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WITH CUE FROM SONA, DOF PITCHES TAX BILLS www.businessmirror.com.ph

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Wednesday, July 29, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 293

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

“WE Win As One” billboards, strewn all over the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, one of the venues used as the country hosted the South East Asian Games in December 2019, serve as an ironic backdrop to the hardships experienced by locally stranded individuals as they wait for the results of their swab tests, a requirement to get a travel pass, and finally a chance to get on government-provided rides back to their home provinces. BERNARD TESTA

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

INANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III expressed hope on Tuesday that lawmakers would finally heed President Duterte’s call to pass the “long-due tax reform” that seeks to reduce the corporate income tax (CIT) rate and rationalization of incentives.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dominguez said the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act is a vital part of the government’s comprehensive plan to revive the economy that was shattered by the pandemic.

“We are hoping that our lawmakers will finally give their nod to this long-due tax reform that has become an integral component of our government’s bounce-back

plan for the domestic economy battered by the unprecedented global health crisis,” Dominguez said in reaction to the President’s pitch for CREATE in his penultimate State of the Nation Address (Sona).

As Dominguez expressed his hope, the Senate passed on third and final reading on Tuesday the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act, or Bayanihan II, which the DOF chief had earlier prodded lawmakers to See “Tax Bills,” A2

Travel, lift the economy–Duterte to Pinoys

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo Special to the BusinessMirror

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RAVEL local, boost the economy.

That was the appeal of President Duterte in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, amid the backdrop of the raging Covid-19 pandemic. He

also made a pitch for the creation of an authority to manage Boracay Island, long acknowledged as the crown jewel of Philippine tourism.

He described the tourism and recreation industries as among the “hardest hit” by Covid-19. “While we slowly try to put the fun back in our local travels, the national government agencies and LGUs [local

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.2230

government units] must harmonize their policies to boost tourism [while] ensuring everyone’s wellbeing. We enjoin our people to help boost the economy by traveling locally…once the necessary systems are in place.”

Even as the Department of Tourism (DOT) has encouraged the safe and secure reopening of

provinces already under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) to tourism, provincial governors and municipal mayors continue to be hesitant, fearing a surge in Covid-19 cases.

(See, “LGU chiefs, worried by virus, holding up tourism reopening,” in the BusinessMirror, July 9, 2020.)

Continued on A2

SENATE GIVES FINAL OK TO BAYANIHAN 2; AUG OK SEEN IN HOUSE

By Butch Fernandez & Samuel Medenilla

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HE Senate approved on third and final reading on Tuesday Senate Bill 1564 or the Bayanihan To Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2), to allow the government to continue its Covid-19 response and help affected sectors in recovering from the impacts of the pandemic.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, the bill’s author and principal sponsor, said that a total of P140 billion will be appropriated to fund the provisions of the law, a figure which was reached after long consultations with the economic managers. He noted that the Senate had effectively granted President Duterte’s wish, as expressed in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

The House of Representatives version of Bayanihan 2 was hounded by the wide variance between the lawmakers’ estimates of what is needed to boost the second phase of the government’s response to the pandemic, and the resources that economic managers deem realistic to fund the same. The economic team had Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4671 n UK 63.4583 n HK 6.3505 n CHINA 7.0339 n SINGAPORE 35.7051 n AUSTRALIA 35.1649 n EU 57.8469 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.1254

Source: BSP (July 28, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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PHL to head WTO agri panel amid bid to curb farm subsidies

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By Elijah Felice Rosales

HE Philippines will lead the agriculture panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at a time the multilateral trading body is trying to hold large economies accountable for subsidizing their farm sector.

The WTO’s Goods Council on Tuesday approved the set of new executives to the 14 subsidiary bodies that report to the council.

The new chairmen will take office when they have been formally elected by the committee or work-

ing party concerned.

Maria Araceli S. Escandor, who is posted to the Philippine mission to the WTO in Geneva, was selected to take charge of the agriculture committee of the Goods Council.

As such, Escandor will oversee

the implementation of the Agriculture Agreement. She will be tasked to lead discussions and monitoring on how WTO members are complying with their commitments, particularly on reducing subsidies on farm and fisheries and regulating the flow of agricultural trade.

The committee she will be leading, which is made up of all WTO members, usually meets three or four times annually.

During those meetings, the committee reviews the growth of agricultural trade to see if export subsidies may be affecting it. In general, Escandor will head the monitoring of elimination of agricultural export subsidies, new rules for export credits and decisions on international food aid

and exporting state trading enterprises.

The committee also reviews every three years the disciplines contained in the Nairobi Decision on export competition.

The Philippines will also oversee the monitoring of possible negative effects of agricultural reforms, especially in larger economies, on poorer countries and on net importing developing nations.

It should ensure farm policies do no harm on countries listed in the WTO’s net food importing developing countries.

The agriculture committee is also responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Bali Decision on tariff quota administration which established a mecha-

nism to assess the tariff rate quota with low fill rates.

Aside from the Philippines, 13 other countries were picked to head the subsidiary bodies of the WTO Goods Councils: Russia on market access; Canada on sanitary and phytosanitary measures; Australia on technical barriers to trade; Colombia on trade-related investment measures; Finland on antidumping; Ecuador on customs valuation; Taiwan on rules of origin; Pakistan on import licensing; South Korea on subsidies and countervailing measures; Turkey on safeguards; Panama on state trading enterprises; Dominican Republic on trade facilitation; and Singapore on information technology agreement.

Senate gives final OK to Bayanihan 2; Aug OK seen in House Continued from A1

noted that government revenues had plunged during the Covid-19 quarantines, as it deferred certain tax collections even as businesses were reeling from the closures and could not pay the usual sums.

Angara affirmed that Bayanihan 2 will effectively extend the validity of the government’s Covid-19 programs and interventions under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which lapsed on June 5, 2020.

“With Bayanihan 2, the government would be assured of sufficient funding for the ramped up testing for Covid-19 and for contact tracing. It will also ensure that our valiant health workers who contract or succumb to the disease will continuously receive financial support,” Angara said.

A hefty part of the Senateapproved Bayanihan 2 will be used “for the procurement of RT-PCR testing and extraction kits and corresponding supplies, including enhancement of DOH capacities in programs involving elimination and control of other diseases, a total of P10 billion will be appropriated,” Angara said.

“The new law will also allow the government to continue providing assistance to Filipino busi-

nesses and workers impacted by the pandemic, including our OFWs who were either repatriated or whose deployments were suspended,” he added.

A total of P15 billion will go to the cash-for-work program and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD of the Department of Labor and Employment, he added.

To help the displaced workers, including probationary, project, seasonal, contractual and casual employees in private health institutions, tourism, culture and arts, creative industries, construction, public transportation, trade industries, and other sectors of the economy as may be identified by the DOLE, a total of P17 billion will be provided as unemployment or involuntary separation assistance.

Also included in this benefit package are the freelancers, selfemployed and repatriated OFWs, including OFWs whose deployments were suspended due to a government-imposed deployment ban.

A total of P50 billion will go to government financial institutions LandBank of the Philippines (P30 billion), Development Bank of the Philippines (P15 billion), and the

Philippine Guarantee Corporation (P5 billion) as capital infusion for the grant of low-interest loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).

For the agriculture sector, P17 billion will go to the Plant, Plant, Plant program, including cash subsidies and interest-free loans under the Agricultural Credit Policy Council and GFIs. To assist affected members of the transport sector, a total of P17 billion will go to the Department of Transportation for the provision of interest rate subsidies and the provision of temporary livelihood to displaced workers.

The tourism industry, among the hardest hit by the pandemic, will get P10 billion through the Department of Tourism for assistance to the critically impacted businesses.

For education, P3 billion will help state universities and colleges develop smart campuses to implement the flexible learning modality.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will also get P1 billion as additional scholarship funds for its trainingfor-work scholarship program and special training for employment program for the retooling, retraining and upskilling of displaced workers, including the returning OFWs.

Travel, lift the economy–Duterte to Pinoys Continued from A1

Duterte also urged lawmakers to create a bill establishing the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) to sustain the gains of government in rehabilitating the island, which is ongoing.

“The rehabilitation of Boracay Island showcased our resolve to safeguard the environment. Boracay is doing well because of its scenery. If it’s only a coconut and a black-white sand and water, wala ‘yan [that’s not much]. Pero you add visitors there, then it becomes a very tempting destination.

“We have seen the remarkable reemergence of the island back to its former glory. I want this sustained. I ask Congress to enact a law creating—importante ito— the Boracay Island [Development] Authority or BIDA. We need it.” This was the third consecutive Sona where Duterte specifically mentioned the Boracay rehabilitation as one of his administration’s chief concerns.

DOT Undersecretary for Legal and Special Concerns Edwin R. Enrile explained to the BusinessMirror, “BIDA will be the successor of BIATF,” the inter-agency task force currently overseeing the rehabilitation of the island. The BIATF’s life was extended to May 8, 2021, as many rehabilitation projects are unfinished.

(See, “Many Boracay establishments continue to violate government’s easement rules,” in the BusinessMirror, May 22, 2020.)

In a separate interview, DOT Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Genera-

tion Arturo P. Boncato Jr. said the creation of BIDA was “endorsed by the principals” of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force in their last meeting on June 11. “They were in agreement that a more permanent structure in place was needed [to manage Boracay],” he said. BIDA was proposed in House Bill 6285 of Rep. Claudine Diana D. Bautista (Dumper-PTDA), filed in February.

But there are other bills pending in the House and the Senate to establish an authority to manage the island, patterned after the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, with government and private sector representatives as board members. Among them are Sen. Franklin Drilon’s Senate Bill 17 (Boracay Development Authority) filed last year, following Duterte’s approval of a P25-billion Boracay medium-term plan, and Aklan Rep. Teodorico Haresco’s House Bill 4175 (Boracay Island Council).

For his part, Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) president Jose C. Clemente III said of the proposed BIDA bill, “Undoubtedly, Boracay is one of the country’s crown jewels of tourism; if the creation of the BIDA is to ensure the preservation of the island and its people, then it is something we can get behind.”

However, he also underscored TCP’s appeal to lawmakers “to urgently pass pending legislation on the economic stimulus packages that will help save the tourism industry even more directly.” These include the House’s P1.3-trillion ARISE bill that allocates P58 billion to the DOT’s Tourism Response and Recovery Program, and the Senate’s Bayanihan 2 Law, which gives the tourism sector P10 billion.

In a news statement, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said it was reassuring for the tourism industry to hear that Duterte acknowledges the significant contribution of tourism to the economy. “This is a very encouraging development knowing that the DOT has the President’s full support as we further our plans to spur the recovery of the industry through the promotion of local travel,” she said.

The DOT will continue to engage its partner agencies, LGUs and private stakeholders “to ensure the safety of visitors and communities, and more importantly, in heeding the President’s call to keep tourism destinations and sites sustainable in the process,” she added.

The tourism sector has become a significant contributor to the economy, with a 12.7-percent share in GDP in 2019. It also employed 5.7 million Filipinos, reaching a milestone last year with 8.26 million foreign visitors.

August timeline

PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson Harry Roque said congressmen have given the Palace an end-July or August commitment for passage of Bayanihan 2 and other stimulus bills.

“Yesterday [July 27], the leadership of Congress promised that within the month or

by August, they will be able to pass on third and final reading the Stimulus Package and the extension of the Bayanihan to Heal As One 2 [Act]," Roque said in an online briefing on Tuesday.

The House was unable to meet its initial target of passing Bayanihan 2 before it went on recess last month since it was still negotiating with the government economic managers on the amount of the stimulus package.

The Senate passed its version on second reading, and hoped for a Palace certification of urgency until the last minute, in order to skirt the reglamentary three-day gap between second and third readings. It adjourned June 5 without getting the certification; hence, gave its version of Bayanihan 2 third-reading approval only last Tuesday.

As for the House, Roque said both parties—congressmen and economic managers—have finally agreed on the amount, which he

said would now fast-track the approval of Bayanihan 2.

Recovery plan

ROQUE said its passage will be crucial for the Covid recovery plan as it will finance the government’s programs for struggling businesses, as well as displaced workers.

Duterte’s fifth Sona drew criticisms from several lawmakers for not containing enough details on the government’s so-called recovery plan for Covid-19.

Roque said while he respects the observation of these lawmakers, he asserted that the Sona bore several measures for Covid-19.

He cited the continuation of the big-ticket projects under the Build, Build, Build program; grant of loans and loan guarantees to businesses; and use of monetary policies to lower interests rates, among others.

Roque noted the Sona also reiterated the government’s gains in the testing, treatment, contact tracing and isolation measures for Covid-19, which he said aims to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Except for being lengthy, Roque said he considers the almost two-hour-long fifth Sona as having effectively relayed the administration’s recent achievements, as well as its remaining goals in the next two years.

GUIDE…

Sabah…

On July 16, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the Philippine claim over Sabah is retained and may be pursued in the future.

Close to a million Filipinos reside in Sabah, with an area of 73,631 km² east of Borneo, and they comprise one-third of the total population.

Many of them work in construction, fisheries or labor-intensive industries.

According to certain historical accounts, in 1658 the Sultan of Brunei gave Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu “either as a dowry or because troops from Sulu helped him quell a rebellion.”

In 1878 the Sultanate of Sulu signed a contract, known as a pajak, that allowed the British North Borneo Company to occupy Sabah in perpetuity as long as it regularly paid the sultanate a sum of money.

The British colonial government succeeded the company, however, and, in 1946, Sabah became a Crown Colony. In 1963 Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore formed the Federation of Malaysia.

While the British and Malaysia interpreted pajak to mean “sale,” the Sulu Sultanate has always maintained it means “lease”.

Even today, Malaysia pays about RM5,000 (S$1,680) a year to the Sulu Sultanate.

However, Malaysia considers this dispute as a “non-issue” as it interprets the 1878 agreement as that of cession, and it asserts that the residents of Sabah had exercised their right to self-determination when they joined to form the Malaysian federation in 1963.

The Filipino population in Sabah from mainland Philippines is estimated at roughly 900,000, but the natives of Sabah who are descendants of the Tausug population from the Sulu Archipelago are not included in the number.

There are no official statistics but it is estimated that more than a million comprise native Sabahans of Tausug descent. It is safe to say therefore that almost two-thirds of the entire population of Sabah are Philippine related, according to Anne de Bretagne, cofounder and administrator, Philippine Sabah Claim Forum.

Continued from A8

“We are going to capacitate, through this bill, the LBP, DBP and PGC. These GOCCs will have to work together and raise the necessary funding to be able to address the requirements of the MSMEs and strategic companies impacted by the crisis,” Cua added.

The bill strengthens the PGC’s guarantee facility by increasing the maximum loan guarantee coverage per borrower, reducing guarantee fees, and other similar schemes to benefit MSMEs heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also expands the loan assistance programs, rediscounting and other credit accommodation facilities of LBP, DBP, Small Business Corporation (SBC) and Agriculture Credit Policy Council (DA-ACPC).

The bill also identifies the targeted sectors and intended beneficiaries, as follows: (1) for LBP, players in the agricultural supply chain including farmers, fisherfolk, traders, suppliers, processors and aggregators, and; (2) for DBP, eligible MSMEs engaged in infrastructure, services, service industry, and/or manufacturing business.

Meanwhile, the measure mandates LBP and DBP to create a special holding company to be known as Accelerate Recovery to Intensify Solidarity and Equity (ARISE) for the purpose of reinvigorating strategically important industries experiencing liquidity issues due to the Covid-19 pandemic such as those from the agriculture, infrastructure, services and manufacturing industries.

The bill also grants incentives and exemption privileges to PGC, LBP and DBP, and to ARISE and its subsidiaries.

These include: exemption from payment of documentary stamp tax, capital gains tax, creditable withholding income tax, value-added tax, gross receipts tax, and other taxes imposed under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997; exemption from the Government Procurement Reform Act for mandaterelated procurements for a period of three years; and exemption from the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 and Philippine Competition Act for a period of three years for acquisitions of assets of an investee company.

Continued from A8

Tax bills…

Continued from A1

pass as a crucial first step to boosting battered sectors. The Senate’s cap of a P140billion funding for Bayanihan 2 aligns with Dominguez’s and the economic managers’ estimate of what could be reasonably funded by the resources of a government that also saw its revenues plunge along with business bottom lines during the pandemic-induced lockdowns.

Economic managers had advised House advocates that their envisioned funding for their recovery version was unrealistically high.

The CREATE bill, which represents Package 2 of the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax reform program (CTRP), was approved by the House of Representatives last September, but remains pending in the Senate.

However, Senate President Vicente Sotto III has already vowed that they will be prioritizing the passage of CREATE bill, along with Bayanihan 2, and proposed long-term economic stimulus plans.

The CREATE bill, the redesigned package of the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira) that was earlier certified as urgent by the President, aims to immediately reduce the 30-percent CIT rate—the region’s highest—to 25 percent and further cut it by 1 percentage point each year until 2027, so that the rate will only be 20 percent by that time.

Based on the Department of Finance’s estimates, the outright CIT cut would free up almost P42 billion in business capital in the first year of implementation, and P625 billion over the succeeding five years.

‘Investment destination’

“THIS reform will also send a strong signal to the world that the Philippines is positioning itself as a premier investment destination for companies that are looking to diversify their supply chains,” Dominguez said.

Apart from the CIT cut, CREATE is also seen to provide targeted, time-bound incentives tailor-fitted to the needs of investors that the country wants to attract, and an enhanced net operating loss carry over (Nolco), extended from three to five years, for losses incurred in 2020 by all businesses that are not large taxpayers.

The bill also extends the sunset period for current incentive recipients from two to seven years, provided under the original Citira, to four to nine years to help them adjust in this time of crisis.

It also allows the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) to recommend to the President the grant of longer incentives and additional non-fiscal incentives for deserving investments.

Various business and advocacy groups earlier urged lawmakers to pass CREATE to help make the economy an investment magnet in the region.

However, 26 economists earlier said that the revenue loss to the government resulting from the cut in the CIT reduction is not worth the price, saying that this “tax relief” would leave out micro, small and medium enterprises and will not likely deliver extra income growth and investment from large corporations given the shock to aggregate demand triggered by the pandemic.

The bill also sends a message of uncertainty to existing locators in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, aggravating their financial situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the economists argued.

IBON Foundation Executive Director Sonny Africa also earlier lamented the government is “giving up P667 billion in potential Covid-19 response funds to boost corporate profits” through CREATE bill.

Build, Build, Build

MEANWHILE, Dominguez also welcomed the President’s commitment to push through with the high-impact projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program, which the Chief Executive pointed out are not “mere springboards for the country’s swift recovery,” but are effective tools to ensure that economic benefits are “distributed to all corners of the country, and push sustainability in urban centers, particularly [Metro] Manila.”

On top of cheering the country’s credit ratings upgrade in his latest Sona, the President also cited the Philippines’s robust banking system, expressing confidence that the country is in a “better position” to weather the crisis spawned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The DOF chief cited Duterte’s prudent fiscal and economic management for the country’s high credit worthiness, as reflected in the “BBB+” sovereign credit rating that S&P Global has maintained for the Philippines even amid the pandemic, which was a “vote of confidence in a sea of credit-rating downgrades and negative outlook revisions worldwide.”

Palace…

Continued from A8

“We also reiterate our call for the passage of the E-Government Act to make government services accessible online,” says Poe, adding this will establish real-time service and streamline business registration with government agencies, while ensuring transparency of dealings.

“To fully implement this when passed, internet connection is crucial,” the senator stressed, noting that both the government and telcos should work double time to give our millions of Filipinos better and cheaper connectivity by the end of the year. We expect them to act with urgency and sense of duty for the sake of our people.”

With Butch Fernandez

The Nation

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, July 29, 2020 A3

DA chief optimistic on passage of coco trust fund bill by year-end

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Department of Agriculture (DA) is optimistic that a bill creating the coconut farmers’ trust fund would be passed by yearend after President Duterte prodded lawmakers to pass the overdue measure.

In a virtual news briefing, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the passage of the required measure that would set up the trust fund and utilize the P90-billion coconut-levy fund this year is a “realistic target.”

Relatedly, Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, who chairs the Senate agriculture committee, endorsed early passage of a new draft of the measure, which Duterte had vetoed in 2019 for including provisions he deemed violative of the Constitution.

Villar sponsored Senate Bill 1396 under Committee Report 65 or “An Act Creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, Providing for Its Management and Utilization, Reconstituting for the Purpose the Philippine Coconut Authority Board, And for Other Purposes” is in substitution of Senate Bill 31, 266, 1052, and 1127 with herself and fellow Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Ralph G. Recto, and Imee R. Marcos as authors.

In the new bill, The Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund will be managed and disbursed in accordance with the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan to be

implemented by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), as approved by the President. The plan shall set how the coconut industry will be rehabilitated in the next 99 years, which is the suggested lifespan of the Trust Fund.

It was not the first time that Duterte made such a pronouncement in his State of the Nation Address (Sona). In fact, the passage of a law that would utilize the coco-levy fund was one of his campaign promises back in 2016.

In 2019, Duterte vetoed a bill creating the said fund mechanism, arguing that certain provisions of Congressapproved version of the proposed law violated the Constitution.

The President said the bill is “lacking in vital safeguards to avoid the repetition of painful mistakes committed in the past.”

Last Monday, however, at his fifth Sona, he signaled a certain urgency for a redrafted measure: “We must utilize the coconut levy for the welfare of coconut farmers and development of the coconut industry.”

For his part, Dar said lawmakers must take into consideration the contents of the President’s veto message

last year to avoid another veto.

Dar said the DA proposed that earnings from the trust fund be used for productivity enhancement projects, social protection programs, empowerment of coconut farmers and cooperatives and infrastructure development.

“What is necessary is to modernize the coconut industry with the belief that the interest earnings of the levy will be utilized annually for the next 20 years continuously,” he said.

“It is the right time to unlock the potentials of the coconut industry, which is just contributing 4 percent of the gross value added in agriculture,” he added.

Dar said they are confident that the law creating the trust fund would now be passed, since there is a “higher level of enthusiasm” between the executive and legislative branches of government.

“We will work with both houses of Congress to make the passage of the legislation of the coco levy a reality,” he added.

In his speech, Duterte told Congress “to sort out” the best possible way to utilize the coco levy, adding that he will not make any suggestions about the matter.

“I leave it to Congress to decide on what to do with it,” he said.

The latest Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) data count about 2.5 million coconut farmers nationwide with 69 out of 82 provinces of the country being coconut producers.

Overdue–Villar

IN welcoming Duterte’s call, Villar echoed the need to utilize the coconut levy fund “for the welfare of coconut

farmers and the development of the coconut industry.”

Villar has also been pushing for the release and utilization of the coco levy since 2016. The coco levy refers to the taxes imposed on coconut farmers from 1971 to 1983. The amount collected is now estimated to be P105 billion.

“Like the President, I believe that the urgent utilization of the coconut-levy fund will help uplift the lives of coconut farmers. It is long overdue, the monies of our coconut farmers, which they rightfully own, will also benefit the coconut industry, not only the 3.5 million coconut farmers,” said Villar.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food chairman had sponsored the revised version of the bill on May 28, 2020, and plenary discussion of the legislation has started.

“The bill was re-filed with some modifications, taking into consideration the inputs being suggested by the executive branch of government so it will not be vetoed again. We are confident that it will already be enacted into law, given the President’s support,” said Villar.

Immediately upon enactment into law, the Bureau of the Treasury shall transfer P5 billion to the Trust Fund and another P5 billion shall be initially allocated to the PCA. The Trust Fund shall be used for provisions of the establishment of facilities essential to the industry, empowerment of coconut farmers’ organizations and cooperatives, farm improvement to encourage selfsufficiency, scholarship program, and health and medical program for industry members.

Lawmakers vow swift action on Duterte’s priority measures

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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OUSE leaders assured on Tuesday that they would work closely with their Senate counterparts for the immediate approval of the 21 priority bills mentioned by President Duterte in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said that upon the instruction of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, he will work closely with Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri to tackle and harmonize the President’s latest priority measures and those that have been mentioned in his last year’s Sona.

“We expect that the Senate will work hand-in-hand with the House to smoothen the deliberations and passage of these vital bills. Of course this will be done without sacrificing the quality of debates and discussions in both the committee and plenary levels,” said Romualdez.

House Committee on Trade and Industry Chairman and Valenzuela Rep. Wes Gatchalian said his panel already approved a bill regulating online transactions by creating the Electronic Commerce Bureau.

He said the bill will now be presented to the plenary for approval.

“I am very delighted that the President emphasized the need to build confidence in online transactions, by providing stronger protection for online consumers and enabling measures for online businesses through the enactment of the Internet Transactions Act,” he said.

The lawmaker said the bill seeks to regulate all business-to-business and business-to-consumer commercial transactions conducted over the Internet, including those related to Internet retail, online travel, online media, ride-hailing services, and digital financial services.

“These concerns cannot come at a more appropriate time as this pan-

demic has forced millions to resort to e-commerce as the primary means to transact. E-commerce will be the new normal but unfortunately, regulations to protect consumers and businesses from unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of this borderless economy are inadequate,” he said.

Bayanihan 2

DEPUTY Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the lower chamber’s top priority will be the passage of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 to arm President Duterte with continued special powers to deal with the contagion.

Villafuerte made this call as President Duterte sought the swift congressional approval of Bayanihan 2.

“The Congress needs to arm the President anew with special powers for his government to best deal with the highly infectious and lethal virus that apparently has no intention of going away anytime soon,” Villafuerte said.

‘Quite comprehensive’

SEN. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, for his part, credited President Duterte’s directives setting in motion various measures to propel economic recovery that the Chief Executive outlined in Monday’s Sona before a joint session of Congress.

Citing the country’s ongoing battle against Covid-19, Gatchalian noted that the economic agenda set by the President was “quite comprehensive.”

This, he added, “is embodied in the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act [Bayanihan 2] which is supported and certified as urgent by the President.”

Noting that Bayanihan 2 will supplement funds for “recovery and response” against the impact of the pandemic, Gatchalian pointed out that this also “includes emergency subsidy to workers, cash-for-work programs, prevention and control of other diseases, and support programs for impacted sectors.” He added

that it will also give the President the mandate to realign funds within the General Appropriations Act “so that he can immediately respond to the changing social landscape brought about by the pandemic.”

In a news statement, Gatchalian acceded to President Duterte’s key economic legislative measures: one is the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act, which cuts the corporate income tax to 25 percent from the current 30 percent; and two, the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer or FIST Act that will assist banks and other financial institutions in managing their non-performing assets (NPAs).

At the same time, Gatchalian commended the President’s support for the micro, small and medium enterprises by providing capitalization for their business operations, and for providing loans and assisting displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in entrepreneurship projects. The President laid out a series of policy support for MSMEs such as reprieve from rent and regulatory relief from banks and other financial institutions through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Death penalty

ROMUALDEZ also said the lower chamber is ready to stand up to the task and pass priority bills outlined by the President, including thorough deliberations on several measures calling for the reimposition of death penalty for drug-related charges.

“The House also assures that the death penalty measures will be deliberated on thoroughly,” said Romualdez.

“We are ready to take on the challenge,” Romualdez said following the President’s speech where he also reiterated the need for Congress to pass several measures that were already mentioned in his last year’s Sona such as the bill reviving the death penalty by lethal injection for drug-

related offenses; the proposed law creating the Department of Overseas Filipinos that was already transmitted by the House to the Senate; the measure creating the Department of Disaster and Resilience, among other measures.

In his Sona, Duterte called on Congress to expedite the passage of several key measures, including the Bayanihan To Heal as One Act 2; the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives Enterprises Act (CREATE); the National Housing Development bill; and the Rental Housing Subsidy bill.

“The House had already passed on third and final reading some of the measures mentioned by the President on Monday such as the CREATE, and the bill creating the Department of Overseas Filipinos. Others are either being deliberated at the committees, or at the plenary,” said Romualdez.

The Chief Executive said bills amending Republic Act (RA) 10912 or the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016 must also be approved along with the Advanced Nursing Education Act; the Medical Reserve Corps Act; and measures that would institutionalize the National Disease Prevention and Management Authority.

Also spelled out as legislative priorities were the Unified System of Separation Retirement and Pension for Uniformed Personnel; the Modernization of the Bureau of Fire Protection; and establishment of education centers in every city and municipality.

Duterte also asked Congress to pass the National Land Use Act; measures creating the Boracay Island Authority; the Coconut Levy Act, the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund; the Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System Act; as well as the Internet Transactions Act. Besides the Sona priority bills, Romualdez said the chamber’s top agenda also includes the 2021 national budget and Covid-19 road map for recovery.

With a report from Butch Fernandez

A4 Wednesday, July 29, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Economists back House proposal to condone ₧58.62-B ARB loans

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

GROUP of economists is backing a House proposal for the condonation of agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) loans.

Albay Rep. Joey S. Salceda, cochairman of the House economic cluster, said four of the country’s leading economists on agricultural and industry development have signed a statement of support for his proposal for the condonation of LandBank loans of ARBs, and the lifting of liens on ARB lands used as collateral for these loans.

In a letter signed July 27, 2020, National Scientist for Economics Raul Fabella, Agricultural Economist Rolando Dy of the University of Asia and the Pacific, Calixto Chikiamco, president of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, and Dr. Roehlano Briones of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said that “based on our analysis and studies, condonation of the debt amortizations is an economic stimulus, social justice,

and agriculture-productivity enhancing measure.”

Under the Salceda economic stimulus proposal, some P58.62 billion in non-performing ARB loans, covering the liens for some 1.228 million hectares of land and some 682,000 ARBs, will be condoned so that farmers can start from a clean slate and borrow capital during the pandemic.

It also intends to release collateralized land from their liens so that ARB lands could be used more efficiently and under more relevant tenure agreements. “ I n t he Hou s e ’s s t i mu lu s package, I have pushed for the condonation of P58.62-billion non-performing agrarian reform loans, which would free up some 1.228 million hectares of land for disposition and collateral,

and which would benefit some 682,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries,” Salceda, an economist himself, added.

Moreover, the agri-industry economists said debt condonation will constitute the “Big Bang” of agricultural reform as it will enable farmer beneficiaries to invest more on their land or rent it to more successful farmers with modern agricultural practices. It will start the process by which the country can attain food security and stable food inflation.”

“It’s an economic stimulus measure because freed from the obligation to service the debt, farmer beneficiaries will spend to increase the productivity of their land. Debt condonation is most appropriate at this time when there’s a demand shock from income shortfalls,” the signatories said.

“It’s a social justice measure because the original debt didn’t consider the degradation of the value of the land due to the restrictions imposed by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. It’s a productivity enhancing measure because condonation will allow farmer beneficiaries to invest in land improvements or transfer the

use of the land to more productive farmers, or engage in better contractual arrangements,” the signatories added.

As much as 75 percent of farmer beneficiaries have been unable to pay their debt amortizations due to the fragmentation of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, they said.

“There will be no significant effect on the government’s cash flow, except for about P800 million that’s presently being collected by LandBank annually, which can be considered as part of the government’s stimulus measures. The overall gain in productivity, incomes, and employment will certainly be more than the foregone P800 million,” the signatories said.

“Furthermore, the authorities may consider reverse mortgages for those who had paid for debt amortizations. There’s precedent for the government condoning the debt of farmers. The Free Irrigation Act condoned the past due obligations of farmers in the payment of irrigation fees and freed communal irrigation systems from their encumbrance,” the signatories added.

BFAR bares plan to build DENR, private partner to rehab, 300 milkfish fry satellite revive Boracay’s ‘dead forest’ hatcheries in next 5 years

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HE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said it plans to build about 300 satellite hatcheries nationwide in the next five years in its bid to boost local milkfish production.

In a news statement issued on Tuesday, BFAR, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, said it has successfully harvested its first batch of locally produced bangus fry in a government-funded satellite hatchery.

BFAR added that about 110,000 bangus fry were harvested last July 19 in Lingayen, Pangasinan, which were eventually sold to farmers in the province at P0.30 per piece.

“Through the Bangus Fry Sufficiency Program, DA-BFAR targets provision of affordable, locally sourced bangus fry for our milkfish farmers not only in Region 1 but also in the entire country,” DA-BFAR Director Eduardo Gongona said.

“This way, we will never have to fully resort to other means such as harvesting from the wild; thus, protecting and conserving our wild bangus stock,” Gongona added.

BFAR said there are currently five operational bangus satellite hatcheries in the country: two are located in Region 1, while the other three are found in the province of Bohol in Region 7.

All hatcheries were turned over and are now being managed by identified

fisherfolk groups and associations, BFAR added.

BFAR explained that under its five-year Bangus Fry Sufficiency Program 2020-2025 it plans to establish 299 Satellite Community-Based Larval Rearing Facility (SCBLRF) in the country.

“These small-scale hatchery facilities procure eggs from traditional milkfish hatcheries for hatching and larval rearing until the fry reaches marketable stage,” it said.

“In addition to the five established and fully operational satellite hatcheries, 14 SCBLRFs have already received funding and are currently undergoing infrastructure development,” it added.

BFAR said bangus fry were originally sourced from BFAR-registered hatcheries and in the wild prior to the establishment of milkfish satellite hatcheries.

BFAR added that the local milkfish industry faces an estimated annual deficit of 2.81 billion fry, with majority of bangus fish farmers resorting to importation to sustain production.

“In 2019, only 860.75 million fry were produced by registered bangus hatcheries while 19.5 million of which were caught in the wild. In total, this only comprised 24 percent of the total annual fry requirement,” it said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and its private sector partner, the Boracay Tubi System Inc., will soon begin rehabilitation activities on Boracay Island’s Wetland No. 6, also known as “dead forest.”

This, after the DENR successfully recovered from illegal occupants the 8.5-hectare wetland in Barangay Manoc-Manoc.

A total of 31 families, belonging to the Tumandok tribe, have started to transfer to their governmentawarded land on the island. The tribesmen were issued last March individual certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

“That’s hitting two birds with one stone,” DENR Director Natividad Bernardino, who serves as general manager of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group (BIARMG), said in a news statement.

The recovery of Wetland No. 6 is in compliance with Executive Order (EO) 53 that created the DENR-led Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) to reverse the degradation of the world-famous resort island.

In that EO issued by President Duterte in 2018, the DENR is tasked, among others, to relocate and demolish all establishments and structures encroaching on forestlands, wetlands, and other water bodies in Boracay.

At the same time, Bernardino said the planned rehabilitation of the wetland paved the way for the original settlers of the island to get their rightful share of Boracay lands.

“This is also a fulfillment on the policy directive of the President to distribute lands to the indigenous peoples and natives of Boracay,” Bernardino said.

To help the Tumandoks rebuild their homes, the DENR donated timber from trees felled by Typhoon Ursula last December. These families will also be provided with water and sewerage facilities by the Boracay Island Water Co. The restoration activities will be in accordance with the Boracay Action Plan being implemented by the BIARMG. Environment Secretary and BIATF Chairman Roy A. Cimatu had earlier said that of the nine Boracay wetlands identified for rehabilitation, five have been adopted by private companies for a period of three to five years as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

Wetlands are considered to be one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems as they are home to a wide variety of plant and animal species. They also help reduce soil erosion, retain sediments, absorb nutrients, store water to minimize the impacts of floods and droughts, and help mitigate the effects of climate change. Jonathan L. Mayuga

DFA spearheads repatriation of remains of 54 more OFWs from Saudi Arabia

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HE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) brought home the remains of 54 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight.

The third batch of repatriation of the remains was made possible through the joint effort of PAL, DFA, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Department of Labor and Employment since the pandemic.

PAL flight PR654 flew from Manila to load 20 caskets from Al Khobar, 10 from Jeddah, and 24 from Riyadh.

Of the 54 bodies, 39 died due to Covid-19, while 15 were due to various other causes.

The Philippine government chartered the flights to enable the OFWs to return home.

The remains of those who died due to Covid will be cremated in Manila and the urns containing the ashes will be flown to their loved ones in the provinces.

The remains of those who lost their lives due to other

causes will be flown to their families in caskets.

“The bodies of Covid cases will be immediately cremated while the non-Covid will be flown to their respective places of origin at government expense,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III assured in a news statement.

Bello and other labor officials met with the bereaved families of the deceased OFWs to extend their sympathies.

“I’m hoping this is the last batch of dead OFWs arriving not because the government is tired of receiving them but due to the fact that it’s very painful to welcome dead heroes who served their families and country well,” he added.

For the first two batches, DOLE was able to bring home 137 OFW remains earlier this month.

Before the mass repatriation started, DOLE said it expects to bring home 274 OFW remains from KSA.

Recto Mercene, Samuel P. Medenilla

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Last mile’ schools top priority in govt’s blended learning plan

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—So-called last mile schools, or schools in remote locations, would be prioritized under the government’s education innovation to utilize all forms of teaching modules—from printed materials and televisionaired instructions to online teaching—amid the raging pandemic.

The priority was linked to the current construction of the Public Education Network, or PEN, “that will connect all public schools and offices of the Department of Education [DepEd] nationwide.”

The PEN is being established by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) as part of the sudden innovation in teaching to prevent face-to-face gathering of pupils, students and teachers at the time of the continuing spread of the coronavirus and to avoid making the schools the source of another wave of infection.

“We would prioritize the connection of all last mile schools and those with no electricity supply can have it via satellite and energized via solar panels,” President Duterte said in his 5th State of the Nation Address on Monday.

By 2022, he said, the year that he would be stepping down from office, “the PEN shall be realized [and] I will do it.”

Duterte said he would not allow traditional face-to-face teaching, or learning, unless all risks of exposure to the coronavirus are eliminated.

But the President clarified that he would only allow in-person learning to resume by January next year based on his belief that a vaccine will be available by September.

Under DepEd’s blended learning, the department will implement online and modular learning, as

well as TV- and radio-based broadcast. DepEd will provide printed modules for those who cannot afford online learning, the Presidential Communications Operations Office said in its communication dispatch on Tuesday, citing the President’s speech.

“In support of the Learning Cont inu it y Prog ra m t hrough blended learning, we plan to increase the number of schools with ICT equipment in the coming months,” he said. To further support this digitization, Duterte directed his officials to fully utilize television frequencies and have them rever ted back to government “for the full benefit of the people especially Filipino school children.”

“I am directing [Justice] Secretary [Menardo] Guevarra, [Science and Technology] Secretary [Fortunato] de la Peña and [Information and Communications Technology] Secretary [Gregorio] Honasan, in collaboration with [Education] Secretary [Leonor] Briones, and Secretary Avisado, together with Secretary Dominguez, to come up with an integrated program and implementation mechanism to ensure that these TV frequencies are fully utilized by government through the facilities of PTV4 for the utmost benefit of the Filipino people,” Duterte said.

“For the remaining two years of my term, all that is good that belongs to government, whether it be the airwaves, whether it be the lines, or whatever that is good for the people, will belong to the government and it should be the government who should be given the first option to utilize them.

Ang sobra, kanila,” he said.

The President said that TV frequencies reverted back to the government would be used to provide uninterrupted quality education to Filipino children as the country shifts to e-learning.

Farmers’ co-ops in Agusan rake in profits from pandemic sales

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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URNING the Covid-19 health crisis into opportunity, farmers in Agusan del Norte were able to overcome the challenges posed by the community quarantines and raked in huge profits from farming, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II) Andre B. Atega said the farmers belonging to various agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) even become more profitable.

Planning Officer and Provincial Project coordinator of the Project ConVERGE or Convergence on Value Chain Enhancement for Rural Growth and Empowerment Annelyn R. Chan, cited the case of the San Isidro Upland Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SIUFMULCO) in Santiago town, which successfully made several deliveries during the lockdown period across Caraga region and earned a gross sale of more than P37 million from abaca fiber sold to a market center in Baybay, Leyte.

“Despite the challenges, deliveries of their products continue. Commendation should also be given to the efforts of DAR partner-agencies on the deliveries of abaca fiber since it is also covered by certifications from the Department of Agriculture [DA], the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI], and the Philippines Fiber Development Authority [Phil-FIDA],” Chan said in a news statement.

SIUFMULCO Manager Leonila Mila said that the volume traded from March to June reached up to 535.684 metric tons, or a 56-percent increase, compared with 301.38 metric tons in the first quarter of this year, resulting in an earned gross income of P37

million, or 57-percent increase, from a gross sales of P21 million from the first quarter, Mila added.

This was also the case of the Avanceña Beneficiaries Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ABFMC) in Cabadbaran City and Butuan-Agusan Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BAFMPC) which continuously supplied milled rice not only to regular markets but also to local government units’ social amelioration program.

Both agrarian cooperatives earned profits by delivering thousands of sacks of milled rice, which made the groups to earn millions of pesos in gross sales.

DAR Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD) Ellen J. Torralba said that these cooperatives have shown extra effort to reach out to their respective buyers where they could sell their produce.

BAFMPC Chairman Sergio Baguhin said, “We managed to deliver 1,600 sacks of milled rice from March 30 to April 6, 2020, which made the co-op earned over P3 million.”

Three more cooperatives, whose entrepreneurship lies on the delivery of assorted vegetables were also able to continuously deliver and sell their produce during the lockdown period.

These cooperatives whose members are certificates of land ownership award holders include the Vegetable Producers Association in Tubay, Agusan del Norte; the Kilometer 7 Producers Cooperative in Butuan City; and the De Oro Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative of Barangay de Oro, Butuan City.

These three cooperatives also assured the steady supply of vegetables to Butuan City Jail Management and Penology as part of their marketing tie-up arrangement facilitated by DAR under the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty program.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Former PM Najib convicted of 7 graft charges over 1MDB

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UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—A Malaysian court pronounced former Prime Minister Najib Razak guilty on Tuesday in his first corruption trial over the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB investment fund.

The ruling came five months after a new government took power with Najib’s Malay party the biggest bloc in the alliance. His party’s shocking election ouster in 2018 was driven by public anger over the 1MDB scandal.

“I find the accused guilty and convict the accused of all seven charges,” Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali said after spending two hours to read out his ruling.

Analysts said the ruling would bolster the prosecution’s case in Najib’s other trials and would signal to the business community Malaysia’s legal system has strength in tackling international financial crimes.

Najib, 67, has promised to appeal. He has said he was misled by rogue bankers and the case against him is political.

“From day one, I have said this is the chance for me to clear my name,” he wrote on Facebook late Monday. “After this, we will go to the Court of Appeal. I am ready.”

A scion of one of Malaysia’s most prominent political families, he faces 42 charges in five separate trials and could face years in prison.

Najib’s lawyers asked the judge for a delay until next week before they made their arguments on sentencing.

The current trial involved a charge of abuse of power, three charges of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges.

Th e j u d g e s a i d N a j i b f a i l e d t o r a i s e reasonable doubt and that prosecutors had established beyond reasonable doubt that Najib misappropriated money for his own use.

“The conviction would ser ve as a solid foundation for the prosecution in ensuing IMDBrelated trials,” said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore’s Institute of International Affairs.

He said the ruling also would strengthen the credibility of current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was fired as Najib’s deputy, five years ago to the date of Tuesday’s verdict, for speaking out on the 1MDB scandal, although he now relies on Najib’s party for support.

Najib’s party is the biggest bloc in the current Malay nationalist alliance, which was formed in March after Muhyiddin’s party toppled the

former reformist government.

Najib shortly after taking office in 2009 set up 1MDB to ostensibly accelerate Malaysia’s economic development.

But the fund accumulated billions in debt, and US investigators allege that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from it and laundered by Najib’s associates to finance Holly wood films a n d b u y h o te l s, a luxur y yacht, ar t work , jewelr y and other ex travagances. More than $700 million from the fund allegedly landed in Najib’s bank accounts.

N a j i b’s w i f e a n d s e ve r a l o f f i c i a l s f ro m h i s p a r t y a n d p re v i o u s g o ve r n m e n t h a ve a l s o b e e n c h a rg e d w i t h g r a f t. N a j i b, w h o s e f a t h e r a n d u n c l e s we re M a l a y s i a’s s e c o n d and third prime ministers, denies any w ro n g d o i n g. H e c a l l s t h e p ro s e c u t i o n s a political attack on him.

Najib’s first trial began in April 2019 over seven charges related to the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.8 million) from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, into his bank accounts through intermediar y companies. Najib was accused of using his position to receive a bribe for approving a government guarantee for billions in loans to SRC, committing criminal breach of trust and accepting proceeds from unlawful activities.

Evidence showed a complex trail of money through the accounts that paid for renovating Najib’s home, credit card purchases including a Chanel watch bought in Hawaii as a birthday gift for his wife and disbursements to political parties.

In defense, Najib has said he was misled by rogue bankers led by Malaysian fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, identified by investigators as a mastermind in the 1MDB saga. The judge found Najib and Low had a close relationship.

Najib testified he assumed the money was part of an Arab donation arranged by Low. The judge debunked that argument in the guilty verdic t, finding it an “elaborate but weak fabrication.”

Najib’s law yers said Low had used the donation as a guise to keep Najib from being suspicious of his plundering of the 1MDB fund.

Prosecutors argued that Najib was the real power behind 1MDB and SRC, and called the Arab donation “manufactured evidence” to cover up his tracks. AP

Trade, technology and security at risk in boiling U.S.-China feud

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EIJING—They have the largest economies in the world. They spend more than anyone else on their militaries. From high-tech chips to control of the high seas, their interests are closely intertwined.

The ongoing sharp deterioration in USChina ties poses risks to both countries and the rest of the world. In the latest escalation, a US consulate in Chengdu in southwestern China shuttered on Monday, ordered by China to close in retaliation for the US shutting down its consulate in Houston last week.

With the US presidential campaign heating up, all bets are that relations with China will only get worse. A look at what’s at stake:

Trade

Both countries already have suffered heavy losses in a tariff war that erupted in 2018 over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus. If talks on ending the dispute fail, the world could face downward pressure on trade at a time when the global economy is already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is China’s biggest singlecountry expor t market, even after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. And China is the No. 3 market for American exporters, as well as a huge market for goods and services produced in China by US companies ranging from General Motors Co. to Burger King.

Chinese purchases of American farm goods, semiconductors and other goods declined 11.4 percent last year but still exceeded $100 billion. Exports to China support just under 1 million American jobs, according to the US-China Business Council, though that was down 10 percent from 2017’s peak.

China is the biggest export market for Iowa and other American farm states, which were slammed when Beijing suspended imports of soybeans and raised tariffs on pork and other goods.

That briefly boosted sales for soybean exporters in Brazil and Argentina, though China resumed buying lower-priced American beans under the “Phase 1” trade truce signed in January.

But if the two can’t resolve broader differences on trade, it will be a blow not only to their exporters but also to other Asian economies that supply China’s factories with raw materials and components.

Technology

US and Chinese producers of telecom, computer, medical and other technology and their markets are tightly interwoven. Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and

others rely on Chinese factories to assemble most of their smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics. Those factories need processor chips and other components from the United States, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

The disruption caused by moves including the Trump administration’s curbs on Chinese tech giant Huawei’s access to US components and technology threatens to disrupt those flows and cost suppliers, including Silicon Valley companies, billions of dollars in lost revenue.

China is also a top market for Apple and other US tech brands, and is increasingly becoming a technology competitor with its own brands in smartphones, medical equipment and other fields.

The United States often is the top market for China’s highest-value-added goods. Beijing has been urging exporters to find other markets, but many say Asian and even European markets won’t buy such high-value goods.

Security

While the US has long been the predominant military power in the Pacific, China now has two operational aircraft carriers and an arsenal of missiles seen as a threat to US vessels and bases in the region.

Military tensions have largely focused on the South China Sea, a crucial waterway that is the subject of overlapping territorial claims by China and several smaller Asian nations.

In 2018, a Chinese destroyer came perilously close to colliding with a US destroyer, the USS Decatur, while executing what the Navy called an “unsafe and unprofessional maneuver” in the South China Sea. A Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy surveillance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea in 2001, leading to major diplomatic incident after the US plane made an emergency landing on a Chinese island.

Taiwan is another potential flashpoint. China claims the self-governing island as its territory, to be taken by force if necessary. The US is bound by its own law to ensure the island has a credible defense and has approved military sales to Taiwan under Trump.

Taiwan’s foreign minister said last week that Chinese military flights near the island have been taking place on a near-daily basis, more frequently than previously reported.

Washington upped the ante earlier this month by declaring that it did not recognize most of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea, a break with its previous policy of not taking a stance on the sovereignty disputes. AP

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

A5

Biggest test for experimental vaccine gets underway in US T

he big gest test yet of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine got underway on Monday with the first of some 30,000 Americans rolling up their sleeves to receive shots created by the US government as part of the all-out global race to stop the pandemic.

The glimmer of hope came even as Google, in one of the gloomiest assessments of the coronavirus’s staying power from a major employer, decreed that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June—a decision that could inf luence other big companies.

Final-stage testing of the vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., began with volunteers at numerous sites around the US given either a real dose or a dummy without being told which.

“I’m excited to be part of something like this. This is huge,” said Me l i ssa Ha r t i ng , a 36 -yea r - old nurse who received an injection in Binghamton, New York. Especially with family members in front-line jobs that could expose them to the virus, she added, “doing our part to eradicate it is very important to me.”

Another company, Pfizer Inc., announced late Monday that it had started its own study of its vaccine candidate in the U.S and elsewhere.

That study also aimed to recruit 30,000 people.

It will be months before results trickle in, and there is no guarantee the vaccines will ultimately work against the scourge that has killed over 650,000 people around the world, including almost 150,000 in the US. “We’ve been sitting on the sidelines passively attempting to wear our masks and social distance and not go out when it’s not necessary.

This is the first step of becoming active against this,” said Dr. Frank Eder of Meridian Clinical Research, the company that runs the Binghamton trial site. “ There’s really no other way to get past this.”

As if to underline how high the stakes are, there were more setbac k s in ef for ts to conta in t he coronavirus.

In Washington, the Trump administration disclosed that national security adviser Robert O’Brien has the virus—the highest-ranking US official to test positive so far.

The W hite House said he has mild

symptoms and “ has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site.”

The move to restart the national pastime ran into trouble just five days into the long-delayed season: Two major league baseball games scheduled for Monday night were called off as the Miami Marlins coped with an outbreak—the Marlins’ home opener against the Baltimore Orioles, and the New York Ya n kees’ ga me i n Ph i l ade lph i a , where the Marlins used the clubhouse over the weekend.

As for relief from the economic damage done by the virus, Republicans on Capitol Hill rolled out a $1 trillion package that includes another round of $1,200 direct payments but reduces the extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits that expire for millions of Americans on Friday. Republicans proposed $200 a week, saying the generous bump discourages people from returning to work. Democrats call the added benefits a lifeline for those who have lost their jobs.

Tr e a s u r y S e c r e t a r y S t e v e n Mnuchin and W hite House chief of st a f f Ma rk Meadows worked through the weekend on the GOP

proposal and have agreed to negotiate with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer. House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief package a couple of months ago.

In Europe, rising infections in Spain and other countries caused alarm only weeks after nations reopened their borders in hopes of reviving tourism. Over the weekend, Britain imposed a 14-day quarantine on travelers arriving from Spain, Nor way ordered a 10 -day quarantine for people returning from the entire Iberian peninsula, and France urged its citizens not to visit Spain’s Catalonia region.

Scientists set speed records getting vaccines into massive testing just months after the coronavirus emerged. But they stressed that the public shouldn’t fear that anyone is cutting corners.

“This is a significant milestone,” NIH Director Francis Col lins said af ter t he f irst test inject ion of Moder na’s vaccine was g iven, at 6:45 a.m. in Savanna h, Georg ia. “ Yes, we’re going fast, but no, we are not going to compromise” on proving whether the vaccine is safe and ef fective. AP

A6 Wednesday, July 29, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Farmers need govt support to produce high-value crops

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efore the government was sidetracked by the Covid-19 pandemic, it had been preparing to implement interventions aimed at improving the competitiveness of the local rice sector. One of the interventions being considered is to encourage farmers to plant high-value crops under the draft Philippine Rice Industry Roadmap (PRIR). The crafting of the road map was mandated by the rice liberalization law, which took effect on March 5 last year (See, “Rice farmers in 23 provinces to plant other crops—PRIR,” in the BusinessMirror, October 7, 2019).

Under the government’s plan, areas that are not competitive in terms of rice production will be transitioned to high-value crops, such as banana, coconuts, and high-value vegetables. Provinces where rice production is more cost-efficient will benefit from programs aimed at helping planters become more competitive. Republic Act 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law, mandates that productivity-enhancement programs for rice farmers seeking to diversify production into other crops may be funded by tariff collections from rice imports exceeding P10 billion.

The production of high-value crops, which command higher prices, is expected to boost the income of farmers and, at the same time, increase the supply of nutritious food items. These food items can be sold directly to consumers or delivered to manufacturers in need of raw materials. Consumers who want to eat healthy stand to benefit from more vegetables and fruits available in the market.

Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, vegetables including ampalaya, string beans, carrots and habichuelas were sold at P45 to P90 per kilogram in regional trading centers. PSA data also indicated that certain fruits like bananas and mangoes were priced at P60 to P100 per kilogram. Residents in urban areas, such as those in the National Capital Region, pay more for these food items, based on figures released by the PSA as of the fourth week of June.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, which restricted mobility, may have been partly responsible for the increase in the prices of fruits and vegetables compared to the January data. However, the figures recorded in the fourth week of June are not expected to go down drastically in the coming months because experts have recommended the consumption of these food items to strengthen the immune system.

The opening of platforms allowing contactless payments and online purchases has also given consumers the means to gain access to these food products during the pandemic.

The government should promote the planting of high-value crops, such as fruits and vegetables, in areas where these can be suitably grown.

It should also give farmers adequate support in the form of free seeds and technical assistance. Now is the best time to push for the shift to high-value crops while awareness on the importance of eating healthy is high. Along with the promotion of growing crops other than rice, government should also encourage farmers to add value to their produce so they don’t have to throw away any surplus food products when there’s a bountiful harvest.

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The Option to Sell Shares Program of SSS Aurora C. Ignacio

All About Social Security

I

nvesting in the stock market requires a combination of reliable information and precision timing. When the stocks are low, you buy. When the stocks are high, you sell. And there are a lot of other factors that come to play in between. But, what if we miss out on the opportunity to sell and we end up with debt?

If you find yourself in this sticky situation, SSS has the solution for members who are behind on their Stock Investments Loan Program (SILP) and Privatization Fund Loan Program (PFLP) loan payments. SSS offers a way to pay off your loans with the Option to Sell Shares Program.

During the 1990s, SSS offered various programs such as SILP and PFLP to give members a chance to buy stocks from blue-chip companies such as Manila Electric Co., Philippine Long Distance Telephone and PETRON. SSS has released a fund allocation of P1.10 billion, which benefited around 29,444 memberborrowers who bought shares of stocks in these companies. However, at present, the program is no longer available since SSS has been offering different types of loan programs that are more in tune with the member’s

immediate financial needs.

In 2015, the Option to Sell Shares Program was launched for members who are unable to pay their loans from the SILP and PFLP accounts.

The member-borrower gives the SSS the authority to sell his/her shares of stock at the current stock market price, based on the quotation of an SSS accredited broker, and depending on the broker’s commission, taxes, and other fees as applicable. The net amount of the sale will be used as payment for his/her outstanding SILP and PFLP loans.

To qualify, a member-borrower must have a delinquent stock investment or privatization loan with the SSS. Documents to be submitted (which is centralized for submission at the Member Loans Department (MLD), 5th floor SSS Building, East Avenue, Quezon City

In 2015, the Option to Sell Shares Program was launched for members who are unable to pay their loans from the SILP and PFLP accounts. The member-borrower gives the SSS the authority to sell his/her shares of stock at the current stock market price, based on the quotation of an SSS accredited broker, and depending on the broker’s commission, taxes, and other fees as applicable. The net amount of the sale will be used as payment for his/her outstanding SILP and PFLP loans.

or at their nearest SSS Branch) are as follows: 1. Application Form for “Option to Sell” (downloadable from SSS web site) 2. Specia l Power of Attorney (downloadable from SSS web site) 3. Broker Specimen Card (from MLD or any SSS branch) 4. Customer Account Information Form (from MLD or any SSS branch) 5. Two valid IDs of the memberborrower and two valid IDs of the representative of the member-borrower (if he/she cannot personally appear) Once all of these documents are submitted, SSS will now have the authority to sell the stocks. The

amount from the sale will be used to pay off their SILP/ PFLP loan. If there is still a remaining loan balance, there will be penalty charges that the member-borrower has to pay, or it will be deducted from his/ her final benefits. However, if there is an excess amount after the loan has been paid, it will be used to pay off other SSS loans that the memberborrower has, or if there is none, the excess amount will be refunded to the member-borrower.

As of June 30, 2020, there are 2,895 account availments of the Option to Sell Shares Program out of the 8,792 original accounts during the launch of the program.

Finance guru and HerMoney podcaster Jean Chatzky said, “Debt certainly isn’t always a bad thing. A mortgage can help you afford a home.

Student loans can be a necessity in getting a good job.” Indeed, debt is not necessarily a bad thing, but being buried in debt is.

SSS will help you earn so you will have more income, and will get you out of debt when the need arises.

Truly, the SSS is the kabalikat of the working Filipinos in the private sector.

Buti na lang, may SSS!!!

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

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

Redeployment and fraudulent misrepresentation of a pre-existing illness

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By Dennis Gorecho

he redeployment of a seafarer cannot negate his entitlement to disability benefits on account of fraudulent misrepresentation of a pre-existing illness.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration employment contract states that “a seafarer who knowingly conceals and does not disclose past medical condition, disability and history in the preemployment medical examination (PEME) constitutes fraudulent misrepresentation and shall disqualify him from any compensation and benefits.”

The Supreme Court disregarded in the case of Leoncio v. MST Marine Services (GR 230357, December 6, 2017) the company’s argument that the seafarer’s employment is contractual in nature so that he is required to divulge, during each PEME any pre-existing medical

condition that he has, including past medical history, that can assist the company in arriving at an accurate decision as to whether or not he is fit for employment.

The seafarer was first medically repatriated in 2001 due to Hypertension and Angina Pectoris. He was later declared “Fit for Sea Duty” after undergoing treatment by the company-designated physician. He was re-employed by the company.

He was again repatriated in 2014 due to an entirely different illness, i.e., Percutaneous Coronary Intervention to severe distal Right Coronary Artery with one drug-eluting stent.

T he company discontinued the medication process and later

The Supreme Court disregarded the employer’s argument that the seafarer’s employment is contractual as it stressed that the knowledge acquired by the manning agency regarding the medical condition of a seafarer is not automatically wiped out and obliterated upon the expiration of a contract and the execution of another.

denied liability on the ground of his failure to declare during the PEME that he underwent a stenting procedure on his LAD and LCX arteries in 2009.

The Supreme Court disregarded the employer’s argument that the seafarer’s employment is contractual as it stressed that the knowledge acquired by the manning agency regarding the medical condition of a seafarer is not automatically

wiped out and obliterated upon the expiration of a contract and the execution of another.

Seafarers are considered contractual employees. Their employment is governed by the contracts they sign every time they are rehired and their employment is terminated when the contract expires. Their employment is contractually fixed for a certain period of time.

Instead, the knowledge and information previously acquired by the manning agency is imputed to its principals. The employer cannot deny knowledge of seafarer’s medical condition and so refuse to pay his benefits.

The company was already aware of the existence of the seafarer’s coronary artery disease (CAD/HCVD) since 2001 but nonetheless reemployed and redeployed him to work for several more years.

The Supreme Court likewise ruled See “Gorecho,” A7

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Digital currency distinguished from virtual currency Atty. Dennis B. Funa

INSURANCE FORUM

I

N Circular Letter 2020-70, the Insurance Commission encouraged the use of digital payments in insurance transactions. But how do we distinguish digital currencies, which is legal tender, from virtual currencies which is not endorsed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas?

Digital currency is the overall superset, whereas virtual currency (VC) is the subset. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies are a type of VC. Virtual currency is a type of digital currency. VCs are created by a community of online users and are stored in electronic wallets (e-wallets), and they are generally transacted online.

It is available only in electronic form.

VCs are not issued or guaranteed by any central bank or government. It is not regulated by government. It is not legal tender in the Philippines, and in all countries, as of 2020. The term virtual currency was created in 2012 when the European Central Bank defined it as “digital money in an unregulated environment, issued and controlled by its developers and used as a payment method among members of a specific virtual community.”

Cryptocurrency is a type of VC that uses cryptography, which is a method of storing and transmitting data in unreadable form so that only the intended receivers can read and process it. The foremost cryptocurrencies are “Bitcoin,” which was introduced in 2009, and Ethereum. The value of cryptocurrencies is driven by supply and demand, hence its price is volatile. Its value is not pegged to any national currency. VC holders may, therefore, incur losses when “investing” in it. While it was not intended to be an investment product, the speculation around it has resulted to its value volatility. For example, bitcoin’s price started at below $1,000 in January 2017, and it increased to about $14,000 by end-December 2017. Just like digital currencies, however, VCs may be exchanged for actual cash or fiat money.

BSP response to VCs

When VCs were gaining usage in the Philippines, the BSP issued a cautionary directive through an advisory dated March 6, 2014. The BSP advised the public on the features, benefits, and risks in dealing with VCs. It did not ban or prohibit VCs. By 2017, the BSP issued a formal regulatory framework for VC Exchanges through BSP Circular 944 (Guidelines for VC Exchanges), dated February 6, 2017. Only Japan and the Philippines have issued regulations for VC Exchanges as of 2018. In contrast, most economies including the US, UK, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore have adopted a wait-and-see approach and have not issued any policy directives on VCs.

Gorecho. . .

continued from A6

that the non-disclosures of medical procedures will not disqualify a seafarer from entitlement to disability benefits.

The word “illness” refers to a disease or injury afflicting a person’s body while “condition” refers to the state of one’s health.

The Court added that neither of these words refers to a medical procedure undergone by a seafarer in connection with an “illness or condition” (his CAD/HCVD) which was already known by his employers as far back as 2001.

The stenting procedure is the “placement of a small wire mesh tube called a stent to help prop the

China and Vietnam, on the other hand, have outrightly banned or prohibited digital-asset exchanges and initial coin offerings.

VC Exchanges are companies or businesses engaged in the changing of VCs into fiat currency, and vice versa.

Circular 944 required VC Exchanges to register with the BSP as remittance and transfer companies. This circular was issued in a framework of a regulatory sandbox, then referred to as the “test and learn” approach. Safeguards were also directed to be taken against risks, including money laundering risks. With the appearance of certain fraudulent activities, another advisory was issued on December 29, 2017 reiterating that the BSP does not endorse VCs as a currency or an investment instrument due to its highly speculative and risky nature.

As a result of Circular 944, two VC Exchanges were licensed: Betur, Inc. and Rebittance, Inc. in September and October 2017, respectively. Since being licensed in 2017, the total value of transactions increased by 608 percent year-on-year, from 2016, to an aggregate amount of P1.7 billion.

Betur Inc. is a subsidiary of Singapore-based e-commerce applications developer Global Commerce Technologies Pte Ltd. It operates in the Philippines under the brand name Coins.ph. It was founded in 2014 by Silicon Valley businessmen Ron Hoze and Runar Petursson. Its company profile describes itself as “Southeast Asia’s leading mobile blockchain-enabled platform that enables anyone, including those without bank accounts, to easily access financial services directly from their phone. Using Coins, customers have access to a mobile wallet and services such as remittances, air-time, bill payments, and online shopping at over 100,000 merchants who accept digital currency. Operating in the Philippines and Thailand, Coins’ mission is to increase financial inclusion by delivering financial services directly to people through their mobile phones.”

Rebittance Inc. is a subsidiary of Philippine fintech company, Satoshi Citadel Industries Ventures, Inc. It markets itself as a remittance company. It has pioneered in the development of blockchain technology since 2014. Cebuana Lhuillier is an investor in Satoshi Citadel. The word Satoshi was derived from Satoshi Nakamoto who is the pseudonymous person that developed bitcoin. Satoshi is also the smallest unit of bitcoin, which is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. artery open and decrease its chance of narrowing again.”

The Supreme Court said that the procedure was intended to improve his health condition and was nothing more than an attempt to discontinue the steady progression of his illness or condition.

The seafarer’s failure to reveal the said procedure does not amount to a concealment of a pre-existing “illness or condition” that can bar his claim for disability benefit and compensation.

The Court also stressed the seafarer was a “walking time bomb ready to explode towards the end of his employment days” due to the compensable heart condition caused by the unusual strain of the seafarer’s work.

In Manansala v. Marlow Navigation Phils. Inc. (GR 208314, August

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 A7

Social Darwinism: The world trade order under the new normal Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

MAKE SENSE

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istory tells us that every time a pandemic happens, the world is changed. The 1918 flu pandemic that claimed over 50 million lives or 2.5 percent of the global population at that time made the world change its approach to health.

According to a Time online feature article, health care was fragmented during the 1918 pandemic. In industrialized countries, most doctors either worked for themselves or were funded by charities or religious institutions, and many people had no access to them at all.

Public health programs like social distancing and quarantine measures were often implemented late, because flu was not a reportable disease in 1918. Thus, doctors weren’t obliged to report cases to the authorities.

Over a hundred years later, the world is going through another change as it grapples with the new global health emergency that is Covid-19. Not even the rich and powerful nations of the world were spared by the pandemic. Today, social distancing and other safety protocols are mandatory in many parts of the world, including the Philippines.

The social and fiscal lives of humanity, including the various econ-

omies of the world had to virtually stop when schools, factories, offices and business establishments were closed due to the pandemic. Mass gatherings have been banned since the start of Covid-19’s global outbreak, and people have been quarantined in their own homes or in designated quarantine areas to contain the spread of the virus.

As the saying goes, “health is wealth.” But the world cannot survive on disease-prevention alone, it also has to resuscitate its economy. Thus, under what is now considered as the new normal, the global economy is slowly starting its recovery mode. All nations affected by the pandemic, regardless of their wealth and military power, are slowly picking up what is left of their badly affected economies.

According to reports, Japan has called on Japanese firms that made China their production hub to relocate their operations back to Japan. The United States of America,

Buying local and helping secure the jobs of millions of Filipinos could be our way of expressing our greatest love for our country.

This reminds me of the lyrics of a Whitney Houston song that says, “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.” which is not only a major proponent of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) trade liberalization program that dismantled global trade barriers, but also a strong advocate for consumer protection and heavily dependent on China for its consumer needs, has launched a “Buy America” campaign. This is an aggressive program that some sectors say is a protectionist trade policy, but which President Donald Trump finds necessary for the nation’s survival.

With Social Darwinism, or the theory of survival of the fittest, now an almost universal attribute, as many economies of the world shore up their conservation measures to protect their economies, as competition for an already eroded global market tightens, the shift in the US and Japan’s trade policies should send the message to Philippine policy makers that we should also protect our economy.

If the US and many parts of Europe have secured their borders from import surge and pushed their citizens to buy local to protect their economy, where do you think will the

world’s biggest exporters like China dump their products? Surely, they will be dumped in countries where import surge protection measures are lax, like the Philippines.

Should this happen, it would perhaps spell the death of the Philippine manufacturing industry. Philippine made products cannot compete with the cheaper China made products because most manufacturers in China are subsidized, if not owned by the government. Most factories in China operate not for profit, but to generate employment for Chinese citizens.

Thus, unless the Philippine government strengthens its import surge protection measures like safeguarding duties and strictly enforcing mandatory product standards, and asserts its sovereign authority to prioritize locally made products in all government procurements, millions of jobs will be lost in the local manufacturing industry alone, and millions more from the retail and other allied industries.

This is now the time for us Filipinos to exercise our patriotic values and love of country by buying Philippine made products. After all, buying local and helping secure the jobs of millions of Filipinos could be our way of expressing our greatest love for our country. This reminds me of the lyrics of a Whitney Houston song that says, “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.”

“Buy Pinoy, Buy Local” is being pushed by the Federation of Philippine Industries.

Heavy is the head that wears the semiconductor crown

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By Tim Culpan | Bloomberg Opinion

ust 10 days ago, I noted that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) earnings and outlook served as proof that it’s truly the global king of chips. Since then, the company has grown even stronger, but more good news also increases the burden and will likely draw far more attention than it’s comfortable with.

Being bigger and more indispensable sounds like a great position to be in. Yet that could also irk competition regulators, clients and governments that, amid a tech cold war, worry that one company may have become too powerful. The way that TSMC brushed off the pending loss of orders from Huawei Technologies Co. to raise its spending plan for the year is what had recently impressed me. Then last week, Intel Corp. revealed that its next, most-advanced chips would again be delayed, sending the American company’s stock down 16 percent. As colleague Tae Kim noted, investors have seen this movie before. Intel has slipped up too many times in recent years, allowing rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to take market share, and spurring Apple Inc. to drop Intel processors in favor of designing its own.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Swan’s statement that manufacturing the chips could be outsourced made it worse. Once the global leader in both design and production, Intel would be eliminating its biggest competitive advantage against AMD—whose chips are made by TSMC—in their tussle over processors used in laptops, PCs and servers.

23, 2017), the Supreme Court noted that the contract does not merely speak of incorrectness, falsity, of incompleteness or inexactness, or failure to disclose the truth. Rather, to negate compensability, it requires fraudulent misrepresentation, that he deliberately concealed it for a malicious purpose.

To amount to fraudulent misrepresentation, falsity must be coupled with intent to deceive and to profit from that deception. Honest mistakes on a pre-existing illness during the PEME will not deprive seafarers of their right over disability or death benefits.

Atty. Dennis Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.

The power shift was confirmed on Monday morning. TSMC jumped by its 10 percent daily limit in Taiwan to a record high after the Taipei-based Commercial Times newspaper reported that Intel has placed an order for its 6 nanometer chips for next year. Not only would this be an unprecedented development for both client and supplier, the reported size of the contract—180,000 wafers—is almost as large as that for longtime client AMD (200,000 wafers), which raised its own order.

As a result, according to the newspaper, the manufacturer’s leading-edge capacity is fully booked for the first half of next year. A report in Taipei’s Economic Daily News meanwhile says that Apple will set up a display R&D plant within TSMC. Recent advances are starting to merge flat-screen display and semiconductor technologies, and the chipmaker finds itself at the center of the action.

These new developments are where the responsibilities of TSMC’s crown will begin to weigh.

It has a long list of clients whose needs must be met. Beyond Apple and Intel, global leaders including

After decades behind the scenes, TSMC is taking an everbigger share of the spotlight as one of the most famous and powerful technology companies in the world. So far, it’s managed to outsmart competitors, skirt antitrust regulators, and survive early rounds of the Washington-Beijing chill. This may make it a hero to investors and the ruler of its sector, but also creates a huge target.

Nvidia Corp., Qualcomm Inc., MediaTek Inc. and Broadcom Inc. all rely on TSMC to churn out chips for the planet’s electronics devices.

Great, except that expanding takes years and billions of dollars. Overbuild and you’re left with idle capacity that’s quickly depreciating and burning a hole in your income statement. Another thing to keep in mind is that for all of Intel’s woes, TSMC isn’t perfect, either.

In 2012, Qualcomm struggled to supply a new line of chips to its own clients, smartphone brands, because the Taiwanese company was having trouble delivering on time.

That spurred a search for alternative suppliers. Two years ago, a malware attack and a separate incident involving poor chemical quality at TSMC both caused delays. By all accounts, clients forgave, but probably won’t forget.

T hen there are regulators.

The company told investors in 2017 that it was under preliminary investigation by the European Commission “concerning alleged anti-competitive practices…in relation to semiconductor sales.” The implication was that TSMC—holding more than 50 percent of the global contract-manufacturing market—is too big and powerful, with reports at the time suggesting that the US Fair Trade Commission was also taking a look. While it seems both probes are on hold, there’s every chance that either could be dusted off and restarted should concerns increase.

The company has only grown bigger since, and become an unwilling player in the US-China tech cold war. It has sought to ease concerns that so much American semiconductor prowess and supply sits offshore by announcing that it will build a factory in Arizona.

Former Intel executive Peter Cleveland and US Chamber of Commerce policy director Nicholas Montella have been hired to beef up its US lobbying team.

After decades behind the scenes, TSMC is taking an ever-bigger share of the spotlight as one of the most famous and powerful technology companies in the world. So far, it’s managed to outsmart competitors, skirt antitrust regulators, and survive early rounds of the Washington-Beijing chill. This may make it a hero to investors and the ruler of its sector, but also creates a huge target.

What about the Maranaos who have been waiting for three fruitless years?

Statement of the Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch on President Duterte’s Fifth State of the Nation Address.

he President elucidated plans for national recovery and resilience that he wants to pursue for all Filipinos. But what about the Maranaos who have been waiting for three fruitless years—way before the pandemic and its consequent economic crisis?

He proposed to launch a more vigorous Balik-Probinsya program and the creation of new economic

T

zones. Well how about a BalikMarawi program to deter deaths and disease in the refugee camps and to stem the rise of violent extremists that have tapped into local discontent?

He made a plea to Congress to prioritize the recovery of the economy through financial subsidies, easier loans, and rental reforms.

Well what about the promised yet much delayed compensation to stimulate the economy in an area ravaged by war and destitution? When will you direct Congress to prioritize the Marawi Compensation Bill?

We are one with all Filipinos in desiring a quicker release from the health and economic crisis we all face. But how can we trust your word or believe your promises when you have not honored your promises to us?

Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch is an independent multistakeholder dialogue group of people that harnesses skills and professions to help in the Marawi reconstruction process and channels wider public attention and participation in its monitoring. MRCW members are from Marawi and most of us are Maranaos, no one person or leader speaks on our behalf, each step we take is a collective one.

A8 Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Sabah not in Malaysia, Locsin tells US aid unit

By Recto Mercene

@rectomercene

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HE Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday told the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to correct an announcement that described Sabah as part of Malaysia.

“Sabah is not in Malaysia, if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines,” said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., after USAID tweeted it had donated 500 hygiene kits for Region 9 (Southern Mindanao) “for use by returning Filipino repatriates from Sabah, Malaysia, who arrived in Zamboanga City and Bongao, Tawi Tawi.”

In his official Twitter account, Locsin warned, “You better edit that announcement if you know what’s good for you.”

Prior to this, Locsin had always maintained that the country will never abandon its claim to Sabah, for which the Sultanate of Sulu gets “rental payment” from Malaysia decades after the territory was “awarded” to it by Britain.

Republic Act 5446, which took effect on September 18, 1968, considers Sabah as a territory “over which the Republic of the Philippines has acquired dominion and sovereignty.”

Continued on A2

Palace: Up to NTC to test telcos’ performance amid Duterte threat to take over

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

T will be up to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to conduct the technical assessment if major telecommunication companies have improved their services before the end of the year as ordered by President Duterte.

In an online press briefing on Tuesday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the NTC, as the regulatory body for telecommunication services and television broadcast, must set up the technical criteria, which should be complied with by Smart Communications and Globe Telecom Inc., the two leader who were called out by name at Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

Some critics noted that the very same systemic problems hindering Smart and Globe are also now

hounding the third player, Dito Telecommunity, but the latter was not named in the speech.

“There are so many bases for that [telcos’ performance] and the NTC knows all of this. This includes dropped calls and the clarity of the calls. There are measurements for this,” Roque said.

He said the President may also have his own assessment on the matter depending on his personal experience in using the services of both telecommunication firms.

The Palace official said Smart

and Globe are free to meet with the NTC and Duterte to inquire about the criteria in determining the efficiency of their services and raise their other concerns.

However, he noted, with or without such meetings, both companies are still expected to provide better services to their customers

by December.

During his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, Duterte threatened to shut down Smart and Globe and for the government to take over the telecommunication industry, if both companies fail to provide the kind of service, which he said their clients deserve.

Duterte said he is eyeing to leave an improved telecommunication service as one of his administration’s legacies once he ends his term in the next two years.

This threat of a takeover sparked criticism in some quarters, as it could drive away investors. The nongovernment InfraWatch also noted that by failing to fully redress the problems of red tape hounding the players, government is setting them up for failure and takeover.

Poe’s take

MEANWHILE, the chief of the Senate Committee on Public Services conveyed Tuesday mounting public frustration over poor Internet services as well as the “woeful condition” of public jeepney drivers amid the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sen. Grace Poe pointed out that “frustration is growing by the day for fast, affordable and reliable Internet service, which has become a necessity as people rely more on digital technologies amid the pandemic.”

In a statement, Poe added: “We know that improving Internet service and coverage will happen not only by obligating the telcos but government regulators as well to remove the roadblocks to building the necessary communication infrastructure.”

She noted that pertinent national agencies and local government units should step up so that the approval of at least 25 regulatory permits for the construction of cell towers will not take six months.

Continued on A2

Unctad: Trade policy can curb Covid-linked plastics pollution

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

I

T has become increasingly obvious in recent months that countries struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic have created new forms of plastic pollution along the way, but the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said they can help fight this through trade policies.

In a statement, Unctad Director of International Trade Pamela CokeHamilton lamented that while the pandemic helped reduce GHG emissions, it has significantly increased plastic pollution of the world’s oceans.

Coke-Hamilton said all the plastic face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer bottles, and food packaging waste are polluting beaches and oceans worldwide.

“Plastic pollution was already one of the greatest threats to our planet before the coronavirus outbreak,” Coke-Hamilton said. “The sudden boom in the daily use of certain products to keep people safe and stop the disease is making things much worse.”

Coke-Hamilton said global trade policies can play an important role in fighting plastic pollution. Policies such as technical regulations, subsidies, licenses and bans can help in this regard.

She said the number of trade measures mentioning plastics reported by the World Trade Organization (WTO) increased by 28 percent in the past 10 years, showing that more WTO members are concerned about it.

The Unctad official said the 164 developing and developed economies that make up the WTO have the ability to write multilateral trade rules that could address the fundamental issues of the global plastics economy.

“The way countries have been using trade policy to fight plastic pollution has mostly been uncoor-

dinated, which limits the effectiveness of their efforts,” Coke-Hamilton said. “There are limits to what any country can achieve on its own.”

Apart from regulating the production and consumption of plastics, Unctad said governments and businesses should identify nonfossil fuel plastic substitutes.

The list of nontoxic, biodegradable or easily recyclable materials that could replace plastic includes many well-known materials, such as glass, ceramics, natural fibers, paper, cardboard, rice husk, natural rubber and animal proteins.

The increased global demand for these plastic substitutes could create new, greener trade and investment opportunities for countries.

Developing nations supply 92 percent of the world’s jute, with the main suppliers being Bangladesh (74 percent) and India (9 percent).

They also accounted for 94 percent of global natural rubber exports in 2019, with Thailand (31.5 percent), Indonesia (30 percent) and Côte d’Ivoire (8.5 percent) leading the pack.

Developing countries have a big stake in the global plastics economy.

Two out of three plastic manufacturing jobs are in the global south.

The share of these countries in the global plastics production jumped to 58 percent in 2018 from 43.5 percent in 2009.

“Since many plastics substitutes are also labor-intensive, changes in production and consumption patterns could create new jobs,” CokeHamilton said.

Unctad said the UN Environment Programme earlier estimated that about 75 percent of coronavirus plastic will likely become waste clogging our landfills and floating in our seas.

Unep said the negative spillover effects of plastic waste on fisheries, tourism and maritime transport, for example, add up to an estimated $40 billion each year.

House panel endorses GUIDE bill to plenary

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

T

O provide the needed assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises and other strategically important companies affected by Covid-19, the House Defeat Covid-19 Committee on Tuesday endorsed for plenary approval the economic managersbacked bill seeking to strengthen the capacity of the government financial institutions. This will be done by increasing the paid-up capital of Philippine Guarantee Corp., the Land Bank of the Philippines, and the Development Bank of the Philippines.

House Defeat Covid-19 Committee Chairman and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said the committee report of the proposed Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery Act (GUIDE) will be transmitted to the plenary for another round of deliberation.

“We really have no choice but to fast-track the approval of this measure if we want to spare millions of jobs threatened by this global pandemic,” said Romualdez.

The chairman of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries, Rep. Junie Cua, is also the principal author of the proposed GUIDE. He noted that with the imposition of the quarantine in Luzon, and in several provinces cities and municipalities in Visayas and Mindanao, only private establishments providing basic necessities and essentials services were allowed to remain open.

According to Cua, the bill provides for a total P55-billion appropriation for the three financial institutions. “ This P55 billion—because of the multiplier effect of a peso capital invested in these banks and guarantee corporation and based on empirical study and based on the experience of these banks— can raise a minimum of P600 billion to address the credit needs of MSMEs and strategic companies,” he added.

“We feel that this is one creative and innovative way to raise the money without really spending too much or borrowing too much,” Cua added.

Under the bill, the funding includes: ■ P5 billion for PGC, as paid-up capital for the increase in the subscription of the national government in PGC’s authorized capital stock, to be paid upon the effectivity of the GUIDE Act, with the balance payable from succeeding appropriations; ■ P35 billion to be allocated to LBP as additional paid-up capital of the government to be used for loans and other specified purposes; and ■ P15 billion to be allocated to DBP to be likewise applied as additional paid-up capital of the national government in the bank’s authorized capital stock, which shall be increased to P100 billion to absorb such capital infusion.

These funds shall be deemed automatically appropriated pursuant to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. “We are confronted by the crisis at the same time we are restricted, we are limited by the meager resources of our government. This bill proposes a very innovative way of addressing the concern of the national government in helping the millions of people working in MSMEs and big strategic compnies,” he said.

Continued on A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Companies BusinessMirror

PAL, HSMA tie up to extend booking assistance to Pinoys

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

P

IONEERING flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has tied up with the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association Inc. (HSMA) to ensure that returning Filipinos from overseas have accommodations when they arrive in the country.

HSMA President Christine Ann U. Ibarreta told the BusinessMirror her group has assured the carrier of 6,000 available rooms when the international flights land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

“PAL recently received approval to add more flights starting July 27 as Naia 2 [PAL Centennial Terminal] will open to accommodate returning overseas Filipinos,” she disclosed.

“HSMA will assist PAL; they will man the designated HSMA desk at [luggage] carousel 6, where they will verify hotel room accommodation and bus transfers to their respective hotels. Passengers will be asked to

sign a letter of undertaking that they will follow the guidelines set by the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] for the health and safety protocols,” she added.

She noted, representatives from the Department of Tourism (DOT) will likewise be present to assist the returning overseas Filipinos at carousel 7. Ibarreta said they expect three flights a day, or a minimum of 700 passengers a day at Naia 2.

“Our desk will only deal with returning overseas Filipinos [ROFs], as the overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] are handled by the Owwa [Overseas Workers Welfare Administration],” Ibarreta underscored.

As per IATF rules, inbound airline passengers have to undergo an RT-PCR swab and hotel quarantine, while waiting for their Covid-19 test results.

A number of hotels in Metro Manila remain open but mainly serve as temporary quarantine quarters for ROFs and OFWs. The accommodations sector is among those badly

hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, with many countries imposing outbound travel restrictions. As of May, losses suffered by the hotel industry were estimated at P22 billion, with establishments already cutting room rates for the ROFs and OFWs. At present, Filipinos arriving from overseas include those who took business or holiday trips before the Luzon-wide lockdown was implemented on March 16 to contain the spread of Covid-19, young Filipinos studying abroad, and OFWs who had lost their jobs.

According to Ibarreta, upon arrival at Naia 2, the ROFs will have a briefing with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), then undergo a Covid-19 test at the swab test booth. “After, they go to carousel 6 and verify at the HSMA desk if they have hotel bookings or not. If they don’t have any bookings, we recommend the hotel, that’s why we asked for QR codes for easier contactless bookings,” she explained. Each PAL passenger and all hotels have unique QR codes to facilitate these bookings.

Once the ROF gets his hotel booking, the HSMA representative will stamp an HSMA logo with the ROF’s verified hotel booking and date of arrival on the letter of undertaking provided by PAL and the PCG. The ROF then boards a bus, prearranged with Bel Air Transpo, and will pay on his own account. “Passengers pay for the bus ride onboard, while en-route to their destination. It is the same price for NCR [National Capital Region] hotels except for Alabang/ Muntinlupa. Assigned staff will accompany the passengers to ensure they go to hotels in which they are booked,” said the HSMA official.

Once the ROF receives his test result, if negative, he will approach the hotel’s front desk and ask for a print out of their PCG Certificate so he can check out. “If the ROF is positive, the hotel will advise PCG so they can discreetly check out the guest to transfer to a quarantine facility,” added Ibarreta.

HSMA is a group of hotel sales and marketing professionals in 120 hotels and resorts across the country.

ALI hopes other firms will offer REITs A

yala Land Inc. (ALI) said it hopes that the initial public offering (IPO) of its real estate investment trust (REIT) will encourage other Philippine companies to follow suit.

“AREIT Inc. IPO is not only for Ayala Land, but also for the continued development of the Philippine capital markets. Since the REIT law was passed in 2009, domestic and foreign investors have been eagerly awaiting to invest in REITs in the Philippines,” AREIT Chairman Jose Emmanuel H. Jalandoni said.

“We hope our efforts to become the first company to offer this product will pave the way for more REIT listings in the future. REITs will enable capital recycling to further promote developments in the country.”

Already, the group of businessman Edgar Sia II is preparing to offer its own REIT, which will be sponsored

by Double Dragon Properties Corp. It expects to raise some P17 billion from the offer.

AREIT’s portfolio, meanwhile, consists of three properties in Makati City, namely Solaris One, Ayala North Exchange and McKinley Exchange. These properties cover a total gross leasable area of 152,755.80 square meters and have a total occupancy rate of 99.9 percent. Ayala North Exchange—the largest property under Areit’s portfolio with a GLA of 95,000.35 square meter—is seen to boost revenues through its mixed offering of office towers, a support retail amenity, and serviced apartments branded as Seda Residences

Makati. Its prime location along Ayala Avenue is attractive to both tenants and investors. Net proceeds from the primary offer will be used to fund its acquisition of either Teleperformance Cebu from ALO Prime Realty Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ayala Land, or an alternative property from ALI, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates that financially and strategically meets or exceeds Teleperformance Cebu and AREIT’s financial and strategic investment criteria. Teleperformance Cebu consists of two BPO offices with a combined gross leaseable area (GLA) of 17,947.96 square meters.

The acquisition of Teleperformance Cebu will increase AREIT’s GLA by 11 percent to a total of 170,703.76 square meters. VG Cabuag

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

B1

Korean firm submits bid for Malaya TPP operation

A

Korean firm submitted a bid to operate and maintain the Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) for one year for P222.55 million.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) on Tuesday opened the bid of Soosan ENS Co., Ltd., the lone bidder for a one-year Operation and Maintenance Service Contract (OMSC).

The bid submitted is still subject to the detailed bid evaluation and postqualification activities. After which, it will be presented to the PSALM Board of Directors for the approval of the issuance of the Notice of Award.

PSALM has approved a budget of P224,800,000 for the procurement of the OMSC. Soosan submitted a bid of P222,552,000.

The Malaya TPP in Pililla, Rizal is being managed by PSALM through an OMSC. It was designated by the Department of Energy (DOE) as a must-run unit (MRU) in 2014. As an MRU, it is called by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to run and provide security capacity during shortage in electricity supply caused by power plant outages to ensure system reliability of the Luzon grid.

In January last year, Soosan bagged the same one-year contract for P205.73 million. It was in charge of the day-today upkeep, management and maintenance or repair of the power plant and its equipment.

The Malaya TPP consists of a 300-MW unit with a once-through type boiler and

a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. It was last rehabilitated in 1995

by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-managemaintain agreement.

Meanwhile, the state firm has once again moved the deadline of bid submission for the privatization of the MTPP and its underlying land to September this year. It also moved the dates of other bidding activities due to the lockdown.

The new deadline for bid submission is on September 3 at 12 noon. The release of final Asset Purchase Agreement to qualified bidders, meanwhile, is set on August 20.

The issuance of notice of award is set on September 30.

PSALM will disclose the minimum bid price to qualified bidders immediately after securing the Board's decision on the matter. PSALM's Board is awaiting feedback from the Commission on Audit relative to the request of PSALM to allow a discounting mechanism that would lower the minimum bid price.

This is PSALM’s third attempt to privatize the Malaya asset. PSALM has declared a failure of the second round of public bidding because there was only one bid. Pursuant to the bidding rules, PSALM then proceeded to go through the process of negotiated sale with the lone bidder, D.M. Wenceslao.

However, D.M. Wenceslao’s bid offer was below the minimum bid price. Thus, PSALM was constrained to also declare a failure of the negotiated sale. Lenie Lectura

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

ICTSI inks deal to develop Cameroon’s Kribi terminal

I

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

nternational Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) will start the full operations of the Kribi Multipurpose Terminal (KMT) in Cameroon “in a few months” after it signed the concession contract with the Port Autonome de Kribi (PAK) for the development, operation and maintenance of the port.

The development of KMT, a deepwater port located 150 kilometers south of Douala, consists of two phases. Phase 1 refers to the devel-

opment of 265 + 63 meters of berth and a 10-hectare yard, while Phase 2 will include an additional 350 meters of berth and 23 hectares of yard.

Kribi port is surrounded by the Kribi Industrial Area, a 262 squarekilometer zone destined to accommodate new industrial and logistical developments supporting the growing Cameroonian economy.

“Our purpose as a company is to make the Port of Kribi a driver for positive and sustainable growth, thus ICTSI will work diligently to partner the Cameroonian business community by providing efficient and safe port services,” Hans-Ole Madsen, ICTSI senior vice president and regional head for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said.

“Our services will act as a catalyst for Cameroons foreign trade and we will actively promote the Kribi Logistic Corridor—encompassing Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon—an area home to more than 50 million people.”

KMT can handle multipurpose shipping services including roll-on/ roll-off vessels, project and heavy lift cargo, forestry products, dry bulk and other general cargoes, and to offer support services to the oil and gas industry.

The port provides 16 meters of deep water access and is equipped with state-of-the-art handling equipment including two mobile harbor cranes, providing an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons.

It is capable of accommodating the largest vessels plying the waters today.

Madsen said ICTSI “will further invest in KMT’s infrastructure and superstructure, and by 2024 the port will double in size.”

The expansion will include additional modern handling equipment, storage facilities and modern tech platforms.

Lazada offers FWD Insurance products F WD Life Insurance Corp. (FWD Insurance) has launched its own retail space on Lazada, the region’s leading e-commerce platform, to make its products readily available to consumers.

Through the FWD Flagship Store, the insurer said it will make its surety products, such as KanMend, KanLive, and KanGuard, more accessible to customers.

“In light of the evolving Covid-19 situation where everyone is highly encouraged to stay at home, we at FWD want to make our KanDüü insurance plans easily accessible to more Filipinos. Offering these plans on Lazada supports our goal of bringing financial protection to customers, at their utmost convenience,” said FWD Insurance President and Chief Executive

Officer Li Hao Zhuang.

“When customers shop online at the comfort of their homes, we also hope to make them feel more secure amidst these uncertain times.

That’s why we are offering these affordable plans with superior coverage, and exciting rewards as well—all in support of FWD’s vision of changing the way people feel about insurance.”

KanDüü caters to clients between the ages of 18 and 50 years old. For only P1,799 a year, customers up to age 55 are entitled to life, critical illness, or accident and terrorism insurance coverage with added compensation. Each product also has its own features that fit people’s unique lifestyles and changing needs.

KanMend provides a benefit of P100,000 in case the insured is diagnosed with any of the 42 covered critical illnesses. Policyholders can also claim a reward—a six-month access to Kon-

mutual funds

sultaMD, a health hotline service providing 24/7 unlimited telemedicine access to licensed Filipino doctors providing medical advice.

KanLive is a life insurance policy that entitles the beneficiaries to an amount of P200,000 in case of the policy owner’s death. This plan has a reward of one year of unlimited medical consultation, courtesy of Aventus Medical Inc., a healthcare service provider with 12 branches located in Metro Manila, Cebu, Laguna, and Pampanga.

Meanwhile, KanGuard protects clients in case of accidental death or terrorist attack anywhere in the world. It extends a cash benefit of P500,000 as financial support for the beneficiaries in case of the policyholder’s death or total and permanent disability. It also comes with a one-year subscription to Assist America Global Emergency Services, a provider of emergency medical services for travelers worldwide. Roderick L. Abad July 28, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 193.14 -29.46% -11.47% -6.16% -23.31% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 0.9847 -40.81% -14.99% -7.04% -28.75% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.5883 -39.33% -16.12% -8.68% -29.63% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6641 -32.87% n.a. n.a.

-26.05% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6432 -29.27% n.a. n.a.

-24.27% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.1464 -26.86% -10.05% -5.94% -22.18% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6508 -28.76% -12.44% n.a.

-23.76% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

77.24 -36.25% n.a. n.a.

-25.17% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 38.6724 -29.04% -10.13% -5.3% -24.59% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 416.58 -26.58% -9.3% -5.43% -21.81% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.846 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-17.87% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 0.9831 -28.83% -9.63% -5.03% -23.61% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 28.9229 -28.56% -9.17% -4.74% -23.68% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7655 -29.74% n.a. n.a.

-24.81% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 3.9388 -28.81% -9.62% -4.61% -24.59% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 659.51 -28.61% -9.58% -4.8% -24.37% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.5945 -38.57% -13.6% -8.93% -30.17% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0512 -32.39% -11% -5.95% -27.51% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7561 -28.75% -9.77% -4.79% -24.45% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.7766 -28.38% -8.42% -4.27% -24% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 88.5434 -28.39% -9.11% -3.99% -24.29% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$1.0229 2.49% -0.37% 0.76% -0.53% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.4358 8.26% 6.46% n.a.

4.14% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5468 -13.78% -4.84% -3.72% -1.02% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0274 -15.03% -5.35% -2.25% -7.05% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3753 -13.06% -3.94% -3.46% -9.74% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1823 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-20.22% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8199 -8.15% -1.86% -0.69% -7.22% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4411 -10.81% -3.15% -1.89% -9.18% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.3355 -11.66% -3.44% -2.06% -9.58% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.8902 -14.06% -4.49% -1.87% -10.93% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2195 -19.53% -5.73% -3.27% -16.67% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9274 -11.77% n.a. n.a.

-8.69% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8236 -21.67% n.a. n.a.

-17.34% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.797 -23.97% n.a. n.a.

-19.75% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.7904 -22.77% -6.8% -4.5% -18.92% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03924 4.75% 3.09% 2.02% 2.72% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.0156 1.16% 0.39% 1.33% 0.36% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.9956 4.96% 4.63% 4.06% 2.17% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1416 2.57% 2.57% n.a.

1.14% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 367.27 4.4% 3.19% 2.61% 2.61% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9455 2.12% 0.96% -0.01% 2.29% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1961 4.41% 5.04% 5.06% 2.51% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.3037 4.68% 3.06% 2.39% 3.61% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4526 5.31% 3.46% 2% 3.96% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.663 9.97% 4.58% 2.82% 6.63% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3031 6.43% 4.22% 2.33% 3.69% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9636 7.32% 4.47% 2.39% 4.63% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0385 9.77% 3.8% 1.93% 7.69% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1756 5.89% 4.83% 2.94% 3.25% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

1.746 4.9% 4.24% 2.39% 2.64% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $476.47 3.49% 2.54% 2.78% 1.73% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є216.37 -1.12% 0.7% 1.05% -1.56% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2389 4.39% 3.23% 2.74% 2.63% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0263 2.33% 1.84% 1.51% 1.94% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0841 -0.36% 0.25% 0.46% -0.87% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4874 5.46% 3.7% 3.35% 3.49% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0608844 2.43% 2.06% 1.92% 0.97% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.228 4.25% 2.31% 2.68% 1.66% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 128.55 3.65% 3.27% 2.47% 2.16% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.043 2.56% n.a. n.a.

1.63% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2855 2.99% 3.03% 2.59% 1.62% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0463 1.62% n.a. n.a.

0.77% Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.0031 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.94 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-5.05%

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

1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019.

4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020.

"While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to the correctness of the newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www.

pifa.com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

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PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

July 28, 2020

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG FILIPINO FUND MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

45.45 88.95 67.25 19.98 7.17 34.3 8 19.78 47.3 16 92 52.55 20.3 2.31 7.26 0.28 680 0.59 158 1791

45.5 89.15 68.2 20 7.18 34.75 8.2 19.9 48 16.04 92.1 52.6 20.7 2.37 8.9 0.29 745 0.6 159 1810

45 89.9 65.55 20 7.15 34.4 8.1 19.7 48 16.04 93 52.3 20.4 2.31 7.21 0.29 680 0.6 160 1790

45.5 89.9 68.2 20 7.3 34.95 8.1 19.8 48 16.04 93 52.6 20.7 2.31 7.23 0.29 680 0.6 160 1790

45 88.1 64.55 19.92 7.15 33.7 8.1 19.68 47.5 16 91.5 52 20.2 2.3 7.21 0.275 680 0.59 159 1790

45.5 88.95 68.2 20 7.18 34.3 8.1 19.78 47.95 16.04 92.1 52.55 20.7 2.31 7.23 0.275 680 0.59 159 1790

10400 3532280 2224140 62200 213200 3300900 45300 79700 900 32800 622360 58370 46200 44000 1900 190000 10 5000 100 145

472985 314120158.5 147753852.5 1241934 1533179 113516110 366930 1572624 42950 524986 57287509.5 3062354 947990 101410 13701 54650 6800 2980 15980 259550

463985 -140487591 -49599244.5 3988 127630 -48072030 -224652 -19121475.5 -923615.5 6930 -590 259550

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 2.3 2.31 2.21 2.34 2.21 2.31 6889000 15856270 ALSONS CONS 1.15 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.15 1.16 392000 455560 ABOITIZ POWER 25.8 25.95 25.9 26.1 25.5 25.95 811700 21000005 BASIC ENERGY 0.152 0.16 0.163 0.163 0.151 0.16 13820000 2087630 FIRST GEN 24.45 24.55 23.95 24.75 23.55 24.55 1078900 26083425 FIRST PHIL HLDG 59 60 59 61 58.5 60 22990 1369547.5 MERALCO 264 268 258 268 256 268 112440 29699260 MANILA WATER 12.16 12.18 12.56 12.56 12.1 12.16 6487100 79366248 PETRON 3.11 3.12 3.11 3.12 3.11 3.12 448000 1394550 PETROENERGY 3.31 3.37 3.37 3.38 3.3 3.38 10000 33380 PHX PETROLEUM 11.16 11.38 11.4 11.4 11.16 11.38 2700 30564 PILIPINAS SHELL 17.52 17.54 17.5 17.6 17.5 17.54 58900 1033490 SPC POWER 7.97 8 8 8 7.9 8 34100 270941 AGRINURTURE 7.29 7.4 7.22 7.74 7.19 7.4 367600 2740082 AXELUM 1.89 1.9 1.96 2 1.89 1.89 10483000 20045510 BOGO MEDELLIN 76.1 83.95 76.15 76.15 76.15 76.15 220 16753 CNTRL AZUCARERA 10.14 11.48 11.48 11.48 11.48 11.48 200 2296 CENTURY FOOD 14.48 14.5 14.52 14.52 14.46 14.5 521800 7564764 DEL MONTE 5.32 5.45 5.2 5.45 5.1 5.45 253800 1333394 DNL INDUS 4.54 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.51 4.54 1557000 7,073,660( EMPERADOR 9.1 9.13 9.1 9.1 8.89 9.1 289200 2621077 SMC FOODANDBEV 63.1 63.95 63.05 63.95 63.05 63.95 68840 4393258.5 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.61 0.62 0.63 0.63 0.61 0.61 509000 313600 FRUITAS HLDG 1.18 1.19 1.2 1.2 1.17 1.19 7190000 8533580 GINEBRA 30.2 30.9 30.2 30.95 30.2 30.9 600 18335 JOLLIBEE 129.1 129.5 128 129.8 127.9 129.1 1161930 149273843 MACAY HLDG 6.7 7.1 6.56 7.12 6.56 7.1 12700 87264 MAXS GROUP 4.74 4.75 4.7 4.79 4.69 4.75 96000 453570 MG HLDG 0.126 0.133 0.124 0.134 0.123 0.133 400000 52390 SHAKEYS PIZZA 6 6.09 6 6 5.91 6 551300 3278218 ROXAS AND CO 1.15 1.18 1.14 1.18 1.14 1.18 1868000 2153040 ROXAS HLDG 1.49 1.55 1.48 1.56 1.48 1.49 115000 174340 SWIFT FOODS 0.103 0.109 0.105 0.105 0.105 0.105 10000 1050 UNIV ROBINA 119.8 121 119.4 120.5 119 119.8 844580 101141780 VITARICH 0.77 0.78 0.77 0.79 0.76 0.78 16835000 12996020 CONCRETE A 58.3 60.9 70 70 56.1 60.9 34590 2304326.5 CONCRETE B 62.65 62.7 86.5 86.5 62.05 62.65 90970 6574557.5 CEMEX HLDG 0.9 0.91 0.89 0.92 0.88 0.9 4329000 3887570 EAGLE CEMENT 9.79 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.78 9.79 113500 1111612 EEI CORP 4.85 4.86 5 5 4.81 4.85 841500 4106474 HOLCIM 4.61 4.63 4.71 4.71 4.55 4.63 1065000 4915520 MEGAWIDE 6.73 6.78 7.06 7.06 6.7 6.73 1699600 11604192 PHINMA 8.39 9 9 9 9 9 500 4500 TKC METALS 0.7 0.73 0.66 0.72 0.66 0.7 904000 630250 VULCAN INDL 0.76 0.77 0.79 0.79 0.77 0.77 746000 577470 CROWN ASIA 1.87 1.94 1.94 1.94 1.94 1.94 5000 9700 EUROMED 1.72 1.81 1.66 1.82 1.62 1.72 733000 1247440 MABUHAY VINYL 3.61 3.84 3.56 3.84 3.56 3.84 4000 14800 PRYCE CORP 4.07 4.22 4.25 4.25 4.13 4.13 26000 109900 CONCEPCION 17.82 19 17.58 19 17.58 19 403800 7669682 GREENERGY 1.75 1.76 1.82 1.82 1.76 1.76 3054000 5439180 INTEGRATED MICR 4.85 4.98 4.83 4.83 4.82 4.83 21000 101390 IONICS 0.97 0.98 0.97 0.97 0.95 0.97 127000 122670 SFA SEMICON 1.33 1.34 1.25 1.36 1.24 1.34 5001000 6618350 CIRTEK HLDG 5.5 5.52 5.1 5.5 5.1 5.5 1851200 9863596

-272609.9999 -365340 2319030 8843975 -267981 2519852 -37321330 19160 -207188 -32800 60806 -12462090 1100742 -251692 3,765,010.0002) 41727 -2729865 -275140 10492375 -113040 -307481 -306219.9999 -47590035 -89370 17300 -4450 66864 1846150 -162953 -164580 -5700000 578140 -9650 -3530 -413265.0003

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.465 0.47 0.465 0.47 0.46 0.465 1500000 699650 ASIABEST GROUP 7.25 7.85 7.99 7.99 7.07 7.8 25600 184911 AYALA CORP 720 722 710 725 700.5 722 179710 128705875 ABOITIZ EQUITY 49.05 49.5 48.05 49.5 48.05 49.5 421300 20784790 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 5.76 5.77 5.84 5.84 5.72 5.77 3961100 22893976 AYALA LAND LOG 1.65 1.66 1.61 1.65 1.61 1.65 487000 800840 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.47 0.495 0.475 0.475 0.47 0.47 120000 56950 ATN HLDG A 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.61 0.58 0.61 1567000 938730 ATN HLDG B 0.61 0.64 0.61 0.64 0.61 0.64 12000 7380 COSCO CAPITAL 4.91 4.92 5.13 5.13 4.88 4.91 3306000 16501610 DMCI HLDG 3.47 3.48 3.45 3.55 3.4 3.48 4233000 14717600 FILINVEST DEV 8.21 8.99 9.11 9.11 8.21 8.21 8300 68416 FJ PRINCE A 3.11 3.49 3.12 3.12 3.11 3.11 4000 12470 GT CAPITAL 425 426.2 433 433 418 425 116880 49533920 HOUSE OF INV 3.11 3.2 3.25 3.26 3.15 3.15 114000 362210 JG SUMMIT 63.1 63.4 62 64 61.8 63.4 1368240 86598498 KEPPEL HLDG A 5 5.74 5 5 5 5 100 500 LODESTAR 0.58 0.6 0.62 0.62 0.58 0.58 918000 535020 LOPEZ HLDG 2.39 2.44 2.39 2.45 2.39 2.39 748000 1791460 LT GROUP 7.18 7.19 7.35 7.36 7.19 7.19 2108300 15295679 MABUHAY HLDG 0.46 0.485 0.455 0.5 0.455 0.485 36000 16985 METRO PAC INV 3.06 3.09 3 3.16 2.91 3.06 43900000 134286300 PRIME MEDIA 0.75 0.77 0.74 0.8 0.74 0.78 153000 116840 SM INVESTMENTS 895 900 884 910 856.5 900 589260 519382280 SAN MIGUEL CORP 97.7 98.5 97.6 98.5 97.2 98.5 166330 16279400.5 SOC RESOURCES 0.66 0.72 0.67 0.72 0.65 0.66 83000 55620 TOP FRONTIER 120 121 123 123 121 121 450460 55406260 WELLEX INDUS 0.178 0.198 0.177 0.177 0.177 0.177 120000 21240 ZEUS HLDG 0.142 0.148 0.152 0.155 0.142 0.142 3360000 497270

-74550 1444 -24481985 4480535 -15036678 652780 -888870 -5985010 -1754774 -25301557 -853390 -1009364 -23989560 129591575 12426874 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.51 1015000 507620 AYALA LAND 32.1 32.2 31.9 33.15 31.75 32.1 5205200 168737580 ARANETA PROP 0.99 1.02 1 1.03 0.99 1.02 22000 22040 BELLE CORP 1.36 1.37 1.34 1.37 1.34 1.37 7000 9440 A BROWN 0.71 0.73 0.74 0.74 0.71 0.71 2441000 1756790 CITYLAND DEVT 0.75 0.78 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 4000 3000 CROWN EQUITIES 0.119 0.12 0.117 0.119 0.117 0.119 1360000 160230 CEBU HLDG 5.84 6 5.82 5.82 5.82 5.82 1000 5820 CEB LANDMASTERS 4.98 5 4.99 5 4.95 5 1188000 5927870 CENTURY PROP 0.36 0.365 0.37 0.37 0.36 0.36 3110000 1130850 DOUBLEDRAGON 16.02 16.26 15.98 16.26 15.94 16.02 163300 2620028 DM WENCESLAO 6.11 6.2 6.1 6.2 6.1 6.1 24600 150070 EMPIRE EAST 0.245 0.25 0.248 0.249 0.243 0.249 1440000 355040 FILINVEST LAND 0.84 0.86 0.9 0.91 0.84 0.84 32372000 28069410 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.79 0.8 0.78 0.79 0.78 0.79 280000 221100 8990 HLDG 8.41 8.56 9 9 8.41 8.41 36100 308608 PHIL INFRADEV 0.87 0.88 0.9 0.91 0.88 0.88 2124000 1881700 KEPPEL PROP 3.05 3.54 3.14 3.14 3.13 3.13 6000 18810 CITY AND LAND 0.68 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.66 0.66 174000 116110 MEGAWORLD 3 3.01 3.01 3.04 2.95 3.01 11855000 35563420 MRC ALLIED 0.211 0.212 0.203 0.211 0.195 0.211 50280000 10283850 PHIL ESTATES 0.29 0.31 0.29 0.34 0.29 0.31 930000 292750 PRIMEX CORP 1.29 1.38 1.39 1.39 1.29 1.38 158000 208180 ROBINSONS LAND 15.1 15.12 15 15.4 14.84 15.1 1241500 18747156 PHIL REALTY 0.232 0.237 0.239 0.239 0.239 0.239 60000 14340 ROCKWELL 1.51 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.51 1.51 22000 34060 SHANG PROP 2.65 2.7 2.68 2.68 2.65 2.65 70000 185560 STA LUCIA LAND 1.78 1.8 1.81 1.82 1.8 1.8 12000 21760 SM PRIME HLDG 30.5 31.1 30.3 31.2 30 31.1 3365200 104122370 VISTAMALLS 3.95 4 3.9 4.04 3.88 4 63000 246550 SUNTRUST HOME 1.18 1.19 1.17 1.19 1.15 1.19 1602000 1874020 VISTA LAND 3.08 3.14 3.23 3.38 3.04 3.08 6785000 21295200

-4188590 -39880 -408800 877814 3269650 -144320 -15535400 -49330 -2800 -3888532 31000 23728250 1994040

SERVICES ABS CBN GMA NETWORK MANILA BULLETIN MLA BRDCASTING GLOBE TELECOM PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG IMPERIAL ISLAND INFO JACKSTONES NOW CORP TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 2GO GROUP CHELSEA CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER LBC EXPRESS MACROASIA METROALLIANCE A PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR BOULEVARD HLDG GRAND PLAZA WATERFRONT STI HLDG BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES MANILA JOCKEY PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE PHIL RACING ALLHOME METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT APC GROUP EASYCALL GOLDEN BRIA PRMIERE HORIZON

7.74 5.35 0.38 11.1 2000 1324 0.047 2.68 2.75 1.3 0.068 1.61 2.08 0.17 1.82 8.4 3.35 37.15 96 14.2 5 1.55 6.1 0.78 0.027 11.3 0.365 0.295 2.11 6.27 2.03 1.18 2.23 2.18 0.295 7.9 6.8 1.41 47.05 59.6 125 1.06 14.7 0.31 6.18 285 0.216

7.78 5.39 0.39 12.9 2012 1327 0.048 2.77 2.76 1.42 0.074 1.72 2.09 0.173 1.86 8.41 3.36 37.2 97 14.3 5.01 1.6 6.44 0.79 0.028 12.6 0.375 0.3 2.18 6.29 2.09 1.22 2.66 2.34 0.3 8.39 6.85 1.42 47.1 59.8 126 1.07 14.76 0.32 6.3 306.4 0.22

7.9 5.47 0.38 11.06 2000 1288 0.049 2.8 2.81 1.29 0.068 1.58 2.05 0.172 1.84 8.98 3.42 37.05 97.5 13.4 4.7 1.46 6.1 0.76 0.027 11.26 0.365 0.295 2.14 6.25 2.02 1.28 2.23 2.15 0.305 7.89 6.83 1.41 46.7 60 122 1.07 14.8 0.31 6.4 280.4 0.219

8 5.48 0.395 11.06 2024 1327 0.05 2.8 2.95 1.3 0.073 1.73 2.14 0.18 1.84 9.02 3.44 37.15 97.6 14.2 5.07 1.64 6.1 0.81 0.028 12.76 0.375 0.3 2.19 6.4 2.1 1.28 2.23 2.34 0.305 7.9 6.9 1.46 47.5 60 125 1.11 14.8 0.32 6.74 306.6 0.22

7.74 5.26 0.375 11 1942 1272 0.046 2.6 2.75 1.29 0.068 1.57 1.99 0.167 1.8 8.1 3.32 36.8 95.2 12.4 4.7 1.4 6.1 0.75 0.026 11.26 0.365 0.29 2.11 6.2 2.02 1.12 2.23 2.12 0.295 7.89 6.72 1.38 46.05 58.5 122 1.06 14.68 0.3 6.11 280.4 0.215

7.74 5.39 0.38 11.06 2000 1327 0.048 2.76 2.75 1.3 0.073 1.72 2.08 0.173 1.84 8.4 3.35 37.15 97 14.2 5 1.6 6.1 0.78 0.027 12.76 0.375 0.295 2.18 6.29 2.09 1.18 2.23 2.34 0.3 7.9 6.85 1.42 47.1 59.8 125 1.06 14.7 0.32 6.18 306.6 0.22

750600 1664700 790000 5900 62200 231930 4620000 310000 67529000 34000 400000 81000 7435000 4860000 536000 76100 424000 150800 320300 36100 3013000 1023000 2200 454000 79000000 500 640000 1410000 117000 1650100 149000 705000 5000 16000 2190000 200300 464200 989000 1854000 833640 1830 1581000 2889400 1720000 99400 20 3830000

5907605 8877734 301150 65162 123666450 303908230 224160 822740 191769550 44120 27950 133240 15416720 841700 973270 635692 1434520 5594790 30916702 505024 14893180 1551990 13420 348340 2130600 5780 233700 416450 248500 10376518 304180 822170 11150 34440 650450 1582368 3171158 1386890 87193875 49764354.5 224520 1689170 42494680 523500 630203 5870 833690

MINING & OIL

-29278180 4971825 -240 586250 8419.9999 -272110 112517 -33500 37530 -9328861.5 98900 -5534608 -336800 120000 334951 -55452855 -22141943 224520 -785300 -9857634 -31700 -

ATOK 7.71 8.1 8.16 8.16 8.1 8.1 400 3246 APEX MINING 1.49 1.5 1.55 1.58 1.42 1.49 20878000 31849830 -1592460 ABRA MINING 0.0008 0.0009 0.0009 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 156000000 125800 ATLAS MINING 2.6 2.74 2.69 2.77 2.6 2.6 832000 2190190 -309720 BENGUET A 1.9 1.97 2 2 1.91 1.98 278000 539400 BENGUET B 1.85 1.99 1.99 1.99 1.88 1.99 28000 53100 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.196 0.21 0.21 0.225 0.201 0.21 1130000 233220 40800 CENTURY PEAK 2.6 2.67 2.67 2.7 2.6 2.6 110000 295090 DIZON MINES 7.37 7.49 7.5 7.51 7.4 7.5 81600 608006 FERRONICKEL 1.07 1.08 1.13 1.15 1.06 1.07 25464000 28356660 -316029.9998 GEOGRACE 0.232 0.238 0.231 0.245 0.231 0.232 810000 191820 LEPANTO A 0.143 0.144 0.172 0.182 0.141 0.143 248760000 40201430 LEPANTO B 0.143 0.144 0.172 0.179 0.142 0.143 42270000 6606890 -25160 MANILA MINING A 0.0095 0.0098 0.01 0.012 0.0095 0.0098 363800000 3775820 MANILA MINING B 0.0098 0.011 0.011 0.012 0.0098 0.011 123500000 1284320 -99000 MARCVENTURES 0.81 0.82 0.9 0.9 0.82 0.82 2312000 1966190 -31150 NIHAO 1.35 1.36 1.36 1.4 1.33 1.35 600000 816820 NICKEL ASIA 2.53 2.57 2.45 2.66 2.44 2.57 47420000 121363160 29202380 OMICO CORP 0.38 0.39 0.39 0.39 0.39 0.39 160000 62400 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.57 0.58 0.65 0.66 0.58 0.58 7265000 4422670 -400 PX MINING 3.18 3.19 3.35 3.47 3.1 3.19 7468000 24674340 -615050 SEMIRARA MINING 9.69 9.7 9.6 9.78 9.55 9.7 7709100 74262739 -23426890 UNITED PARAGON 0.0059 0.006 0.0055 0.0064 0.0055 0.0059 343000000 2043300 ACE ENEXOR 5.7 5.84 5.7 5.84 5.64 5.84 16700 95168 ORNTL PETROL B 0.0082 0.0086 0.007 0.0082 0.007 0.0082 11000000 82900 PHILODRILL 0.0079 0.008 0.0079 0.008 0.0079 0.008 4000000 31800 PXP ENERGY 5.68 5.7 5.87 5.87 5.55 5.68 819800 4679529 -395311.9997

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 100.5 102.5 101 102.5 101 102.5 9700 993605 AC PREF B1 507.5 519 507 507 507 507 1010 512070 ALCO PREF B 101.2 104.5 101.4 101.4 101.2 101.2 14860 1505704 AC PREF B2R 507 511 505.5 511 505.5 511 120 60770 DD PREF 101.6 102 102 102 102 102 15410 1571820 FGEN PREF G 106 108.9 106 106 106 106 18530 1964180 GLO PREF P 512 518 518 518 518 518 70 36260 36260 GTCAP PREF A 1000 1010 1000 1000 1000 1000 10 10000 MWIDE PREF 100.8 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 66000 6699000 PNX PREF 3A 100.5 101 100.5 100.5 100.5 100.5 10 1005 PNX PREF 3B 104.8 106.8 106.8 106.8 106.8 106.8 110 11748 PNX PREF 4 1015 1034 1033 1033 1033 1033 100 103300 PCOR PREF 2B 1039 1050 1050 1050 1050 1050 10 10500 PCOR PREF 3A 1055 1059 1058 1058 1055 1055 3670 3877700 PCOR PREF 3B 1090 1115 1090 1090 1090 1090 40 43600 SMC PREF 2C 78.2 78.5 78.5 78.5 78.5 78.5 9250 726125 SMC PREF 2F 77.5 77.95 77.5 77.5 77.5 77.5 2000 155000 SMC PREF 2H 76.95 77.1 76.95 76.95 76.95 76.95 13000 1000350 SMC PREF 2I 77.8 78.9 78.4 78.9 78.4 78.9 812700 64117030

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 7.14 7.36 7.3 7.5 6.9 7.36 81900 586190 -493679 GMA HLDG PDR 4.99 5.23 5.11 5.11 4.88 4.91 730500 3657876 -3638196

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.62 0.68 0.62 0.62 0.62 0.62 2000 1240

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 12.9 12.92 12.98 13.54 12.62 12.9 544900 7105242 -68188 ITALPINAS 1.65 1.66 1.6 1.69 1.56 1.65 1821000 2953330 14820 KEPWEALTH 5.15 5.33 5.2 5.35 5.17 5.33 42700 221924 MERRYMART 2.42 2.43 2.42 2.53 2.35 2.43 32902000 80430520 1678950 XURPAS 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.57 0.55 0.57 1560000 871160

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 89.95 90 90.5 90.5 88 89.95 14020 1250208.5 57372.5

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Bank urges Peza locators to digitize amid lockdown

B

ank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said that economic zone locators are seeking more digital banking tools to adjust and cope during the lockdown.

Juan Carlos L. Syquia, BPI’s corporate banking head, said that employing digital platforms will make the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) locators and companies more equipped to not only survive the current crisis but to grow as will.

“While much of our country’s economic activity is centered in the capital, the lockdowns have brought the importance of businesses and manufacturing bases in our special economic zones in sharp focus,” Syquia said. “Now, digital capabilities can open new frontiers for business and level up clients’ and partners’ customer experience.”

He said that using such platforms would help the firms to stay at the forefront.

Syquia pointed out digital banking has become crucial to Peza locators amid lockdown measures and limited workforce, adding that demand for such increased for technology-dependent industries during the community quarantine period.

These include business process outsourcing, manufacturing and aviation, BPI said.

“Concerns include getting bank transactions done with minimal visibility and having available funds to bridge payments to suppliers and employees’ salaries while waiting for collections disrupted

by the pandemic,” BPI Transaction Services Division Head Ana Maria C. Sison said.

Sison explained that some locators are operating on work-fromhome arrangements, shifting schedules and with 50 percent to 70 percent of the workforce onsite.

She explained that inquiries about BizLink have increased since the beginning of lockdown. It is an online one-stop shop for digital collections, account management and disbursements.

“Customer inquiries for digital disbursement solutions have increased since the start of the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] and have resulted to a high success ratio of enrollments,” she said.

Earlier this month, BPI introduced new digital financial solutions that businesses can employ to innovate and cope with consumer behavior changes during this pandemic. These include improving cash management platforms, enhancing customer-centric functionalities, loading in-app e-wallets and providing website-integrated payment systems.

Syquia said that online payments—which have become more prevalent now—help businesses to recover losses from physical stores, shifting to online channels to generate sales. In addition, he said that using integrated payment systems can trim operational costs, minimize risks of pilferage and expand payment modes, among others.

Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Fintech coalition wants more local firms into PayID system

O

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

A

Finex free enterprise Zoilo ‘Bingo’ Dejaresco III a decade of global investing in both bull and bear markets, thinks prices of stocks are currently still high (especially Nasdaq) and that a major bump is still forthcoming—equal or worse than the February to March 2020 dive.

After this Covid-19 struggle for half a year now, many economies are already in a stage of a technical recession, if we define that as having two successive quarters of negative growth; including the Philippines.

The scarier part is that “Wavers” believe that in 2022 to 2025, we will see the free fall of global assets to about (hold your breath) 80 percent. Believable?

Will most countries be so severely damaged by the pandemic so as to be unable to recover? Will the colossal trade war between giants America and China take a tremendous toll on all of us?

Most analysts and investors in the Philippines, we were told, tend to think linearly, not cyclically, because the general public does not trade futures or sell shorts here. The mindset is “bulloriented” and propagates perhaps a false narrative that prime stocks and real estate—over the long-term—are always winners.

The Wavers always point to Japan’s real estate peak in the 1980s, which seemed impregnable then as Nippon was a superpower. Japan was densely populated and land was scarce. Prices fell by 80 percent.

Also “those who invested stocks in 1929 only got a breakeven status in 1954; not counting those that went bankrupt or did not survive the world war.”

Since they believe in the “growth and decay” pattern even in nature, “Elliot-wavers” also look at changes in socio-political “mood as affecting GDP rather

@Tyronepiad

pen Payments Coalition (OPC) leader Ripple Labs Inc. is currently working on getting more local companies to be part of the coalition’s recently-launched universal payment identification (PayID) system.

The company led other firms in introducing PayID last month in a bid to simplify the process of sending and receiving money across the world. At the time, there were over 40 network members already com-

ing from the finance, technology and nonprofit sectors.

“The more organizations we can onboard to support and integrate PayID into their products, the better off our entire payments ecosystem

will be,” Ripple Southeast Asia Head Kelvin Lee said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.

With the newly-formed network, the PayID can reach 100 million consumers across the globe, Ripple noted. It added that this system addresses the pain point arising from closed payment networks.

Ripple said that PayID allows individuals to transfer money via “easy-to-read address versus one that’s awkward and unintuitive— such as a bank account, routing or credit card number.”

Lee noted that while the Philippines has been embracing electronic payments and online transactions since 2018, its current payment process is “slow and inefficient.”

He said this bump on the road requires a standardized solution.

Lee said that PayID services are not only convenient and quick but also cheaper means of sending money home, benefitting both senders and receivers.

“With the Philippines being one of the biggest remittance receiver countries across the globe, PayID is a simple and hassle-free solution for [overseas workers] to send money home,” he said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently reported that remittances by overseas Filipino workers registered a four-year low in April.

Personal remittances reached $2.27 billion in April, lower than the $2.65 billion in the previous month.

Apart from Ripple, the Open Payments Coalition is composed of 44 other brands, from BitBNS to Xumm.

Aquino, Tolentino named Monetary Board members

P

resident Duterte appointed two monetary board members on Tuesday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced.

Duterte has named Anita Linda R. Aquino and V. Bruce J. Tolentino as fulltime private sector representatives to the 7-member Monetary Board (MB), the highest policy making-body of the BSP. The powers and function of Bangko Sentral are exercised by its Monetary Board, whose members are appointed

Global meltdown part of 10-year bust cycle?

ttending a forum in late 2017 organized by a major business group, we were shocked to be told by the speaker, Truly Savvy, or T.S. that the world was at the edge of a monumental meltdown “the likes we may not have seen in our lifetimes.”

T.S. is a disciple and daily practitioner of the Elliot Wave theory, with Robert Prechter among its avid gurus, which speak of cycles in assessing business and social change.

The theory speaks of five wave patterns in the main trend and a 3-wave correction. Under the “Wave theory,” we were then (2017) at the peak of the surge pattern completing its fifth and final wave—where everything was at its apex—and was to tumble down in a dramatic fall thereafter in the so-called Grand Supercycle Bear Market.

Many were skeptical; after all, stock markets worldwide at that time (2017) were zooming at high levels: the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations or Nasdaq (6,605), S&P (2.533), Dow Jones (22,871) and Philippine Stock Exchange index (8,500), at all-time highs. Forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the Philippines even by the World Bank that year was at least 6.6 percent. Even real estate was still a “buy with caution” position.

It was expected to stay at their highs in 2018 to 2019 before the “Big Fall.” In December 2019, the Covid-19 in Wuhan, China happened.

In that forum, we were led to a history of 10-year boom-and-bust cycles: 2007-2009 (US housing debacle/Lehman collapse); 19971999 (Asian crisis); 1987 (Wall Street crash); 1977 (Dow Jones Collapse from a 1,000 historic high); 1939 (start of World War II); 1929 (Wall Street crash), which led to the 1930s Great Depression; and, 1919 (Wall Street meltdown and the deadly Spanish Flu that killed millions). In the 1930 “deflation,” commodities, stocks and real estate fell 90 percent; some bonds off by 50 percent.

T.S., who has close to half

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 B3

than events.” The 1930 Depression, for instance, saw the simultaneous growth of fascists like Hitler and Mussolini, the inordinate imperialist ambition of Japan and the gradual usurpation of huge China by communism.

Our version today is laced by the tentacles of terrorism, North Korea’s nuclear threat, the rise of populist despotic leaders, the Disunited States of America, China’s expansionism, religious and racial intolerance and killings of select targets (drugs addicts and atheists, etc.).

Uncannily, we read some literature stating that “there is a close association between market tops with hedonistic fashion and liberal choices.” Does one see the correlation?

For others, the philosophy of “long term buy and hold” no longer holds water. Elliot-wave apostles like T.S. who “think Elliot Wave daily,” are able to see opportunities in both bull and, especially, bear markets (precisely because only a few investors believe they can).

T.S., who opts to remain low profile, believes that being studious of the Elliot Wave patterns and using the so-called “3A” (All Angles Approach) investing method, one can still make money in any market.

This reminds us of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) top honcho Ramon Ang who told a TV audience recently that the conglomerate is near its full fighting form— harnessing back resources and people with proper safety protocols—taking advantage of the hiatus while everyone else is contemplating their navels.

“Creating opportunities during a crisis is what separates the men from the boys,” the eloquent SMC Boss exclaimed with hands akimbo and a glimmer in his eyes. Which kind of investor are you?

Bingo Dejaresco, a former banker, is a financial consultant, media practitioner, and book author. He is a Life Member and Chair of the Broadcast Media of Finex. His views here, however, are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Finex or the BusinessMirror. E-mail: Dejarescobingo@yahoo.com

by the President of the Philippines.

Under the New Central Bank Act, one of the government sector members of the Monetary Board must also be a member of the Cabinet designated by the President.

The governor acts as the chairman of the board.

Aquino served as Department of Finance (DOF) Chief of Staff and held key positions at Standard Chartered Bank Manila, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.,

Citicorp Investment Bank in Singapore and Citibank NA Manila.

She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) representing the private sector. Most recently, she also represented the PDIC as board adviser to the United Coconut Planters Bank.

Meanwhile, Tolentino, who first joined the MB on June 18, 2018, will have a fresh term of six years after serving the unexpired balance of the term

of Valentin A. Araneta who passed away on February 21, 2018.

Before his appointment to the MB, Tolentino worked as deputy director general of the International Rice Research Institute. He was also chief economist and country representative at The Asia Foundation, senior technical adviser at the Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Catholic Relief Services and senior economic policy adviser at the Asian Development Bank.

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Show BusinessMirror

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

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CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Munro Chambers, 30; Jason Belmonte, 37; Josh Radnor, 46; Martina McBride, 54.

Happy Birthday: Catch up, implement the latest trends and stay ahead of the competition. Don’t be fooled by fast-talking salespeople. Do the research, and get the biggest bang for your buck. What you save will help you reach your goal. Focus on progress, and be ready to do the work and put in the time. Personal gain, love and physical fitness are favored. Your numbers are 6, 11, 20, 23, 34, 36, 42.

CHEAPSKATE

SHE seems too perfect to be real. But she is, although some of her real parts aren’t as beautiful as her face. So aside from an unsavory detail regarding her personality that she herself revealed, this beautiful girl has another not-so-lovely side. Someone has revealed that she asks people to do work for her—and then doesn’t pay them. We always thought it was sketchy of her to let her boyfriend pay for her designer handbags when she has more endorsements than him.

This beautiful girl has some money issues. Even when she watches concerts, she waits for promoters to give her tickets instead of buying them like most celebrities do. Her Instagram is a dump for all her endorsements. She is lucky she was born beautiful, or else no one would like her.

WELL-SUITED

THE actor has always been controversial, these days mostly because of his politics more than anything. In the past, he’s been a favorite subject of blind items because of his love life.

Well, there’s a new rumor about him, this time involving a male filmmaker. The actor and the filmmaker reportedly got it on during an out-of-town trip. The actor was lonely and the filmmaker was present, available and willing. Come to think of it, the actor and the filmmaker are so well-suited to each other in so many ways. They are both good-looking, talented and not far from each other in age. Plus, they’re both single as far as we know.

NOT A BIG SPENDER

SHE’S the ex-deal queen, meaning she built a mansion because of exchange deals. The young actress has always been known to be a wise spender and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just amazing that after years of hard work, she finally got to build her dream house. Everything in the house, from the nails and the wood to the appliances and the flowers, all came from exchange deals that she initiated with different suppliers. Even the bags that she wanted to rent for show also became an ex-deal. The young actress practically just paid for labor and some materials.

ACCOUNTS FOR SALE

SO it’s now a thing for politicians to buy Twitter and Facebook accounts with a lot of followers. They do know that digital is the way to go and they’d like a piece of the action. Which politician purchased a Facebook sex community page? And which relative of this politician bough a K-pop fan page?

Even a certain notorious fake peddler’s Twitter account has been sold to someone who also has an unsavory reputation.

These politicians and lobbyists are buying the social-media accounts of fan pages because these already have so many followers who will wake up one day to the realization that they’re following someone they don’t even know.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do whatever it takes to avoid a disruptive situation at home or work. Listen, but don’t buy into someone’s plan.

Consider what you can do on your own and how best to use your skills to get ahead. HHHHH

b

THE Royal Communications released on Saturday an undated photo showing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (top left), in Windsor, England, during a video link call for a “virtual” visit to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO, in London, to speak to members of staff and watch the official unveiling of a new portrait of herself by artist Miriam Escofet (bottom left). AP

Queen Elizabeth II joins virtual unveiling of portrait

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ONDON—Queen Elizabeth II has joined in the virtual unveiling of a new portrait commissioned by Britain’s Foreign Office to honor her services to diplomacy.

The portrait of the monarch by Miriam Escofet is meant to pay tribute to the queen’s work in promoting UK interests all over the world.

The queen saw the painting on her computer screen, and observed that a tea cup in the portrait lacked a key ingredient: tea.

Escofet told the monarch that she had included the insignia of the FCO on the cup.

“She seemed to react very positively to it,’’ Escofet said. “She was smiling, asking how long it took and if I had any more projects on the go after this.’’

The unveiling took place during a virtual visit in which the monarch was told about how the Foreign Office handled the shock wave of the coronavirus pandemic and brought thousands of British tourists home from far-flung travels. AP

THE NEXT BIG INDIE TO WATCH A start-up production company composed of local filmmakers, What About Productions produced Peksman, an indie short film that has officially been selected to be part of First-time Filmmaker Sessions 2020, an online festival hosted by the Lift-Off Global Network aiming to bring indie short films and features from around the globe.

Held at the world-famous Pinewood Studios in the UK, the daylong event features multiple demonstrations from industry experts, catering to selected filmmakers as well as a screening of each selected film.

The winning short film will receive an official selection for a live screening at Pinewood Studios in the UK and at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, during the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival along with Professional Lift-Off Network Membership for the filmmakers and producers involved with the project.

Peksman has bagged multiple nominations, such as Best Screenplay, Best Musical Score, Best Trailer, Best Sound, Best Poster, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Direction, and Best Cinematography. The short also notably

caught the attention of the masses resulting in their People’s Choice Award from Sine Reel 2019. The short film is hopefully on its way to win more awards with this official selection in this film festival.

“We created a story that would want to make you look back to your childhood, about how innocent yet brave we all once were. We believe that there is still a little bit of that inside us if we look closely. Stubborn yet smart. We don’t want you to lose that,” says executive producer Erin Gillian Alvarez.

The short film stars Kyle Kaiser Almenanza, Jam Maynigo, Shane Carrera and Adrian Canlas. YD Diego, the film’s antagonist, is a veteran actress with experience in both films and television.

From July 26 to August 2, the short film will be screened via Vimeo on Demand along with other participants of Firsttime Filmmaker Sessions 2020. One festival pass costs $10, which is also equivalent to one vote for the film.

More information is available at www.facebook.com/ whataboutprod.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You know better than anyone else what you need and want.

Set your sights and standards high, and weigh the pros and cons before you start something new or make a change that may not be popular with others. HHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t trust secondhand information. Verify everything you hear, and go beyond the call of duty to investigate others’ secrets, motives and honesty before you get involved in a joint venture. Consider doing your own thing if you want to avoid interference. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Use your imagination in business and your personal life, and progress will unfold. Share how you see things going, and you will pique someone’s interest.

Don’t let a challenge stand in your way. Use your intelligence to overcome any obstacle you encounter.

HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Be careful who you trust, and verify the information you receive before passing it along. You can make a difference if you are conscientious regarding what you do and are mindful of others. Love, romance and selfimprovements are favored. HHHHH

Tom Hanks and wife get Greek citizenship f for wildfire aid

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Think before you act. You will reach your target if you are calm, practical and intent on doing your best. Your diligent approach to whatever you do will win praise as well as rewards. HH

ATHENS, Greece—A point of pride for Greece was touched by controversy on Monday, as the country’s prime minister was criticized by an opposition party for using a military helicopter during a trip to celebrate with Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, on being granted Greek citizenship.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, Prime Minister Kyriakos shared a photograph of showing him and his wife Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotaki at a meeting with Hanks and Wilson, who were holding up their new Greek passports.

“Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks are now proud Greek citizens,” Mitsotakis wrote in the post.

Greece offered citizenship to Hanks, Wilson and their two children in recognition of the family’s help in raising funds for the victims of a deadly wildfire near Athens in 2018.

Wilson, an actress and producer, has Greek and Bulgarian ancestry.

Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Monday that the prime minister and his wife had used a commercial flight on Saturday to travel to the island of Paros, and then traveled to nearby Antiparos, where Hanks and Wilson have a holiday home. They then used a military helicopter for a trip to the ancient theater of Epidaurus on Sunday to watch a performance of an ancient tragedy.

The main left-wing opposition Syriza party accused the prime minister of using Greece’s military helicopters like a “personal radio taxi.”

Petsas argued that Mitsotakis was performing his duties as prime minister by attending an “important cultural event.”

Neither Petsas nor Syriza referred to Hanks by name. AP

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Take care of your responsibilities, and clear up uncertainties that stand in your way. Take a peaceful approach, even if someone raises his or her voice. How you handle matters will determine the outcome. Personal growth and enlightenment are apparent. HHHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ll have some unique ideas, but before you invest, make sure you can afford to put your money on the line. Look for investors or safeguards to ensure you only have to worry about delivering what you propose. HHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Emotions will surface if someone interferes in your life or tries to manipulate you. Concentrate on what you can do to make your experience better. Romance is favored. HHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Look over prospects that interest you. Discuss what you want to do with the people who can help you succeed. A change at home or to a meaningful partnership will help ease a stressful situation. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Channel your energy into getting ahead. Look for a position or business that will enable you to use the skills you enjoy doing most to bring in more cash.

Personal training, physical challenges and romance are priorities. HHHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Take it one step at a time. If you push too hard or too fast, you’ll fall short. Control your emotions, and avoid controversy at home or with close friends or relatives.

Do your best to get things done on time. HH Birthday Baby: You are charismatic, flexible and original.

You are forceful and elaborate.

‘parts of speech’ by don gagliardo and zhouqin burnikel The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Curling surface 4 Windows forerunner 9 Large shark bone 12 Softest mineral 14 “Centipede” game company 15 Made a basket 16 Lively campaign face-offs 19 Pot builder?

20 Nights before 21 With 24-Across, barbs 24 See 21-Across 28 Groups of troops 29 “Fine” 30 Iraqi currency 31 With 45-Across, popular lecture series...or a hint to three letters plus the last word of each starred answer?

34 “___ a Woman?” (Sojourner Truth speech) 35 (I’ve got milk!)

36 Look at with favor 39 Just make, with “out” 40 Viola music clef, often

2 Sign into law 4 43 “Unfortunately...”

44 Paranormal sense, briefly 45 See 31-Across 46 Urban pest 47 Sports gambler’s hangout, for short 49 TV channel or theater chain 50 Yearns for 54 Like some reasoning 58 Not just shots in the dark 60 Tourist city in Uttar Pradesh 61 One unwelcome in your DMs 62 H’s, in sorority names 63 Touch 64 Ranchemployees 65 Who can be found among anemones?

DOWN 1 “___ not the end of the world” 2 Graduation need 3 Horror director Roth 4 Nonglossy lipstick options 5 Spirited horse 6 Quincy Jones, to Rashida 7 Drive-through request

8 They’re used to drain pasta 9 Write hastily 10 ___ Maria 11 Moonrise Kingdom director Anderson 13 Brain covers 15 Sushi flavorer 17 Lays to rest 18 Lament 21 Top Chef host Lakshmi 22 Songbird named for its golden color 23 “Let me think about that” 25 French tennis legend who cofounded a polo shirt company 26 “Gimme a Break” candy 27 Stereotypical dorm rooms 31 Singer Turner 32 Israeli carrier 33 Pack of cards 37 Convened 38 Extra NHL periods 41 Kind of illusion 43 Actor/comedian Fred 48 Garment with a band size 49 “My lips ___ sealed”

0 Like many sign language speakers 5 51 Barely beat (out) 52 Carve with a stylus 53 Blood bank fluids 54 Matured 55 Young Yorkies 56 Paper quantity 57 Child’s response to “Uh-uh!”

59 Man cave, maybe Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Image BusinessMirror

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What other industries can learn from call centers

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OR a country known for its call centers, it is disappointing to see local industries lacking customer service. Take the case of the utility providers now facing multiple complaints for their exorbitant charges; or the telecommunications and Internet service providers which have circuitous processes for customers seeking remedies, thus leaving their clients regretful in engaging their services. Or how about the case of the unresponsive bookstore services of a homeschool provider? Or the LPG delivery man this morning who did not even have the name of the person who ordered for it? There are a myriad of variations of such situations, but they all say the same thing: we are in dire need of good customer service. It is something local industries can learn from call centers.

I worked in a call center for more than three years as a member of the learning and development team.

A decade before, I would not have thought of joining a call center. In fact, I cautioned my students that being a call center agent was not a career and that they should refrain from joining one. As fate would have it, I joined a call center where I became part of a team creating the training materials and marketing collaterals for the professional development programs offered to employees.

Call centers place a premium in developing the skills and abilities of their people. They substantially invest in creating a learning environment for their employees so they can offer multiple career paths within the organization. An agent does not necessarily have to remain an agent their entire professional lives because they can upskill themselves for better career opportunities. This means a bigger and better talent pool from which management can choose to lead teams. This also means that the better your performance is, the better your chances of landing that promotion. And one way to have better performance is being trained.

Local industries can take their cue from call centers by offering professional development programs which target customer service. While it is good to develop management programs, frontliners have personal interaction with customers. It would do you and your company good to ensure they are equipped to handle common types of customer concern. More and more industries are starting to understand that what separates them from their competition is how they design their goods and services to positively impact customer experience.

And when one complaint in social media can negatively affect nine other people’s decision to buy or engage, customer experience becomes the difference between retaining and attracting more customers and losing them.

I also realized while working in a call center that

there is a relatively high degree of collaboration and consultation with employees, especially in thriving call centers. Leaders are open to concerns from their employees and they regularly hold town halls to understand the needs and sentiments of their people. In one town hall, employees made it known they wanted free coffee in the pantry to keep them awake and keep warm. I was surprised when management decided that instead of free coffee, they offered free meals. Other amenities were also a result of consultation with employees—sleeping quarters, daycare, gym, a drugstore within the building and even a café, among others. All of these might seem to cost a lot but they actually save the company in terms of retaining employees and providing work-life balance. They take care of their employees so they can in turn take care of the customers.

Most call centers are also high in engagement by going out of their way to prepare activities and events for community bonding. Because of the multigenerational nature of the work force, the human resources department allows a great deal of informality to accommodate different and often conflicting ways of thinking. This helps in ensuring different perspectives are encouraged and acknowledged to formulate policies and activities to foster a sense of belonging and acceptance. This results in a happy work force which in turn yields to better performance and productivity.

Leaders are also empowered and entrusted to be accountable for their own units. This means taking care of their own people and ensuring that processes are aligned with the organization’s objectives, which are to ensure delivery of your services, retention of existing clients, and expansion of the business. The key to ensuring that teams operate seamlessly under a great deal of pressure is to maintain engagement with your team. You need to create an environment where everybody is excited to go to work because they

understand their contribution to the organization’s success and to their own personal aspirations.

Rewards for good performance come in many forms and can be as grand as a promotion, or as simple as candy bars.

And because of the high level of accountability, leaders are strategic in the way they do work.

Managers are expected to review workflows and monitor their team’s productivity. This means observing how things are done and coming up with solutions on how to make work easier and simpler for their team. Managers are expected to manage themselves first so they can manage others, which means setting the standard for their team in terms of work output.

I think no other industry focuses more on the customer than the call center industry. I know because when I was part of the learning and development team, we had copious materials on customer service ranging from empathy to handling difficult customers. Note also that most of the branching scenarios and gamified training materials we created were mostly on customer service. These courses were given to frontliners who handled different customer concerns. On the other hand, another department is busy developing technologically driven services for existing and future clients. Needless to say, everything points toward the customers to ensure they always have a good experience.

Emerging technologies and innovations have paved the way for new goods and services to become available in the market. And when these new consumer products have become the norm, what will separate the flourishing businesses from the struggling ones will be their brand of customer experience. And to know which one you are depends on the customer’s answer to this question: “How likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?” n

Lockdown career tips: 5 pointers on how to be an all-star at work EVEN in times of uncertainty, there are still ways you can improve yourself and make great strides in your career. While under community quarantine, utilize the extra time to reevaluate your career trajectory and seize opportunities to move it forward. Much like an NBA All-Star, you need a concrete game plan to achieve desirable outcomes in your career.

AXA Philippines (www.axa.com.ph), one of the country’s leading insurers and the official insurance partner of the NBA in the Philippines, is here to help with some job advice. n IMPROVE PERSONAL BRANDING. Your branding is largely based on your online image—it allows you to let employers know your story, goals, skills and expertise. It can make you stand out and give your career a boost. To build your personal brand, make sure to update and organize all your online profiles, especially on social networking platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

On your profile, use a professional photo and quantify your accomplishments. Try to avoid posting anything that isn’t appropriate for work. You can also create a personal web site, portfolio, or blog where you can showcase your professional journey, work and achievements. n KEEP LEARNING. If you want to be

productive during quarantine, why not take online classes? There are thousands of options that can enhance your knowledge on business, communication, marketing, financial literacy, and more. Many web sites, experts and even Ivy League schools in the US are offering classes for free during the lockdown so make the most of this opportunity. You can also read career advice books that can help you be a more wellrounded person at work. Whether you want to know how to achieve work-life balance,

become an excellent leader, develop better work habits, or recover from a career setback, there is something for you. n FIND A MENTOR. A mentor can benefit you and your career in many ways. They can offer valuable insight in advancing your career and be a sounding board for your ideas at work. Since you may come from different backgrounds, having a mentor can sharpen your communication skills and provide a new perspective, which can be helpful in relating to your coworkers and

other individuals you cross paths in your career. A mentor is also an avenue to build your network. n GAIN EXPERIENCE. Experience is one of the key factors that hiring managers look at. Consider making use of your spare time to gain more experience in the field that you’re currently in, or an area you want to transfer to, while also earning some extra income. Even at home, you can seek virtual tutoring opportunities and other online freelance jobs. Try not to spread yourself too thin and find a side hustle where you can manage your own time, like being an AXA financial advisor. During this time, you might also want to consider doing volunteer work like organizing fund-raising activities, food drives or PPE donations. You can even help the community and join a cause you’re passionate about. n BE SMART WITH MONEY. Living from paycheck to paycheck may hinder you from taking chances on progressing your career given the fear of being left with no steady source of income. If you want to take risks and advance your career, creating a financial plan is a must. Start building an emergency fund, save up for retirement, and opt to buy the right health and life insurance products so that you’ll have a safety net when emergencies or unexpected job problems occur.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Quarantine fashion: Buyers ditch PJs for elevated loungewear

By Kelli Kennedy The Associated Press MIAMI—When Los Angeles-based fashion blogger Jacey Duprie finally emerged from days in sweats, changing into black jeans, an ankle-length camel sweater and Gucci loafers, she counted it as one of those “very big victories that used to be small victories.”

Since people have spent weeks stuck in isolation, their bodies molded into beds and couches with little to delineate weekends from weekdays, a fashion trend is emerging. Loungewear is comfy, everyday clothing with just a bit of refinement. Unfussy and minimal, but pulled together enough for a video conference call with your boss.

The trend has tapped into something deeper, revealing that even the slightest effort at putting together “an outfit” during quarantine can provide a mental boost and a sense of normalcy.

Loungewear had been quietly seeping into mainstream fashion even before the coronavirus outbreak’s stay-at-home orders.

It is similar to athleisurewear, but takes casual comfort up a notch beyond platform sneakers, athletic Ts and oversize hoodies. It’s less about sporty separates and yoga pants. Think relaxed tailoring, slouchy trousers, soft, silky fabrics, cropped sweatshirts with something special like a puffed sleeve or floral embroidery, or drawstring tassels on baggy linen pants.

“People are getting a little more creative with how they’re interpreting loungewear,” said Goop fashion director Ali Pew. “They want to feel pulled together.”

The Goop wellness empire, run by Gwyneth Paltrow, recently advertised a “stay home” sale that was heavy on flowy, maxi dresses in fun prints by Ulla Johnson and Natalie Martin, cozy jumpsuits with a bit of flair, and lots of wide-leg culottes. The company’s own brand, G. Label, offers clothes for off hours like weekends and vacations.

“It’s something you would traditionally wear on vacation at the beach, but now it translates to something that’s easy to wear around the house or on an afternoon walk,” said Pew. Trendy online retailer ASOS said sales of its not-so basic tracksuits in premium fabrics, special washes and with elevated sleeve details are up 200 percent compared to the same time last year. The brand’s $35 oversize joggers have sold out in five colors. Cardigans—in bright colors and neutrals— are also having a moment, according to a company spokesman.

At the luxury online retailer Net-a-Porter, lingerie and loungewear had the largest sales increase worldwide of any category besides beauty products.

Track pants were again a key driver, up more than 1,300 percent compared to last year, the company said.

Edited, a retail data company, said tracksuits and matching sweatsuit sell-outs were up 70 percent in April compared to February. And sweatpants were up almost 80 percent in April, the company said. Sellouts are when a product is out of stock and unavailable for purchase for at least five consecutive days.

“Retailers are really pushing it in communications on Instagram and on emails,″ said Krista Corrigan, an analyst at Edited. “We are just seeing massive, massive spikes from brands in athleisure and loungewear right now.”

Matching sweatsuits, especially monochromatic muted colors like nudes and blush, are trending, as well as tie dye and utility trends like dressy sweatpants with pockets—a new take on cargo pants.

“The customer is not just buying these for practical use, but also for the purpose of looking on trend, whether it be for social media or just because they want to feel cute in the house,” said Corrigan.

And it’s not just basics. Couture designers, too, are taking cues from stylish couch potatoes.

Christy Rilling, who has designed gowns for Michelle Obama and Jennifer Lawrence, created “Stay Home Robes” using silky remnants from couture gowns. The $1,280 gold, patterned robe made from the lining of the Narciso Rodriguez dress that Obama wore to the 2016 State of the Union address sold out, along with several others, she said.

Beyond fashion, the trend reflects a sense that daily routines once taken for granted, like getting dressed, also serve an emotional purpose.

A psychological shift occurs when we change clothes, said Damsel in Dior blogger Duprie.

“It’s kind of like dress for the job you want. In this case, it’s dress for the mood you want to have all day,” she said. “Even if you only have a few minutes to spare in the morning...having that one thing that is a constant in your life can really offer stability and consistency in a very unstable environment.”

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B6 Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Cooperation needed to ensure ample fixed broadband infrastructure in new normal

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HE implementation of quarantine protocols, travel restrictions and physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically altered how Filipinos live and stay connected.

In fact, the shift to the so-called “new normal” has never been more apparent as the pandemic made internet connectivity a basic essential in our daily lives, just like electricity and water.

Being connected in the digital context has become a must for Filipinos and for the country to survive this pandemic as work and commercial activities now largely depend on it. As such, there is a need to ensure that this basic commodity will be available to more and more Filipinos, now more than ever.

For this to happen, the government and the telco industry must work together to ensure that important broadband infrastructures are in place so that the connectivity much needed in homes, schools, businesses and other establishments can be provided.

“This is where we need the help and support of the government, especially the local government units, so that we can expand our capacity by building more cell sites and towers in the next few months in residential areas. We also need to upgrade our fiber connectivity to improve further our data speeds. This is the only way we can address the growing demand not only of our customers but the public in general,” said Gil Genio, Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer and Chief Strategy Officer.

The pandemic has shown that Filipinos need wireless broadband while they are on the move and fixed broadband while working or learning from home, especially when availing various digital online services such as Zoom, Google, Viber, Facebook, YouTube and many

Globe cell sites

more. Availability of wireless broadband is made possible by cell sites and towers, while wired broadband availability is addressed by having fixed broadband infrastructure.

Nonetheless, for the longest time, the telco industry’s bid to expand and put up these needed broadband infrastructures has been stymied by various reasons, foremost of which are the permitting requirements imposed by LGUs as well as the opposition by hostile homeowners associations.

“The government and the telcos need to collaborate now, more than ever, to lay down and build the necessary infrastructures to deliver the needed connectivity as more

Filipinos adapt to the new normal, which requires more e-services and e-governance. We need to connect as many Filipinos as possible and make their mobile experience more convenient and enjoyable,” added Genio.

Despite the ongoing quarantine protocols, Globe is set to push through with its network builds in the next three months.

Its network expansion plans in various provinces all over the Philippine will answer the growing demand for more connectivity.

With the help of the government, the company can also bring the digital experience to more Filipinos especially in the far-flung areas of the country.

FirstMetroSec sees uptake in online transactions F IRST METRO Securities Brokerage Corporation (FirstMetroSec), the stock brokerage arm of the Metrobank Group, reported a significant increase in transactions in their online platform since the country was placed under preventive community quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak in March.

FirstMetroSec president Gonzalo Ordoñez said their average daily new accounts came in more than 70% higher since the quarantine. He also said that the jump in account applications was sustained in June, even after the government eased community restrictions, as home-based consumers stayed online to manage their finances.

To cope with this sudden surge in demand, FirstMetroSec is working tirelessly to boost online capacity through system enhancements and process automation. During the ECQ, FirstMetroSec enabled a help center software solution for more efficient handling of customer inquiries online.

Ordoñez said their experience confirms the rapid shift to digital transactions within the financial sector.

“Digitalization has been ongoing for a while, but the pandemic has accelerated this development dramatically,” he explained.

“We are not only upgrading to improve customer experience, but also to adapt to the customers’ evolving behavior and preferences,” bared Ordoñez. A few weeks before the lockdown, the company launched an improved version of its mobile app, FirstMetroSec Go, designed for users who prefer to transact using their smartphones. The app, available on Android and iOS, offers all the features of its web platform and more.

There has also been an increase in the demand for webinars that FirstMetroSec offers to its clients. The online seminars include titles such as Why You Should Consider Long-term Investing in Equities, Not All Utangs are Created Equal, and Leading by Example: How to teach kids good money habits.

“We used to hold more seminars than calendar days. We have ramped up our online presence and are offering more webinars and online resources. We have conducted over 50 since March with over 8,900 participants,” Ordoñez recounted.

Aside from these webinars, FirstMetroSec also conducts a weekly stock market Spotify podcast and weekly investment education on Facebook for OFWs, which are all part of the company’s financial literacy initiatives.

Ordoñez does not see the numbers retreating post-Covid. “The increase in new clients will likely continue to expand as people become increasingly aware of the benefits of transacting online.

There is also a keener appreciation of uncertainty, and of the need not only to save, but to invest and diversify,” he said.

“The market has become more discriminating, requiring elegantly designed platforms that are robust and intuitive. And there is a longing for community, combined with a fear of physical proximity. I believe that FirstMetroSec is responding well to this “new normal”, and that growth will be persistent,” he added.

RCLC donates photocopier machine and other school supplies

Dream Cruises celebrates re-start of cruise service with return to Taiwan

The island-hopping itinerary of Explorer Dream will depart from Keelung and call into the popular ports and islands of Peng Hu, Matsu Island and Kinmen as well as Hualien, where Taiwanese guests will again be able to enjoy refreshing short getaways on carefree ocean voyages.

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REAM Cruises celebrated the re-start of its cruise service and return to Taiwan during a special inaugural ceremony to commemorate Explorer Dream’s new “Island Hopping” itineraries created specially for the Taiwan market. Dream Cruises will offer new cruises calling into the popular ports and islands of Peng Hu, Matsu Island and Kinmen as well as Hualien, where Taiwanese guests will again be able to enjoy refreshing short getaways on carefree ocean voyages.

The landmark event was attended by a number of important guests from Taiwan including the Minister of Transportation and Communications, Mr. Lin Chia-lung; the Minister of Health & Welfare, Mr. Chen Shih-chung; the Mayor, Keelung Government, Mr. Lin Yu-chang; the Director General of Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC, Mr. Kuo Tien Kuei; the Deputy Director General of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, Mr. Chuang Jen-Hsiang; business partners, the media and representatives of Genting Cruise Lines.

“It is a great honour for Genting Cruise Lines to continue its long and fruitful partnership with Taiwan which began over 20 years ago, as we begin on the road to recovery together due to the COVID-19 pandemic and which will bring hope to the global cruise industry as well,” said Mr. Kent Zhu, President of Genting Cruise Lines.

“We could not have done this alone and I would like to acknowledge the great encouragement we have received from all the various Taiwanese authorities – namely the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which demonstrated their immense support of the travel industry; the Ministry of Health & Welfare, for their trust and confidence in us; the Ministry of the Interior for their continuous

assistance; and the warm hospitality and advocacy from the City of Keelung – and our travel partners and all of our media friends who have been instrumental in making this day happen,”Mr. Zhu continued.

With the backing of local authorities and through their vision to reinvigorate the local economy and the tourism industry, Dream Cruises’ innovative island-hopping cruises on board Explorer Dream will highlight the physical and geographic beauty of Taiwan, allowing travellers to enjoy a long awaited holiday at sea to scenic destinations along the coastline and outlying islands with total peace of mind. These cruises will also showcase the very best that Taiwan has to offer in terms of its culinary heritage as well as its entertaining cultural heritage.

For a taste of Taiwan, collaborations have been forged with the Council of Agriculture to provide local produce on board Explorer Dream and a new order-to-home service for their “2020 Top 100 Premium Agricultural Products” on the ship. Additionally, guests can sample local brands including Sharetea, Taihu Beer, Tien Hsia San Chueh Noodle Cuisine, Formosa Chang, SunnyHills and Mark’s Teppanyaki from Marriott Taipei for everything from bubble tea to local craft beer and popular Taiwanese cuisine.

To offer a truly authentic experience that is close to home, local travel experts have been recruited as Dream Ambassadors, who will offer assistance and guidance to onboard guests in their native languages.

Guests will also see the debut of the new Flexi-Feast dining concept which allows unprecedented flexibility for a completely customized dining experience at sea by allowing passengers the freedom to choose from a wider choice of

venues and to dine at their leisure. As well, Flexi-Feast will provide additional peace of mind for guests by helping to ease bottlenecks at certain venues for a more spacious and more comfortable environment on board and provide better social distancing by seating guests across all restaurants instead of concentrating on a few inclusive outlets.

In preparation for welcoming its first passengers on board, over the past months, Genting Cruise Lines has completely re-examined and enhanced all of its health, hygiene and operating protocols to ensure the safest environment for everyone on board including thorough sanitization and disinfection and enhanced hygiene practices for guest cabins and crew member quarters, public areas and recreational facilities; social distancing in dining, entertainment and public areas; safe food and beverage handling procedures; and, 100% fresh air ventilation in staterooms and public areas.

Prior to Explorer Dream’s arrival in Taiwan, Genting Cruise Lines had also worked with DNV GL, the largest classification society in the world, to adapt their health care “Certification in Infection Prevention (CIP) for the Marine industry (CIP-M) and Explorer Dream is the first cruise ship in the world to receive the CIP-M certification, a further testament to the effectiveness of the enhanced preventive measures developed by Genting Cruise Lines.

In accordance with Taiwan’s regulations prior to resuming sailing, Explorer Dream observed strict quarantine procedures with the crew has completing a total of 21 days of isolation and passing all COVID-19 testing. In preparation for her inaugural sailing, the ship also underwent a thorough deep cleaning in accordance with EU standard. To ensure the seamless execution of preventive measures both on board and on shore, the crew participated in an outbreak simulation drill under the guidance of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and with consultation by medical experts from the Taiwan Public Health Association.

“The restarting of the cruise industry is a remarkable achievement which was made possible by the Taiwan authorities’ swift and effective handling of the COVID-19 crisis and their foresight in resuming the tourism industry to benefit all the ports, the economy and the lifestyle of the people of Taiwan,” added Mr. Zhu. “Looking forward, we believe the development of cruise bubbles between Taiwan and neighbouring regions that also have their pandemic situation under control, such as the outlying islands of Japan, can further initiate the next phase in the re-establishment of international tourism and spur the economic recovery for a post COVID-19 world.”

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S part of Rotary Club of Lucena Circle’s Adopt-A-School and Literacy Program, the group donated two (2) photocopier machines and other school supplies to Camp Nakar Elementary School and East 8 Elementary School in Lucena City on July 22, 2020.

The turn-over was led by its President

Rotary-Club-of-Lucena-Circle

Jestoni Oliveros, District Governor Aid Nicksy Nicdao and Past President Diza Alcala and will benefit more than 300 students.

According to them, their donations is part of their program and advocacy recognizing the importance of education and to show their support to the government’s program and Department of Education’s Brigada Eskwela.

PPO in your living room

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HE Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra continues to render online performances through the MUSIC FOR HEALING: PPO in Quarantine Pocket Concert Series to uplift the minds and hearts of Filipinos in the midst of the quarantine period. One of the three pocket concerts, namely, PPO in your Living Room, will be streamed on July 24, 2020 at 8pm through the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Website.

The other two pocket concerts are PPO in your Workplaces and PPO by your Bedside.

PPO in your Living Room features trumpet player Edwin Matias performing Friedrich Flotow’s “Ti’s The Last Rose of Summer”, violinist Christian Tan playing Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s “Beauty and the Beast”, violinist Michael Del Rosario rendering John Legend’s “All of Me”, and Jose Carlo Tuazon interpreting Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s “A Million Dreams” through violin and viola.

The Music for Healing: PPO in Quarantine Pocket Concert Series is an ongoing program of the PPO for July and August which can be viewed from the PPO FB page and the CCP YouTube as platforms. Initially intended as an online music offering to Filipinos who are recuperating in their beds either from hospitals or from their own homes as therapy to aid in their total healing, it also aims to accompany the whole family in coping with the pandemic situation and the frontliners who bravely provide their services to fellow countrymen in need.

PPO in Quarantine Pocket Concert Series had its premiere on July 3, 2020, with 12 musical numbers in the playlist recorded from their homes especially intended for the sick Filipinos under PPO by your Bedside pocket. The series continues to offer 4 numbers to be uploaded every Friday at 8pm under alternating pockets namely, PPO in the living room and PPO in the work place.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 B7

Sustainability goes beyond

‘environment-friendly’

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he unprecedented time of the Covid-19 crisis draws more in-depth attention to the importance of sustainability.

Amid the massive threat to public safety and the finite source of living, people are realizing that sustainability goes beyond environmentalism.

These solutions should create better living conditions for residents—bigger living spaces, more pocket parks, an integrated community experience, proximity to medical institutions, and more.

Take sustainable homes, for instance. More than its positive impact on the environment, these homes come with extra security and safety measures for its residents. They save costs by reducing energy consumption and offer additional health benefits that come in handy in a health crisis.

Let’s take a look at some of these sustainable housing solutions that are seen to benefit the residents today and address this “new normal.”

Bigger windows do not only save energy, they also give energy Big windows provide your home with an abundance of natural light and other benefits. Big windows can reduce dependence on artificial lighting, consequently shaving off electricity costs in the long run.

Natural light is also a great source of vitamin D, a critical nutrient that helps boost a good mood and stimulate the brain. Several modern homes such as Grand Hyatt Manila Residences South Tower in BGC, have incorporated large windows in their unit designs. On top of that, the windows are 100 percent glazed, providing the residents with a full harvest of natural light and a reduced transmission of solar heat.

Water-efficient toilet fixtures do not only save water, they improve bathroom hygiene Flushing toilets is the biggest water hog at home, using up to seven gallons of water with every flush.

Water-efficient toilet fixtures, such as those that have dual flush technology, reduce water waste, yet provide thorough cleaning in a single, low-volume flush. Aside from

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conserving water and saving costs, these fixtures reduce cleaning time for the user as it is hygienic by nature. The Seasons Residences in BGC provides its residents with distinct Japanese shower toilets. The innovative bathroom fixtures are not only more sustainable but also adds a sense of comfort and luxury to the experience.

LED lights are not only long-lasting, they also provide improved safety LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lights last on an average of 35,000 to 100,000 operating hours and are more durable and sustainable than the traditional incandescent and fluorescent lights. They also generally consume 90 percent less power making them energy and cost-efficient. Another advantage of LED lighting is its innately hazard-free attribute. LEDs emit almost no warmth therefore they are cool to touch and can be left on for hours. It also operates effectively on low-voltage electrical systems, which means the chances of fire incidents from LED lighting is much lower.

Residences made by reliable developers such as Federal Land are already harvesting the fruits of sustainable lighting. The LED lighting technology used in these developments not only provides cool and well-lit spaces, they add to the residents’ peace of mind, as well.

Open lawns and landscape gardens do not only clean the air, they also relieve stress Garden landscapes at home are truly therapeutic. When work-fromhome arrangement takes its toll, the green façade and calming hues will lessen agitation and speed up emotional upturn. Plants produce more oxygen and boost mood, while gardens with full-grown trees and shrubs create pockets of sanctuary from harsh sunlight. Because normal travel may still be unlikely in the near future, green, open spaces in condos or residential properties

Therapeutic Green Garden façade

Big windows for natural light are probably the closest physical simulation of a destination spot.

Relaxing at the thoughtfully designed Zen pocket gardens at The Grand Midori Ortigas, a Japaneseinspired development of Federal Land, brings a refreshing change in ambiance that effectively destresses the mind.

Certain building materials do not just cool down surfaces, they can cool down body temp and provide communal heat relief A home with a “cool roof” may not be important to residents at first, but the benefits of this feature are highly evident during mid-day heatwaves. Cool roof is a roofing system designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than the typical dark roof. Structures with cool roof reduce the amount of heat that enters the home.

Condominiums like The Grand Midori Ortigas, have cool roof sys-

Efficient water fixtures for conservation and hygiene tems for future residents to become less dependent on power-consuming air-conditioning systems. The use of these materials in building elements not only allow for better energy efficiency but also improve thermal comfort for residents. On a much larger scale, this housing solution further reduces the heat island effect on the community, adjusting the overall heat index altogether.

In the hopes that the pandemic is already waning, real-estate developers are considering more innovative solutions that could futureproof their projects from potential crises. On its part, premier developer Federal Land Inc. is exploring more and better housing solutions that could provide all-around benefits to its future residents.

Post-pandemic solutions are now under way such as contactless operations for elevators, parking, and payment transactions and UV

filters for centralized air-conditioning system. Federal Land is also incorporating design elements such as convertible spaces—foyer as a disinfection area, and den as a workspace.

Townships have gained popularity much further during this time as they provide convenience. Integrated communities such as Federal Land’s Grand Central Park in BGC and Metro Park in Bay Area, Pasay is proving to be a great advantage to homebuyers. It is replete with commercial spaces to provide for the grocery, banking, and retail needs of the residents. These properties also stand close to hospitals and schools, adding to the residents’ everyday convenience and better living situations.

In this present situation, sustainability is no longer just part of a greener initiative but an encompassing and necessary response to any future challenges.

Home

Familial love in the time of pandemic

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UDIO-Video Solutions Corp. (AVSC) offers world-class home entertainment products such as Grand Videoke, became every household’s favorite.

It is no secret that the current pandemic has turned the lives of many upside down.

Everyone is pushed to adopt a new lifestyle, while new heroes—our frontliners—rose to the challenge of being our first line of defense during this time of certainty. But while everyone is struggling to adjust to the “new normal,” there remains one problem that a lot of people have been struggling with until now: keeping our connections with others, especially to those that we love.

Marianne Coleen Basibas is one such person who can give voice to this challenge.

As a medical frontliner, she has personally experienced the impact of dealing with the virus first-hand, as well as the disconnection it has brought when it comes to her loved ones.

It has been particularly hard on Marianne since she has always been so close to her mother and grandparents who raised her.

A daughter of a humble single mother, she shares that she never felt something was lacking in her life. “Napaka hands-on niya sa pag-aalaga sa akin mula bata ako hanggang ngayon. I am living with my grandparents

and my mother so masasabi ko na maswerte ako sa kanila dahil hindi lang iisang tao ang nagmamahal sakin. Kumpletong pamilya yung meron ako and I am very thankful for the family I have,” she shared.

When asked about her greatest challenge working as a frontliner, she answered: “One of the difficulties I have experienced was when I was isolated in the hospital. I cannot go home because I was exposed to patients. I think that’s one of the difficulties that frontliners like me are experiencing. We know our lives are at risk, but more importantly, we need to stay away from our family for their safety as well.”

This longing is the very reason that inspired Marianne to take her chance on Grand Videoke’s Kantah-Anne virtual singing contest.

“I was quarantined in the hospital and I saw it online. The contest was for the celebration of Mother’s Day, so I had the idea of joining to dedicate a song for my mom. I was thinking, if I win, the Grand Videoke will be a perfect gift for her. One of our favorite bonding sessions together is having videoke sessions.”

Luckily, Marianne’s soulful rendition of the classic “Ugoy ng Duyan” bagged her the top prize. “I chose the song because it is so relatable to my experience right now. Yung

Expediting sustainability and resilience in the real-estate industry

“Ugoy ng Duyan,” kanta siya ng isang anak na sabik ulit na mayakap at makapiling ang kanyang nanay. Naisip ko, kapag napanood ng nanay ko yung video for her, she will be touched, and she will feel kung gaano ko siya kamahal kahit magkalayo kami ngayon.”

Grand Videoke’s Marketing OIC, Jin Cortez shared that this is their small way of trying to encourage people to be more positive during these hard times. “Singing is a big part of our culture as Filipinos. We usually have videoke sessions to celebrate during gatherings, but we also want to shift that a bit and show that it can be the perfect outlet to express our feelings even when we are far apart from each other at the moment. We don’t need to be physically close to each other to feel connected.”

The Grand Videoke is more than just a regular videoke unit, too. It boasts of advanced technologies like its proprietary feature Perfect Pitch, a scoring system that guides users to improve their singing skills using an interactive real-time feedback that acts like their very own singing coach at home.

This is not the first and last activity that the brand has in the pipeline, too.

Marianne Coleen Basibas with her mother, Sheila Basibas

Grand Videoke is planning to bring more exciting things to provide home entertainment and fun to the community during these tough times.

For Audio-Video Solutions Corp.

(AVSC), distributor of Grand Videoke, (https://www.facebook.com/grandvideoke/ posts/1870158659785463), Marianne is the

perfect poster child to win the contest because of her singing prowess and inspiring experiences. “To all frontliners, stay strong and healthy. Remember that our family is always there for us no matter what. Everything will be fine, and we will soon go home to our families in God’s perfect time,” Marianne said. Reni Salvador

ithin six months into 2020, there has been a rapid shift to reevaluating and rethinking our built environment as disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic has affected our daily life and our way of living. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Philippines held its annual Philippine conference which centered on sustainability and resilience in the realestate industry. Local and international industry leaders led the dialogue on how to make smarter approaches to our assets, technology, infrastructure and cities.

The ULI Philippines held recently its 2020 Philippines Conference, entitled “The FutuRE Summit,” via an online live webcast.

The summit this year highlighted sustainability and resilience in the industry and addressed issues in climate change, urban challenges, current and future crises, and socioeconomic inclusivity. The panel discussions were moderated by Issa Litton.

Moving forward to the second session of the event which focused on innovation, Shelli Trung, partner and managing director at REACH Australia presented an overview of the Asia-Pacific Region’s global venture capital deal value in 2018 and share in global prop-tech investments in 2017. She also reported a case study for the Philippines, “The Philippines actually offers a really interesting opportunity when it comes to venture capital.” However, it is still behind its neighboring countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia in terms of venture capital.

VP for Business Development at Igloohome Best Jittida Haputpong, Founder and CEO of UbiPark Mosstyn Howell, and VP for Sales and Marketing at PAM Jason Hutty shared their respective business products and services that leverage real estate through innovation and technology. Igloohome provides a secure access management platform for smart homes and cities. UbiPark digitizes the parking transaction from start to finish, allowing people to search, navigate, access, and pay for parking directly from their smartphone or in-car display. UbiPark has actively been communicating a cashless and agile parking solution, prior to Covid-19. Last, PAM provides intelligent navigation solutions and events communications.

In the second session, Founder and CEO of Inteluck Kevin Zhang and Cofounder and CEO of uHoo Dustin Onghanseng joined Shelli Trung for the panel discussion. Zhang and Onghanseng introduced their product services: Inteluck provides data-driven logistics platform services across Southeast Asia and uHoo measures air quality to enhance health, safety, and comfort. It’s a user-friendly application that can be integrated with other gadgets available at home to automate healthy air and it can also be integrated directly to building systems.

Onghanseng also elaborated more on their new uHoo product, he added, “Most recently, we’ve launched the uHoo Virus Index, this is a world’s first, it is patent pending. What it can do is it can tell you how to deactivate Covid-19, because Covid-19 survives in specific environments and all you have to do is create an environment that is detrimental to the virus to deactivate it.”

When asked about scaling up business products or services in an industry and region, Zhang answered, “When you look at all the different industries, the business model is always the same, how they make money is always the same. But the core difference between a great company or a normal company or the company that can grow in the long term is how they utilize market data and knowledge to improve efficiently and save costs.”

Addressing how to further nurture the innovation ecosystem of other countries, Trung responded: “Every single sector needs to play their role and know what their role is. We want engagement, having these panels are important but being customers, providing the checks, matching our checks, getting a tax incentive out there, making sure we all do our part and together we can build that ecosystem.”

Sports BusinessMirror

B8 Wednesday, July 29, 2020

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

Milo goes digital in teaching kids sports during pandemic

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OING by the new normal, Milo is bringing sports straight to the living room.

Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Milo decided to transfer sports programs into digital platforms to ensure kids can still get into sports even while at home.

The Milo Homecourt project was launched last week with the purpose of nourishing a kid’s journey to success with nutritious energy and inspiration to grow sports.

“Dahil sa sitwasyon ngayon, yung mga kabataan ay talagang kailangan na mag-stay home. Pero hindi ibig sabihin na porke’t naka-stay home ka ay hindi ka puwedeng maging active.”

“Because of the situation, the youth are locked down at home. But that doesn’t mean that while at home, you can’t become physically active,” Lester P. Castillo, assistant vice president of Nestlé Philippines-Milo told Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum webcast edition.

“Moms and dads are seeking imaginative ways to keep their kids active and moving, and sports is the perfect outlet to promote not just a healthy lifestyle, but also instill valuable life lessons that their kids grow into well-rounded individuals,” he added.

Philippine 30th Southeast Asian Games karatedo gold medal winner Jamie Lim and Richard Lim, head of the Association for the Advancement of Karatedo, also joined the session presented by San Miguel Beer, Go For

Gold, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and powered by Smart with Upstream Media as webcast partner.

Karate is one of nine sports offered by the program along with arnis, badminton, basketball, football, gymnastics, volleyball, taekwondo and tennis.

“It’s a very good project, it has never been done before. And you wouldn’t automatically think that sports like karate can be taught online—and we did something about it,” said 22-year-old Lim, daughter of basketball legend Samboy Lim. “I’m proud that several sports are doing online training.”

All online courses are developed and facilitated by Milo’s expert coaches and mentors from its trusted partners such as the Philippine Taekwondo Association and the AAK to ensure kids and other enrollees receive the best training.

Beginning with karate and taekwondo, the live online classes will debut in August and parents are advised to enroll their children early because slots are limited.

To make routine sessions more engaging, Milo will also offer a live training session through the Milo Team Play Live. The program is a live exclusive physical activity class where kids can interact with renowned fitness Coach Jim Saret, and Milo ambassadors Lim and Alyssa Valdez on the Milo Facebook page.

THAT’S ALL Al Mendoza | alsol47@yahoo.com

James, Davis replace Kobe and Shaq Show

INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee Representative to the Philippines Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski is keen on developments at the Philippine Olympic Committee.

MIKEE: I.O.C. IS WATCHING T

Philippine 30th Southeast Asian Games karatedo gold medal winner Jamie Lim is excited about Milo’s online program.

PSC holds webinars for para athletes, coaches

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HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) hosted a weeklong webinar for national para athletes and coaches in celebration of the National Council on Disability Affairs’ (NCDA) 42nd National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Day. Dubbed “Para sa PARA-Athletes: Isang selebrasyon ng pagpupugay at pasasalamat sa mga natatanging Filipino Para-Athletes,” the PSC Sports Rehabilitation Unit partnered with the Philippine Paralympic Committee (PPC) for the series of online seminars for the differently-abled.

“Our goal is to raise social-media awareness about para sports, para athletes and persons with disabilities, and recognize their achievements for the country,” PSC Sports Rehabilitation OIC Rico Barin said.

PPC President Mike Barreto and SecretaryGeneral Walter Torres thanked PSC Chairman William Ramirez and the Sports Rehabilitation Unit for the initiative.

“We thank Chairman Ramirez for making sure that our para athletes are educated on sports psychology programs like this to reinforce their training and skills,” Barredo said.

“This tribute given to our para athletes during the NDPR week is a boost in their morale and self-esteem, especially at times like this when the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of sporting events,” Torres said.

More than 300 para athlete in athletics, sitting volleyball, football, swimming, chess, archery, wheelchair basketball, cycling, dancesport, triathlon, bowling, powerlifting, badminton, table tennis, goalball and boccia took part in the program staged from July 17 to 23.

Topics on body and postural mechanics, proper mobilization and transfer strategies for para athletes, as well as online zumba session were conducted by PSC’s Physical Therapists Arryl Puchero, Maya Angelou Mel, Jaja Antonio, Riggs Poblete, Christine Magtibay and Fatima Pereyra.

HE Philippines is again active in the radar of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following a clash of opinions on proposed amendments to the POC constitution between two groups in the national body’s Executive Board.

“We at the IOC are regularly in touch,” Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, the IOC’s representative to the Philippines, told Tuesday’s online Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

Cojuangco-Jaworski, who was recently elected to the powerful IOC Executive Board, also told members of the POC Executive Board to settle the amendment issues ahead of the organization’s elections in November.

“These [amendments to the POC constitution] are a priority of IOC and it was communicated during last year’s [special] election,” Cojuangco-Jaworski said. “The IOC has been hoping that the POC constitution would be

Committee thumbed down the amendments proposed by Tolentino and former president Ricky Vargas, who heads the body’s committee on constitutional amendments.

“There are many developments in the Olympic movement and we want to keep up. The IOC wants the amendments to take effect before the different NOCs hold their elections,” added the Busan 2002 Asian Games equestrian gold medalist in the session presented by San Miguel Corp. Go For Gold, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and powered by Smart, with Upstream Medias as official webcast partner.

Cojuangco-Jaworski, also the Philippine Equestrian Federation president, stressed that the POC elections should go on as scheduled in November “since this provision is found in the POC constitution and by-laws.”

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

THAT’S IT Season 82 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) officially ended on Saturday, July 25—another of the many sorry victims in the sports world of the coronavirus pandemic. The closing ceremonies had a touch of drama and were bathed in sad farewell as it became the last sports coverage of ABS-CBN, the UAAP’s coveror for 20 years since 2000, after the giant TV network was controversially denied a franchise renewal by a vote of 70-11 in the lower house of Congress early this month. University of Santo Tomas was awarded the general championship for high school (sixth straight) and seniors (fourth straight) divisions after action in volleyball, football, baseball, softball, athletics, tennis and 3x3 basketball were halted in February due to Covid-19. Sigh.

PETECIO’S ORDEAL IN DAVAO W

OMEN’S world boxing champion Nesthy Petecio is finally back home in her native Davao after weeks of waiting for a confirmed flight.

But her ordeal didn’t end when she got that precious plane ticket for home. The boxing pride has to undergo quarantine in a designated facility in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, which she described as unfit for lodging.

“We don’t have beds. It is also very hot. I also don’t know the persons I stay with in my room,” she said.

Being quarantined is nothing new for the 28-year-old Tokyo Olympics potential. She was locked down in a Baguio City dormitory last March after flying in with fellow boxers, including Tokyo Games qualifiers Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno, from

NBA restart likely to provide TV audience new sights, sounds

A BASKETBALL court is shown at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Florida. AP

amended so that the new one would take effect by the November election.”

A year ago on Tuesday, Cycling Association Head Rep. Abraham Tolentino was named president in an IOC-ordered special election, beating athletics chief Philip Ella Juico by four votes. The elections were the second for 2019—then first in February when boxing’s Ricky Vargas was elected to the top post in lieu of Jose Cojuangco Jr. In that July elections, the IOC told the POC to amend its constitution to prevent multiple political exercises.

The POC Executive Committee met twice within a week to tackle the proposed amendments that focused on a 70-year-old age cap, exclusion of national sports associations (NSAs) which are no longer recognized by their international federations and barring an individual from heading more than one NSA. Seven members of the POC Executive

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the qualifiers in Jordan.

After some four months isolated at the Philippine Sports Commission training facility at the Teachers’ Camp, she and other athletes and coaches were brought to the PhilSports to be on furlough to their provinces. She underwent another round of swab tests and a two-week quarantine.

Now that she’s in Davao, she has to undergo the same process for coming in from Metro Manila, the epicenter of the Covid-19 in the country.

“My family had to wait in the quarantine area to give me food and toiletries. What is surprising is that there are no mattress or even an electric fan at the quarantine area,” she said. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

URING a normal National Basketball Association (NBA) season, the sights and sounds of arenas serve as both a showy backdrop and home court advantage for its teams.

But with no fans allowed in the stands for the upcoming restart because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the league’s Orlando-area bubble restart will have a decidedly different feel for both players and coaches, as well as the television audience watching from afar.

The NBA has promised to do its best to bring some of the familiar noises and environment that players are used to playing in and fans have grown accustomed to seeing when the curtain officially drops on Thursday night.

Count former NBA Coach Stan Van Gundy, who will serve as an analyst for one of TNT’s broadcasts on opening night, among those curious to see how players will be affected by the atypical setup and what kind of previously inaudible insights on the court could be available to fans peering in remotely.

“I think the idea is right, because with no noise, it’s almost eerie,” Van Gundy said. “I mean, it’s just not what any player or coach is used to.”

Visually, the NBA will be taking advantage of the unique setting by trying to bring fans even closer to the action on the court via a 31-camera setup, the majority of which will be operated robotically.

NBA head of Next Gen telecast Sara Zuckert said the league will be employing an “audio soundscape” that will try to mimic—at least as much as possible—teams’ home arenas.

The league began testing some of their new enhancements during scrimmages last week, though they are saving a lot for when games officially count.

“Amplifying microphones in the arena can really lead to an enhanced feel and sound. You’ll hear a lot of sneaker squeaks and ball bounces,” Zuckert said.

THE National Basketball Association (NBA) will finally restart in Florida on Friday, with no less than LeBron James returning to action for the Los Angeles Lakers.

James, the league’s most solid star for quite some time now and leading candidate for the season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, will suit up with teammate Anthony Davis to resume their much-admired role as the team’s toughest 1-2 punch since the Kobe & Shaq Show for the Lakers some years back.

The Lakers will face the Los Angeles Clippers at 9 a.m., Florida time on July 31, in Walt Disney World in Orlando, protecting their league-leading record in the Western Conference.

Game One will pit the New Orleans Pelicans against the Utah Jazz at 6:30 a.m., officially triggering resumption of a season abruptly halted on March 11 when Utah’s center Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19.

There are 13 West teams and nine East squads at the Walt Disney bubble after the NBA’s board of governors voted 29-1 on June 4 for the July 31 restart, stretching the playoffs up to October.

Before the stoppage, six teams had entered the playoffs—Memphis, Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix and Washington.

Already out are Atlanta, Cleveland, New York, Golden State, Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago and Charlotte.

For New York, it marked the seventh straight time that it missed advancing to the next round.

James, a Laker for the second straight year, is keen on pocketing a title again after his last win in Cleveland some four years or so ago. And, if ever, it’d be the Lakers’ 17th overall.

Dominant in his last nine games before the season’s stoppage almost four months ago now, James averaged 30.0 points, 9.4 assists and 8.2 rebounds while also firmly entrenching himself as the league’s leader in assists.

Add the fact that James, in his pursuit of a fourth NBA ring, is having more than an ample support in Davis, who is averaging 26.4 points and 9.4 rebounds while blocking 2.4 shots per game in his first season on the West Coast.

I can’t wait to see James play again. And with Davis on his side, it’s like throwing gas on fire.

PETECIO

The league has also worked with Microsoft to digitally bring actual fans’ faces and voices of fans into broadcasts via their Microsoft Teams platform. These select fans, which will be determined by the home team each game, will be both seen on screens inside the arena and be heard on the telecasts.

Van Gundy said accounting for the fan variable is about necessity as much as innovation.

“It’s not like [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver sat down and said, ‘Hey, you know, let’s do some of these things. They’ll be better than having fans at the game.’

That’s not what happened,” Van Gundy said. “It was we can’t have fans at our game, how can we make the atmosphere the best it can be under the circumstances?

And that’s what they’ve attempted to do.”

While some on-court interactions will remain muted even with enhanced audio, it certainly won’t drown everything out. There’s simply no way to account for the lack of the sounds usually created by crowds in NBA arenas that seat anywhere from 18,000 to 20,000.

It could possibly include everything from the occasional curse word getting through to other on-court interactions that teams might want to keep quiet. And the benches could be a factor in providing off-court energy to fill the void created by the lack of fans.

All of it should provide some gifts for players and fans alike, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said.

“I don’t think we need scouts right now, because every time a coach makes a call, we’re gonna hear it. Every time we make one, they’re gonna hear it,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a lot of secrets, that’s for sure. I think players will hear things they’ve never heard before. Officials, unfortunately, will hear things they’ve never heard before.”

Players know it will be different as well, though some don’t expect much of anything beyond goodnatured banter—which even referees also join in from time to time. AP

Kiwi league semis game up

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MART Communications Inc. will bring a crucial New Zealand-National Basketball League game live on its Facebook platform Smart Sports and on Cignal’s One Sports HD on Wednesday.

The No. 4 seed Taranaki Mountainairs, sporting an 8-6 won-lost record in the elimination round, battles the 7-7 five-seed Franklin Bulls in a knockout match for the right to advance to the semifinals of the seven-team league.

The game will be shown live on One Sports while Smart Sports will also air the game live along with a pregame, halftime and post-game show hosted by 2OT’s Carlo Pamintuan and Magoo Marjon.

It’s win or go home time for Ken Tuffin and Taranaki. They lost three of their last four games, including a 65-92 rout at the hands of Franklin to cap their eliminations campaign last July 23.

Tuffin who averaged 10.78 points on 51 percent shooting and 5.67 rebounds in his first nine games with Taranaki, dipped to norms of 6.5 points on 32 percent shooting and 4.0 boards in their last four outings.

“I think the teams are starting to pay a lot of attention to me. I was a part of the other team’s scouting report, trying to deny me and take me out of the game,” said the 6-foot-4 Filipino-Kiwi swingman, who is an incoming super senior in Far Eastern University. Tuffin, however said, he will play inspired because of the coverage in the Philippines.

“It’s awesome. Hearing about that makes me want to give that extra, knowing that people will be watching and supporting from the Philippines,” the 23-year-old Tuffin said.