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‘DILG TO RECOMMEND EL NIDO CLOSURE’ By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

D RECENTLY landing on Lonely Planet’s list of hottest destinations in Asia Pacific, El Nido, seen in this BusinessMirror file photo, was specifically mentioned as a “crown jewel…where skyscraping karst formations rise out of blue water in Bacuit Bay.”

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ON’T look now, travel junkies, but El Nido in Palawan could be the next hot tourism destination to be closed. A government source told the BusinessMirror the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will be recommending to “close Bacuit Bay and the Corong Corong outfall, with no water activities for three months.”The source requested anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter. Bacuit Bay is a haven for many scuba divers because of its rich marine resources. It hosts exotic wildlife like dugong (seacows),

sea turtles, manta rays, whale sharks and various species of tropical fish and extensive coral reefs. The recommendation was made after the DILG sent an inspection team to El Nido earlier this month. The DILG will also recommend the formation of a specific task force, composed of representatives of the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Tourism and the DILG to enforce the closure. According to the source, the closure of El Nido, dubbed by international media and travel publications as “one of the best island beaches in the world,” would enable the task force, to rehabilitate and cleanup these areas. “The fecal coliform level in these areas is very high and waters are quite dirty,” the source

See “El Nido,” A12

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n Monday, July 15, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 278

NCR ecozone freeze gets full DTI backing I

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

N a blow to prospective locators in Metro Manila, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez has stepped back from an earlier plan to ask President Duterte to extend the transitory period of his moratorium on economic zone development in the nation’s capital. Lopez abandoned his plan to seek the extension of Administrative Order (AO) 18’s transitory period to

90 days, saying the objective of the order must be realized the soonest and this can be done by allowing its

provisions to take effect as is. To compel firms to locate their operations in rural areas and gen-

₧34B Amount of projects deemed at risk of getting derailed by the moratorium on ecozone development in Metro Manila

erate jobs there, the President in June issued AO 18 instructing the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) to no longer accept, process or evaluate proposals to put up economic zones in Metro Manila.

See “Ecozone,” A2

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SATELLITE GOVT OFFICES IN ‘POGO’ HUBS PITCHED By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

OVERNMENT agencies have been invited to set up satellite offices at the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) hubs, so that the processing of requirements the government needs from foreign workers will be more efficient and streamlined, as the hubs are envisioned to be a one-stop shop facility, a gaming executive said. Kevin Wong, chairman of the Phil-Asian Gaming Expo (PAGE), made the revelation on Friday on the sidelines of the expo at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. The expo opened just days after authorities revealed a strategic plan to set up so-called Pogo

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

HE recr uitment industry said on Sunday it welcomes the creation of the Department of Overseas Workers (DOOW), which President Duterte wants to set up by year-end. “The DOOW is long overdue,” said recruitment consultant Manny Geslani. “This will be for the benefit of 3 million temporary migrant workers.” He expressed optimism that the one-stop shop department will relieve hundreds of thousands of workers of the burdens of “simply going from one government office to another.” He said the current setup “taxes many of the applicants [as they]

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hubs, in recognition of the big strides made by the government in regulating the sector and maximizing revenue, which grew from just P56 million to P11.9 billion between 2016 and 2018. “Within the Pogo hub, everything will be there. It’s not just the operators but a lot of one-stop shop solutions will be there. Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.] will have an office there. We’ll also invite [the Bureau of Immigration], BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue].... So in terms of numbers, visas, the TIN [income tax number], all will be covered,” said Wong, who is also the general manager of the Oriental Group (OG), a gaming firm. See “Pogo,” A2

Cabinet okays project cost hike for Mindanao railway

Recruitment leader backs department for OFW

See “OFW,” A2

said in Filipino. The timing of the area’s closure is just right, added the source, as the low season for tourists is usually from July to October, with the arrival of the monsoon rains and typhoons. According to the Department of Tourism (DOT) web site, as of March 2018, there were 26 accredited accommodation establishments in El Nido. While the government source said the properties of the Ayala Hotels and Resorts Corp. will not be impacted directly by the closure, many of these are actually located within Bacuit Bay and frequently hold watersports activities there. These resorts are on Miniloc, Pangalusian and Lagen Islands, as well as its newly opened Lio Tourism Estate.

MIGRANT workers from the Middle East wait for their luggage at the Naia Terminal 1 in this 2018 file photo. The government is looking to set up a one-stop shop Department of Overseas Workers to better protect them from the unfair practices and abuses, and facilitate the process of vetting and documentation of migrants. NONIE REYES

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HE Mindanao Railway Project, an ambitious effort to link most southern cities and provinces by rail, will now cost 125.25 percent more, after the interagency Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Cabinet Committee (Cabcom) approved the increase for its Phase 1 (Tagum-Davao-Digos Segment). In a recent meeting, Cabcom also approved the increase in the cost of the Metro Manila Priority Bridges Seismic Improvement Project, which seeks to make two major bridges, Lambingan and Guadalupe Bridge, fit to withstand the “Big One” or the earthquake that experts foresee could hit the capital region anytime. Documents obtained from the

National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) showed the Mindanao Railway Project Phase 1 will now cost over P80 billion, or a 125.25-percent increase from P35.91 billion. Data showed the increase in cost was due to the addition of a Davao satellite depot. There were several options presented and the ICC Cabcom chose Option 3 without land development. Option 3 without land development cost P80.887 billion to undertake. It also provides for a single track project, no second track provision and no provision for electrification. The amount, however, did not cover the new depot, which, when added to the cost of Option 3, could bring the project up to around P82 billion. The Mindanao Railway System is a 2,000-kilometer railway with two See “Railway,” A2

US 51.2590 n JAPAN 0.4725 n UK 64.1916 n HK 6.5527 n CHINA 7.4570 n SINGAPORE 37.7793 n AUSTRALIA 35.7429 n EU 57.6971 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.6669

Source: BSP (12 July 2019 )

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A2 Monday, July 15, 2019

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CAB eyes new air service pacts within 2019

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

HE Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) will hold air services negotiations with various nations within the year to beef up bilateral relations and aid diplomatic developments.

Carmelo Arcilla, the agency’s executive director, will be focusing on the crafting of new air services agreements with various countries to deepen the Philippines’s relationship with other countries. “Most of the air talks this year are more of in the nature of diplomatic commitments,” he said. “It’s a way of strengthening our relationship...and it can also support trade and investments.” He cited Chile, for example, which will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting this November.

“Most of the air talks this year are more of in the nature of diplomatic commitments. It’s a way of strengthening our relationship...and it can also support trade and investments.”—Arcilla

Arcilla explained that crafting a new air services deal with Chile will deepen the Philippines’s diplomatic relationship with that country, and could spur foreign direct investments, apart from tourism.

House reminds public of lockout in Batasan on Sona day

NE week before the fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Duterte, the House of Representatives on Sunday reminded the public that a complete lockout policy will be implemented inside the Batasan Complex from July 19 to 21, 2019. In an advisor y, House Acting Secretary-General Dante Roberto Maling said personnel and nonemployees of the chamber who have no official business inside the House shall not be allowed inside the complex as part of the pre-Sona re-

Railway. . .

Continued from A1

segments that will connect various provinces in Mindanao.

Bridges MEANWHILE, for the Metro Manila Priority Bridges Seismic Improvement Project, the ICC Cabcom approved an 84-percent project cost increase to P3.64 billion. Eight reasons are cited for the increase in project cost, topped by the additional length for the steel pipe pile and steel pipe sheet needed for the Guadalupe Bridge, which will require a P1.645-billion cost increase or 45.17 percent of the increase in cost. Other reasons for the cost increase: the funds needed to construct a detour bridge at Guadalupe to facilitate the traffic flow during construction, which will require an additional P299.31 million or 8.22 percent of the cost increase; the use of high-strength steel for the superstructure of the Lambingan Bridge, P158.83 million additional or 4.36 percent of the cost increase; and approach road at the Lambingan Bridge, P152.9 million or 4.2 percent of the increase in cost. The list also includes higher import and value-added taxes worth an additional P433.22 million; contingencies, P403.14 million; administration costs, P235.78 million; and demolition costs, P170.8 million.

OFW. . .

Continued from A1

procure travel documents like birth certificates, passports, health clearances, trade and training certifications.” Duterte made the pitch for a separate department when he graced the Araw ng Pasasalamat for OFWs on Friday. As envisioned, the Department of Overseas Workers will put under one roof the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Overseas Filipinos (COF), as well as other government instrumentalities concerned with overseas worker deployment.

minders and security requirements. The opening of the 18th Congress and the Joint Session of Congress to hear the Sona of President Duterte will happen on July 22, 2019. However, the House Secretariat, Congressional staff and heads of offices must submit a list of those who will report for work on each lockout day, to the Office of the Executive Director, Legislative Security Bureau (LSB). HRep Secretariat and Congressional staff whose names are included in the list will be allowed entry to the premises using

Ecozone. . .

Continued from A1

“I did not ask anymore for extension considering that there is good wisdom in the policy to urge companies to locate outside Metro Manila if they want incentives and, thus, we should do it as early as we can. Note that the companies can still locate in Metro Manila, but without incentives,” Lopez said in a text message. With the moratorium in place, Lopez said prospective locators will most likely choose Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog provinces as their investment destinations, as these areas will keep them near and around the border of Metro Manila. “The periphery of Metro Manila, like Cavite, Batangas and Bulacan, are also good sites for these companies, and many workers are actually coming from these provinces. Why still travel to and congest [Metro Manila]? [The s]ame can be said of key areas in Visayas and Mindanao. It makes good logic to implement soon the policy [of AO 18],” the trade chief explained.

P34B at risk

LOPEZ’S decision to no longer appeal for an extension put over P34 billion worth of projects at risk of getting derailed by the moratorium. Applications for the establishment of economic zones in Metro Manila endorsed to the Office of the President (OP) and with complete documents are exempted from the moratorium. On the other hand, proposals transmitted to the OP but are insufficient in requirements were provided a transitory period of 30 days from June 22—the publication of AO 18 in a national newspaper—to be completed. According to Peza Deputy Director General Tereso O. Panga, there are 22

Geslani said the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration and the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Service Group (CIDG) could be attached to the proposed department “in order to weed out unscrupulous criminal syndicates who continue to prey on innocent Filipinos aspiring to work abroad.” He claimed illegal recruiters and online recruiters are very active around the premier international airport.

P2P for OFWs

MEANWHILE, returning or vacationing OFWs can now use the point to point luxury bus to Baguio City without leaving Naia terminals upon their arrival in Manila with the opening of a new P2P service from PITX/Naia to Baguio City. Travel time is estimated to be less than four hours. An established bus company

their HRep IDs. The chamber said non-House personnel such as accredited media personnel, caterers and contractors who will enter the HRep Complex on lockout dates shall be required to wear their company IDs with color-coded pre-Sona security lockout stickers. The advisory said the“No Pre-Sona Security Lockout Stickers, No Entry” and “No Hrep ID, No Entry” policies shall be strictly enforced from July 19 to 21, 2019. The HRep Complex will be open only from 7 a.m. of Friday, July

applications to put up information technology (IT) centers and parks in Metro Manila pending with the OP but lacking in certain documents, and they amount to P34.23 billion. In a letter dated July 1, Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza appealed to Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea to give developers at least six months to complete their requirements, which are apparently time-consuming to secure. She also asked applications approved by the Peza Board and for endorsement to the OP to be exempted from the moratorium. There are 131 proposals, with a combined cost of P159.43 billion, to develop IT centers and parks in Metro Manila approved by the Peza Board but have yet to be transmitted to the OP. Industry leaders are worried the moratorium will put IT and business-process management firms, which are mostly operating in Metro Manila, in an office space crunch. The IT-BPM industry expanded its office space take-up by 420,000 square meters last year, and needs 450,000 square meters this year to accommodate expansions and new operations. In her letter to Medialdea, Plaza said IT-BPM firms and online gaming operators are fighting over the available IT building spaces in Metro Manila under the Peza of 214,000 square meters, which is less than half the industry’s demand for office spaces. As of June, Metro Manila hosts nearly two thirds of IT centers and parks in the Philippines. Of the 278 operating IT economic zones nationwide, 167 are located in the nation’s capital with approved investments of P286.35 billion, according to data from the Peza. Most of the IT centers and parks in Metro Manila are situated in the central business districts of Makati, Quezon City, Pasig, Taguig, Mandaluyong and Muntinlupa.

plying Northern Luzon announced at the sidelines of the “One road, one nation towards PUV modernization” launching last week in Muntinlupa City their newest route. Jeremy Chua, president of Solid North Inc., said that by the third week of July 2019, the P2P service will commence service from the PITX terminal in Parañaque City and pass by the Naia terminals to pick up passengers for Baguio City. The new luxury buses are fully air-conditioned and equipped with a comfort room on board. It also offers food en route since the service is nonstop. OFWs would be picked up at the Naia terminals by the buses and they no longer have to commute to the bus terminals on Macapagal Boulevard. This service will be every hour, according to Chua. Recto L. Mercene

19, 2019, up to 5 p.m. of Sunday, July 21, 2019. It also provides that from July 19 to 22, 2019, all motorcycles, taxicabs and transport network vehicles services (TNVS) shall not be allowed to enter and park inside the HRep premises. On Sona day, all parking spaces within the HRep Complex shall be strictly for vehicles bearing colorcoded car passes on a “first-come, first-served” basis based on the Sona 2019 Parking Plan.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

He also cited the Timor Leste air pact, which he described as the government’s efforts to “build the aviation infrastructure in terms of agreements.” “In the previous years our air talks involved countries with whom we have actual services. But this year, it’s a diplomatic commitment,” Arcilla said. Air negotiations are usually mounted to craft a new or amend an existing agreement between two nations to allow their carriers to mount or increase flights between two or more points. These are measured by

Bishops oppose bid to prolong pols’ terms

EMBERS of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) rejected renewed attempts to prolong the terms of congressmen. The chairman of the CBCPEpiscopal Commission on the Laity, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, and Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said they are against the proposal of Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano since it will further allow political dynasties to flourish. Bastes said the proposal will effectively reduce the chances of voters to pick better candidates in Congress. “This is very bad...they will rule

Comelec close to resolving disqualification Pogo. . . case vs Cardema

Continued from A1

CARDEMA By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

HE Commission on Elections said the pending disqualification case against former National Youth Commission (NYC) Head Ronald Cardema is now a step closer to being concluded. Comelec Commissioner Rowena V. Guanzon said the petitioners and Cardema’s camp have already submitted their respective Memoranda to the Comelec First Division for resolution. Aside from Guanzon, the other members of the Comelec First Division are Comelec Commissioners Al A. Parreño and Marlon S. Casquejo. Poll watchdog Kontra Daya said it hopes the division of the poll body will be able to come up with an independent decision on the matter. Cardema, a major supporter of President Duterte, is facing disqualification in his bid to represent the Duterte Youth party-list due to allegation of his ineligibility for the position. Among others, petitioners in the disqualification case said he is overaged to represent the youth and has not officially established he will represent “young” professionals before the May 2019 polls. “The Comelec should assert its independence from the Duterte administration,” Kontra Daya Convenor Danilo Arao added. Arao said they hope Comelec will come out with its decision on Cardema’s case before Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 22.

either number of flights or seats. The chief commercial aviation regulator added that Morocco and Jordan are seeking to craft new air deals with the Philippines. These may be signed within the year. Arcilla admitted, however, that there is no demand for direct flights to the two countries for the Philippines, but noted that entering into air pacts will prepare the countries should the demand come in. “It pays to enhance our overall bilateral relationship with foreign countries,” he said. “This is to prepare for the future.”

Wong revealed that the OG has invested in the creation of two offshore gaming hubs outside Metro Manila, with one hub being placed in a 10-hectare area in Clark and the other in a 20-hectare property in Cavite. “We just need the one-stop shop solution from them [the government agencies] so that we don’t have to go all the way [to Manila]. Because if we’re gonna locate in these hubs these aren’t within Metro Manila. If we have to travel all the way to Immigration in Manila, that will take time and waste time for our employees. Unlike if they can set up a satellite office within that Pogo hub,” he added.

Clark as example

HE pointed out that the Pogo hub in Clark is already operational, while the one in Cavite is about to open soon. “Clark is operational. CDC [Clark Development Corp.] is actually very helpful. They try to improve a lot of things. And even, I think, their move to making the visas, the processing faster, having every employee getting a QR [quick response] code. So basically even their approvals, it’s gonna be QR-based. And I hope they can finish that ASAP because the visas in Clark is very different. We got a Subic-Clark working visa,” he said. OG has partnered with the Manila Electric Co. to set up a substation in its Pogo hub in Cavite to provide its power needs, with the company also in discussions with other companies in terms of providing other environmentally friendly ways to put up or bring in power. In terms of connectivity and cellular data, it has partnered with Globe Telecom for the Pogo hub. “They’re gonna set up a cellular tower so that we won’t have any issue with mobile and all the fiber connectivity,” he added. Wong also explained that the OG is finding ways to make it easier for Pogo companies to hire more local talent, as it is looking to set up an association to help train Filipinos to speak the Chinese language. “For us, we try to increase the number of Filipinos, typically, [the

the country forever through their dynasty,” Bastes said. Pabillo agreed with Bastes, saying the suggestion is self-serving. “The politicians will really want to entrench themselves in power.... Are they the only ones who are qualified to serve in Congress?” Pabillo said. Cayetano is now pushing to extend the three-year term of members of Congress to four years with no term limits or five years, but with three-term limits. He said this will address the problematic terms of congressmen, which he said is too short. Samuel P. Medenilla

ratio] should be 60 foreign, 40 local [employees]. We’re trying to find ways on how to increase the number of Filipinos.... Actually, now we plan to set up an association where we can also try to teach the Filipinos how to speak Chinese because if we can remove that hurdle of language, actually if we can hire all Filipinos, why not, but then, language is very crucial,” he said.

Pagcor: Revenues soaring

IN her speech at the PAGE, Pagcor Chairman and CEO Andrea D. Domingo said that since 2016 to 2018 revenues collected by the agency from Pogos amounted to a total of P11.9 billion, coming from just P56 million collected before the Duterte administration took over. “From 2016 to 2018, we have already gotten P11.9 billion in revenues from these. Whereas before we took over, it was only giving P56 million annually to the national government,” Domingo said. Domingo expects revenues from the sector to hit P8 billion for this year alone. “On the other hand, we also [are] making business more comfortable and easier for the operators by now licensing Pogo hubs. The Pogo hubs, those who will locate there, will have a license that is good for five years. Those outside it’s good for three years, so they have a choice,” she added. She pointed out that around 59 operators were convinced to operate in the Philippine market because of the regulation set up by the government agency, adding that a lot is now being done in terms of regulating Pogos, with one being the move to license the creation of Pogo hubs. Domingo added that Pagcor will now issue gaming employees licenses (GELs), which will serve as proof that the foreign nationals working at Pogos and the operators themselves are paying the correct taxes due the government. “But all in all, I think that we are progressing. Here we are, for all the world to see, we are offshore gaming operators in the Philippines, we are legal, we ensure fair play. We do not run away from losing bets and we are here to stay,” she said. PAGE, the first in the country, is a three-day gaming expo that ran at the SMX Convention Center from July 12 to 14, 2019.

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SC: Crime suspects cannot invoke Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court has ruled that individuals belonging to indigenous cultural communities who are charged with criminal offenses cannot invoke Republic Act 8371, or the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, to evade prosecution and liability under courts law. In a 19-page decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, the Court’s Third Division held that the IPRA does not strip the courts of jurisdiction over criminal cases involving indigenous people. “Nowhere in the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act does it state that courts of law are to abandon jurisdiction over criminal proceedings in favor of mechanisms applying customary laws,” the Court declared. The Court made the pronouncement in recent decision where it denied the petition for mandamus filed by Roderick Sumatra also known as Ha Datu Tawahig, tribal chieftain of Higaonon Tribe seeking to compel respondent Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 12 Presiding Judge Estela Alma Singco and her corespondents, all public prosecutors from Cebu City to honor a January 3, 2007, resolution issued by a body known as the Dadantulan Tribal Court. The Dadantulan Tribal Court absolved Sumatra of liability for charges of rape and discharged him from criminal, civil and administrative liability. Sumatra anchored its plea on Section 65 of the IPRA that states: “When disputes involve ICCs [Indigenous Cultural Communities/ IP [Indigenous Peoples], customary laws and practices shall be used to resolve the dispute.” The Court noted that with the passage of the 1987 Constitution, the IPRA was adopted precisely recognizing that indigenous peoples have been “resistant to political, social, and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, and became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos

It noted that among the IPRA’s provisions on self-governance and empowerment is Section 15. “The ICCs/IPs shall have the right to use their own commonly accepted justice systems, conflict resolution institutions, peace-building processes or mechanisms, and other customary laws and practices within their respective communities and as may be compatible with the national legal system and with internationally recognized human rights,” Section 15 of the law said. The SC noted that Section 15 limits indigenous peoples’ right to use their own commonly accepted justice systems, conflict resolution institutions, peace-building processes or mechanisms and other customary laws and practices. It noted that the said provision explicitly states that this right is applicable only “within their respective communities” and only for as long as it is “compatible with the national legal system and with internationally recognized human rights.” “Section 65 is qualified by Section 15. With respect to dispensing justice, resolving conflicts, and peacebuilding, the application of customary laws and practices is permissible only to the extent that it is in harmony with the national legal system,” the Court ruled. “A set of customary laws and practices is effective only within the confines of the specific indigenous cultural community that adopted and adheres to it.” The High Tribunal added that the IPRA “does not compel courts of law to desist from taking cognizance of criminal cases involving indigenous peoples. “[The IPRA] expresses no correlative rights and duties in support of petitioner’s cause,” the Court said. “Thus, a writ of mandamus cannot be issued.” With the ruling, the SC directed the trial court to proceed and resolve with dispatch the rape case filed against Sumatra. Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Diosdado M. Peralta, Andres B. Reyes Jr., Rosmari D. Carandang and Ramon Paul L. Hernando.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, July 15, 2019 A3

New Army chief bares new strategy vs NPA guerrillas

By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

HE newly installed commander of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (ID) bared he will be pushing for the combination of “right hand” and “left hand” approaches in dealing with the New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Tagalog. Brig. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, known in the military as the “alliance builder,” told his troops to prepare for a drastic shift in their campaign against communist insurgency by transforming themselves into “community facilitators” while “fiercely fighting” the rebels with a combination of guns and civil-military projects. “We will promote harmonious relationships. We will seek the involvement of the community, fully

knowing that insurgency can never be solved using military solution alone. We will serve as the bridge so that social service will be felt, not only in the far-flung areas but by the majority, if not all of our constituents,” he said. “We will make our people see their soldiers as human beings similar to that of an ordinary civilian, but who have chosen to take the road less traveled to make a difference, and are willing to make the ultimate

sacrifice in the name of freedom and democracy,” he added. Burgos, member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1988, was installed over the weekend as the commander of the 2nd ID, which has operational jurisdictions over Region 4A (Calabarzon) and Region 4B (except Palawan), by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Macairog Alberto, who urged him to continue the Army’s operational momentum for Southern Tagalog. “I expect nothing but excellence from him now that he is already a Division Commander,” Alberto added, as he praised Burgos during his leadership of the 202nd Infantry Brigade, the unit in charge of Calabarzon. Burgos was known as the best commander to have ever led the 202nd Brigade, which under his helm, the unit was credited for its pioneering effort in strongly involving communities and other stakeholders in the anti-insurgency campaign in Calabarzon, thus plummeting NPA’s movement in Southern Tagalog. The unit was also credited for seizing several camps and temporary

encampments while neutralizing key rebel leaders and their followers, and denying NPA’s access to their usual areas in the outlying villages of Laguna, Batangas and Quezon. Under Burgos, Southern Tagalog became as the Armed Forces’ pioneering area for the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program that began in 2018. “We are now in the position to deliver the coup de grâce so that genuine and lasting peace will be finally attained. Thus, the call for unity shall not only be confined with our organization. The call for unity shall be our battle cry as we engage our stakeholders and forge partnerships with the different sectors in our area,” Burgos said. “We will compliment this call for peace with focused and intelligence-driven military operations against the enemies of the state. We will do this with a firm and solid right hand and, at the same time, with an open and welcoming left hand,” he added.

Public warned vs eating fish caught in Pasig River By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

FFICI ALS are advising against eating fish caught in Pasig River—which continues to show signs of life—or its tributaries. This as the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) announced its so-called River Warriors were able to catch a 3-kilogram tilapia along Estero de San Miguel, a tributary of the Pasig River on July 11. Estero de San Miguel is a 2.3-kilometer tributary of the Pasig River located in Manila by P. Casal Bridge. With a length of 20.5 inches,

the fish is one of the biggest tilapia ever to be caught in the river, once touted as biologically dead because of pollution. The PRRC has brought the tilapia to the Environmental Management Division of the PRRC for laboratory testing, to determine whether the fish is loaded or tainted with toxic heavy metals or safe to eat based on accepted health standards. “We are not advising the public to eat the fish caught in the river or any of its tributaries just yet as the rehabilitation will take many years,” PRRC Executive Director Jose Antonio E. Goitia said. “But the fact that fish are beginning to

thrive in the river is a good sign.” However, Goitia said the PRRC cannot stop the public from eating fish caught in the Pasig River, noting that many of those living along the river have been doing it for years already. He added that fish thriving in the river means the PRRC’s strategic rehabilitation of the waterways is working. “If we continue to work together in cleaning our waterways and surroundings, more aquatic resources will thrive in these bodies of water, and we could eventually have a free source of food,” Goitia said. The PRRC advised the public to

be careful as the fish might still contain traces of toxic chemicals harmful to their health. “Expect more good news about our esteros in Manila because [local officials are] helping us get rid of the sources of pollution in his locality,” Goitia said adding the PRRC has “no more problem with the vendors.” The successful rehabilitation of the Pasig River gained international recognition in 2018. The International River Foundation also awarded PRRC the inaugural Asia River Prize Award, which Goitia received during the 21st International River symposium held in Australia.

House of Representatives to prioritize legislated road map to solve traffic problems

OLLOWING a meeting with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the incoming leadership of the House of Representatives vowed to include in its priority measures legislation for a 30-year road map that they believe will end traffic jams and improve

mobility nationwide. The plan, according to incoming House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez of Leyte, includes construction of more international airports, as well as the rehabilitation of existing airports. Romualdez said on Sunday this was what Transporta-

tion Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said during a meeting with lawmakers at an exclusive golf club last week. Romualdez said Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has committed to be an author of the proposed transport road map in the 18th Congress. For his part, Tugade said the road

map should be legislated to ensure that it will be carried out by succeeding administrations. He said the roadmap will contain all modes of transportations and set in place an integrated and more coordinated approach in building transport infrastructure linkages

in the entire country. “I am seeking all your help to ensure that this road map will be approved by Congress. Without legislation, this road map will remain just a program that may be scrapped by future administrations,” the DOTr chief told lawmakers.

According to the secretary, various transport-related agencies and local governments have been trying to develop their respective transport plans or strategies to address bottlenecks and improve outcomes in the transport sector. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

A4 Monday, July 15, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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Duterte won’t veto SOT bill–Panelo

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE President will not veto the security of tenure (SOT) bill even if local and business groups have urged him to rethink his support for the measure.

Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo issued the statement following the appeal of several business groups for the President to veto the SOT bill. “He [President] will not veto it. He certified it as urgent [so] why will he veto that?” Panelo told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

He noted that ending contractualization has been one of the campaign promises of the President in 2016. Panelo also said economic managers support the passage of the SOT bill. The end-of-contract scheme, popularly known as ‘Endo,’ is an illegal form of contractualization wherein workers are repetitively

hired and rehired by employers for the purpose of circumventing their right to be regularized. During last year’s Labor Day, the President signed Executive Order (EO) 51 prohibiting illegal contractualization, after mounting pressure from workers for the President to make good on his promise to end contractualization. However, critics have since said this EO will not really end contractualization in the country. Even Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez is backing the Labor department’s push for the SOT bill as it strikes a good balance between the welfare of workers and interest of employers. Lopez earlier said he is in favor of the passage of the bill since it legitimizes various forms of contrac-

tualization, such as season-based, employment and project-based work, and clarifies the confusion on what is allowed and what is not under labor laws. Labor groups have a lso slammed employers for pushing for the veto of the SOT bill based on a wrong assumption. “With due respect [for] the business leaders claiming that the old rules is enough to solve Endo, it appears they are out of touch of reality with the situation of millions of workers,” Labor coalition Nagkaisa Chairman and Federation of Free Workers President Jose Matula earlier told the BusinessMirror. In a letter dated July 1, business groups argued that the SOT bill will have adverse effects on the Philippines’s global competitiveness and its

capability to create more and better quality jobs for the Filipinos. Besides, they said the objective of the law has already been achieved through EO 51 and Department Order 174 of the Department of Labor and Employment. Business groups also said the right to a secured tenure in the workplace is “not absolute” as employers should still maintain the power to dismiss a worker who is no longer performing subject to observance of due process. They argued that the SOT bill will not work to the advantage of the Philippines especially at the time of changing world of labor, wherein contractual employment is believed to be the future. The letter to veto the SOT bill was signed by the Employers Confedera-

tion of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Makati Business Club, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors and the Management Association of the Philippines. Other signatories include Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, Philippine Society of Management Services, Philippine Hotel Owners Association and Philippine Association of Multinational Cos. Regional Headquarters, as well as the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese and Korean chambers.

data. Total exports to South Korea were worth $117.201 million. The Philippines has crafted a banana industry road map, covering 2019 to 2022. It outlined the necessary interventions making the local banana sector more productive and sustain shipments to key markets. The Philippines must spend, at least, P3.65 billion over the next three years to improve the competitiveness of the banana industry and maintain its stature as the world’s second-top producer of the tropical fruit, according to the road map.

Under the Philippine Banana Industry Roadmap 2019-2022, the government must invest at least P1.215 billion annually to help local producers become competitive against their Latin American and Southeast Asian counterparts. The road map was drawn up by the Department of Agriculture and the banana sector. The funds will be used to fight pests, particularly Fusarium wilt, roll out international and local marketing campaigns, produce high-quality seedlings and create a reliable industry database.

Banana exports up 62% in Jan-May By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

HINA’S appetite for local Cavendish bananas remained strong as purchases by the East Asian country drove the Philippines’s total shipments to expand by 62 percent to 1.819 million metric tons (MMT) in end-May. The country’s total shipments of Cavendish bananas in January to May was 697,306.426 metric ton (MT) higher than the 1.122 MMT

recorded in the same period of 2018, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed. More than a third of the country’s total shipments went to China, which led all key markets for local exporters of Cavendish. China’s five-month purchases reached 678,572.115 MT, 81 percent over last year’s 375,110.551 MT. Its payments for Philippine bananas rose 76 percent to $293.891 million, from last year’s $166.80 million.

The East Asian country ended Japan’s 30-year reign as the top market for Philippine bananas last year. There has been no let-up in China’s purchases of Philippine Cavendish since the start of the year, according to PSA data. Filipino banana growers and exporters have been shipping more bananas to China, which has become attractive to them because of its growing economy and expanding population. Analysts have noted that some

BusinessMirror FILE PHOTO

of the Philippines’s key markets for bananas are already “saturated,” forcing exporters to find other more “lucrative destinations.” Data from the PSA showed that Japan, now the country’s second-top buyer of bananas, increased its purchases of the tropical fruit by a third to 563,554.512 MT. The shipments were valued at $222.229 million. South Korea’s purchases of local Cavendish during the five-month period went up by 68.1 percent to 252,221.173 MT, from last year’s 150,0375.24 MT, according to PSA

Govt to seek workers’ input ‘71% of non-online on minimum-wage scheme merchants plan By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is set to conduct its stakeholder consultation next week for the ongoing review of the country’s minimumwage setting scheme. Citing the National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC), Labor Assistant Secretary Joji V. Aragon said the two-part consultation will be conducted by the University of the Philippines School of Economics. “The NWPC has engaged the University of the Philippines School of Economics to undergo a six-month study on these issues,” Aragon told reporters in an interview. “It will have its first consultation with labor on July 24, and another consultation with management on July 25,” she added. She said this will supplement the third-party study commissioned by the NWPC on the country’s reversion to a national minimum-wage rate. The study is slated to be completed in November or December. “We really have to study the economic side of it because we cannot just increase wages because we all know...that will be inflationary,” Aragon added. In a separate interview, NWPC Executive Director Maria Criselda R. Sy told the BusinessMirror that the agency is considering a two-part review of the wage-fixing scheme. “The first part would be the 30 years of experience of our regional boards in executing their mandate. And then [the second part] would be the macroeconomic side of it so we could determine its impact. It is more of the use of empirical [pieces of] evidence or the number-crunching part,” Sy said. “We can have something within the year,” she added. Labor groups have been demanding for the abolition of the regional wage-setting system, saying it has failed to grant workers a sufficient minimum-wage hike.

to start e-commerce’

XPORTERS who do not have online presence have expressed plans to do so, with the overwhelming majority of firms calling for faster Internet service and lower shipping costs to improve competitiveness, according to the results of a recent survey. The survey was conducted during the General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) attended by around 200 members to find out the state of Philippine e-commerce, as domestic and cross-border e-commerce surges worldwide, and is set to become the future of business and trade. Of the 83 respondents, 42 are engaged in e-commerce, 37 or 88 percent said they intend to continue, while 29, or 71 percent, of the 41 non-practitioners said they have plans of starting, said the report. Among those who are into e-commerce, 22 cater exclusively to the domestic market, 10 are exclusively crossborder sellers and six do both markets. Social media is the most utilized tool in online selling, used by 30 percent of the surveyed, followed by online marketplaces Shopee and Lazada for domestic e-commerce, and Amazon and Alibaba for cross-border e-commerce. There are also other e-marketplace platforms that respondents use, most notably BeautyMNL, Adobomall and the companies’ own web sites. For both practicing and aspiring online merchants, the biggest challenge is Internet connectivity, followed by seller protection and electronic payment system/facility. Other issues on the list are logistics, government policies, cybersecurity, data privacy and intellectual-property rights. For e-commerce practitioners in particular, seller protection is the biggest concern, indicating that the security of their online transactions is of paramount importance.

Philexport News & Features

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

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Group eyes filing of case vs DBM over rice fund

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

FARMERS group said it would pursue the filing of a case against the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) before the Ombudsman if it will not release P10 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) this year. Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said his group will make good of its threat to file legal charges against the DBM for “willful violation of Republic Act [RA] 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law.” “We may file the case next year because the DBM has until the end of the year to release the full P10 billion for 2019,” Montemayor told the BusinessMirror. Montemayor issued the statement after the BusinessMirror reported that the DBM maintained its position that it will release only P5 billion of the P10 billion that the government has promised to frontload to set up the fund pending the collection of tariffs (See, “Fund for rice farmers to get P5 billion from

DBM this year,” in the BusinessMirror, July 11, 2019). RA 11203 converted the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs and removed the National Food Authority’s power to regulate imports. The new law mandated that tariffs collected from imported rice will constitute the RCEF. The DBM said, however, that the P5 billion it released to the Department of Agriculture (DA) last December 28, was already part of the RCEF.

‘Illegal release’

MONTEMAYOR said it is “illegal” for the government to release funds on the basis of a nonexistent law or in anticipation of the passage of a measure. “We will check the actual nature

of the release last year. I think [it is] illegal for them to release money on the basis of, or in anticipation of, a nonexistent law,” he said. “What if the law was vetoed by [President] Duterte? How would [DBM] explain the P5-billion release?” RA 11203 was signed by the President in February, and took effect on March 5. Montemayor said his group will sue only the DBM as the DA did not request for the P5 billion and was only the recipient of the voluntarily release of the funds. He also said the DBM violated several provisions of the law if indeed the P5 billion it released last year was already part of the RCEF. Montemayor said the fund should be released directly to the implementing agencies of the RCEF and should not be coursed through the DA. He added that the disbursement of the RCEF also requires the approval of the program steering committee, as well as the completion of a rice industry road map prior to release. “The amount allocated shall be released directly to the implementing agencies as provided for in this Act based on the objectives and plans of the rice industry road map,” Section 13 of the RA 11203 read.

The DA stood pat on its position that the P5 billion, which was released through a Special Allotment Release Order, was a complementary fund for protecting farmers from the adverse effects of the new law. In May, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he was asked by the National Economic and Development Authority to consider the entire P5 billion as part of the RCEF. However, Piñol said he refused to grant this as he would violate the law. Piñol is the only government official who is accountable for the use of the RCEF. The agriculture chief said he agreed to return the P1 billion to the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, as requested by the Neda. Piñol said he agreed to do so since the amount will also be used for the provision of cheap credit under the RCEF. “We just agreed to return the P1 billion because it had the same purpose which is for credit. But the remaining P4 billion cannot be considered as part of the RCEF,” he added. Under RA 11203, P5 billion of the RCEF is allocated for farm mechanization, P3 billion is for the distribution of inbred rice seeds and P1 billion is for credit assistance and farmers’ training.

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, July 15, 2019 A5

PSA to conduct baseline survey on Mindanao project

HE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has approved the conduct of the baseline survey on the Convergence on the Value Chain Enhancement for Rural Growth and Empowerment (Project ConVERGE) rolled out in Mindanao. The PSA said it will spend P2.3 million to conduct the survey of 1,500 agrarian-reform beneficiary organizations (ARBO) in Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao and Caraga. ConVERGE aims to enable the agrarian-reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and other small farmers in 10 provinces of Regions 9, 10 and Caraga to become highly productive and competitive entrepreneurs, and contribute to the achievement of broad-based rural economic growth. “The survey results will show the extent of farming access to and utilization of production technologies, production inputs, credit, agriculture support infrastructure, information and market, and policy environment,” the PSA said. The distribution of survey questionnaires runs from July until August. The survey results will be released in November, and will be used to validate the ability of Project ConVERGE to deliver its targets. The project has three components—the Participatory ValueChain Analysis and Planning to Link Smallholder Farmers to Existing Value-Chain Systems; Integrated Smallholders Agricultural and Rural Enterprise Development; and Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation and Knowledge Management.

The ConVERGE project is being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform and is financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad). Ifad said on its web site that the targeted beneficiaries of the project are primarily engaged in the production of rice, rubber, coffee, cassava (or manioc), abaca, coconut and sugarcane. The project has a total cost of $52.6 million comprising: an Ifad loan of €22.8 million (approximately $25 million); national and local government counterpart equivalent to $9.6 million; and beneficiary contribution equivalent to $18 million. The loan was approved in September 2015, by the Ifad Board and was declared effective in October 2015, with a scheduled completion date of December 31, 2021, and a closing date of June 30, 2022. The baseline survey on Project ConVERGE was reviewed and cleared for conduct under the Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System (SSRCS). The SSRCS is a mechanism being implemented by the PSA by virtue of Rule 28 of implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10625 to ensure sound design for data collection. The system also minimizes the burden placed upon respondents; effects economy in statistical data collection; eliminates unnecessary duplication of statistical data collection efforts; and achieves better coordination of government statistical activities. Cai U. Ordinario

Monday, July 15, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

EU supports Iraqi proposal to hold regional conference on US-Iran feud

AGHDAD—The European Union (EU) supports an Iraqi proposal to hold a regional conference amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, the group’s foreign policy chief said on Saturday. Iraq is an ally of the two rival nations, which are on a collision course as the Iran nuclear deal threatens to unravel. Iraq has offered to mediate between Tehran and Washington, while Iran has pressed European parties to the nuclear agreement to offset the effects of US sanctions. Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, on her first visit since 2014, said the EU shared with Iraq the approach to dealing with the difficult situation, adding that the priority is to avoid escalation and any miscalculations that could lead to “dangerous consequences” for Iraq and beyond. She said the EU is ready to support the regional conference idea “in all ways that could be useful.” She said there is a need to de-escalate and find avenues for dialogue. Avenues of the “unknown...can

be dangerous for everybody,” Mogherini said. Iraq is under pressure to prevent its territories from becoming a battleground for the spiraling tension between Iran and the US, both power brokers here. The US maintains military bases and more than 5,000 troops in Iraq. Iran backs powerful Iraqi militia groups, who played a key role in fighting Islamic State militants, and some of them are openly against US presence in Iraq. A series of unclaimed attacks on US interests in recent weeks caused jitters and sparked Iraqi government decrees clearly designed to prevent a confrontation in its territories. “The region is not prepared for a new war. We are still fighting terrorism. It is an unfinished war,” said Iraq’s Foreign Minister Mohammed

IRAQI Foreign Minister Mohamed Alhakim (right), holds a press conference with visiting European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini after their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday, July 13, 2019. AP PHOTO/HADI MIZBAN

Alhakim, speaking alongside Mogherini. He said Iraq should not be a scene for this conflict “but should have a supportive role in resolving this crisis with other Arab countries, particularly Kuwait and Oman.”

The Emir of Kuwait visited Iraq last month to discuss the rising tension; while Oman has also offered to mediate between the two rivals. Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said, the idea

of a regional conference is being developed but the issue was raised with foreign delegations that visited Iraq. Mogherini also met with Iraq’s prime minister and president. AP

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Clashes erupt as Hong Kong protest targets Chinese traders

O N G KO N G —V i o l e nt clashes broke out after several thousand people marched in Hong Kong against traders from Mainland China in what is fast becoming a summer of unrest in the semi-autonomous territory. After issuing a warning, police on Saturday moved forward to disperse the crowd of mostly young protesters who say peaceful demonstrations have failed to bring about change. Police used pepper spray and batons. In panicky scenes, fleeing protesters scrambled over each other, some falling to the ground. Some had donned protective masks and helmets ahead of the confrontation. Major demonstrations in the past month against a proposal to change extradition laws that would allow Hong Kong suspects to stand trial in Mainland China have reawakened other movements in the city. Thousands marched last weekend against middle-aged mainland women who sing loudly and dance somewhat provocatively in a public park. The protests have a common refrain: Hong Kong’s government, led by a non-democratically elected chief executive, is not addressing the people’s concerns. AP

No lights in NY: Power outage KOs Broadway, Times Square

SCREENS in Times Square are black during a power outage on Saturday, July 13, 2019, in New York. Authorities were scrambling to restore electricity to Manhattan following a power outage that knocked out Times Square’s towering electronic screens and darkened marquees in the theater district, and left businesses without electricity, elevators stuck and subway cars stalled. AP PHOTO/MICHAEL OWENS

EW YORK —A power outage crippled the touristfilled heart of Manhattan just as Saturday night Broadway shows were set to go on, sending theater-goers spilling into siren-filled streets, knocking out Times Square’s towering electronic screens and bringing subway lines to a near halt. Electricity was restored to customers and businesses in midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side by about midnight. Con Edison CEO John McAvoy said a problem at a substation caused the power failure at 6:47 p.m., affecting 73,000 customers for more than three hours along a 30-block stretch from Times Square to 72nd Street and Broadway, and spreading to Rockefeller Center. McAvoy said the exact cause of the blackout would not be known until an investigation is completed. The temperature was in the low 80s as the sun set, but not as steaming as Manhattan can get in July, challenging the city’s power grid. Power went out early Saturday evening at much of Rockefeller Center, reaching the Upper West Side and knocking out traffic lights. A big cheer went up among

Upper West Side residents when power flickered back on at about 10:30 p.m. For hours before that, doormen stood with flashlights in the darkened entrances of upscale apartment buildings along Central Park West, directing residents to walk up flights of stairs to their apartments, with all elevators out. Police directed traffic at intersections as pedestrians and bikes weaved through the dark. The outage comes on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city without power. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that although no injuries were reported, “the fact that it happened at all is unacceptable.” He said the state Department of Public Service will investigate. He said the outage poses a safety risk. “You just can’t have a power outage of this magnitude in this city” Cuomo said. “It is too dangerous, the potential for public safety risk and chaos is too high, we just can’t have a system that does that, it’s that simple at the end of the day.” Most Broadway musicals and plays canceled their Saturday evening shows, including Hadestown, which last month won the Tony

Award for best musical. Several cast members from the musical Come From Away held an impromptu performance in the street outside the theater for disappointed audience members. Emily Totero, 30, planned to bring out-of-town guests to see Moulin Rouge. But once they got to the theater district, they saw the power go out. “You could see all the theater lights across the street, all the marquees went out. That’s what we noticed first,” she said. The outage also hit Madison Square Garden, where Jennifer Lopez was performing on Saturday night. Attendees said the concert went dark about 9:30 p.m. in the middle of Lopez’s fourth song of the night. The arena was later evacuated. And at Penn Station, officials were using backup generators to keep the lights on. Both Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were evacuated. When the lights went out early Saturday evening, thousands of people streamed out of darkened Manhattan buildings, crowding Broadway next to bumper-to-bumper traffic amid emergency vehicle sirens and honking car horns. AP

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Editor: Angel R. Calso • Monday, July 15, 2019 A7

Islamic extremists blow up Somali hotel; 26 dead

A VIEW of Asasey Hotel after an attack in Kismayo, Somalia, on Saturday, July 13, 2019. At least 26 people, including two journalists, were killed in an extremist attack on a hotel in the port city of Kismayo, a Somali official said. The attack started with a suicide car bomb blast and then gunmen stormed into the hotel. AP

OGADISHU, Somalia— Islamic extremists blew up the gate of a Somali hotel with a car bomb and took over the building for more than 14 hours, leaving 26 people dead before Somali forces who besieged the hotel overnight killed the attackers. The victims included a prominent CanadianSomali journalist. Three Kenyans, three Tanzanians, two Americans and a Briton also were among the dead, said Ahmed Madobe, the president of Jubaland regional state that controls Kismayo. Fifty-six people, including two Chinese, were injured in the hotel attack, he told reporters. At least four al-Shabab assailants attacked the Asasey Hotel on Friday evening, beginning with a suicide car bomb at the entrance gate and followed by an assault by gunmen who stormed the hotel, which is frequented by politicians, patrons and lawmakers. The attack lasted more than 14 hours before troops shot dead all attackers inside the hotel compound, Col. Abdiqadir Nur, a local police officer, told The AP. Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida, often uses car bombs to infiltrate heavily fortified targets, like the hotel in Kismayo, which has been relatively quiet in

recent years. The attack is a blow to the Somalia government’s efforts to hold nation-wide, one-person, onevote elections next year. Security officials cordoned off the site of the attack and prevented journalists from taking photos or video of the damaged hotel, and in some cases, destroyed journalists’ cameras. Government officials have not been available for further interviews. Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, died in the attack, Mogadishu-based independent radio station Radio Dalsan confirmed to AP. “I’m absolutely devastated by the news of the death of our dear sister, Hodan Nalayeh, and her husband in a terrorist attack in Somalia today. What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work and the way she treated people,” Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the victim, wrote on social media. Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in

Toronto. She founded Integration TV, an international Webbased video production company aimed at Somali viewers around the world. She was the first Somali woman media owner in the world. Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen mourned Hodan Nalayeh’s death on Twitter, saying she “highlighted the community’s positive stories and contributions in Canada” through her work as a journalist. “We mourn her loss deeply, and all others killed in the #KismayoAttack,” he wrote. Nalayeh’s endless “positivity” and “love for people” was inspiring, said Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath on Twitter. “In Ontario, Hodan launched @IntegrationTV to tell the beautiful stories of the Somali Diaspora, and took that same humanity and love to her reporting and storytelling in Somalia. My thoughts are with her family, and the victims of the #Kismayo attack during this horrific time.” A top official of the African Union condemned the attack. “This is an attack meant to derail progress in Somalia as the country rebuilds and consolidates the gains made on peace and security,” said Francisco Madeira, special representative of the chairman of the African Union Commission. “Somalia has made tremendous progress in seizing territory and pushing out the terrorists from many places across the country.” He said the African Union’s multinational force in Somalia will continue to work to stabilize the country. AP

Russia launches cutting-edge telescope into orbit

OSCOW—A Russian Proton-M rocket successfully delivered a cutting-edge space telescope into orbit on Saturday after days of launch delays, Russia’s space agency said. Roscosmos said the telescope, named Spektr-RG, was delivered into a parking orbit before a final burn on Saturday that kicked the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and onto its final destination: the L2 Lagrange point. Lagrange points are unique positions in the solar system where objects can maintain their position relative to the sun and the planets that orbit it. Located 1.5 million kilometers (0.93 million miles) from

Earth, L2 is particularly ideal for telescopes such as Spektr-RG. If all goes well, the telescope will arrive at its designated position in three months, becoming the first Russian spacecraft to operate beyond Earth’s orbit since the Soviet era. The telescope aims to conduct a complete x-ray survey of the sky by 2025, the first space telescope to do so. The Russian accomplishment comes as the US space agency NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Russian space science missions have suffered greatly since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Budget cuts have forced the Russian space program to shift toward more commercial efforts. A Russian Mars probe, called Mars 96, failed to leave Earth’s orbit in 1996. A later attempt to send a probe to Mars, called Fobos-Grunt, suffered a similar fate in 2011. Work on Spektr-RG telescope began in the 1980s but was scrapped in the 1990s. Spektr-RG was revived in 2005 and redesigned to be smaller, simpler and cheaper. In its modern form, the project is a close collaboration between Russian and German scientists, who both installed telescope equipment aboard the Russian spacecraft. AP

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, July 15, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Invasive alien species

A serious threat to ecosystems, biodiversity

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

Good for production forest, gmelina tends to compete with native trees, which it outgrows and eventually kills in protection forests. “These invasive species that were int roduced in t he pa st eliminate native species or prevent their growth. For example, gmelina is supposed to be for production forests, but not for protected areas. They have been planted in protection forests, unintentionally,” he explained.

rom afar, the sight of the green, leafy, free-floating aquatic plants over vast water bodies add aesthetic value to nature’s serenity. However, at a closer look, the fear of the unknown suddenly kicks in. And it is not for a good reason. What appears to be naturally occurring, the water hyacinth, which is native to tropical and subtropical South America, has broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves. This pervasive plant can rise above the surface by as much a meter in height. Unlike kangkong, or water spinach, a nutritious vegetable Filipinos eat, water hyacinth is not edible and causes adverse impact on people and the environment. Just last month, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) revived the Task Force Hyacinth and started removing hundreds to thousands of sacks of water hyacinth. According to PRRC, said 4,120 sacks of water hyacinth were removed on June 10, and there is no letup in the harvesting of this invasive alien species. Besides causing flooding, water hyacinth affects the mobility of people traveling via boats, including fishers whose livelihoods are severely affected by its adverse environmental impact. Executive Director Jose Antonio E. Goitia said: “Rain or shine, PRRC’s clearing operations will continue not just across the Pasig River, but also in the esteros and creeks to prevent flooding.”

Invasive alien species

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) describes invasive alien species as “plants, animals, pathogens and other organisms that are nonnative to an ecosystem, and which may cause economic or environmental harm or adversely affect human health. In particular, they impact adversely upon biodiversity, including decline or elimination of native species—through competition, predation, or transmission of pathogens—and the disruption of local ecosystems and ecosystem functions.” In the Philippines, invasive alien species like the water hyacinth are slowly creeping, menacing one ecosystem at a time, including otherwise healthy water bodies like Pasig River and Laguna de Bay and Agusan marsh, undermining their productivity. Worse, invasive alien species are considered a major driver of biodiversity loss, as they tend to compete and displace native species and cause ecological imbalance. Invasive alien species are hard to eliminate, control or manage,

Prevention better than cure

like a pest that requires a sciencebased solution.

IAS Congress 2019

Timely enough, the Philippines hosted the Invasive Alien Species Conference 2019. Held from July 8 to 12 at the Diamond Hotel in Pasay City, the conference, titled “Research and Development Congress on Invasive Alien Species in the Asia Pacific,” gathered 200 local and foreign researchers, scientists, academics, policy-makers, and guests to discuss recent status, control and management in the region. Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB), the research and development (R&D) arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), took the lead to raise the IAS biosecurity approach within the entire stretch of the Pacific. The conference aimed to contribute to the Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 in reducing the direct pressures of IAS on environmental sustainability. It’s objective is to help ensure that by 2020, “invasive alien species and pathways are identified and prioritized, priority species are controlled or eradicated, and measures are in place to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and establishments.” Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 is part of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, 20 in all, that were agreed upon by governments in October 2010, at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in Japan.

A threat to ecosystems, biodiversity

According to experts, invasive alien species raise countless threats to biodiversity. The DENR’s ERDB said their proliferation could consequently wipeout endemic and native species of a countr y. “With the introduction of alien species to a new environment, the indigenous flora and fauna become vulnerable to risks,” Dr. Carmelita I. Villamor, overall coordinator and chief of ERDB’s Coastal Zone and Freshwater Ecosystems Research Division (CZFERD), said. “Invasive alien species can occur in different taxonomic groups and may pose great threats across all ecosystems. They could also spread in ways destructive to human and the society at large,” she said.

Members of Task Force Water Hyacinth and DENR personnel remove water hyacinth from the Pasig River near Aroceros Park in Manila early this month. PRRC

Causing massive extinction

Quoting a CBD report, the ERDB said since the 17th century, IAS has been contributing to massive extinction on the world’s fauna at about 40 percent. These species continue to trigger competition, predation and massive transmission of pathogens, which then increase the stakes for survival among native species like the water hyacinth. Due to its rapid spread, water hyacinth has aggressively invaded tropical regions. Its thick cover on waterways can cause blockage, oxygen depletion and fish kills, such as what recently happened in Laguna de Bay. Another priority species is the African tulip tree growing in the tropical forests of the South Pacific. The African tulip tree crowds out native species and is extremely difficult to remove as it can easily regrow from its root fragments and wind-dispersed seeds. ERDB Director Dr. Sofio B. Quintana acknowledged IAS threats as a top concern for the bureau. “We are always keeping a close eye on invasive alien species to secure and sustain our ecosystems. Our time is changing and we don’t want to compromise the survival of our native species any further due to invasive threats,” Quintana said.

Massive infestation

According to Asean Centre for Biodiversity Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim, more than 200 nonnative species have already been recorded to have been introduced in the Southeast Asian region alone. “More than 40 of these [nonnative species] are listed in the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] as the world’s worst invasive alien species,” Lim, a former director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), said. The Asean has one of the highest proportions in endemic species on a per-country basis compared to most tropical regions, Lim said.

PHL to host Asean senior forestry officials meet

outheast Asia’s top forestry officials will gather in the Philippines this month for the 22nd Asean Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) Meeting that aims to strengthen regional forestry cooperation. The meeting, from July 15 to 20 in Makati City and organized by the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), will bring together forestry leaders from the 10-member Asean to discuss measures toward sustainable forest management and addressing transboundary forest threats. It also marks the start of the country’s yearlong chairmanship of the biggest forestry conference and initiative in the region. From July 15 to 16, the Asean Working Group on

Forest Products will hold its 22nd meeting with focus on enhancing regional cooperation on forest products development, and getting Asean countries align with global standards that address the environmental, social and economic integrity of regional forests and forest resources. The meeting also supports the development of medicinal and aromatic plant industries, including their conservation and sustainable use. The six-day ASOF event will end with an international seminar on current issues affecting forestry and forest products, which carries the theme: “Forestry Beyond Forests.” The topics include Payment for Ecosystem Services, ecotourism as a viable mechanism in sustaining biodiversity, and the benefits gained by forest communities from PES.

PES is an instrument designed to change practices of people that damage the environment so that they can provide valuable services to others and help improve environmental conditions. In forestry, PES may involve entering into an arrangement with people or groups where they will be paid a certain amount to plant trees instead of cutting them down. This gives them a source of income while they help increase forest cover. Forests contribute to the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. These include SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation for all People; SDG 13, Climate Action; and SDG 15, Life on Land. As of 2010, the Philippines’s total forest cover was estimated at 6.840 million hectares.

Vulnerable island biodiversity

Championing the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation and protection in the Asean, Lim said some countries in Southeast Asia are with islands that are home to unique species that are found nowhere else in the world. “The Asean also hosts a variety of forest ecosystem types, with each type having its own unique combination of species. The Philippines alone has 12 types of forest ecosystems, which include not just a forest of tall dipterocarps, but also, pygmy forests that are found on islands like Dinagat, and in mountain protected areas like Mount Hamiguitan and Mount Apo. From land to water, the region is blessed with lakes and river ecosystems that support a variety of freshwater fisheries that thrive nowhere else naturally, but in these bodies of water,” she said. Such a situation makes the region, and island countries within the region, like the Philippines, very vulnerable to the impacts of IAS, she said. “Introduction of exotic [nonnative] species, whether intentionally or not, has already resulted in observed depletion of our native species. Invasive alien species threaten native species by feeding on them, by competing with them for food and space or introducing pests and diseases,” she explained.

Economic, cultural impact

According to Lim, IAS not only affect the environment, but also agriculture and health, and result in significant economic losses. “The problem is, we only start paying attention to them when their effect can be felt, which is usually already a bit late. So we need to focus as well on prevention and early detection,” she said. The loss of the variety of food and nutritional choices on the table would be the most obvious impact of some of the most problematic IAS we have in the Philippines, she said.

According to Lim, most of the freshwater fish now commonly served for food are introduced into our water systems, like tilapia and cream dory. “We, of course, have heard so much about increasing catch of knife fish and janitor fish in Laguna de Bay and Marikina River, where ayungin and kanduli used to thrive in abundance. We have also seen how the Brazilian mahogany, with its ‘propellerlike’ seeds and the ‘Piper aduncum’ weed can affect the regrowth and regeneration of natural vegetation for watershed areas, and for the restoration of vital ecosystems and ecosystem functions. Then, we also have the golden apple snails, the European squirrels, the cane toad, and other known ‘invasives,’ all of which are impacting our biodiversity, and in some areas, our culture and our way of life,” she said.

A cause for alarm

Assistant Secretary for Staff Bureaus Ricardo L. Calderon, the concurrent director of the DENR-BMB, said the massive infestation of ecosystems, especially in Philippine forests is a cause for alarm. Calderon, a forestry expert, said invasive alien species have been unintentionally introduced into the wild not knowing their adverse environmental impact. He agreed that IAS “seriously threaten our ecosystems, especially in flora. We are losing our native species because of them.”

Unintended release, unintentional effect

He said while some of IAS were introduced “in good faith” or “with good intentions” their spread, as a result of the unintended release into the wild, do more harm than good to new environments. Calderon cited the case of the gmelina, a fast-growing tree that tends to grow from 3 meters to 30 meters tall or even higher, which have been proliferating in protection forests.

According to Calderon, while the problem brought by invasive alien species is not as extensive as they have been reported or believed to be, the DENR is not taking the challenge posed by their proliferation sitting down. “We have a number of interventions and with this [18th] Congress, we hope to come up with an action plan to prevent their proliferation,” he said. “Remember, prevention is better than cure. But since some of these invasive alien species have been introduced—and they are here now and part of the food chain—we must find a way to control it, manage it and make the most out of it,” Calderon said. He cited, for instance, the unintentional release of pets, citing the case of the Chinese softshell turtle, which is considered a menace to fishpond owners in Central Luzon. The Chinese softshell turtle has also been spotted in Laguna de Bay and other water bodies. The aggressive turtles grow fast and have a big appetite for fish and other aquatic life—feeding on tilapia, also an invasive alien species, and prawn being cultured by fishpond operators. Calderon said the gathering of expert hosted by the DENR-ERDB aims to tackle invasive alien species and find ways to control and manage them, if not prevent their proliferation, hence, it is important to define, so as to identify, what is invasive alien species. “One species may be invasive in the Philippines but not in another or other countries where they occur naturally,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Maximizing economic potentials

He said identifying the various threats of invasive alien species, and how to maximize their economic benefits, would also be a bonus output of the international conference. For the Philippines, learning how to treat IAS at the national level is a must. But he said the Philippines is also looking forward to forging ties with its neighbors in the Asia Pacific to address the threats while exploring their potential economic benefits. “Hopefully, the direction is to come up with a regional action plan. But first and foremost, we must have a national action plan. This is being worked out by the DENR’s various bureaus. How do we control it, and how do we prevent its entry,” Calderon said.

9 deer at Nara park in Japan die after eating plastic bags

A volunteer picks up plastic products during a cleanup campaign at a famed park in Nara, western Japan, on July 10. Kyodo News via AP

OKYO—Nine deer at a famed park in western Japan have died recently after swallowing plastic bags. Nara Park has more than 1,000 deer, and tourists can feed them special sugar-free crackers sold in shops nearby. The crackers don’t come in plastic bags, but people still carry them. A veterinarian says the deer may associate the plastic with food. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation says nine of the 14 deer that have died since March had plastic in their stomachs. Masses of tangled plastic litter and packets of snacks were retrieved from their stomachs, with the heaviest amount

weighing 4.3 kilograms. Rie Maruko, a veterinarian who belongs to the animal conservation group, was quoted by Kyodo News as saying the dead deer were so skinny he could feel their bones. Deer have four-chambered stomachs and eating objects that can’t be digested can leave them malnourished and weakened. Deer are traditionally a messenger of gods in Japan’s native Shinto religion and roam freely in the park in the capital city of Nara prefecture. Volunteers participated in a cleanup campaign in the park last week. AP

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, July 15, 2019

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

A message of hope for Asean’s threatened biodiversity

By Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim

self-assessment tool for measuring a city’s biodiversity efforts. Through the index, cities are guided to incorporate biodiversity in urban planning to allow its inhabitants to benefit from nature-based solutions to environmental concerns common in these areas, such as the provision of clean air, the reduction of urban heat and the prevention of floodwater retention, all of which contribute to health and well-being. The Singapore Index is already being utilized, not only in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, but also in countries beyond Southeast Asia.

he Asean region’s relentless campaign to conserve and protect its rich but highly threatened biodiversity and ecosystems took center stage with the recent International Conference on Biodiversity hosted by Thailand. With no less than the Princess of the Kingdom of Thailand, Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, gracing the opening ceremonies, the event highlighted the conservation collaboration among the 10 Asean member-states—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The Asean region occupies only 3 percent of the world’s total area, yet its mountains, forests, rivers, lakes and seas are home to almost 20 percent of the world’s known plant and animal species as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The region is endowed with a diversity of forests, marine areas, oceans and wetlands. Many Asean memberstates share common biodiversity-rich boundaries, possessing rich natural and cultural resources that provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as provision of food, clean air and potable water; regulation of natural processes like decomposition of wastes, nutrient cycling, and pollination of crops and other plants; as well as providing spiritual and cultural significance. All these biodiversity and ecosystem ser vices are key to the survival, development, well-being and prosperity of some 650 million Asean citizens.

Development taking toll on the environment

The Asean region has been experiencing rapid economic growth and modernization. It is known to be the world ’s fifth largest, and Asia’s third-largest economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) valued at approximately $2.8 trillion in 2017. This is almost four and a half times the GDP value in 2000, which is valued at $615 billion. Moreover, the region’s economic development is highlighted by the ever-increasing tourist arrivals, from 42 million in 2001 to 115 million in 2016, and is expected to expand by an average of 6.4 percent per annum until 2026. In addition, Southeast Asia boasts of thriving manufacturing and export industries, with exports increasing from $1.9 trillion in 2008 to $2.5 trillion in 2017. However, along with this economic advancement comes escalating consumption and ever-increasing threats to biodiversity, such as pollution, terrestrial and marine debris, land conversion, irresponsible mining, illegal wildlife trade, and the introduction and proliferation of invasive alien species. Inevitably, development sectors, including infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries, mining, energy and tourism have direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity and our precious ecosystem services.

Not a message of doom, but hope for Asean’s biodiversity

However, this scenario is not a message of doom and despair, but of encouragement and hope. Southeast Asia has an advantage over other regions. While human and economic development in other parts of the world have often come at the expense of biodiversity, Asean’s rich biodiversity and ecosystems remain viable and receptive to protection and conservation measures. The theme for the International Conference on Biodiversity—Biodiversity for Sustainable Bioeconomy—was both timely and necessary. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization defines bioeconomy as the knowledge-based production and utilization of biological resources, biological processes and principles to sustainably provide goods and services across all economic sectors. A rich biodiversity and healthy ecosystems mean cleaner air, greater food security, decreased disaster risk and greater human health outcomes. Clearly, biodiversity—the very foundation of life and livelihoods— supports sustained growth and development for the present and future generations, as long as we recognize our responsibility, not only to care for it, but to utilize it with care. Economic advancement spearheaded by development sectors— such as infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries, mining, energy and tourism—may have negative impacts on biodiversity and our precious ecosystem services, but they are the very same sectors that can significantly contribute to halting, or reversing biodiversity loss. Apart from possessing the human, financial and technological resources to ensure that their operations do not have negative impacts on ecosystem services, these sectors also have the capacity to augment government efforts in arresting biodiversity loss. This is the reason it is crucial to mainstream and embed biodiversity conservation into development plans, as well as in the business processes of the private sector, to guarantee that biodiversity is protected and conserved in an ever-growing region such as the Asean.

Asean at the forefront of conservation

Recognizing the invaluable contribution of biodiversity to peoples, the Asean and its member-states have been taking substantial and concerted action at the national, regional and international levels toward conservation and sustainable use of our biological resources and natural heritage to drive inclusive sustainable development, where no one is left behind.

Juvenile PHL eagle captured in E. Samar By Elmer Recuerdo Correspondent

ACLOBAN CITY—A fledgling Philippine eagle was captured in the upstream town of Maslog in Eastern Samar by a son of a farmer who set a trap for chicken. According to a report of the Conservation and Development Division of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the estimated three-year old Philippine eagle was caught in a trap within the forest of Carayacay

village, which is within the 333300-hectare Samar Island Natural Park (SINP). The report said the young man brought the eagle to Maslog Vice Mayor Septemio Santiago on June 17 after it unintentionally entered the set trap. Santiago then reported the incident to the Community Environment and Natural Resources office in Dolores town (CENRO-Dolores), which has the jurisdiction over the area. The DENR regional office and Biodiversity Management Bureau then immediately sent a team of veterinarians and technical staff from

Science and policy interface

A waterfall near Pyin Oo Lwin City in Myanmar. Known as the City of Flowers, it attracts visitors to its many ecotourism spots. Aung Ko Oo

The fact that all Asean memberstates are parties to various multilateral environmental agreements demonstrates not only their appreciation of the importance of biodiversity conservation, but also their willingness to be legally bound by their commitments under these agreements. These include the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, to name a few.

ACB as precursor of regional cooperation

At the regional level, the Asean member-states established the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) in 2005 as its response to the challenge of biodiversity loss. Since its establishment, ACB has been assisting the Asean memberstates in promoting regional collaboration in biodiversity conservation, in particular, by supporting concerted efforts to achieve the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and ensuring that biodiversity continues to thrive in the region. All Asean member-states have their respective national biodiversity conservation programs. But conservation is a shared responsibility considering that biodiversity loss is an environmental problem that knows no boundaries. To promote cooperation within the Asean region, the ACB coordinates the protection and conservation efforts of the Asean member-states into one common front.

Conserving Asean’s best nature parks

One of the region’s banner initiatives is the Asean Heritage Parks Program, which encourages Asean memberstates to set aside and protect areas that are of high conservation importance. The protection accorded to these nature parks redounds to the valuable ecosystem services they provide. For example, Khao Yai National Park in Thailand is the source of potable water and irrigation in the surrounding areas of the park. The abundance of forest and other biological products in Hoang Lien National Park in Northern Vietnam gives sustenance and livelihood opportunities to several indigenous communities. Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) to conduct an assessment on the condition of the eagle now officially named “Maslog ES.” Although the team considered the eagle in good condition, Maslog ES was turned over to the PEF center on June 26 for further examination and rehabilitation. When the foundation already sees it fit, Maslog ES will be released back to its natural habitat in Maslog forest. “Sightings of the Philippine eagle is extremely rare and protecting them is a challenge,” said Crizaldy Barcelo, DENR regional executive director. He said the rescue of Maslog ES once again confirms the presence of this critically endangered species in Eastern Samar.

The Mount Apo Natural Park in the Philippines provides natural irrigation for food production in surrounding provinces, as well as geothermal energy and hydropower. Moreover, Mount Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Malaysia, is a prime destination for ecotourism enthusiasts; and the Kepulauan Seribu National Park, a marine Asean Heritage Park in Indonesia, provides nutrients to the Java Sea and to the Indian Ocean where the fisheries industry is thriving. The Asean Heritage Parks Program also offers opportunities to strengthen regional connectivity and cooperation, as ecosystems and their services transcend national borders. Such regional cooperation can be manifested in the collaborative management of adjacent and interconnected protected areas. For instance, a number of countries work together to protect and conserve the biological, ecological and cultural treasures in environments, such as the forests of Borneo, the river systems of the Mekong and the ocean around the Turtle Islands in the Philippines. In addition, many Asean Heritage Parks serve as sources of livelihoods to the communities living within and around these areas. As such, the ACB is spearheading the incorporation of biodiversity into the value chain, and ascribing more premium to livelihoods that provide communities with ecofriendly alternatives to unsustainable extraction activities in protected areas. The benefits of these livelihood opportunities are being realized in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam through an ACB project, titled “Biodiversity-based Products as an Economic Source for the Improvement of Livelihoods and Biodiversity Protection,” supported by the government of Germany.

Bountiful diversity of species and ecosystems

themselves warm during the cold winter months in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Hence, the Asean Flyway Network supports the monitoring and protection of these migratory birds. The continued presence of these birds is a good indicator of a healthy network of wetlands in the region. The protection of Asean’s wetlands— which serve as watering grounds of these migratory birds—provides valuable provisioning and ecosystem services that are important, not only to local livelihoods, but also to the food security and ecological integrity of the region. A healthy network of wetlands recharges groundwater for sustained water supply, absorbs flooding and sea level rise, supports fisheries and keeps bird-borne and water-borne diseases in check. Clearly, conserving this important ecosystem secures sustained benefits for the people, communities and industries that depend on these migratory birds and wetlands. Similarly, healthy ecosystems mean reliable irrigation and water supply for one of the most vital industries in the region: agriculture. As such, the ACB, together with the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, has catalyzed greater cross-sectoral collaboration to promote agrobiodiversity and biodiversity mainstreaming in the agriculture sector. The importance of cross-sector cooperation, particularly in agriculture, cannot be overemphasized, in light of the increasing need for food security in order to respond to the region’s growing population.

Urban areas have biodiversity, too

The Asean appreciates its bountiful diversity of species, some of which are migratory, which move across national borders within the region. Asean member-states exert collective efforts to protect these species— such as elephants, tigers, hornbills and marine turtles—most of which have culturally significant value, sources of pride and inspiration for the peoples of Asean, and subjects of tourism and recreational activities. Around 50 million waterbirds journey to Southeast Asia to keep

Consequent to human development in the Asean is the rising demand for housing and shelter, which brings with it the creation of more urban spaces. Seeing this as both a challenge and an opportunity, Asean memberstates and the ACB are promoting urban nature and green infrastructure to ensure that the establishment of urban spaces are cognizant of biodiversity considerations, and that inhabitants of these spaces have access to nature and its associated benefits. Singapore has formulated the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity, a

SINP is the country’s largest terrestrial protected area, which, including its buffer, totals 458,700 hectares, or a third of the entire Samar Island. Up until highways were built that criss-crossed the mountains, SINP is known as a nesting site of the Philippine eagle, with the first sighting recorded by British explorer John Whitehead in June 15, 1856. Following the rescue of Maslog ES, DENR is stepping up its campaign for the protection of this critically endangered bird and its habitat. “Its presence in our region is a testament that we still have healthy forests, which we need to sustainably manage and protect,” Barcelo said.

Last year, the three provincial governments that comprise the Samar island—Northern, Western and Eastern Samar—started a campaign to declare SINP as a Unesco World Heritage Site due to its rich biodiversity. Hunting of the Philippine eagle is strictly prohibited under the Philippine Wildlife Conservation Act with penalties of up to 12 years imprisonment and a fine of up to P1 million. A Philippine eagle was last seen in the forests of Calbiga, Samar and Taft, Eastern Samar, in September 2014. In 2013, a Philippine eagle was spotted near the boundaries of Baybay City, Burauen and Albuera in Leyte province and Silago, Southern Leyte, months

Another important area of cooperation is the promotion of the interface between science and policy. The ACB is working with the Asean memberstates to advance knowledge-sharing, capacity building and technology transfer within the region. Needless to say, science-based and informed decision-making is one of the foundations of crafting sound and sustainable policies for development planning and implementation.

Ensuring healthy biodiversity for the next generation

The ACB is fostering the engagement and leadership of the next generation. Our youth, who represents over 33 percent of the population, and is a key stakeholder in contributing to a sustainable, healthy and resilient future. To ensure that our future generation is empowered to inherit and steward our region’s rich biodiversity and ecosystems, the ACB is spearheading the Asean Youth Program in collaboration with the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, the official youth constituency to the CBD. It is supported by the European Union, through the “Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in the Asean Project.” Under this program, the Asean Youth Biodiversity Leaders select 20 inspiring youth leaders from all across the region for a yearlong fellowship that provides them with in-depth training and mentorship to strengthen youth-led conservation in the region. They also get the opportunity to conduct youth consultations on biodiversity issues, and exchange best practices on enhancing several youthled activities in the region. All these efforts are made possible through the strong collaboration and cooperation of the Asean memberstates, supported by the ACB and its international and regional partners. The Asean region is the repository of rich biodiversity and ecosystem services, the site of exemplary natural wonders, and home to the Asean community. Let us continue working together as one community to conserve and sustainably use our biological diversity; because biodiversity is for people and for progress. Dr. Lim, the executive director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, was the keynote speaker at the opening of the International Conference on Biodiversity held at the Centara Grand, Central World in Bangkok, Thailand, organized by the Biodiversity-Based Economy Development Office under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation; the National Science Museum; and the National Science and Technology Development Agency. before Supertyphoon Yolanda struck. Reports of observed nesting site were also recorded in Eastern Samar in the same year. The Philippine eagle was officially declared the country’s national bird in 1995 by thenPresident Fidel V. Ramos. It is endemic to the Philippines and can be found in the islands of Eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. Barcelo said the Philippine eagle is one of the DENR’s priority threatened species for conservation and is listed as “critically endangered” per DENR Administrative Order 2004-15 on the list of terrestrial threatened species and their categories and under the International Union for Conservation (IUCN).

A10 Monday, July 15, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

The UNHRC resolution

HE United Nations was formed on the initiative of the United States. The blueprint was negotiated among the delegations from the US, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China. It was born from the earlier disastrous failure of the US-led League of Nations in the aftermath of World War I. Conceived as a peacekeeping body where nations in a multilateral setting could discuss issues rather than fight over those issues, the UN has gone far beyond that mandate primarily because all parties used it as a way to further their own national self-interests. Today the UN is a vast and powerful bureaucracy with a budget comparable in size to the Philippine government’s and larger than half of its member-states. And like most all bureaucracies, it answers to no central authority, and equally lives to protect and service its own survival. The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution last week that is unprecedented. The UNHRC has frequently looked at human-rights abuses in war zones (both civil and multinational) such as Syria and Sudan, and national situations where a government specifically targeted certain ethnic groups as in Burundi and Myanmar. For example, the religious war in Sri Lanka prompted “a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations, and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties.” It also has provided assistance to nations in the area of human rights after a nation’s social and political structure disappeared, as in the case of Libya. We have been unable to find a single example of a nation being examined for pursuing a legitimate law enforcement function, even in the face of alleged human-rights abuse complaints. In all other instances, including in Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the specific government target was the imprisonment and executions of the political opposition. The resolution itself is interesting. It did not call for an “investigation” as sources within the council say members refused to vote in favor of that language. Instead, it calls “to prepare a comprehensive report on the Philippine situation.” Of the 47 countries on the UNHRC, 18 voted in favor, which is about 38 percent of the members. Suddenly, a majority vote is no longer important. Iceland, with a population the size of Biñan, Laguna, and located almost exactly on the other side of the planet, was also an interesting choice to submit the resolution. Apparently with this great newfound interest in the Philippines, it may be time for a Jollibee Reykjavík. However, there may be an unseen hand in the process. Agnes Callamard, the Special Rapporteur on summary executions, has been in a venomous word-war with President Duterte for some two years. Her predecessor, Philip Alston, released a scathing report in 2008 on extrajudicial killings saying, “There is impunity for extrajudicial executions. No one has been convicted in the cases.” Yet, there was never a resolution for a further action submitted to the UNHRC. Is there any possibility that this could be a case of “walang trabaho, personal lang?” Regardless, this puts the UNHRC and its efforts at protecting against human-rights abuses on a dangerous, slippery slope. Any nation’s law enforcement could be singled out without substantiated evidence. Further, it potentially disrupts the UNHRC’s credibility in future situations.

Arts and culture events this July Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

LLOW me to devote this column to the promotion of several events related to the arts. First off, the NCCA Gallery is celebrating its 10th anniversary alongside the 50th closing anniversary exhibit of The Saturday Group of Artists with an art show called the “Saturday Group Affirmation.” This opens on July 18, 4 p.m. at the NCCA Gallery and will run for the whole month of July from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The public is invited to view the works for free during this period. I would also like to personally invite you to join us for the opening program on the 18th. Those who are interested in children’s literature will be happy to know that the celebration of the 36th National Children’s Book Day is

Inheritance theft Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

LEGALLY SPEAKING

Since 2005

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happening on July 16, 9 a.m., at the Little Theater Lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. This event is brought to you by the Philippine

HE best way to protect yourself and your family beyond the grave is to make a will or plan your estate to ensure that the assets you leave upon death will go to your intended heirs or beneficiaries. A will can expressly state your heirs and the shares you want them to receive, establish plans for your funeral or last rites (if any is desired), name an executor to carry out your wishes and to comply with legal requirements of the taxing authorities and the banks. But the best will or the best-studied estate planning does not ensure against “Inheritance Theft.” There are different types of inheritance theft (See, Pennyborn.com, Inheritance Theft). “Inheritance theft occurs when a person, such as a caregiver, friend, neighbor, new spouse or advisor uses his or her relationship with a person making a will, called the testator, to obtain or take money or property from the testator that the testator intended to leave to his children or other legal heirs that are the natural objects of his affection. In addition to leaving heirs without an inheritance, inheritance theft may result in the testator losing assets he needs for food, housing, long-term care and other expenses. The person seeking to steal the inheritance gains the trust of the testator and uses tactics, such as undue influence, lies, threats, manipulation, isolation or forgery to obtain gifts, transfers or bequests of cash and property from the testator or to steal from he testator. Inheritance theft can also be committed by fiduciaries, such as

executors, trustees, guardians and conservators while they are administering the estate. It is committed not only by third parties, it is also often committed by the testator’s own children or family members.” “Seniors will sometimes give away valuables, money and property to people that visit them more often or help them on a regular basis. A person seeking to inherit from an estate may use this time with the testator to influence him about other heirs. For example, one child may use manipulation or deception to gain control of property that was to be divided among all the testator’s children according to the testator’s will or living trust. In this situation, some of the children are left with no inheritance while one child receives the entire estate, even though such a result is contrary to the testator’s wishes and contrary to the will of the testator’s spouse. Another common mistake adult children make regarding inheritance theft is assuming they can reverse property transfers, gifts and bequests after

Board on Books for Young People, in cooperation with the CCP, the National Library of the Philippines and the Museo Pambata. Those who would like to be part of the celebration must get in touch with Jai through 352-6765 local 118. The suggested attire for this event is semiformal. The innovative book bar Kwago, located at Warehouse Eight in Makati City, is holding a two-day writing workshop for writers who want to explore Art Writing for Media, or those who want to write about topics concerning the visual arts. The workshops will be held on July 20 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This event will be facilitated by Gwen Bautista and Marz Aglipay. The workshop fee includes coffee, snacks and handouts. Only 10 participants will be accommodated, so send a message to info@ artplus.ph if you’re interested.

The same venue, Kwago, also offers to the public its Open Space Program, an open platform for anyone who might want to hold an activity or project at the bookstore. If the event or project fits Kwago’s mission and vision, they will help with its development and launching. Ideas may be sent to isipkwago@gmail. com with the subject line “Open Space Application.” Finally, Mutant and Marvels: A Superheroic Writing Workshop for Teens and Grown-ups is still accepting participants for its July 20 and 21 (12 to 17 years old), and July 27 and 28 (18 years old and above) batches at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. A total of 12 participants per batch will be accommodated. The workshop will be facilitated by multi-awarded writer Tweet Sering. For inquiries, e-mail contact@ tweetsering.com.

their parent passes away. Sometimes children do not want to confront their parents about what amounts to either accidental disinheritance or deliberate intention to disinherit an heir.” Inheritance Theft (also referred to as “Inheritance Hijacking,”) may take the following forms:

parent who leaves most of his estate to a disabled child who cannot take care of herself. If the older sibling of the disabled child were to destroy the will, then the parent would be considered to have died intestate, and the money would be distributed equally among the siblings. (See, Emily Grey Birke “Protecting Yourself From Inheritance Theft” May 21, 2019, extramile, the harford.com) The best way to protect your heirs and ensuring that your last wishes are followed is through a well-written estate plan. Such plan includes a detailed will providing for the distribution of your property following your exact wishes, and naming a competent and trustworthy executor who will handle the logistical details of your estate after your death. The executor need not be a family member, especially if you already have a contentious family situation (i.e., “greedy heirs”). Appointing two or more individuals as executor could be a deterrent or safeguard against untrustworthy behavior. It is also ideal, for your peace of mind, to be open with your entire family about your wishes. Lastly, wills can be contested if there is reason to doubt their legitimacy or enforceability. Nine common mistakes (“9” DON’Ts) have been cited as triggers for challenges: 1. Don’t forget to update your will; 2. Don’t forget to tell someone where to find your will; 3. Don’t be vague or include obscure terms; 4. Don’t create multiple versions of your will without noting which is the most current; 5. Don’t include illegal or unenforceable clauses;

Undocumented loans

FAMILY members who borrowed money from a relative might insist that such loans were gifts after the relative’s death. If there is no loan document in place, the heirs have no recourse to get the money back from the borrower on behalf of the estate. The only way to protect an estate from this kind of hijacking is to insist on loan documents whenever a large amount of money changes hands.

Denigration of fellow heirs

RATHER than focus on the bonds between each other, heirs are sometimes more focused on what they can do to increase their piece of the estate pie. An heir might lie about the other heirs, claiming that one sibling can’t be trusted with money, while another has more than he needs. This kind of denigration can persuade an elderly parent to change the will in favor of the lying heir. Unfortunately, it is difficult for an heir who is being denigrated to protect himself from this kind of insidious hijacking—in part because the denigrated heir rarely knows it has happened until after it is too late.

Forging or destroying documents

IN some cases, a family member or advisor might prepare a fake will or a fake amendment to a real will, giving the forger a bigger slice of the inheritance pie. For instance, imagine a

See “Kapunan,” A11

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

To avail or not to avail?

Call of duty

BusinessMirror

Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

Joel L. Tan-Torres

THE PATRIOT

DEBIT CREDIT Part Two

ITH the veto of the President of the General Tax Amnesty provisions, the TA on delinquent accounts and estate tax in Republic Act 11213 remained.

N criminal law, some trial lawyers will inevitably face the dilemma of choosing between doing the harder right of finding the truth but with dire consequences to their clients or doing what it takes to include suppressing the truth to protect their clients’ interests.

second category of TA case are different as prescribed in the guidelines. The TAR and the Acceptance Payment Form (APF) or BIR Form 0621DA can be accomplished without too much difficulty. The TA rates for the different cases are the following: n 40 percent of basic tax for delinquent accounts in the first category; n 50 percent of basic tax for tax cases subject of final and executory judgment by the courts; n 60 percent of the basic tax for criminal cases pending with the DOJ/Prosecutor’s office or the courts; or n 100 percent of the basic tax for unremitted withholding taxes. Once the TAR and APF are accomplished, these are to be submitted to the concerned BIR Office. The BIR will review and endorse these back to the taxpayer, with the AFP bearing the signature of the authorized BIR officer. The taxpayer can now proceed with the payment of the amnesty tax to the authorized accredited agent bank or revenue collection office by merely presenting the APF. There is no need to present the TAR or any supporting document to the bank or RCO. Instead, all of the documents, including the TAR, bank validated AFP and supporting documents should be filed in triplicate with the concerned BIR office after the payment. The taxpayer will be given the received copy of all of these documents. Within 15 calendar days from the submission to the BIR, the Authority to Cancel Assessment shall be issued by the BIR to the taxpayer. The ATCA shall be the basis for the closure of the cases of taxpayers with delinquent accounts. Thereafter, the taxpayer can finally relax knowing that his tax cases are finally settled and henceforth “start clean” with the BIR moving forward.

Kapunan. . .

Facebook faces largest-ever $5-billion FTC fine

continued from A10

6. Don’t sign your will without a witness; 7. Don’t create your will when you are not of sound mind; 8. Don’t assume others will know what you want; and 9. Don’t create a will without legal guidance. From several years of dealing with feuding family members, legal wives and mistresses, greedy siblings, protracted estate court battles, I would add a final advice, a food for thought—it may actually be best not to leave behind any estate. Spend it all while you can, live life to the fullest. Let your legacy not be the assets and monies you are leaving behind for your heirs to quarrel over. Let that legacy be the caring, love, time, understanding and compassion you had for your family while still alive. For me, these are treasures that will be remembered long after you are gone!

Joel L. Tan-Torres is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010 and the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy from 2014 to August 2018. He is a partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

By Barbara Ortutay AP Technology Writer

T $5 billion, the fine the FTC is about to levy on Facebook is by far the largest it’s given to a technology company, easily eclipsing the secondlargest $22 million for Google in 2012. The long-expected punishment, which Facebook is well prepared for, is unlikely to make a dent in the socialmedia giant’s deep pockets. But it will also likely saddle the company with additional restrictions and another lengthy stretch of strict scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported Friday that the FTC has voted to fine Facebook for privacy violations and mishandling user data. Most of them cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter. Facebook and the FTC declined to comment. The 3-2 vote broke along party lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition to the settlement, according to the reports. The case now moves to the Justice Department’s

In corporate law, a company can only act through its board of directors, which is vested with its overall governance. Elected by the shareholders, the BOD of a corporation has fiduciary duties to the shareholders, as well as to the company, which has a separate and distinct legal personality from the shareholders. Such BOD duties arise from its respective legal relationship with the corporation, imbued with trust and confidence. Thus, the BOD has the primary fiduciary duty of loyalty, which entails the obligation to take necessary actions both to promote the corporation’s interest and to prevent harm to it. Aside from the duty of loyalty to the corporation and to its shareholders collectively, other BOD duties include the duty of diligence and obedience as provided in the Corporation Code. However, similar to a litigation lawyer, a dilemma might arise when the interests of the corporation will clash with that of the shareholders.

Such potential conflict between the directors’ duty to the company and their supposed duty to shareholders had been discussed in English jurisprudence. The cases of Perceval v. Wright (1902) and Sharp and Others v. Blank and Others (2013) reviewed the general principles that (1) directors owe fiduciary duties to the company, which is “unexceptionable and flows from the fact that the directors are agents of the company and stewards of its affairs” and (2) directors do not, solely by virtue of their office, owe fiduciary duties to the shareholders, collectively or individually. By law, a director necessarily agrees to act in the interests of the company as a fiduciary. However, the relationship between directors and shareholders is strictly not like that of a fiduciary. Although the interests of both the shareholders and the company are generally and should be aligned, this mutuality does not mean that a director has agreed to act for the shareholders. A director has no direct relationship with the shareholders as his relationship is with the company. In the words of Eric Fryar, a Texas lawyer whose expertise lies in shareholder rights: “If a director owed a fiduciary duty to shareholders, this would frequently place him in a position where his duty to shareholders would be in conflict with his duty to the company.” In an article, Cesar Villanueva, the former dean of Ateneo Law School and former chairman of the Governance Commission for GOCCs, expounded on the Doctrine

The TA on delinquent accounts provides a relief for taxpayers who have unresolved tax cases pending collection proceedings in the Bureau of Internal Revenue or unsettled in the judicial courts or Department of Justice. This also covers situations where taxpayers failed to remit to the BIR taxes that they previously withheld from suppliers or employees. Several issuances have been promulgated by the Department of Finance and the BIR for this TA, including Revenue Regulations 4-2018, Revenue Memorandum Circular 23-2019 and 57-2019. It is expected that additonal guidelines will still be issued. This TA covers all national internal revenue taxes for taxable year 2017 and prior years. I like to categorize the different situations covered in the TA into two. The first category consists of where the BIR has issued Final Assessment Notices or Final Decision on Disputed Assessments that have become final and executory since the taxpayer failed to contest these, administratively or judicially, within the prescribed time period. The BIR considers these as being delinquent accounts and included in its inventory of arrears accounts that amount to over P300 billion to date. The second category includes all other cases that may not have FAN or FDDA becoming final and executory but are considered delinquent under the guidelines. These include criminal cases pending with the DOJ or Prosecutor’s Office or the courts for tax evasion and other criminal offenses, cases with final and executory judgment by the courts; and withholding tax liabilities of withholding agents arising from their failure to remit withheld taxes. Those availing themselves of the TA on delinquent accounts have until one year from the effectivity of the rules or on April 23, 2020, to complete the payment of the amnesty tax and submit all documentary requirements. The guidelines issued by the BIR and the Tax Amnesty Return (TAR) or BIR Form 2118-DA contain the details of the documentary and procedural requirements. The first requirement for the first category of tax delinquencies is securing the Certificate of Tax Delinquencies from the concerned BIR Office. The BIR is mandated to submit the CTD to the taxpayer who requests the same within the day of application. The requirements for the

To be continued

In one frustrated homicide case, my friend RB, a defense lawyer, opted to relentlessly pursue the truth by cross-examining witnesses whose testimonies may end up adverse to his own client’s interest. RB suspected that his client failed to fully disclose to him the truth. Thus, instead of choosing to remain silent, RB propounded questions to allow prosecution witnesses—the forensic expert, in particular, for justice to be served. In the process, RB, fresh from passing the Bar, managed to expose the truth that unfortunately resulted to the conviction of his client. Some praised him considering that a lawyer has solemn duties to the court, his client, to the profession, and to society as a whole, as provided in the Code of Professional Responsibility. In case of conflict among these four, I assume lawyer RB remembered from his legal ethics class to answer the call of duty to uphold the administration of justice.

Monday, July 15, 2019 A11

of Maximization of Shareholders’ Value, as part of Corporate Governance. Villanueva said that all corporations, acting through their BOD, “should be devoted toward a single objective of maximizing the profits of the corporation for the benefit of its stockholders.” Villanueva added that the Corporation Code, which grants directors with legal title to the corporate assets for the benefit of stockholders, serves as “the legal bedrock for the prevalence of the Doctrine of Maximization of Shareholders’ Value in Corporate Governance.” Profit maximization appears to be the ultimate measure whether the BOD fulfilled its fiduciary duties with the underlying dictates of corporate governance. In contrast, in our daily lives, a multitude of metrics for dutiful servants can be found in the Bible. For instance, the Bible gives us the measure of our conduct in His eyes as provided in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Lawyers have the duty to pursue justice by seeking the truth whereas directors of a company have the duty to maximize profits through good governance. One call of duty for all believers is “to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.” (Titus 3:1-2) For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

SPSB franchise to stifle the competition? Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

MAKE SENSE

HE open letter of the Philippine Solar and Storage Energy Alliance (PSSEA) to President Duterte, which saw print in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s June 26, 2019, issue, asking the President to veto House Bill 8179, the enrolled bill that grants Leandro Legarda Leviste’s Solar Para Sa Bayan (SPSB) company a 25-year renewable energy franchise seriously caught my attention. Like the PSSEA, on a personal note and as chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), I am also concerned about the monopolistic impact of the SPSB franchise to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain distributable power technologies and mini-grid system throughout the Philippines to the country’s power distribution industry. The SPSB franchise gives the Leviste company undue advantage over competition, making the Philippine Competition Law and the Philippine

civil division for review. It’s unclear how long the process would take, though it is likely to be approved. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the Facebook matter. For many companies, a $5-billion fine would be crippling. But Facebook is not most companies. It had nearly $56 billion in revenue last year. This year, analysts expect around $69 billion, according to Zacks. As a one-time expense, the company will also be able to exclude the amount from its adjusted earnings results—the profit figure that investors and financial analysts pay attention to. “This closes a dark chapter and puts it in the rearview mirror with Cambridge Analytica,” said Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. “Investors still had lingering worries that the fine might not be approved. Now, the Street can breathe a little easier.” Facebook has earmarked $3 billion for a potential fine and said in April it was anticipating having to pay up to $5 billion. But while Wall Street—and likely Facebook executives—may be breathing

Competition Commission practically irrelevant as far as the power sector is concerned. Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) and the Renewable Energy Act, there are already provisions that allow the adoption of distributed energy resources and micro grids even without a legislative franchise. Already, SPSB is operating in many towns in the country. Thus, there might not even be a need for a renewable-energy franchise for SPSB as the company can operate anyway, anywhere in the coun-

a little easier, the fine alone has not appeased Facebook critics, including privacy advocates and lawmakers. “The reported $5-billion penalty is barely a tap on the wrist, not even a slap,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. “Such a financial punishment for a purposeful, blatant illegality is chump change for a company that makes tens of billions of dollars every year.” He and others questioned whether the FTC will force Facebook to make any meaningful changes to how it handles user data. This might include limits on what information it collects on people and how it targets ads to them. It’s currently unclear what measures the settlement includes beyond the fine. Privacy advocates have been calling on the FTC to come down on Facebook for a decade, but over that time the company’s money, power and Washington influence has only increased. “Privacy regulation in the US is broken. While large after-the-fact fines matter, what is much more important is

The SPSB franchise gives the Leviste company undue advantage over competition, making the Philippine Competition Law and the Philippine Competition Commission practically irrelevant as far as the power sector is concerned. Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and the Renewable Energy Act, there are already provisions that allow the adoption of distributed energy resources and micro grids even without a legislative franchise.

try where access to electricity is a problem. Otherwise, this will only discourage investors and existing power distributors, even with their current franchise, to develop and/or expand power projects, as the SPSB privilege would virtually be like a sword of Damocles, ready to pierce the competition. I remember one of the Senate hearings on the SPSB franchise where I attended, I asked the young Leviste about the problems encountered by his company in its current operations to bring power to many

strong, clear rules to protect consumers,” said Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. The CDT is pushing for federal online privacy legislation. Some have called on the FTC to hold Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally liable for the privacy violations in some way, but based on the party line vote breakdown, experts said this is not likely. Marc Rotenberg, president of the nonprofit online privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said he was “confused” as to why the Democratic commissioners didn’t support the settlement and said he suspects, without having seen the actual settlement, that this was due to the Zuckerberg liability question. “But I thought that was misguided,” he said, adding that EPIC instead supports more wholesale limits on how Facebook handles user privacy. Since the Cambridge Analytica debacle erupted more than a year ago and prompted the FTC investigation,

towns in the country. Unfortunately, though, I was not clearly clarified on that. The point that I wanted to drive at was that, if SPSB has no problem with its current operations, then there might not even be a need for a renewable-energy franchise for the company. Why fix something that is not even a problem? Electricity is, indeed, a necessity, not only for every household, but all industries, as well. But prudence dictates that, as the PSSEA says, consistency in policy and law by the government is most important. The Epira law already allows the operation of renewable-energy mini grids to underserved communities, and granting a redundant renewableenergy franchise that would favor one service provider would practically negate the purpose of the Philippine Competition Law as the Solar Para sa Bayan franchise could serve to stifle the competition. Dr. Arranza is the chairman of the Federation

of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade, a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.

Facebook has vowed to do a better job corralling its users’ data. That scandal revealed that a data mining firm affiliated with President Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign improperly accessed private information from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a quiz app. At issue was whether Facebook violated a 2011 settlement with the FTC over user privacy. Other leaky controls have also since come to light. Facebook acknowledged giving big tech companies like Amazon and Yahoo extensive access to users’ personal data, in effect exempting them from its usual privacy rules. And it collected call and text logs from phones running Google’s Android system in 2015. Wall Street appeared unfazed at the prospect of the fine. Facebook’s shares closed at $204.87 on Friday and added 24 cents after hours. The stock is up more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. In fact, Facebook’s market value has increased by $64 billion since its April earnings report when it announced how much it was expecting to be fined.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, July 15, 2019

SC clears trial of 12 police officers in slay of 13 people T By Joel R. San Juan

EL Nido. . .

Continued from A1

Interior Secretar y Eduardo M. Año i s ex p e c te d to p re s e nt his agenc y ’s recommendation in the next meeting of the task force, which has been monitoring several island destinations for possible violations in environmental, easement, local government and tourism regulations. These include El Nido,

By Rene Acosta

The Court declared that Marantan’s petition for certiorari seeking to stop the DOJ’s investigation is moot and academic, considering that the case has already been filed before the Court. “Here, an information against petitioner has already been filed before the Regional Trial Court. Consequently, whether the case

ing multiple murder charges in connection with the encounter are Supt. Ramon Balauag, Chief Insp. Grant Gollod, Senior Insp. John Paolo Carracedo, SPO3 Joselito de Guzman, SPO1 Carlo Cataquiz, SPO1 Arturo Sarmiento, PO3 Eduardo Oronan, PO2 Nelson Indal, PO2 Al Bhazar Jailani, PO1 Wryan Sardea and PO1 Rodel Talento a.k.a. Rodel Tolentino. In 2017, a Manila court granted the petition for bail of the police officers. Among those killed in what has been described as the Atimonan rubout were businessman Vic Siman and his companions. The rubout was believed to have stemmed from a war over jueteng turf, based on the probe conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation.

SEAN defense ministers are moving to further enhance their engagement and processes as they have adopted several papers toward these tasks following their meeting in Thailand on Thursday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Sunday. The meeting, the 13th under the Asean for the regional defense chiefs, was attended by Lorenzana, who also held a bilateral meeting with his Thai counterpart Prawit Wongsuwon, as well as a trilateral meeting with the defense ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia. The concept papers adopted during the 13th Asean Defence Ministers Meeting covered the Role of Asean Defence Establishments in Supporting Border Management, the Establishment of

Coron, Panglao and Siargao. This the same task force, chaired by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, which closed Boracay Island for six months in 2018, on pollution and overtourism concerns. In an interview with CNN Philippines over the weekend, Cimatu did not shut the door to possible closures of these destinations, especially those which failed to follow the prescriptions of the task force. The LGUs and several establishments on Panglao and El Nido

were given six months from November 2018 to implement measures to correct violations on pollution and easement issues. “We are going to discuss this [possible closure] when we go there,” said Cimatu, and, publicly addressing violators, said, “we gave you six months, you didn’t comply,” and hence “we might be ordering drastic actions.” The task force members, including Año and Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, will be heading out to El Nido and Coron to

check on the compliance with their directives, after having revisited Panglao last March. “We will also go to Siargao,” he said, adding that all four islands are “all violators of our environmental laws.” Task force representatives on the regional level also recently completed their inspection of Panglao. The six-month deadline for these destinations to address their violations was on May 31, 2019. Only recently, Palawan made it to the Lonely

Planet’s list of hottest destinations in Asia Pacific, where El Nido was specifically mentioned as a “crown jewel...where skyscraping karst formations rise out of blue water in Bacuit Bay.” The popular travel guide added, “New rules restrict visitor numbers at signature sights like Big Lagoon on Miniloc Island, while a ban on single-use plastic bottles on tour boats is helping to tackle marine pollution.” The DENR earlier issued cease-and-desist orders on 10 hotels in El Nido for violations of the

HE Supreme Court has removed any legal obstacle to the trial and resolution of the multiple murder case filed against police Supt. Hansel Marantan for his involvement in the January 6, 2013, rubout in Atimonan, Quezon, which killed 13 people. In a recent decision, the Court dismissed the petition filed by Marantan questioning the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct the preliminary investigation in the case. Marantan had claimed the DOJ had prejudged the case, and sought its transfer to the Office of the Ombdusman in his petition before the SC.

ASEAN DEFENSE CHIEFS CLOSE RANKS TO FIGHT SECURITY THREATS

should be dismissed, or whether petitioner should be acquitted or convicted, is for the trial court to determine,” the SC explained in a 24-page decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. “Resolving whether public respondent Department of Justice should have inhibited from conducting the preliminary investigation and forwarded the case records to the Office of the Ombudsman would be of no practical use and value here,” it added. Concurring in the ruling were Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Andres Reyes Jr., Ramon Paul Hernando and Rosmari Carandang. Marantan was the one who led a team of policemen and soldiers in firing at a convoy in Atimonan, Quezon province, on January 6, 2013. Aside from Marantan, also fac-

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Asean Military Medicine Conference and the Expansion of the Asean Direct Communications Infrastructure. It also included the papers on the Guidelines for Maritime Interaction and the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Asean Our Eyes (AOE). During the meeting, the defense chiefs welcomed the adoption of the Philippines-initiated Template TOR for Hosting Activities under the Framework of the ADMM-wide Education and Training Exchanges. The delegates also discussed possible approaches of the Asean defense establishments in responding to the security implications of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. During the meeting, the defense ministers reaffirmed their commitment to promote sustainable security through cooperation in addressing traditional and nontraditional security challenges.

Clean Water Act: El Nido Sea Shell Resorts and Hotel in Brgy. Buena Suerte; Doublegem Beach Resort and Hotel, Buko Beach Resort, Panorama Resort (Mangonana Inc.), Four Seasons Seaview Hotel and Stunning Republic Beach Resort in Brgy. Corong-Corong; and Sava Beach Bar/Sava Nest Egg Inc., El Nido Beach Hotel and The Nest El Nido Resorts and Spa Inc. in Brgy. Masagana. (See, “DENR gives El Nido, LGUs 1 week to act on environmental law violations,” in the BusinessMirror, on May 21, 2019).

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, July 15, 2019

Meralco starts competitive selection for power needs

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has started conducting a competitive selection process of its power requirements following a Supreme Court decision that required all powersupply agreements (PSAs) forged after June 30, 2015, to undergo a CSP.

Meralco has set a minimum offered capacity at 1,000 MW from interested bidders. The terms of reference also stated that in case the supplier fails to provide power from its nominated power plant or portfolio of power plants, WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market), or any other source, that supplier shall pay a fine equivalent to P908 multiplied by each MW per day, which shall be used to reduce the generation charge to the consumers. Interested bidders must pay a P2,500 fee per MW of offered contract capacity, submit an expression of interest and confidentiality undertaking, and purchase bid documents from Meralco’s TPBAC on or before July 26. T he TPBAC w ill conduct a prebid conference on August 8, with submission of bids set on September 9. In order to qualify to bid, an interested bidder must submit until September 9 its qualification documents, technical proposal and a bid security of P3.3 million per MW of offered contract capacity. Bids will be opened on the same day.

total capacity of the seven PSAs are over 3,500 MW. However, these PSAs were not implemented following the Supreme Court order arising from allegations that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) gave due preference to Meralco by extending the deadline for compliance of CSP. The ERC had moved the CSP’s effectivity date from November 6, 2015, to April 30, 2016, exempting the PSAs from undergoing the CSP. Over 90 PSA s, w ith about 5,000-MW capacity, were affected by the SC decision. Of these, 70 percent of the affected PSAs are from Meralco. The seven PSAs of Meralco include two from MGen, which is building power plants under Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. and Atimonan One Energy Inc. Atimonan’s first 2x600-MW power plant was already certified by the DOE as an Energy Project of National Significance. The remaining five are with St. Raphael Power Generation Corp., Mera lco’s joint venture w it h Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp.; Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp.; Mariveles Power Generation Corp.; Panay Energy Development Corp.; and Global Luzon Energy Development Corp.

ABS-CBN leads digital TV race, posts 15% hike in set top boxes By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

In a published bid invite last Friday, the utility firm put for bidding 1,200 megawatts (MW) of capacity that Meralco needs in order to supply its customers. “Pursuant to the DOE Circular 2018-02-0003, the Meralco, through the Third Party Bids and Awards Committee [TPBAC], hereby invites all interested and qualified parties to participate in the CSP in respect of the following proposed supply of electricity,” said the utility firm. Meralco has lined up a total of three CSPs. Meralco Utility Head Economics Lawrence Fernandez, in a text message, said the utility firm will put up for bidding additional capacity requirements soon. “This is the first of three invitations to bid published. The

three CSPs to be conducted are in accordance with the Power Supply Procurement Plan that Meralco submitted to the Department of Energy [DOE],” said Fernandez. The CSP requires distribution utilities (DUs) to hold competitive bidding for their supply requirements as against securing power deals via bilateral contracts. This is meant to ensure transparency and fair competition. Based on the bid invite, the 1,20 0 -M W c apac it y mu st be supplied to Meralco for 10 years starting December 26, 2019, up to December 25, 2029. Meralco has the sole discretion and option to annually reduce the contract capacity by up to 600 MW from December 26, 2023, to December 25, 2025.

Deskera partners with NBP to drive cloud adoption of Asean SMEs

Hyundai H1 sales up 10% on strong P demand for light commercial vehicles

ESKERA has tied up with NAVER Business Platform Corp. (NBP) to offer cloud services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Southeast Asia as they shift toward digitization. SMEs are the lifeblood of economy. In the Philippines, they comprise about 99.6 percent of all the registered businesses and employ more than 70 percent of the local labor market. At the onset of today’s digital era, experts have long said that they need to take advantage of every technological solution available to facilitate their journey to digitization. “NAVER has a state-of-the-art approach to their product lineup. By leveraging Deskera’s cloud-based suite of software solutions coupled with NBP, SMEs will be further empowered in today’s digital economy, enhancing their competitiveness to thrive locally and grow globally,” Deskera Head of Cloud Infrastructure Paritosh Mahana said during their joint announcement of their strategic partnership at the recent RISE 2019 Conference in Hong Kong. The partnership is the first-of-its-kind for NBP as it beefs up its presence beyond South Korea. Per their agreement, Deskera will adopt the latter’s state-of-the-art cloud service platform to help SMEs in the region host their data securely and efficiently. The collaboration, in turn, will help them accelerate their digital transformation and create new business models and sustainable value in the process. Roderick L. Abad

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

ECOVERING from a lackluster performance last year, Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) grew sales by nearly 10 percent in the first half on strong demand for light commercial vehicles. In a report over the weekend, Hari disclosed its sales for the first six months rose 9.1 percent to 17,654 units, from 16,181 units during the same period last year. The passenger car bracket accounted for more than half of the sales, but was the only segment that posted a contraction. Sales of passenger cars declined 12.73 percent to 9,458 units, from 10,838 units. On the other hand, sales of light commercial vehicles in the first half improved 50.22 percent to 7,690 units, from 5,119 units during the same half last year. Parallel with this growth, commercial vehicle sales more than doubled to 506 units, from 224 units. However, Hari’s sales in June dipped 0.31 percent to 2,868 units, from 2,877 units during the same month last year in a reflection of the continued volatility of the au-

7 PSAs scuttled

MER ALCO earlier inked seven PSAs with several power-generation companies, including subsidiary Meralco Power Gen Corp. The

tomotive industry. In June, passenger car sales slumped 12.95 percent to 1,505 units, from 1,729 units. This was counterbalanced by sales of light commercial vehicles that grew 17.66 percent to 1,292 units, from 1,098 units, and of commercial vehicles that jumped to 71 units, from 50 units. Hari President and CEO Maria Fe Perez-Agudo attributed the recovery to improving consumer confidence that was largely neutralized last year by record-high inflation and additional taxes on automobile imposed by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law. “We are invigorated to note that our sales performance is still better than industry, which is showing a minor increase after recovering from a tepid 2018. Despite this flat growth in June, we believe that auto sales will continue to get better in the coming months buoyed by higher infrastructure spending, lower inflation and increased consumer confidence,” Agudo said. In sustaining its first-half growth, Hari is exploiting the growing demand for Hyundai commercial vehicles by opening eight addi-

tional dedicated dealerships across the Philippines by 2020. The vehicle importer is also banking on Hy undai Modern Jeepneys to boost its commercial vehicle sales under the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program. According to Hari, the Hyundai Class-1 Modern Jeepney and the Hyundai Forma Novus Class-2 Modern Jeepney “are custom built to meet or even exceed the requirements of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Philippine Standards.” Agudo also committed Hari’s support in the negotiations for a free-trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and South Korea, of which the production of electric vehicles here is one of the main talking points. “Already, the Philippines and South Korea are working to forge a bilateral FTA that will pave the way for increased market access, including automotive products. On our part, we continue to work closely with industry and government partners to help create an environment that will spur the development of the country’s EV industry,” Agudo said.

ULTIMEDIA conglomerate ABS-CBN Corp. continues to lead the digital television race, after it marked a 15-percent increase in the sale of its set top boxes this month. In a statement, the company said it hit the 8-million mark for the sale of its ABS-CBN TVplus in July, representing more than a tenth in increase from 7 million in February. “ABS-CBN TVplus’ accelerated sales is indicative of how far the country has moved on from analog television and how closer we are to fully transitioning into digital broadcast ahead of the government-mandated

deadline of 2023,” Charles Lim, who heads ABS-CBN Access, said. The conglomerate first introduced the product in 2015, ahead of the whole industry’s shift to digital TV, and still ahead of competition as of today. Currently, ABS-CBN TVplus transmits signal in 16 areas, namely: Metro Manila, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Tarlac, Benguet, Cavite, Metro Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and more recently, Batangas. To complement this at-home TV product, the company also introduced ABS-CBN TVplus Go, which turns Android smartphones into portable digital television units.

PA-Hankyu One Inc. expects P3.5-B sales for Cavite township project’s next phases A-HANKYU One Inc., the joint venture (JV) between homegrown PA Alvarez Properties and Development Corp. (PA Properties) and Japanese real-estate firm Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp. (HHPC), expects to generate around P3.5 billion combined sales from the next phases of its pioneering township development called Idesia Dasmariñas in Cavite. The first for the JV firm and the third for HHPC in Southeast Asia, the 37-hectare master-planned project that boasts of modern Asian aesthetics and well-preserved original greenery of the site will cater to urbanites; start-up, growing or middleincome families; and those who seek to upgrade their overall community living. “We have worked toward this end over the past year and being able to break ground for Idesia Phase 2 and Idesia Heights is most gratifying,” said Romarico Alvarez, chairman of PA Properties. “Through Idesia Dasmariñas, we will be providing families with a great community with amenities homebuyers are looking for in a more expensive home, but at a reasonable price,” he added. Due for completion in 2024, both Phase 2 (9.18 hectare) and Idesia Heights (5.64 hectare) are welcome additions to the initial phase (11 hectare) of the project that was launched in December 2017. With a combined capitalization of P1.8 billion, the second and third phases of the township project will have 648 units (each for P2.8 million to P7 million) and 300 housing units (each for P5 million to P8 million), respectively. Now that PA-Hankyu One Inc. has been issued with license to sell, all the house and lots are on presell and projected to bring in P2 billion and P1.5 billion in total sales, accordingly. These estimated amounts are on top of the P2.3-billion sales that the JV firm expects once the 900 housing units of Phase 1 are fully sold

out within the year or by the first quarter of 2020. “Here in Idesia, most of our buyers are OFWs [overseas Filipino workers]. I would imagine, maybe, 60 percent of our buyers [in Phase 1],” PA Properties President Jonathan Lu told reporters in an interview following the on-site ceremonial groundbreaking for Phase 2 and Idesia Heights and new sales office inauguration on Saturday. “Actually, our commitment with HHPC is twoand-a-half years from the time we launched it [a couple of years ago]. So we’re just on target,” he noted. Completing the entire township will be the 10-hectare commercial area outside of the gated communities of Idesia Dasmariñas. This will host retail, dining and other service establishments to cater to the needs of future residents and nearby communities. The detailed plan for this part of the project will be discussed later 2019 or early next year, per Alvarez. Seeing the success of their flagship project, the partner firms are now setting their sights on penetrating other areas of the country. “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with PA Properties, who is executing well in all its projects and has gained an impressive reputation as a community developer in areas south of Manila,” said Masahiko Toda, GM, Overseas Business Division, HHPC. “We share the same vision and together, I believe we can unlock embedded real-estate value allowing both our companies to advance our respective growth strategies as we progress to the next stage of Idesia’s development.” Continually, the company has been acquiring land properties for future developments. Alvarez said: “We still have a land bank of 137 hectares, good for two years. But we are still buying more for use in 2022 to 2024.” Continued on B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, July 15, 2019

Ortigas to spend up to ₧15B annually in medium term

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

RTIGAS AND CO., a property development firm backed by the Ayala and Sy families, will spend some P12 billion to P15 billion every year over the next five years, but is shunning the idea of becoming a listed company, at least for now. Jaime Ysmael, the company’s president, said the company spent some P9 billion last year, but admitted that it needs to spend more to

expand its business, mainly its remaining land bank in Metro Manila. There were market speculations over last few weeks that the Ortigas

property development firm may do either a backdoor listing or an initial public offering at the Philippine Stock Exchange. “It’s premature to talk about that right now because if you look at our five-year plans, a lot of it are internally financed. We’re just looking at using our own balance sheet, as well as preselling and existing rentals or developments proceeds to fund our expansion program. And we can actually do it without having to do any capital market issues,” Ysmael said. He said the company plans to expand all its brands that cater to different markets. Its Imperium development, for instance, is different

from Royalton, which is also different from Maven and Circulo Verde. “So our intent is to have offerings that will stand a wider income base. We have affordable products, as well as the luxury products. So we’re developing our products. Internally we have a standard specifications for each of the products. So primarily end users and investors,” he said. He said the target market are still Filipinos, but again the international market is there, mainly the aggressive Chinese buyers. “But it’s for all markets technically; we don’t really have a strategy specific to a particular nationality at this point,” he said.

Group lauds DOE for stopping SMPC coal trading

NVIRONMENTAL groups on Sunday lauded the Department of Energy (DOE) for issuing a cease-and-desist order (CDO) against Semirara Mining and Power Corp’s (SMPCs) coal-trading activities. “Mining and trade in coal is dangerous to miners, the environment, and once the coal is used, to the general population. We, therefore, urge the DOE to ensure that all companies involved must scrupulously follow regulations for the protection of all Filipinos,” Center for Energy, Ecol-

ogy, and Development (CEED) Executive Director Gerry Arances said in a statement. Semirara allegedly sold coal to a buyer who was unable to provide a Coal Accreditation Certificate issued by the DOE, prompting the agency to issue the CDO. SMPC is the single major producer of local coal in the Philippines, supplying coal to power plants, cement plants and other small boilers. In 2016, SMPC was able to produce 11.9 million MT run-of-mine coal. It

posted a record-high coal shipment of 12.8 million MT in the same year. According to Arances, an anti-coal advocate, further regulation of coal is in order, considering its hazards to health and the environment. “Perhaps it is now time to consider even stricter control over its extraction and use, or even to ban its use outright in the country,” Arances said. The current law which guides the use of coal was first passed in 1977. “Given the difference between what we knew in 1977 and what we

know now, the law on coal use is practically obsolete and should be changed. We must protect our people and the environment,” he said. The Philippines continues to build coal-fired power plants, contrary to a general trend around the world for the reduction of the use of this fossil fuel. “We welcome DOE’s courageous stance against coal in this incident. We hope that this is the beginning of a trend leading to a coal-free Philippines,” he said. Jonathan L. Mayuga

PA-Hankyu One Inc. expects P3.5-B sales for Cavite township project’s next phases Continued from B1

Laguna-based real-estate company PA Properties is among the largest low- to medium-cost housing developers in key growth areas of Luzon. With a capitalization of P3.8 billion as of December 2018, it has already built around 19,000 hous-

ing units in Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga and Metro Manila. The company’s expansion plans include the construction of 25 additional housing communities in the next five years to help ease the more than 6 million housing backlog in the Philippines and contribute to the growth of the economy, as well. Roderick L. Abad

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STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK LAST WEEK

SHARE prices slightly gained last week with the main index staying at the 8,100-point level on expectations of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve this month, but volumes were thin. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 23.88 points to close at 8,141.82. The main index was up for only two days, but its gains were enough to end on the green for the week. “The main index continues to climb steadily on lower than average trading volumes. Despite the gains that we have seen, the general investor sentiment remains cautious. Investors are still not fully convinced that the market is going higher,” Christopher Mangun, research head at AAA Equities Inc., said. Average trading for the week was at P5.49 billion, while foreign investors were net buyers at P601.25 million. Most of the subindices, however, ended lower. The All Shares index was down 0.98 to 4,944.70, the Financials index was up 46.78 to 1,788.79, the Industrial index fell 197.07 to 11,791.25, the Holding Firms index dropped 38.98 to 7,758.23, the Property index gained 44.18 to 4,423.93, the Services index declined 5.39 to 1,693.65 and the Mining and Oil index lost 2.13 to 7,437.16. Losers edged gainers 116 to 96 and 36 shares were unchanged. Top gainers were Prime Media Holdings Inc., Apollo Global Capital Inc., Phinma Energy Corp., Suntrust Home Developers Inc., Boulevard Holdings Inc. and Arthaland Corp. Top losers, on the other hand, were ISM Communications Corp., Zeus Holdings Inc., Transpacific Broadband Group International Inc., MJC Investments Corp., Bogo-Medellin Milling Co. Inc. and Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc.

THIS WEEK

SHARE prices may rise by the end of the week, possibly reaching the 8,200-point mark as investors are hedging ahead of the second quarter earnings report. “Upsides are in store for the benchmark index to trade above 8,200. Apart from benign inflation and lower borrowing costs, the extra boost is on improved liquidity, with the third phase of BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] reserve requirement cut of 50 basis points by the end of the month,” broker 2TradeAsia said. Mangun, however, said the market needs volume for it to be able to reach 8,200 points. “If it cannot break above this level, we may see a massive sell-off which could cause it to lose 400-500 points. Investors may gain confidence as second earnings start to come in next week which are expected to come in better than what we have seen in the last few quarters due to lower costs and higher spending,” he said.

STOCK PICKS

BROKER Regina Capital and Development Corp. gave a buy recommendation on the shares of Universal Robina Corp. when it reaches its support price of between P171.90 and P164.65 per share as its technical analysis shows bullishness on the stock. “The gradual but steady rally of URC in the last five sessions finally reached peak, as it tapped the P180.24 but failed to breach—subsequently followed by a drop toward P176. This only reinforced the monthlong sideways movement for the stock, between P164.65 and P180.24,” it said. URC shares closed Friday at P171.70 apiece. Meanwhile, the broker gave a buy recommendation when its support price of P173.30 and P172.91 per share hold for the stock of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. “Participants would be lucky if the gradually drop in SMC prices finally found bottom at P174.33 in [last week’s] trade. However, there is limited indication that this is the limit, as the next reliable support goes further into P172.90,” it said. “All SMC needs is to find that bottom before reverting into sideways.” San Miguel shares closed last week at P176 per share. VG Cabuag

MUTUAL FUNDS

July 12, 2019

NAV ONE YEAR THREE YEAR FIVE YEAR Y-T-D PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 270.62 7.83% -0.18% 1.16% 7.3% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 1.669 16.78% 7.77% 3.15% 15.84% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 4.2209 6.36% -0.1% 0.47% 8.15% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP. -A 0.9678 10.56% N.A. N.A. 7.41% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. -A 0.8983 8.54% N.A. N.A. 9.46% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC. -A 5.6178 8.36% 0.97% 1.21% 6.53% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,6 0.9023 6.33% -3.45% N.A. 7.84% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. -A 122.65 16.23% N.A. N.A. 5.58% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC. -A 53.7538 10.8% 0.68% N.A. 9.2% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 558.41 9.55% -0.34% 1.07% 8.48% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC. -A 1.3583 10.85% 1.62% 3.37% 8.32% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC. -A 39.9158 11.59% 2.32% 2.92% 8.96% PHILEQUITY MSCI PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,3 1.0789 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC. -A 5.4547 11.78% 1.65% 3.29% 10% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP. -A 911.02 11.85% 1.37% 3.25% 9.97% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 0.9543 13.23% 0.78% N.A. 10.97% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC. -A 4.4554 11.91% 1.62% 2.7% 9.77% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC. -A 1.0465 11.25% 1.32% N.A. 9.66% UNITED FUND, INC. -A 3.8358 10.33% 3.21% 3.47% 9.57% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC. -A,C,2 121.9513 12.23% 2.26% 4.3% 10.12% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC. -B $0.9929 -4.01% 5.77% -0.44% 6.87% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC. -A $1.3195 1.95% 9.69% N.A. 19.39% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC. -A 1.7736 7.34% -1.32% -0.99% 7.41% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 2.3657 5.53% 0.1% 1.08% 7.08% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC. -A 2.7102 6.49% 0.4% -1% 6.57% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION -A 1.3715 4.09% N.A. N.A. 5.15% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC. -A 1.9651 7.35% 0.56% 1.5% 6.62% PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC. -A 3.8036 7.63% -0.65% 0.77% 7.77% PHILAM FUND, INC. -A 17.1304 8.55% -0.44% 0.79% 7.69% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC. -A 2.1846 6.48% 0.81% 1.99% 5.58% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 3.9558 9.76% 0.56% 1.78% 8.34% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2028, INC. -A,D,4 1.035 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2038, INC. -A,D,4 1.0379 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2048, INC. -A,D,4 1.0347 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A 1.0179 11.25% 0.96% 1.55% 10.44% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC. -A $0.03748 6.96% 1.37% 2.03% 6.18% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC. -A $0.9919 -1.69% 3.6% -0.92% 8.56% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC. -A $3.7925 3.31% 6.51% 2.98% 14.63% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC. -A $1.1151 3.99% 4.11% N.A. 10.41% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 350.97 3.52% 2.02% 2.21% 2.18% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC. -A,1 1.901 2.03% -0.09% -0.18% 2.25% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 3.0533 5.39% 5.25% 5.27% 2.59% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC. -A 2.1936 3.5% 0.94% 1.89% 3.02% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC. -A 2.3159 4.5% 0.96% 1.36% 5.02% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP. -A P 1.6052 1.94% -1.98% -0.01% 2.61% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC. -A 4.193 6.41% -0.3% 1.24% 6.97% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.6935 5.76% 0.68% 1.45% 5.02% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. -A 0.9387 4.16% -0.77% N.A. 5.33% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC. -A 2.9686 8.09% 0.92% 2.14% 7.33% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC. -A 1.6477 7.96% 0.39% 1.67% 7% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $459.48 3.71% 1.61% 2.74% 2.47% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. -A Є218.13 2.35% 1.33% 1.51% 2.57% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -B $1.1849 6.46% 1.74% 2.51% 5.26% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $0.0257 4.05% 0.79% N.A. 3.63% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP. -A $1.7149 1.25% -2.33% 0.6% 1.46% PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC -A $1.086 5.06% -0.65% -2.02% 4.8% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $2.3527 8.97% 0.62% 3.26% 8.38% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC. -A $0.0593539 4.61% 1.57% 1.84% 4.13% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC. -A $3.0879 7.15% -0.15% 2.71% 7.51% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 123.7 3.75% 2.45% 1.96% 2.33% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A,5 1.056 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 1.2171 4.03% 1.8% 1.1% 2.98% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 1.2462 3.75% 2.68% 2.06% 2.21% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC. -A $1.0288 2.19% N.A. N.A. 1.27% 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 - ADJUSTED DUE TO CASH DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JANUARY 29, 2018. 2 - ADJUSTED DUE TO STOCK DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JUNE 5, 2018. 3 - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 3, 2019. 4 - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 28, 2019. 5 - LAUNCH DATE IS FEBRUARY 1, 2019.

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Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Perspectives

Facing climate change: Are countries ready?

LIMATE change presents twin challenges for countries worldwide: the transformation to a low-carbon economy and adjusting to climate risks. These are large-scale challenges. Decarbonization requires significant investments, as well as the development and widespread adoption of new and existing technologies and processes. Climate risks from hurricanes, typhoons, flooding, heat waves, drought and sea-level rise are increasing and global in nature. To meet these challenges, governments, the private sector and civil society are adopting climate-ready policies and institutions. The 2019 Change Readiness Index (CRI) offers insights on the country-level capabilities for each of these sectors, analyzes factors that enable countries to adopt climate-ready approaches, and offers a perspective on how prepared they are to respond to climate change.

Adopting climate-ready policies and institutions

THE CRI captures a broad set of the variables that measure a country’s capacity to adopt climate-ready policies and institutions, and can be used to benchmark climate readiness. Among these data are: medical and health service coverage, presence of safety nets, infrastructure coverage and quality, environmental and climate policies, food security and the depth of financial markets. Taken together these data highlight the policies, institutions and technological innovations needed to move towards a low-carbon economy and reduce the costs of climate risk. Each sector has a role to play. n Enterprise: Climate change is impacting business models across sectors and industries. In insurance and banking, the long-term costs from increased claims from natural disasters and the potential losses from sunk assets in certain industries are leading to new transparency on climate risk exposure and new riskpricing models. New products, such as parametric risk insurance, are being used to transfer climate risks from the agricultural sector and other affected parties. Producers are adopting processes that use less water and conserve en-

ergy, while farmers are adapting to new weather patterns and planting cycles. Many larger firms are adopting carbon pricing in their business models to account for both environmental and financial impact. Small businesses—many lacking insurance against flooding and other events— are developing contingency plans for their staff, supply chains, inventories and physical plants. Investors are also factoring climate into their portfolio choices, discounting its impact on businesses and proactively investing in green bonds and other financial instruments. n Government: The public sector is adopting approaches to reduce carbon emissions as part of its commitment under the Paris Agreement, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to prevent an unbridled rise in global temperatures. These policies include taxes on carbon, cap-and-trade mechanisms for carbon credits, reductions in fossil fuel subsidies, targets for the use of renewable energy sources, more energy-efficient building codes, along with investments in new technologies and public transport. Municipal and national governments must also have infrastructure investments and urban plans with adaptation built-in as part of their design to ensure these assets withstand projected extreme weather events and structural changes, like rising sea levels. n People and civil society: NGOs and community organizations are actively working to ensure the inclusion of impacted groups, provide policy advice The excerpt was taken from the K PMG article series titled “ 2019 Change Readiness Index: Assessing countries’ ability to manage change and build a climate-ready future.” © 2019 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG network of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (KPMG International), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the Philippines For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www. kpmg.com.ph.

Makati to auction off ₧1.73-B real properties

HE city government of Makati is set to conduct a public auction of real properties with delinquent tax payments totaling P1.73 billion, a city official announced over the weekend. As the auction date will still be finalized by the Office of the City Treasurer, City Legal Officer Michael Camiña also reminded all concerned property owners to act promptly to settle their dues or lose their property. “We are calling on all property owners with delinquent real-property tax payments to immediately settle your outstanding obligations with the city,” Camiña said. “We are definitely going to auction off properties that remain delinquent despite several notices to the owners, including public notices in the newspapers.” The city official said that the city has a total of P5.50-billion tax delinquency, but only delinquent properties “without restrictions,” with tax delinquency of P1.73 billion to date, will be put up for auction. Delinquent properties in the city “with restrictions” are those that cannot be auctioned off because of various impediments, such as legal disputes, government properties and street lots. These properties have tax delinquency amounting to P3.76 billion. These include the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) with around P2 billion in outstanding tax obligation to the city. A case is still pending in court. Camiña also reminded those who have bought properties in Makati to promptly

register the transfer of ownership and update their tax declaration with the Assessment Department (Assessor’s Office) at the Makati City Hall. “The Treasurer’s Office has encountered a number of cases where billing notices remain undelivered as the owner cannot be located in the address on record,” Camiña added. “It may be because the property already has a new owner, and yet our official city records still reflect the name and address of the previous owner.” He said the new property owner should take the initiative to put the records of ownership in order and fulfill his or her obligation to pay the correct RPT amount on the due date. Otherwise, he said, the property will continue to incur penalties and the payable amount will balloon over time. “It is the responsibility of the new owner of a real property to update official records with city hall and pay the correct amount of the tax due based on the assessed value of the property,” Camiña said. He emphasized that the city government has no other recourse but to auction off the properties before the year ends. “We have waited long enough, and to postpone the auction any longer would be a disservice to the people of Makati, who stand to benefit from the substantial amount of additional revenue to be generated,” he said. Based on the records of the Realty Tax Division, the city has published notices for around 2,288 delinquent taxpayers in the newspapers since 2018. Claudeth Mocon

Monday, July 15, 2019

Govt disburses ₧27.4 billion to pay mainly for debt interest

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

HE national government disbursed P27.407 billion in May for the payment of some of its debt, with interest payments outpacing amortization for the month, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed. That debt payment in May, however, was not even close to the P159.096 billion the government shelled out in the same month in 2018. Broken down, interest payments accounted for P19.669 billion while amortization took P7.738 billion of the total. Interest

payments for the month showed a decrease of 6.83 percent compared to the P21.111 billion made in May 2018. Under domestic interest payments, fixed rate Treasury bonds accounted for P12.680 billion, Treasury bills with P1.636 billion, and retail T-bonds with

P1.459 billion. Foreign interest payments totaled P3.894 billion for the month. Amortization for May also posted a decline of 94.39 percent compared to the P137.985 billion made in the same month for 2018, with all payments going to foreign amortization of P7.738 billion. From January to May this year, the government disbursed a total of P301.426 billion for debt payment. This is 21.74 percent lower than the P385.142 billion the government disbursed for debt payment in the same period last year. Interest payments for the fivemonth period totaled P150.975 billion, 6.74 percent higher than the P141.445 billion last year. Meanwhile, amortization for

the same period of P150.451 billion was 38.26 percent lower than last year’s P243.697 billion. The Department of Finance (DOF) has said last May, it sees a decline in the level of the country’s debt as debt ratios in the first quarter decreased on the back of a “more proactive debt management” by the government. “Proactive debt management has afforded the Philippines an expanded fiscal space as the level of debt has declined significantly from 87.2 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] in 2006 to 41.8 percent in 2018 [posting]; a 45.4-percentage point decline,” the DOF said. Hence, the finance department maintained that fears of a forthcoming debt crisis are unfounded.

Promoting insurance among items stakeholders want included in Sona T HE promotion of insurance as mitigation tools in government’s disaster risk reduction is a measure that industry stakeholders wish President Duterte would include during his State of the Nation Address (Sona). This is what Philippine Life Insurance Association (Plia) General Manager George C. Mina told the BusinessMirror when asked what the organization’s wish list is in line with President Duterte’s Sona on July 22. He explained that the promotion of both life and nonlife products as risk mitigation tools in the campaigns of the government is just one of many. Mina said if people see government exerting more effort to emphasize the role of insurance products as risk-mitigation tools in times of calamities and natural disasters, more Filipinos would patronize these products and services. “This will widen the information-campaign reach on the value of insurance in helping address life’s adversities,” he added. Plia said Duterte should also help promulgate financial literacy subjects in the curriculum of schools nationwide. “DepEd [Department of Education] should include in the K to 12 high school curriculum a subject

on financial literacy and work with all stakeholders in coming up with an integrated module content,” Mina added. The inclusion of allowing crossborder life insurance selling to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the round of negotiations under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) is also in Plia’s wish list. The move is expected to help local life insurance players to tap the significant OFW markets across the region. The AFAS “aims to significantly eliminate restrictions to trade in services and to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of Asean services suppliers. It provides guidelines for Asean member countries to progressively improve market access and to ensure equal national treatment for services suppliers within Asean.” Troo Corp. President and CEO Hans Loozekoot added that measures on further developing financial markets, keeping up with developments in technology, as well as further investments in the quality of education and infrastructure in the country are also part of their wish list. Loozekoot, meanwhile, said

that strengthened efforts should be focused on attaining financial inclusion both from the government and private sector. “Financial inclusion should remain a priority,” said Loozekoot who is also the President of Plia. Troo is a life insurance company that is a joint venture between East West Banking Corp. and Ageas International Insurance. Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira) Executive Director Michael F. Rellosa said that for the nonlife insurance industry, they hope the President will touch on the lowering of taxes

for the insurance industry as well retaining the minimum net-worth level for insurance companies at P900 million. “Lower taxes and for the minimum net-worth to stay at the P900 million mark,” Rellosa told the BusinessMirror. In January this year, Rellosa said that he sees most nonlife companies in the country would be able to comply with the increase in the requirement. He added that some of the nonlife insurance companies are looking to merge with other companies to be able to meet the paid-up capital requirement. Rea Cu

B4 Monday, July 15, 2019

DLSU HOLDS LECTURE, ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION ON PHILIPPINE POETRY 6 FUN WAYS TO CELEBRATE DENIM AT SM

OU can never have too much of denim. From day to night, this fashion staple can make you look timeless or trendy. Take the whole squad to your favorite SM malls to shop and celebrate everything denim this July! Here are six ways to celebrate denim love at SM: Denim Sale. Shop ’til you drop as SM offers monthlong deals with up to 70 percent off on denim finds from participating stores; Paint Your Denim. Unleash your creativity by adding a pop of color and fun—more buttons, glitter and more—on your fave denim pieces; Denim Moves. Impress the crowd and dance your heart out in stylish, sexy denim at the activity area in select SM malls nationwide; Donate Your Denim. Give your preloved denim a new life. Drop by your nearest SM mall and donate them for a cause this July; Denim World. Take Instagram-worthy photos by posing the larger-than-life “Celebrate Everything Denim” installations—complete with neon lights and sequin-filled backdrop for the whole month of July; and #DenimWalkAtSM. Transform the treadmill into an instant catwalk and flaunt your best denim ensemble for a chance to win exciting giveaways. Catch the #DenimWalkAtSM at the following SM malls: Masinag and Santa Rosa (July 6), Fairview and San Jose del Monte (July 7), Manila and Santa Mesa (July 13), East Ortigas and San Lazaro (July 14), Bicutan (July 20), San Mateo and Megamall (July 21), North Edsa and Marikina (July 27), and Dasmariñas and BF Parañaque (July 28). Don’t forget to grab a copy of SM Shopmag this July with Kobe and Andre Paras on the cover, available at National Bookstore branches, SM Prestige lounges, and information booths in SM malls nationwide, or you may download the online magazine via Magzter app or www.smshopmag.com.

HE Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center and the Literature Department of De La Salle University held “Kalagayan ng Panulaan sa Filipino at Iba Pang Lokal na Wika: Lectures and a Round Table Discussion” on July 10 at the DLSU Libraries. The speakers were Allan Popa (Filipino), Niles Jordan Breis (Bicol), Faye Cura (women’s poetry), and Jerry Grácio (Waray) with Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles as the moderator. The speakers each presented a brief lecture before the round-table discussion. Popa is the author of 10 books, including Damagan and Narkotiko at Panganorin. He teaches

literature and creative writing at the Ateneo de Manila University. Cura is the cofounder of Gantala Press, an independent women’s publishing that caters to the works of Filipina authors. Breis is a Palanca award-winning poet and the recipient of the 1994 Makata ng Taon given by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF). He recently won the grand prize in the First Valledor Prize for the Best Bikol Novel. Grácio works as a senior writer at ABS-CBN. He also serves as the commissioner for the wikang Samar-Leyte of KWF. He is the recipient of the 2015 Southeast Asia Award.

MOBILE APP ABRA LETS USERS INVEST IN U.S. STOCKS

NITED STATES-BASED financial and technology company Abra has introduced a new feature in its mobile application, allowing users in the Philippines to invest in fractional shares in US stocks for as low as $5 per investment using bitcoin. Abra, which operates in 150 countries, has 600,000 users, of which 20 percent, or 100,000, are registered users from the Philippines, making the country as its second-largest market next to US, said Bill Barhydt, Abra founder and chief executive officer. Abra said it makes investing in US stocks affordable for everyone with a fractionalized investment model, with a $5 minimum per investment. Just as investors can own a fraction of a bitcoin, they can now use Abra to own fractions of high-priced stocks and ETFs. As a special launch promotion, Abra will be offering zero trading fees for the rest of 2019 on stock and ETF investments. With the new feature, global investors outside the

US can now fractionally invest in more than 50 stock and ETF products, including popular issues like Tesla, Uber, Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix and Berkshire Hathaway. Abra is a noncustodial platform, unlike crypto exchanges or wallets that operate like traditional banks. This means the funds are stored on blockchain, making transactions more secure and private than centralized databases used by most crypto exchanges and wallets. Abra said it is backed up by American Express Ventures, First Round Capital, Foxconn Technology Group, Arbor Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, RRE Ventures, Silver 8 Capital and many others. Barhydt expects users in the Philippines to double up soon. The company started operation in the Philippines in 2016. Abra uses crypto-collateralized contracts in order to give investors exposure to traditional stocks and ETFs, as well as synthetic cryptocurrencies outside the US.

ROBINSONS BANK LAUNCHES IPONSURANCE

OBINSONS Bank (RBank) continues to expand financial flexibility through its newly launched product IPONsurance. Designed for an easier path for Filipinos to secure their future, IPONsurance offers a valuable alternative, combining savings account with a free insurance coverage, for as low as P20,000 to open and maintain an account. “In Robinsons Bank, we put our customers at the center of the way we do business. This product is an added avenue toward safeguarding and fulfilling our customers’ growing needs,” said Elfren Antonio Sarte, president and chief executive officer of Robinsons Bank. Although most coverage are up to 60 years old, the advantage of IPONsurance makes coverage available to individuals aged 65 and above, making this beneficial for recent retirees. The product insurance coverage can go as high as four times the

account average daily balance, or up to P4 million maximum, with no medical checkups or clearances required (subject to terms and conditions). While the product is a variation of a regular passbook account, it may also be enrolled in RBank’s personal online banking, allowing depositors to have full access and control over their funds online. Account holders may also request for a Visa Debit Card, giving them added convenience. Robinsons Bank is the financial arm of the JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines that owns and operates brands, such as Cebu Pacific, Robinsons Land, Universal Robina Corp., Robinsons Malls and more. For inquiries and concerns, you may reach RBank through its Customer Care Center at (02) 637-CARE (2273) or domestic toll-free 1-800-10-637-CARE (2273); or visit www.robinsonsbank.com.ph.

GO EXPERIENCE TAIWAN

Delegates from Taiwan meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry grace the MEET Taiwan networking event held in Manila, to promote Taiwan as a leading travel and trade destination in Asia. The number of Filipinos visiting Taiwan increased by 44 percent last year versus 2017, with the extension of the visa-free policy for Filipinos enacted last July. In photo are (from left) MEET Taiwan executive director Jessie Tseng, Taipei Economic Cultural Office economic division director Alfred YH Wang, Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism senior specialist Chuen Huey Jiang and Taiwan Trade Center Manila manager Albert Fan.

BE ONE OF PANASONIC SCHOLARS THIS SCHOOL YEAR!

N its pursuit of “A Better Life, A Better World,” Panasonic is now accepting candidates for its 2019 Panasonic Scholarship Asia Program (PSA). In the Philippines the program is offered to promising state-university students (graduating in two years’ time) in a bachelor’s degree program, and to newly enrolled students in a vocational course program for the School Year 2019-2020. PSA is administered by Panasonic Manufacturing Philippines Corp. along with the support of Panasonic Industrial Devices Philippines Corp., offering financial assistance to promising students who have difficulty receiving higher education but are highly motivated to contribute to the country’s progress and development. Applicants must be: A Filipino citizen, and a bona fide full-time junior student in a state university

enrolled in the fields of engineering, industrial design, accountancy and economics; and those vocational students currently enrolled/accepted in a Tesda-accredited institution, specializing in the fields of electro-mechanics, consumer electronics, or refrigeration and air conditioning. Panasonic is founded on the basic objective to be a corporation devoted to the progress and development of society and the well-being of people, thereby, contributing to the growth of human civilization. Interested parties may send e-mail to: jafanika. sibal@ph.panasonic.com or lorenzo.magsingit@ ph.panasonic.com to request for an official application form. Applications will be accepted until August 16. Documents submitted shall not be returned under any circumstances.

MS. S. HALEP: CHAMPION! Sports BusinessMirror

| Monday, July 15, 2019

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

KATE, Duchess of Cambridge (left), along with (second from left) Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Pippa Matthews grace the women’s singles final on Saturday. AP

Simona starstruck at meeting duchesses at Wimbledon W ON top of her game right from start to finish, Simona Halep overwhelms Williams, 6-2, 6-2, in stunning fashion for her second major championship. AP

IMBLEDON, England—Simona Halep joined the list of tennis royalty at Wimbledon on Saturday, then got a bit starstruck at meeting the real thing. Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, watched from the front row of the Royal Box on Centre Court as Halep beat seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s singles final. And their presence hardly went unnoticed. “It was an extra boost when I saw all of them there, the royal family,” said Halep, who had said before the final that she hoped Kate—a Wimbledon regular—would be there. “It was an honor to play in front of her.” Both duchesses also attended last year’s final, when Williams lost to Angelique Kerber. This time they were joined by Kate’s sister, Pippa Matthews, while British Prime Minister Theresa May also sat a few seats away. For Meghan, the outcome of the match was probably not the one she had been hoping for. She is good friends with Williams, who attended her wedding to Prince Harry last year, and also watched the American play her

second-round match on No. 1 Court last week. Meghan applauded Williams enthusiastically as she received her runner-up trophy, and the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said she can rely on the duchess for support even in bad moments. “Just having her in general as a friend is great. She’s such a great friend and a great person as well. Always positive no matter what,” Williams said. “She, too, was happy for Simona. She saw she played unbelievable. That’s just the kind of person she is.” In her on-court interview immediately after the match ended, Halep gushed when thanking the royals for coming out. And that was before she was told that as the new champion, she’d get to meet them after. “That’s amazing. I didn’t know that,” said the Romanian, who clinched her first Wimbledon title. “It’s even more special now.” TV cameras captured that meeting minutes later, with Halep giving a deep curtsy as she was introduced to Kate before heading out to the balcony to show off her trophy to fans outside. “You played an incredible game,” Kate said. “It was really, really impressive, so congratulations.”

JUNIOR CHAMPION By Howard Fendrich

The Associated Press

IMBLEDON, England—Clutching her trophy 20 minutes after becoming Wimbledon’s champion, Simona Halep checked out the board inside Centre Court that lists tournament winners. Below all of the mentions of Serena Williams, her opponent in Saturday’s final, there already was inscribed: “Miss S. Halep.” Halep was not concerned with preventing Williams from winning a 24th Grand Slam title. All Halep cared about was winning her first at the All England Club. And she played pretty much perfectly. On top of her game right from start to finish, Halep overwhelmed Williams, 6-2, 6-2, in stunning fashion for her second major championship. The whole thing took less than an hour as Williams lost her third Slam final in a row as she tries to equal Margaret Court’s record for most major trophies in tennis history. “I’m very sure,” Halep said, “that was the best match of my life.” The No. 7-seeded Romanian made a mere three unforced errors, a remarkably low total and 23 fewer than Williams. Not bad for someone who has been frank about how jittery she has gotten in past big matches and began the day having lost nine of 10 matchups against Williams. But after losing each of her first three major finals, Halep now has won two straight, including at last year’s French Open. “She literally played out of her mind. Congratulations, Simona,” Williams said during the trophy ceremony. “It was a little bit ‘a deer in the headlights’ for me.” Williams also lost in straight sets against Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final a year ago, and against Naomi Osaka at the US Open last September. “I just have to figure out a way to win a final,” Williams said. The 37-year-old American hasn’t won a tournament since the 2017 Australian Open, when she set the professional-era record of 23 Grand Slam championships

(Court won 13 of her titles against amateur competition). Williams was pregnant when she won in Australia and then took more than a year off the tour; her daughter, Olympia, was born in September 2017. Since returning to tennis, Williams has dealt with injuries but still managed to remain among the game’s elite. In part because of a bad left knee, she only had played 12 matches all season until Wimbledon. “Just got to keep fighting,” Williams said, “and just keep trying.” Didn’t take long on Saturday for the 27-year-old Halep to demonstrate this was not going to be easy for Williams. Not by any means. Showing off the talents and traits that once lifted her to No. 1 in the rankings, Halep never really gave Williams a chance to get into the match. “I’ve always been intimidated a little bit when I faced Serena. She’s an inspiration for everyone and the model for everyone,” Halep said. “Today, I decided before the match that I’m going to focus on myself and on the final of [a] Grand Slam, not on her. That’s why I was able to play my best, to be relaxed, and to be able to be positive and confident against her.” Halep tracked down everything, as is her wont. She didn’t merely play defense, though, managing to go from retrieving an apparent point-ending stroke by Williams to lashing a winner of her own in a blink. “I was over-hitting it, trying to go for too much,” Williams said. “She was getting just a tremendous amount of balls back.” Her returns were exceptional, repeatedly getting back serves that left Williams’s racket at 115 mph or more. On this cloudy, cool afternoon, with the temperature in the low 70s (low 20s Celsius), Halep began with a pair of service breaks and even delivered the match’s first ace, at 106 mph, which put her out front 4-0 after 11 astonishing minutes. Halep won 14 of the first 18 points, with many in the crowd roaring for each of the rare ones that went Williams’s way. Halep produced eight winners before a single unforced error, avoiding a miscue until the seventh game.

Williams, in stark contrast, came out looking a bit tight, short-arming shots and accumulating nine unforced errors before conjuring up a single winner. She spoke after her semifinal victory about trying to remain calm on court, and that she did, even in the face of a player who was at her very best. Williams would place a hand on her hip. Or put a palm up and look at her guest box, as if thinking, “What can I do?” Williams’s greatest show of emotion came after she stretched for a forehand volley winner on the second set’s second point. She leaned forward and yelled, “Come on!” But the comeback never came. Halep broke to lead 3-2 in that set when Williams pushed a backhand long, and there wasn’t much left from there. Halep only had been as far as the semifinals once at Wimbledon until now. But she was determined to change that and said she told the locker-room attendants at the beginning of the tournament she wanted to grab a title to earn lifetime membership in the All England Club. “So here I am,” she said Saturday, the fortnight done, her trophy won. “It was one of my motivations before this tournament. So now I am happy.”

SERENA’S WORST LOSSES 1997 Sydney SF, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-2, 6-1. 1997 Oklahoma City QF, Joannette Kruger, 6-1, 6-1. 1999 Rome QF, Martina Hingis, 6-2, 6-2. 2000 Indian Wells QF, Mary Pierce, 6-2, 6-1. 2004 Los Angeles F, Lindsay Davenport, 6-1, 6-3. 2009 Sydney SF, Elena Dementieva, 6-3, 6-1. 2009 Miami F, Victoria Azarenka, 6-3, 6-1. 2014 French Open 2R, Garbine Muguruza, 6-2, 6-2. 2014 WTA Finals-Singapore RR, Simona Halep, 6-0, 6-2. 2018 San Jose R32, Johanna Konta, 6-1, 6-0. 2019 Wimbledon F, Simona Halep, 6-2, 6-2.

DARIA SNIGUR of Ukraine won the junior girls’ title at Wimbledon, beating Alexa Noel of the United States, 6-4, 6-4. Snigur trailed 4-1 in the opening set before winning five straight games, then came from 3-0 down in the second set. “I can’t believe it,” Snigur said. “I worked hard every day for this trophy. It’s incredible.” The match was played on No. 1 Court, the second-biggest stadium at the All England Club, and Snigur said the size of the venue made her “really scared” when she walked out. The Wimbledon win is Snigur’s first major title. AP

Spo

Business

C2 Monday, July 15, 2019

Davis joins Lakers, Lebron with championship plans

Tringale, Landry share Deere lead

ILVIS, Illinois—Cameron Tringale and Andrew Landry topped the John Deere Classic leaderboard Saturday, with a halfdozen guys right behind them. Winless on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour, Tringale shot a six-under 65 to match Landy at 16-under 197 at TPC Deere Run. Landry had a 67. He won the Valero Texas Open last year for his lone tour title. “Some golf courses you can leaderboard watch, but this is not one of them,” said Landry, with eight players within two shots of the lead. “You want to stay with your game plan.” Bill Haas, the 2011 FedEx Cup champion, and Adam Schenk were a stroke back. Haas shot a 64, tying the best round of the day. Schenk had a 66. Nick Watney also had a 64 to join 2016 winner Ryan Moore (65), Dylan Frattelli (65) and Vaughn Taylor (66) at 14 under. Chris Stroud (66), Lucas Glover (69) and Roger Sloan (67) were 13 under. Second-round leader Jhonattan Vegas stumbled

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

AS VEGAS—Everyone knows that Russell Westbrook and James Harden played together before, which automatically makes their reunion in Houston seem like the right fit. It won’t be that easy. They’ve both changed since those days. But here they are, together again after the Oklahoma City Thunder decided to trade Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul and another load of draft picks that Sam Presti is collecting in the same way that sneakerheads hoard vintage pairs of Jordans. On the surface, it’s a shiny move for Houston—two of the last three National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Players, the two guys with the most points over the last five seasons, in the same backcourt. Per NBA rules, there will only be one ball in play, however. The term they use is “ball dominant,” a fancy way of saying certain players need the

to a 76 and fell to eight under. Tringale bogeyed the first hole, but that only motivated him to post his lowest score of the tournament. “The bogey on the first hole was a shot in the leg,” Tringale said. “But I was able to get out of there myself and birdie the next two, which gave me some momentum.” Landry looked as if was in trouble after bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes. He then birdied Nos. 16 and 17—only to miss a 10-foot putt that would’ve given him the outright lead. Haas, who hasn’t won since 2015, was a passenger in a car last February when driver and friend, Mark Gibello, was killed on a winding road outside Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Gibello’s Ferrari clipped another car and slammed into a pole. Haas walked away largely unscathed. Haas has struggled this season, finishing 48th or worse in each of his last six starts. He had seven birdies in a bogey-free third round. AP

JAMES HARDEN (left) talks with Russell Westbrook during their Oklahoma City Thunder days in 2012. AP

BALL DOMINANT: JAMES OR RUSSELL? ball in their hands more than others. Westbrook and Harden are two of those guys. Harden held the ball for nearly six-and-a-half seconds—a league high—and took nearly six dribbles, on average, every time he touched it last season. Westbrook typically held the ball for 5.1 seconds, taking nearly five dribbles every time it was in his hands. That can’t continue. They’re both going to have to change. And getting big-time stars to change is never easy. The Rockets know this, of course, but in a Western Conference that saw Kawhi Leonard and Paul George join the Los Angeles Clippers, Anthony Davis join the

Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant leave Golden State, they had to do something. Harden and Paul, for whatever reason, didn’t work out. Title-chasing teams like Houston aren’t inclined to be patient, so the Rockets took a big swing and brought on Westbrook. It’s believed that this is a trade both Westbrook and Harden wanted. When the Thunder decided to deal George to the Clippers in a move that all but announced that Westbrook would be gone next, it made sense that teaming up with Harden again would be an option. That makes for a nice story: former teammates getting back together. These versions of Westbrook and Harden, however,

have never been teammates before. They were kids when they spent the first three seasons of Harden’s career together in Oklahoma City. They were making around $4 million a year, not $4 million a month. Westbrook was just becoming an All-Star, Harden hadn’t yet reached that level. And they had Durant on those OKC teams, the last of which was good enough to get to the NBA Finals and get swiftly taken out by Miami in five games. There’s no Durant this time to help their cause. Plus, sure, they spent those three years together in Oklahoma City, but Harden’s role was so much different then. He and Westbrook started together in seven games over those three seasons. Superstar duos are all the rage right now in the NBA, a basic necessity for any team interested in winning a title. Harden had them before in Houston: It was him and Dwight Howard for a while, him and Paul for the last couple of years—not to mention him, Paul and Carmelo Anthony for 10 games this past season before the Rockets gave up on the Melo experiment. None of them for Harden worked as planned. This one had better be different, for Houston’s sake. Westbrook only gets older and more expensive every year from here, meaning if this partnership doesn’t work it could be difficult for the Rockets to move him and try to create yet another star duo for Harden. This move means the Rockets are all in—championship or bust. Harden is elite but has no rings yet. Westbrook is elite but has no rings yet. They’ll be happy now to be together again, they’ll be all smiles at media day in September and they will have a super cool handshake to show off on national television on opening night in October. Whether they’ll still be smiling come next April, May and June is contingent on both of them being willing to change their games in order to make this work. Otherwise, it’ll be the same old results yet again.

YES, champion soccer player Carli Lloyd can dance. AP

ONACO—Sifan Hassan broke the long-standing women’s mile record in four minutes and 12.33 seconds at the Herculis Diamond League meeting on Friday. The Dutchwoman fractionally beat the 4:12.56 set in 1996 by Svetlana Masterkova, a two-time Olympic champion that year in Atlanta. Hassan knocked two seconds off her personal best and finished five seconds clear of Britain’s Laura Weightman. It was the first outdoor world record on the track so far this year. She reached the 1,200-meter mark in 3:10.2 and pushed hard to clock a 62-second

L SEGUNDO, California— Anthony Davis’s year of uncertainty finally felt finished when he stood in the Los Angeles Lakers’ training complex and proudly held up his new gold jersey while LeBron James looked on approvingly. After months of upheaval around his departure from New Orleans, the superstar forward is looking forward to years of success and stability on the West Coast. Sure, Davis knows the Lakers are rarely stable, and championships are the only success this franchise understands. The six-time All-Star can’t wait for the challenge of winning big in the Hollywood spotlight. “The most difficult part for me was just not knowing,” Davis said Saturday. “When it was announced that I was being traded, I don’t want to say it was a relief, [but] it was something that I’d thought about for a long time. Obviously it was tough to leave the city I’d been playing in for seven years, but I think it was best for me. “When I found out I’d been traded to the Lakers, I realized it was an unbelievable opportunity for me,” he added. “To be here with a wonderful organization, and then to be able to play alongside LeBron and the players that we have now...to get

the opportunity to do that and come here and play for an organization that’s all about winning, and winning championships, and that’s the only goal, I think that was the biggest thing for me.” The Lakers formally acquired Davis this month in one of the biggest moves of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) tumultuous offseason, but this courtship has been happening for much longer. Davis became determined to leave New Orleans last season, and Los Angeles made an in-season run at Davis before eagerly blowing up its young core to get a second game-changing star to play alongside James. Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka introduced Davis as “the most dominant young basketball player in the world.” The Lakers gave up Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and a slew of draft picks to land Davis one year before he could become an unrestricted free agent. While Pelinka clearly expects Davis to sign a long-term deal to stay with the Lakers, Davis didn’t make a declaration of his intentions right away. “Right now, my focus is on this year, and trying to help this organization become a championship team,” Davis said. Davis’s new jersey will bear a No. 3 after his plan to take his usual No. 23 from James fell through thanks to rules involving jersey supplier Nike, who had already begun planning for next season with James in the No. 23 shirt. Davis will go back to the number he wore in elementary and middle school, although he jokingly said the denial of No. 23 “was pretty hurtful.” AP

LEBRON JAMES (left) and Anthony Davis share a moment after Davis is introduced at a news conference at the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, California, on Saturday. AP

Lloyd celebrates World Cup victory with dance from J. Lo

EW YORK—Carli Lloyd of the US women’s national soccer team celebrated her recent World Cup victory with a lap dance from J. Lo. Jennifer Lopez pulled Lloyd from the audience to the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Friday night, working her sensual moves on the soccer star. After Lopez told the crowd that Lloyd was in attendance, her fiancé Alex Rodriguez escorted Lloyd to security guards who walked her to the stage, where she sat on a chair shaped like a stiletto shoe. Lopez congratulated Lloyd for her team’s win and then told the athlete: “Got a little present for you.” “Actually Carli, I

got two presents for you,” the pop star said. “Girls, will you take care of Carli and give her a little birthday present?” Lopez left the stage and two of her female backup dancers gyrated on Lloyd as the 2009 hit “Birthday Sex” by R&B singer Jeremih played in the background. Lloyd’s 37th birthday is Tuesday. Lopez returned to the stage, and she and her female dancers moved sensually in front of Lloyd, who was cheered on by the audience. “Carli, you doing OK?” Lopez asked, then sitting on Lloyd’s lap as she sang a slowed-down version of “If You Had My Love,” her debut single released in 1999. The US women’s national soccer team has been on a celebratory run since beating the Netherlands to capture a record fourth Women’s World Cup title earlier this week. On Wednesday, the team won trophies at The ESPYS and was honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City. Lloyd wasn’t the only special guest at the concert: Lopez’s 11-year-old daughter, Emme Maribel Muñiz, joined her onstage to sing a duet, which earned a standing ovation from the audience. Lopez’s “It’s My Party” Tour will return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. AP

Hassan breaks women’s mile world record; Gatlin wins 100 closing lap at Stade Louis II, the home of French soccer side Monaco. Hassan was surprised, but thinks this result stands her in good stead for the world championships in Doha, Qatar, in late September. “The first 800 was a bit slow, so after that I wasn’t thinking it would be a world record,” she said. “When I crossed the line I was so surprised. After you run the last 400 like that and set a world record, it gives me [you] much confidence over 5,000...I want to double over 1,500 and 5,000 in Doha.” In the men’s 100 meters, there was another

win for world champion Justin Gatlin. The 37-year-old Gatlin clocked 9.91 seconds to narrowly beat Noah Lyles in 9.92—Gatlin’s winning time last Friday at the Athletissima Diamond League in Lausanne. Michael Rodgers made it a United States podium sweep with 10.01 for third, having run the same time in Lausanne. “It’s all about putting together a good technical race, to use my experience. It feels great to beat these guys,” said Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion. “This season is surreal; I can’t believe I’m still winning here. Noah is a great runner, so every time I race him I’m excited.” AP

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Monday, July 15, 2019 C3 PRINCESS SUPERAL takes a break from the Japan Tour to vie in the Pradera Ladies Classic.

AULINE DEL ROSARIO can’t wait to get going coming off a two-month long training in the US while Princess Superal takes a break from the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Step Up Tour to headline the stellar cast in the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Pradera Ladies Classic unfolding on Wednesday at the Pradera Verde Golf and Country Club in Lubao, Pampanga. Being part of the LPGA of Taiwan, the $80,000 event, one of the premier legs of the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT), features not only the leading Taiwanese players but also those from the other regions, including from Thailand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. That makes the 54-hole championship put up by ICTSI an event to watch for its strong cast with Del Rosario and Superal, and the rest of the compact local cast bracing for a duel of power, iron play and putting at the sprawling 27-hole golf complex inside the vast 700-hectare Pradera Verde in Barangay Prado Siongco. “My chances could be good if I could stick to what my coach and I have been working on the past two months,” said del Rosario, who hooked

STELLAR CAST IN LUBAO TILT up with Coach Patrick Leahy, whose used to handle golf greats Nancy Lopez and Tom Kite, in preparation for her LPGA Tour Qualifying School bid later this year. Del Rosario ran away with a 14-stroke romp over Daniella Uy at Royal Northwoods last April but fell short of her back-to-back LPGT bid at Midlands, losing in a playoff to a resurgent Chihiro Ikeda last May. But the former LPGT Order of Merit winner, who racked up four victories in her rookie campaign in 2017 to emerge on top of the money list, is eager to flaunt her form again together with Superal, who tied for 12th in the Route Inn Cup in Nagano Prefecture last month, her best effort thus far in her early stint in the Japan LPGA Step Up Tour that also had her placing 14th, 15th,

16th and 18th in other events. Thai ace Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, who beat compatriot Pimpadsorn Sangkagaro by two to reign here last year, is also back in the hunt for a repeat along with regular LPGT leg winners Onkanok Soisuwan and Supakchaya Pattanaranakrueang along with Alisara Wedchakama, Chatprapa Siriprakob and Tiranan Yoopan. Six amateurs are also vying in the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. and backed by Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, K&G Golf Apparel, BDO, Sharp, KZG, PLDT, Empire Golf and Sports and M.Y. Shokai Technology Inc., all eyeing to sneak into the title picture, including Nicole Abelar, Sam Bruce, Tomi Arejola, Diana Araneta, Sam Martirez and Chanelle Avaricio. Other pros in the fold are Alex Etter, Gretchen

Villacencio, Marvi Monsalve, Pamela Mariano, Thais Chakansim Khamborn, Chitawadee Duangchan, Chommapat Pongthanarak, Chonnikam Chaiyasith, Chouvarest Chourkittisopon and Cristawan Rungruang, Koreans Dayun Kang Yeseul Lee and former leg winner Ye Nah Hwang, Dea Mahendra of Indonesia and Brunei’s Valerie Tan.

BLATCHE IN TOWN FOR GILAS G

ILAS Pilipinas shifts its training to high gear with Andray Blatche joining the national team in its buildup for the Fiba World Cup next month in China. The 6-foot-11 Blatche arrived on Saturday and is expected to train with the pool on Monday as the national squad goes deep into practice for the August 31 to September 15 group stages in Foshan, China. “We are happy to welcome Andray back to Manila,” Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio said through Special

Assistant to SBP President Ryan Gregorio. “It is a great development that he is here early to get reacquainted with his teammates and coaches as we get ourselves ready for the Fiba World Cup in China,” Panlilio added. The team has been in harness the past weeks to get themselves ready for the country’s second straight trip to the world stage. Panlilio said that part of their buildup is a pocket tournament in Spain and tune-up matches against Australian ball club Adelaide. Gilas will immerse itself in the Spanish

UST a week into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 95 men’s basketball tournament, graduating guard Jethro Mendoza has already given Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) a moment to remember. Mendoza hit the go-ahead lay-up with 1.5 seconds remaining as EAC pulled off a monumental 84-82 stunner over back-to-back runner-up Lyceum of the Philippines University last Friday at Filoil Flying V Centre. That game-winner alone was more than enough for the sweet-shooting guard to earn the season’s first Collegiate Press Corps NCAA Player of the Week. Along with the shot that sank the league heavyweight, Mendoza poured eight of his team-high 21 points in the closing stretch, towing the Generals to their first win against the Pirates since 2016 and biggest triumph overall since beating eventual champion Letran back in 2015. Mendoza buried six triples to anchor his scoring explosion and also tallied four rebounds, two assists, and a steal against zero turnovers in 26 minutes of action. “We knew the game was ours and we fought to the end, staving off their rallies,” said Mendoza, who made sure EAC repelled Lyceum’s fight back from 18 points down. It also helped that first-year Head Coach Oliver Bunyi has full trust in his dead-shot shooter. “I was telling them, even if Jethro is doing zero-of-10 in the first part, I will still trust him to take the ball outside. That’s his job. And he was successful,” Bunyi said. Mendoza bested Jerrick Balanza of Letran, RK Ilagan of San Sebastian, Jaycee Marcelino of Lyceum, Edgar Charcos of Perpetual Help and the San Beda troika of James Canlas, Evan Nelle and Donald Tankoua for the weekly award handed out by scribes from print and online covering the beat.

T the age of 62, bowling legend Paeng Nepomuceno hasn’t stopped winning. Nepomuceno’s latest Masters triumph—the 132nd of his distinguished career—came Saturday when he ruled the 17th Playdium Tenpin Bowling Association (PTBA) mixed open finals by scoring a 12-game series of 2677 pinfalls at the Playdium Center in Quezon City. “It’s so special because I established a new record of being the oldest Masters champion,” said Nepomuceno, so far the only four-time Bowling World Cup men’s titlist who carried the colors of PRIMA and Philippine Bowling Federation in the star-studded event. Nepomuceno beat veteran RJ Bautista, Enzo Hernandez and Patrick Nuqui who tallied 2618, 2615 and 2561, respectively. Krizziah Tabora, also a World Cup international titlist like Nepomuceno, finished seventh overall but

General Mendoza week’s best player

tournament set from August 4 to 11 against the host country, Ivory Coast and Congo. Next is a pair of tune-up games against Adelaide 36ers in Manila on August 23 and 25. The Filipinos are expected to fly to China after the Manila game. The Philippines is bracketed in a tough group in the World Cup with Serbia, Italy and Angola. “It is a source of pride for our country to be included in the Fiba World Cup for the second straight time. Our goal now is to compete and win against world-class teams

JR. WORLD CHAMP Aidric Chan holds his trophy after scoring a come-from-behind victory

in the premier boys’ 15-18 division in the Junior World Championships in San Diego, California, last Friday. The incoming University of Arizona student, one of the products of the Manila Southwoods golf program, will also lead the country’s campaign in the 30th Southeast Asian Games from November 30 to December 10 along with Carl Corpus and Sean Ramos at Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac.

PhilCycling national road championships lure big field

VICTORIOUS QUE Japan Professional Golfers’ Association Tour campaigner Angelo

Que (center) beams as he holds his trophy while posing with Joop Kalambakal (left) of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Public Relations Group and Southwoods Golf Director Jerome Delariarte after nailing his first Philippine Golf Tour Asia victory with a dominant campaign in the ICTSI Manila Southwoods Championship.

PAENG NEVER STOPS! No. 1 among the lady finalists with 2478 pinfalls to emerge women’s champion. Alexis Sy came in second to Tabora with 2476. Nepomuceno opened his bid with a 236 game and then chalked up 203, 198, 249, 226, 209, 234, 227, 223, 280, 190 and 202 in the next 11 games. Bautista rolled big games of 261, 257, 246, 235 and 230. Here’s how some of the other bowlers finished: Kenneth Chua, 2551; Praise Gahol, 2518; Paolo Darroca, 2471; Frederick Ong, 2469; Kevin Cu, 2463; Benshir Layoso, 2461; Jonas Baltasar, 2451; Alyssa Ty, 2415; Lara PosadasWong, 2393; Nicco Olaivar, 2387; Raoul Miranda, 2387; and Paulo Valdez, 2353.

NEPOMUCENO

Chef de Mission to set criteria for Team PHL

HEF de Mission William Ramirez and his team will release the criteria and eventually start selecting members of Team Philippines to the 30th Southeast Asian Games during the Second Team Philippines Assessment Meeting on Tuesday at the Philippine International Convention Center. Invited to the meeting are presidents and secretary-general of all national sports associations

in our bracket,” Panlilio added. The Gilas pool includes mainstays June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Gabe Norwood, Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Matthew Wright, Raymond Almazan and Beau Belga. Joining them in the twice-a-week practices are Kiefer Ravena, Marc Barroca, Paul Lee, Poy Erram, CJ Perez, Robert Bolick and Marcio Lassiter. “We are excited to see a full Gilas Pilipinas roster who will be ready to fight for flag and country,” Panlilio said.

(NSAs) involved in the country’s hosting of the Games from November 30 to December 11. Also invited was the Philippine Olympic Committee, which has yet to resolve its leadership issue. “We need to come together as a group to agree on the criteria. The PSC recognizes its strengths and, in this case, our strength lies in the knowledge of our partners on their specific sports,” said Ramirez,

chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission. “We are looking into using the last SEAG [Kuala Lumpur 2017], Asian Games and world-level performances of our athletes as benchmarks for selection,” Ramirez added. Ramirez’s chef de mission team include deputies Stephen Fernandez, Ada Milby and PSC Commissioners Celia Kiram, Arnold Agustin, Charles Maxey and Mon Fernandez.

EGISTRATION for the PhilCycling 2019 National Road Championships set July 23 for the Road Races and July 24 for the Time Trial events in Tagaytay City breached the 100-rider mark in the Men Elite and Under-23, and Men Junior categories. A total of 119 riders registered for the Men Elite and Under-23 Road Race (Massed Start) of the championships presented by Standard Insurance and Tagaytay City, and supported by One LGC (Air21, Ube Media Inc. and IWMI), Go For Gold, MVP Sports Foundation, Bike-X Singapore and 7-Eleven Cliqq Air21 by Roadbike Philippines. In the Men Junior (17-18 years old) Road Race, 101 riders registered hoping to follow the tracks of their idols—including former Tour champions Mark John Lexer Galedo, El Joshua Cariño, Ronald Oranza and Jan Paul Morales—all national riders who are staking their slots on the team to the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting in December. “The figures [registration] is proof that cycling is very much alive in the Philippines,

thanks to our sport’s stakeholders,” PhilCycling President and Tagaytay City Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said. The Men Elite and Under-23 Individual Time Trial (ITT) lured 68 riders, all of whom are also competing in the Road Race, and the Men Junior attracted 43 aspirants in the race that is calendared in the International Cycling Union or UCI. The Women Elite Road Race drew 12 riders and all 12 are also vying in the ITT of the championships where 12 teams have registered for the Men Elite Team Time Trial. The Men Elite and Under-23 ITT will cover 18 kilometers and the Road Race 132.08 kms, the Women Elite and Men Junior ITT will be 12 kms and the Road Race will be 91.35 kms, while the Men Elite TTT will be 40 kms. The championships main hub will be at the Praying Hands (Tagaytay City International Convention Center) on Aguinaldo Highway. The Road Races and time trial events will pass through Batangas’s First District—Agoncillo, Balayan, Calaca, Laurel, Lemery, Lian, Nasugbu, Talisay and Tuy.

MANNY SPARS Manny Pacquiao spars two three-rounders at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday against Jesse Roman and AB Lopez a week before he fights Keith Thurman for the World Boxing Association welterweight title on July 20 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. PHOTO COURTESY BY WENDELL ALINEA

RICK OLIVARES bleachersbrew@gmail.com

BLEACHERS’ BREW

Giving volleyball a boost

BY the time this column is out, the matter of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference Finals between the Creamline Coolsmashers and the Petro Gazz Angels would have been settled. Petro Gazz equalized with a four-set win last Saturday, July 13, to send the series to a winnertake-all Sunday Game Three. I like the fact that the Petro Gazz has taken leaps and bounds to contend for the title. Obviously, Petro Gazz has designs on being the top team in the PVL and that is good. It is good that the Coolsmashers have competition if not a rival. The last rivalry the PVL had was between BaliPure and Pocari Sweat. The Lady Warriors were looking at a rivalry with Creamline then but the latter club was getting its feet wet in the PVL. They had to wait until they added setter Jia Morado, libero Mel Gohing and Michelle Gumabao before they won. The Lady Warriors are now scattered across the league with teams like Motolite, Creamline, Petro Gazz and BaliPure. I thought when they “merged” with Philippine Air Force, the signs said they were on their way out. That team was not only winning, but they were also glamorous, and headline-makers. Well, the finals of this conference will make headlines. The Angles on the other hand, have accelerated their title ambitions. They not only limited Creamline’s imports in Kuttika Kaewpin and Aleoscar Blanco, but the Angels’ local stepped up too to ensure the win and series extension. While the competition is good between the two sides, we’d like to see not only more parity but also a steadiness to the PVL roster of teams. BanKo-Perlas is the only other tenured team. Pacific Town Army has been in and out. It is ironic considering that not only was Army and the other Armed Forces teams regulars but they carried the torch for volleyball for the longest time. With the popularity of volleyball, and the rise of club volleyball and the pro-leagues leagues, the Armed Forces teams have been on the retreat. They no longer have the best talent. I think that the PVL should find ways to make their tournaments more economically viable for the clubs’ participation. That there are six team that bears testament to the need not only for parity but also being worth it for the teams. It is nice to have BaliPure but you’ll never know how long they can continue. This is the fourth iteration of their squad showing a startling lack of continuity unlike BanKo-Perlas, Creamline, and Petro Gazz. I love what the PVL is doing and they have done the sport well since the old Shakey’s V-League days. But times have changed and they too must adapt. I am happy that in my brief tenure with them, I managed to suggest and bring back the All-Star Game. There needs to be continuity. I do hope that this hotly contested final between Creamline and Petro Gazz brings is not only more fans but also interest and support for the game and the league. What helps them also helps local volleyball (along with what the PSL is doing). At the end of the day, it is a good time to be a sports and volleyball fan.

PINOT, ALAPHILIPPE BOOST FRENCH HOPES By Samuel Petrequin

The Associated Press

AINT-ETIENNE, France—As their country prepares to celebrate Bastille Day, Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot were in the mood for fireworks a day in advance at the Tour de

France. Carrying the hopes of a country that has not seen a homegrown Tour winner in 34 years, the French pair emerged as the big winners on Saturday of the leg-punishing Stage 8 in the Massif Central which saw Geraint Thomas crash and lose ground in the defense of his title. After five hours of exhaustion on the saddle across seven short but punishing climbs, Alaphilippe claimed back the yellow jersey with one of his trademarks attacks, while Pinot asserted himself as a strong contender for the final victory by gaining time on Thomas and company. A spectacular rider with an aggressive style, Alaphilippe is, however, limited in mountains and has no real hope of keeping the jersey to the end. But Pinot is in the form of his life. He can compete with the best above 2,000 meters, an asset giving him hope he can succeed cycling great Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour in 1985. “They’ve got some real punch,” Thomas said. “They’re the ones to watch.” Alaphilippe abandoned his yellow jersey for just six seconds to Giulio Ciccone on Thursday at the Planche des Belles Filles ski station. He knew he had a golden chance to get it back on rollercoaster terrain suiting his skills.

Sports

“I will wear the yellow jersey on Bastille Day, for a Frenchman there is nothing better,” Alaphilippe said after finishing the stage in third place, just behind Pinot. Thomas de Gendt won the 200-kilometer trek after a long breakaway effort at the front. With bonus seconds at play at the summit of the final categorized climb, the Cote de la Jaillere, Alaphilippe surged from a small pack of favorites near the top, with Pinot on his wheel. The brutal attack was left unanswered and Alaphilippe went over the mountain in second position behind de Gendt, claiming five precious bonus seconds. Working well with Pinot, they went all out in the downhill and kept the pressure on in the final kilometers leading to Saint-Etienne’s Geoffroy Guichard soccer stadium. “I’ve been working hard for that, but it goes beyond my hopes,” Alaphilippe added. “This is the bike racing I love.” Alaphilippe turned his deficit to Ciccone into a 23-second lead over the Italian, with Pinot in third place, 53 seconds off the pace. Since achieving a third-place finish in 2014, Pinot has always struggled at his home race, and skipped it last year. “My career goal was to win the Giro di Lombardia and stages at all three Grands Tour,” said Pinot, who won the Italian oneday classic race last year. “Since I’ve done that I’m more relaxed.” Fifth overall and 1:12 behind Alaphilippe, Thomas crashed about 15 kilometers from the end but escaped unscathed and crossed the finish line 20 seconds behind Alaphilippe and Pinot. The pile-up involved other Ineos riders and left one of his teammates’ bikes broken in two pieces.

BusinessMirror

| Monday, July 15, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

FRANCE’S Thibaut Pinot (right) and Julian Alaphilippe cross the finish line of the eighth stage on Saturday. AP

Once back in the pack, the Welshman did not move when Alaphilippe and Pinot went away. Thomas was involved in another crash during the opening stage last week in Belgium. This time, he said he was taken out by Michael Woods when the Canadian rider crashed going around a right-hand bend. Woods later rode in with torn shorts. Thomas took consolation from the fact that he was able to catch up with the speeding pack, but he was disappointed Pinot and Alaphilippe got away. “The good thing is I had good legs to be able to [catch up],” he said. “It’s just frustrating that those two got time.” Determined to shine on a day suited for bardoudeurs—a French word used

Pitfalls of owning a French château V

ILLERSEXEL, France—The Tour de France loves castles. Not a day passes without the TV cameras zooming in on one of the country’s magnificent châteaux along the race route, conjuring up dreams of living the high life, perhaps with a glass of Champagne in hand. But the reality isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Jean-Pierre Potet fell in love with the 19th-century Château de Villersexel, near Belfort in eastern France that was passed in the Tour’s first week. So in love, he bought it. “I was young, handsome, rich and intelligent,” the 78-year-old Potet says. “I didn’t choose the Château, the Château chose me.” But his love had expensive tastes. After 50 years of upkeep, his money ran out. More on Potet in a second. First, a quick recap of Saturday’s Stage 8. It was epic. French rider Julian Alaphilippe took back the yellow jersey that he’d lost on Stage 6. Defending champion Geraint Thomas crashed and rode furiously to not get left behind. Thomas de Gendt raced dashingly in a breakaway at the front to win the 200-kilometer trek from the wine town of Macon, where snails cooked in garlic and parsley butter are a thing. Now, back to Potet and his castle. “I wanted to keep it in good condition and it cost me a lot of money,” he adds. “Now the problem is that I have no more money.” But he did have a son, Basin-Jules Potet, with a business major and a ton of ideas. When his father announced five years ago that he’d sold off the last of his lands around Paris to pay for castle maintenance, Basin-Jules convinced him to share his love with others. Château rooms were converted for use as a bed and breakfast. They also host weddings and Basin-Jules runs an annual rock festival on the Château grounds. “To bring young blood into old stone,” Basin-Jules says. When he does guided tours, showing visitors the stately rooms with painted ceilings, intricate wood carvings, and his father’s collection of pianos and other antiques, Basin-Jules tells them that castle life has “good sides and bad sides.” “There is the dream, there are big rooms,” he says. “But it’s not an easy life. You have to find a way to take care of the building, to find money.” “It’s a poisoned apple,” he added. His father says he has turned down would-be buyers, including Russians who offered him €3 million ($3.4 million) in cash. “They came with a suitcase full of money,” he says. “It was dirty money...I said, ‘No.’” AP

THE Château de Villersexel in eastern France is a monument of a structure. AP

to describe breakaway riders capable of winning on their own—De Gendt spent the day at the front. The last survivor of a four-man breakaway across the Beaujolais vineyards and the Monts du Lyonnais, he held off the peloton’s chase for his second career stage win at the Tour. The stage took a toll on many riders, including former Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, who conceded four minutes and 25 seconds. A day after his long and unsuccessful breakaway in Burgundy, Frenchman Yoann Offredo struggled with an intestinal bug at the back while pure sprinters including Dylan Groenewegen and Caleb Ewan went through a day of suffering, just making sure they reached the finish within the delays.

China wins first 3 diving golds at worlds G

WANGJU, South Korea—Xie Siyi and Cao Yuan won the men’s 3-meter springboard synchro on Saturday to complete a Chinese sweep of all three diving events on the opening day of the world championships. Xie and Cao finished with 439.74 points, well ahead of the second-place pair of Jack Laugher of Britain, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics champion, and his new partner Daniel Goodfellow, who had 415.02. Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez and Yahel Castillo Huerta of Mexico took the bronze with 413.94. The results gave China, Britain and Mexico guaranteed spots in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics next year. Earlier, favorites Lian Junjie and Si Yajie of China easily won gold in the 10-meter platform mixed synchro and Chen Yiwen won the women’s 1-meter springboard, a non-Olympic event, with a total of 285.45 points. The 1-meter springboard silver went to American Sarah Bacon with 262.00 and the bronze was earned by Suji Kim of South Korea with 257.20. The US diver moved into the silver medal spot and ahead of Kim after her fifth and final dive. Katherine Torrance of Britain was fourth with 255.40. Bacon will also compete in the 3-meter springboard, an Olympic event, next Friday. Lian and Si finished with 346.14 points in the 10-meter mixed synchro. Ekaterina Beliaeva and Viktor Minibaev of Russia took the silver with 311.28 points, followed by the Mexican pair of Maria Jose Sanchez and Jose Balleza Isaias with 287.64. Britain’s Robyn Birch and Noah Williams were a close fourth with 285.18, followed by Americans Olivia Rosendahl and Zachary Cooper with 267.96 points. China won seven of the eight diving gold

medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016—four by its women and three from the men. Xin Xin, also of China, meanwhile, won the women’s 10-kilometer open water event Sunday, lifting China to its fourth gold medal of the world swimming championships. Xin finished in a time of one hour, 54 minutes and 47:20 seconds. The 22-year-old, who finished fourth in the same event at the Rio Olympics, is now guaranteed a spot at next year’s Olympics in Tokyo. Haley Anderson of the US took silver, 0.90 seconds behind, and Italy’s Rachele Bruni finished third to take bronze, 1.80 seconds behind Anderson. “My goal before this competition was to qualify for the Olympics,” said Xia, who will compete in her third Olympics at Tokyo. “I believe that I can race better and better in the future.” “My strategy today was to relax and save energy in the first half, and to keep clear in the mind and also to keep the confidence in myself.” In a frantic finish a large pack of swimmers jostled for a top-10 placing which would earn qualification for next year’s Olympics, with Xin and Anderson surging ahead in the final 20 meters to claim top spots on the podium. American Ashley Twichell finished seventh to join Anderson in qualifying for Tokyo, as did reigning Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands who finished 10th. “It was always my goal to be on the podium here, it wasn’t just about finishing in the top 10 today,” said Anderson, who won silver at the London Olympics in 2012. “I am really excited about how I finished, not just where I finished. This is a great set up for me for the Olympics next summer.” On Saturday, Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary won the men’s 5-kilometer open water event to claim the first medal of the world swimming championships, before China completed a sweep of all three diving events on the opening day. AP

RUSSIANS perform their routine in the artistic swimming team technical preliminary at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, on Sunday. AP

God of every good gift

EAR God, You choose the humble to proclaim Your Word. In joy and gladness we pray: Fashion us into Your image, oh loving God. Help us to leave our comfort zone and meanness to others and extend Your loving kindness to one another. Give parents the strength and courage they need to guide their children in the ways of Your peace. Heal those who have suffered abuse, disrespect from uncaring people in the Church, and transform our brokenness and hurt feelings. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us and remain with us, now and always. Amen. GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life BusinessMirror

Learning about fashion from the industry’s best JOJIE LLOREN in teaching mode

HAT does the Philippine fashion industry need more of to be on a par with fashion capitals like London, Milan, Paris and New York? “Better training and skills,” says Jesus “Jojie” Lloren, without embellishing the truth. Jojie didn’t become one of the country’s best fashion practitioners by sheer talent alone. He went to the best learning institutions and had a fashion legend to help him navigate the cutthroat field. “It was studying clothing technology at the University of the Philippines that gave me the

foundation which enabled me to embark on a fashion career. Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne broadened it even more. Christian Espiritu, who I regard as my mentor, polished my aesthetics and opened my eyes to the real world of a fashion business,” he adds. Over the years, Jojie has served as mentor on Project Runway Philippines, resident designer at Rustan’s for Jill and Luna, and as president of the Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines. Still, the passion to teach and impart his vast knowledge about fashion practices never went away. In October 2017, FAB (Fashion+Art+Business) Creatives Manila was born. “This has been my longtime dream with my friend, Pidge Reyes, a former consultant to garment manufacturers, dating back to more than a decade ago. The incorporators are Pidge, [Baliuag University President] Pat Lagunda, [Baliuag University Legal Counsel] Susan Jacinto, [Baliuag University Vice President for Finance and Administration] Nina Santos, [De La Salle Pro. and The Little Campus

Continued on D2

ALL ACCESS: IMPRESSIVE LINEUP FOR FDCP’S PISTA NG PELIKULANG PILIPINO 2019 D3

Monday, July 15, 2019

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Learning about fashion from the industry’s best

Continued from D1 LLOREN and his students

North Bend School President] Alice Orosa, [visual artist] Albert Avellana and myself,” Jojie says. The courses under the one-year FAB Comprehensive Fashion Program include Creative Process, Creative Sewing, Womenswear Design, Menswear Design, Flat Pattern Drafting, Entrepreneurship 1, Portfolio Making, Making a Fashion Collection and Garment Construction 1-3. The elective courses include Fashion Show Production, Accessory Making, Professional Makeup, Fashion and Product Photography, Visual Merchandising and Fashion Writing. “When we started, we offered only short workshops. All of the attendees either took just one, two or three workshops. We set up a one-year comprehensive fashion program so that we would have ‘graduates’ who we really can claim are FAB products,” Jojie adds. Besides the basic technical and creative courses, Jojie added others that he thinks, through his decades of experience, are needed when studying fashion. These are either advanced courses or those not being offered by local fashion schools. Tuition varies according to the length and kind of workshop. Classes for the one-year program are scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The workshops are held on the other days of the week, even Sundays. All sessions are three hours long. The workshops are taught in a nontraditional way, where students “benefit from a truy enriching experience as class size is small, allowing for personalization and direct mentoring,” while also “making learning fun and practical, developing individual creativity and productivity among all students.” Selecting the instructors for the fashion programs was quite easy, as Jojie tapped his colleagues and friends who are as generous, energized and zealous as he is when it comes to sharing their industry “secrets” for survival, success and longevity. “I chose the mentors based on their track records, being top figures in their respective fields. More important, it is their willingness, readiness, and availability to share their knowledge and experience,” he explains. Among the industry experts are designers Lesley Mobo, Ivarluski Aseron, Vic Barba, Rhett Eala, Mich Dulce, Dennis Lustico, Joey Samson, Cherry Veric, Gian Romano and Inno Sotto; photographers Jo Ann Bitagcol, Sara Black and Jun de Leon; modelaccessories designer Tweetie de Leon; fashion directors Ariel Lozada, Robbie Carmona and Jackie Aquino; stylist Noel Manapat; journalist Cheche Moral; and makeup artist Patrick Rosas. Why do you think there’s a need to establish a fashion school in the country? “Well, there’s always room for another learning

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Tristan Wilds, 30; Lana Parrilla, 42; Jason Bonham, 53; Forest Whitaker, 58. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Do your very best, and you’ll stand out this year. Discipline and hard work, along with diversity and open-mindedness, will lead to all sorts of possibilities. Refuse to let what others do infringe on doing what’s right for you. Surround yourself with people who make you think and encourage you to try new things. Personal improvements and romance are highlighted. Your lucky numbers are 2, 8, 14, 22, 27, 34, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Think matters through before you take action. You’ll come up against opposition if you are inconsistent or unprepared. Flesh out any foreseeable problems in order to avoid criticism. Listen to what others say and want, and you’ll know exactly how to respond. HH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Keep moving forward. Stop talking and start doing if you want to reach your goal. A change should be made for the right reason, not to impress someone. Do something to improve your standard of living and bring about peace of mind. HHHHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Use your intelligence when dealing with people who are trying to part you from your hard-earned cash. Look for opportunities to expand your interests and to improve your life without purchasing items you don’t need. Stuff doesn’t buy happiness. HHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take a moment to assess a situation before you react. It’s in your best interest to gather the facts, consider your options and put together an ironclad plan that will help you get the most out of whatever circumstance you face. HHH

venue. FAB offers mentorship in a full class of eight students only, and with its comprehensive programs, students can realize an earlier return of their investment on education,” Jojie says. What’s the significance of having a separate course for terno sleeves-making? “The modern Filipino dress is identifiable only by its sleeves. It is very important that this iconic detail is done the right way,” Jojie explains. Issues about cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation, ethics, copyrights, retagging, piracy of workers, proper pricing, as well as the #MeToo movement in the fashion world, with designers and photographers being held accountable for sexual misbehavior against models are raging. “Our mentors, being top professionals, would be able to instill in the students [how to address] these issues,” Jojie assures. FAB aims to foster an atmosphere of creativity and diligence by providing “a venue for anyone who wants to get into the fashion industry. Our workshops can hone each individual’s inherent talent and skills, and instill them with utmost discipline and dedication. And because of this type of training and tutelage, the students will be equipped with the competencies and professionalism necessary to embark on an inspired fashion career.” As a way of giving back to a profession that

has been kind to them, Jojie and FAB are offering scholarships. “Since we started, a lot of inquirers were deterred from enrolling for the reason that the fee is beyond their financial capacity. We thought that among them, there might be some very talented individuals who we can support to enable them to fulfill their dream of a successful fashion career,” he says. The applicant must be 18 years old or above, must be a Filipino citizen residing in the Philippines and at least a high-school graduate: “We would like to accommodate deserving individuals as much as we can. We are offering a one-year full scholarship and this program is being supported by the friends of FAB.” You have a Fashion Writing course, but do you also teach students how to respond to critiques and criticisms? And how to deal with the media? “The mentors would share their personal experiences to let them know these are part and parcel of this industry,” Jojie says. How is FAB a better alternative than studying abroad at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, or Parsons in Paris and the like? “I have always believed in the Filipinos’ capabilities and talent.” Interested individuals can e-mail their inquiries to fabcreativesmanila@gmail.com. n

Fendi stages ethereal tribute to Lagerfeld in ancient Rome ROME—Fendi paid tribute on Thursday to the late Karl Lagerfeld with an ethereal haute couture show overlooking the monumental Colosseum from atop Palatine Hill. Hollywood A-lister Catherine Zeta Jones with her daughter Carys Zeta Douglas had front row seats along with Italian fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni and her rapper husband Fedez. The collection for next fall and winter, dubbed “The Dawn of Romanity,” drew on smoky granite patterns, mosaic compositions and architectural details that evoked the palatial floors and ceilings of Rome. A live singer provided haunting background vocals to the show. From the first outfit—a white suit with blousy sleeves

Today’s Horoscope

and creased trousers with side slits—a soft color palette was revealed. A coat with marble-like details was worn over a sheer skirt and belted organza top, while a swingy Dalmatian fur was paired with sheer trousers. One black fur had lines defined by cutouts, and another was as soft and enveloping as a loosened braid. Evening dresses had bodices with crisscrossing straps over ashy-shaded under layers. Models wore mod 1970s Pageboy haircuts, which were, at times, colored to match the runway looks in blue, green and fading shades. Outfits were accessorized with big hoop earrings and oversized color-tinted eyewear. Some used large fur bags as clutches, while others carried dainty leather

pouches on long chains. Lagerfeld, an iconic couturier who was known for his 54 year collaboration with Rome-based Fendi, died in February. He was honored throughout the show for his contributions to the fashion house, which included early womenswear designs he made beginning in 1965. The contrast between the sleek modern under-lit white runway and the ancient ruins on Palatine Hill emphasized what the house called the creative tension between past and future as it moves into its post-Lagerfeld era. Fendi has previously staged shows against the backdrop of the Great Wall of China in 2007 and Rome’s Trevi Fountain, which it helped pay to restore, in 2016. AP

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Try not to disagree. If you have a different opinion, keep it to yourself. Taking in information will make you smarter and better equipped to have a debate when the time is right. Open-mindedness will give you an advantage. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take a moment to assess what you have and what you can do. The possibilities are endless, and the results can be spectacular if you put your plans into motion in a practical fashion. HHHHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Think through every move you make. Take action when you are satisfied that you have everything in place. Keep your distance from anyone who tends to be harmful or causes emotional stress. HH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take a closeup look at what’s actually happening. Go directly to the source and see for yourself how best you should deal with any situation that concerns you. What you discover will be enlightening. Personal growth is highlighted. HHHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t be fooled by someone who brags or is notorious for dangling a carrot in front of your nose in hopes you’ll take the bait. Use your intelligence, and know when to say no. A joint venture isn’t favored. HHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You can bring about a change at home that will make life better. A relationship will take a turn that will ease your stress and bring you closer to the ones you love. Share your feelings by demonstrating affection. HHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Keep secrets. If you share too much information about yourself or someone else, you will look bad. Don’t let a change of plans someone makes upset you. Do your own thing, and look out for your interests. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Take part in an important event. Let your actions speak for you, and you will attract people who share your sentiments. Group endeavors will bring results, lead to new friendships and encourage you to socialize more. Romance is on the rise. HHHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are sensitive, loving and kind. You are steadfast and progressive.

‘surround sound’ BY KATHY WIENBERG The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Brood 5 Rolaids competitor 9 Type units 14 Highest point 15 “Now!” 16 In pieces 17 “The San Francisco Treat” 19 Human/goat hybrid 20 Black sheep’s affirmative, in a nursery rhyme 21 Acad. 23 Black sheep’s sound 24 Avoid artfully 27 Lower back affliction 31 Catherine who survived Henry VIII (in two ways!) 32 With 58-Down, runny egg style 33 Dept. of Labor agency 36 Stuff below Earth’s crust 39 Real McCoys 42 Luxurious sheet material 43 Command to a fly 44 “Happy” songbird

5 Soup can painter Warhol 4 47 Planet shapes 49 Wrongful detention 53 Large coffee holder 54 Org. that gave “Us” an R 55 “That time works for me” 60 Dough 62 Stirrup location also found in the starred answers 64 All gone 65 “Gotcha” 66 The first “A” in A.K.A. 67 Sinking feeling 68 Puts in stitches 69 Fidget spinners, e.g. DOWN 1 Queen of Scots 2 The Andy Griffith Show boy 3 Pushups build them 4 Former spouses 5 French cuisine herb 6 Troop-supporting grp. 7 Frenzied 8 Where a shiver is felt

9 Classic meat on rye 10 Light-colored beer’s initials 11 One committing a high crime? 12 Indo-___ people 13 Fine fiddle, informally 18 Musical based on a Verdi opera 22 Maple tree fluid 25 Snoops (around) 26 Giants’ ballpark 27 Jam ingredients? 28 Pigmented eye layer 29 Unwritten reminder 30 Boston NHL team 34 “Gotcha!” 35 Popped up 37 Inconsequential 38 Pops the question 40 Like a hot item 41 Ship part above the water line 46 Talk on and on 48 www letters 49 Was livid 50 Like Niagara Falls, sound-wise 51 Harold of Ghostbusters

2 Bold move in poker 5 56 Climbing Mount Everest, e.g. 57 Move, briefly 58 See 32-Across 59 Love archer 61 Grassy expanse 63 Wet blanket?

Solution to Friday’s puzzle:

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Monday, July 15, 2019

Impressive lineup for FDCP’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino 2019 FROM left: Anita Linda, Martin del Rosario, Jameson Blake and Maris Rascal.

HE Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) continues to raise the bar with the kind of films that made the list for the third edition of the much-awaited Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP), scheduled from September 13 to 19. The announcement came one day after the politically controlled and controversy-laden Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) made public its first four choices of films to be showcased in the annual year-end festival, which had nothing new to offer, to say the least. The FDCP chose the theme “Pamilya, Pagkakaibigan, Pag-ibig” (Family, Friendship and Love) as the theme of its flagship event this year that will happen after a grand kick-off program, billed as Sandaan, on September 12 to celebrate the 100 years of Philippine cinema. With the very hardworking Chairman Mary Liza Diño-Seguerra leading this reinvigorated film agency, PPP 2019 boasts of a truly impressive, balanced and promising roster of entries, judging from the synopses of the 10 entries and the names of people

involved in the movies that made the cut. Just go through these names and their respective movies: Paolo Ballesteros, Martin del Rosario and Christian Bables star as three gay brothers whose lives will forever be changed after their terminally ill father tells them his condition before they can partake of his inheritance. Jun Lana directs The Panti Sisters. RK Bagatsing and Sue Ramirez play prostitutes who cross paths one night only to realize that love can happen in the most unexpected twists and turns. Rod Marmol directs Cuddle Weather. A group of young men go through a roller-coaster adventure for the sake of friendship. Hearthrobs McCoy de Leon, Jameson Blake and Mark Oblea star in this teen movie, simply titled G, directed by

Dondon Santos. Real-life sweethearts Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos top bill Last Song Syndrome, about two souls who follow the musical journey of their favorite band. Jade Castro directs this movie that also features the real band Ben&Ben. Maris Rascal gets her biggest break in a movie about a vlogger and her escapades in I’m Ellenya L, which pairs her with singer-actor Iñigo Pascual. It is directed by Boy2 Quizon. Arci Muñoz and JC Santos explore possibilities about open relationships after 14 years of going steady in Open, directed by Andoy Ranay. Jean Garcia tries to rethink her plans as a ruthless assassin when things unravel and she is hit hard by an unexpected reality. Tyrone Acierto directs the

violence-laden Watch Me Kill. There are three films people are talking about that feature some of the few remaining senior working actresses. Circa, by Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr., stars the 94-year-old Anita Linda as a once celebrated film producer who wishes to have a grand reunion with all the actors and people she has worked with as she looks forward to her 100th birthday. The 81-year-old Angie Ferro takes on the role of the oldest living grandmother in the world in Lola Igna, directed by Eduardo Roy Jr. The 87-year-old Gloria Sevilla headlines a family movie about a troubled overseas worker who comes home to reunite with her family in Pagbalik, directed by Hubert Tibi and Maria Ranillo. n

Monday, July 15, 2019

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Beauty trends for Autumn-Winter 2019 MAC Cosmetics’s Regan Rabanal shows off the upcoming beauty trends.

OR Autumn-Winter 2019, MAC Cosmetics presents four beauty trends: Romanticism, modernism, art deco and suprematism, all anchored on the perfect canvas, which is smooth and glowing skin. During MAC Cosmetics’s Trends Presentation held recently at the Samsung Hall of SM Aura Premier, Regan Rabanal, senior manager of Makeup Artistry of MAC Cosmetics Asia Pacific, showed us how to create the perfect canvas for color. To give the skin a velvety matte soft look, Rabanal mixed MAC Cosmetics Lightful C+Coral Grass Tinted Primer SPF45/PA++++ with MAC Studio Fix 24-Hour Smooth Wear Concealer on the back of his hand and applied it on the model’s skin using a MAC 196 Slanted Flat Top Foundation Brush. The brush also acts like a beauty sponge because you can press the tip to the skin so your makeup applies smoothly. Rabanal also applied MAC Lip Conditioner to the model’s lips and eyelids. For the Romanticism trend, Rabanal showed us how to use three MAC Powder Kiss lipsticks—Devoted Go Chili, My Tweedy and Burning Love—to create a soft diffused lip. Romanticism is all about blurring, airbrushing, buffing, balance and harmony. It’s about using pretty colors with a light finish on the cheeks and lips, with both serving as a canvas. The Powder Kiss lipsticks can also be applied as cheek color. Modernism is about mascara and eyeliner, and making it your own. For example, mascara can look like it’s been applied in a moving car for a messy uncontrived look but it can also look polished depending on one’s mood. As long as it’s black, the eye look can be interpreted in calligraphic ways using MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

(applied with a slanted brush or an eyeshadow brush). Art Deco involves gilding, glitter and ornamentation, like “jewelry on the face.” The look is reflective and slightly nostalgic. Think of it as painting with glitter, pastels and vivid colors. This trend can be achieved using MAC Art Library It’s Designer palette and the new MAC Dazzleshadow Liquid. Suprematism is a trend that’s confident, optimistic and supremely chic. Using MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour gives any look intensity and brightness. The looks within the Suprematism trend are bold and fearless, and the color palette is beyond neutral. The four trends have been described as a “return to refinement” but with a difference. This time, the looks are more experimental and are an expression of one’s artistry. The colors—from the browns and peaches of MAC Powder Kiss, to the brights in the MAC Art Library It’s Designer palette—are all so beautiful. The protips shared by Rabanal, such as how to create a diffused look on the lip, were very modern. He also used the bright colors in the eye palette on the cheeks. This is what I love about makeup and makeup artists. The products are better and more versatile, and the artists gain more expertise in terms of techniques. The beauty industry is incredibly dynamic, and I love how the products we use and the makeup artists we love are reflecting this. n

INTERACTIVE EXHIBIT THAT UPLIFTS AND CELEBRATES WOMEN HELD recently at SM Makati, Philippine Wacoal Corp. hosted a five-day interactive exhibit that launched the brand’s latest campaign, dubbed Wacoal’s Women of the World. The exhibit featured the portraits of 30 remarkable women from different fields, as well as their stories of hard work and success. Some talked about their personal journey, and how each and every one can make their mark, too. Part of the campaign’s roster of women were sports broadcaster Dyan Castillejo, renewableenergy advocate Ruth Yu-Owen, social responsibility advocate and designer Zarah Juan, and visual artist Celeste Lecaroz. “From the products that we offer, to the advocacies we promote, our brand guarantees

that every single Filipina realizes their beauty and worth,” said Ann Christine Palisoc, president of Philippine Wacoal. Recalling its rise in the intimate apparel industry, Palisoc said: “When we started, it was a real struggle with the department stores expecting us to offer discounts. But through constant communication, they began to understand our brand values. The superior quality of the products spoke for themselves and today, department stores have become valuable business partners with a relationship based on trust.” Women can expect Wacoal to continue to offer high quality, functional and comfortable intimate apparel, plus even more premium products which enhance the beauty of a woman’s body.

BusinessMirror

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Monday, July 15, 2019 E1

Jony Ive and the myth that only certain people can design

By Jon Kolko

ECENTLY, the big design buzz has been on Jonathan “Jony” Ive leaving Apple. Much of the conversation is around the impact he’s had on the design of Apple’s products—on shaping the form of the things we want and buy.

Design is both a noun and a verb. For almost a century, we’ve enjoyed a consumer culture that brings objects of design into our lives. These are artifacts of convenience, function and appeal; they are things, like chairs and shoes and stoves and cars. Design, as a verb, is the process of making things. Sometimes, that process is about a curiosity and exploration of material, as with the work of Ray and Charles Eames. Sometimes, the process is about solving a problem, as evidenced

in the trend of design thinking. And sometimes, the process is about inclusive democratization, as with the theme of participatory design—a Scandinavian-inspired approach that shifts the creative spark from an external source to the “genius” of the people who will be using whatever ends up being made. W hen design is something that’s done, not something that’s had, it is empowering. When we’re in the mid of a creative process, we lose the sense of ourselves, of our problems and anxieties, even

of our goals: we find flow, and in that flow, we grow. The products designed at Apple under Ive’s leadership, for all of their beauty and sophistication, have reinforced the notion that design is about magic people making magic things. We can all make things. Let’s celebrate Ive’s impact on the world, not by highlighting the stuff he’s made, but by finding inspiration in his ability to make them. Jon Kolko is a partner at Modernist Studio.

PRICE TRANSPARENCY IN HEALTH CARE IS COMING TO THE UNITED STATES—BUT WILL IT MATTER? By David Blumenthal, Lovisa Gustafsson & Shanoor Seervai

HERE’S movement to make health care prices transparent in the United States. This would include, not just the list prices that hospitals purport to charge, but the actual, negotiated, discounted prices that hospitals agree upon with insurers. These negotiated fees have been treated in the past as tightly guarded trade secrets by hospitals and health plans. There’s no question that the tectonic plates of public policy are shifting on the issue of price transparency. The question then is: Will pr ice t ra n s pa renc y lower health care costs? Economic theory and hospital opposition suggest it would, but the answer is not as straightforward as you might expect, and could differ from market to market. Health care is a really strange economic sector, and it doesn’t always follow the usual rules. There is also little evidence from the seven states that currently require hospitals to disclose prices that it results in lower costs. Ironically, some research also shows that in the absence of understandable quality information, some consumers assume that high price means high quality, and are actually drawn to higherpriced institutions. The complexity and urgency of hospital services are

issues as well. And what if there’s an unexpected complication requiring antibiotics or a cardiology consultation? Back surgery, if the underlying condition is not very severe, is a so-called shoppable service. But what about chest pain or stroke? The symptoms come on suddenly, and speed can make the difference between life and death. In these cases and many others, shopping is not an option. Then there is the issue of physician relationships. If you have an orthopedist or a neurosurgeon you trust for your back surgery, and she uses Hospital A which is more expensive, are you going to abandon her for another physician who uses the cheaper Hospital B? And finally, the distorting influence of insurance arises. Price isn’t very important for patients whose costs are covered by insurance. That said, price transparency has to be tried. Until it is, we won’t know the efficacy of markets as solutions to our health cost problem. While price opaqueness is indefensible, we would be wise to temper expectations about the therapeutic power of a dose of good price information. David Blumenthal is president of the Commonwealth Fund, where Lovisa Gustafsson is an assistant vice president and Shanoor Seervai is a senior research associate and communications associate.

SETTING BETTER SALES GOALS WITH ANALYTICS By Doug J. Chung, Isabel Huber, Vinay Murthy, Varun Sunku & Marije Weber

ALES compensation is a critical lever in motivating a sales force and driving growth in the business-to-business sector. A vital part of getting compensation right is setting the proper sales targets. Both academic research and our experience working with B2B companies in a variety of industries indicate that poor set targets often misfire, failing to deliver the expected benefits and demoralizing the sales force in the process. A few companies are finding solutions: They are using advanced analytics to identify the true drivers of business outcomes, applying big data and machine learning in order to understand customer demand at an unprecedented level of accuracy and granularity. Armed with more reliable projections, they can establish more meaningful targets.

Identifying the right key performance indicators

EVERY company must wrestle with this question: Should it base commissions and bonuses on sales figures, profits or some other metric? A poor chosen metric can lead to poor results. Big data and analytics can help identify the KPIs that are best aligned with business priorities, and can help define granular metrics that can drive desired outcomes.

Setting the right targets

AS offerings proliferate and sales processes grow more complex, customer demand is becoming increasingly volatile and difficult to predict—and traditional top-down approaches to target setting may fall short.

Choosing the right frequency for revision

How to fix 5-star rating systems By Josh Breinlinger, Andrei Hagiu & Julian Wright

S currently implemented, five-star rating systems suffer from several shortcomings. There are several options for providing users of a marketplace with a better sense of the relative ranking of suppliers. One basic thing would be to show users the average score for all suppliers in the relevant category. They could even be shown (in a simple way) the distribution of scores within a category, indicating the current supplier’s position in that distribution. By seeing where the supplier fits in it, the user could quickly get a sense of the overall situation. Another way to help is to indicate when a supplier is in a top percentile group, while not disclosing the status of other suppliers. This is akin to treating the top percentiles as badges, like

eBay and Airbnb have done with their respective “top-rated seller” and “superhost” designations. The second key measure we advocate is adjusting user ratings to reflect differences in reviewing behavior. Specifically, a given user’s review could be given a larger weight if there is a higher variance in the individual’s reviewer scores. Going further, one should consider adjusting a user’s score by the average rating that user has given in the past, so only relative differences across the ratings given by the user would shift a supplier’s rating. This would help adjust for differences between users who are intrinsically very generous in their ratings and users who are very demanding. Ot her w ay s m a rket pl aces could improve their reputation systems include using more private information (reviews and comments that are never revealed to the suppliers) and relative

HOW often should targets be reset? Revise them too frequently, and your administrative costs and communication challenges increase; revise them too slowly, and you may lose responsiveness to market changes and undermine reps’ engagement.

comparisons (how the supplier compared to the user’s previous supplier) to rank suppliers. They could also ask users questions whose answers will help the marketplace better match them to the right suppliers in the future (e.g., “What attributes of this supplier did you like/dislike the most?”). Rating systems may never be enough on their own to ensure trust and safety on online marketplaces. However, implementing these measures would go a long way toward making rating systems more robust while reducing marketplaces’ needs and the costs of providing these supplementary services.

Making it happen

Josh Breinlinger is a managing director at Jackson Square Ventures. Andrei Hagiu is an associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Julian Wright is a professor of economics at National University of Singapore.

Doug J. Chung is a professor at Harvard Business School. Isabel Huber is a partner with the marketing and sales practice of McKinsey & Company, where Vinay Murthy is an associate partner, Varun Sunku is a knowledge expert and Marije Weber is a consultant.

COMPANIES should examine whether the metrics they use to reward reps are aligned with their strategic objectives. They should set individual targets based, not on past performance, but on the potential of each rep’s customer portfolio. And they can boost reps’ motivation by setting and revising targets in line with customers’ purchasing cycles, while conducting experiments to arrive at the optimal frequency. Along the way, companies may struggle with imperfect data and with skepticism on the part of reps or management, or both. Success will probably require one experiment after another. By taking the steps outlined above and persevering through iteration after iteration, organizations can become higher performers with larger sales, better margins and a more motivated sales force.

E2 Monday, July 15, 2019 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Education BusinessMirror

NegOcc IT center named top-performing Tech4ED

Study in the US: Global classrooms create global opportunities

By Nanette Guadalquiver

ACOLOD CITY—The Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center (NOLITC) was awarded as the top-performing Tech4ED hub in the Visayas Cluster 1 by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

US Ambassador Sung Kim (center) joins Filipino students at an education fair in Manila. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

THE Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center (NOLITC) has been named the top-performing Tech4ED hub in the Visayas Cluster 1 by the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Photo shows Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson being presented the award by school administrator Ma. Cristina Orbecido (second from right) and project development officers Cely Carman-Trio (right) and Red Dawn Laurente (left) in Bacolod City on Monday, July 8, 2019. PHOTO COURTESY OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL PIO

NOLITC, a technical-vocational training school owned by the provincial government based in this city, was tops in the total number of platform-based users as of April 2019, as well as in trainings conducted from November 2018 to April 2019. School administrator Ma. Cristina Orbecido, who presented the awards to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Monday, told the Philippine News Agency the award is an indication of the center’s sustained commitment to promote digital literacy in the countryside. “We have been maximizing the programs and services of NOLITC

Tech4ED Center every year to reach the unserved and underserved clients,” she said. During the Tech4ED Center Conference held in Iloilo City recently, NOLITC bested 185 other Tech4ED Centers in the Visayas Cluster 1. Tech4ED, or Technology for Education, Employment, Entrepreneurial, and Economic Development Project, provides access for individuals and communities to bridge the digital and education divide through information, communication, technology, government services, nonformal education, skills training, telehealth,

In1Go and AIM collaborate for data science project

Student-made innovations on sustainability stand out at STI’s Manila Maker Faire

N1GO Technologies Inc. has partnered with the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) for the data science project Capstone Project Collaboration. The project aims to use information or real data to solve the company’s real-world business problems. Data from various industries are becoming more and more important for businesses to get ahead. In1Go Technologies Inc., an information-technology services and BPO (business-process outsourcing) company that provides a wide range of value solutions using the latest technologies, provided data so students in AIM’s Master of Science in Data Science program could develop a model that could lead to solutions to its business problems. “We’re looking forward to this partnership because this is new in the industry. With data science becoming more important, we’re looking into gaining insights from the information that we have to leverage our clients’ position,” said Ramon S. Garcia, chief executive officer of In1Go. Data In1Go shared from its clients could help develop a predictive model that the company could use internally for its projects or incorporate into its existing applications. In1Go’s clients are mostly from the fast-moving consumer good industry. Their data include inventories, sales and on-shelf availability. Data Science students from AIM studied, analyzed and worked on the live data to create a model that could benefit In1Go’s clients. Students partnered with data scientists from ACCeSs@AiM to look for patterns and gain insights from the information provided to meet In1Go’s requirements and parameters to solve its business problems. Students used computers, machine learning and algorithms to process the data. Depending on the business objective or problem, students tried developing solutions based on the information from the data. The collaborative project also served to meet thesis requirements of AIM’s Data Science students.

TUDENT-DESIGNED solutions on renewable energy and disaster preparedness took the spotlight at the recent third Manila Maker Faire at the Mind Museum, which gathered over 150 engineers, tech enthusiasts, students, educators and artists from all over the country. These innovations included a portable wind turbine made of recycled materials and a floodwater filtration machine that converts floodwater into clean water. These were showcased at the Manila Maker Faire’s largest booth, where 12 groups of senior high-school students from STI campuses nationwide presented their work. Dubbed the “greatest show [and tell on Earth],” Maker Faire is a festival for all ages that celebrates innovations in the technical field and in the realms of crafts and performing arts. It was launched in 2006 and has already produced shows around the world—Bay Area, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul and Berlin, among others. “Designing a relevant curriculum is only one step among many toward equipping young Filipinos with the expertise to succeed in their chosen field. It is just as important, however, to provide our students with opportunities to showcase their talents and creativity outside the classroom such as this huge event,”

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job markets and business portals. In 2018, the DICT elevated NOLITC to the Hall of Fame of the National Tech4ED Awards after three years of being a Center for Excellence. The NOLITC Tech4ED Center, which started in 2016, has been recognized for achieving consistent exemplary performance in delivering sustainable ICT-enabled services and

said STI AVP for Academic Research Aisa Q. Hipolito. “This is what the STI education is about: helping our students succeed in professions they were trained for, and we are exhausting every opportunity we can provide to meet this goal.”

Fostering innovations, creativity

MOTIVATED by the pressing issues on the increasing energy consumption versus limited natural resources, young makers from STI created groundbreaking projects aimed at addressing this widespread phenomenon. The portable wind turbine from recycled materials was designed to serve as an alternative source of electricity for household devices. As advocates of sustainable technology, students also exhibited a grass cutter and a canal waste collector that run entirely on solar energy. “Growing up, we’ve seen how our lives depend on nature’s finite nonrenewable-energy sources—which also leave a negative impact on our environment. With this, we thought of exploring more sustainable alternatives that are also earth-friendly like solar-powered equipment and portable wind turbine as a source of electricity,” explained Rose Ann Tubal, Grade 12 STEM student from STI College San Fernando. STI students also showcased di-

for exhibiting commendable impact in the growth and development of the community. This year, it is one of the finalists for the Gender and Development (GAD) Awards under the DigiPinay Category organized by DICT. The GAD awards ceremony will be held next month during the Knowledge Exchange Conference in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. PNA

saster-preparedness and response inventions, including a flood-detecting alarm that produces a powerful sound to alert the community on the rising flood levels. Meanwhile, to provide one of life’s basic necessities in times of calamity, a floodwater filtration machine was built with six types of filters to convert floodwater into clean water. An improved version of a “go bag” called the WeSurvive Bag, which includes portable water filter and solar-power charger and flashlight, was made of waterproof and tear-resistant fabric. Among the other STI products are concrete cylinders made of recycled sugarcane fibers, banana stem fibermade kraft paper as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic packaging, and mosquito-repellent aromatherapeutic candles, to name a few. The upcycled crafts and creative innovations displayed at the fair were initially exhibited in the annual Senior High School Expo, a nationwide exhibit for STI students to demonstrate their ideas and creativity. The two-day exhibit also served as a bridge between STI students and industry professionals and comakers, paving the way for insights that would help them improve their products and meet people who could lead them to greater opportunities.

Pepsi Philippines champions sustainability in national Brigada Eskwela drive

N line with its commitment to sustainability and quality education, Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. (PCPPI) partnered once again with the Department of Education to support their annual Brigada Eskwela program through nationwide, weeklong activities with almost 500 volunteers who rendered a cumulative 2,462 volunteer hours to local communities. “Every year, PCPPI actively engages with the education sector and the schools of our surrounding communities through Brigada Eskwela,” said PCPPI Corporate Affairs and Communications Senior Manager Monique Castro. “Taking care of the communities that support our trade is part of our core commitment to sustainability. Now equipped with our new three-pronged sustainability framework on water stewardship, circular

economy, and inclusive business, we expand our efforts in promoting effective resource management and our green advocacy to contribute to the mutual growth of both these communities and all of our operations.” A total of 27 schools from the surrounding communities of PCPPI’s 14 business units nationwide benefited from the company’s community investment of almost a million pesos.

Effective resource management through water stewardship

FOR its 2019 initiative, PCPPI supplied safe drinking water for students by donating high-grade drinking fountains to five schools surrounding their Modern Trade Operations, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog Region, Cebu and Davao offices.

With a drinking facility provided to each district, over 5,000 students in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were given access to safe drinking water. Recipient schools include Muntinlupa Elementary School, San Agustin Integrated Elementary School, Doña Tiburcia Carpio Malvar Elementary School in Luzon, Cebu’s Tulay National High School and Talomo Elementary School in Davao. PCPPI also promoted hygiene and sanitation by conducting proper handwashing demos, as well as donating handwashing facilities with hygiene kits set to serve 1,280 students. The three school beneficiaries were Marcos Elementary School near the company’s North Luzon facility, Echague National High School in Cabuyao and Tanauan National High School in Leyte.

N an increasingly knowledgebased and global economy, international firms seek employees who have global perspectives, overseas experience and can communicate across cultures. With more than 4,500 accredited academic institutions, including most of the world’s top-ranked universities and colleges, the United States offers Filipino students and professionals the best opportunity to obtain a high-quality international educational experience and achieve success in the global marketplace. The Philippines has 50 million English speakers under the age of 24, one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, and deep and enduring cultural ties with the US. These factors make the Philippines and the US natural educational exchange partners—and many Filipinos enhance their career opportunities through study in the US. According to the annual “Open Doors Report” from the US-based Institute for International Education, which tracks international student mobility, the number of Filipino students studying in the US over the past two years has increased, including an impressive 7.3-percent rise in the last academic year alone. Currently, more than 3,200 Filipinos are studying at US higher education institutions. First step: Do your homework WHETHER Filipino or American, an aspiring business professional or health-care provider, one maxim applies to all students: the best academic fit brings out the best performance. Each higher education institution has its own personality and strengths. With a wealth of college information accessible online and thousands of US universities providing affordable and enriching opportunities for international students, more Filipinos have access to the world’s #1 higher education system than ever before. How do Filipino students and professionals make sense of all of the available options? They have to do their homework, but, luckily, they don’t have to do it alone. The US Embassy in the Philippines aims to make the university research, application process and departure as smooth as possible with support from the “EducationUSA” team. EducationUSA helps Filipinos find the best-fit university for them and apply to their dream US schools with ease. As the official source of information on US higher education, EducationUSA advisers provide free advising services and support in navigating the US university admissions process. Not linked to any particular higher education institution, EducationUSA offers unbiased, comprehensive, current and accurate information on all US schools and programs so Filipinos can make the choice that’s best for them. Passionate about helping students OVER the past four years, US Embassy staff, through EducationUSA, have advised Filipino students, guidance counselors, parents and professionals on the five steps to US Study: Research-

ing Your Options, Funding Your Studies, Completing Your Application, Applying for a Student Visa and Attending a Pre-departure Orientation. Thousands of students from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have benefitted from these free advising services and programs such as education fairs, road shows, application drives, information sessions and oneon-one advising. The embassy’s informationsharing extends beyond students. In 2018, EdUSA advisers trained more than 130 guidance counselors in Manila, Cebu and Davao on US admissions counseling, enabling them to advise their own students interested in US study. The embassy also holds special sessions for parents so they can ask their questions on study overseas. A genuine passion for international education underpins all of the Embassy’s education outreach efforts. “My studies overseas transformed my life, personally and professionally, and I am passionate about providing as many students as I can with the information and resources they need to realize their dreams and benefit from that same transformative experience,” said US Cultural Attaché to the Philippines Matt Keener. “During the last four years, the outstanding work of the embassy’s EducationUSA team has ensured more and more Filipinos have been able to pursue their dreams at US academic institutions, and I look forward to working with students and our educational partners to further increase the number of students participating in education exchange.” Fairs in Cebu and Manila EARLIER this year, the US Embassy held its second EducationUSA Fair in Cebu and its fourth fair in Manila, respectively. The fairs present a free opportunity for Filipinos to engage in-person with admissions officers from accredited US universities and learn the ABCs of applying to US schools, including how to craft a strong application and apply for needbased and merit-based financial aid. Last year, EducationUSA welcomed more than 2,000 attendees to the fairs in Manila and Cebu and conducted the embassy’s first-ever Graduate Studies Fair in Manila, where more than 900 professionals and college students learned about postgraduate opportunities. High-school students, college students, working professionals, school administrators and parents are encouraged to attend the upcoming Cebu and Manila fairs. Education is one of the most valuable resources for young people who seek to be globally competitive in today’s knowledge-based economy. The US Embassy vowed to continue empowering Filipinos to find the best academic fit as they navigate the university admissions process. Students and professionals interested in free advising on US education should reach out to EducationUSA advisers via e-mail at educationusaph@state.gov or on their social-media pages @educationusa. philippines.

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Monday, July 15, 2019 E3

Print and credibility live on T

PR Matters By Barbie Atienza

ARTS & CULTURE: POSITIVE SPACE’S PRODUCTION OF ‘STOP KISS’ IS A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY, HATE CRIME AND FRIENDSHIP SEWN TOGETHER

STILL reeling from the festivities, acceptance, and love that Pride Month has had to give to the LGBT+ community, Stop Kiss couldn’t have come at a better time. Stop Kiss is the story of Callie who is a New York traffic reporter and Sara, a school teacher in the Bronx. Their friendship eventually blooms into something more as they banter and spend time with each other. In essence, Stop Kiss tells the story of two women who are assaulted after sharing a kiss. A kiss, which is usually seen as something so beautiful, resulting in a series of catastrophic events just goes to show the struggles of the LGBT+ community. Despite the play being written in 1998 by American playwright Diana Son, Stop Kiss is still relevant today because of the challenges that hinder the LGBT+ community from living a life completely free of discrimination. While the Philippines is considered as one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, the acceptance that prevails in the country is undiscerning when it comes to the heavy struggle the community faces. First staged in the Philippines by New Voice Company in 2003, Stop Kiss returns after 16 years with the same actresses playing different roles—this time, Aliw Award

HE print media is the oldest medium of mass communication. Through many, many centuries, it has been widely accepted as the most reliable and dependable source that provided people with news and information, current events, education and entertainment. It was always endowed with the discipline and ethics of responsible journalists. Its practitioners are professionals who painstakingly ensure that what they write would provide matters that people can truly rely on. Print media, even with the emergence of various modern media, provides more detailed stories as it could use more space and allows more time for consumers to look more deeply into any subject. Readers can conveniently keep coming back to scrutinize a story. From that, one can embroider opinions and insights, share their thoughts, take a stand and even make decisions. Newspapers, magazines, tabloids and books enjoy much more time and space than TV or radio. In content, the capability and capacity of print are unmatchable. Content is so comprehensive that all the other media would source out stories for broadcast from good old reliable print. Because of such credibility, print was also considered the best channel of advertising and promotions. People saw the medium as true, accurate and objective. Advertisers knew that readers would necessarily make buying decisions by picking up the newspaper. While it is always said that content is king, print undeniably was always the “king of content.” While these remain to be true even today, other factors have emerged to change the landscape as well as the rules of the game. In a fast-paced

winner Missy Maramara is Callie, and Gawad Buhay award nominee Jenny Jamora is Sara. Along with Maramara and Jamora in the cast are Tarek El Tayech as George, Gabe Mercado as Peter, Robbie Guevara as Detective Cole, Jay Valencia-Glorioso as Mrs. Winsley and J-mee Katanyag as Nurse. Maramara shines as Callie as she seamlessly transitions from one scene to the other. The play relies on interchanging the past and the present—from laughing with Sara in their first meeting to crying in distress as a detective interrogates her. While jarring at first, the scenes playing on the stage progresses naturally as the past and the present move closer to each other. It is worth mentioning that the production design of the stage by Gawad Buhay and Aliw Awardwinning director, and designer, Ed Lacson Jr., works impeccably for the nonchronological structure of the storyline. To add, the assembly of vibrant characters surrounding Callie and Sara, kept the audience on the edge of their seat until the pivot to the play’s climax. Callie and Sara’s dynamics on the stage was a delight to watch—both demanding characters without outdoing and overpowering the other. Their seemingly sweet friendship also factored in the two’s chemistry; each one testing the waters and how deep it can go and while it was apparent from the opening scene that the two would end up closing the distance between their lips, it was nothing short of satisfaction when they finally do. Stop Kiss will have a limited eight-show run from July 12 to 14 and 19 to 21 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight, Circuit Makati.

world, our lifestyles demand instant results and fast access. TV and radio now enjoy preference as consumers of news and entertainment turn to these media that they could not only see (or read) but they can also hear. Nonetheless, despite the ubiquity of these media, the newspaper remains the best source. Readers know that what they read has been checked and double checked, verified many times over before they were published and saw distribution. They also know just too well that the people writing the news they read, have the mindset and character that would ensure veracity of what they wrote; and are aware of their responsibility and impact on people and society. Thus, being consistent and in character, publishers safeguard the general public interest and welfare by making sure everything that sees print are correct and truthful—including advertisements. This results in high and strong demands not only for ad sales or circulation of print but also the preference it enjoys among advertisers and, consequently, their consumers and customers. Today, the challenge to remain sustainable, if not competitive, has become even more daunting than ever. With the birth of the new digital media, lifestyles and preferences in information sourcing have greatly changed. Aside from the multi-sensual appeal of TV and radio, speed and access have become the new priority. People now demand real time, instant news and information. They need to know what is going on as it happens. However, the fast turnover of stories also meant compromising and even sacrificing accuracy and reliability of stories. Thus, “fake news” were born. Whether intentionally or Tickets are now available at https:// www.ticket2me.net/e/2445/stopkiss or http://www.tinyurl.com/ StopKissMNLTickets. For show buying and other inquiries, contact Camille Abaya at 09158359210 or stopkiss2018@ gmail.com.

NEW BUSINESS: ZILINGO TEAMS UP WITH PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK FOR AN EASIER AND MORE REWARDING SHOPPING EXPERIENCE MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Zilingo, the leading e-commerce platform for fashion and lifestyle today announced its partnership with Philippine National Bank (PNB) to make online shopping easier and more rewarding for customers. Fashion enthusiasts across the country can now enjoy a site-wide discount of up to 30 percent when they make purchases on the web site or through the mobile app using their PNB credit and debit cards. “We are very excited to be partnering up with PNB,” says Ryza Dipatuan-Razo, marketing director, Zilingo Philippines. “Alongside offering our customers epic discounts and freebies, this also represents a step forward in strengthening the e-commerce industry in the country through partnerships with institutions like PNB to elevate the user experience of our local customers.” Recognizing the continuous growth and potential of the online retail market and the need to constantly provide its customers with new and exciting options, Zilingo aims to provide a unique shopping experience to its customers and enable brands to expand their reach to customers across the region.

inadvertently made, false or partly untrue information mislead people into making misplaced opinions or ill-informed decisions. Despite the real and serious dangers, a strong preference for speed over accuracy prevails. Advertisers, striving to track where their targeted markets go to for news, information, entertainment and yes, advertising, find themselves thinking of digital as the better alternative. Still, reservations remain. So, presence on time-tested mainstream media such as TV and radio are retained, mainly because they most resemble features of digital, catering to more senses than just a single dimension. Advertisers continue to venture into digital messaging although they still continue to put their money more in old traditional media except print. Should print compromise its credibility in favor of speed in order to survive? A recent study presented during the recent PublishAsia conference held in Singapore showed that print media as a whole continues to enjoy the highest trust in content. However, with respect to advertising spending, the share of print has continuously been shrinking and appears to remain in a further declining trend. This misalignment seems to indicate that there is no direct or proportionate correlation between credibility and saleability. Credibility is not necessarily

profitable. Should we then be less keen on credibility and make more money as a result? We don’t think so. In the conference, nobody thought so. Print should remain steadfast in its role as guardians of truth and integrity no matter the cost. It is our primordial mandate. Then the question is—can we sustain this commitment and survive the seeming onslaught? After all, what commitment, what credibility can we speak of, if we are to slip into our absolute demise and oblivion? So, is print dying? This is a question that has been nagging us for the last decade or so. The United Print Media Group (UPMG) resoundingly says no! Sure, we are finding out what media consumption and consumer behavior will be. Around the world, new approaches, new business models are being experimented on, explored and adapted. We are all finding out. Again in the conference, presentations showed various modes that could spur profitability and financial viability. But none of them were clear and certain. None guaranteed anything. One thing was clear, though. There was absolute resolve that it remained imperative that we preserve our commitment to credibility simply because that is what we truly are. Many things remain highly tentative. Wait, try and see is the prevalent

mood. Seemingly, no one really knows for sure. In the meantime, what we need to do is to keep our heads above water and try out new ideas and breakthroughs. We need to think out of the box and try the untried, journey into unknown territories. Surely, new norms and standards are bound to emerge. Advertisers also in the quest of finding out more about consumer preferences and behavior, are also groping on how their strategies should look like. There will be new rules of the game and we need to learn to play by them fast. The print media, while challenged to venture into new things and ways of doing them, remain confident and certain that we will go on doing what we ought to do in the service of humanity. In the meantime, we keep afloat through all these, hanging on to our old school, solid credibility. PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Barbie Atienza is the president of United Print Media Group (UPMG) Philippines. We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.

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E4 Monday, July 15, 2019

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WHY IT CAN MAKE SENSE TO BELIEVE IN THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

By Kristin Brethel-Haurwitz University of Pennsylvania

THE CONVERSATION

OULD you risk your life for a total stranger? While you might consider yourself incapable of acts of altruism on that scale, it happens again and again. During hurricanes and mass shootings, some people go to great lengths to help people they don’t even know while everyone else flees. To learn whether this behavior comes more naturally to some of us than others, I partnered with Abigail Marsh and other neuroscientists working at the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience at Georgetown University. We studied the brains and behavior of some extraordinary altruists: people who have donated one of their own kidneys to a total stranger, known as nondirected donors.

Unusually altruistic

THESE kidney donors may never learn anything about the recipient. That means they are not making this personal sacrifice because a relative or someone they may interact with in the future would benefit. What’s more, this act of altruism is costly in multiple ways.

It is a major, painful surgery. Many donors end up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical and travel expenses, and they can lose out on salary and other earnings. For the most part, there’s nothing to be gained in terms of the donor’s reputation. Many people, including some medical professionals, are skeptical about the motives of altruistic donors—even questioning their sanity. These drawbacks help explain why altruistic kidney donation is extremely rare. Fewer than 2,000 people have done this to date in the United States since 1988, the first year with a recorded altruistic donor. That makes it something a mere one out of every 163,133 Americans have ever done. And the norm is for living friends and family to donate kid-

neys to their loved ones. That was the case when celebrity Selena Gomez, who has lupus, got a new kidney from her best friend, the actress Francia Raisa. Most commonly, the kidneys of deceased organ donors are used in transplants for strangers. There are about twice as many transplants from deceased donors as transplants from living ones. Deceased donors and living friends and family account for a total of 99.5 percent of all kidney transplants performed over the past three decades.

Mammalian brains

DEEP in the brains of all mammals—whether squirrel, bonobo or human—the same regions respond to distress and vulnerability. This response is especially common when babies cry out or appear threatened. In our most recent study, we investigated whether those brain systems, which are responsible for making all mammals care about helpless youngsters, play a key role in making some people extremely altruistic. There are two major regions in what brain scientists call the “offspring care neural network,” evolutionarily old structures deep in the brain called the amygdala and the periaqueductal gray. The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure in both hemispheres tucked below the cortex. (Amygdala means almond in Greek.) One of its main roles in the brain is picking up on important emotional cues.

Research has long established that the amygdala is largely responsible for recognizing and feeling fear. The periaqueductal gray is another small u-shaped structure at the base of the brain. It plays an important role in controlling basic behaviors like the impulse to cuddle a baby or the instinct to avoid predators. Many studies have shown these structures and the connections between them are responsible for, say, motivating female rats to take care of their pups or making humans want to console crying babies. Responding to distressed offspring is such a strong survival instinct that it can even cross species. A deer, for example, will respond when it hears a crying human infant. Other research by Marsh’s lab has studied how people respond when they sense that others are afraid and feel an urge to comfort them. The sight of frightened faces can evoke helping behavior. And people who are good at noticing that someone is afraid just by seeing their face tend to be more altruistic than the rest of us. Scientists have long hypothesized that the care people extend to strangers may be a sort of extension of our most basic impulses to take care of our own kids. Scientists also believe that the ancient brain structures humans share with other mammals trigger these responses.

A test

TO learn more about the brains of extremely altruistic people, we did an experiment with people who had donated one of their kidneys to someone they didn’t know. In our study, we asked these extreme altruists to read scenarios, some of which described people who were the target of harmful or callous behavior, and rate how much sympathy they felt. We did the same thing with a control group of people who had not donated a kidney. Before reading some of these scenarios, we presented photos of fearful faces. These images were fleeting, lasting only 27 milliseconds. That means the participants couldn’t consciously recognize what they saw. Meanwhile, we scanned their brains. We found some interesting effects while reviewing images captured during this experiment. Most notably, the amygdalas and their periaqueductal gray were more active for kidney donors than people in our control group, with stronger reactions to fearful and distressed stimuli. What we found suggests that these two regions might be communicating or otherwise working together. We further tested this finding by looking at another aspect of our brain scans that allowed us to analyze how these two regions are connected by nerve cells. My colleague Katherine O’Connell, a doctoral student, found that there seemed to be greater structural connections

between these two regions, too. These connections may help nerve impulses travel between them.

Understanding altruism

TO be sure, more studies will have to be done to confirm our results before we can be sure how the offspring care neural network contributes to human altruism. But our findings reinforce earlier neuroscience research that found that the amygdala and periaqeuductal gray, and communication between them, play an important role in caring for distressed and vulnerable others across all mammals—including humans. These findings also build on our own prior research with altruistic kidney donors. In those earlier studies, we detected stronger amygdala responses when the donors glimpsed the faces of people who were feeling fear and that while altruistic kidney donors value friends and family as others do, they tend to be more generous toward strangers. Our study of the brains of realworld altruists backs up these theories. Caring about someone you have never met, what we learned suggests, may have a lot in common with caring about the people you love. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation. com/why-it-can-make-senseto-believe-in-the-kindness-ofstrangers-86271.