they were still unsure about the impact of the eruption on their bottom line as the situation is still developing, but the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported some 4.22 million day tourists, and 982,120 overnight guests in Tagaytay alone in 2018.

As of press time, the DOT had

yet to comment on the eruption’s impact on the tourism industry of the Calabarzon. In 2018, overnight tourists in the region reached 7.48 million, with Batangas accounting for 34 percent of total arrivals or 2.55 million. Cavite, in which Tagaytay is located, received 1.08 million overnight tourists that same year.

See “Tourism,” A2

UICK-SERVICE restaurants, food processors and food distribution companies in Southern Luzon affected by ashfall from Taal Volcano have canceled their orders of meat and dairy products on Monday, a Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) official said.

CCAP President Anthony S. Dizon said food industry clients canceled orders of frozen goods worth “a few millions” on Monday as some of them temporarily stopped operations due to slippery and impassable roads caused by the buildup of volcanic ashfall and the lack of manpower.

“Our clients have been affected by the ashfall as some of them have decided to stop operations temporarily maybe because some of their workers cannot go to work. And that [forced us] to cancel and reschedule deliveries,” Dizon told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview.

Dizon disclosed that even his own company, Koldstor Centre Philippines Inc., had canceled deliveries of meat and dairy products, such as chicken leg quarters and processed meat.

“To some extent [our deliveries to Metro Manila] were affected as early as [Sunday] evening due to heavy ashfall in Cavite. So, our trucking units cannot even drive to anywhere,” he said.

“By a nd l a rge, t he impact should be felt in areas heavily hit by ashfall. We cannot tell as of today how far-reaching the effect of the ashfall is. We can only hope that [Taal Volcano’s] activities will lessen or will wane towards later today [Monday] which will allow us to resume normal activities,” he added.

Another cold chain industry source told the BusinessMirror that deliveries bound for Batangas, Laguna, Tagaytay and Cavite have been affected by the ashfall.

The source added that certain deliveries for Metro Manila cities in the south, such as Parañaque and Las Piñas, had been canceled or delayed.

The affected deliveries were orders from fast-food companies, meat processors and other foodrelated firms.

Taal Volcano has been on Alert level 4 status since Sunday following the series of phreatic eruptions that started just before noon of January 12.

US 50.6030 n JAPAN 0.4621 n UK 66.1280 n HK 6.5151 n CHINA 7.2995 n SINGAPORE 37.4476 n AUSTRALIA 34.6985 n EU 56.2048 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4906

Source: BSP (10 January 2020)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, January 14, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Agonizing wait for Taal’s big, hazardous bang

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

S Taal Volcano entered a period of prolonged intense unrest since Sunday, thousands of residents from towns near the volcano started to flee to safer grounds.

Volcano experts said Taal’s unrest may continue and last for days, to weeks or even months, citing historical records.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has also placed the Philippine National Police (PNP) on full disaster response status and is currently implementing the mandator y evacuation in affected areas in coordination with concerned local government units (LGUs).

“We have mobilized all PNP Search and Rescue assets in PRO 4A for the conduct of timely and rapid disaster response,” Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año said in a statement in view of Taal Volcano’s phreatic eruption that started around 2 p.m. Sunday.

All PNP regional directors in

Tourism. . .

Continued from A1

The DOT failed to release tourism receipts figures for the region.

Meanwhile, in a statement sent to the B usiness M irror, Discovery Country Suites General Manager Janice Tiambeng said the property “will remain closed indefinitely, until the situation normalizes. Guests with future reservations are being contacted, to facilitate alternative arrangements.” The luxury bed and breakfast has seven themed suites and a popular restaurant, Verbena, often visited by day tourists for breakfast and lunch.

She said during Sunday’s eruption, “the hotel’s emergency plan was implemented, and all guests and staff have been assisted with the evacuation.” A total of 27 guests

Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol and the National Capital Region have also been directed to immediately activate their respective Disaster Incident Management Task Group, Regional Reactionary Standby Force, and Search and Rescue assets for immediate deployment, as needed by conditions in their respective areas.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) maintained Alert Level 4 status for Taal Volcano as of 2 p.m. Monday. Alert Level 4 calls for the evacuation of those living within the 14-kilometer radius from the main crater of the volcano.

The volcano erupted around 4 p.m. Sunday, prompting Phivolcs to raise the Alert Level from 3—

and staff were evacuated from the property on Sunday. She added, for the first quarter of 2020, the property has a lot of guest bookings.

“We are averaging a 90-percent occupancy on weekends and a 60-percent occupancy on weekdays.”

Len Reyes, master roaster of Gourmet Farms, said their property, which is planted with vegetables supplying its onsite restaurant, as well as supermarkets was “affected” by the ashfall from Taal Volcano.

Its restaurant, another popular dining outlet for tourist stopovers going to and coming from Tagaytay, is “closed for now.” He said the company had yet to determine the impact of the eruption on its income: “[It] depends on developments.”

Proper ties of the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) “remain operational” and are accepting bookings

2019 targets. . .

OFW. . .

While Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said both agencies “did a wonderful job,” he also expects them to improve their performance even more, given the Philippines’s vibrant economic outlook in 2020.

Dominguez made the remark as he cited the accomplishments of DOF and its attached agencies during the first DOF Executive Committee meeting held this year.

BOC Assistant Commissioner and Spokesman Vincent Philip C. Maronilla attributed the failure to hit the bureau’s collection target for 2019 to the lower import volume and delay in the implementation of the fuel-marking program.

“Import volume was down by 6 percent. The fuel-marking program —predicted to have given us P10 billion in revenues—was also not implemented this year,” Maronilla said in a text message.

To be able to hit its higher collection target for 2020 at P731 billion, Maronilla said they aim to continuously improve their assessment rate as new IT systems and other streamlined processes comes into play already.

“We also expect additional revenues from the fuel-marking program, which will be fully implemented in February,” he added. Fuel marking is a process by which chemicals are injected into fuel, allowing for detectors to track whether a particular shipment is used for smuggling or fraud.

In 2018, BOC exceeded its 2018 collection goal of P584.88 billion as its posted actual collection of P593.11 billion.

On the other hand, BIR also missed its collection goal for 2018 as it fell short of its P2.043-trillion revenue target, collecting only P1.962 trillion in taxes last year. This, despite new and higher taxes under the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

The Middle East Repatriation Team in Doha, headed by Energy Secretary and Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy A. Cimatu, is exploring all possible routes of repatriation by commercial airlines from Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq to Doha, Qatar, and then to Manila.

Lorenzana said two Philippine Navy ships with a company-sized contingent of military

Continued from A1

Continued from A8

Funds. . .

Continued from A1

Reminders Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar urged the public, particularly those affected by Taal Volcano to heed the call of relevant government agencies to ensure their safety.

“With constant heavy ashfall and earthquakes being recorded, we, again, enjoin everyone to observe all safety and precautionary measures recommended, and provided to prevent any consequential health problems and casualties from the hazardous emissions and tremors,” Andanar said in a statement.

He also said the President tasked the Department of Health (DOH) to provide face masks, especially to those in the affected areas to protect them from the ashfall.

Andanar said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was instructed by the President to remind all business enterprises to abide by the suggested retail price.

This comes after the PCOO received reports on the alleged “overpricing of face and gas masks in different retail and outlet stores due to the demand brought by the calamity.”

Meanwhile, senators weighed in against profiteering in the sale of face masks, especially the N95 types recommended by health experts. Sen. Risa Hontiveros backed the DTI campaign to stop “cases of overpricing” of face masks

earlier triggered by the spewing of volcanic ash—to 4 after the first recorded eruption around 4 p.m. Successive bursts were heard in as far as Dasmariñas, Cavite, while ashfall was experienced in Metro Manila, and even parts of Bulacan, Pampanga and western Luzon.

Lincoln Olayva, Science Research Specialist 1 at Phivolcs Volcanology Division, said they continue to monitor the volcano’s activity.

Magmatic eruption?

For now, he said volcanic activity remains unpredictable but said they anticipate prolong intense unrest that can lead to a continued magmatic eruption.

“Prolonged volcanic activity means eruption that can last in days, weeks or possibly months,” he said in Filipino.

Taal Volcano, one of the more active volcanoes in the Philippines, has a record of long eruptions. “In 1754, the continuous eruption lasted for seven months. That was the longest. In 1911, it lasted for three days only,” he said.

Interviewed over CNN Philippines, Science and Technology Undersecretary and concurrent Phi-

despite the ongoing calamity. Pico Sands Hotel in Nasugbu, Batangas, has full service for its guests, while the historic Taal Vista Hotel has “limited service only because the pool is closed and viewing deck is closed.” A la carte meals are currently offered instead of buffet service for meals.

SMHCC Executive Vice President Peggy E. Angeles said they don’t see the eruption having any major impact on the company’s bottomline this year. “We do not foresee this situation affecting our future business until the end of the year,” she said.

She admitted, however, that the financial projections for both properties “were quite strong” for the first quarter, before the eruption. “This will definitely set us back, but there is opportunity to recover as the business projections for 2020 remain positive.”

volcs Director Renato Solidum said lava fountain is expected. However, he said it is not yet what Phivolcs describes as “hazardous explosive eruption” in its Volcano Alert Bulletin.

“When we say hazardous explosive eruption is imminent, this would mean that we are looking at the more dangerous hazards. Not the lava fountain. But the lava fountain can be manifested. We have not yet seen the hazards that the 1965, 1911 and 1764 eruptions manifested in Taal Volcano. Essentially, when that happens, we will see flows of ashes and rocks, and gas at speeds of more than 60 kph horizontally moving across reefs in the mainland,” he said.

That said, the official reiterated his call for the forced evacuation of all those living within the so-called danger zone.

According to Solidum, Phivolcs has been recording earthquake events since Sunday afternoon.

“This can mean that there can be a continued movement of magma. Magma has reached the surface yesterday and this morning, this is very clear already.... The continuous tremor of the ground means magma movement [and this] was followed by an erup-

As of 9:20 p.m. on Sunday, the 261-room Taal Vista had 40-percent occupancy, while the 154-room Pico Sands had 20-percent occupancy.

“Our occupancy levels as expected remain quite volatile for this week as we continue to monitor the situation.” She added there was no need to evacuate guests on Sunday as “some opted to check out ahead of schedule to return to their residence.”

Other than ashfall, there was no major damage reported on any of these properties.

On Sunday, Taal Vista had a sizable number of guests as the volcano sent up plumes of smoke into the sky. Many tourists thought the situation was not serious and even took selfies on the hotel’s view deck with the erupting volcano in the background. (See, “DOT asks tourists to consider leaving Tagaytay, Calabarzon areas as Taal erupts,” in the BusinessMirror, January 12, 2020.)

humanitarian assistance personnel onboard have been designated for the repatriation mission, while two C-130 and one C-295 transport aircraft are also on standby.

The military will send just a small team of soldiers to the Middle East instead of two battalions from the Army and Marines as earlier planned, because of the sensibilities of Middle Eastern countries.

“During the last meeting of the Committee on Repatriation that I presided over as the chairman last Thursday, the DFA, Secretary

Cimatu and the DOLE commented that it may not be wise to send uniformed servicemen to the Middle East due to the sensitivities of the countries there. Hence, it was agreed that we recommend the sending of a small contingent of servicemen instead of two battalions, but they will be in civilian attire and will not be armed should they be needed on the ground,” he said.

“Also, two battalions would be a lot and they would be taking much of the spaces on the ship, leaving very little or nothing for the repatriates,” he added.

and other protective equipment.

“This shameful profiteering by businesses at the expense of the health of others must stop,” the senator stressed, as she asked the public“not to overstock and hoard supplies of face masks and other protective equipment so that everyone in the Metro will get the protection needed to avoid serious health risks when we go outside our homes.”

Hontiveros prodded the DOH and local government units (LGUs) to “use their stock of face masks and protective equipment, and provide them for free to people who need them most,” such as families living in areas badly affected, first responders and the immunocompromised, such as sick elderly and the very young.

Sen. Nancy Binay asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and LGUs to include face masks in distributing aid to residents in affected areas. She, however, deplored the “enterprising” attitude of traders and hoarders who took advantage of the situation, warning that “there are serious repercussions for establishments that are proven to have marked up the prices of goods during the crisis.”

with Special Concerns to provide aid to workers displaced by Taal Volcano.

BLE Director Dominique R. Tutay said the intervention would, likely, be coursed through their emergency employment under their Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program.

Displacement aid As of 6 a.m. on Monday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that Sunday’s phreatic eruption led to the evacuation of more than 7,700 individuals.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III ordered the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) and the Bureau of Workers

Prayers, donations Officials of the Catholic Church, including Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos and Lipa Batangas Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, asked the faithful to pray for divine intervention to prevent the destructive eruption of Taal Volcano.

Ruperto said he will ask his priests to recite the prayer to “calm down” Taal Volcano during their masses by making the “boiling lava subside and molten rocks cool down.” Aside from prayers, Garcera also asked for donation in cash or in kind for the evacuees.

In a interview with Church-operated Radyo Veritas, the prelate said their archdiocese is currently housing at least 3,000 individuals since the churches opened their doors to evacuees on January 12.

Those interested to donate may call the following numbers: 0925-5595968; 0917-5089701; and 0917-7045064.

Garcera said interested parties may also send their donations to Caritas Manila using the following bank accounts: Banco De Oro-Savings Account No.: 5600-45905; Bank of the Philippine Islands-Savings Account No.: 3063-5357-01; Metro BankSavings Account No.: 175-3-17506954-3.

With a report by Butch Fernandez

tion. We know that magma is already involved by at least evening time although this was strong, there was no lava fountaining yesterday afternoon and evening,” he noted.

Evacuation centers

The Batangas Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported that more than 15,000 individuals were evacuated from various parts of the province.

These were from the towns of Agoncillo, Alitagtag, Balete, Cuenca, Laurel, Lemery, Lipa City, San Nicolas, Santa Teresita, Taal, Talisay, Tanauan City, San Luis, Tagaytay, Tuy, Santo Tomas, San Jose and Lian. There are now a total of 45 evacuation centers put up in various parts of Batangas.

The Philippine Seismic Network recorded 75 volcanic earthquakes in Taal Region as of 5 a.m. of Monday. Some of these volcanic earthquakes with intensities ranging from 2 to 5 were felt in Tagaytay City, Cabuyao, Laguna, Talisay, Alitagtag, Lemery, and Bauan, Batangas, according to Phivolcs.

Minor quakes were also felt by residents as far as Silang, General Mariano Alvarez, Dasmarinas and General Trias, all in Cavite province.

DDR bill. . .

Continued from A8

The measure now lets the DDR exercise joint supervision with: DOST over Pagasa and Phivolcs; the DENR over Geo-Hazard Assessment and Engineering Geology Section of the MGB and; the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) over the BFP. The DDR will be a full-blown department headed by a Secretary, supported by undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and directors with an initial budget of P10 billion.

The bill also provides “that Pagasa, Phivolcs and MGB Geohazards unit shall second dedicated staff to the DDR based on the requirement of DDR.”` The DDR, however, will still have the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) as its core organization to which will be integrated the Climate Change Commission Office, the Health Emergency Management Bureau of the Department of Health (DOH), the Disaster Response Assistance and Response Management Bureau of Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Impact assessment Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian expects concerned local officials to promptly assess the impact of the widespread Taal Volcano ashfall on their localities to facilitate the release of calamity fund for

Taal’s impact. . .

In 1911, the last time Taal Volcano’s main crater erupted, the eruption lasted for 10 days between January 27 and February 7.

“A prolonged emergency situation where constant ashfalls, earthquakes, and work stoppages [happen] may result in a negative impact on economic growth because we are talking about major financial, industrial and residential hubs,” Asuncion said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that in 2018, NCR continued to account for the largest share of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) at 36 percent.

It was followed by Calabarzon with a share of 17 percent and Central Luzon with a share of 9.8 percent.

The NCR, Calabarzon and Central Luzon were the top 3 contributors to the 6.2 percent 2018 GDP growth, with respective contributions of 1.8 percentage points; 1.2 percentage points; and 0.7 percentage point.

Full-year 2019 GDP growth estimates will be released before the end of the month, according to the PSA. Uncertainty Neda Undersecretary for Regional

Meanwhile, the DILG said the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) is also now on full disaster response status and is helping the PNP and local government units in implementing the mandatory evacuation due to the hazards of pyroclastic density.

Año reminded all local government officials “to be physically present in their respective LGUs and immediately convene their respective Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council[s]” to ensure immediate and timely disaster response.

“The Local Chief Executives must also immediately activate their Incident Management Teams, Operations Center and various disaster response teams. The DILG will closely monitor the actions taken by the LGUs in accordance with Operation Listo protocols,” he said.

Meanwhile, Año appealed to the public to donate clean drinking water, food, emergency medicines and other basic essentials, such as tents, mats, blankets, water containers, cooking pots, for the use of those currently in evacuation centers. The donations may be coursed through the DSWD or directly to the LGUs, he said.

emergency assistance needed by their affected constituents.

“From a governance standpoint, the local governments, including the provincial government, should do a rapid assessment so they can already declare a state of calamity and they can use their calamity funds to repair, and buy food for the evacuees,” Gatchalian said, even as he acknowledged experts’ findings, the situation remains “uncertain.”

Asked if a proposed disaster resilience department would have made a difference in responding to the situation, the senator indicated he would rather “capacitate” local governments, “because they are the first responders and all of these research agencies like Phivolcs and Pagasa can be strengthened also.”

He warned against a “top-heavy” and “too centralized” setup, where the local governments cannot move.

But, he said, “if it is the local government that is really at the forefront of all this disaster (response), it is important to capacitate them with a mechanism so they can be capacitated quickly, so they can move quickly and respond quickly.”

At the same time, Gatchalian indicated he saw no need to rush a proposal to create three new departments on water, OFW and disaster preparedness, saying this needs to be studied “carefully.” Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz and

Butch Fernandez

Continued from A1

Development Adoracion M. Navarro said there are no previous studies made on the impact of a Taal Volcano eruption.

Based on reports, Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary and Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum revealed that Taal Volcano has been showing moderate to high levels of activity since March 2019.

Navarro said, however, that no estimates can also be made currently, given that the “situation is evolving.” But, she said, the government is already gathering data and monitoring the situation. “[We have] no comprehensive information yet on affected economic activities. [The] situation is evolving.

[We are] concentrating on NDRRMC response,”Navarro told this newspaper.

The NDRRMC report was also crucial for the housing sector. Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said an assessment from the NDRRMC will help them move forward in rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. “The situation is still fluid, eruptions may or may not stop, so let us wait for the assessment of NDRRMC and we will take it from there,” Del Rosario told BusinessM irror.

The Nation BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, January 14, 2020 A3

Government ramps up relief, rescue operations in Batangas

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A LONE seagull flies atop a pump boat as fishermen rid the vessel of a sticky combination of water and ashfall. NONIE REYES

A GOAT wanders aimlessly across a vast expanse of space covered with ashfall. NONIE REYES

EFENSE Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana assured on Monday that the government has adequate resources to meet the needs of residents affected by Taal Volcano’s phreatic eruption, even as he ordered agencies to ensure the unhampered access to Batangas to emergency relief assistance.

Lorenzana, also chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), made the assurance during a news briefing on Monday afternoon as disaster personnel continued to move into evacuation centers residents affected, and even threatened, by the eruption.

The provincial board has placed Batangas under a state of calamity as a result of phreatic eruption where it continue to spew ash and shoot lava for the second day on Monday, with the ashfall reaching some parts of Metro Manila and even Pampanga on Sunday night.

Lorenzana ordered that masks, transportation and food are available in Batangas following a report that transportation has been crippled in the town of Lemery. He had also asked the Department of Energy to check complaints about the scarcity of gasoline in the province.

The NDRRMC chairman said four helicopters, additional military trucks and personnel are on standby, and are ready to be deployed in case they are needed for the continuing evacuation of residents, which NDRRMC officials said earlier could reach to 300,000 individuals, an estimate, Lorenzana said was too big.

Brig. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, commander of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (ID), which has operational jurisdiction over the whole of Southern Tagalog, said that at least 4,079 families, or 23,701 persons, have been evacuated as of Monday morning. A total of 73 evacuations centers in Batangas’s 24 cities and municipalities have so far been established.

Burgos said they were able to immediately deploy humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) unit under the 730th Air Force Combat Group during the eruption while two platoons of soldiers, also from the 2nd ID, followed suit.

He said that for additional HADR units, the 2nd ID down to its battalions have their own HADR capabilities and could be deployed anytime.

The Philippine Navy also put on standby its 15 disaster quick response teams from Manila and Cavite, in case they are needed for deployment aside from the 16 M35 trucks, quick response trailers and amphibian trucks.

“The Fleet-Marine Ready Force

will be in charge on this operation as our support to the continuing efforts of the AFP’s [response] to Taal Volcano’s eruption,” said Navy spokesman Lt. Commander Maria Christina Roxas.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. put on red alert status all military units in Luzon, ensuring their readiness for full mobilization.

He said the 2nd ID and the Army Support Command has initially deployed 20 military trucks to Batangas as of Sunday night to help in the evacuation while additional are on standby.

‘Sail, don’t fly’

WITH the limited operations of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Maritime Industry Authority has advised passengers to opt for sea voyage to get to their destinations.

Based on a document attached to the advisory, there were 70 trips for the Batangas-Calapan route; 30 trips for the Batangas-Abra de Ilog route; 28 for the Batangas-Balatero route; five for the Batangas-Odiongan route; nine for the BatangasPuerto Galera route; four for the Batangas-Caticlan route; 26 for the Batangas-Muelle route; and one for the Batangas-Romblon route.

“Available sea voyages to and from Luzon ply the Eastern, Western, and Central Nautical Highways. Long haul trips to and from Manila are also available via 2Go,” the Marina advisory read.

Health alert

AS Taal Volcano continue to spew ash, all government health facilities in Calabarzon were placed on full alert, Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Eduardo C. Janairo said.

“All health facilities are ready to provide preventive measures on the possible effects caused by the volcanic eruption that may include traumatic injuries, burns, suffocation, skin diseases, eye injuries, respiratory problems, conjunctivitis, and even death,” Janairo said following a briefing with provincial health officials, and other concerned units of the region.

Janairo added that health emergency personnel, provincial health team leaders, including mental health teams are being deployed to

scheme is retained? It is impossible for some to make it through the roads to reach their places of work,” added Mendoza.

According to Mendoza, no less than the national government has requested that businesses allow their employees to stay home from work, but this was not the case for those in the manufacturing and businessprocess outsourcing industries.

“The volcanic activity of Taal Volcano surprised us all…and local government units in nearby areas have begun to evacuate those who are most vulnerable. There is no telling for how long the situation will remain this way, but workers lives are at risk if they venture out into the open air,” he added.

“This is an occupational safety and health hazard, and under our laws workers can refuse to come in to work. The ashfall has covered the roads and affected the visibility of cars. Businesses should put the health and safety of their workers first,” he added.

A DEAD fish floats at the Taal Lake shoreline near the restive Taal Volcano in Talisay, Batangas. NONIE REYES

specific areas “to provide immediate medical and health services.”

He, likewise, reminded residents with health conditions, such as emphysema or asthma, bronchitis who were exposed to ashfall should seek medical attention immediately to avoid further health complications.

Volcanic ashfall is one of the major health hazards brought about by a volcanic eruption. A person who is exposed may suffer from eye, nose and throat irritation, difficulty in breathing, cough, bronchitis-like illness and minor skin problems.

Janairo advised residents to stay indoors and, keep all the windows and doors closed to avoid volcanic ash from getting inside.

“For those in evacuaton centers, follow orders and await for further instructions. Don’t leave unless you are being told to do. Be vigilant,” he said, adding that it would be better to listen to radio to be updated. “.... Be sure to wear protective mask and eye goggles or shades as protection from eye irritation,” Janairo added.

He also appealed to retailers and traders in the region not to take advantage of the situation as there are already reports of overpricing and shortage of the N95 mask.

Affected schools, learners

A BULLETIN report released by the Department of Education (DepEd) said 5,000 schools and almost 6 million learners were affected by the volcanic activity.

The DepEd said 5,395 schools and 5,942,724 students were affected by the disaster.

The DepEd assured that their personnel would begin immediate deployment of response interventions like distribution of

hygiene kits and cleanup funds to affected areas.

In Region 4A, 14 schools are being used as evacuation centers, giving shelter to at least 212 families or 736 individuals.

The DepEd said that they continue to monitor schools being used as evacuation centers, class suspensions, and other effects of the eruption.

“DepEd Division of Batangas and Cavite also attended emergency Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Council meeting,” it added.

Fresnedi team

FOLLOWING Sunday afternoon’s eruption, the local government unit (LGU) of Muntinlupa deployed on Monday a rescue team to help in relief operations in Batangas.

According to Muntinlupa City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer Erwin Afonso, a group of health workers and emergency services staff are now in the town of Talisay to assist in the ongoing rescue and relief operations.

He said the disaster office is closely coordinating with Region 4A officials in providing services to affected LGUs. Mayor Jaime Fresnedi called for an emergency meeting with the local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to discuss safety measures in preventing adverse effects of ashfall from the phreatic eruption of the renowned volcano to city residents.

Phivolcs upgrade

A LEADER of the House of Representatives, meanwhile, urged the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) to expedite the use of its P221 million budget

for this year to upgrade the country’s monitoring and warning program for volcanic eruption, earthquake and tsunami.

House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez made the appeal following complaints from residents of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon on the lack of adequate warnings related to the impact of the phreatic explosion of Taal Volcano late Sunday afternoon.

“We do not accuse the Philvolcs for the lack of adequate warnings on the impact of the phreatic explosion. We are aware that it is really difficult to predict the occurrence of volcanic eruption and related disasters,” said Romualdez.

“But this is precisely the reason why Congress included more than P221.48 million capital outlays in the P588.12 million total budget of Phivolcs for 2020. We need to upgrade the country’s monitoring and warning program for volcanic eruption, earthquake and tsunami,” he added.

Emergency pay

TRADE Union Congress of the Philippines Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza asked employers to provide their workers with pay, even if they are unable to come in to work because of the ash all from Taal Volcano.

“In times of calamity, workers will be relying on their employers to show compassion and give them the wages that they expected to receive under normal circumstances.

We have already seen instances of price gouging, with necessities being priced much higher than usual,” he said.

“How will our workers be able to protect themselves and their families if the ‘no work, no pay’

Tankers

MANILA Water Co. has made available 30 water tankers to provide for the needs of evacuees affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano, in various sites in Southern Luzon.

Through the efforts of its subsidiary, Laguna Water, these tankers will be deployed initially to three towns in the province of Batangas.

Four tankers will be sent to the following sites in Tanauan City: Poblacion Balele West Covered Court, Poblacion Gloria, and Tanauan City Gym 2; two to be deployed to PUP Gymnasium in Santo Tomas; and six tankers will be stationed at the Bolbok Provincial Sports Complex in Batangas City. Request for tankers have also been received for San Luis Municipal Hall and Taal Municipal Hall in Batangas, as well as in Alfonso town in Cavite.

The other water tankers will be on stand by for deployment to other evacuation sites as requested

by LGUs.

Aid from Pampanga

A 50-VEHICLE convoy led by Pampanga Gov. Dennis “Delta” G. Pineda has left at 4 p.m. here on Monday for Batangas bringing some 8,500 food packs and equipment to help in the rescue and relief operations.

Pineda, likewise, brought with him medical teams, social workers, rescue and search personnel, as well as equipment to help in the evacuation of residents affected by the ongoing eruption of Taal Volcano.

“We, Capampangans, are paying back,” Pineda said. “When Mount Pinatubo erupted, many came to help and saved us, and help us stand again,” the governor added.

“O u r he lp i s to show ou r thanksgiving,” Pineda declared.

Rene Acosta, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco, Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz, Lorenz S. Marasigan, Ashley Manabat

A4 Tuesday, January 14, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

DTI eyes price freeze in areas affected by Taal eruption; Batangas now under state of calamity

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By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

N automatic price freeze has been imposed in Batangas after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Batangas placed the entire province under a state of calamity due to the volcanic activities of Taal.

Further, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is studying the option of imposing price control in areas affected by Taal Volcano eruption, as buyers reported incidents of alleged profiteering particularly on products needed to withstand the ongoing calamity.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez on Monday said the DTI is assessing if there’s a need for the government to apply a price ceiling in areas surrounding the Taal Volcano. However, he raised a price freeze should automatically take effect if an area

is placed under a state of calamity, which is the case of Batangas.

“We are all assessing for now,” Lopez replied when sought for comment if a manual price freeze is an option. He added, however, that price freeze would be automatically imposed upon declaration of a state of calamity.

Under Republic Act 7581, or the Price Act, an automatic price freeze takes effect when an area is proclaimed or declared a disaster area or under a state of calamity. In such cases, the price freeze will last for

the duration of the condition that brought about it, but not for more than 60 days, or unless the President removes it sooner.

Further, the President can impose a price cap on basic goods in the impendency, existence of the effects of a calamity, or in the threat, existence of effect of an emergency.

In determining the price ceiling, the government should take into account the average price of the product in the last three months preceding the proclamation. It should also evaluate supply availability in the market, as well as the cost to the producer, manufacturer, distributor or seller, as prescribed under the law.

In a separate statement, the DTI said “prices of basic necessities and prime commodities are automatically frozen” in Batangas with the proclamation of state of calamity there. As such, no price movement shall be made in the province until the declaration is lifted.

In another statement, the DTI said it has dispatched enforcement teams to the areas affected by the

DPEX identifies seven data protection trends in Asean for 2020 will use technology against us.

2. Both the public and private sectors will continue to grapple with data protection issues and new privacy requirements. There is no doubt that the Philippine National Privacy Commission (NPC) will play a tougher role in 2020 with emphasis on negligence in the implementation of the Data Privacy Act. 3. Continued importance and applicability of GDPR to Asean. With Europe playing a bigger role in Asean, especially involving cross-border data flows, it is essential that companies in the Philippines are incorporating the requirements of the GDPR and the privacy rules of Asean partners in their automation and monitoring software.

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By Henry J. Schumacher

HE Data Protection Excellence Centre, the learning and research arm of Straits Interactive, of which European Innovation, Technology and Science Center (EITSC) Foundation is a partner, identified seven data protection trends for organizations in Asean to look out for in 2020. The trends were compiled from observations, interviews and research done by the centre’s certified information privacy experts, as well as its advisors from the DPEX network in the region.

Kevin Shepherdson, chief executive officer, Straits Interactive and head, DPEX Centre, said: “Besides the General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] that is continuing to change the privacy landscape in the European Union, Asean is fast becoming one of the hottest regions for data protection as local laws are either being newly introduced, such as in Indonesia and Thailand, or enforced, such as in Singapore and the Philippines.”

These developments, followed by a spate of highly publicized data and privacy breaches, will prompt many organizations to take data protection laws seriously and consider putting in resources to demonstrate accountability.

DPEX identified seven trends that boards and management teams ought to pay more attention to in 2020, which DPEX discussed in a Web conference last week. As some of you may have missed this Web conference, let me outline the trends and add some of my observations:

1. More intensive enforcements with increased emphasis on operational compliance amid data breaches arising from mass digitization and improper use of privacy-intrusive technologies. As I outlined in my column last week on data privacy and cyber security in 2020, there could be an inordinate rise of security breaches, attacks and incidents. We have to be aware that hackers

4. Shift from local to regional compliance for organizations with multiple regional presence. Regulators around the world require companies to disclose data breach incidents, but research shows that too often these regulators share too little of the data breaches to be of use for companies that need to learn from the breaches. There should be incentives for organizations to share what data they have about cyber attacks and vulnerability. Let’s use technology for the common good and create a better world.

5. Significant rise in demand for data protection expertise and professional certification. Given the impending trends it becomes obvious to all of us that the talent crunch is intensifying. Straits Interactive and DPEX are addressing the talent crunch through intensive training and professional certification in many countries, including the Philippines. Whether you’re starting from scratch or building on an existing privacy program, developing all of the processes required for compliance can be challenging, especially this late in the game. To support compliance, you will need to have people and processes in place to manage your data inventory, risk assessments, consumer rights requests, privacy notices, sale of data, consent, incident response, and more.

As compliance is such a strategic issue it deserves top management’s utmost and undivided attention, and willingness to make resources, like automation tools, available.

6. Emphasis on data protection audits, as well as increased adoption of data protection certification frameworks and trust marks. I understand that the NPC is working on a Philippine Trustmark which will have to be taken seriously by organizations in this country.

7. Emergence of established and new players in the Asean region offering data protection services and solutions. While competition will have to be accepted, let me outline that ethical decisions are rarely easy. As we enter 2020, even less so. Smart machines and vast amounts of consumer data not only offer incredible opportunities for modern organizations, they also present a moral quandary: Is it okay to abandon ethics as long as my actions are legal?

In my view, the heart of business should be its people and not machines!

More information about the DPEX Centre can be found at www.dpexcentre.com. More information about EITSC’s involvement in compliance management and data privacy protection can be received from me—contact me at schumacher@eitsc.com

Taal Volcano’s eruption to check the price movements in the market as a result of mounting reports of alleged profiteering on basic goods and disaster needs.

“It has been reported that some retailers have jacked up their prices of face masks and gas masks, taking advantage of the surge in demand of these products due to the recent eruption of Taal Volcano. The DTI, hereby, issues notice to all retailers that we have dispatched teams to monitor and observe movement of retail prices in the market,” the DTI said.

“Those found to have unreasonably increased their prices of gas masks, face masks, and other similar items, [an] act [that] is tantamount to profiteering, shall be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” it added in the statement.

The DTI also reminded that prices of basic goods should remain unchanged since September, which was the last time the agency released a suggested retail price bulletin. Until such time the DTI issues a new SRP bulletin, retailers are prohibited from implementing price hikes on basic necessities and prime commodities.

“DTI will not hesitate to file administrative and criminal charges against unscrupulous business entities and individuals who capitalize on the consumers’ need for their own profit,” the agency warned.

Mercury Drug, one of the country’s largest pharmacies, admitted

it temporarily ran out of stock of face masks on demand influx in the past hours. However, it assured it is coordinating with its suppliers for stockpile replenishment, and priority distribution will be given to locations near the Taal Volcano once its inventory is topped up.

It also stated the pharmacy is not hoarding face masks and assured buyers prices will remain the same in spite of the kick in demand.

“Mercury Drug does not hoard face masks. Prices will definitely not increase,” the firm said in a news statement issued on Monday.

At the height of the ashfall last Sunday, consumers from Southern Tagalog and Metro Manila posted online claims of profiteering, as prices of antiparticle masks, particularly the N95 mask, reportedly shot up from P25 per piece to as much as P200.

Taal Volcano, the world’s smallest volcano, erupted last Sunday, prompting authorities to raise Alert Level 4 and evacuate the residential areas surrounding it.

As a result, volcanic mud rained in most areas of the Southern Tagalog region, reaching Metro Manila, and even as far as Central Luzon when the sky dusked.

The subsequent ashfall that covered Metro Manila’s skies forced authorities to cancel flights to and from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and operations just partially reopened 10 a.m. for departures and 12 p.m for arrivals on Monday.

DOLE issues work suspension protocols as volcanic ashfall drifts to Metro Manila

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

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HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday issued its work suspension protocols as hundreds of workers in Metro Manila and other surrounding areas affected by the hazardous ashfall from the eruption of Taal Volcano during the weekend left them uncertain on whether to go to work or on leave.

On late Sunday evening, President Duterte suspended classes in all levels and work in government offices in Calabarzon, National Capital Region and Central Luzon because of the eruption.

However, he only “encouraged” the private sector to suspend work for the safety of their employees.

Despite warning from the Department of Health (DOH) that exposure from ash from eruption could cause respiratory problems, some workers were still required by their employers to report for work.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the volcanic activity of Taal Volcano could still continue in the coming days.

Leave from work

IN such instances, Partido Manggagawa Chairman Renato Magtubo appealed to companies to take a leave of absence from work because of the health risk posed by the ash.

“We appeal to employers of affected companies to let their workers file vacation leave, emergency leave or service incentive leave with pay until the government declares that the environment on affected areas is safe for people to stay outside their homes and for companies to operate and move their produce to target markets,” Magtubo said.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesman Alan Tanjusay agreed with Magtubo and asked employers “to relax their tardiness rule and give their employees time and space to be with their families especially

those who are displaced.”

He also called business owners to provide cash assistance and provide affected employees with food packs and drinking water.

But as a last resort, organized labor said concerned workers can also exercise their “right to refuse to unsafe” provision of the Republic Act 11058 and the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) of 2018 if they are still forced to report to go to their workplaces.

“Under the OSH law and its IRR [implementing rules and regulations], the worker has the right to refuse unsafe work, including unsafe working conditions that arise out of natural calamities, such as Taal’s volcanic eruption,” Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius Cainglet said.

However, there were differing interpretations on how private-sector workers could initiate the said right.

Standard procedure

WITH this in mind, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III issued Labor Advisory (LA) 01-2020 on Monday stating that it will still be up to the management in coordination with its safety and health committee or health officer to determine if there will be a need to suspend work due to natural or man-made calamity.

Labor Assistant Secretary Benjo M. Benavidez said that is only after an imminent danger in the workplace is established that the right to refuse to go to work sets in.

“If they would like to invoke it, they should communicate and coordinate with their management. That should be [the] first [thing] they should do,” Benavidez told the BusinessMirror via SMS. Cainglet, however, said workers who are being forced to report for work despite evident the danger that comes with it can contact their safety officers.

“Under the OSH law, a safety officer has the authority to call for a work stoppage if he or she discerns that there is an imminent danger situation in the workplace. This is enough basis administratively, for workers,” Cainglet said.

PIDS study notes teachers’ ‘gripes’ in award of PBB

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

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EACHERS complain of unfair implementation of the performance-based bonus (PBB), as well as the lack of information about the program, according to a study released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

In a Policy Note, PIDS consultant Jennifer Monje said respondent teachers lament that PBB may have failed to incentivize teachers who are doing well in their tasks.

“PBB seems to have a positive effect on tasks that are quantitative in nature, such as when teachers submit reports more promptly, or when more teachers comply with requirements compared to the previous years, but have no direct effect on the quality of performance,” the PIDS study read.

The study found that there was no difference in the bonus received by highly rated teachers and “satisfactory” teachers.

On top of this, the most that these satisfactory teachers receive is just a reminder to improve their performance. There are currently no sanctions for teachers who have low performance ratings.

Finding out that their PBB payout was the same as satisfactory teachers, those who performed well feel resentment toward the PBB. “Teachers believe that the PBB scheme is ‘gamed’ by freeloaders who receive the same benefit even when they do not contribute at all to the productivity of the agency as a whole,” Monje said.

Further, in order to understand the PBB, teachers had to conduct their own research to obtain the information they need.

The research found out that some school heads and principals do not even completely understand the PBB scheme.

T h is h igh l ighted t he l ac k of communication protocol in schools regarding the PBB. This has proven as one of the challenges in program implementation.

“The absence of communication protocols, as well as an efficient manner of cascading information from the top of the bureaucracy to the teachers on the ground, threatens program understanding and implementation,” Monje said.

In order to address these concerns, the PIDS consultant recommended that the appointment of a PBB focal person and stiffer sanctions for teachers rated “satisfactory” for two consecutive school years.

Monje said mandating a schoollevel focal person that directly communicates and coordinates with the regional office is needed to explain the parameters of teacher evaluation.

Having a focal person will also reduce the anxiety felt by teachers regarding the PBB and the goals set for them to attain in order to receive a high rating.

The study also recommended exacting greater accountability from teachers. This means putting in place a mechanism that will address “unacceptable teacher performance.”

“When teachers consistently perform only satisfactorily year after year, they should not merely merit a ‘strict talking to’ by school heads or principals,” Monje said.

The performance-based incentive system (PBIS) for government employees was created in July 2012 through Executive Order 80 issued by then-President Benigno S. Aquino.

The PBIS cover the productivity enhancement incentive in the amount of P5,000, which is given annually across the board and PBB, which is given annually to qualified government agencies and their employees.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Oil registers biggest weekly drop since July on easing Gulf tension

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IL was steady after the biggest weekly drop since July as an easing of geopolitical tension in the Middle East turned attention back to a flood of new supply set to hit the market this year.

The threat of an outright war has receded since Tehran fired missiles at US-Iraqi bases last week in retaliation for Washington’s assassination of its top general. The situation in Iran remains volatile, however, amid protests against the government’s accidental downing of a commercial airliner. In Libya, warring factions have called a cease-fire in their ninemonth conflict.

Oil prices are now back where they were in mid-December, with the market seemingly shrugging off the chance of more disruptions in the Persian Gulf. The lack of a geopolitical risk premium is partly due to plentiful supplies of US shale and a torrent of new crude from non-Opec countries, including Brazil, Guyana and Norway. On the demand side, the US and China are set to sign their limited trade deal this week, which may improve sentiment.

“Without Iran-related energy disruption, additional non-Opec supply will comfortably exceed demand, placing downward pressure on prices,” Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific Market Strategist at AxiTrader, said in a note. Hopes of a US inventories draw may sup-

port prices this week, he said.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for February delivery added 9 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $59.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 11:22 a.m. in Singapore. The contract fell 6.4 percent last week, the most since July 19.

Brent futures for March settlement rose 5 cents to $65.03 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange after losing 5.3 percent last week.

The global crude benchmark traded at a $5.95 premium to WTI for the same month.

While the chances of imminent war have lessened, relations between the US and Iran remain combustible.

Tehran has said it will stop abiding by limits on uranium enrichment, while the US imposed new sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Oil markets are underestimating the risks in the Middle East and may be wrong in assuming Iran’s retaliation is over, said Jason Bordoff, head of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York.

The US reported record weekly net oil exports earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Brazil and Guyana are set to add more than 400,000 barrels of combined daily supplies to the market this year, a volume that would offset most of the auxiliary cuts agreed to by Opec and its allies in late 2019, according to Stratas Advisors. Bloomberg News

Mnuchin: Boeing woes could lop half-point from US GDP

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ROUBLES at aircraft maker Boeing Co. could trim about half a point from US GDP in 2020 but economic growth should still come in at about 2.5 percent, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Mnuchin discussed the growth outlook, plans to sign the first phase of a US-China trade deal and new sanctions against Iran on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures.

“The president’s economic program is really coming together,” Mnuchin said.

His assessment was more upbeat than many economists, who expect slowing growth. They say the economy had received a boost from the 2017 Republican tax cuts and from increased government spending, but that stimulus is starting to fade.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month forecast growth this year of 1.8 percent, down from an estimated 2.3 percent in 2019. They put the chances of a recession happening over the next 12 months at 30 percent.

Boeing’s 737 Max jetliner remains subject to a global flight ban after deadly accidents in late 2018 and 2019. The aftermath has cut more than $50 billion off the planemaker’s market value, and it’s unclear when the grounded airplanes will be back in operation.

The US and China are slated to sign a “phase one” trade deal this week that includes Chinese com-

mitments to respect American intellectual property, not manipulate its currency and engage in a $200 billion spending spree on US farm products and other goods.

The US in return suspended plans to slap tariffs on some $160 billion of Chinese products while reducing duties on some others.

Mnuchin said an English-language version of the detailed agreement will be released this week and a suggestion that some items already agreed to had been watered down over the past few weeks.

President Donald J. Trump told reporters on January 9 that he wants to start negotiations on phase two “right away,” but might not finish those until after the US presidential election in November.

Those negotiations would address long-standing American complaints not covered in the initial 86-page agreement, including Chinese government subsidies to its companies.

T he Treasu r y Depa r t ment separately is advising the Trump administration to revive twiceyearly talks with China to discuss the economic relationship between the countries, according to people familiar with the matter.

Such discussions, which would be separate from the phase two negotiations, would harken back to the strategic economic dialogue begun in 2006 when George W. Bush was president and which have been derided by China critics as mere talking shops. Bloomberg News

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Tuesday, January 14, 2020 A5

China’s yuan at strongest since July amid trade deal optimism

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HINA’S yuan strengthened to a five-month high, punching past 6.9 per dollar ahead of this week’s planned trade deal signing with the US. The currency rose as much as 0.32 percent to 6.8968 versus the greenback in Shanghai on Monday morning, the strongest since July 31. It pared the gain to 0.26 per-

cent as of 2:55 p.m. local time. The offshore rate gained 0.2 percent to 6.9014. The Bloomberg replica of the CFETS RMB Index, which tracks the yuan versus a basket of trading

partners’ currencies, increased for a fourth session to 92.33, the highest since early August.

China’s economy has shown signs of recovery in recent months as global demand steadies and trade tensions ease, boosting investor sentiment. The US and China are scheduled to sign their “phase one” trade deal on Wednesday. Domestic stimulus efforts and expectations for further monetary easing are also helping to buoy risk assets.

“The yuan’s outperformance

since last week has reflected the improving risk sentiment, thanks to signs of the economy bottoming out,” said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.

“While there’s no obvious catalyst today, there’s some speculation that China may get a better trade deal than expected.”

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will lead a delegation to Washington to sign the first phase of the trade deal with the US from January 13 to 15, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The yuan has strengthened since early December as US-China trade talks progressed. China’s currency weakened past the key 7 per dollar level for the first time in a decade in August, when tensions between the two nations escalated.

“Nobody wants to take a short CNH position for now, which explains its strength,” said Hao Zhou, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. “We will need some time to see whether USD-CNH would be consolidating at this time, which in my view is probably the case.”

The scope for the yuan to rally further may be limited with another trade agreement beyond phase one unlikely before US elections in early November, DBS Group Holdings Ltd. analysts, including Philip Wee, wrote in a note. “The Chinese yuan’s appreciation for the phase one trade deal may be limited to around 6.90.” Bloomberg News

Libya truce holds amid reports of violations by both sides

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ENGHAZI, Libya —Libya’s rival governments were sticking to an internationally brokered cease-fire that began on Sunday, even as immediate reports of violations by both sides raised concerns it might not hold.

The truce, proposed by Russia and Turkey, could be the first break in fighting in months, and the first

brokered by international players.

It came as Libya’s civil war was on the brink of a major escalation.

Different foreign countries back Libya’s two rival governments, and these outside players have recently been stepping up their involvement in the oil-rich nation’s conflict.

Both Russia and Turkey have been accused of exacerbating the conflict

in Libya by sending military aid the warring parties. Meanwhile, Moscow and Ankara have brokered a new truce in Syria, where they also support opposing sides in that country’s conflict.

Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s internationally recognized government, was in Istanbul for talks Sunday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In Libya, there’s been a broad dip-

TURKEY’S President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right), poses for a photo with Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s internationally recognized government, in Istanbul, Sunday, January 12, 2020. The meeting at Dolmabahce Palace took place on the first day of a cease-fire in Libya initiated

by Turkey and Russia. TURKISH PRESIDENCY VIA AP, POOL

lomatic push to hold a peace summit in Berlin early this year. Calls for direct talks between the Libyan leaders have come from the United Nations, European powers and the rival sides’ allies. The goal would be to end the seven-year civil war and possibly move toward nationwide elections.

But it’s proven difficult to stop the fighting.

“Violations” were reported just minutes after the cease-fire was supposed to start early Sunday, according to Libya’s Tripoli-based government, which is supported by the UN. The written statement didn’t specify the type of violations.

Meanwhile, the east-based forces led by ex-general Khalifa Hifter said “random” projectiles were also fired at their front lines, according to a top commander. He said the attacks weren’t large enough to warrant a response.

The Associated Press could not verify either sides’ claims. The cease-fire appeared to be holding, if uneasily.

Libya is governed by dueling authorities, one based in the east and the other in the west in Tripoli.

Each relies on different militias for support. Both sides have different stipulations in order to halt the wider conflict. AP

Australia turns from defense to offense in wildfire battle Canadian officials accidentally

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ODALLA, Australia—Crews battling Australia’s wildfires said on Sunday that they have been able to turn from defense to offense for the first time in weeks thanks to a break in the weather.

Dale McLean, who is helping manage the response to a fire near the town of Bodalla in New South Wales state, was part of team that was bulldozing down small trees and burning scrub ahead of the fire’s projected path to try to stop it from reaching a major highway by starving it of fuel.

“This fire took a major run about seven or eight days ago, and with the weather changing now, the weather

settling down, the fire has settled down,” he said. “The fire behavior has changed. So we’re able to get in front of the fire now, get on the offensive.”

Other workers echoed McLean’s comments, saying cooler temperatures and mild winds have finally offered them a chance to make progress. The weather is expected to remain benign for the next week, although any deterioration in conditions after that could see the wildfires flare up again.

While battling the blazes, volunteer firefighting veteran Mick Stain found some moth larvae, or “witchetty grubs,” and turned them into what’s known in Australia as bush tucker by

roasting them directly on the fire’s burning coals.

“Bit creamy and nutty, but they’re all right,” Stain said. “They’re not spewworthy, so they’re pretty good.”

Meanwhile, US tennis star Serena Williams donated her $43,000 winner’s check from New Zealand’s ASB Classic to the fund-raising appeal for victims of the wildfires, joining many other tennis stars to pledge money, including Ash Barty, Nick Kygrios, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova.

Also on Sunday, news came that another firefighter had been killed. Bill Slade—one of the few professionals among mainly volunteer brigades bat-

tling blazes across southeast Australia— died after being hit by a falling tree on Saturday near Omeo in eastern Victoria state, Forest Fire Management Victoria Executive Director Chris Hardman said.

The 60-year-old married father of two was commended in November for 40 years of service with the forestry agency.

“Although we do have enormous experience in identifying hazardous trees, sometimes these tree failures can’t be predicted,” Hardman said.

“Working on the fire ground in a forest environment is a dynamic, highrisk environment and it carries with it significant risk.” AP

push nuke alert to millions

T

ORONTO—People throughout the Canadian province of Ontario awoke on Sunday to a cell-phone alert warning them of an “incident” at a nuclear plant just east of Toronto—only to later be told the message was a mistake.

The message, which was transmitted throughout the nation’s most populous province, was accompanied by a shrill emergency broadcast noise. It said an unspecified event had occurred at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. There was no abnormal release of radioactivity,

it added, and people did not need to take protective action.

More than an hour later, utility officials sent another message saying the alert “was sent in error” and that there was “no danger to the public or environment.” “No further action is required,” said the message, which was also sent to television screens.

The alert went out during a routine training exercise being conducted by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre, Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said in a statement that apologized for the mistake. AP

A6 Tuesday, January 14, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

English educated

I

N 2004, then-Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas (he was reelected in the 2019 elections as Representative of the First District of Cebu) filed a bill that sought to mandate the use of English as medium of instruction in all curriculum levels in Philippine schools, as well as in examinations for admission, accreditation, acceleration and promotion.

The bill’s intention was quite clear: to increase English proficiency among Filipinos.

Gullas, a lawyer and educator whose family owns the University of the Visayas in Cebu, lobbied for stronger English education since English proficiency has always been of paramount importance to whatever success the Philippine economy enjoys, or so he argued.

Indeed, our facility, with the language of our former American colonizers, has always been one of our prized assets in luring foreign investments into the country.

Proficiency in the English language is considered an advantage in the global market. A lot of American and foreign companies have set up their operations here and employed Filipinos because our workers speak English.

For instance, the country’s contact center industry employs 2.2 million people and has been the fastest-growing source of new jobs for many years now.

In December, the Cebu Provincial School Board (PSB) passed a resolution that sought to resume using English as a medium of instruction, at least for all the public schools in the 44 towns under its Provincial Schools Division.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who sits as cochairman of the PSB, said the resolution is intended to partly address the country’s “dismal and embarrassing” rating in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment, where the Philippines scored the lowest in reading comprehension, and also placed second lowest in math and science.

Since the K to 12 curriculum change, seven of the 12 major local languages in the country have been used as medium of instruction for core subjects for kindergarten and Grades 1 to 3 pupils, under a program called the Mother Tongue-Based MultiLingual Education (MTB-MLE).

The PSB resolution seeks a moratorium on the use of Cebuano and Filipino in teaching the core subjects beginning June 2020.

In an ANC interview in December, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said the Department of Education (DepEd) is also considering the move to revert to English as medium of instruction.

“It’s an ongoing debate: others want to continue the mother tongue policy while there are also those who say we should start with English since it is the language of the rest of the world. We are looking into this,” Briones told ANC. However, if DepEd is to readopt English as its medium of instruction, what kind of English should be used?

In her article, “My Issue on the Issue of English as Medium of Instruction,” Dr. Louie Agnir-Paraan discusses the many aspects of English language learning.

Agnir-Paraan was chairman of the English department of St. Scholastica’s CollegeManila before her retirement in 2016. She once wrote articles for this paper’s special feature many years ago, called Planet English, which was sponsored by PRU Life. She is now director for communications programs of the Center for Global Beast Practices, and will soon take over as president of Northern Christian College in Laoag in August.

“It used to be that English automatically assumed to ‘belong’ to its native speakers, and so, therefore, it was they who set the standard for competence, among other things. As such, it was not uncommon for non-native speakers of English [like us] to ape the ‘accent’ of the native speaker because sounding like an American or Englishman was equated with proficiency,” Agnir-Paraan wrote.

She said that while this was not problematic in the beginning, today it is a widely contested view since “there may well be more non-native speakers of English than there are native speakers in the world.”

Agnir-Paraan believes that the No. 1 criterion of English language teaching and learning should be intelligibility. She says the reality is that our local English teachers “are actually teaching varieties of English other than the standard [Standard American English] whether knowingly or unknowingly.”

“It is unrealistic and inappropriate for teachers in the far-flung areas to teach English sounding like native speakers. They can and should, however, learn to approximate what is called Standard Philippine English. Even in the cities, where accessibility to native-type English is greater, the use of the standard Philippine English is the norm,” she said.

“As long as we understand and can make ourselves understood, then we are using the language for what it was meant to do—communicate.”

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Political bias in the face of disaster John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

W

ITH the Philippine Stock Exchange closed on Monday, there’s a concern to know what the developments were with the Taal Volcano eruption. So I spent the morning monitoring local social media and the news.

You could not help being astounded—if you have more than what is now the new normal amount of common sense. As I wrote recently, my first priority is my own family and community. That is common sense. For example, while we feel great compassion for the families that were seriously affected in a fire or other calamity, we must also feel a great sense of relief for those who escaped unharmed. I am extremely relieved that as of this time, “Taal” has not become a “Pinatubo.” That was a natural disaster that those of us who experienced it would never

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tions. One obvious strong administration supporter said: “Yellows become even more of a joke when they blame natural disasters on Duterte.

Did they expect Duterte to be at the foot of Taal Volcano while it was blowing up? Did they expect Duterte to know when it was going to erupt and should have been awake?”

Then came the response: “They’re desperate for external validation.”

Unfortunately, that may be only partially correct. For some reason, a great many people seem frantic and fanatical about having their political views “validated,” regardless of their political leanings.

Ask yourself if you would really want to be on a sinking ship with any of these people? By the time they finish arguing about the color of the lifeboats, and if it is “women and children” or “children and women” first, it would be Davy Jones’ Locker for everyone and food for the kraken.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

PHL thriving on strong tourism, stable peso

✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Publisher

want to go through again.

The areas around Taal are literally disaster areas, and need all the personal and public assistance that can possibly be given. That is why as I also recently wrote, I have the Philippine Red Cross on “speed-dial” for my PayPal account.

What disturbed me—and I guess I really should not have been surprised —is the immediate and intensely vicious and vile political comments made in light of this catastrophe.

The well-known “wannabes” that expected to be sitting around the government tables of power and were

denied in May 2016 were simply disgusting. That also applies to many ordinary citizens who are apparently still suffering massive “PESD”—Post Election Stress Disorder.

Yes, it would have been very helpful if the government had stockpiled a couple of million high-quality face masks, particularly for distribution in heavily affected areas. However, considering this is the worst volcanic event at Taal since 1977 or, perhaps, 1991, maybe a full Senate investigation should be made of all public officials—who are still alive—that could have made different decisions going back to the Cory Aquino administration. Yes, I am trying to be sarcastic.

Could it be that some of those complaining about the inadequacies of government are also those who complain about the disruptions caused by the annual earthquake preparedness drills?

The divide between the “administration” and the “opposition” in almost every country from almost every citizen is extreme. It is almost impossible to find someone who is not tainted with strong political bias, even when trying to show good inten-

I

T looks like we have an auspicious beginning in 2020. Another positive economic data has emerged in December that points to a much stronger economy this year.

More foreign travelers are coming to the Philippines, lured by the country’s improving economy and unique natural attractions. The money they bring with them helps boost the domestic economy and support the strength of the peso.

The peso is one of the most resilient Asian currencies last year, advancing more than 3 percent over the past 12 months to settle within a range of 51 to 52 against the US dollar in December 2019. The strong growth of remittances, foreign investments, service exports and international tourism revenues are among the drivers that stabilized the value of the local currency.

Fears that the peso would slide below 55 against the greenback amid the political maneuverings ahead of the 2022 presidential elections proved unfounded, and there are reasons to believe that it will remain stable in the coming years on the back of strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

I personally believe the peso will remain strong, as we are poised to achieve an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of at least 6 percent over the next three years.

The growth in international visitor arrivals, along with rising tourism receipts, supports this optimism.

Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) show that international visitor arrivals increased 15 percent in the first 10 months of 2019 to reach a record 6.8 million visitors from 5.91 million in the same period in 2018, led by strong tourism traffic from South Korea and China.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said “the efforts and resolve of the whole tourism industry have paid off with the continued increase in our visitor arrivals and tourist receipts, as well as recognitions from major international award-giving bodies.”

The 10-month figure was only 1.4 million short of the full-year target of 8.2 million international

visitor arrivals in 2019. The final arrival figure in 2019 will surely surpass the 7.1 million visitors registered in 2018, which was a 7.7-percent increase over 2017.

While the 10-month tourism receipts were not yet available, data from the DOT show that in the first half of 2019, the tourism industry generated some P245 billion, or $4.7 billion, in revenues. That represented a 17.6-percent growth over the same period in 2018, a figure that most likely helped the peso appreciation.

When foreign tourists land at the airport, the first thing they do is go to the money exchange outlets or banks to buy peso so they can get a taxi cab or buy food. They spend large amounts to stay at hotels and resorts, purchase airplane tickets to the different island destinations, shop at our large malls, dine at different restaurants and buy souvenir items. They stir the provincial economies and, in turn, provide jobs to Filipinos.

A DOT survey found that in the first six months of 2019, foreign tourists spent an average of $120.60 per day and stayed more than nine nights in the Philippines. The tourism industry supported 5.4 million jobs and contributed 12.7 percent, or P2.2 trillion ($42 billion), to the country’s GDP in 2018.

Domestic tourism expenditure, which includes expenses of residentvisitors within the country either as domestic trip or part of an international trip, still accounts for the bulk of the tourism industry.

While the Philippines still has one of the fewest international visitor arrivals in Southeast Asia given its geographic location and archipelagic nature, it emerged as one of the best performing tourism markets this year.

The Philippines posted an 11.4-percent increase in arrivals in the first half of 2019 and 15 percent in the first 10 months, above the 4-percent growth from January to June worldwide. The World Tourism Organization, an attached agency of the United Nations, reported that international tourist arrivals increased 4 percent in the six-month period in 2019 to 671 million from the same period in 2018. It said the growth in arrivals was returning to its historic trend and was in line with UNWTO’s forecast of 3-percent to 4-percent growth in international tourist arrivals for the whole of 2019.

The Philippines is obviously becoming a popular travel destination in Southeast Asia because of our strong economy, safe environment and beautiful tourist spots. Once the infrastructure projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program of President Duterte are completed within the next three years, I believe we will have the capacity to double or triple our visitor arrivals that will quickly translate into more jobs for Filipinos, and will lead to a stronger peso.

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail. com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Update on creditable withholding taxes

Let’s return Pasig River to its former glory Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

Atty. Rodel C. Unciano

TAX LAW FOR BUSINESS

T

HE creditable withholding tax (CWT) system has proven to be an effective tool in tax collections through the cooperation of the payors, who are constituted by law as withholding agents. The income payors act as agent of both the taxpayer and the government. The income payors have no choice but to faithfully comply with their obligations as withholding agents, because failure to do so would mean nondeductibility of their income payments.

The imposition of CWTs on income payments is by virtue of the mandate of Section 57 of the Tax Code, which authorizes the secretary of finance, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to require the withholding of a tax on certain income payments, pursuant to the criteria laid down in the Tax Code, which shall be at a rate of not less than 1 percent to a maximum of not more than 32 percent under the old law, but the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act reduced the maximum rate from 32 percent to 15 percent beginning January 1, 2019.

In implementing the mandate of the Tax Code, the secretary of finance has since issued several issuances requiring the withholding of tax on certain income payments.

And under the regulations issued by the secretary of finance, specific rates of withholding taxes are being imposed on certain income payments, depending upon the nature of the income payments. For income payments not specifically enumerated under the regulations as subject to specific withholding tax rates, taxpayers constituted as top withholding agents (TWAs) are being obliged to remit 1-percent and 2-percent CWTs on their purchase of goods and services, respectively.

In Revenue Regulations 12-94, taxpayers belonging to the top 5,000 corporations, as determined by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, were constituted as withholding agents and, thus, made to impose withholding of 1-percent CWT on their purchase of goods.

In RR 17-2003, the top 5,000 corporations were increased to 10,000 corporations, where 2-percent CWT on purchase of services were, likewise, imposed, in addition to the 1-percent CWT imposed on purchase of goods. In RR 14-2008, the number of top private corporations was increased to 20,000.

Subsequently, in RR 6-2009, top 5,000 individual taxpayers were, likewise, included as withholding, agents and, thus, were required to withhold the 2-percent CWT on purchase of services and 1-percent CWT on purchase of goods.

With the recent issuance of Revenue Memorandum Circular 1432019, taxpayers are guided that in cases of publication of TWAs in the newspaper of general circulation, wherein they are included or not deleted in the existing list of TWAs but do not satisfy the criteria of RR 7-2019, they cannot be compelled to withhold the 1percent and 2-percent CWTs. In RR 11-2018, as amended by RR 7-2019, the TWAs were required to be published in a newspaper of general circulation, which shall serve as a notice to the TWAs that they are being constituted as such. Subsequently, RR 7-2019 was issued clarifying that TWAs shall refer to those taxpayers whose gross sales/receipts, or gross purchases or claimed deductible itemized expenses, as the case may be, amounted to P12 million during the preceding taxable year.

The issuance of RR 11-2018 led to the publication of a list of taxpayers notifying them as TWAs. Some taxpayers were included in the list even in the absence of the requirements laid down in RR 7-2019, that is, sales or receipts or itemized deductions of P12 million has not been met. Hence, the confusion.

With the recent issuance of Revenue Memorandum Circular 1432019, taxpayers are guided that in cases of publication of TWAs in the newspaper of general circulation, wherein they are included or not deleted in the existing list of TWAs but do not satisfy the criteria of RR 7-2019, they cannot be compelled to withhold the 1-percent and 2-percent CWTs. The author is a partner of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member-firm of WTS Global.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual, or particular, tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at rodel.unciano@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 local 140.

N

O less than our national hero, Jose Rizal, has immortalized the legendary Pasig River in his two novels. In Chapter 7 of Noli Me Tangere, An Idyl on an Azotea, Crisostomo Ibarra proposed to his lady love, Maria Clara, while they were seated on the balcony of Kapitan Tiago’s house, overlooking the scenic Pasig River. And in his sequel novel, El Filibusterismo, Rizal painted a scenery of the Pasig River on board the vessel, Bapor Tabo, while it was sailing along the waterway.

He described the ducks wading through its clear waters, fishermen casting their nets, people bathing, women washing their laundry, children cavorting and splashing waters to passing watercraft, and the colorful spectacle of villages along the river banks. In his one-act zarzuela, “Junto Al Pasig,” Rizal longingly wrote: “Pretty Pasig, pretty river, Wear your best bouquets, Happy mornings, dawning, Give her all your brightest rays.…”

While in Europe, whenever his memories lingered home, Rizal’s mind often revisited the river of his youth, and even compared it to the Rhine River while cruising along the famous waterway. He observed that “if the Pasig River had on its banks more beautiful buildings, it would only envy the Rhine for its long course and abundant waters.”

Even up to now, the course and abundant waters of the Pasig River are as valuable to us in many ways if we can only rehabilitate the river.

Recognizing this potential, the MMDA has relaunched the Pasig River Ferry Service to relieve Metro Manilans from horrendous traffic before 2019 ended. We all agree that commuting is a daily ordeal that confronts every resident of Metro Manila and suburban dwellers. The government must be more imaginative to relieve our distressed population of their traffic woes. Feasibility studies conducted in the past have indubitably shown that water transport is easily doable and viable. It’s heartening to note that ferry travel in the historic Pasig River has been revived and is now operational although at a very limited extent. At present, an average of 1,000 passengers take ferry rides daily, but this will sig-

BLOOMBERG

T

HE Bank of England’s outgoing boss, Mark Carney, has long come under fire from pro-Brexit politicians for his grim predictions for the British economy outside the European Union, including the possibility of a recession. It got to the point that it looked like one of the biggest tasks for his successor, Andrew Bailey, would be to unruffle feathers. Yet, Carney seems to be taking a more optimistic note of late, at least on the City of London’s ability to navigate Brexit and retain its role as a preeminent financial center.

As the EU lays down the gauntlet on the trade rules and regulations, it expects the UK to follow in return for access to the 27-member bloc’s lucrative single market, Carney seems unimpressed with the idea that the city should follow its lead. “It is not

desirable, at all, to align our approaches, to tie our hands, and to outsource regulation and effectively supervision of the world’s leading complex financial system to another jurisdiction,” he told the Financial Times last week.

This is a view shared by Boris

nificantly increase as more boats are launched to take in more passengers.

One company, Dito Telecommunity, has added a bigger boat with a capacity of 150 passengers. The Pasig River was a major transport channel during the Spanish period until the pre-war time. As an alternative transportation system, the ferries are cheaper and faster since there is much less traffic in the river. It will help decongest the land-based road network in Metro Manila and will ease the traffic gridlock, which our commuters contend with every day of their life. There have been several attempts to revive the water transportation along Pasig River, but they were not successful. We should learn from the mistakes of the past, and address the difficulties that bogged down its operations before. The floating waste debris and water hyacinths which clogged the engines of the watercraft, the lack of convenient terminals and irregular schedules of trips are not insoluble, and many enterprises would be willing to participate and provide ferry services since the business is commercially viable. Its major advantage is that it is less expensive to maintain, and the traffic flow is easier to control.

The tapping of the Manila Bay Task Force by President Duterte to lead the overall rehabilitation of Pasig River, including its harnessing for transportation and tourism, will restore the grandeur of the historic waterway. If they can do it in Boracay and work wonders in Manila Bay, cleaning up the Pasig River will be a low-lying fruit. Sen. Sonny Angara

India’s Modi is losing his political mojo

By Mihir Sharma | Bloomberg Opinion

F

OR the first time in years, the government of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is playing defense. Protests have sprung up across the country against an amendment to India’s laws— which came into effect on Friday— that makes it easier for members of some religions to become citizens of India. The government claims this is simply an attempt to protect religious minorities in the Muslimmajority countries that border India; but protesters see it as the first step toward a formal repudiation of India’s constitutionally guaranteed secularism—and one that must be resisted.

Modi was reelected prime minister last year with an enhanced majority; his hold over the country’s politics is absolute. The formal opposition is weak, discredited and disorganized. Yet, somehow, the anti-Citizenship Act protests have taken hold. No political party is behind them; they are generally arranged by student unions, neighborhood associations and the like.

Yet, this aspect of their character is precisely what will worry Modi and

his right-hand man, Home Minister Amit Shah. They know how to mock and delegitimize opposition parties with ruthless efficiency. Yet, creating a narrative that paints large, flag-waving crowds as traitors is not quite that easy.

For that is how these protests look: large groups of young people, many carrying witty signs and the national flag. They meet and read the preamble to India’s constitution, into which the promise of secularism was written in the 1970s. They carry photographs of the Constitution’s drafter, the Columbia University-trained economist and lawyer BR Ambedkar.

These are not the mobs the government wanted. They hoped for angry Muslims rampaging through the streets of India’s cities, whom they could point to and say: “See? We must protect you from them.” But, in spite of sometimes brutal repression, the protests have largely been nonviolent. One, in Shaheen Bagh of a Muslim-dominated sector of New Delhi, began simply as a set of local women in a square, armed with hot tea and blankets against the chill Delhi winter. It has now become the focal point of a very different sort of resistance than what the govern-

The city wants to have its Brexit cake and eat it too Lionel Laurent

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 A7

Johnson—the UK prime minister recently rejected the idea of “regulatory alignment” as a basis for a post-Brexit partnership—and one that financial industry executives have eagerly lined up to back.

Legal & General Group Plc.’s Nigel Wilson told The Telegraph the UK should “move as far away as we can” from EU rules.

Paul Feeney, chief executive officer of wealth manager Quilter Plc., went further to say future rules should be designed to strengthen Britain’s position as “a competitive and leading global investment center.” This sounds like the city wanting to have its cake and eat it too: Access to EU markets without the cost of having to play by EU rules. It’s worth taking this chestbeating with a pinch of salt. Brexit is not a win for the City, and was never designed as such.

The fact that the UK is leaving the single market and customs union, and that financial services aren’t part of the Brexit settlement, shows how

little the interests of the financial sector have weighed in the debate since the 2016 referendum.

London owes much of its growth in recent decades from the free movement of capital and labor that comes with EU membership. It exports about £60 billion ($78 billion) annually in financial and legal services to the bloc every year, and is still the world’s No. 1 center for trading euro derivatives.

Barriers to trade won’t help any of this.

What the confident rhetoric is really about is on trying to extract preferential treatment within the EU’s rules, rather than pretending that city firms could afford to do away with them altogether. This hinges around the technical details of so-called equivalence—a badge of approval granted to countries the EU deems close enough to its rules to be given market access to areas like investing or insurance.

What the likes of Carney and Wilson are saying is the city is too important to be forced into a one-way

had made perceptive comments on the urgent need to harness the Pasig River for transportation. He has aptly observed that “unlike the road infrastructure, which entails massive disruptions to traffic and other issues such as road right-of-way, the Pasig River ferry project simply involves constructing, or refurbishing, the stations and purchasing the vessels. Improving ridership is definitely a challenge, but one that can easily be addressed by ensuring that the system will be able to operate reliably and consistently.”

We should not tarry and delay the full restoration and operation of the Pasig River ferry services. Our daily commuters, mostly carless workers and hapless students who cannot afford to hire school service suffer intolerably. It’s a daily struggle to wait for a ride and a torment to be packed inside a crowded LRT, nonair-conditioned buses and jeepneys amid monstrous traffic jams before one gets to his destination.

Pasig River is not dead. The government is on the right track to pull its resources to get it fully rehabilitated. Under the able and proven leadership of DENR, MMDA, DPWH, we can restore the life and vitality of the fabled river, and revive it as a lifeblood of transportation and commerce as in the age of yore. As our National Artist Nicanor Abelardo had hankered in his soulful song “Mutya ng Pasig:” “Kung nais ninyong ako’y mabuhay, Pag-ibig ko’y inyong ibigay.”

Let’s all work together, and return Pasig River to its former glory.

ment expected. Nothing could cure the delusions of India’s Hindu middle class, trained to see India’s Muslims as dangerous threats, as effectively as a group of, otherwise, clearly apolitical women sipping sweet tea and sharing their fears and food with anyone who will listen.

Modi was reelected less than a year ago; what could have changed in India since then? Not much, I suspect, in most places that voted for him and his party — particularly the vast rural hinterland of northern India. But urban India was also possibly never quite as content as electoral results suggested. India’s growth dipped below 5 percent in recent quarters; demand has crashed, and uncertainty about the future is widespread. Worse, the government’s response to the protests was clearly ill-judged. University campuses were attacked, in one case by the police and later by masked men almost certainly connected to the ruling party. Protesters were harassed and detained with little cause. The courts seemed uninterested. And, slowly, anger began to grow on social media—not just on Twitter, but also on Instagram, previously the preserve of pretty bowls

of salad. Instagram is the one social medium over which Modi’s party does not have a stranglehold; and it is where these protests, with their photogenic signs and flags, have found a natural home. As a result, people across urban India who would never previously have gone to a demonstration or a political rally have been slowly politicized.

India is, in fact, becoming more like a “normal” democracy. Normal, that is, for the 2020s. Liberal democracies across the world are politically divided, often between more liberal urban centers and coasts, and angrier, “left-behind” hinterlands. Modi’s political secret was that he was that rare populist who could unite both the hopeful cities and the resentful countryside. Yet, this once magic formula seems to have become ineffective. Five of India’s six largest cities are not ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in any case—the financial hub of Mumbai changed hands recently. The BJP has set its sights on winning state elections in Delhi in a few weeks. Which way the capital’s voters will go is uncertain. But that itself is revealing—last year, Modi swept all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.

street on regulation—simply adopting the EU’s rules—and should be given wiggle room within equivalence. This might mean tweaks to capital requirements under Solvency II, or to equity trading curbs under MiFID II or even to banker-unfriendly rules like caps on bonuses.

The terms of equivalence aren’t set in stone, and are a negotiation in themselves. In an ideal world, a compromise deal on financial services would be straightforward. The EU knows that it can’t replace the city overnight either: London is currently its biggest capital market, and it would take years, if not decades, to properly integrate the continent’s disparate hubs.

It seems eminently sensible that equivalence with the UK should be a two-way street: The city should recognize that it’s the best way to guarantee EU market access right now, while Brussels should understand that in the long run a bit of “rule taking” from London might actually help its own ambitions to

build a continent-wide financial system to replace Britain’s.

But that requires trust and goodwill on both sides. And to EU ears, the city’s current stance will sound too much like it wants to secure market access while also setting the rules.

One of Brexit supporters’ favorite threats has been that deregulation would insulate the UK from any serious economic hit from leaving the EU. So Brussels is acutely sensitive to any sign that the country is more interested in competing with the EU (via regulatory arbitrage) than partnering with it.

Talks over trade, while technically separate from financial services, will doubtless involve the kind of horsetrading over fish or agriculture that could sour the mood on both sides.

And the EU is also keen to keep up the pressure on UK-based firms to relocate more activities to the continent, as reiterated by European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos last week.

A8 Tuesday, January 14, 2020

PHL ends decade as world’s top rice importer

T

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Philippines started and ended the previous decade as the world’s top rice importer, with the country formally overtaking China as the top buyer of the staple last year, based on data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

3.2 MMT

The Philippines’s rice imports in 2019, per USDA data, an all-time high

Data from the USDA showed that the Philippines’s rice imports in 2019 rose to an all-time high of 3.2 million metric tons (MMT), making the country the top buyer of imported rice last year.

In its first monthly forecast re-

port, the USDA revealed that the Philippines has “soared to become the top global importer” of rice as its total purchases last year surpassed China’s 2.4 MMT. China has been the world’s top rice importer since 2013.

With the USDA’s latest report, the Philippines has officially surpassed its previous record of 2.5 MMT in 2008, the height of the global rice price crisis. The Philippines was also the top rice importer that same year.

The last time the Philippines was

regarded as the world’s top buyer of rice was in 2010, when it imported 2.4 MMT, historical USDA data showed.

The latest USDA figures showed the Philippines may still be the world’s top importer of rice this year, as total volume is projected to reach 2.7 MMT, higher than China’s estimated imports of 2.3 MMT. The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said the country’s total rice imports last year reached 3 MMT following the enactment of

the rice trade liberalization (RTL) law, which eased the requirements for importing rice.

The surge in imports last year resulted in the decline of the country’s rice self-sufficiency rate, or adequacy level, to its lowest in 10 years to 85 percent, according to the DA. Despite this, President Duterte personally appealed to farmers to give the RTL a chance, citing its long-term economic benefits.

The law took effect on March 5, 2019.

OFW Iraq to Doha exodus begins NAIA CLOSURE WITH TAAL CAPPING LIST

By Rene Acosta

T

@reneacostaBM

HE first batch of Filipinos being moved out of Iraq will depart on Monday night for Qatar, where they will await their flight back home, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Monday.

The flight to Manila from Doha may be delayed, though, following the cancellation of flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) due to Taal Volcano’s phreatic eruption.

The 12 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) represent the first group of overseas workers being repatriated from the Middle East due to Iraq’s volatile security situation, sparked

by the January 3 United States air strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport.

“The first batch of 12 returning OFWs from Baghdad, Iraq is scheduled to depart for Doha, Qatar tonight, Monday, January 13 at 9 p.m. [Baghdad time]. They will arrive in Doha at 12:30 a.m., January 14,” said Lorenzana, chairman of the government’s committee on the repatriation, in a statement released by DND spokesman Arsenio Andolong.

“The OFWs are scheduled to board a Qatar Airways flight to Manila; however, this still has to be finalized as all flights coming into Manila have been canceled because of the Taal Volcano

LOW PRESSURE AREA 730 KM EAST NORTHEAST OF HINATUAN, SURIGAO DEL SUR TAIL END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON as of 4:00 pm - January 13, 2020

eruption. [Labor] Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who is in Doha, Qatar, is set to accompany the OFWs on their flight home once their flight is confirmed,” Lorenzana added.

The defense chief said Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac was supposed to leave on Sunday for Saudi Arabia to personally see to the welfare of Filipino workers in the Middle East and assist in the repatriation effort.

Lorenzana said the government has received requests for repatriation from OFWs in Iraq, Libya, and other Middle East hot spots through its embassies and consulates in the region, and these are already being processed.

See “OFW,” A2

AFFECTS 80K PASSENGERS Continued from A1

OF RECENT DISASTERS, SOLONS PUSH ‘DDR’ BILL

which could totally damage the engines, as one of the foreign airlines experienced when it ran into a cloud full of ash from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June of 1991, while coming from the eastern Philippines headed for Manila.

At the same time, Monreal and Sydiongco said all the parking slots are full, and they would not allow incoming airplanes to land until those waiting at the Naia have left.

‘Pireps’ crucial

SYDIONGCO added that he is also waiting for flights to resume so that pilot reports (“Pireps” is the technical term) could tell them the location and direction of clouds suspected of harboring the ashes from Taal volcano.

Aviation rules allow pilots to relay any important information they gather while on flight to the Caap air-traffic controllers or any of their ground receiving stations across the country to alert other pilots. The Caap in turn notifies all air carriers with important Pireps by issuing a notice to airmen (Notam), Sydiongco explained.

Monreal said they expect the runways and taxiways to be cleared of ash and sand by Monday afternoon. He said arriving flights could be accommodated “subject to the availability of parking slots.”

They had what he called “a terminal capacity issue,” and although the ashfall has stopped, “we are still waiting for announcement from the Phivolcs [Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology], which is also partly dependent on Japanese satellites, [to help indicate] whether Taal Volcano would have a major eruption and what would be the direction of the ashfalls.”

“Let us hope that there would be no more eruption,” Monreal added.

He said the ash that fell over Metro Manila late Sunday was carried by a southerly wind, which has not shifted coming from the east, which is called Amihan.

Meanwhile, the three major domestic carriers said on Monday they have already provided accommodation to passengers affected by the flight suspension, despite the force majeure nature of the flight cancellations. All the carriers have advised their passengers to get in touch with their airlines for rebooking and for the latest development.

Despite pleas from the airlines for passengers not to proceed to the airport until their flights have been confirmed, many passengers ignored the advice, and went to the Naia to make sure they could board once the flights resumed.

Following their airport briefing, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade directed Monreal, Sydiongco and Arcilla “to do whatever is necessary in the interest of public safety.”

A CONVOY of government troops deployed to help pluck out residents in areas affected by Taal’s eruption rolls into desolate, ashfall-laden roads in Laurel, Batangas, on Monday.

ROY DOMINGO

T

HE leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday vowed to immediately pass the measure creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR), to take charge of providing emergency response to natural disasters.

House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the occurrence of such unpredictable natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods and volcanic eruptions makes it more urgent to pass the measure creating the DDR. The substitute bill creating the DDR is now pending for plenary approval. For his part, Ako Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin urged President Duterte to declare the bill creating DDR as urgent.

“I also ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to fasttrack the Department of Disaster Resilience bill. We need that bill now. Certification as urgent may be necessary. We need the bill; we will ask President Duterte to certify as urgent,” he said.

“Taal Volcano, being so close to Metro Manila, is, I believe, the push factor to get the DDR bill moving fast,” he added.

Given the continuing eruption of Taal Volcano, Garbin also appealed to Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario and Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año to take the lead in coordinating response measures for all areas around Taal, and the provinces of Cavite, Batangas and Rizal.

“There should also be no-build zones in the identified permanent danger zones around Mayon Volcano, Mount Bulusan, and the nature parks in my home province of Albay in Bicol region,” he said.

“Several disasters have befallen our country in the past weeks and months, but the Department of Disaster Resilience bill has hardly moved,” Garbin added.

Special session?

DEPUTY Speaker Michael Romero sought to convene a special session to immediately tackle the bill.

“I will confer with other House leaders on prioritizing the Department of Disaster Resilience bills. I believe the Taal Volcano eruption is enough reason for Congress to con-

vene in special session this week to tackle the disaster resilience bills and perhaps authorize additional funding for disaster response measures,” he said.

Romero said there is P16 billion in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund. The Department of Finance (DOF) may have some more billions from the $500-million World Bank disaster resilience funds while local government units also have their own calamity funds, he said. “ This Taal Volcano eruption is just the first of many disasters this year. P16 billion may not be enough until December. Many of the people affected in the Mindanao earthquakes and by the typhoons that struck Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Mindoro, and Western Visayas have yet to rebuild their homes,” Romero said.

Meanwhile, Agusan Rep. Lawrence Fortun said permanent and absolute no-build zones must be established fast as adaptation to climate and disaster hazards, as well as to protect ancestral lands, farms, and nature preserves and habitats on land and out at sea.

“The ongoing phreatic explosions at Taal Volcano are a stark and grim reminder of the urgent need for a national land and water use law with strong provisions on permanent and absolute no-build zones, and with harsh penalties on any local government or government office that violates,” he said.

The DDR ALBAY Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, principal author of the proposed DDR, said only 66 out of 80 provinces have permanent disaster offices.

The measure creating the DDR has adopted a “joint operational supervision” clause over four agencies vital, namely, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs); the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration (Pagasa), the Geo-Hazard Assessment and Engineering Geology Section of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), in lieu of attaching them.

See “DDR bill,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

B1

Maynilad, Manila Water won’t be forced to accept new contracts, DOJ insists

By Joel R. San Juan

J

@jrsanjuan1573

USTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday reiterated that the government is still open to discuss with water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. the proposed amendments in their concession contracts.

Guevarra made the statement in response to Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s warning that it is a crime to force the water concessionaires to accept the contract proposed by the government.

Pangilinan also warned that the arm-twisting being done by the government against the water concessionaires will likely drive away investments that create jobs.

“These proposed new contracts will not be absolutely imposed upon the water concessionaires, as they will be given a reasonable opportunity to comment on the proposed amendments in an

open and public discussion of the issues,” Guevarra said.

The DOJ chief also clarified that President Duterte’s threat of possible criminal prosecution was directed, not at the investors, but the government officials and officers of the water concessionaires who crafted, entered into, and implemented the highly disadvantageous contracts.

“These proposed new contracts intend to remove all illegal provisions and foster greater transparency and equitability in rate-setting, and should, therefore, provide a more stable and comfortable environment for in-

Smart, Globe set up bases near Taal to support affected folk, volunteers L OCAL telecommunications companies Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. have set up bases in various areas within the perimeters of Taal Volcano to provide communications services, albeit limited, to people affected by the natural calamity.

Globe Director Janis Racpan said the group has provided free and unlimited Wi-fi connections in select malls in Laguna, Cavite and Batangas “to give those affected by the ongoing Taal Volcano explosion an opportunity to communicate with their family and friends.”

It has also deployed a mobile unit that allows people to call and charge their phones for free in areas in Tagaytay. The free services run from Monday until Thursday (January 16).

“In incidents like these, staying indoors is always the best option.

However, for our kababayan who are seeking refuge in our partner establishments, we are providing free unlimited Internet services for them to inform their loved ones of their safety or their current condition should they need assistance,” Racpan said.

For its part, Smart admitted that areas in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna have experienced “limited mobile signal due to damage” to its facilities “and/or lack of commercial power.”

Smart assured the public that

WITH the rain transforming Taal Volcano’s ashfall into mud, residents of Laurel, Batangas, await help on Monday morning. ROY DOMINGO

its “prepositioned teams of engineers and technicians in these areas are working round-the-clock in close coordination with local government units to immediately restore communications services.”

It has also provided communications support for Metropolitan Manila Development Author-

ity (MMDA) volunteers who are assisting residents in Batangas affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano.

Smart topped up the load wallets of the volunteers “to help facilitate communication during evacuation, rescue and relief operations.”

The company is also coordi-

nating with the Philippine Red Cross and the Phivolcs for the same purpose.

“Libreng Charging services will soon be available at the PLDT Tagaytay Office, General Aguinaldo Highway, Barangay Kaybagal South, Tagaytay City,” the statement read. Lorenz S. Marasigan

BIOTECH START-UP SEEKS TO MAKE MONEY BY LOWERING DRUG PRICES

A

NEW biotechnology company backed by some of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors thinks it can bring some relief from high drug prices.

The company, EQRx, is launching with the express purpose of developing medicines with prices as much as 66 percent lower than those of existing branded drugs. Led by a team of biotech insiders and backed by about $200 million in private funds, it has an ambitious agenda: to develop one drug in five years, and 10 in the next decade. It plans to work in costly areas like cancer and genetic disease.

Chief Executive Officer Alexis Borisy said he saw a disconnect between the innovative new medications that are now available and the financial hardships facing patients.

About 24 percent of Americans report trouble affording their prescription drugs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and financial stress is especially acute for those with diseases like cancer.

“We’re at this golden age, yet clearly

something’s not right,” Borisy said. “We think we can create new drugs and bring them to people in need in a way that society can afford in a sustainable manner.”

Generic drugs can provide more affordable alternatives for some medications. But EQRx is focusing on the expensive brand-name market, where drugs typically have patent protection and face less price competition.

It won’t be easy. The start-up will face challenges from the outset as it sets down the notoriously failure-ridden path of creating new drugs. It will also need to strike a balance between selling products at low prices and bringing in enough revenue and investment capital, while facing structural barriers in getting its drugs covered by healthinsurance plans.

“These folks are going to have to come out hopefully rapidly with a number of drugs and grow pretty quickly” to survive financially, said Steven Pearson, founder and president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent nonprofit that assesses

the cost-effectiveness of medications. “But I certainly hope that they succeed.”

EQRx launched on Monday at the start of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Health Care Conference, the biggest event of the year for the biopharmaceutical industry. Investors include the venture capital firms ARCH Venture Partners; GV, formerly Google Ventures; and Andreessen Horowitz.

The company will be advised by outspoken drug-price critic Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Sandra Horning, a former executive at Roche Holding AG’s Genentech, who are both listed as cofounders.

‘Capitalist impulses’

BORISY prides himself on having championed disruptive technology over his long career in the biopharmaceutical industry as an entrepreneur and investor. EQRx represents a different kind of disruption.

He intends to sidestep the philosophical

debates about how much drugs should cost.

Instead, EQRx will be “a market-based company driven by core, capitalist impulses,” he said. “We can make a really large company that can be really profitable. It just happens to be doing that by selling really good drugs at much lower prices.”

The company said that will be possible by making drugs that follow known ways of targeting disease, at least in the beginning, in an effort to improve its odds.

The start-up plans to spend less on sales and marketing than typical drugmakers, savings that can then be passed along to patients, said Melanie Nallicheri, EQRX president and chief operating officer. Nallicheri formerly served as chief business officer and head of biopharma at cancer diagnostics company Foundation Medicine.

Should those early medications be successful, EQRx plans to price them at a third the level of similar therapies, the company said.

Continued on B2

vestors,” Guevarra said.

He stressed that government’s takeover or nationalization of water distribution as authorized under Sections 17 and 18, Article XII of the Philippine Constitution, is the government’s last option.

Duterte’s tirade

EARLIER, Duterte threatened to file a case of economic sabotage against the two water firms due to the “onerous” 1997 contracts with the government.

Duterte made the remark after Guevarra disclosed that the Justice department found the extension of these contracts

to 2037 irregular, considering that the extension was granted 12 to 13 years before the original expiration of the 25-year concession agreements in 2022.

Guevarra said among the provisions in the old contracts that should be struck down for being onerous include the prohibition on the government’s interference in the rate-setting mechanism of the two water firms and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

Guevarra said it may take six months to finalize the water distribution deal with Manila Water and Maynilad.

POWER OUTAGES HIT SOUTH LUZON AREAS ON TAAL VOLCANO ERUPTION

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

P

OW E R o ut a g e s o c curred in the vicinity of Taal Volcano, which continued to spew ash following its eruption Sunday afternoon.

As of Monday morning, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) reported the following areas that experienced power interruptions. n Portions of Bacoor, Silang, Amadeo, Indang, Naic, Trece Martires City, Alfonso, Cavite City and Dasmariñas City, all in Cavite. n Portions of Cabuyao and Calamba, Laguna. n Portions of Talisay, Batangas. n All circuits of Tagaytay City.

“The effect of ashfall from Taal’s recent volcanic activity has affected various Meralco circuits in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna, causing power interruptions and outages in some portions of these provinces,” said Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga.

The utility firm is working to restore power in these areas as soon as possible.

As of 9 am, Monday, some por t ion s of Sa nt a R os a , Cabuyao and Calamba have already been restored.

“Meralco is currently on full alert and ready to respond to any power-related emergencies,” it added.

Meanwhile, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) has advised all concerned electric cooperatives to take all appropriate contingency measures to mitigate the impact on electric services to consumers, activate the Emergency Restoration Organization, when needed to immediately implement emergency restoration plan and continuously monitor the situation.

NEA reported that power interruption also occurred in the service areas of Batelec II (Batangas II Electric Cooperative Inc.) Itcited“volcaniceruption, series of earthquakes, ashfall, lava

mud and rocks affecting subtransmission and distribution facilities” as the reasons for the power knockout since Sunday afternoon.

DOE tracking

MEANWHILE, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it is closely coordinating with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center, as well as all the members of the energy family for subsequent updates and information on the status of energy facilities and systems, or any other emerging problem that may affect energy supply.

In the generation sector, the National Power Cor p.

(NPC) reported to the DOE that it is coordinating with its personnel in Tingloy, Batangas, where its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) operates.

Transmission

IN the transmission sector, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is implementing contingency measures, as it continues monitoring the effects of the volcanic activity on transmission facilities.

As of Sunday night, multiple trippings occurred in the Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500kV Line, Tayabas-Dasmariñas 500-kV Line, San Jose-Tayabas 500 -kV Line 2 and 4x600MVA Dasmariñas Transformers.

The grid operator said it is addressing this to restore affected lines immediately.

Refinery, terminals

MEANWHILE, the refinery and terminals of Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp., South Pacific Inc., are unaffected.

However, Shell closed down seven stations within a 6 to 35 kilometer radius of Taal.

Petro Gazz did the same with its Silang, Cavite, and Lipa City stations.

Five stations of Seaoil were also closed.

Insular Oil, meanwhile, reported to the DOE that its Batangas operations are “on alert.”

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

January 10, 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 CITYSTATE BANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BDO LEASING COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG FILIPINO FUND IREMIT MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE VANTAGE

52 152.9 86.35 25 6.21 11.86 66.15 12.2 20.1 33.85 57.1 22.75 186 58.05 2.11 18.06 3.82 6.81 1.18 0.355 860 0.81 175 1855 1.05

54 153 86.5 25.05 8.49 11.94 67 12.4 20.8 34.05 58.25 23.45 186.9 58.15 2.12 18.48 3.87 7.18 1.21 0.36 870 0.82 177 1859 1.07

53.75 152.8 85 25 6.22 11.96 65.9 12.02 20.45 34.95 57.4 22.75 187 58.05 2.05 18.48 3.8 7 1.18 0.345 850 0.78 175 1855 1.08

53.75 154.5 87 25.05 8.48 11.98 67 12.2 20.45 34.95 57.4 22.75 188 58.65 2.11 18.48 3.82 7 1.2 0.36 860 0.83 175 1855 1.08

53.75 151 85 24.8 6.22 11.86 65.35 12.02 20 33.7 57.05 22.75 185 58.05 2 18.48 3.8 7 1.18 0.345 850 0.78 175 1855 1.07

53.75 153 86.5 25 8.48 11.86 67 12.2 20 33.85 57.1 22.75 186 58.1 2.11 18.48 3.82 7 1.2 0.36 860 0.82 175 1855 1.07

2000 1865900 1373480 210900 400 220900 983510 25000 20000 496300 1180 20300 548660 17600 37000 200 15000 20000 42000 140000 210 46000 280 30 63000

107500 284486903 118622089.5 5236485 2940 2633192 65424719.5 304100 406910 16,865,145( 67467.5 461825 101913996 1027593.5 76710 3696 57220 140000 50310 49600 179800 37500 49000 55650 67930

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY ALSONS CONS ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO MANILA WATER PETRON PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL SPC POWER AGRINURTURE AXELUM CENTURY FOOD DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EMPERADOR SMC FOODANDBEV ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG GINEBRA JOLLIBEE MACAY HLDG MAXS GROUP MG HLDG PEPSI COLA SHAKEYS PIZZA ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP ROXAS HLDG SWIFT FOODS UNIV ROBINA VITARICH CONCRETE B CEMEX HLDG EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP HOLCIM MEGAWIDE PHINMA VULCAN INDL CHEMPHIL CROWN ASIA EUROMED MABUHAY VINYL PRYCE CORP CONCEPCION GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR IONICS PANASONIC SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PACIFICA HLDG PRIME MEDIA REPUBLIC GLASS SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES SEAFRONT RES TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

-30074147 -12600570 5000 -1200944 36498748 9,373,370.0001) -327600 -38059498 -394387.5 -

2.34 1.31 34.1 0.241 22.35 66.05 305 10.18 4.04 11.7 33.4 8.77 12.52 3.06 15.24 5.01 9.11 7.22 79.5 0.55 1.44 38 205 6.65 11.36 0.157 1.92 9.3 2.08 5.26 1.76 0.119 140.3 1.24 67 1.67 14.02 9.03 13.8 14.82 9.7 0.94 165.6 2.16 1.6 3.14 4.71 30.5 2.02 8.03 1.27 5 0.99 7.49

2.35 1.32 34.25 0.245 22.45 66.75 308 10.2 4.06 11.98 33.5 8.8 12.98 3.08 15.3 5.2 9.2 7.23 79.95 0.56 1.45 38.2 206.6 6.8 11.4 0.17 1.94 9.45 2.09 5.3 1.79 0.123 142 1.25 70.95 1.68 14.3 9.07 13.9 14.88 10 0.95 173 2.18 1.69 3.43 4.79 32.3 2.03 8.1 1.3 5.39 1.01 7.55

2.41 1.23 34.4 0.245 22.35 67.95 303.6 10.54 4.11 11.7 33.6 8.88 13 3.12 15.48 5.3 9.1 7.24 80 0.56 1.47 38 208 6.5 11.48 0.17 1.92 9.27 2.1 5.28 1.76 0.118 142.5 1.17 72.85 1.73 14.1 9.1 13.8 15.3 9.85 0.92 165.5 2.12 1.59 3.44 4.84 32 1.93 8 1.28 5.38 0.99 7.5

2.42 1.37 34.4 0.245 22.85 67.95 308 10.6 4.11 11.98 33.6 8.88 13 3.23 15.48 5.3 9.21 7.24 80.5 0.56 1.49 38 211 7 11.5 0.17 1.93 9.6 2.18 5.3 1.76 0.12 143 1.25 72.85 1.79 14.1 9.1 13.9 15.4 10 0.98 165.5 2.16 1.59 3.44 4.84 32.4 2.03 8.25 1.3 5.38 1.02 7.9

2.35 1.22 34 0.241 22.2 66 301 10.06 4.02 11.7 32.8 8.75 12.5 3.06 15.1 5.01 9.05 7.21 79.45 0.55 1.43 37 203.8 6.5 11.3 0.17 1.92 9.22 2.08 5.24 1.76 0.118 139.1 1.17 71 1.68 14 9.01 13.8 14.82 9.85 0.92 165.5 2.12 1.59 3.2 4.7 32 1.93 8 1.25 5.38 0.98 7.32

2.35 1.32 34.25 0.245 22.35 66.05 308 10.2 4.04 11.98 33.4 8.8 12.98 3.06 15.24 5.2 9.2 7.22 79.5 0.56 1.45 38 206.6 6.8 11.36 0.17 1.92 9.3 2.09 5.28 1.76 0.12 140.3 1.25 71 1.68 14.02 9.07 13.9 14.82 10 0.95 165.5 2.16 1.59 3.4 4.7 32.4 2.02 8.1 1.3 5.38 0.98 7.49

1749000 4114000 1265600 170000 1375500 195640 173080 7869000 1382000 34000 173000 318100 1028700 3788000 117200 10900 1040700 793400 140750 669000 20963000 12600 304320 72700 12400 150000 3691000 278900 632000 19000 6000 420000 1588100 19333000 290 18975000 514600 672100 35100 514500 3700 1669000 100 126000 2000 6000 350000 1500 23008000 445400 287000 2000 205000 14438200

4147530 5385720 43306545 41280 30915970 12,937,717.5( 52674228 80451732 5597710 405052 5757945 2800236 12965158 11840050 1795140 57049 9514213 5728322 11233840.5 371320 30546090 476235 62671880 486759 141184 25500 7109750 2600237 1343690 100008 10560 50160 222980923 23828650 20608.5 32617840 7234352 6092295 485880 7671466 36460 1593760 16550 271090 3180 19940 1659400 48445 46036990 3590321 361430 10760 203730 109971596

-751150 -1410100 -19138960 -7069155 1,048,172.4999) -7261176 -4669236 -921110 -17864 387740 -25636 -7344600 -501760 436214 4454292 -972461 1024106.5 5500 167310 24130 -14294550 -34124 -27292 -25500 -2395860 -1050650 -44278 -12000 -102936409 25050 -623980 -6887952 -6036321 54500 -4555076 -547200 -2853590 -1124586 9900 342068

0.91 11.78 794 51.65 11.16 2.91 0.67 0.91 0.93 6.55 7.06 13 795 5.1 77.05 6.06 0.485 3.83 11.4 0.6 3.7 4.68 1.18 2.75 188 1067 158.4 0.77 2 203 0.203 0.198

0.92 11.8 795 52 11.18 2.92 0.69 0.93 0.95 6.59 7.07 13.16 805 5.46 77.45 6.6 0.5 3.85 11.58 0.61 3.74 4.7 1.24 2.97 193 1079 158.5 0.79 2.35 213.4 0.217 0.202

0.97 11.48 791.5 51.8 11.26 2.95 0.69 0.89 0.92 6.57 7.06 13.3 819 5.47 79.05 6.07 0.5 3.86 11.96 0.59 3.77 4.24 1.24 2.73 185 1067 160 0.77 2.21 202.6 0.202 0.202

0.97 12.52 795 52 11.26 2.99 0.7 0.93 0.95 6.6 7.15 13.4 824.5 5.47 79.05 6.64 0.5 3.86 11.96 0.64 3.77 4.88 1.24 2.98 194 1080 161.5 0.79 2.21 213.8 0.203 0.202

0.91 11.38 785.5 51.55 11.04 2.92 0.67 0.89 0.92 6.53 6.97 13 795 5.47 76.95 6.07 0.49 3.82 11.4 0.59 3.65 4.21 1.18 2.73 185 1060 158.5 0.75 2.2 202.6 0.202 0.195

0.92 11.8 795 52 11.18 2.92 0.69 0.93 0.95 6.59 7.07 13.16 795 5.47 77.05 6.64 0.5 3.83 11.4 0.6 3.74 4.7 1.24 2.73 192 1079 158.5 0.79 2.2 213.8 0.203 0.198

69502000 86000 140940 569830 2530000 681000 508000 829000 158000 215500 8242200 128800 367740 900 2242160 21500 30000 1097000 1550000 1131000 26681000 127000 222000 12000 700 1053270 339660 110000 10000 20 70000 330000

65966780 1018626 111573225 29554767 28193546 2011690 341150 758000 147480 1412707 58203995 1683180 294550445 4923 173330200 140185 14765 4204070 18094714 686740 99100240 585870 265740 33010 130750 1119413710 54029983 84820 22010 4164 14200 66080

1106130 -20 -13451810 1350488 -11836038 -27740 93880 -566393 -10587513 -158234815 -14345947 -959080 3128566 -16332290 848550765 -2858775 15200 -

PROPERTY

ARTHALAND CORP 0.81 0.82 0.84 0.84 0.8 0.82 1234000 1003560 8100 ANCHOR LAND 8.8 9.1 8.8 8.8 8.8 8.8 200 1760 1760 AYALA LAND 44.3 44.35 45 45.05 44.1 44.35 8807500 390873035 -113339125 BELLE CORP 1.99 2 2 2 1.99 1.99 107000 213530 -98000 A BROWN 0.73 0.74 0.72 0.74 0.72 0.74 972000 707650 CITYLAND DEVT 0.82 0.85 0.83 0.85 0.82 0.82 50000 41430 CROWN EQUITIES 0.184 0.188 0.184 0.184 0.184 0.184 10000 1840 CEBU HLDG 6.4 6.7 6.8 6.8 6.2 6.7 59800 384635 CEB LANDMASTERS 4.75 4.76 4.79 4.8 4.76 4.76 98000 468670 38020 CENTURY PROP 0.54 0.56 0.53 0.56 0.53 0.56 31636000 17375680 -1209180 CYBER BAY 0.4 0.41 0.405 0.41 0.4 0.41 260000 104600 DOUBLEDRAGON 18.4 18.6 18.42 19.2 18.26 18.4 872900 16253920 -3737676 DM WENCESLAO 9.22 9.28 9.41 9.41 9.22 9.22 163500 1522535 -1065155 EMPIRE EAST 0.42 0.425 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.42 40000 16800 FILINVEST LAND 1.52 1.53 1.53 1.55 1.52 1.53 13667000 20918770 -11720180 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.15 1.17 1.17 1.17 1.17 1.17 28000 32760 8990 HLDG 14.72 14.8 14.76 14.8 14.7 14.7 444400 6548130 -247152 PHIL INFRADEV 1.19 1.2 1.17 1.2 1.16 1.2 1524000 1819950 -934800 MEGAWORLD 4.24 4.25 4.27 4.27 4.21 4.25 14405000 61023740 -20028550 MRC ALLIED 0.229 0.23 0.214 0.236 0.211 0.23 85940000 19677920 -189650 PHIL ESTATES 0.415 0.42 0.415 0.42 0.415 0.415 70000 29150 PRIMEX CORP 2.15 2.16 2.19 2.19 2.13 2.16 269000 578790 ROBINSONS LAND 27.15 27.3 27.5 27.5 26.85 27.15 3091500 83619285 -60124225 PHIL REALTY 0.315 0.32 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.31 10000 3100 ROCKWELL 2.09 2.14 2.1 2.14 2.09 2.09 44000 93270 SHANG PROP 3.16 3.24 3.25 3.25 3.24 3.24 5000 16210 STA LUCIA LAND 2.38 2.46 2.36 2.47 2.34 2.47 2270000 5351270 247800 SM PRIME HLDG 41.9 42 42 42.4 41.65 42 16715800 700334770 373755490 VISTAMALLS 5.64 5.84 5.7 5.84 5.7 5.84 149300 865766 SUNTRUST HOME 1.65 1.66 1.6 1.7 1.54 1.65 26732000 43383320 449700 VISTA LAND 7.5 7.53 7.46 7.54 7.46 7.53 10273200 77339886 -25107777

SERVICES ABS CBN 18.24 18.5 19.4 19.4 18.5 18.5 124200 2317762 GMA NETWORK 5.44 5.45 5.45 5.5 5.45 5.45 56200 306979 GLOBE TELECOM 1979 1980 2030 2030 1980 1980 119775 239202075 -12111250 PLDT 1089 1090 1090 1092 1072 1090 85995 93467380 1219595 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.044 0.046 0.046 0.046 0.046 0.046 4200000 193200 DFNN INC 4.71 5 4.71 5 4.71 5 2500 12355 ISLAND INFO 0.101 0.102 0.103 0.103 0.102 0.102 290000 29770 ISM COMM 3.73 3.74 3.75 3.78 3.7 3.73 1678000 6269160 -101670 NOW CORP 2.48 2.5 2.43 2.53 2.42 2.48 1102000 2739260 15360 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.28 0.285 0.27 0.29 0.255 0.28 23630000 6538200 105000 PHILWEB 2.57 2.58 2.52 2.7 2.52 2.58 645000 1685330 -2650 2GO GROUP 9.62 9.65 9.62 9.8 9.62 9.65 6900 66918 ASIAN TERMINALS 16.28 18.6 18.3 18.5 18.3 18.5 10600 195580 195580 CHELSEA 5.32 5.33 5.25 5.38 5.25 5.32 419100 2224286 -28540 CEBU AIR 86.55 86.7 87.3 87.5 86.55 86.55 214280 18631341 -6992451 INTL CONTAINER 132.5 133 135 135 131.3 132.5 1380950 182883342 20715321 LBC EXPRESS 12.32 13.94 13.96 13.98 13.92 13.94 3300 46110 MACROASIA 14.16 14.18 15.1 15.12 14.12 14.18 2407100 34877038 -16547980 PAL HLDG 7.5 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.5 7.5 4900 37830 HARBOR STAR 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.4 1.33 1.34 3808000 5179140 146600 ACESITE HOTEL 1.35 1.42 1.36 1.36 1.35 1.35 16000 21650 DISCOVERY WORLD 1.84 2.01 1.8 2.01 1.8 2.01 2000 3810 GRAND PLAZA 9.53 11.78 10.4 11.98 10.4 11.98 4300 46570 WATERFRONT 0.61 0.62 0.62 0.63 0.61 0.62 405000 251020 STI HLDG 0.61 0.62 0.61 0.63 0.6 0.61 1963000 1199020 -948540 BERJAYA 3.26 3.32 3.26 3.37 3.26 3.26 583000 1926410 BLOOMBERRY 10.52 10.6 10.4 10.78 10.4 10.6 3477300 36786384 -8934218 PACIFIC ONLINE 2.4 2.43 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 40000 96000 -24000 LEISURE AND RES 2.43 2.54 2.58 2.58 2.42 2.47 142000 353530 -173490 MANILA JOCKEY 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.24 3.23 3.23 108000 349260 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.58 0.59 0.58 0.6 0.58 0.59 4359000 2,581,440( 1,644,689.9997) ALLHOME 11.5 11.52 11.58 11.6 11.5 11.52 1331900 15348010 -4682506 METRO RETAIL 2.12 2.13 2.11 2.15 2.11 2.12 818000 1736240 -1084290 PUREGOLD 39.7 39.8 40.2 40.2 39.7 39.7 250500 9976380 -1887675 ROBINSONS RTL 78.6 79.5 79.1 79.5 79 79.5 384820 30569916 22473917.4999 PHIL SEVEN CORP 140 143 140 140 133 140 1069830 149766686 -200550 SSI GROUP 2.66 2.67 2.64 2.68 2.63 2.66 3548000 9415990 4505310 WILCON DEPOT 18.2 18.3 18.46 18.48 17.98 18.2 1100800 20056454 110616 APC GROUP 0.405 0.41 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.405 800000 321250 -200000 EASYCALL 8.75 8.82 8.4 8.85 8.4 8.75 8400 72203 IPM HLDG 7.3 8 7.8 7.8 7.3 7.3 4000 30200 14600 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.34 0.345 0.35 0.355 0.34 0.34 6260000 2157500 -3500 SBS PHIL CORP 9.08 9.26 9.12 9.43 9.08 9.08 49300 449841

MINING & OIL ATOK 10.1 10.9 10.94 10.94 10.9 10.9 1000 10904 APEX MINING 1.07 1.09 1.08 1.09 1.06 1.09 468000 503790 -27250 ABRA MINING 0.0014 0.0015 0.0015 0.0015 0.0014 0.0014 379000000 562700 ATLAS MINING 2.41 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.46 2.5 448000 1116280 -1098820 BENGUET A 1.16 1.25 1.16 1.16 1.16 1.16 10000 11600 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.27 0.275 0.27 0.27 0.27 0.27 130000 35100 CENTURY PEAK 2.96 3 3 3.02 2.95 3 1041000 3102510 72480 DIZON MINES 7.12 7.14 7.28 7.49 7.07 7.13 75900 539512 FERRONICKEL 1.63 1.65 1.69 1.69 1.63 1.63 3350000 5504460 -2003370 GEOGRACE 0.197 0.2 0.2 0.203 0.196 0.199 370000 73470 LEPANTO A 0.098 0.1 0.099 0.101 0.098 0.1 1790000 178280 MANILA MINING A 0.0085 0.0088 0.0085 0.0085 0.0085 0.0085 4000000 34000 MARCVENTURES 0.89 0.9 0.86 0.91 0.86 0.9 514000 461550 NIHAO 1 1.02 1.02 1.02 1 1.02 183000 183060 NICKEL ASIA 3.11 3.19 3.3 3.3 3.11 3.11 18036000 57465170 -24831680 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.74 0.75 0.72 0.75 0.69 0.75 320000 226490 -23040 PX MINING 3.2 3.24 3.25 3.31 3.18 3.2 634000 2030860 -238390 SEMIRARA MINING 21.95 22 22.1 22.1 21.8 22 379200 8338365 1126570 UNITED PARAGON 0.0055 0.006 0.0055 0.006 0.0055 0.006 4000000 22900 ACE ENEXOR 9.57 9.58 10.18 10.18 9.57 9.58 658000 6454408 -30250 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 0.01 0.011 102100000 1057200 PHILODRILL 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 22200000 239400 PXP ENERGY 10.2 10.22 10.32 10.7 10.2 10.22 1896300 19600808 -1605156

PREFFERED

HOUSE PREF A 99 99.75 99 99.75 99 99.75 25010 2475997.5 AC PREF B1 499.2 500 501 507 501 501 10720 5370780 AC PREF B2R 500 505 500 500 500 500 30 15000 -10000 CPG PREF A 100.8 101 102 102 100 100 34350 3477603 -1062425 DD PREF 100.5 101 100.8 100.8 100.5 100.5 25800 2593452 SMC FB PREF 2 995 1000 998.5 999 995 995 4540 4529000 FGEN PREF G 107.9 110.7 104.1 104.1 103.7 103.7 970 100680 GLO PREF P 502 505 505 505 505 505 50 25250 GTCAP PREF A 950 990 989 990 989 990 500 494990 MWIDE PREF 100.7 102.8 101 101 101 101 8960 904960 PNX PREF 4 1027 1029 1027 1030 1027 1029 685 705100 PCOR PREF 3A 1028 1050 1027 1050 1026 1050 3790 3950645 PCOR PREF 3B 1046 1050 1043 1050 1043 1050 1070 1123070 SFI PREF 1.36 1.73 1.36 1.36 1.36 1.36 4000 5440 SMC PREF 2C 76.75 76.8 77.05 77.05 76.75 76.8 32640 2507211.5 SMC PREF 2D 75 75.2 75 75 75 75 2700 202500 SMC PREF 2E 74.9 76 74.95 74.95 74.9 74.9 430 32212.5 -32212.5 SMC PREF 2F 76 76.7 76.5 76.8 76.5 76.5 37100 2838750 SMC PREF 2G 75.2 75.95 75.3 75.3 75.1 75.1 14200 1068420 SMC PREF 2H 75.1 76.5 75.1 76.5 75.1 76.5 22800 1712874 SMC PREF 2I 75.4 75.95 76 76 76 76 30 2280 -

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR

17.22

17.88

18.5

18.5

17.06

17.9

120200

2152956

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

1.26

-133052.0001

1.32

1.26

1.26

1.25

1.25

36000

45240

-

ITALPINAS 4 KEPWEALTH 10.32 XURPAS 0.87

4.02 10.34 0.88

4.06 10.2 0.82

4.2 10.38 0.88

4 10.04 0.81

4.02 10.34 0.87

335000 167700 8997000

1362430 1722342 7688440

-2060 -30000

FIRST METRO ETF

116.3

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS 116.1

116.3

116.3

115.8

116.3

2240

260096

17400

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Grab to pilot audio, video recording feature in rides

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

S

@lorenzmarasigan

UPER app Grab implemented a pilot run for a safety measure that will essentially record audio and video during GrabCar rides, a move that a spokesman said would “better support” users and provide a new layer of security for passengers and drivers.

On Monday, Grab deployed audio and video recording devices on 180 GrabCar vehicles; of which half will be equipped with cameras; and the other half with audio recording gadgets. The pilot will run for

about two weeks to a maximum of six weeks.

“As part of our continuous efforts to improve the safety of our services and to better support our users, Grab will be conducting a

SC rejects Peco bid to move outside Iloilo expropriation case filed by MORE

T

HE Supreme Court has rejected Panay Electric Co.’s (Peco) petition to transfer the expropriation case filed by More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE) to any court outside Iloilo City.

In a two-page notice of resolution dated December 4 and signed eight days later, the SC Second Division resolved “to deny the petition to transfer the venue of Civil Case 19-34158 from the RTC (Regional Trial Court) Branch 35, Iloilo City, Iloilo, to any court in Metro Manila or, in the alternative, that it be consolidated with Civil Case R-MND-19-00571, pending before the RTC Branch 209, Mandaluyong City for lack of merit.”

Deputy Division Clerk of Court Teresita Aquino Tuazon signed the resolution.

Peco wanted the case transferred to another court “on the possibility that the judge handling the subject case may be subjected to public pressure since all his/ her actions are under close scrutiny.”

However, the SC said, “The mere possibility of prejudice is not sufficient to justify a transfer of venue, as aptly argued

by MORE.” The High Court also said Peco failed to present “adequate proof that the accompanying publicity may cause prejudice to it.”

Moreover, Peco “failed to prove that a miscarriage of justice would arise in the event of that the subject case continues to be heard in the RTC of Iloilo City.”

As to the argument that there is a possibility that the two coequal courts—Iloilo City RTC and Mandaluyong City RTC— would render conflicting decisions, “the same had been rendered moot and academic by the fact that the Mandaluyong RTC has already rendered its judgment on July

1, 2019, and the decision has been elevated

by MORE through a petition for review on certiorari before this Court and, thus, the consolidation...is no longer possible.”

The SC resolution came a month before Iloilo City Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular suggested to the SC that the expropriation case, which he was handling, be transferred outside Iloilo City after he was charged with bias by MORE officials.

Reacting to the SC decision, MORE President Roel Castro said, “the SC order denying the petition of Peco to transfer venue of the case is self-explanatory.

Anyone who reads it will understand the meaning of it.”

The SC resolution arose from Peco’s opposition to the expropriation proceedings initiated by MORE with the Iloilo City RTC in March 2019 as the latter invoked Sections 10 and 17 of Republic Act 11212 to expropriate the distribution assets of Peco in exchange for about P500 million in line with its 25-year congressional franchise to distribute electricity in Iloilo City.

The December 4 resolution came a day after the SC imposed a temporary restraining order, stopping the Mandaluyong RTC and Peco from implementing the Lower Court’s decision declaring Sections 10 and 17 of RA 11212 unconstitutional.

Sections 10 and 17 of RA 11212 granted MORE, as the new distribution utility in Iloilo City, the powers of eminent domain and the authority to expropriate any asset, including existing distribution assets in the city.

MORE had secured the franchise after both chambers of Congress ignored Peco’s application to renew its franchise, which expired last January 18, 2019.

Lenie Lectura

BIOTECH START-UP SEEKS TO MAKE MONEY BY LOWERING DRUG PRICES Continued from B1

Capital challenge

BUT it’s in research and development (R&D) where the new company will need to make the most changes, said Bernard Munos, a veteran of drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. who now serves as senior fellow at the Milken Institute’s FasterCures.

“There’s waste in marketing and sales, no question about it,” he said. “But I don’t think they’re going to be able to squeeze as much cash there to make the difference they need to make.”

EQRx will also likely need more capital:

By Munos’s calculations, of 13 new drugs that biotechs had approved last year, R&D spending ranged from about $46 million to $1.4 billion per drug.

Even in an area of established science, research can be a messy and expensive process, said Craig Garthwaite, a health economist at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“Even if they do that, we tend to see people invest in companies because the first drug made a bunch of money,” Garthwaite said.

“Here, you’re asking people to invest because the first drug didn’t make a bunch of money.”

Bloomberg News

small pilot study in Metro Manila to assess the effectiveness of incar audio and video recording in incident prevention and dispute resolution,” a Grab statement read.

This new safety feature, a Grab spokesman said, is compliant with local privacy laws.

“There is an express notification to passengers sent via GrabChat upon matching with a participating driver. This is the minimum that is required pursuant to the data privacy law,” the spokesman said.

She added: “We have made sure that recordings are encrypted, stored in a secured database, and cannot be accessed by public.”

Should there be no reported complaint or dispute, the audio file will be deleted after seven days, while videos will be deleted after 10 hours.

MUTUAL FUNDS

“Passengers are given the liberty to take the ride or refuse by canceling the ride, without affecting passenger rating,” the spokesman explained. “We hope that this pilot, if proven successful, will bring us even closer to our goal of zero preventable incident on our platform.”

The Grab spokesman added that the new safety measure is part of its 2018 safety road map that consists of tech enhancements to bring incidents to down to zero.

The audio and video recording pilot, she said, constitutes Grab’s “following through with our commitment. It is part of the tech road map we had promised in 2018, which follows features, such as sos button, passenger selfie verification—all of which have helped deterred criminal activity on the platform.”

January 10, 2020

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

PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 251.54 -4.7% -0.26% -1.12% -0.59% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 1.3489 -9.85% -0.04% -3.7% -2.14% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 3.5694 -13.37% -4.16% -4.12% -3.41% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP. -A 0.8846 -5.42% N.A. N.A. -2.03% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. -A 0.8461 -2.88% N.A. N.A. -0.82% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC. -A 5.2978 -5.12% 1.19% -1.2% -0.88% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,6 0.8508 -3.5% -2.43% N.A. -0.69% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. -A 102.6 -13.04% N.A. N.A. -0.78% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC. -A 51.1428 -1.91% 2.08% N.A. -0.65% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 531.25 -1.99% 1.04% -0.75% -0.7% PHILEQUITY ALPHA ONE FUND, INC. -A,D,8 1.0306 N.A. N.A. N.A. 0.42% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC. -A 1.2847 -2.45% 1.87% 0.27% -0.56% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC. -A 37.7707 -2.27% 2.7% 0.15% -0.73% PHILEQUITY MSCI PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,1 1.0161 -1.8% N.A. N.A. -0.56% PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC. -A 5.2099 -0.97% 2.64% 1.23% -0.62% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP. -A 869.8 -1.02% 2.56% 1.16% -0.61% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 0.826 -8.48% -1.06% -2.81% -3.37% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC. -A 4.1806 -2.19% 1.94% 0.26% -1.16% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC. -A 0.9983 -1.35% 2.43% N.A. -0.61% UNITED FUND, INC. -A 3.6519 -1.33% 3.81% 1.97% -0.52% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC. -A,C 116.6346 -0.66% 3.27% 2.11% -0.6% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC. -B $1.0319 10.58% 6.3% 1.03% 0.82% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC. -A $1.3835 20.2% 9.58% N.A. 0.9% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC. -A 1.5468 -9.32% -3.63% -4.44% -1.28% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 2.1564 -5.46% -1.95% -1.78% -1.38% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC. -A 2.6145 -1.15% 1.52% -1.49% -0.83% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN F.O.C.C.U.S. DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A,5 0.229 N.A. N.A. N.A. -0.56% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION -A N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC. -A 1.9586 3.47% 2.27% 0.78% -0.23% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC. -A 3.7729 5.66% 1.41% -0.1% -0.67% PHILAM FUND, INC. -A 16.8782 4.05% 1.27% -0.2% -0.72% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC. -A 2.1297 -0.06% 1.15% 0.74% -0.24% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 3.8411 1.59% 1.96% 0.28% -0.86% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2028, INC. -A,D,2 1.0067 N.A. N.A. N.A. -1.12% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2038, INC. -A,D,2 0.9931 N.A. N.A. N.A. -0.56% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2048, INC. -A,D,2 0.9901 N.A. N.A. N.A. -0.56% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A 0.9677 1.45% 1.28% -0.88% -1.12% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC. -A $0.03826 8.17% 2.58% 2% 0.24% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC. -A $1.032 10.36% 4.8% 1.17% -0.06% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC. -A $3.9226 15.12% 7.53% 4.54% 0.72% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC. -A,7 $1.1314 10.57% 4.41% N.A. 0.59% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 358.16 4.21% 2.8% 2.29% 0.09% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC. -A 1.903 2.68% 0.44% -0.66% 0.08% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 3.1188 4.8% 5.14% 5.18% 0.15% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC. -A 2.2216 4.24% 2.03% 1.78% -0.09% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC. -A 2.3486 6.15% 2.05% 1.44% -0.44% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP. -A P N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. PHILAM BOND FUND, INC. -A 4.3436 14.34% 2.22% 1.41% -0.65% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A

3.7776 6.71% 2.76% 1.51% 0.02% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. -A 0.9589 6.98% 0.99% -0.1% -0.52% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.0523 9.73% 4.01% 2.36% -0.74% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC. -A

1.6834 8.72% 3.46% 1.71% -1.04% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $468.74 4.43% 2.68% 2.77% 0.15% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. -A Є219.74 3.52% 1.66% 1.29% 0.01% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -B $1.2092 6.97% 2.98% 2.59% 0.24% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $0.0258 3.61% 1.33% 1.21% N.A. GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP. -A N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC -A $1.0969 5.82% 1.26% -0.54% 0.36% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $2.4068 10.03% 3.2% 2.86% 0.2% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC. -A $0.0603656 5.87% 2.24% 1.96% 0.03% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC. -A $3.1776 10.48% 2.55% 2.6% 0.19% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 125.9 4.06% 2.87% 2.19% 0.1% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A,3 1.029 N.A. N.A. N.A. -0.09% PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 1.2495 6.24% 2.89% 1.59% -0.54% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 1.2656 3.73% 2.9% 2.38% 0.12% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC. -A $1.0377 2.09% N.A. N.A. 0.06% 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

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Erupting volcano halts scheduled T-bills auction

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HE eruption of Taal Volcano has prompted finance officials and bank executives to put a halt in operations last Monday.

For one, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) postponed the scheduled auction on Monday of T-bills worth P20 billion.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the auction would just be rescheduled to January 14.

The BTr was supposed to conduct an auction of its short-term debt papers on Monday afternoon, particularly on the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day T-bills.

However, Malacañang declared near midnight of Sunday the suspension of classes and government operations in the National Capital Region, Region 3 and Region 4A. Except for the 364-day T-bill which amounted to P8 billion, the other two T-bills are at P6 billion.

The settlement date for the T-bills is on January 15, 2020, according to the public offering released by the BTr dated January 6, 2020.

The maturity dates for 91-day and the 182-day T-bills are on April 15, 2020, and July 15, 2020, respectively, while the 364-day T-bill is set to mature on January 13, 2021.

For the first quarter of the year, the government is planning to borrow P420 billion from the domestic market.

According to the schedule of Tbills and T-bond offering for the first quarter of the year addressed to all government securities eligible dealers, the government is set to float P240 billion worth of T-bills and P180 billion worth of T-bonds from January to March.

The T-bills auction is scheduled on Mondays from January to March, while the T-bonds auction is set on Tuesdays of every other week, starting January 7 to March 17.

The borrowing program of P420 billion for this quarter is also higher than the P360 billion set for the first quarter of 2019 and nearly double than P220 billion for the last quarter.

For this year, the government is planning to borrow a record P1.4 trillion with a 75:25 borrowing mix in favor of domestic sources. This is higher than the P1.19 trillion borrowing program last year.

De Leon earlier said that the country’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is expected to remain at 41.4 percent by end-2020 despite the higher borrowing program.

As of end-November last year, the national government’s outstanding debt was posted at P7.709 trillion, which is 2.5 percent lower than the previous month’s level due to net redemption of domestic government securities. Bernadette D. Nicolas

Dealing with current and future inflation

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O economy ever faces static conditions.

One of the things that constantly moves would be price.

Inflation is defined as a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. It affects people from all socioeconomic classes.

Inflation can have a significant adverse impact on personal finances.

Different people have different ways and means in coping with inflation.

Within the context of personal finance, there are key actions one can plan for and take in order to deal with inflation today and tomorrow.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to review the current income stream. What we earn should be the first basis of the kind of lifestyle we maintain and pursue.

For many, the salary from employed work serves as the main source of income. Planning for the relevant income stream should address liquidity and also be forward-looking.

In this regard, continuously performing well at work can raise the prospect of higher wages. Attending continuous training and development opportunities can, likewise, help a lot.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to assess if additional income streams would be possible.

Dependence on a single income may not be enough especially with changing personal circumstances like a growing family.

The choice of the additional income stream should be aligned with one’s purpose or passion so it would be worthwhile. The choice of additional income stream should not get in the way of living a balanced life. Being healthy and happy for the long haul are more vital than temporary gain.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to review the difference between needs and wants. When prices increase, we must learn how to prioritize things in order to have a sustainable lifestyle.

Needs are basic things like food, shelter and clothing. The challenge is to optimize expenses on needs.

Wants are often characterized by our luxuries and these things can either be minimized or taken out completely. Every peso saved from managing expenses helps in managing higher prices in goods and services.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to review the personal budget. The worst scenario is living

Genesis Kelly S. Lontoc

PERSONAL FINANCE without any semblance of a budget. It is like going to war against inflation without ample ammunition.

A popular budgeting guideline is the “50-30-20 budgeting rule.” From total income, around 50 percent can be allocated to needs, 30 percent can be allocated to wants and 20 percent can be devoted to saving. Budgeting allows one to be strategic by prioritizing things not just for present inflation but also for future inflation.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to review the level of protection one has. Protecting both life and nonlife concerns are important in coping with inflation. Having the right type of insurance can help one deal with expected rising costs of health care and mortality.

Having the right type of insurance can help support the lifestyle of a family even after a breadwinner moves on to the next life. Having the right type of insurance can help one deal with expected rising costs of maintenance and repair of key assets.

When inflation hits, one can take the time to review where to invest.

Putting all of the money in the bank will not be prudent since the inflation rate usually outpaces the savings rate. It is, therefore, important to explore investment.

Whether the investment chosen will be a financial investment or a business, diligent research has to be done so that the potential returns over time from the investment can beat the projected movement of inflation. Past performance and current performance of investments matter.

A good plan against inflation is one that tackles inflation at present and for the foreseeable future. While planning is important, the determination of an individual to commit to the plan will also make a difference.

Inflation is thus a challenge that can potentially spur good financial behavior needed for a better future.

Gemmy Lontoc is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. To learn more about personal financial planning, attend the 81st RFP program this January 2020. To inquire, e-mail info@rfp.ph or text <name><e-mail> <RFP> at 0917-9689774.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 B3

ATMs near Taal danger zones ‘adequately stocked’

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By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

ASH stocked in automated teller machines (ATMs) in provinces near the danger zone are adequate to the local financial consumers’ cash needs in the wake of the Taal Volcano’s unrest.

Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) Managing Director Benjamin P. Castillo told the BusinessMirror on Monday that while banking operations were affected by the ashfall and continuous volcanic activity of the Taal, local lenders usually have an emergency plan for these types of situations.

“Banks are prepared for emergency situations, and have measures in

place to ensure continued operations in these times,” Castillo said. “The banking public can be assured that nearby ATMs are adequately stocked and digital services are operational.”

The foreign exchange market did not trade and some local bank branches operating in Region 3, Region 4A and the National Capital Region were closed to the public on Monday.

Following the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) suspension of clearing operations, the BAP announced that they are closing the dollarpeso spot trading and encouraged banks to ensure the safety of their employees.

“Pursuant to BSP Circular 1043 Section 3[b] of Annex A and Malacañang’s announcement of no work of government offices due to Taal Volcano eruption, please be advised that BAP USD/PHP spot trading will be closed,” Castillo said.

“Banks located in heavily affected areas of the Taal Volcanic eruption are closed or with limited operations to ensure the safety of its employees, whereas banks in other areas remain open for banking operations. Online banking functions remain operational for consumer use,” he added.

Castillo encouraged banks to exercise management discretion to ensure the safety and welfare of

their people during the emergency situation.

Meanwhile, local banks took to social media to announce to their clients the suspension of their operations during the day.

Most banks in the country announced that they are closed in affected areas while others were on shortened schedule.

Bank of the Philippine Islands said that while ATMs and Cash Accept Machines remain available for service in affected branches, access may be intermittent depending on the network and power situation.

Security Bank said in its January 13 advisory that it also closed last Monday all its branches in 16 cities inside Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon and Lucena City.

The BAP said it remains in “close coordination with the BSP to ensure that the needs of the banking public are met.”

Oil comes back to haunt Asian currencies as volatility increases

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SIAN currencies have had a turbulent start to the year as geopolitical tensions have helped revive fears about an old foe that has undermined many of them in the past: crude oil.

India’s rupee, South Korea’s won, and the Philippine peso have all seen volatility jump in the past two weeks as escalating tensions between the US and Iran caused outsized swings in oil prices. If crude extends its march higher, that would saddle the three nations with heavier import bills and slower economic growth, weighing on their currencies.

Oil prices have surged since early October as Middle East turmoil has ratcheted up. Brent crude climbed as high as $71.75 a barrel last week, from an October low of $56.16, before falling back to about $65 late on Friday in Asia.

“Rising security risks in the Middle East pose significant risks to Asia given its heavy reliance on oil imports,” said Juliana Lee, chief Asia economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong. Asian economies “may see their external balances deteriorate meaningfully with a widening of oil trade deficits, while rising risk aversion points to a reversal of capital flows,” she said.

The three Asian currencies most at risk from higher oil prices

A BUS conductor holds Indian bank rupee notes for photograph in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India. BLOOMBERG

include the rupee, the won and the Philippine peso.

India

AN oil shock is the last thing India needs given the country is already running persistent current-account and fiscal deficits, and economic growth is slowing. The nation is a net oil importer and the central bank estimates a $10 increase in crude prices would widen the current-account by as much as 40 basis points and add more than 50 basis points to the annual inflation rate.

“Within Asia, sustained high oil

price will hurt the rupee the most as it will worsen the country’s trade balance,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. The rupee may decline to 74 per dollar in coming weeks if Mideast tensions escalate, said Ankur Jhaveri, head of currency and equities at Edelweiss Securities Ltd. in Mumbai.

The current record low of 74.4825 was set in October 2018.

Won, peso

THE won tumbled as much as 1.1 percent last Wednesday when an

Hong Kong’s first digital bank offers 6% rate that dwarfs HSBC’s

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HE first of Hong Kong’s new generation of digital banks has announced its arrival with a 6 percent introductory rate for deposits.

ZA Bank Ltd., one of eight firms preparing to start digital-only banks in Hong Kong, has begun a trial run that pays a select group of depositors over 3 percentage points more than established banks, such as HSBC Holdings Plc. and Standard Chartered Plc. Though many doubt the new banks will be able to maintain such rates, the offer is a warning of upcoming competition for the city’s $410-billion local currency timedeposit business. “This is more of a gimmick, which shouldn’t become a norm,” said Terry Siu, treasurer at CMB Wing Lung Bank Ltd., which pays 3.8 percent to new savers for two-month Hong Kong dollar deposits.

“But competition for funds is indeed getting higher as eight more banks are coming out.”

ZA began a pilot last month for the city’s first digital-only bank. It’s offering the 6 percent rate for three-month Hong Kong dollar deposits capped at HK$200,000 ($25,000), according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The accounts are set at a 2-percent rate, but offer a top up of as much as 4 percent to select clients, the person said.

Standard Chartered, HSBC and BOC Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. pay 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent for the maturity.

Groups of companies, including Chinese

giants Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings Ltd. were granted licenses to operate virtual banks last year by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The launch is now approaching at a time when tensions stoked by prodemocracy protests in the former British colony show few signs of abating.

Deposit rates could stay elevated as the unrest persists amid concerns over money outflows. So far there haven’t been any signs cash is fleeing the city though banks have said some clients are inquiring about opening accounts elsewhere as a precaution. The Monetary Authority—the de facto central bank—steers the economy and maintains stability by pegging the city’s dollar to its US counterpart. The rates stand in stark contrast to parts of the developed world, where central banks have slashed key rates below zero, forcing banks in some cases to pass negative rates onto retail customers. In Denmark, where rates have been negative the longest, a bevy of banks now charge depositors.

Deposit rates are also lower among other Internet banks globally. Monzo in the UK offers deposits of about 1.3 percent, while Australia’s uniquely named 86400 pays 2.25 percent on some deposits. In the US, Ally boasts of accounts with a 1.6 percent rate and three-month CDs at 0.75 percent, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Marcus venture offers a savings account with a 1.7 percent rate. Bloomberg News

Iran missile volley at US bases in Iraq pushed up the price of oil. A sustained increase in crude will make it almost impossible for the currency to repeat last quarter’s performance, when it was Asia’s best performer.

Accelerating inflation caused by rising oil prices, combined with a lack of economic momentum will be detrimental to South Korea and has the potential to make global funds flow out of the country, said Min Gyeong-won, an economist at Woori Bank in Seoul. The won may drop as low as 1,250 per dollar in the second quarter if oil remains an issue, he said.

The Philippine peso will also have trouble replicating last year’s gains if higher crude prices pile more pressure on the current account, given that the country is a net oil importer.

The currency may also face headwinds if deepening Middle East tensions convince overseas Filipino workers in the region to return home.

This will reduce remittances that are one of the key pillars supporting the currency.

The spike in oil last week that pummeled all three of these currencies may have subsided for now—but the episode should serve as a warning to investors that further volatility may be in store. Bloomberg News

B4 Tuesday, January 14, 2020

A catalyst for sustainability

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S the Asian Institute of Management reached its 50th year, it continues to prove that the institution could not only live up to the rapidly changing landscape but surpasses it. The key to success of the AIM hinges on how we position ourselves as a highly dynamic and competitive educational institution in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. As an active research and educational institution, the AIM has taken the obligation to diversify the Institution’s portfolio and engage more with society; to open new programs and bridge engagement with industries, and the vast network of stakeholders in the country and Asian region.

It is in these contexts that the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), through the initiatives of Dr. Felipe O. Calderon, CPA, CMA, Executive Director of the Gov. Jose B. Fernandez, Jr. Center for Sustainable Finance, and School Head of the Washington SyCip Graduate School of Business, has been trailblazing Sustainability Management and Leadership in the Institute. As a pioneer in the theory and practice of sustainable finance, Dr. Calderon is a sought-after speaker on sustainability in business and has addressed various forums in both local and international organizations such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines, the Bankers Association of the Philippines, the Maybank Foundation, the ASEAN Bankers Association, the

International Finance Corporation, the Dutch Association for Sustainable Development and the UK-based Earth Security Group. Dr. Calderon is also AIM’s lead representative to the United Nations initiative on Principles for Responsible Management Education.

Dr. Calderon has been a sought-after speaker and moderator for topics on sustainable finance; social, environmental & financial risk management, business actions and impacts of climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals, and human resource sustainability management, among others. He is co-author of “Dilemma of Sustainable Lending”, published by the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment. He is a Canadian CPA, CMA and holds a BSc in Agribusiness Management from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, and an MSc in International Banking and Financial Studies from Heriot-Watt University Scotland. He obtained his PhD in Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

For him, sustainability pertains to the Triple Bottom Line where the social and environmental factors are considered alongside financial gains. In Calderon’s words, it is not the profitability that they teach. What they teach is for their students to become responsible leaders not only focusing on profitability but also on being environmentally conscious and socially responsible leaders. The concept of sustainability is already practiced

Rachel Barger as President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia

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AP recently announced the appointment of Rachel Barger as President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia. Barger will be responsible for driving SAP Southeast Asia’s strategy and execution, leading

M

they will have an opportunity to participate in a competition among fellow youth innovators across the Asia-Pacific region.

Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to empower and invest in youth, so that they can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

and ease constipation, great help with loss and blood sugar control; 4. Acai Extract enhances the effect of Vitamin C for good metabolism of the skin, smoothens wrinkles and fights ultraviolet rays, and prevents further sun damage; and 5. Rose Petal Extract which inhibits tyrosine activity, blocks the production of melanin, whitens skin and delays skin aging.

Berry Gluta is a quality product of BIG (Business Innovations Gateway, Inc.) which is available at all Mercury Drugs Stores nationwide. For more product information visit www.mybiginc.com / www.facebook.com/ myBIGInc.

Chi-Ying Hung

from 2-3 pm at the Roof Deck of Sunshine Place.

Mariel Ilusorio graduated from the Juilliard School PreCollege, the Oberlin College of Music, and the State Academy of Music in Hannover Germany.

After living overseas for twentysix years (USA, Germany, South Africa), she returned to the Philippines in 2014 to continue her work as a performer and teacher. She won first

UNSHINE Place proudly presents a four-hand piano concert featuring the works by Faure, Brahms, Piazzolla and Filipino folk songs scheduled on the last six Wednesdays of the month starting January 29. The classical concert will be hosted by renowned Filipina pianist Mariel Ilusorio.

For the first concert, Mariel Ilusorio will be joined by Taiwanese pianist Chi-Ying Hung in a four-hand piano program consisting of movements from Faure's Dolly Suite, a selection of Brahms Hungarian Dances, Agot Espino's arrangements of Filipino folk tunes, and Piazzolla's Libertango. Concert is

prize, Category A in the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA).

Chi-Ying Hung received her Bachelor, Master's and Doctorate degrees at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Solomon Mikowsky, Fiorella Canin and Alexander Feder. She has given performances as soloist, in chamber music, as well as soloist with orchestras in the United States, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Italy, Cuba and the Philippines.

For ticket reservations please contact: Mariel Ilusorio at 0917-709-2255 or via email: marielilusorio@hotmail.com

Dr. Felipe O. Calderon

among companies in the Philippines and AIM took the initiative to develop a course on Sustainable Finance. As a man with a mission, Calderon encourages, if not force, corporate borrowers to adopt the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in business operations.

Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe, where she held leadership roles managing high performing organizations and teams in enterprise sales, customer success, and professional services functions.

“Digital technology is permeating every industry, institution, business process, and individual experiences. The wide spread digital transformation precipitated by productivity gain and growth opportunity is giving rise to the Digital Economy in ASEAN,” Barger.

"As a Friend of ASEAN, SAP has had a rich history of helping governments and companies in the ASEAN region run better and improving people's lives over the last 30 years. I am honored to lead the Southeast Asia’s business to drive customer adoption, partner and ecosystem development, inspire digital transformation through pre-sales and industry value engineering engagement, and spearhead regional innovation efforts. I look forward to working with more than 4,000 colleagues based in Southeast Asia to take SAP to the next level in this growth region," she said.

Young Filipino innovators gather for UNDP Youth Social Innovation Lab

ORE than 100 young innovators, mentors and stakeholders attended the 2019 Youth Social Innovation Lab, held November 18 to 19 and hosted by Youth Co:Lab Philippines in partnership with Makesense, and co-led by Citi Foundation.

The participants, who come from different youth sectors all over the Philippines were selected to come together to pitch and develop their ideas for socially inclusive sustainable enterprises. With the theme “Social Inclusion,” the two-day hackathon held at the Benilde Hub of Innovation for Inclusion (HiFi) showcased the ideas of innovative Filipinos aged 15-30, including high school and university students, new graduates, youth affected by conflicts and/ or disasters, LGBT+, differently-abled youth, and those from ethnic and religious minorities.

Through intensive integrated learning sessions rooted on human-centered and design thinking methods, participating youth were grouped together and had the opportunity to be mentored by experts to develop and harness their ideas into tangible and marketable solutions. The teams then had to pitch their ideas to a board of jurors to clinch a spot at the Youth Co:Lab Regional Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April 2020, where

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Sunshine Classics presents 20 Fingers, One Piano

Rachel Barger appointed as SAP President and Managing Director of Southeast Asia customer operations, accelerating customer transformation into intelligent enterprises, as well as building customer value and success in the region. Based in Singapore, she will oversee SAP’s business across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and other emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

“Southeast Asia’s digital economy is growing at an unprecedented pace and businesses are accelerating their digital transformation into intelligent enterprises.

While the level of digital readiness varies across Southeast Asia, SAP has the extensive capability to help our customers scale and win in the digital economy,” said Scott Russell, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

Barger was most recently the Chief Operating Officer for SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), responsible for the development and execution of go-to-market and growth strategies across all industries and portfolios in the region. Rachel is very much a Global citizen with more than 15 years of experience in the software industry in North America,

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through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship.

In order to establish an avenue to further support the rest of the participants of the Youth Social Innovation Lab, Youth Co:Lab and makesense will organize the first National Springboard Programme, a three-week online sprint to train young innovators who are in the ideation phase to learn the basics of entrepreneurship and have the opportunity to build prototypes for their solutions.

Mariel Ilusorio

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Hardworking drivers 'graduate' and received 100 fleets of tricycles ONE social problem in the Philippines is that majority of the tricycle drivers do not have the financial capability to purchase their own tricycle unit or are tied to paying off rent for the tricycle. This is where Global Mobility Service, Inc. (GMS) can help by offering them loan opportunities through IoT technology to address this problem and improve their lives by providing additional service after their tricycle loan.

Last January 7, GMS, Inc. in cooperation with the NCR TODA, hosted its annual graduation ceremony for drivers and operators who have successfully paid off their tricycle loan. Held at the PICC Reception Hall, the primary objective of the event was to commend the hardworking drivers, together with their families, by officially awarding them certificates of completion of payment, which will enable them to continue

Lee Kum Kee’s Panda Mascot makes its mark in Manila

B Young innovators from all over the Philippines showcase their ideas which aim to help their communities during the 2019 Youth Social Innovation Lab.

to improve their lives through sustainable livelihood.

“GMS aims to improve the living standards of households for multiple generations and create a positive chain to the society”, enthuses Tokushi Nakashima, President of GMS, Inc. In addition to this, all those who have successfully paid off their loans can now avail of the car loan and educational loan for their family members.

OASTING of an outstanding 130-year legacy, Lee Kum Kee (www.LKK.com), has become an international household name and a symbol of quality and trust, spicing up kitchens across the globe with its celebrated sauces and condiments.

Acting as an envoy of the company, Lee Kum Kee’s Panda Mascot has been jetsetting around the world and visiting various countries to share his love for sauces and to bring awareness to the brand. She’s already visited the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, and Malaysia. The most recent stop

on her busy schedule is none other than the Philippines with the brand’s other ambassador, supermom Karla Estrada, accompanying her.

Lee Kum Kee’s Panda Mascot also held a meet and greet with Filipinos who shared the same love for Oyster Sauce and Chinese cuisine. The event, dubbed as “PandaRito, PandaRoon”, had both the Panda Mascot and Mumshie Karla gamely taking selfies with fans and engaging the sizable crowd who couldn’t get enough of the lovable pair. Lee Kum Kee also held a social media contest to coincide with the event.

Renowned for the invention of oyster sauce and its premium quality with over 130 years of history, Lee Kum Kee, is one of the world’s most recognizable names for Chinese sauces and condiments across the globe. Lee Kum Kee first entered the Philippine market with Sysu International Inc as the sole distributor back in the 1980s and has since been one of the trailblazers in the industry, furthering its efforts to promote Chinese culinary culture, and nurturing future local culinary talents.

RAFAEL NADAL urges tennis organizers to compromise on one World Cup. AP

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By John Pye

The Associated Press

NADAL BATS FOR ONLY ONE WORLD CUP

YDNEY—Rafael Nadal won a revamped Davis Cup in November and he lost Sunday’s final of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Cup, the newest international team competition.

He thinks it’s too much.

After walking off following another hard-court loss to Novak Djokovic, allowing Serbia to level the final after Roberto Bautista Agut won the opening singles for Spain, Nadal urged the men’s tennis tour and the sport’s international governing body to form one major team tournament.

“I think it’s a great competition but...I can’t change my mind that two World Cups [within two months] is not real,” the top-ranked Nadal said. “We need to find a way to fix it and we need to find a way to make a big deal with ITF [International Tennis Federation] and ATP to create a big World Team Cup competition, not two World Cups in one month.

“I think that’s a confusion for the spectators, and we need to be clear in our sport. And for the health of our sport and for the benefit of our sport [it] is, in my opinion, mandatory that we fix it.”

Nadal withdrew from Spain’s doubles team for the deciding match, and Djokovic combined with Viktor Troicki to win it and clinch the final 2-1.

The 33-year-old Nadal played six singles matches—winning four—and two doubles in the 10-day, 24-team ATP Cup tournament, and played the group stage in Perth before flying across the continent for the playoff stages. It was a hit with the fans, with more than 220,000 attending matches during the tournament. Group matches were divided among Perth on the west coast and Sydney and Brisbane in the east, three cities in three different time zones.

The Australian Open, the season-opening major, starts in Melbourne a week from Monday, leaving little time for recovery for the players in teams which reached the final eight.

“When I’m playing here, I’m not thinking about Melbourne, or when I’m playing in Monte Carlo I’m not thinking about Roland Garros,” Nadal said, rejecting the suggestion the tournament was too close to a Grand Slam event. “I think it’s a great competition. Excited to be part of it. Excited to represent my country.

“I enjoyed a lot to share all these weeks with my friends on the team. The organization have been fantastic, honestly. Just my mind is that we need to create one special thing, not two.”

Other players, including second-ranked Djokovic, have urged the tennis hierarchy to come up with one big championship.

Djokovic said at the Davis Cup in Madrid and at the start of the ATP Cup here that men’s tennis needs “one super World Cup event, whatever you want to call it.”

“That’s not going to happen next year as well. But if the two sides, the ITF, the Davis Cup, and the ATP get together very quickly, it can happen possibly for 2022,” said Djokovic, who led Serbia to the Davis Cup title in 2010. “I hope it will happen because it’s kind of hard to get top players to commit to play both events. And it’s six weeks apart, so they’re not really helping each other in terms of marketing, in terms of the value of the event, and so forth.”

The Davis Cup has been staged in varying formats since 1900, with the ITF transforming it last year from a tiered, home-and-away series spanning 10 months to a single tournament based in one city with qualifying based on rankings.

The ATP Cup followed the condensed format, but also introduced new initiatives including team zones on the court-side where coaches, captains and teammates can support the player on the court.

The 33-year-old Nadal, a 19-time major winner, wouldn’t be drawn on where in the schedule a single World Cup-style competition should fit.

“I can’t tell you my real opinion, because it will not make sense today,” Nadal said. ”And it’s not that easy. Is a little bit longer conversation.”

Sports BusinessMirror

SERBIA’S players, led by Novak Djokovic, hold the Association of Tennis Professionals Cup trophy. AP

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| Tuesday, January 14, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

DJOKOVIC LEADS SERBIA PAST SPAIN IN ATP CUP FINAL S YDNEY—Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal, again, in a must-win match to keep Serbia in contention. Then he went back on court within an hour and combined with longtime friend Viktor Troicki to clinch the very first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Cup. In the country where the seven-time Australian Open champion performs like it’s his home away from home, Djokovic was the dominant figure in the debut of the 24-team, 10-day tournament.

“I have never experienced such a support in my matches ever anywhere, and I have played the biggest stadiums in tennis, and this was something different,” Djokovic said, crediting the thousands of Serbs who chanted, sang and recreated the atmosphere of a football stadium. “I want to thank everybody for contributing to this victory on and off the court.”

Second-ranked Djokivic had a 6-2, 7-6 (4) win over No. 1 Nadal on Sunday night to level the final after Roberto Bautista Agut had given Spain the lead by beating Dusan Lajovic, 7-5, 6-1, in the first singles match.

After extending his lead to 29-26 in career head-to-heads with Nadal, and his supremacy over the Spaniard on hard courts, Djokovic combined with Troicki for a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez to clinch the title.

“I’ll remember this experience for the rest of my life—it’s one of the nicest moments of my career,” Djokovic said. “I’ve been very fortunately

blessed, had an amazing career over the last 15 years, but playing for a team, playing for a country with some of my best friends is just—you can’t match that. It’s too special.”

He said the support from the Serbian community in Sydney was “off the charts.”

“There’s a lot of Serbian people in Sydney,” Djokovic said. “If you want to make a celebration, we’re ready.”

Djokovic has won nine straight against Nadal on hard courts, and 19 consecutive sets, since losing the 2013 US Open final.

Nadal withdrew from the doubles, citing fatigue, saying he had confidence in his teammate Lopez, a four-time Davis Cup champion.

“I have been playing a lot of tennis the last couple of days. My level of energy is a little bit lower than usual,” Nadal said. “So is a team decision, and we believe in our team. That’s why we had success in the past.”

After playing six singles matches and two doubles matches in 10 days—on both the west and east coasts of Australia—less than two months after guiding Spain to the Davis Cup title in Madrid, Nadal urged the International Tennis Federation and the ATP to negotiate to form one world team championship.

Spain’s early lead put extra pressure on Djokovic. He hadn’t lost a singles match at the tournament—a run that includes wins over US Open finalists Daniil Medvedev and Kevin Anderson, as well as Gael Monfils and Denis Shapovalov, and started like losing wasn’t a consideration.

SERENA WILLIAMS: IT FEELS GOOD A UCKLAND, New Zealand—Serena Williams ended a three-year title drought when she beat fellow American Jessica Pegula, 6-3, 6-4, on Sunday to win the singles final at the ASB Classic.

Williams hadn’t won a title since the Australian Open in January 2017, and not since she became a mother to her daughter Olympia, who was court-side to see the victory.

“It feels good. It’s been a long time,” Williams said. “I think you can see the relief on my face.

“I played an incredible opponent today in Jessica and, honestly, it was a great match and I couldn’t have played anyone better in the final.”

The 23-time major winner donated her $43,000 winner’s check to the fund-raising appeal for victims of Australian wildfires, joining many other tennis stars, such as Ash Barty, Nick Kygrios, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova, who have pledged money to the already months-long fire emergency there.

US President Donald Trump tweeted: “Congratulations to @serenawilliams on another big win. She is a great player and an even greater person. Our members in Virginia (Tennis) will never forget you!”

Williams was with Trump at the 2015 opening of the Trump Tennis Center.

Williams was under pressure at first against the 25-year-old Pegula, playing in her third Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) final, but asserted herself more as the match went on to claim her 73rd win in 98 finals and to add her name to a trophy won by her sister, Venus, in 2015.

The last three years have been challenging for Williams as she juggled competing demands of tennis and motherhood. But she seemed to turn a corner during a demanding week in which she played both doubles and singles, turning out on all seven days of the tournament.

She was frequently behind in her matches but showed

typical determination to fight her way to the final and overcome Pegula, who ousted former top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals.

Pegula has been on a steady climb up the rankings since overcoming a serious knee injury two years ago. The daughter of Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, she won her first WTA title in 2019 and appeared to be a star on the rise in all her matches in Auckland.

Pegula broke Williams in the opening game and was dominant for the first half of the first set, moving Williams around to open up the court for her punishing passing shots. She also chased down everything, making returns that Williams thought out of her reach.

But Williams visibly called on herself to lift near the middle of the set, breaking to level at 3-3. She then held serve to love and broke Pegula for 5-3, serving out the first set.

Williams broke Pegula to love in the third game of the second set as she steadily began to dominate. She had three match points on Pegula’s serve before clinching the match on serve.

“It feels that I was definitely improving as the week went on,” Williams said.

Williams might have had two titles on the same day but

“I started off the match perfectly, really. Everything worked for me,” he said. “Serve got me out of trouble in the second set.”

He broke Nadal’s serve in the opening game, which lasted eight minutes and included two requests from the umpire to the crowd to keep quiet during the service motion.

Djokovic held for a 2-0 lead, the game going to deuce, and then didn’t concede a point on serve for his next three games, closing the set in 39 minutes with three straight aces.

Nadal got over his frustration with the noisy crowd and found his range in the second set, conceding just a point in each of his first three service games. He also had a huge opportunity to go up a break in the sixth game, but was unable to convert five chances as Djokovic rallied from 0-40 to hold.

Djokovic then had two breakpoints in the 11th game, which would have given him the chance to serve for the match, but Nadal rallied from 15-40 to hold.

Djokovic had a nervy start to the tiebreaker, serving a double-fault to fall behind 2-1, but after his forehand clipped the net and landed in, he started to gain control. From 4-4, he won every point, starting the roll with a backhand winner down the line.

The 10,223-strong crowd at Ken Rosewall Arena was packed with Serbia supporters who waved their flags and chanted “Serbia, Serbia, Serbia,” and Djokovic’s nickname “Nole” throughout the final. AP

she and longtime friend, first-time doubles partner Wozniacki were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Americans Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad in the doubles final.

Wozniacki was playing her second-to-last tournament before retirement—the Australian Open will be her last—and she fulfilled a long-held ambition in Auckland to team with Williams in doubles.

The pair progressed easily to the final but were overwhelmed on Sunday by Townsend and Muhammad who were a more practiced and efficient combination. The young Americans broke in the third and seventh games of the first set and claimed the only break of the second set in the third game. AP SERENA WILLIAMS hasn’t won a title since the Australian Open in January 2017, and not since she became a mother to her daughter Olympia. AP

Spo JOKIC, NUGGETS

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ENVER—The Denver Nuggets put an ugly loss behind them with a statement win over a top-tier team.

Nikola Jokic had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and the Nuggets withstood a big rally to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 114-104, on Sunday night.

This bounce-back performance was just what they needed to soothe their psyche after a clunker the night before against a struggling Cleveland squad.

“We looked like a totally different team less than 24 hours later,” guard Monte Morris said.

The moral was easy to decipher: “We have to come to play against teams we’re supposed to beat,” Morris said. “Because we always show up against teams we know that can beat us.”

Trailing by as many 20 points in the second

half, Los Angeles had pulled within six with 1:11 remaining when Patrick Beverley was called for a foul on Jokic. After the Nuggets big man made a pair of free throws, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers argued with official Nick Buchert. He was given two technical fouls and tossed from the game.

Jamal Murray hit both free throws to restore some much-needed breathing room.

“Listen, coaches can lose their composure, so can officials,” Rivers explained. “There’s no way I should have been thrown out of the game.”

Rivers had simply reached his boiling point.

He was still seething from a crucial call earlier in the quarter when Montrezl Harrell got whistled for an offensive charge when he stepped in front of Jerami Grant as he guarded Kawhi Leonard.

The Clippers were in the midst of a 10-0 run at the time.

“The pick was solid,” Rivers said. “The bottom line is I shouldn’t get a tech. That’s No. 1. That’s on me.”

Murray finished with 19 points and reserve Michael Porter Jr. provided a spark by scoring 13 for the Nuggets, who made their last field goal with 6:12 remaining.

They went nine of 10 on free throws from there.

The defensive standout of the game was Grant, who had two big blocks on Leonard.

“A couple of great blocks at the rim you don’t see very often

THE body of Paulo Gonçalves of Portugal is covered with a blanket after a deadly fall during Stage 7 of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Wadi al-Dawasir in Saudi Arabia, on Sunday. AP

Motorbike racer dies during Dakar Rally

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ADI AL-DAWASIR, Saudi Arabia— Portuguese motorbike rider Paulo Gonçalves died on the Dakar Rally after crashing in the Saudi Arabia desert on Sunday. He was 40.

Gonçalves fell and suffered cardiac arrest about halfway through the 546-kilometer seventh stage, south of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Australian rider Toby Price then Argentina’s Kevin Benavides stopped to help, and a medical helicopter arrived on the scene within eight minutes of being alerted, rally organizers said on their web site.

He was flown to nearby Layla hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“The Dakar mourns Paulo Gonçalves,

one of the most experienced and beloved champions of the rally raid family,” organizers said on their web site.

The eighth stage on Monday, a loop course around Wadi al-Dawasir, was canceled for motorbike and quad racers “in order to give the riders time to mourn their friend,” organizers said.

They added, “Paulo...was immensely respected by both veterans and less experienced competitors who admired and were inspired by him.”

Gonçalves was competing in his 13th Dakar. He was runner-up in 2015.

He’s the first competitor to die on the Dakar Rally, the world’s toughest rally, since

Polish motorcyclist Michal Hernik in 2015, in Argentina. Two noncompetitors were killed in 2016 in crashes with vehicles.

Benavides was deducted the six minutesplus he stopped and declared the winner of the stage to Wadi al-Dawasir.

Price, the defending champion, stopped for more than an hour and his time was adjusted so he was within 29 minutes of overall leader Ricky Brabec of the United States.

Cars leader Carlos Sainz won his third stage and extended his lead to 10 minutes over second-placed defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The rally ends on Friday. AP

THE 86-year-old Lamine Diack, under house arrest in Paris since being arrested in November 2015, will be accused of covering up Russian doping cases in exchange for cash.

EX-IAAF CHIEF FACES LIFE IMPRISONMENT D

ISGRACED former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Lamine Diack could spend the remainder of his life in prison if convicted at a trial beginning in Paris, on Tuesday, where he stands accused of corruption, influence-trafficking and money laundering.

The 86-year-old, under house arrest in Paris since being arrested in November 2015, will be accused of covering up Russian doping cases in exchange for cash.

The case could have far-reaching consequences for sport and the International

Olympic Committee (IOC), but will initially only focus on the claims relating to positive drugs test from Russian athletes.

Allegations about payments made to companies connected to Diack and his son Papa Massata—who will not appear at the trial because he refuses to be extradited from Senegal but could be convicted in absentia—to allegedly help Tokyo win the right to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games do not form part of this trial at the French Criminal Court.

They could yet be aired later this year, although IOC members and other senior sports

figures are likely to be watching the trial in the French capital closely.

Diack’s former advisor Habib Cisse and Gabriel Dolle–the former anti-doping chief at the IAAF, since been rebranded World Athletics—will also stand trial, which will be overseen by Judge Rose Marie Hunault.

The trial is scheduled to run for three days a week until January 23, and the charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years’ prison.

Former Russian Athletics Federation President Valentin Balakhnichev and Alexei Melnikov, the former head Russian athletics

Organizers call off Eagle Ridge tourneys as Taal Volcano erupts

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HE organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. (PGTI) on Monday called off the last two legs of the third season of Philippine Golf Tour Asia (PGTA) at the Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club, citing the health and safety of the players, caddies and tournament staff following Taal Volcano’s eruption last Sunday.

“In the interest of the health and safety of all players, caddies and tournament staff, the PGTA Tournament Committee has decided to reschedule this event to a future date,” the PGTI said in a statement.

Taal Volcano spewed a giant ash plume accompanied by rumbling sounds and tremors

Sunday, prompting authorities to raise the Alert Level to 4, meaning a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.

The $100,000 International Container Terminal Services Inc. Eagle Ridge Invitational, originally scheduled to start Tuesday at the Aoki course, serves as the penultimate leg of the 2019 PGTA with the last tournament for the season set next week, also at Eagle Ridge, which is just 20 kilometers away from Taal Volcano in Talisay, Batangas.

The tournament features 91 players, including 46 bets from 14 nations.

Eagle Ridge General Manager Antonio

Ocampo actually said the sprawling Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club, which boasts of four courses, is in shape despite the ashfall late Sunday and is ready to host the event. In fact, it was business as usual at the country’s largest golfing facility yesterday with hundreds, mostly foreign golfers, playing a round or two.

But PGTI has put premium on the safety of the participants. It said next week’s scheduled event will now be held at Pradera Verde Golf and Country Club in Lubao, Pampanga, with this week’s tournament to be moved to a later date and a venue somewhere in north.

Taal spewed ash that generated a 1-km

distance coach, are also due to stand trial but have refused to cooperate with the long-running French investigation.

It began in November 2015 when Diack, IAAF president from 1999 to 2015, was placed under formal investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

Investigations by the French Financial Prosecutor’s Office in 2018 also include allegations that Diack obtained Russian funds for political campaigns in Senegal, in exchange for the IAAF antidoping arm covering up Russian offences.

The deal also facilitated negotiations with Russian sponsors and broadcasters before the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, in 2013.

Papa Massata Diack was banned for life by the IAAF in January 2016, alongside Balakhnichev and Melnikov.

It came after he was charged in relation to payments totaling around $554,000 made by Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova, the 2010 London marathon winner and a three-time Chicago Marathon champion, in order to cover up doping violations.

According to Jeune Afrique, Lamine Diack is set to argue that he delayed, rather than covered up, the doping tests to avoid negative publicity in the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympics and the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow—an event heavily bankrolled by Russian money.

“We never covered up their cases,” Diack told Afrique. “We just asked for time to check their tests and make sure that, if there were sanctions, they take effect after these competitions.”

Other allegations leveled at Lamine Diack and Papa Massata Diack include that they were involved in corrupting the Olympic bid process by accepting cash to help influence the decisions to award the 2016 Games to Rio de Janeiro and 2020 to Tokyo.

Diack was a member of the IOC between 1999 and 2013 but stood down as an honorary member in 2015 following his arrest in France.

Insidethegames

plume that later triggered ashfall that reached as far as Metro Manila. It also prompted authorities to order forced evacuation of around 10,000 residents from two nearby high-risk municipalities in Batangas, and suspend more than 240 flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, in Pasay City.

Following Taal’s eruption, health authorities have warned the public to take precautions due to health effects of exposure to volcanic ash and gases, which are insidious and often overlooked hazards.

FEU leans on Lobitaña goal to defeat NU

Smith wins Sony Open in another Hawaii comeback SMITH

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ONOLULU—Two weeks in Hawaii brought rain, unusually strong wind, playoffs and two players who thought victory was out of reach until the winner’s lei was draped around their necks.

Cameron Smith was the latest Sunday at the Sony Open.

He might have been even more surprised than Justin Thomas, who got a second chance when he won a playoff at Kapalua.

“Two or three holes left, I really didn’t think there was much of a shot,” Smith said after his playoff victory over Brendan Steele on rain-soaked Waialae Country Club. “I knew I had to play some good golf. It just kind of all fell into place.”

Smith was four-over par just two holes into the tournament Thursday, and his focus turned to

making birdies that would give him a chance to salvage his round and raise money for the wildfires in his native Australia. Smith and Marc Leishman had pledged $500 for every birdie to help raise money.

He twice pulled within shot of the lead at various points Sunday, but it looked like a lost cause when Steele had a two-shot lead with two holes to play.

“I thought I had to birdie 17 and then do something really good on 18,” Smith said. “You never know what can happen.”

Just about everything did in the final hour, which is about how long it took to play the last two holes. It rained every day since Tuesday, and the rain was so steady on Sunday

the Professional Golfers Association Tour moved the hole location from its traditional spot to higher ground, and the green still had to be rolled with sponges between groups.

Steele missed a 6-foot par putt on the 17th, and his lead was down to one shot.

In the group ahead, Simpson’s wedge into the par-five 18th skipped off sheen of water and settled 15 feet behind the hole for a birdie attempt he narrowly missed. He shot 67.

Palmer never even had that opportunity. His fairway metal from a bunker sailed so far right that he hit the metal railing atop a massive video screen, sailed well to the right of the corporate tents and was lost, presumably in a back yard. He had to go back to the bunker and made bogey for a 68. AP

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EIGNING nine-time champion Far Eastern University (FEU) needed the heroic of Charles Lobitaña to down National University (NU)-Nazareth School, 2-1, and stay unbeaten in University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 82 boys’ high-school football action on Sunday at the Baby Tamaraws’ turf in Diliman.

The forward Lobitaña turned in a looping delivery from his captain and national under-23 standout Pocholo Bugas at the stroke of the 90thminute for the game winner.

The Bullpups took the lead very early in the match with a third-minute strike from Angelo Obero, but Karl Absalon leveled play for the Baby Tamaraws seven minutes after.

“I think our players are a little bit tired because they did not get time to get fit after vacation. In our first game we were good, but we had two days rest, and then this game,” FEU Head Coach Park Bo Bae lamented.

“Our teenage players had a tough outing, but the good thing is they didn’t give up. Our mentality

was a little bit stronger than NU, that’s why we got the three points,” he added.

NU had several chances to take the win in the second period, but it was the counterattack from the defending champion that made the difference in the match.

The loss sent the Bullpups to a 1-0-2 win-drawloss record.

De La Salle-Zobel staved off early elimination after stunning Ateneo, 3-2, for their first win of the season also on Sunday.

La Salle moves into 1-0-1 win-draw-loss record, while the Blue Eaglets suffered their first loss and slipped to second with a 2-0-1 slate.

A late goal lifted the Junior Green Booters with Adri Caraig getting the go-ahead at the 88th minute.

Ateneo took the lead in the 17th minute as a hit from Luard Abaa took a deflection from Liam Lampayan and went into the goal.

Andres Aldeguer then placed La Salle to the lead with vicious strikes in the 50th and 63rd minute.

Nicholas Chavez tied the count in the 76th minute.

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against Kawhi,” Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said.

Leonard finished with 30 points, while Lou Williams had 26 and Harrell added 25.

The Clippers played without star forward Paul George, who missed a second straight game with a strained left hamstring. Los Angeles dropped to 8-6 this season when George doesn’t play.

This contest marked the first of three between two of the upper echelon teams in the Western Conference.

Gary Harris showed signs of breaking out of a shooting slump by scoring 15 points but didn’t play late. He’s been diligently working on his jumper after shooting 25.6 percent over his last four games. He was five of nine

against the Clippers.

“When he makes shots, the guys need to chase him and it’s a little different story,” said Jokic, whose team led by as many as 20 points in the second half.

Denver had quite a sequence midway through the fourth when Will Barton blocked a shot and Jokic grabbed the rebound. He quickly threw it ahead to Barton, who then dished it off to Morris for a 3-pointer. Denver was up 18 and seemingly cruising along before the Clippers made things interesting down the stretch.

“The focus was there. The energy was there,” Jokic said. “It was a big victory for us.”

Kyrie Irving, meanwhile, scored 21 points in 20 minutes of an easy return from a two-month

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

absence with an injured right shoulder, leading the Brooklyn Nets to a 108-86 victory over the Atlanta Hawks also on Sunday in New York.

Irving shot 10 for 11 from the field after missing 26 games with an impingement. The shoulder looked fine and his handle looked as good as ever while he dribbled his way around a hopeless Atlanta defense.

Energized by his return that still seemed a ways away just a week ago, the Nets led by 39 points and won their second straight after dropping seven in a row.

Cam Reddish scored 20 points for the Hawks.

They played without star guard Trae Young because of a left hamstring injury and lost their fourth straight. AP

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ASHFALL ON BMX TRACK The International Cycling Union BMX track at the Tagaytay City Centrum is not spared of ashfall from Taal

Volcano’s eruption. The track was used for the 30th Southeast Asian Games that was staged exactly a month before Sunday’s eruption. Adjacent to the BMX track are the skateboard park tracks that are also outdoor, thus, suffering the same fate as the BMX facility. PHOTO COURTESY BY BENJIE LEGASPI

THE Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic tries to force the Clippers’ Montrezl Harrell out of defensive position. AP

AGUILAR SPELLS BIG DIFFERENCE H

IGH-LEAPING forward Japeth Aguilar has become the poster boy for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in its best-of-seven Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup Finals series against

perennial rival Meralco.

At 6-foot-9, Aguilar poses as a threat on both ends of the court, either swatting tons of shots or leaping his way to the basket. He has been consistent the past three games with his team largely benefiting from his exploits to lead the duel at 2-1.

“Basically, he decided Game One with the block [against Meralco import Allen Durham] and, basically, he decided the game today [Game Three] with his seven blocks—because our game was all keyed on defense,”

the added.

Aguilar also made a big impact when he elevated to block Durham’s potential game-tying shot in Game One that Ginebra won, 91-87.

In offense, the towering 32-year-old player is nothing short of spectacular. In three games so far, Aguilar averages 19 points, his biggest contribution coming on Sunday.

“It’s a collective effort. ‘Credit to my teammates because they stepped up on our offense and defense,” said Aguilar, who had a short-lived match up with Meralco’s injured center Raymond Almazan.

“We know they’re one man down with the early exit of Raymond Almazan, and we took advantage of it,” he said.

Almazan suffered a left knee injury following a bad fall in the first quarter of Game Three. He never returned in the game, giving Aguilar all the elbow room for his monstrous delivery in the shaded lane.

ALMAZAN A BIG VOID TO FILL JAPETH AGUILAR has become the poster boy for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, complimenting the gigantic effort of import Justin Brownlee, seen here escaping a Meralco double team by Cliff Hodge and Baser Amer.

NONOY LACZA

Forum tackles boxing, athletes’ commission

T EALA RANKED NO. 9 IN WORLD JUNIORS

ALEX EALA poses with Ernest Cu, Globe president and CEO.

T

ENNIS prodigy and Globe Ambassador Alex Eala got a tremendous boost several days before the start of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year after being ranked ninth in the latest International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Juniors Ranking.

Eala, 14, earned 1,452.50 points to become the highest Southeast Asian player in the world’s top 10.

Eala, thus, secured a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open, the first of four Grand Slam events she is set to compete in this year.

“I couldn’t have made it without you. Thank you Rafa Nadal Academy, Globe Telecom and Babolat,” Eala posted on her Facebook account.

A Globe ambassador for the last four years, the company has been sponsoring the tennis sensation since she was eight years old. Eala is also a scholar at the prestigious tennis academy in Spain owned by world’s No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

“We are so proud of what Alex has achieved, so far. Like what I have said so many times before, Alex can accomplish whatever she wants as long as she continues to work hard, persevere and focus on her goals. We wish her well on the upcoming Australian Open and we call all our kababayan to rally once more behind Alex as she competes against the world’s best,” Ernest Cu, Globe president and CEO, said.

After finishing the 2018 season ranked 248th in the world, Eala had a breakthrough run last year to jump to a then career-best 13th last October.

She improved two notches higher after winning the Orange Bowl doubles tournament in Florida last December to move within a spot of breaking the elite top 10 best players of the world.

Eala will start her 2020 season by competing in the Traralgon Junior International in Victoria, Australia, on Friday. This will serve as her warmup tournament before opening her Australian Open Juniors Tournament that unfolds in Melbourne on January 25.

HE Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) and newly elected member of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Athletes’ Commission make up Tuesday’s lively discussion in the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Amelie Hotel Manila.

Abap Secretary-General Ed Picson will talk about the national team’s campaign in various qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the 10 a.m. public sports program presented by San Miguel Corp., Braska Restaurant, Amelie Hotel, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Olympian swimmer Jessie Lacuna will represent the Athletes’ Commission in the weekly session as he discusses the upcoming plans and projects of the group. Lacuna was voted to the commission along with Nikko Huelgas, Cheska Altomonte, Jake Letts and Samuel Morrison.

The PSA Forum is being livestreamed via the PSA Facebook page fb.com/PhilippineSportswritersAssociation, and aired on a delayed basis over Radyo Pilipinas 2 from 1 to 2 p.m. and later at 6:30 p.m.

Gin King Head Coach Tim Cone said shortly after their 92-84 win last Sunday.

In Game Three, Aguilar had seven blocks on top of his 23 points and four rebounds. Import Justin Brownlee was at the forefront of the attack and finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

It was also a breakthrough game for Finals firsttimer Stanley Pringle, who scored 17 of his 21 points in the third period—so timely that his productions pulled Barangay Ginebra to virtually safe distance that Meralco ran out of gas in its comeback attempt in the final quarter.

Although the Gin Kings had plenty of scoring sources, it was Aguilar’s defensive effort that deserved applause from Cone.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the league who’s a better weak-side defender than Japeth,” Cone said. “That’s something that keys the team, that keys the fans.”

“Blocking shots is a big turnaround play,”

NORMAN BLACK knew Meralco should be ready for the worst scenario as they fear that big man Raymond Almazan might be out of the rest of the Finals series.

Almazan fell awkwardly after an attempt midway the first period.

A video replay showed that after attacking the basket against Justin Brownlee, the lanky center hit the unsuspecting LA Tenorio on his way down at the 6:09 mark.

The 6-foot-8 player limped in pain as he held his left knee. He never came back to the game.

His absence was sourly felt as Meralco lacked the body to defend the likes of Brownlee and Aguilar, who both punished the Bolts inside the paint.

Almazan’s availability is still uncertain as the team awaits the result of his MRI. “He couldn’t move his leg,” Black said. “Being a former player myself, that’s never a good sign.”

Without Almazan and his injury dealing morale blow to the Bolts, the Gin Kings sprung to life in the second half as they built leads of as high as 23 points.

“We came out of the locker room very flat.

It seemed to affect them going in the third quarter,” Black said.

Black believes they should find a way to fill the void in the lane.

Forward Bryan Faundo came off the bench with 10 points, and helped import Durham ease the load inside the paint.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

P.S.A. AWARDS NIGHT IN MARCH F

OR making the country proud in the year just passed, top sports achievers will be honored anew in the San Miguel Corp.-Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Annual Awards Night on March 3 at the Manila Hotel.

Highlight of the annual affair, also presented by Milo, Cignal TV and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), is the awarding of the coveted Athlete of the Year trophy solely handed out by the country’s oldest media organization headed by Tito Talao, sports editor of the Manila Bulletin.

The year 2019 saw Filipino athletes making their presence felt everywhere—from

Southeast Asia all the way to the world stage.

Team Philippines won the overall championship of the 30th Southeast Asian Games only for the second time, while Carlos Yulo became the first Filipino and gymnast from Southeast Asia to win a historic gold medal in the 49th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Lady boxer Nesthy Petecio also won a firstever gold when she ruled the featherweight division of the International Boxing Association Women’s World Championships in Ulan-Ude, Russia, as Ernest John Obiena distinguished himself as the first Filipino to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when he surpassed the

qualifying standard in men’s pole vault by ruling a tournament in Chiara, Italy.

These sports heroes and heroines are expected to lead the various personalities and entities to be honored on the special night by

the country’s sportswriting fraternity.

Besides the Athlete of the Year award, also to be given out are the President’s Award, the National Sports Association (NSA) of the Year Award, Executive of the Year, Ms. Basketball, Mr. Volleyball, Ms. Golf, Mr. Football and a first-ever Coach of the Year.

As in past awards night, there will also be Major Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, Tony Siddayao Awards, Milo Junior Athletes Award and citations to be led by the SEA Games gold-medal winners.

Sports personalities who passed away last year will also be accorded with a posthumous recognition.

‘FANTASTIC FOUR’

By Jerome Pugmire

T

The Associated Press

HE compliments have been pouring in for a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) strike force nicknamed the Fantastic Four because of its destructive impact.

Led by Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, but very ably supported by winger Angel Di Maria and prolific poacher Mauro Icardi, the four have notched 32 goals in the past seven games.

It’s not hard to see why they are revered by fans and French media, hence the nickname. The four have been working so well together that Coach Thomas Tuchel has even seen fit to leave PSG’s 198-goal, all-time leading scorer Edinson Cavani on the bench.

Yet, the Fantastic Four’s honeymoon period could be coming to an end after Monaco spoiled the party on Sunday night with a 3-3 draw.

This was the first time for several weeks that PSG had been tested by a highly skilled and quick side, and the way Monaco carved holes in PSG’s defense will have been noticed

by Europe’s bigger clubs.

Not least by free-scoring Borussia Dortmund, PSG’s opponent in the last 16 of the Champions League. Because for all of PSG’s undoubted attacking might, the defense remains worryingly fragile.

This will be a concern for Tuchel, especially since cash-rich PSG has not reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in the last three seasons and he is under pressure to ensure at least progress into the last eight.

But the defending against Monaco, a side long on attacking flair yet only eighth in the French league, looked muddled, hasty and even panicky.

A team with more self-belief would doubtless have come away with a victory.

Every time Monaco attacked at speed, combining with quick passes or stretching the back line by switching flanks, a sense of panic invaded a creaking PSG defense marshaled by 35-year-old Brazilian center half Thiago Silva.

Monaco had enough chances to win, and Silva was perhaps fortunate his handball late during a Monaco corner went unpunished when a penalty should logically have been given.

It was the first time PSG has conceded three goals this season, and not since May 2012 has PSG conceded twice inside the first 15 minutes of a league game.

Monaco’s 16 shots, meanwhile, was the highest allowed by PSG since October 2018.

It was not all the defense’s fault, which is where Tuchel needs to be more decisive.

Playing with the Fantastic Four is very entertaining to watch but it means the side

is top-heavy in attack, which in turn impacts on the midfield and that can mean less help for the defense.

Tuchel has some thinking to do over whether to continue playing his four forwards together.

IMPRESSIVE DEBUT

ROBERT MORENO showed impressive tactical nous and intuition during his first league game in charge of Monaco.

Had it been a boxing contest, he would have beaten his opposite number Tuchel on points.

With his team trailing 3-2, he took off creative midfielder Cesc Fabregas and brought on forward Islam Slimani. Five minutes later, the slick Slimani equalized.

Moreno then protected the draw by taking off his best player, the French league’s 14-goal top scorer Wissam Ben Yedder, and replaced him with

Adrien Silva for the last 10 minutes.

The combative midfielder Silva won tackles, selflessly harried and put himself about, thus taking the pressure off a tired Monaco side.

By contrast, Tuchel appeared too conservative in his decision-making.

Striker Icardi had a very quiet game yet Tuchel kept him on until the 86th minute. When Cavani replaced Icardi in the 86th it immediately galvanized PSG, but it was too late to unsettle Monaco which had by now gained in confidence.

Moreno said he was not overawed by playing at defending champion PSG, and such self-belief may have rubbed off on his players.

“I don’t think it’s a problem playing at Parc des Princes.

If you want to play with style you can do that anywhere,“ he said on French TV. “That’s what I said to my players: that we can win every game.“ Next stop is on Wednesday at Stade Louis II, where Monaco faces PSG again.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Tuesday, January 14, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

PSG’s Neymar (left) is challenged by Monaco’s Guillermo Maripan during their French League One match at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris on Sunday. AP

Madrid nips Atlético in shootout to capture Spanish Super Cup J

EDDAH, Saudi Arabia—Real Madrid beat Atlético Madrid in a penalty shootout on Sunday to win the first edition of the new-look Spanish Super Cup that was held in Saudi Arabia despite criticism from human-rights groups.

Madrid won the shootout, 4-1, after the final ended 0-0 after extra time. Dani Carvajal, Rodrygo, Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos all converted their spot kicks for Madrid.

Atlético’s Saul Ñíguez missed his first penalty and Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois blocked the second attempt by Thomas Partey. Kieran Trippier converted for Atlético.

“I had studied their penalty-takers before,” Courtois said. “I knew where Thomas was going to shoot. It was a good save because he struck it hard.”

Madrid played the final five minutes of added time with 10 men after Federico Valverde was shown a direct red for fouling Álvaro Morata when he had only Courtois to beat.

“The most important play was the one by Valverde, who stopped us from having a chance that could have decided the match,” Atlético Coach Diego Simeone said.

“He won the match.”

For Atlético it was another loss in a final against a bitter rival. Madrid beat Atlético on penalties in the 2016 Champions League final, and had won in extra time in the 2014 Champions League final. Atlético got some revenge by beating Madrid in the 2018 European Super Cup. Zinedine Zidane added to his impressive statistic of having led Madrid to victory in all nine finals he has coached. Those include three Champions League finals.

“As a player it was the same, I gave it all on the pitch and I had my rewards. And the same thing is happening as a coach,” Zidane said. “Above all I want to congratulate my players. We believed in the win until the very end.”

Few Spanish fans traveled to the matches played thousands of miles from home with the crowd at King Abdullah stadium largely supporting Madrid. The final featured more missed passes and fouls than scoring opportunities until late in added extra time. Regular time saw glaring misses by Valverde and Atlético forward João Félix.

The Spanish soccer federation’s deal to play in Saudi

KING KAZU: 52 AND COUNTING

Arabia was reportedly worth €120 million ($134 million) with the competition expanded to four teams instead of two and moved from the start of the season to its midpoint. The federation said the agreement will help Spain in its attempt to host the 2030 World Cup in a joint bid with Portugal.

The federation was not deterred by criticism from human-rights activists and the recommendation of UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin for European soccer teams not to play in countries “where the basic rights of women are not respected.”

Federation President Luis Rubiales has tried to deflect the criticism by highlighting that opening the games to women spectators was part of the deal to play the matches in the energy-rich Middle Eastern kingdom.

Amnesty International organized a small peaceful protest in front of the Saudi embassy in Madrid on Wednesday to call

FIFTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD striker Kazuyoshi Miura extends his contract for the 35th season. AP

REAL Madrid’s Sergio Ramos holds the trophy as his team celebrates its Spanish Super Cup success at the King Abdullah stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday. AP

O

NE of the longest careers in soccer has been extended after 52-yearold striker Kazuyoshi Miura signed a contract with J-League club Yokohama FC on Saturday.

Miura, who will turn 53 on February 26, will enter his 35th season this year.

Miura played in just three matches last year and did not score any goals but extended his record as the oldest player in the J-League.

Miura joined Yokohama FC in 2005 and in March of 2017 became the oldest player to appear in a professional match at the age of 50 years and seven days, catching global media attention by surpassing England legend Stanley Matthews’s longevity record.

Nicknamed “King Kazu,” Miura played for Brazilian club Santos and in Italy with Genoa earlier in his career, and represented Japan’s national team 89 times, scoring 55 goals.

Yokohama FC open the season on February 23 against Vissel Kobe. AP for the release of women activists who have been fighting for their rights in Saudi Arabia.

Moving the competition abroad at first seemed to dim interest in the minor trophy in Spain, but the semifinals produced two exciting contests.

Madrid beat Valencia, 3-1, while Atlético rallied past Barcelona, 3-2.

But the final was much less exciting.

Zidane was without the injured Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard. He repeated the successful experiment against Valencia of a lineup loaded with five midfielders behind the little-used striker Luka Jovic.

Atlético made the better start. Its pressure led to a bad pass by Ramos that went directly to Félix alone near the edge of the area, only for the young forward to send his shot wide.

Madrid could only count on a long shot by Casemiro that goalkeeper Jan Oblak had no trouble grabbing in the fifth until it settled down. Both defenses dictated the rest of the first half.

Modric went close to setting up Jovic in the 51st, but his shot missed the upright by inches. Valverde had a horrible miss in the 67th after a deflected cross reached him in the goalmouth, heading the ball off his own leg and out.

Defenders struggled at the end and both goalkeepers had to turn back several shots.

The key moment to the unattractive contest was an ugly tackle from Valverde to cut down Morata as he was charging toward Courtois, triggering a brief tussle between the teams’ players.

Valverde said that he was not proud of the foul that helped his teammates reach the shootout where their finishing touches from the spot made all the difference.

“I asked Morata to forgive me,” Valverde said. “I know it isn’t right what I did, but I had to do it. I am happy for the title, but I don’t feel great about it.” AP

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Almighty God

EAR God, Your wisdom can never be measured . We wait for Your faithful love and pray: Let us find our delight in You, oh God. Give insight and wisdom to those who seek to know their vocation. Help us to reverence You in one another and all creation. Inspire warring nations to put down their arms and find peaceful solutions to conflict. Call all the members in the government to work for peace, solidarity, compassion and forgiveness for the good of the country. May God, who through the child born of Mary graciously redeemed the human race, enrich us with every grace and blessing through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

A LIVING room designed by interior designer Kristina Crestin in Manchesterby-the-Sea, Massachusetts.

Plants can be the perfect final touch that brings warmth and beauty to a room without overaccessorizing, says Crestin. AP

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SAMSUNG’S 3-Door Side by Side No Frost Space Max Interior with Flexzone

Four ways to improve your home this new year

Decorating indoors with plants

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By MelIssa Raywo�tH The Associated Press

ROM kitchen herb gardens to miniature indoor trees, interior designers are increasingly bringing plants into their home design projects.

Plants are “the one little piece that people always forget will finish a room,” says Massachusetts-based designer Kristina Crestin. They make a space feel complete but not over-accessorized, she says, and can solve a range of design challenges.

New York designer Young Huh agrees: A miniature tree can be the perfect addition where you need something tall, she says, and a flowering plant can bring a burst of color to a tabletop. Plants also help clean the air, boost oxygen levels, and bring a welcome sense of natural unpredictability into otherwise meticulous, modern spaces.

Which plants are popular and what are the best ways to decorate with them?

Three designers—Crestin, Huh and New York-based Lindsey Coral Harper—offer their thoughts: FROM DELICATE TO BOLD FOR several years running, the “it plant” among designers has been the fiddlefig tree (also called a “fiddlefig fern”). Their trunks are tall and graceful, with large glossy leaves creating a burst of rich, green color that blends with just about any décor. Fiddlefigs are beautiful and relatively easy to care for, Crestin says, so their trendiness shouldn’t be a reason to avoid one.

For something more “simple and sophisticated,” Harper recommends “any type of boxwood or topiary. There are so many options here, and such a range of shapes and sizes,” she says. “They also make wonderful hostess gifts.”

Another favorite: the staghorn fern, which has strong, dramatic leaves that almost look like a sculpture. “Staghorn ferns are really interesting and very masculine to me,” Harper says, and they look great “in a more rustic setting.”

If you’re seeking something delicate, Huh recommends a maidenhair fern. Upkeep is minimal, she says (just “keep them misted and moist”), and the intricate leaves look almost as pretty as a flowering plant. Another popular choice: miniature olive trees. “They’re a sign of peace and fruitfulness,” Huh says, and look gorgeous in a ceramic pot on a table.

LOCATION, LOCATION IT’S popular right now to hang planters on walls, or put up hanging terrariums with succulents or “air plants” inside, says Huh. These low-maintenance plants only need to be misted, rather than watered, and “they stay alive forever,” she says. “I had this air plant that stayed alive for so long, my kids named him.”

The challenge with wall-hung plants is that repeated misting may damage your walls, Crestin points out. So you may prefer to put those same kinds of plants in low-slung pots on a coffee table or other surface. Don’t leave one plant sitting or hanging all alone. One plant all by itself can look a bit sad and lonely, so add several plants or place a single large one near a piece of furniture.

“Don’t put a tree in the corner to fill a space,” Huh says.

“It’s gonna look a little sad. Put a tree in a corner if it relates to something, like a chair.”

Crestin agrees: “I believe in repetition,” she says. For a recent design project, she added three items to one room— are fern in a low-slung bowl on a coffee table, a beautiful ceramic cup holding a delicate, mossy plant, and then a larger fern in another bowl.

Try to create “a triangle of green,” she says, balancing one plant with another.

KITCHENS AND BATHS HUH says many homeowners are buying wall-mounted growing systems or adding kitchen shelves specifically for potted herbs, berries and other plants grown for consumption.

She’s also pleased to see plants being used in bathroom decorating: “My father used to grow orchids in the bathroom because they got moisture every day,” Huh says. “It’s a great place for ferns that need to be misted.”

BRANCHES AND FLOWERS THESE designers also suggest looking at what’s blooming outside your home and occasionally bringing it inside.

“I just got back from a job in Florida, and it was so easy to go outside and clip a few palms,” Harper says. “Throw them in a vase and, voila!”

Cut flowers are another option for bringing nature indoors.

“I like to buy fresh flowers on Sundays when I’m having family dinner,” Huh says.

Though they may only last a few days, “that’s what makes flowers so special,” she says. “That ephemeral quality is what makes us appreciate their beauty.”

KNOW YOUR SPACE AND HABITS EVEN if you love something in a magazine or while shopping at a nursery, consider your particular space and habits. “Think about how much sunlight, love and attention your plants might need,” Harper says. “Make sure you have plants in the appropriate spot in your home so they can grow and prosper.”

Personally, she says, “I prefer something with a little less mess and upkeep.” n

Modern and secure living in urbanized Cebu ARE you looking to settle down in Mandaue, a highly urbanized city in Cebu? Potential homeowners in the so-called Queen City of the South should look into Amaia Steps Mandaue (www.amaialand.com). With cleverly laid-out units, posh facilities, and strategic location, the residential development is regarded as a fine choice for investment-savvy millennials, travel enthusiasts, professionals and couples planning to start a family.

Studio, deluxe and premier units, with sizes ranging from 24.04 square meters to 41.08 sq m, are just the right fit, with some cuts convertible into one-bedroom or twobedroom units.

Featuring an L-shaped configuration in its design, Tower 2 of Amaia Steps Mandaue offers 288 units to prospective home buyers who will appreciate the development’s array of leisure facilities: a swimming pool, a multipurpose hall, a serene landscaped courtyard and a children’s play area.

For the convenience of its homeowners, Amaia Mandaue also has its own retail shops at the ground level.

As in all Amaia projects, Amaia Steps Mandaue, which is on Plaridel Street corner UN Avenue in Barangay Alang-alang, Mandaue City, is located near schools (University of Cebu is one) and retail establishments (Pacific Mall, Gaisano Grand Mall and S&R).

Dining establishments, hospitals and churches are close by, as are transport hubs for jeepney, buses and shuttle services. It is also within comfortable driving distance to Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Ayala Center Cebu and Maayo Hotel.

So that families are assured of years of security and comfort in their homes, Amaia Steps Mandaue is built following Ayala Land’s standards.

Amaia makes it easy for aspiring Filipino homeowners to buy a home in Amaia Steps Mandaue through flexible payment

AMAIA Steps Mandaue’s cleverly laid-out units, solid facilities and strategic location make it a fine choice for investment-savvy millennials, travel enthusiasts, professionals and couples planning to start a family.

schemes, such as cash, deferred cash and bank financing. The company continues to serve prospective homeowners with

affordable and sustainable developments that aim to elevate the Filipino living experience in a well-secured environment.

THIS new year is the perfect opportunity to do all the big changes to any home. Sprucing up a house might sound time-consuming and inconvenient, but it could be done through simple steps that do not need major renovations.

Here are some tips to get started: n SET INTENTION. Having a goal in mind makes any project faster and easier, and keeps checklists in order.

For example, a kitchen should be efficient and clean all the time, the dining area should have the option to accommodate more people, and rooms must be comfortable for all guests. n CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY. Unload kitchen shelves and cabinets to see everything that is stocked up in the pantry. This makes it easier to wipe down dust and crumbs that have been hiding behind jars and containers. Toss out any expired goods, as well as unused cookbooks and cooking magazines. When putting back the items, remember to keep the most used products in front for easy access. n ORGANIZE AND LABEL. Keep items in baskets, crates or trays for a clutter-free home. Categorizing and using labels can make anything easier to locate.

You can either use a label-maker or just simply cut out tags and write on them. This is also the chance to determine which items to keep or put up for donation. n MAKE HOUSE MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT. It is time to take control of the electricity bill this year. Aside from consciously saving electricity by turning off the lights or unplugging devices when not in use, consider switching to appliances that consume less energy.

Smart home appliances are also easy to control anywhere, anytime.

Consider investing in an air conditioner with Digital Inverter Technology like the Samsung Premium Inverter Wind-Free Plus. It has a WindFree Cooling function that maintains the level of temperature without the unpleasant feeling of cold wind. Most important, it saves up to 68 percent energy compared to conventional models. n UPDATE KITCHEN APPLIANCES. Take a look at the devices and appliances in the kitchen and check for damages. Carefully assess the condition and decide which ones need to be replaced.

It is ideal that the new appliance harmoniously matches the current theme or design of the kitchen.

This saves a great deal of money for renovation while keeping the place looking sleek.

Samsung not only offers refrigerators with innovations that nurture but also seamless and modern design that can make any space stand out.

One of these is the Samsung Side by Side No Frost Space Max Interior which features a Digital Inverter Compressor technology that reduces wear and tear, while ensuring a 21-year lifespan durability.

For a more accessible way to get food items, the Samsung French Door has a Food Showcase feature that allows minimal door opening so the refrigerator stays cool and preserves energy. The Samsung 3-Door Side by Side No Frost Space Max Interior with Flexzone uses SpaceMax technology that allows extra food storage because of its thinner walls compared to traditional refrigerators. This enables more space with the cooling performance to keep food fresh with the best temperature.

Turn your home to its best self this New Year.

More information on Samsung Digital Appliances is available at www.samsung.com/ph.

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Author lays out sturdy case in ‘From Russia With Blood’

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By Jeff Rowe The Associated Press

N From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin’s Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin’s Secret War on the West (Mullholland Books), author Heidi Blake lays out a sturdy case that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a cold, treacherous thug who runs his country like a criminal cartel. But European and Asian leaders were so eager to welcome Russia into the family of free nations—and to buy Russian gas and oil—that they looked the other way as Putin consolidated his power and his opponents started turning up dead.

Nervous parallels with US President Donald J. Trump’s administration emerge. Putin wants to “make Russia great again,” the author writes, understandable, perhaps, given the descent into chaos when the communists were driven from power, only to be replaced by organized criminals who looted the country. Putin made deals with crime bosses and began eliminating opponents and especially people whom he considered traitors.

Putin, like Trump, also responds to accusations with aggressive counterattacks but he hasn’t had to

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yell much. Instead, the book notes, he has charmed successive leaders in the United States and Britain.

The author is an investigations editor at BuzzFeed News and this book is derived from extensive reporting by her team. The fact-byfact attribution we’re used to seeing in daily journalism is absent here, but this is nonetheless a compelling rendering of Putin’s frightening extensions of power into Europe and the United States.

Putin “helped propel Donald Trump to the White House through a concerted campaign of meddling,” Blake writes. Moreover, she says, Russia’s “hacking labs, Internet troll factories and fake news farms had sown disunity, disruption and disinformation,” and its financing of extremist fringe groups had stirred up racial hate and violence around the world.

A generation ago, Russia threatened the US with a mighty nuclear arsenal. It would have been impossible to envision in those days how successful Russia would be threatening the US and Europe with computers, falsehoods and targeted assassinations. The threat today is no less daunting than those missiles and bombs half a century ago. n

THE New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) investigates about 8,500 deaths a year. Whatever thriller fans may fantasize about—mutilated corpses, forensic pathologists brandishing scalpels—can be found there.

So it’s no surprise that Robin Cook has set 12 of his medical thrillers at the facility, including his latest, Genesis (Putnam).

As the novel begins, it’s business as usual at OCME, but it all changes when Dr. Aria Nichols arrives to spend a month there as part of her training.

The young woman is bright, and she possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of pathology, but her superiors and coworkers can’t stand her. That’s because she ignores rules and orders, and can’t open her mouth without uttering profanities.

One day, Aria autopsies the body of a social worker who was found rotting in her apartment after an apparent drug overdose. To her surprise, Aria finds an embryo lodged in the corpse’s uterus.

Aria can’t forgive the unknown man who got the social worker pregnant and then abandoned her.

She wants to find him and learn what role he played in the tragedy.

The deceased woman’s colleague and best friend, Madison Bryant, suggests that they look for him in genetic genealogy’s DNA databases.

Since the DNA of the mother and her fetus are already known, identifying the father couldn’t be difficult, she says.

Aria agrees, but the next day, Madison is pushed under a subway car, and while she is in the hospital, she’s murdered.

The familiar protagonists of Cook’s OCME series, Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, appear in Genesis, but they are mired in family problems, so they do little to make the novel suspenseful.

Scaring his readers silly isn’t what Cook is aiming at. With his thrillers, he clearly hopes to educate the public about a major scientific topic of the day. With Genesis, he successfully sheds light on genetic genealogy and some privacy concerns involving its everexpanding DNA databases.

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Dave Grohl, 51; Jason Bateman, 51; LL Cool J, 52; Holland Taylor, 77.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: You’ll be able to use your power of persuasion to get the help you need to get ahead. A little charm, coupled with incentive, will enable you to bring about changes that will make your life better. Strive for perfection, and it will open doors that were locked in the past. Don’t hesitate to make things happen. Your lucky numbers are 9, 14, 23, 26, 34, 39, 47.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t believe everything you hear. Search the Internet, and you will be able to verify the information you need to make the right decision. Impress everyone with unique solutions. A take-charge attitude will help you achieve your goal. HHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When in doubt, ask. A kind gesture made to someone in your life will change the way you view life and the direction you want to take. Send out resumes, go for interviews and consider your options. HHHHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): A positive attitude will bring you one step closer to your goal. It’s a new year and a great time to make changes that will help build confidence and the life you want to live.

Use your imagination and formulate your strategy. HH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Try not to be overwhelmed with the changes that are heading in your direction. If you are eager to learn and go with the flow, you will end up in a good position. A financial plan will turn into a prosperous venture. HHHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Keep the momentum going. Good things will come to you if you are willing to put in the labor. Make plans to do something special with someone you love. Networking is favored, but don’t take a physical risk. HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Perfection may be your thing, but today you will have to settle for a little less accuracy. Refuse to let anger or disappointment set in, or you will miss out on what matters. Make fun a priority. HHH

Cook’s new thriller sheds light on genetic genealogy

By Waka Tsunoda The Associated Press

Today’s Horoscope

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Don’t overthink or share too much personal information with others. Take a back seat and watch how others react to situations, and you will discover how best to respond when the time is right. Do your own thing. HHH

BOOKS TO STIR HOPE AND INSPIRATION THIS NEW YEAR WITH every new year comes fresh plans and great hope for a successful journey ahead, and inspirational and spiritual books will surely help carry on this optimism throughout the next 11 months.

Here are five motivational reads that deserve a spot on your nightstand this 2020: n ‘WINNING FOR LIFE’ BY DENIS WAITLEY—The American motivational speaker said that his book Winning for Life is here to tell readers that the journey ahead may be difficult but “a beautiful life is not impossible.” He writes, “When you stop caring about the doubts, when you stop caring about what could possibly go wrong, you give yourself a chance to experience a world where everything can go right.” n ‘HERE I AM’ BY TERRY SAMALA DE GUZMAN—A business leader, a teacher, and a life coach, Terry talks about her uplifting journey—revealing insights that helped her survive

her challenging career, marriage, motherhood and health crises— toward a life filled with purpose and love. Here I Am will nudge readers to embrace unexpected opportunities, find power in being different, and discover strength in faith as 2020 unfolds its many surprises for us. n ‘MID-SEPTEMBER LETTERS’ BY SOYEN ENCONADO—This is a collection of poetry, quotes and anecdotes about love, depression and discovering the real meaning of happiness. It is written by Soyen Enconado, who is known for her inspiring poems and quotes on social media (@soyenwrites).

“Book that plane ticket, start that business, make that call, love again, etc.—go for it,” she wrote on Twitter last August.

These New Year reads are from ABS-CBN Books, the publishing arm of ABS-CBN, which has a catalogue of fiction, nonfiction, movie-based, selfhelp and motivational reads.

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Offer honesty and straightforwardness, and you will avoid vague answers. Take a different direction if that’s what feels best for you. Personal growth and updating your image are favored. A romantic gesture will bring you closer to someone you love. HHHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t let your emotions take over and lead to disappointment. Steer clear of debates that are impossible to win. Give everyone the same freedom you want in return. Offer extra detail—shortcuts will not be well-received. HH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): All you have to do is follow through. Take pride in what you do, and you’ll make a name for yourself. Money matters will fall into place, and greater prosperity is heading your way. A positive physical change will boost your morale. HHHHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Donating or overspending will leave you short of cash.

Consider offering your services and skills instead of money. Additional work will come your way if you do a good job. Put your time and effort into earning, not spending. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): An offer is heading your way. You’ll be able to change your position if you are quick to respond. A change in a relationship will catch you by surprise. Don’t act too fast or you’ll end up with less leverage. HHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are driven, ambitious and calculating.

You are reserved and pragmatic.

‘bug bytes’ BY EVAN KALISH The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 House members, for short 5 Genesis boat 8 What desaturation removes from a photo 13 Dakota Fanning’s sister 14 Room with a Wii, perhaps 15 Christopher of Superman 16 Summer weather warnings (letters 3-6) 19 Ill will 20 Hardly any 21 Volleyball court feature 23 The “B” of RBG 24 Place for a guest of honor (3-6) 27 Org. that works with SpaceX 29 Russian range 30 A/C measure 32 A single 34 Vehicles with pedals and motors 35 “Aye aye, ___!”

36 Tortilla dish (4-7) 38 #MeToo or Victorian 39 Not let a little rain stop a game, say 41 Smoke, for short

2 Online annoyances 4 43 Respected tribal figure 44 Kitten’s cry 46 Times when dieters splurge (4-7) 50 “Enigma Variations” composer 54 ___ Jose 55 State east of Wash.

56 Have no doubt 57 Reason for a broken digital file, and a hint to the starred answers’ indicated letters 61 Ham it up 62 Musical pair 63 ___ mater 64 Continue an e-mail thread 65 Messy farm area 66 Genuine DOWN 1 Place to get sober 2 Justice Kagan 3 Checks in a fashion magazine?

4 Restaurant list with a fixed total price 5 Does some summing 6 Title for MLK 7 Butter cutter

8 Three, they say 9 “___ the ramparts...”

10 Maui garland 11 Commercial descriptor for bread 12 Ticket scalpers, e.g.

17 Spiritual glow 18 Word before “change” or “cucumber” 22 Thompson of Men in Black: International 24 Name hidden in “Jonathan Swift” 25 Low brass instrument 26 MSNBC host Melber 28 Not long from now 30 Portrayer of Barry on Barry 31 Walmart, for Walmart Inc. 33 “...and so on”: Abbr.

34 Barely beat, with “out” 35 Blueprint deets 36 Legal wrong 37 Goals 40 Pro vote 42 Many a future Hall-of-Fame athlete 45 Shed tears 47 Possibly dangerous

8 Much ___ About Nothing 4 49 Barbecue venues 51 Slyness 52 Incense candle emanation 53 Kidney-related 56 Bobbing thing 58 Dreidel, for one 59 Braves, on scoreboards 60 Dirt road issue Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

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Riding Globes, ‘1917’ ends ‘Star Wars’ box-office reign DIRECTOR Sam Mendes’s World War I story 1917 brought in $36.5 million in its first weekend of wide release, easily topping the box office in North America after scoring major Golden Globes wins and expanding its theater presence.

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By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

OS ANGELES — It took the Great War to finally take down Star Wars.

Director Sam Mendes’s World War I story 1917 brought in $36.5 million in its first weekend of wide release, easily topping the box office and ending the three-week reign of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which brought in $15 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Universal’s expansion strategy worked beautifully for 1917 as the film went from just 11 screens in its first two weeks to more than 3,400 on the weekend after it won Golden Globes for best director and best drama film, and just before Monday’s Academy Award nominations, where it’s likely to get nods in several categories. “This is the blueprint for how to perfectly execute the platform release for a potential Oscar nominee and Oscar winner,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

While the epic wartime feel of 1917, which was shot and edited to appear as though it was done in a single take, makes it a natural for major awards, its triumphs at the Golden Globes were a surprise over other dramas, including The Irishman and Marriage Story.

“I hope this means that people will turn up and see this on the big screen, the way it was intended,” Mendes said at the Globes ceremony. Those hopes weren’t unfounded.

A good weekend was expected for the film, but it shot past those expectations.

“It’s not like the kids were clamoring for a World War I trench drama,” Dergarabedian said. “A film like this could have easily slipped off the radar.”

With its previous two-week take, 1917 has now earned $39.2 million in the US and Canada and over $60 million globally. That’s of course dwarfed by Disney’s total domestic take of $478.2 million for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is on the verge of reaching $1 billion globally after four weeks.

Jumanji: The Next Level was in third place in its fifth

week of release for Sony with earnings of $14 million, and has totaled more than $257 million domestically.

Sony has a smaller sort of hit in Little Women, which could also make a mark at Monday’s Oscar nominations and continues its strong run for a film of its kind, bringing in another $7.65 million to put it in the sixth spot with a total of $74 million after three weeks. The usual January box-office blahs were in effect for the week’s new releases.

Like a Boss, Paramount’s comedy starring Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, finished in a fourth-place tie at $10 million with Just Mercy.

Underwater, 20th Century Fox’s deep-sea adventure starring Kristen Stewart, brought in a tepid $7 million and finished below Little Women. “For newcomers, this is usually not a bountiful time for the box office,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s usually about the holdovers and awards-season contenders.”

The tied-for-fourth $10 million finish was better news for Warner Bros.’ smaller-budgeted Just Mercy, which stars Michael B. Jordan in the true story of an attorney appealing a murder conviction, and like

1917 was expanded from just a few screens to a few thousand in its third weekend.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.

Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.

1. 1917, $36.5 million, ($19.9 million international) 2. Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, $15.1 million, ($24.2 million international).

3. Jumanji: The Next Level, $14 million, ($22.6 million international) 4. Like a Boss, $10 million 5. Just Mercy, $10 million 6. Little Women, $7.65 million, ($8.1 million international) 7. Underwater, $7 million, ($7.1 million international) 8. Frozen 2, $5.76 million, ($19.1 million international) 9. Knives Out, $5.73 million, ($5.5 million international) 10. Spies in Disguise, $5.1 million, ($11.4 million international). n

Shangri-La Plaza rocks with alt-rock sensibilities ALTERNATIVE rock band Never the Strangers brings their powerful riffs, playful melodies, and anthemic choruses to Shangri-La Plaza on January 18, 7 pm, at the Grand Atrium.

Composed of lead vocalist and keyboardist Ace Libre, guitarist Bert Ong and drummer Nash Ignacio, the band was discovered

by Filipino rock icon Rico Blanco through the music-driven social networking site MySpace.

Never the Strangers is known for singles “Alive” and “Bago Mahuli Ang Lahat,” as well as, hit ad song “Moving Closer.” After releasing a self-titled debut album in 2012, the

group produced another in 2015, titled Screenburn. The band followed it up with a six-track EP last year called “Touchdown,” which featured the 2019 hit single “Shadow Show” with Blanco.

Aside from playing for their fans around the country, Never the Strangers has also opened for foreign alt-rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Lifehouse. Throughout their career, the band has explored different music genres, such as new wave and 1980s synth-pop.

Rock out to Never the Strangers’ brand of music at Shangri-La Plaza.

More information is available at www. facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficial.

DiCaprio’s Earth Alliance gives $3M to Australia fire relief

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO

LOS ANGELES—Leonardo DiCaprio’s Earth Alliance environmental organization will donate $3 million to help wildfire relief efforts in Australia.

The foundation said on Thursday that it has started the Australia Wildfire Fund to help with an “international response to the catastrophic bushfires” currently raging in the country.

The wildfires have scorched an area twice the size of the US state of Maryland, killed at least 25 people and destroyed 2,000 homes.

The fires, fueled by drought and the country’s hottest and driest year on record, have been raging since September, months earlier than is typical for Australia’s annual wildfire season.

The Academy Award-winning actor serves as Earth Alliance’s co-chair along with philanthropists Laurene Powell Jobs and

Brian Sheth. The organization was launched last year to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.

The fund will work with local Australian partner organizations including Aussie Ark, Bush Heritage and Wires Wildlife Rescue.

DiCaprio joins a growing list of other celebrities that have rallied to donate big bucks. Australian actor Chris Hemsworth and Elton John who each offered $1 million through social media earlier this week.

Nicole Kidman, Pink and Keith Urban have donated, as well.

Metallica said they will donate $750,000 to a firefighting agency and emergency services agency in Victoria. Phoebe Waller-Bridge said she would auction off her Globe outfit and have the proceeds go to firefighter relief at the Golden Globes on January 5. AP

ALL-STAR ‘THE GENTLEMEN’ COMING TO CINEMAS READY your wits when The Gentlemen starts playing games on January 29 in Philippine cinemas. The movie is rollicking action-packed caper, where everyone seems to be friends and fiends battling for the highest seat of power.

From writer-director Guy Ritchie, The Gentlemen is a star-studded, sophisticated action comedy that follows American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), who has built a highly profitable marijuana empire in London.

When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business, a host of colorful, if entirely illegitimate figures scheme, bribe and blackmail their way to try and steal Mickey’s domain out from under him.

The Gentlemen’s exciting power cast includes Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, with Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant—all under the direction of Ritchie, who returns to the genre and type of characters to which he gave an indelible and unique flavor in, such films as Sherlock Holmes, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch.

Ritchie came up with the idea for the film almost a decade ago. He explains the film’s origins as a work titled Toff Guys—a reference to the British slang for someone from an aristocratic background, and who exudes an air of superiority.

“It all spoke to my interest in exploring the meeting of disparate polarities in the English and American class systems. The characters have reached an age where they are magnetically drawn to the finer things in life and have become gentrified in their rather ungentrified business.

They are, at their core, hard-boiled and have worked their way up the urban ladder. Now, they’re caught between two worlds, one of which is aspirational. And the things they enjoy are now out of sync with the business they’re in.”

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Art

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

SUSTAINABLE LIFE, Aner Sebastian, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”

ROME’S MEGA-EXHIBIT CELEBRATES 500 YEARS FROM RAPHAEL DEATH ROME—A mega-exhibition of more than 200 works of art from Raphael will open in Rome in March to mark the 500-year anniversary of the death of the Italian Renaissance master.

The exhibition, which opens on March 5 at the Scuderie del Quirinale, is the culmination of the world-wide celebration of the artist, who died in Rome on April 6, 1520, at the age of just 37.

The event is jointly organized by Scuderie del Quirinale, which is owned by the Italian Presidency, and Florence’s Uffizi museum. It includes over a hundred drawings and paintings that have never been gathered together before, organizers said.

The Uffizi’s contribution has been crucial. The museum is providing over 40 works by Raphael.

Others helping out are Paris’s Louvre, London’s National Gallery and Madrid’s Prado.

The exhibition will include the Madonna del Granduca and Woman with a Veil from the Uffizi; the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione and Self-Portrait with Friend from the Louvre; and the Madonna of the Rose from Prado.

The exhibition ends on June 2. AP

BEAT TELLS, Melbourne Aquino, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”

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A RUSH OF PAINT TO THE HEAD (SERIES II), Fitz Herrera, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”

Expression categorized A

BSTRACT art, according to early 20thcentury American painter Arshile Gorky, is the emancipation of the mind. He said that its form of expression enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite.

The take, of course, no matter how poetically accurate, is just among the countless descriptions of the genre whose works elicit as such, for abstract art was never intended for a singular definition, only subjective interpretation, if that.

Launched last week at Gallery C in Conrad Manila and on view until March is a rich multimedia showcase of 24 abstract pieces from nine acclaimed artists. The group show, titled Abstract Views, is copresented by Altro Mondo, and is the 12th edition of Conrad Manila’s Of Art and Wine series since 2017.

“This exhibition reiterates our continued commitment in paying tribute to Filipino artists,” said the Pasay hotel’s general manager Laurent Boisdron during the opening.

Abstract Views presents a wide collection of abstract pieces that are paired according to categories by curators Nestor Jardin and Lara Latosa.

Matched for texture, for example, are the creations of abstract painter Fitz Herrera and peculiar pointillist Binong Javier.

Herrera is characterized for his paint-heavy, multi-textured patchwork of bold and bright colors, a style that is on full display in his two-part series A Rush of Paint to the Head. Meanwhile, Javier offers three gradient works of his signature flecks of acrylic drippings.

Another category is word art, featuring pieces by mixed-media artist Melbourne Aquino and painter Rick Lozada Hernandez.

Aquino has come up with two works of his layered letter cutout on canvas from a practice he calls “lettering abstraction,” which produces pieces that evoke scrambled ransom notes. The word play continues with Hernandez, who presents the word “love” in three vibrant paintings that carry an aesthetic informed by his background as a graphic artist.

Also part of the exhibit are geometric abstractionist Aner Sebastian and self-taught painter Michael Pastorizo, whose abstract works are hung side by side for their patterns and reflections.

Architect and sculptor Richard Buxani offer a change of pace with three brass sculptures.

Last, grouped under fluidity are the creations of medical doctor/visual artist Meneline Wong and environment advocate/painter Latosa, the cocurator of the show.

Both artists capture the illusion of flowing movement; Wong in her style of fluid art and Latosa in her subject.

Wong, a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, bridges the gap between science and art by meticulously studying the viscosity and density of the pigments she uses. Thus, she’s able to translate controlled chaos on canvas with her signature waves of bright colors crashing and blending on the black, white or gold background.

Whereas Wong’s pieces appear to be a top view of the ocean, Latosa zooms in for a closer, 3D perspective, wherein water twists and splashes in all its fluidity but remains frozen in time altogether.

Drowned by her mastery of illustrating water, however, is her fear of it. But the artist said that overcoming weaknesses is an innate trait, and now she swims, surfs, free dives and paints about water.

“I’m relatively new to abstract art, and one advice that guides me is I should tell my story as an artist,” Latosa said. “My art is born out of my depression, kaya nakaka-relate ako sa waves. Siguro hindi ’yun basta-basta nakikita ng mga tao, but once they get to know the artist, the story behind their works, mas nagkakaroon ng value ’yung abstract art.” n

Jose Burgos III’s ‘Pihit’ at Conspiracy Garden Café CONSPIRACY Garden Café hosts a collection of paintings

by Jose Burgos III. Titled Pihit, the exhibit will showcase the recent works of Burgos. It will be on display at the alternative space from January 15 to February 6.

Pihit is Filipino for “turn.” While Burgos had his first exhibition in the late 1980s, he never stopped painting.

“I have been a farmer since the mid-1990s, but I kept on painting to, somehow, relieve me of the burdens a Filipino farmer has to endure to survive during these absurd times,” shared Burgos.

“Painting has always been my passion, my refuge,” added the farmer-visual artist.

The exhibit is open to public, with the opening reception scheduled at 7 pm on January 15. The regular show featuring Noel Cabangon follows after the exhibit launch.

NAGAANTABAY

Eric Zamuco’s solo exhibit ‘Cosmic Grounds’ SILVERLENS presents Eric Zamuco’s solo exhibit Cosmic Grounds. This marks the artist’s first exhibition in two years, and his fifth show with the gallery.

Known for his introspective approach to art, Zamuco continues to transform everyday objects into thought-provoking pieces.

In Cosmic Grounds, Zamuco presents new sculptures and assemblages that encourage audiences to consider the wonder of the mundane.

The exhibition notes state:

“Eric Zamuco’s latest exhibition is a reminder of what is temporary and discovered when one is not looking. [His] interactive floor piece constructed with found material mirrors his own routine experience of neighborhood walks begun after a series of family and personal health scares starting in 2017.

“Cosmic Grounds takes off from the objects Zamuco stumbled upon during his routes around his neighborhood and family province.

His first exhibition in two years, the artist has slowly built a personal

archive of items found while he was in transit—a broken vase, headless heron, termite-eaten pillar and roofing shingles, among others. “....For Zamuco, rather than searching, these objects had come to him. Not having scoured through junkshops for any of the elements in Cosmic Grounds, Zamuco’s inclination to work with these materials was not a reaction to happenstance but to providence.

To the artist, coming across these objects felt almost fated, an uncontrollable event reminiscent of

the unpredictability and frailty of our own bodies.

“Zamuco’s artistic practice in relation to discarded and disfigured material has always been a question in transformation and reassembly. The works on display in Cosmic Grounds are a testament to a renewing process, one that does not aim to restore fragmented objects, but acknowledges the passing of time and an inevitable decay.”

The exhibit is on view until February 15 at Silverlens, Manila.

NAPAGIWANAN