BusinessMirror June 04, 2019

Senate votes 20-0 to approve OUTDATED REALTY VALUES COST LGU P31B tobacco tax hike starting 2020

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T

HE Senate, voting 20-0, passed on Monday night a bill raising the “sin” ta x on all tobacco products, and providing that revenue collected be used to bankroll the government’s Universal Health Care Program.

Sponsored by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara as Ways and Means Committee chairman, the bill was passed on second and third reading in one sitting, paving the way for convening a conference commitee with House counterparts to hammer out a reconciled final version of the revenue bill.

“With 20 affirmative votes, no negative vote, no abstention, Senate Bill 2233 is

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PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION

approved on third reading,” Senate President Vicente Sotto declared before banging the gavel signifying approval of the remedial legislation seen to affect workers in the tobacco industry even as it is awaited by advocates of the anti-smoking ban.

The upward rate adjustments start at P45 in 2020—an increase of P10 in the first year of implementation—to be followed by a series of annual P5 increases until the rate reaches P60 in 2023.

A s approved, the measure mandates that part of the higher tobacco excise tax collection be set aside for health care.

Butch Fernandez

O

UTDATED real-estate market values caused provinces and cities to lose as much as P30.5 billion in revenues, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

In a statement on Monday, DOF Acting Deputy Executive Director Jose Arnold Tan of the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) said cities lost P23.077 billion while provinces lost P7.379 billion due to an outdated Schedule of Market Values (SMVs).

Finance Assistant Secretary Antonio Lambino told the BusinessMirror

that the amount was estimated using SMVs for 2018 and real property taxes (RPT) in 2017.

“It’s an estimate for 2018 using SMVs from that year, and using 2017 RPT collection data due to a one-year lag in reporting,” Lambino explained.

Fi n a nce Sec ret a r y C a rlos G. Dominguez III said there is a need to introduce reforms to address this.

These reforms are contained in the real property tax system embodied in Package 3 of the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).

“Essentially, real estate is the most valuable asset and biggest financial resource. But its contribution to gov-

ernment revenues, particularly for local governments, has remained dismal due to outdated SMVs, poor collection efficiency and tax administration and lack of uniformity in the valuation of real property,” Dominguez said.

Tan said the DOF is proposing to adopt international standards in valuation; establish a single valuation base for taxation and benchmarking; and address the need to insulate valuation from politics, with LGUs continuing to regulate tax rates and assessment levels.

The list of reforms also included improvements in the oversight functions of the national government and See “Realty,” A12

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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n Tuesday, June 4, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 237

Manufacturing recovers as external demand rises I

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

MPROVED external demand pushed the growth of the local manufacturing sector to recover in May this year, data from an international think tank showed.

Reports from IHS Markit on Thursday showed that the Philippine manufacturing sector’s purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 51.2 in May from the 50.9 in April.

The PMI is a composite index aimed to gauge the health of the country’s manufacturing sector. It is calculated as a weighted average of five individual subcomponents.

Readings above the 50 threshold signal a growth in the manufacturing sector while readings below 50 show deterioration in the industry.

“Filipino goods producers reported an improved picture in May, as output growth strengthened amid a sharper increase in new orders. Firms were helped by a rise in foreign demand for only the second time since last September as the global trade war intensification led to weaker export conditions,”

IHS Markit Economist David Owen said.

“This should ease some nerves in the wake of further tariffs announced by the US and China,” he added.

The latest PMI reading marked the first time since November 2018 where the headline PMI has in-

“Firms were helped by a rise in foreign demand for only the second time since last September as the global trade war intensification led to weaker export conditions.”

—Owen

creased, although it was still below its average seen through the first quarter of the year.

“Overall, new export orders grew at the quickest rate in nearly a year, marking a sharp reversal from the joint-record decline observed in April. Greater demand thereby encouraged Filipino manufacturers to raise output at an accelerated pace in May,” the report read.

“Some respondents also noted the positive impact of recent product launches and branch openings on production growth,” it added.

See “Manufacturing,” A12

T

@jearcalas

HE Philippines has reverted to 40 percent the tariff on imported mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken, but local meat processors are questioning the legal authority of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to implement the measure.

Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero issued Customs Memorandum Circular (CMC) 131-2019 dated May 23 that authorized the reversion of higher tariffs on certain agricultural products, including chicken MDM. The reversion of tariffs is in line with President Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) 23, which stipulated that concessionary rates on certain agricultural products should go back to the 2012 levels once the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice is removed and converted into ordinary customs duties.

EO 23 extended the concessionary rates on certain agricultural products while the Philippines worked toward the removal of the nontariff measure.

“Accordingly, the Bureau of Customs’s Electronic to Mobile [E2M] system is hereto updated to reflect the modified rates pursuant to the said EO,” Guerrero said in the CMC,

How can the President avoid becoming a lame duck leader?

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

W

e expect the 17th Congress to approve the remaining packages of the tax-reform program despite the remonstrations of some independent senators. Enacting a legislative measure is all about numbers, and there is no way the opposition can muster a respectable count of negative votes to derail its passage. Every sector that matters, to wit: business, investors, most taxpayers and our suffering people who will be benefited by the pro-poor social programs to be funded by the CTRP are rallying for its approval. Even the international rating agencies await its enactment as this may lead to another credit upgrade, which would result to significant savings by the government in interest payments.

This means billions of pesos could be spent for the various social programs to provide shelter, education and health services to alleviate the plight of our destitute countrymen. Voting for it will be a no-brainer for every patriotic and well-meaning public servant.

Continued on A11

DOE tells DUs: Conduct CSP for procuring power supply

5%

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change agents in organizations?’”

Gallagher said. “Because millennials have a more future-focused mindset that more accurately recognizes the work in the future requires a well-balanced skill set.”

Gallagher and his team from Swinburne University’s Centre for the New Workforce surveyed 1,000 workers from all walks of life—from CEOs to bus drivers, young and old.

HE Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday called on all distribution utilities (DUs) to immediately conduct a competitive selection process (CSP) in procuring their power-supply requirements following the recent Supreme Court decision.

“All affected power industry players must catch up and push under the CSP those stalled supply agreements for the next 23 years,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

Consultative meetings with the concerned stakeholders are already under way, said Cusi. “Power development in our country, particularly in Luzon, has been at a standstill for three years.

We can no longer afford any further delay. We need to act now with extreme urgency to make up for the lost time.”

At the same time, the agency also directed the DUs to submit annual supply demand projections for the next three years, and from 2023 to 2030 to ensure that they have sufficient supplemental power-supply levels to meet

See “Apec forum,” A2

See “CSP,” A2

The tariff slapped on imported mechanically deboned meat of chicken prior to May 23 a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.

“The Philippine Tariff Finder [PTF] was also udpated by the Tariff Commission to reflect the said MFN [most-favored nation] rates,” he added.

A quick check on the Tariff Commission’s tariff book showed that the tariffs on the covered ag r icu lt ura l products shou ld have been reverted to the 2012 levels as early as March 5, when the rice trade liberalization law took effect.

‘Not automatic’

Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) President Felix O. Tiukinhoy Jr. said his group is questioning the legal authority of the BOC to modify the tariffs and argued that only an EO by the President could authorize the reversion of rates.

See “Pampi,” A2

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Pampi in a bind as BOC reverts tariff of imported MDM of chicken to 40%

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

2017 ejap journalism awards

BACK TO SCHOOL Students from Parañaque National High School attend the flag raising early Monday morning for the 2019-2020 school year opening. An estimated 27.21 million trooped back to school, according to the Department of Education. It acknowledged problems of lack of classrooms as more private-school students transferred to public schools. Story on A2. NONIE REYES

Apec forum: Future of work is still human

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MID the rise in various technologies that are fueling automation, a new study concludes that the future of work is still human, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).

An Apec Bulletin on Monday discussed the findings of a study conducted by Sean Gallagher of Swinburne University’s Centre for the New Workforce which conclud-

ed that more than technological know-how, the future worker must have a well-balanced skill set.

This means having technological know-how and other skills that will enable them to work in environments that will be affected by constant change.

“A challenge for companies as well as for educators is, when we think of diversity, ‘How can we empower our young people to be

n japan 0.4822 n UK 65.9668 n HK 6.6615 n CHINA 7.5640 n singapore 38.0100 n australia 36.1585 n EU 58.3059 n SAUDI arabia 13.9259

Source: BSP (3 June 2019 )

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A2 Tuesday, June 4, 2019

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PIDS to DBM: Revisit cash-based budgeting

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@caiordinario

HE Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) has urged the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to reconsider its decision to shift to cash-based budgeting, saying it may not be enough to address underspending and the low absorptive capacity in government.

In a discussion paper, titled “A Note on the 2019 President’s Budget,” PIDS Supervising Research Specialist Janet S. Cuenca said the government should first address “long-standing” issues in the bud-

get process before adopting cashbased budgeting.

These long-standing issues include delays in the procurement process; revisions and modification in project designs; billing issues

such as late or incomplete submission of billing claims; unresolved right-of-way acquisition; and structural weaknesses in the agencies, among others.

“It is deemed important for DBM to reconsider its move to shift to annual cash-based budget scheme, particularly giving attention to the contextual factors that have been affecting the disbursement performance of government agencies/ units across the years,” Cuenca said.

“It will surely take long before these issues are resolved. If these issues are not properly addressed, the adoption of annual cash-based budgeting will be in vain,” she also said.

Under the obligation-based budgeting system, Cuenca said there were noted deviations between the programmed and actual budget. In 2014 and 2015, these deviations

It is deemed important for DBM to reconsider its move to shift to annual cash-based budget scheme, particularly giving attention to the contextual factors that have been affecting the disbursement performance of government agencies/units across the years.”—Cuenca

reached as high as P300 billion.

However, Cuenca said this deviation dramatically dropped to only P96 billion in 2016 and further down to P85 billion in 2017. Nonetheless, these amounts remain significant and could have been used to provide other public goods and services.

The lower deviations, Cuenca said, may have been due to reforms introduced by the government such as the one-year validity of appropriations and the “early procurement, short of award” policy.

“These strategies should be complemented with measures in addressing the perennial issues that national government agencies and even local government units face,” Cuenca said.

Cash-based budgeting, Cuenca said, is the budget system that proposes cash-based appropriations, which “guarantees and authorizes payments for the items [goods and services] that are included in the budget over a limited period of time, generally corresponding to

the fiscal year in consideration.”

In contrast, she explained, obligation-based budgeting proposes obligation-based appropriations, which authorizes government agencies “to enter into contractual commitments and to make payments according to these commitments, without a predetermined time limit.”

The system, Cuenca said, promotes better discipline and accountability in fiscal management and improves the government’s capacity in delivery of basic services.

However, the system could pose major problems to developing and transition countries since it required full accrual accounting, which entails heavy requirements.

The system also requires improving cost measurement and assessing and ensuring accuracy of full costs is a challenge, among others.

Still no funds for teachers’ pay hike Migration from private to public

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

S

AME struggle, different day.

Public-school teachers could be in another school year of no pay hike, as the economic team has yet to find a funding source for an increase in the salaries of the country’s educators.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Presidential Spokesman Salvador S. Panelo on Monday said his principal has yet to decide whether to increase the pay rate of teachers. He said President Duterte is awaiting the recommendation of his economic team, who have been strongly opposed to raising the salaries of publicschool teachers.

“Hopefully, that [issue] can be responded to by our economic managers, who are doing everything to see how things can be done,” Panelo said in a news briefing.

Malacañang’s statement came on the day public schools opened another academic year with about 800,000 teachers in need of a pay hike, according to the Alliance of Concerned Teachers. ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio

Apec forum. . .

said hundreds of thousands of educators continue to suffer from low pay and are unable to afford a decent life.

“Such abandonment of the very backbone of the public education system in the country vividly reflects how the state values education; hence, our stance that teachers’ salaries is the top most pressing issue this school opening,” Basilio argued in a statement.

Figures provided by ACT reported the salary of Teacher 1 is at P20,754 and that of Teacher 2 is at P22,938.

The group said this is short of the family living wage of P23,660, the barest minimum according to think tank IBON Foundation.

And the teachers cannot be blamed, as one of the President’s campaign promises is to augment the salaries of educators based in public schools, ACT pointed out.

However, this proposal was easily rejected by his economic managers, who have been opposed to a number of welfare programs of the Duterte administration, such as the free tuition in state universities and colleges. Three school years later since Duterte took power, teachers have yet to

Continued from A1

One of the questions they asked was “what are the most important skills, from their perspective, for the future of work,” and 34 percent answered in favor of digital and technology skills.

Only 28 percent considered functional skills, which were directly related to the job, as the most important skill set; 24 percent favored emotional skills that boost collaboration and empathy; while 14 percent went for entrepreneurial skills. However, a closer analysis of the data showed the future might be different from how it will turn out given the differences in the perspectives of older and younger workers.

According to Gallagher, digital skills are considered highly important by workers who hold senior positions in the work force: Baby Boomers (or those born from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s) and to a lesser extent, Generation X (born in the 1960s to 1970s).

But in the case of Millennial workers—those born in the 1980s to 1990s—emotional skills and empathy are the most important skills moving forward. He said Baby boomers held a more “mechanistic view,” as well as “predictable, linear and siloed” view of work while Millennial workers value “social competencies.”

“New work,” Gallagher said, “is defined by continuous change. It is “interconnected, interdependent. It will require more of our uniquely human skills like emotional, social, collaborative and entrepreneurial skills, which are less vulnerable to being displaced by technology. But it’s also where technology will augment us as workers.”

Forum in Chile

IN a forum in Chile ahead of the Apec Meetings this year, Prof. Dong Sun Park, lead shepherd of Apec’s human resource development group, asked a group of human resources development experts and officials from around the Asia-Pacific region.

They were gathered to discuss upskilling to bridge digital divides among workers, which is one of the challenges governments in the region will have to face in the coming decades.

Park said discussions among industry, government and academics—such as the ones facilitated by Apec and where experts like Gallagher are tapped for new ideas—are essential in facing the challenges of digital disruption in the work force, many of which have cross-border implications.

“We often witness a digital divide along the age, gender and socioeconomic lines. We still have low-quality precarious jobs often characterized by mundane and routine work,” Park said. “How can we strengthen governments’ mechanisms to involve different actors in education and training programs?”

He added: “New experiences and insights on digital competitiveness and skills development will contribute to not only facilitate skills and talents mobility, and also create jobs and faster connectivity among people,” he said.

“It is important to upskill our individuals with adequate education and training for the promotion of quality living in the Asia-Pacific region.” Cai U. Ordinario

CSP. . .

reap his promise of a pay hike.

Still committed

“THE President is not leaving on his commitment. There have been many things that hurdled [his administration] during the [first] three years [of his] term. The President had to increase the salaries of soldiers and policemen, as they are in the frontlines of securing peace and security,” Panelo explained.

He confirmed the economic team has yet to find a funding source for a salary increase of teachers, but said efforts are underway upon the Chief Executive’s direct orders. Panelo said Malacañang is open to hosting a dialogue between the President and public-school teachers.

“I don’t know where they will get the funds [for a pay hike], but they are looking for possible sources,” the Palace official confirmed.

The ACT, for its part, is challenging the President to issue an executive order ordering the salary increase of teachers if he really is committed to such promise. However, Panelo was quick to dismiss this demand, saying government programs must have a proper budget first before they are implemented.

Continued from A1

their respective franchise obligations in the years to come.

“We at the DOE widely welcomed the decision of the SC, which held that all PSA applications submitted by DUs to the Energy Regulatory Commission [ERC] on or after June 30, 2015, shall comply with the Competitive Selection Process [CSP] in accordance with the 2018 DOE Circular [DC2018-02-0003] and its Annex ‘A.’” As indicated in the circular, the DOE said it will closely oversee the competitive bidding process to guarantee that the exercise is conducted in an open, transparent, effective, efficient and equitable manner. For its part, the ERC will work alongside the DOE by enforcing and implementing the relevant policies we have formulated, as well as all pertinent rules and regulations we have issued. However, should the process grossly fail, the DOE will not hesitate to enact all necessary measures to uphold the integrity and completion of the CSP. “We seek the full cooperation of all our industry stakeholders as we work to improve the level and reliability of our country’s power supply.”

The DOE is awaiting the list of affected PSAs from the ERC. Lenie Lectura

Pampi. . .

Continued from A1

Tiukinhoy added that the reversion of duties is not automatic “as far as EO 23 is concerned.”

“Our position is that he [Guerrero] cannot issue that circular. He has no authority to do that. Only the President can issue an EO,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

“As far as EO 23 is concerned, [the reversion of tariffs to 40 percent] is not automatic.

It needs to have an EO to put it back to 40 percent or to maintain it at 5 percent,” he said, adding that this was the advice of their legal counsel.

schools cited in classroom lack

L

ACK of classrooms greeted about 27.2 million students who trooped back to school on Monday.

Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones conceded the problem, and attributed it to the increasing population of students every year.

“More than a million learners are added [to] our enrollment every year,” Briones said, stressing the need for more facilities, books and teachers to be able to cope with the situation.

For economic reasons, Briones added, more students from private schools have transferred to public schools, thus adding to the facilities challenge of the latter.

The Department of Education (DepEd) said some schools in Las Piñas, Caloocan, Parañaque and Quezon City held two shifts to accommodate students amid the shortage of classrooms.

DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn M. Sevilla also traced the lack of classrooms to “overpopulation”— something being experienced not only in the National Capital Region but also other Metro cities like Cebu and Davao.

To address the problem, Briones said they are eyeing to build more vertical structures in schools to make the most of the available space.

Sevilla said the current average ratio of a classroom to students is one to 40.

Increasing effort

GIVEN the continuously increasing population and the challenges DepEd has to hurdle, Briones said, “we are increasing our efforts to deliver quality, accessible, relevant and liberating basic education.”

Briones added, “As we pivot from access to quality, we are continuously reviewing our curriculum and developing our learning resources, including our teachers, through the transformation of our National Educators Academy of the Philippines,” she said in a statement as she welcomed the learners on their first day of school.

DepEd and local government of-

Affected shipments TIUKINHOY claimed that even prior to the issuance of CMC 131-2019, BOC collectors had already imposed a 40-percent tariff on imported chicken MDM. He said Pampi wrote to Guerrero to inquire whether he authorized the “sudden” change in tariff rates on imported MDM, but the commissioner has not yet responded to the group.

Documents provided by Pampi showed that “several hundreds” of containers were affected by the sudden change of tariff rate on MDM, which started on May 17.

Pampi added that imported MDM was assessed with a 5-percent tariff before May 17, or two months after the rice trade liber-

...Join us in responding to the increasing development requirements of our country, and in creating a better world for the Filipino learners whom we are all sworn to serve.”—Briones ficials of Taguig City attended the flag raising at the Signal Village National High School (SVNHS) on Ballecer Street, Central Signal in Taguig City.

After the flag ceremony, Briones inspected the city government’s seven-story, fully air-conditioned 21-classroom building with elevator and roof-deck. The building also houses a MacLaboratory, a Hope Center and other facilities.

“On behalf of the Department of Education, I am honored and pleased to welcome our almost 27.2 million learners from all over the country to the opening of School Year 2019-2020!” Briones said.

“We are also continuously upgrading our facilities by improving their resistance to typhoons and earthquakes,” she added.

Briones also encouraged those who believe in the cause of education to “work together.” “...Join us in responding to the increasing development requirements of our country, and in creating a better world for the Filipino learners whom we are all sworn to serve,” she said.

Clear roads

THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), led

by Chairman Danilo Lim, apprehended more than 80 motorists for illegal parking and other various violations that impede the flow of traffic in Quezon City.

Lim ordered the towing of vehicles obstructing traffic flow in the vicinity of Corazon Aquino Elementary School, Batasan Hills

alization law took effect.

The importers, mostly members of Pampi, deferred the release of their MDM shipments until questions over the legality of the implementation of a 40-percent tariff on their purchases have been resolved.

The increase in tariff rate would cost importers an additional P350,000 per container. Prior to the issuance of the circular, Pampi said traders paid only P55,000 per container. “The cost implication of the tariff increase is huge. Pampi members will have to shell out an additional of roughly P350,000 per container compared to about P55,000 per container they pay at 5 [percent],” the documents read.

Congress is the government body man-

National High School in Batasan Hills Quezon City and Ramon Magsaysay High School in Cubao, Quezon City.

“We want to see to it that roads are cleared to ensure the safety of the students walking to and from their schools, and the unimpeded traffic flow in the opening of classes,” said Lim, who started the inspection and clearing operations as early as 5 a.m.

In the first three hours of operations, members of the Special Operations Task Force apprehended 21 unattended vehicles parked illegally; 12 attended vehicles parked illegally; 21 motorcycle riders for not using helmet; three motorists for disregarding traffic signs; and confiscated one fish-ball cart at the sidewalk for obstruction.

Joint operations of the MMDA and the QC Tricycle Regulatory Unit (TRU) also intercepted 20 tricycles for overloading.

Dur ing t he school inspect ion , L i m rem i nded pa rent s and motorists to be cautious in transporting students. “We have seen overloaded tricycles going to schools. The safety of the students should be our first priority and must never be compromised,” said Lim. Light to moderate traffic greeted Metro Manila motorists on the first day of school year 2019-2020.

But anticipating a slowdown of traffic in the succeeding school days, Lim said more than 2,000 traffic personnel are deployed in areas with a high concentration of students. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco dated to amend tariff rates but the President may modify rates if Congress is not in session. Congress resumed session on May 17.

Former Agriculture Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo R. Serrano said the automatic reversion of concessionary rates is provided under EO 23. He said the BOC should implement the tariff changes and no other requirements are needed to do it.

In March, National Economic and Development Authority Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla told the BusinessMirror that the Cabinet-level Committee on Tariff and Related Matters is inclined to impose “a tariff rate lower than 40 percent but higher than 5 percent on MDM imports.”

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A ‘jukebox’ or a true witness?

‘Bikoy’ returns to police custody

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ETER JOEMEL ADVINCULA, the hooded man known as “Bikoy” in the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video, has returned to Camp Crame for the second time. He said he is now seeking protective custody allegedly due to threats on his life and in apparent preparation for his formal issuance of an affidavit that will support his claims against individuals whom he had earlier named as the “brains” behind the video’s production.

Advincula yielded a week ago to the Philippine National PoliceCriminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), even as his threat claims are now being investigated and validated, including his accusations against some politicians, according to CIDG Director Maj. Amador Corpus.

“Bikoy has returned. He is now under protective custody [after] he voluntarily surrendered himself and requested for protective custody. He is now under investigation. Validation is ongoing, including on the pieces of evidence that he is going to submit,” Corpus said.

The CIDG director said they were validating all the public pronouncements of Bikoy and were validating the evidence that he has brought with him when turned himself in order to prove his allegations.

The hooded Bikoy alleged the involvement of President Duterte’s family members and allies into the illegal drugs trade in the country, claims that he repeated when he

formally unmasked himself as Advincula during a news conference days before the midterm elections.

Right after the elections, Advincula, however, appeared at Camp Crame to recant his allegations and claimed the video had been produced with three opposition senators and the candidates of the Otso Diretso, except Mar Roxas, as the masterminds.

He claimed the video, where he acted as its narrator, was made to boost the election chances of the Otso Diretso candidates and to discredit the Duterte administration in order for Vice President Leni Robredo to replace the president.

Robredo and all of the individuals named by Bikoy, including in the video, have denied his claims.

PNP chief Director General Oscar D. A lbayalde said that while Advincula’s claims would be validated, the “recanting narrator” would also be investigated himself.

“All of Bikoy’s claims would be validated, all of the names that were given will be part of the investigation. In fact, Bikoy will be part of the investigation. Remember, probably he will ask for protection, [but] he can also be a respondent here,” Albayalde said during a news briefing on Monday.

The PNP chief said that it would be up to the court to determine upon the filing of a case if Advincula should stand as a witness or a respondent.

Rene Acosta

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, June 4, 2019 A3

DND chief tells Asean: Let’s keep South China Sea open to overflights, navigation

D

By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

EFENSE Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana has underscored the need to keep the South China Sea open to overflights and international navigation amid confidence-building measures in addressing the region’s contentious territorial issue with the Asean as a single body.

The defense secretary made the remarks at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue held over the weekend in Singapore, which was attended by the world’s top defense and military officials.

“What we should all agree on, however, is that freedom of navigation and overflight in global sea lines of communications is indispensable to regional peace and security. In our view, no single power should exercise unilateral control over vital arteries of global trade, such as the South China Sea. We need to collectively protect our

“In more concrete terms, we should consider joint exploration activities, as well as environmental protection regimes, which ensure the equitable, just and lawful exploration, usage, sharing of hydrocarbon reserves, and preservation and protection of marine resources.”—Lorenzana

global commons,” he said.

In the South China Sea, countries, including the United States

and its European and Southeast Asian allies, have been up against China’s continued effort to choke the vital sea lane, which was characterized by its building of manmade islands and turning them into military fortresses.

Lorenzana said that while the South China Sea must be opened to international passage, the region must also hammer out confidence-building measures, including joint cooperation and dialogue in addressing the territorial issue, not individually, but as an Asean bloc.

“Fortunately, we are not short of good precedence and best practices in our region. The Association of Southeast A sian Nations, for instance, provides a fruitful and encouraging example of conf lict-avoidance and peaceful dispute-settlement,” he said.

“Our approach has been uniquely Asean-centered: manage and resolve the disputes through peaceful dialogue, diplomatic negotiations, and fidelity to international law and regional norms and principles,” he added, citing the cases of the Sabah dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines, the Ligitan and Sipadan dispute between Malay-

sia and Indonesia, and even the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over the areas surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple.

Lorenzana said these disputes have been resolved through cooperative means and not through conflict.

“Think of the Malaysia–Thailand Joint Development Area in the Gulf of Thailand, which has allowed both nations to peacefully manage their overlapping maritime claims, or the multilateral Malacca Straits Sea Patrol [MSSP]. Or the Philippines and Indonesian consensus to sett le their mar itime border disputes in the overlapping EEZ [exclusive economic zone] of the Mindanao and Celebes Seas,” he said.

Lorenzana even considered the idea of a joint exploration among the contending states in resolving the South China Sea problem.

“In more concrete terms, we should consider joint exploration activities, as well as environmental protection regimes, which ensure the equitable, just and lawful exploration, usage, sharing of hydrocarbon reserves, and preservation and protection of marine resources,” he said.

A4 Tuesday, June 4, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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Sweet problem: Bumper Data privacy protection fines levied so far: The lessons businesses can learn harvest brings down mango farm-gate price I

By Henry J. Schumacher

T

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE country has an estimated mango surplus of at least 2 million kilograms that has prompted the Department of Agriculture (DA) to undertake a massive marketing campaign to aid farmers from falling farm-gate prices.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol called an emergency meeting on Monday with mango industry stakeholders, including farmers and processors, to discuss the ongoing oversupply in the market.

After the meeting, it was revealed that there are at least 2 million kilograms of surplus in Luzon alone due to bumper harvest recently, Piñol added.

He explained that the “unusual” production this season was attributed to the prolonged dry spell that provided mango trees recovery time to bear more fruits. “ The last time they had this kind of harvest was during the El Niño in 2015 to 2016,” he said in an interview with reporters on Monday.

To help the farmers, Piñol said, the DA will launch on June 10 its Metro Mango Marketing Program wherein the department would open up out-

lets across the Metro to sell the fruit at P50 per kilogram.

Furthermore, some local processors have agreed to ramp up their purchase of mango from Filipino farmers to flush out the surplus in the domestic supply, he added.

The agriculture chief said one of the reasons the prices of mango dropped is because one of the big dried-mango processors stopped buying locally.

“Justin Uy of ProFood [International Corp.] in Cebu stopped buying from farmers, so prices dropped. His Bulacan plant used to buy 500 metric tons daily, now it only buys 20 metric tons per week,” Piñol said.

“He is hurting the mango industry and his excuse is that local mangoes are expensive that’s why he resorted to importation. But when we checked the landed cost of imported mangoes, it’s almost the same us the local ones,” the DA chief added.

Nonetheless, Piñol said, mango industry stakeholders have agreed that starting next year they would meet every February to assess the supply and demand situation prior to harvest season.

In this way, the DA could help farmers position their stocks in case there’s abundant supply.

“On the long term, we would like the farmers to establish their own processing facilities,” Piñol said.

The DA-Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (Amas) is now also encouraging interested businessmen and private entities that would want to purchase mango from local farmers.

The DA-Amas offered to link up interested parties with local Filipino mango farmers.

The DA-Amas offers to sell mangoes at P25 per kilogram if the buyer would purchase at least 4 metric tons.

Export- grade mangoes are also available at P50 per kilogram for every 4-metric ton order.

Mango farmers are now producing 100 MT per week of process and export-quality mangoes, DA-Amas said.

The average farm-gate price of mango in the first quarter dropped by 17.5 percent to P48.45 per kilogram due to poor quality of produce, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.

A kilo of mango was priced P58.73 per kilogram in the January-to-March period of 2018, the PSA added.

ADB cites impact of weather on local economic activity

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

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ROPICAL cyclones cut the economic activities in the country by an average of 2 percent annually, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In a forthcoming study cited in the Asian Development Outlook (ADO), after the most severe storm in the sample, local economic activity in the country was even reduced by 23 percent.

This is something that ADB Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department Senior Economist Benno Ferrarini said could turn into a “GDP (gross domestic product) tragedy” and should be prevented.

“Economic damage and, more tragically, loss of life, impair economic activity and slow its expansion. The destruction of human and physical capital results not only in foregone production, but spillovers and knock-on effects can ripple across the entire economy,” Ferra-

rini said in an Asian Development Blog published on Monday.

In the special chapter in the ADO, the ADB said frequent storms with a five-year return period are expected to produce losses equal to 1 percent of national economic activity.

However, this increases when storms that are more infrequent hit the country. An example is a storm with a 50-year return period, which is expected to reduce national economic activity of over 2 percent.

The ADB also said in the special chapter that the impact on economic activity also varies substantially between and among regions.

In Region 8, or Eastern Visayas, ADB said typhoons with 50-year return periods caused losses in economic activity exceeding 20 percent. But in regions like the National Capital Region, the impact was lower at only 1-percent reduction in economic activity.

Differences in the region was also observed. Ferrarini said between 2000 to 2018, disasters cost the region $644 billion in total

damages to physical assets.

But in relative terms, impacts are felt most strongly in the Pacific, where more than 10 percent of population and 6 percent of assets are affected by disasters each year on average.

“More often, though, disasters are localized events with impacts concentrated in the affected area.

However intense locally, impacts tend to be diluted when averaged out over a large unit of analysis, such as national GDP,” Ferrarini said.

Ferrarini emphasized the importance of international support mechanisms that can be activated quickly enough to limit a disaster’s economic impact.

R e c e nt e x a m p l e s i n c l u d e ADB’s disbursement of disaster contingent financing to Tonga just three days after the country was struck by Typhoon Gita in February last year.

This also includes ADB’s Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company, a risk-pooling consortium making parametric insurance accessible to these countries.

AM talking about the implementation of the EU data privacy protection law. But the lessons business can learn also apply to Philippine business.

After one year of enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), businesses can learn much from how the provisions of the regulation have been applied and how organizations have been fined.

Enforcement of the GDPR went into effect on May 25, 2018. In the approximate span of one year since that date, European data protection authorities confirm that almost 90,000 separate data breach notifications have been received.

Note, that’s just the notifications received from organization’s attempting to comply with the GDPR. Those same data protection authorities report that during the same year almost 145,000 complaints and inquiries have been reported by concerned citizens.

Several third-party investigations suggest that at least 100 organizations have paid fines to the GDPR authorities for failing to fully comply with the regulation. By analyzing the higher profile fines, business enterprises may be able to glean vital information regarding the future application of the GDPR to their organizations.

Lessons learned from GDPR fines at the 1-year anniversary

SINCE May 2018, data protection authorities in Europe have levied several high-profile and high-denomination fines against companies for violating provisions of the GDPR:

In December 2018, a Portuguese hospital was fined €400,000 (about P24 million) for allowing its staff to use bogus accounts to access patient records. According to the investigation, the hospital had 985 registered doctor profiles while only having 296 actual doctors on staff. While the motive for the violation seemed to be a matter of convenience and not malicious intent, the authorities still ruled that the violation was willful and blatant.

In March 2019, a taxi company in Denmark was fined 1.2

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the Philippines’s ranking climbed four notches this year to 46th, from the 50th spot last year.

Still, the senator suggested that the Duterte administration should “not rest on its laurels just yet.”

He pointed out the report also indicated that the Philippines ranks second to the last among 13 Asia-Pacific countries, “with our slow investment in physical infrastructure and inadequate investment in human capital being cited as some of the stumbling blocks standing in the way of increased competitiveness.”

Gatchalian asserted it is “high time for the [Duterte] government to prioritize key economic bills,” citing the In-

GDPR compliance

THE fines levied by the European data protection authorities during the first year of GDPR enforcement reveal one simple fact: The GDPR is real, enforceable and applies to every business collecting, storing and processing sensitive personal data. Compliance is not optional.

Businesses risk is significant, and fines and penalties for noncompliance inevitable.

DPA compliance?

WHILE we are talking here about what the EU businesses can learn about GDPR compliance, it is essential to note that the National Privacy Commission needs to learn from the EU data protection authorities and that Philippine business prepares for a tougher enforcement of the Philippine Data Privacy Act by the NPC. Feedback is more than welcome; e-mail me at Schumacher@eitsc.com.

Voting 20-0, Senate okays PHL-Indonesia EEZ pact

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

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ENATORS unanimously approved on Monday Senate Resolution 1048 concurring with the ratification of the Philippines-Indonesia Agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary.

This, even as Senate President Vicente Sotto III prodded President Duterte to look into the plight of Filipino fishermen currently detained in Indonesia and direct con-

Gatchalian to Duterte admin: Don’t omit key economic reform bills HE Duterte administration was asked to step up efforts to frontload key economic reforms, even as the Philippines got a good rating in the latest Competitiveness Report.

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, cited the country’s improved ranking in the 2019 Institute for Management Development (IMD) Competitiveness Report as “a testament that the Duterte administration is on the right track in terms of achieving sustainable growth, generating jobs and, ultimately, increasing the welfare of its citizens.”

In a news statement, Gatchalian noted that out of the 63 economies evaluated,

million kroner (about P9.3 million) for storing over 9 million records of personal contact information on its information technology systems that it no longer needed. The data should have been deleted after it was no longer needed for regular business purposes, as described by the GDPR, but the company failed to comply.

Lesson 1: It does not matter to the European data protection authorities whether violations of the provisions of the GDPR are unintentional mistakes stemming from neglect, laziness, sloppiness or ignorance. A violation for any reason is punishable, and businesses had better take compliance with the GDPR seriously.

In January 2019, Google was fined €50 million (about P2.95 billion) by French authorities for collecting personal data from users without providing an adequate level of transparency on how that data would be used to personalize advertisements on the platform.

Under the provisions of the GDPR, organizations must get valid consent to use personal data for every specific use of that data—no blanket consents are allowed. Google is appealing the fine.

In March 2019, a Polish data processing company was fined €220,000 (about P13 million) for scraping the Internet for publicly available personal data and then using that data to contact over 90,000 individuals for promotional purposes. A clear and blatant violation of the GDPR, some 12,000 of the contacted individuals complained about the activity.

Lesson 2: Willful, deliberate, and blatant violations of the provisions of the GDPR will receive the harshest of fines from European data protection authorities. Businesses who attempt to test the resolve of the regulatory authorities will pay dearly for their arrogance.

Lesson 3: The provisions of the

GDPR, particularly amongst citizens of the EU, are well-known, and individuals who feel those provisions have been violated are more than willing to report offending behavior to the data protection authorities.

Unscrupulous businesses who count on the ignorance or passiveness of individuals are likely to pay a heavy price for that cynical attitude to personal data security and protection.

One more high-profile fine lends itself to another lesson for businesses:

In November 2018, Knuddels, a German social-media company, reported a data breach. The subsequent investigation by the local data protection agency determined the site had been storing user passwords in plaintext without hashing. Knuddels was fined €20,000 (about P1.2 million) for not secure storing the personal data of its customers. The fine was relatively low because Knuddels reported the security breach in a timely manner and took immediate steps to mitigate the security problem.

Lesson 4: While serious violations of the provisions of the GDPR are still subject to fines, timely reporting of security breaches to data protection authorities and quick action to reduce the risk of exposure of personal data by violating businesses could reduce levied fines significantly. All businesses handling sensitive personal data should have appropriate security and compliance policies in place to mitigate the risk from GDPR violations.

novation Bill and the Public Service Act amendments, noting that both measures aim to promote innovation and provide benefits to start-up and micro, small and medium enterprises.

In batting for early passage of the two measures, the senator had projected that both the Innovation Bill and updating the Public Service Act boost the current investment regime and “make it more adaptable to global business demands and trends.”

At the same time, he added that enactment into law of the higher Tobacco Tax Bill was likewise seen to be “beneficial in terms of promoting better health for our people.”

Butch Fernandez

cerned authorities to pursue efforts to resolve their cases.

Voting 20-0 with no abstention, the Senate adopted the agreement establishing the boundary line that delimits the overlapping EEZ of the Philippines and Indonesia.

In moving for its early adoption, Sen. Loren Legarda, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chairman, affirmed that Resolution 1048 would “resolve and protect the rights and well-being of Filipino vessels and fishermen arrested, detained or meted punitive

actions for fishing in Indonesia or another state’s EEZ. As provided in the PhilippinesIndonesia agreement, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and its Indonesian counterpart, the Geospatial Information Agency and the Hydro-Oceanographic Office of the Indonesian Navy shall “work together to determine the actual delineation of the sea points and geodetic lines between the two countries.”

Urban agri bill hurdles 3rd and final reading

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HE House of Representatives has endorsed for Senate approval a measure promoting integrated urban agricultural development in all metropolitan areas nationwide to address food-security issues.

The lower chamber—voting 170-0 without abstention—approved on third and final reading House Bill 9105, or the proposed “Integrated Urban Agriculture Act.” Under the measure, agricultural development to be implemented shall apply to all urban spaces, including idle government or private properties, as well as available land resources in state or private universities suitable for growing crops and raising poultry, livestock and aquaculture.

With this, the bill shall strengthen the National Agriculture and Fisheries Council (NAFC) by giving them the authority to monitor and en-

sure its proper implementation.

The NAFC shall be composed of representatives from several government agencies and shall be chaired by the secretary of the Department of Agriculture.

The bill said the council shall undertake the following functions: a) develop a unified strategy to link agricultural production to nutrition programs; b) conduct policy studies, program monitoring and comprehensive researches on food production, sustainable food systems and the country’s urban agriculture agenda; c) ensure that department resources are used to effectively encourage agricultural production in urban communities; d) provide technical assistance in support of vertical farming, backyardfoodproductionandcommunitygardening programs; and e) submit periodic reports and policy recommendations to the Congress. JoveeMarieN.DelaCruz

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In the ad material of Notice of filing of Application for Alien Employment Permits published on April 6, 2019, the applicant of BIG EMPEROR TECHNOLOGY CORP. should have been read as Ms. Li, Xinxin and not as published. In the application published on April 25, 2019 the Nationality of Messrs. Cai, Yue-Hao, Wu, Shang-Lin, Wang, Ming-Hsuan, Wu, Kai-Xiang, Chen, I-Hsien, Chen, Wei-Po and Ms. Lin, -Shu-Hui under SPEED QUALITY TECH INC. should have been read as Taiwanese and not as published.

If you have any information / objection to the above mentioned application/s, please communicate with the Regional Director thru Employment Promotion and Workers Welfare (EPWW) Division with Telephone No. 400-6011.

ATTY. ANA C. DIONE, CPA

REGIONAL DIRECTOR

A10 Tuesday, June 4, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

Comelec’s not so smart choice

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N a speech before the Filipino community in Tokyo last week, President Duterte urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to get rid of Smartmatic and get a fraud-free contractor for the 2022 elections.

“If you use that in the next election three years from now I don’t know what will happen. Something has got to give. Improve on the systems. Stop using Smartmatic,” Duterte said.

Several lawmakers and poll watchdogs immediately backed his call, including the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, Kontra Daya and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, head of the congressional oversight committee on the automated election system (AES), which is scheduled to conduct a hearing today, June 4, concerning the technical glitches encountered on May 13.

The Venezuela-based Smartmatic has been the poll technology provider since the Philippines first implemented a nationwide automation of elections in 2010, but not without controversy.

The number of public objections that have been made against it in the past has been truly worrying. Several election watchdogs have petitioned the Comelec to blacklist Smartmatic because of the many problems of its machines, to no avail.

President Duterte is right. Why choose Smartmatic when its machines are defective? For instance, the Comelec had to acquire additional machines or repair broken units in the 2016 elections after renting Smartmatic’s machines for P7.9 billion in 2010 and then buying them for P2 billion in 2013. The government should not have been paying for a flawed technology—and yet it did.

Despite the inefficiencies of the controversial precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that were used in the 2010 and 2013 elections, Smartmatic was still favored by the poll body for the 2016 and 2019 elections.

How much has Smartmatic’s automation project cost the Comelec overall?

P20.3 billion in the first six years, when the government first rented its PCOS machines in 2010, then bought them for the 2013 elections, then paid the company P300 million to check their machines for snafus and glitches. Sadly, the P300 million was just an initial payment; just to check the machines, no repair included. The contract for the diagnostics, repair and refurbishing of Smartmatic’s 82,000 PCOS machines was P1.2 billion.

In March 2018, the Comelec decided to buy for another P2.1 billion the 97,000 vote-counting machines it had leased from Smartmatic for P8 billion for the 2016 elections (still more were added to the 82,000 VCMs) for use in the 2019 midterm polls.

Now, don’t be confused by the acronyms—PCOS, OMR (optical mark reader), VCMs—they are all the same machines; the fact that the Comelec keeps calling Smartmatic’s machines by different names speaks volumes about their questionable reputation.

Another fact: The Comelec is Smartmatic’s biggest customer.

Only in the Philippines, it seems, does the government reward inefficiency with more and bigger public contracts.

Prior to the May polls, Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez told reporters in a press conference that Smartmatic’s role in the 2019 elections had already been limited to providing technical support.

“The machines are made by Smartmatic, yes. But it’s just hardware,” he said.

But does Smartmatic even own the system and technology it is selling? It was sued in the United States for its alleged usurpation of the rights over the technology that another company rightfully owns.

Smartmatic does not make the vote-counting machines. Jarltech in Taiwan makes them, subcontracted only by Smartmatic.

The software or source code used to operate the machines is owned by Dominion Voting Systems of Canada, which sued Smartmatic for usurpation.

So, essentially, Smartmatic is only a middleman, making a killing by selling us other people’s wares.

Comelec’s bidding specifications clearly prohibit bidders from subcontracting major components of a bidder’s offered system, so why was Smartmatic allowed to be the government’s AES service provider?

We hope today’s congressional hearing could shed light on these questions and issues, so glitches would no longer be repeated, to ensure that future elections would be truly fair and honest. And the Comelec should probably heed the President’s advice and end all deals with Smartmatic.

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PHL nears social and economic goals Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR

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TAKE delight in two recent reports showing the Philippines improving its 2019 global competitiveness ranking and making substantial progress in the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The first report, made by Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development, ranked the Philippines as the 46th-most competitive among 63 economies in the world this year, up by four notches from its 2018 ranking of 50th, despite the external challenges.

The ranking, based on economic indicators and results of an opinion survey, is an indication of the longterm health of an economy and its ability to support businesses to achieve sustainable growth, create jobs and improve the welfare of its people.

Data from the World Bank show that in 2018, the Philippines posted a gross domestic product of $330.8 billion in nominal terms with a growth of 6.2 percent from the previous year. The country also registered a GDP per-capita income of $3,104 in nominal terms and $8,936 in terms of purchasing power parity. PPP measures other economic variables aside from exchange rate to reflect productivity and standards of living.

It said the Philippines posted

improvements in all four indicators measured in the report, such as economic performance (up 12 notches from 50th to 38th); government efficiency (up three notches from 44th to 41st); business efficiency, (up six notches from 38th to 32nd); and infrastructure, (up one notch from 60th to 59th).

However, the Philippines received low rankings on indicators such as basic infrastructure (61st), health and environment (56th), education (58th), scientific infrastructure (59th), business legislation (54th) and international trade (54th).

I confidently believe that with the aggressive infrastructure buildup following the enactment of the 2019 national government budget, the country’s score on basic infrastructure will significantly improve in the years ahead.

While the Philippines ranked behind other Southeast Asian economies such as Singapore (first), Malaysia (22nd), Thailand (25th) and Indonesia (32nd), I expect our country to join the upper half of the list within the next few years on the back of the unprecedented infrastructure

spending that the Duterte administration is undertaking.

The “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program holds the key to unlocking the full potential of the Philippine economy. In 2019 alone, the government hopes to disburse a total of P1 trillion for infrastructure projects.

I share Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez’s enthusiasm when he said the improvement in the country’s competitiveness ranking was a precursor to more positive results from other competitiveness surveys. Aside from IMD, the World Economic Forum releases a separate Global Competitiveness Report, and I believe that it will also show a dramatic improvement in the Philippines’s ranking.

Improving the country’s competitiveness and ease of doing business are among the top priorities of the government. This highlights the Duterte administration’s businessfriendly policy that enables companies and enterprises to create quality jobs for the people.

On the socioeconomic side, I welcome the results of the Philippines 2019 Voluntary National Review Report on the SDGs, which shows that the Philippines is making headway in achieving the sustainable development goals, especially in terms of increasing labor productivity and reducing income equality.

SDGs refer to the 17 global goals set by the United Nations for the year 2030, such as ending poverty and hunger, improving the welfare of the people in terms of health, education, income and decent work, achieving gender equality, reducing income inequality, protecting the environment, building sustainable

What the economy really needs John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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HE name of the company is Atradius Credito y Caucion S.A. de Seguros y Reaseguros and, of course, you have never heard of it. It was founded in 1925 in the Netherlands for the purpose of improving trade with that country.

During the last nearly 100 years, Atradius has evolved into an international conglomerate—through acquisitions and mergers in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain providing “credit insurance, bonding and collections products [that] help protect companies throughout the world from payment risks associated with selling products and

services on trade credit.”

That might seem rather dry and uninteresting, but it is a $5-billion corporation that makes sure companies involved in every aspect of global trade gets paid on time and in full. Its business is genuinely a big deal. Not only does it act in the area of goods trade, but also when a foreign company wants to sell its

If you are considering investing in the Philippines, these are the sectors of concern to Atradius: Automotive, steel and textiles (lack of raw materials), and electronics because of the global slowdown. The bright spots are agriculture, services and consumer durables. The bottom line is that better infrastructure will create more investment.

“Build, Build, Build” and the money will come.

services abroad. If you are going to build a multimillion-dollar airport in Mozambique or a railway project in the Philippines, Atradius is the go-to source to find out, and perhaps insure, you will get paid so you do not have to sue the government or a private company.

communities, achieving peace and justice, among others.

Dr. Jose Ramon Albert, a senior research fellow of state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies, said the country’s labor productivity grew 8.4 percent in 2017, while the unemployment rate eased to 5.7 percent last year—one of the lowest since 2005.

There were also indications that income inequality in the Philippines had been narrowing. The report shows while the average per-capita income increased 1.7 percent annually from 2006 to 2015, the income of the bottom 40 percent rose faster at 2.2 percent in the same period.

Challenges still remain, though, including the fact that the average per-capita income of the National Capital Region is much higher than that of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the poorest area in the country.

More work remains to be done to achieve the 17 SDGs in the Philippines, but the Duterte administration’s focus on helping the poor through social protection, expanding the economy, generating jobs and livelihood programs, building infrastructures and improving the business climate have already borne substantial fruits.

Given the government’s firm resolve to grow the economy and improve the welfare of the Filipino people, I am confident we will continue making substantial gains in the global competitiveness rankings and sustainable development goals in the coming years.

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

Further, they do general country reports for their clients to help in the decision making on how a particular country is doing and why—or why not—you should do business there. At the end of March 2019, Atradius did its 2019 review of the Philippines, offering some interesting insights.

With all the sometimes virulent criticism of President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build,” the report starts with an interesting conclusion that may shake the foundations of thinking by “certain quarters.”

Ask the local experts and particularly the “think tanks” and you will usually get the same answers as to why investments—local and foreign—in the Philippines are weak and undeveloped. These range from government corruption and high power rates to keeping the oligarchs’ stranglehold on the economy, and See “Mangun,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Here’s the scary side of Europe’s economic data

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How can the President avoid becoming a lame duck leader?

By Melvyn Krauss | Bloomberg Opinion

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

F you measure the strength of the euro-zone economies using hard data like quarterly gross domestic product reports, things look pretty decent. But soft data is painting a gloomier picture.

Hard data looks backward. The latest soft numbers—think of consumer-confidence indicators, surveys of business executives about their planning for inventory, production and employment, along with their expectations for the business climate—reflect fear about the future.

Europe is worried about lots of things, including a chaotic British exit from the European Union, the US-China trade war and its own faltering trade relationship with the US. Recently, worries for the future have gotten worse.

The probability that the UK will leave the EU without an agreement on their economic relationship, an outcome that could put both economies into a tailspin, went up with the resignation announcement of Prime Minister Theresa May and the strong showing of the populist Brexit Party of anti-EU militant Nigel Farage in European Parliament elections last weekend.

The US-China trade war now looks like it will be a drawn out affair that could seriously damage Europe’s trade with both combatants.

The tougher the protectionist stance in the White House is with China, the more unsettling it is for Europeans. They fear that they may be in for the same kind of treatment from President Donald Trump, who continues to bang the table about too many German cars on US roads and too few US agricultural exports in European supermarkets.

It’s Europe’s bad luck that its fears are rising at the moment when it’s about to lose the calming presence of Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank. The ECB president is stepping down in October.

European leaders can ease the fears embodied in the weak soft data by putting a Draghi-type figure into the ECB chair.

But instead of focusing on that crucial appointment, the leaders are trying to assemble a politically anodyne, something-for-everyone slate of candidates for five top EU posts on the basis of nationality, gender balance, Eastern European complexities and other political considerations.

The French have two candidates for the ECB presidency: Bank of France President Francois de Villeroy-Gaulac and ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coure. Both are in the pragmatic Draghi mold.

Mangun. . .

Continued from A10

the always popular “it’s the 60/40 ownership restrictions.”

Atradius starts its report thus: “Major infrastructure investment is necessary in order to increase private investments and to safeguard high economic growth rates in the long term.”

It adds: “Since 2012 economic growth has been persistently high,” but “infrastructure bottlenecks affected private investment.”

Further, and this may upset some, “Massive shortfalls in infrastructure have so far prevented more investment in manufacturing. Indeed, rail networks, ports, roads, airports and power-generation developments are necessary in order to increase private investments and to safeguard high economic growth rates in the long term.”

When it comes to the government finances, “With the improvement of the tax base due to a tax reform (obviously the TRAIN law) the fiscal deficits and public finances are expected to remain at an acceptable level, supporting continued government spending. The external

Europe is worried about lots of things, including a chaotic British exit from the European Union, the US-China trade war and its own faltering trade relationship with the US. Recently, worries for the future have gotten worse.

One of the Frenchmen is likely to head the Frankfurt-based ECB if Germany gets a top post in Brussels.

If the French get a Brussels job, on the other hand, a Finn becomes a leading ECB contender.

That’s likely to be Erkki Liikanen, who is well-liked, politically astute and a practical-minded ECB veteran. If you like Draghi, you’ll like Liikanen.

The candidate who stands furthest from the Draghi mold is the German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann.

Weidmann at the ECB would make a no-deal Brexit and other threats to the euro-zone economy that much scarier because the German has been critical of interventionist ECB policies used to counteract financial disruptions, including the asset purchases known as quantitative easing.

Early estimates that second-quarter GDP growth will be subdued are undermining hopes that the strong first-quarter GDP number was signaling a rebound from last year’s slump and would carry over to the second quarter. Instead, continuing weakness in soft data implies continued weakness in the hard data down the line.

This is most clearly seen in the flash composite May Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone, which was 51.6 versus 51.5 in April, barely above the 50-point standard for signaling neither expansion nor contraction.

Manufacturing was slightly below 50, and services slightly above it. The ECB view is that the flash PMI estimate is forecasting continued subdued growth, which may be too optimistic considering recent developments in Brexit and USChina trade.

European leaders will be missing a golden opportunity to reverse these trends and bolster economic growth if they choose the next ECB president based on internal EU politics instead of the candidate’s ability to calm fears. macroeconomic situation is good, with manageable foreign debt and ample liquidity.”

Note that the liquidity issues will improve even more as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas continues to lower banks’ reserve requirements and potentially cut base interest rates.

Needless to say, the Constitutional restriction to foreign ownership is not mentioned. Perhaps more importantly, Atradius speaks more to the issue of weak local investment rather than foreign as a risk to economic prosperity.

If you are considering investing in the Philippines, these are the sectors of concern to Atradius: Automotive, steel and textiles (lack of raw materials), and electronics because of the global slowdown. The bright spots are agriculture, services and consumer durables.

The bottom line is that better infrastructure will create more investment. “Build, Build, Build” and the money will come.

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

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 A11

Continued from A1

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RRD has made many pronouncements and decisions that have been the subject of skepticism and criticism. In one occasion, no less than the Presidential Spokesman, Atty.

Salvador Panelo, had rationalized by saying that he has no reason to doubt the statement because it came from PRRD himself and no one should doubt the words of the President. It would be tactless to say that the President has been careless in his decisions or actions. Many important decisions and policies are arrived at based on intuition, which is a critical gift of leadership. In most cases, there is never enough information readily available at the precise moment. In some instances, a leader has to jump into conclusion based on gut feel derived from wisdom, experience and boldness. But the President has a wealth of information from exclusive and reliable sources. Undoubtedly, that is a vantage point and privilege, which only the President enjoys. nnn

HOW can the President avoid becoming a lame duck leader during the second half of his term? Every president is susceptible to this

adversity, and it seems that it’s an inevitable fate that bedevils every Malacañang occupant during his last years in office. When the incumbent President ceases to be the

center of gravity, hangers-on and political sycophants tend to gravitate around the upcoming Messiah.

The single term limit consigns the incumbent to an inglorious role toward the end of his term. Instead of being relegated to an insignificant role and being treated as a spent force whose days are numbered in politics, however, the President can be a more effective leader because he has no more fear of retaliation at the polls. He can afford to take unpopular causes, which will truly benefit his constituents in the long term. He can make hard and unconventional decisions that a traditional leader with an eye on reelection and popular opinion will never dare to undertake. He can disregard political expediency and take on real issues that will have lasting impact on our people. And if ever he will anoint a political heir to succeed him, it is not to protect his interests and cover his misdeeds but rather to continue his programs and legacy. The President should be the king and ultimate kingmaker until his last day in office. nnn

THE PNP reported that eight persons were killed in postelection violent incidents. No, they did not run in the

Revisiting the Arroyo energy policy Cecilio T. Arillo

DATABASE

E

IGHT years ago today, former President Gloria MacapagalArroyo signed into law the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) or Republic Act 9136 after boasting that power rates would immediately go down by P0.30 per kWh from P3.62 per kWh as soon as Congress passed the measure.

Arroyo pushed for the passage of Epira after the senatorial elections in May 2001 and offered several reasons to convince Congress to pass it.

Among them was that the Epira, according to her, was necessary for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to release a loan of $950 million to the country and that its enactment into law would mean cheaper electricity.

What happened? Instead of going down, the rates went up, triggering a public outcry.

To stress her point, the former president vowed to veto the bill if it will not lower power rates. And so, as far as the public is concerned, there is only one criterion in judging the bill: whether it will bring down power rates in the next three years before the 2004 presidential elections.

However, shortly after the passage of the Epira, Arroyo’s boast

to lower the cost of electricity in the country did not happen. Instead, the electric bills of consumers skyrocketed, to the public’s dismay and shock.

To placate the enraged public, she announced in a press conference her concern for the people that she was ready to “squeeze blood out of stone” to reduce the PPA. She ordered the NPC to reduce its PPA from P1.25 to P0.40. This drove the NPC into bankruptcy. This, as we have learned from a report of the American Chamber of Commerce, was a very expensive publicity stunt to be paid for with taxpayers’ money.

It turned out that the government had to borrow $500 million to cover the Napocor-PPA reduction that President Arroyo ordered.

However, for reasons only she would know, she refused to touch Meralco’s PPA from its own independent power producers. To make

matters worse, Meralco refused to honor its 10-year 3,600 megawatts power-supply contract with the NPC. This was to allow Meralco to use the power output of its own independent power producers whose prices range from P5.74 to P6.26 to P7.39 per kWh, compared with the NPC’s price of P3.62 per kWh.

Meralco’s mega-franchise

THAT time, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved with unbelievable dispatch the grant of a mega-franchise to Meralco. That mega-franchise covers an area of 9,337 square kilometers or 3,647.3 square miles, where a quarter of the entire population of the country lives —in 22 cities and 89 municipalities. The original area of Meralco, before the Lopezes sold and transferred it to the Meralco Foundation in the ’70s, was 1,018 square miles, embracing seven cities and 40 municipalities.

The mega-franchise bill breezed through Congress despite Meralco’s dismal record as a public service utility and some glaring evidence of its abuses, excessive PPA charges, its sweetheart deals with its own IPPs, and shenanigans in its return on rate base.

We all know, of course, that no less than the Supreme Court has ruled with finality that Meralco has been illegally passing on its own income taxes to its hapless customers. Yet, Meralco says it will go bankrupt if it

last elections. However, the matter of the eight candidates was a case of “overkill” and buried by the avalanche of pro-administration votes.

What is on everybody’s mind is: Will there be a resurrection in 2022? nnn

THE papers also reported that the President has approved the sale of the Marcos jewelry that “formed part of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.” The President directed that the proceeds of the sale should benefit the people. The jewelry, denominated as the “Hawaii Collection,” so-called because they were seized by the US Bureau of Customs when the Marcoses arrived in Hawaii after they fled the country in February 1986, have an estimated worth of P700 million. They were reportedly just part of the jewelry troves confiscated by the government from the Marcos family. Now I can understand why Rep. Tony Boy Floirendo had to decline Senatorelect Imee Marcos’s alleged request to cough up campaign contribution for her during the last elections.

When asked whether he would support Imee, Floirendo was quoted as saying: “Sana. Kaso gusto niya akong gumastos eh. Huwag na. Dami-daming hidden wealth niyan.” Ouch!

refunds the billions of pesos it has legally exacted from the public.

That Meralco is in dire financial straits as it claims, while its affiliate IPPs—like First Gas—end up among the country’s most profitable corporations, is a classic demonstration of the evils of cross-ownership, which the Epira promised but failed to curb.

Undoubtedly, the PPA or universal levy, or whatever name they now call it, is anti-people. It makes the people pay for electricity they have not used. It makes the cost of electricity exorbitant. It makes the country uncompetitive in the world market. It deprives the poor and the jobless of an opportunity to find employment because the high cost of electric power translates to fewer investments and, therefore, fewer jobs.

It also means an unjust enrichment of people who are already immensely rich, at the expense of the consumers. For the truth is the people themselves are the ones paying for the power plants and electric distribution facilities being used to provide electricity to them. And yet, they will never own these power plants and facilities. These will remain the property of powerful, influential and smart businessmen who managed to wangle legislative franchises from Congress and powersupply contracts from the NPC. To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

Trump’s trade threat to India demands cool heads

By Andy Mukherjee Bloomberg Opinion

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RESIDENT Donald J. Trump just piled another problem on to the already-full slate of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. By removing zero-duty access for $6.3 billion of Indian goods, the US leader threatens growth at a time when India’s economy can least afford it.

The country’s unemployment rate was at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent in the year to June 2018, while economic growth in the March quarter of 2019 slowed to a five-year low of 5.8 percent, data released on Friday showed. Publication of the jobless statistic was held back until after Modi won last month’s general election and took his oath for a second term on Thursday, though it had leaked anyway.

Demand for Indian goods in the rest of the world needs to perk up to create space for GDP growth and job creation.

Trump’s trade action is, therefore, bad news. With the domestic auto industry in a tailspin, losing duty-free access to the US could lead to closures of some

of India’s less-competitive small engineering firms. India is the largest beneficiary of the so-called generalized system of preferences, or GSP, under which developed countries encourage developing economies to industrialize.

By targeting India, Trump isn’t opening another front in the trade war, after China and Mexico. He is sending a warning shot that the US expects New Delhi to do more to prove it’s a Washington ally.

The US has a history of wielding the GSP privilege as a stick, as I wrote in March when the tariff action against India was first announced, most famously using it to effect regime change in Chile in the 1980s. In India’s case, Washington’s goals could range from arm-twisting New Delhi to stay away from Iranian crude oil to pressuring it to tone down the growing rhetoric – and regulatory action – around data sovereignty. The Trump administration will be loath to see India mimicking China’s strategy of building its own e-commerce, search and fintech champions, keeping out Amazon.com Inc., Google and Paypal Holdings Inc.

Another long-standing friction between the two countries involves cheaper generic drugs. India meets almost 40 percent of US demand. Should Trump drive a hard line around poor quality and price fixing, the consequences for India’s economy could be serious. By appointing Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a former ambassador to both the US and China, as his new foreign minister, Modi has acknowledged the gravity of the trade war. Being in the camp of either superpower is risky.

On the one hand, India has to reduce its $53-billion bilateral trade deficit with the People’s Republic; on the other, it has to squeeze itself on to the short list for a non-China-centered global electronics supply chain. India’s 5G network rollout will see the government grappling with the question of whether it should join Trump’s ban of Huawei Technologies Co. or strike a more conciliatory tone with its neighbor and largest trading partner. Just as any new deal with the US will be multifaceted, any bargain to be struck with China will also have to include a long-simmering border dispute, and

getting Beijing to influence India’s relations with Pakistan, currently at their nadir.

The loss of GSP privileges is an economic challenge, but it’s also a diplomatic opportunity. Having won a landslide electoral victory, the Indian leader doesn’t need to respond in kind to the White House’s machismo just to please voters. On the contrary, this is a chance to reconsider some of India’s sillier regulatory decisions of the last six years, such as curbing the maximum price of heart stents and knee implants by as much as 70 percent.

That was an own goal because it kept the more US innovative versions out of India, and gave a windfall to Chinese device producers.

India’s economic situation calls for cool heads. Investment is anemic, consumption is faltering and all domestic balance sheets—for households, companies, banks, shadow financiers and the government—are stressed. Trump has thrown down the gauntlet. Modi should respond by instilling more pragmatism into India’s trade and investment policies.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Negotiations for PHL-Korea FTA open; Nov ’19 deal eyed

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By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

T’S all systems go for the country’s possibly second bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA), as the Philippines and South Korea on Monday officially launched negotiations in a bid to conclude them by November.

In a joint statement, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myunghee “affirmed their common goal to achieve a comprehensive and future oriented FTA.” With this affirmation, they announced the official start of FTA negotiations with the objective of concluding the trade deal

by November.

Lopez said the trade deal will enhance trade and investment activities between the Philippines and South Korea, as it will include provisions on the reduction, if not elimination, of certain tariff and nontariff measures, as well as creation of investment opportunities.

“For the Philippines, the FTA means we can achieve improved market access for our agriculture

products, such as banana, pineapple, mangoes, as well as industrial products and other services. We are working on better reciprocity of tariff rates and market access of our agricultural and industrial products to improve the balance of trade with South Korea,” Lopez said in a separate statement.

Agricultural exports to South Korea such as bananas and mangoes are imposed with a tariff of 30 percent, and Manila has been insisting that Seoul reduce it to 5 percent, if not zero.

Further, the Philippines is trying to balance its trade sheet with South Korea. Merchandise trade with the East Asian country expanded 7.11 percent to $13.7 billion, from $12.79 billion in 2017, according to

$8.62B

The Philippines’s trade deficit with South Korea, mainly on account of a 41.33-percent decline in exports from $4.33 billion to $2.54 billion data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA data showed this expansion was largely due to a higher volume of imports from South Korea at $11.16 billion, up 31.91 percent from $8.46 billion.

On the other hand, exports to South Korea last year declined 41.33 percent to $2.54 billion, from $4.33 billion in 2017. This reduction in exports widened the trade deficit with Seoul, which is now at $8.62 billion.

Also, approved investments from South Korea slumped 44.21 percent to P1.88 billion, from P3.37 billion, according to PSA data.

Beyond goods, services

ON top of an agreement in goods and services trade, the FTA will include deals aimed at improving people to people ties. This could mean easier travel access for Filipinos to South

Korea, and vice versa.

South Koreans were the country’s top visitors, according to data from the Department of Trade and Industry, registering a total of 1.58 million tourist arrivals last year.

“These include movement of natural persons and more investment opportunities that could lead to job generation. These also include greater collaboration in innovation, as well as research and development that will support the implementation of our inclusive innovation and industrial strategy,” Lopez added.

If approved, the FTA with South Korea will only be the second bilateral trade deal of the Philippines.

Manila’s first and only bilateral FTA is with Tokyo, covering trade in goods, trade in services, investments, movement of natural persons, intellectual property, customs procedures, improvement of business environment and government procurement.

Entered into force in 2008, the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement is under review for possible changes in its provisions.

The Philippines is trading with South Korea as a member-state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and both economies are negotiating parties to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

T-bill rates still dropping weeks after RRR cuts

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

T

HREE weeks after the Central Bank cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for banks, Treasury bill (T-bill) rates

continued to fall. The drop in rates in Monday’s auction is expected to further decline in the coming weeks on account of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) recent moves to ease its monetary-policy stance.

INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE AFFECTING MINDANAO as of 4:00 pm - June 3, 2019

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) has awarded the full P15 billion on offer in its latest Tbills auction, fetching lower rates across all tenors.

BTr Deputy Treasurer of the Philippines Erwin D. Sta. Ana

attributed the lower rates to the Central Bank’s recent decision to cut the RRR, effectively allowing the release of sizeable cash into the system. He also said the BSP’s openness for further monetarypolicy easing may have also affected the rates for the week.

This development is something that markets could expect more of in the coming weeks, as Sta. Ana said they expect T-bill rates to decline as the country continues to be awash with cash.

“That is the expectation [at] the moment, unless something drastic happens until the end of the RRR cuts,” Sta. Ana said. “So we think that the rates will probably behave this way—although maybe not as drastic—but it would observe a downward trajectory.”

The 91-day tenor was awarded the full P4 billion with bids amounting to P9.22 billion.

The average annual rate for the security settled at 4.992 percent during the week, down from the 5.15-percent rate seen in the previous auction. Sta. Ana said this is the first time in seven months that the 91-day T-bill fetched a rate lower than 5 percent.

For the 182-day T-bill, bids hit P15.545 billion, also prompting the auction committee to award the full P5 billion on offer for the tenor.

The average annual rate settled at 5.4 percent, lower compared to the 5.59 percent registered during the previous auction.

For the 364-day tenor bucket, the auction committee awarded the full P6 billion on offer as tenders of the security amounted to P24.825 billion.

The rate for the security declined to 5.498 percent compared to the last auction rate of 5.869 percent.

Last week’s auction also yielded lower rates across all tenors.

The implementation of the RRR cut will be in three stages: the first 100-basis-point cut will be effective May 31; another 50-basis-point cut will be implemented June 28; and the last 50-basispoint cut will be effective July 26.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

14 SENATORS BACK SOTTO

S

ENATE President Vicente Sotto III, who has dismissed “noise” about replacing him as mere maneuverings by neophyte senators eyeing choice committee posts in the next Congress, on Monday received the support of 14 senators who signed on a resolution circulated by Sen. Manuel Pacquiao.

The current 17th Congress is set to adjourn on Friday to give way to a new Senate when the next Congress convenes on July 22.

Pacquiao, who was reported soliciting senators’ signatures, confirmed that a resolution was being circulated among senators, but said this was intended to gauge support for Sotto “so we can see.”

He told reporters, “That [resolution] is done when there is a new Congress,” adding, “At least we saw that Senate President Sotto’s leadership is strong.”

Pacquiao reported that “14 senators in all signed and Sen. Richard Gordon was last. Si Gordon humabol. Masaya naman lahat [Gordon caught up with us. Everyone was pleased].” Pacquiao added, there was “no reason to change Sotto.”

He however, indicated that Sen. Cynthia Villar, who declined to sign the pro-Sotto resolution, “may just be ensuring chairmanship posts for her group,” as she was overheard telling PDP-Laban stalwarts Sen. Koko Pimentel and Pacquiao to fix their differences first within the party before dragging her and her Nacionalista party mates to the fray. She said that if she signed the resolution, she may be complicating the chances of her NP peers, senators-elect

Pia Cayetano and Imee Marcos, to land committee positions.

Referring to Villar’s reason for not signing on, Pacquiao said, “ako wala naman problema [I don’t have a problem with that].”

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV confirmed that a resolution being circulated among senators was to gauge preference for the next leadership. “Sa next [18th] Congress pa ‘yun [That’s for the next Congress].”: For his par t, Liberal Par t y Sen. Francis Pangilinan said “no one approached us” to sign what was rumored to be an oust-Sotto resolution.

The reports that Villar, who topped the last senatorial elections, was being egged on by Marcos to seek the Senate presidency followed speculation that certain neophyte senators were angling for key committee posts, in defiance of the chamber’s tradition honoring the equity of the incumbent. Sotto later said he surmised that the noise about replacing him may be part of the gambit of certain senators to pressure him so they can get the panel chairmanships they desire.

Among the neophyte senators, former MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, who placed eighth, had been known to covet the chairmanships of the Blue Ribbon, justice and human-rights committee, public services and others. The first and second panels are chaired by veteran Gordon, and the last, by Sen. Grace Poe, who was second in the last Senate race. Both Gordon and Poe are known to be keen on keeping their chairmanships. Butch Fernandez

Manufacturing. . .

The think tank also said supply-side pressures appeared to have eased as lead times on inputs shortened for the second month running and at the fastest rate for over two years. This was attributed to easing port congestion, allowing suppliers to deliver goods on time.

T he t h i n k t a n k , however, warned that a number of companies were hampered by multiple resignations in May. This, according to IHS Market, led to the sharpest decline in employment for 15 months as firms opted not to replace these employees.

“Panelists again reported several employee resignations in May. This was also noted in April, but

Realty. . .

Continued from A1

setting up of a comprehensive electronic database to support valuation functions.

Sanctions for the noncompliant

HE said the DOF is also proposing that LGUs which fail to update their SMVs and conduct a general revision of property assessments every time the secretary of finance approves a new set of SMVs be barred from receiving any “conditional or performancebased grants or any form of credit financing from the national government.”

Tan noted that only 36 percent of LGUs have updated SMVs. The rest, which comprise 97 cities and 48 provinces, remain noncompliant with guidelines to update their SMVs, he said.

Moreover, only 60 percent of the regional district offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have updated zonal values.

“Under this outdated system, overvaluation usually happens when the government pays for a piece of real property, but undervaluation often occurs when it is the government’s turn to collect,” Tan said.

Further, Tan said the system

Continued from A1

the problem appeared to intensify as the rate of job losses accelerated to a 15-month high,” Owen said.

“Manufacturers may need to curb these resignations if they hope to sustain higher production levels,” he added.

Fo r t he c o m i n g mo nt h s , the think tank said the outlook for output improved for the second successive month in May f rom t he record low during March.

“Positive sentiment was generally linked to higher demand growth from home and overseas, as well as new store openings and product launches,” the report read. is also riddled w ith multiple overlapping functions as 23 national government agencies can or are required to do valuations, with each using its own system and methodology.

Gaps in valuation

HE said this has led to disparities between market values and zonal values by 13 percent to as wide as 94 percent. Between the SMVs and private valuation, the disparity is from 187 percent to 7,474 percent.

The DOF official said LGUs often overlook the requirement under the Local Government Code to update their SMVs and zonal values every three years because there are no existing sanctions against local officials that would compel them to comply with the law.

Tan said that for provinces alone, the P7.4 billion in forgone real-property taxes could have built either of the following: 551 public markets, 771 kilometers of roads, 7,542 classrooms or 2,155 day-care centers.

He also said the P23 billion in real-property taxes that cities failed to collect could have built either 513 transport terminals, 339 landfil ls, 1,154 satel lite health centers, or 3,330 low-cost resettlement projects.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

B1

UnionBank lists ₧5.8-B three-year bond at PDEx

A

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

BOITIZ-LED Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has raised P5.8 billion worth of new three-year bonds, which it listed on Monday at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) Proceeds from the fund-raising activity will expand its funding base to support continued loanportfolio growth and business expansion, as well as other general

corporate purposes, it said.

“Our peso-bond issuance is part of our ongoing efforts to diversify our funding sources and lengthen the maturity profile of our liabilities.

This instrument allows us to comply with the new liquidity and funding ratios at a lower intermediation cost,” UnionBank CFO and Treasurer Jose Emmanuel Hilado said.

The bank announced an initial P3-billion size for this round, and ended up almost doubling the offer, after receiving strong demand from both institutional and retail clients. The demand allowed lender to also price the bonds at the lower end of its guidance, a coupon rate of 6 percent.

This is the second issuance of the lender following an P11-billion bond issue last December 7, bringing the

bank’s total issuance to P16.8 billion.

UnionBank was the first bank to issue under a program-style documentation patterned after international medium-term note program, to further expedite issuances moving forward.

Given this more simplified documentation process, UnionBank can shorten its execution timetable.

HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. and ING Bank NV Manila Branch acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners for the transaction. HSBC and ING were also selling agents alongside UnionBank.

PSE allows local Petron Corp. to complete improvements small investors in Malaysia's Port Dickson refinery in 2020 to purchase IPO P shares online

T

HE Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE), the operator of the equities market, on Monday said it rolled out a system that will now allow small local investors to purchase shares online whenever there is an initial public offering (IPO).

The PSE said the Web-based platform will be called PSE EASy (Electronic Allocation System).

The LSI program requires companies conducting an IPO to allocate 10 percent of their shares to the said investors. Investors can participate in the LSI program by subscribing to a minimum board lot and by purchasing IPO shares that will not exceed P100,000.

“We noticed that the take-up of IPO shares by LSIs has never ever reached 2 percent in the past. Prior to our launch of PSE EASy, LSIs who want to avail themselves of IPO shares had to go to designated IPO kiosks in select Metro Manila malls to secure and fill up a subscription form, bring this form to their broker’s offices for acknowledgment, and then bring the same back again to the kiosk to make the payment. A very cumbersome process for an LSI that could only invest then a maximum of P25,000 per IPO,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said.

“The first thing we did was to increase the maximum limit to P100,000 per IPO. We then designed an online LSI platform that will make subscribing to IPO’s more accessible even to investors in the provinces, efficient and convenient,” he said.

Investors who wish to take part in the LSI program of an IPO should create an account on the PSE EASy web site, which can be accessed through https://easy.pse.com.ph. To complete the registration, the account must be confirmed by the stockbrokerage firm where the investor has an account. Once the account has been approved, the investor can already participate in the LSI whenever there is an IPO. The PSE EASy mobile application will also be introduced in the third quarter of 2019. Except for account registration which should be done on the web site, all other PSE EASy functions for investors will be available in the mobile app.

Among these functions include the submission of LSI subscription forms, updating of LSI subscription like adding or reducing shares, prompts when there is an upcoming or ongoing IPO or when there are other relevant updates. VG Cabuag

ETRON Corp. is set to finish next year improvements inside its Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia, its president said.

“Next year, in time for the regulation,” said Ramon Ang when asked when Petron will be able to finish ongoing expansion of its Malaysia refinery.

“This is in compliance with the Malaysian environmental law. We modified last year the diesel hydrotreater to comply with the environmental rules of Malaysia. This costs $100 million.”

Petron initiated improvements in its Malaysian refinery to strengthen the facility’s capacity to produce fuels that meet or even exceed government standards.

Once finished, Ang said Petron would be able to produce more environment-friendly diesel products

that comply with Euro 5 specifications with the nearing completion of the Diesel Hydrotreater project in 2020.

“Similarly, we enhanced our supply chain and increased our logistics capacities to ensure operational excellence at all times,” Ang added.

Petron Malaysia was recently named Most Valuable Brand in the Oil and Gas category in the BrandLaureate Awards. It was also recognized at the Putra Brand Awards for the fourth consecutive year.

Petron in Malaysia has over 650 stations, bringing Petron’s combined count to over 3,000 to date.

In the first quarter of the year, Petron posted P1.3 billion in net income. Of the amount, P1.2 billion came from its Malaysian operations.

The Philippines’s largest oil re-

finer will issue P20 billion worth of preferred shares this month.

It said that proceeds of the offer will be used to redeem the outstanding Series 2A preferred shares of the company amounting to P7.12 billion, repayment of outstanding short-term loans from the Bank of the Philippine Islands amounting to P6.96 billion and for general corporate purposes such as the purchase of crude oil.

The dividend rate for the Series 3A preferred shares is fixed at 6.8713 percent per annum and 7.1383 percent per year for Series 3B preferred shares.

The Series 3A preferred shares may be redeemed after five-and-ahalf years or any dividend payment date thereafter, while Series 3B may be redeemed on the seventh anniversary of the listing date. Lenie Lectura

DMCI Mining shipments double in Q1

D

MCI Mining Corp. shipped 338,000 wet metric tons of nickel ore in the first quarter, more than double the 156,000 WMT it shipped during the same period last year.

A ll of the shipments came from Berong Nickel Cor p. in Palawan, as the operations of its other nickel asset, Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., remains suspended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Average nickel grade from January to March declined from 1.7 percent to 1.59 percent as Berong shifted its shipments to include middle-grade ore (1.5 percent).

This, coupled with falling nickel prices, pushed DMCI Mining’s average selling price to drop 25

percent year-on-year from $38 to $29. “We had a good first quarter, but we do not see this holding up for the rest of the year due to a number of factors, such as weak market prices, peso appreciation versus the US dollar and our dwindling nickel reserves in Berong’s active mine sites,” DMCI Mining President Cesar F. Simbulan Jr. said.

Berong estimates its nickel reserves in its active mine sites to be around 710,000 tons.

“We hope that with BNC’s track record as a responsible miner, it will be allowed to operate in other areas so we can continue providing livelihood and employment opportunities in our host communities,” Simbulan said.

In December last year, Berong

was the only mining company audited by DENR which passed the nearly two-year review. Of the 13 companies audited, three were ordered closed while nine remained suspended, pending the implementation of certain DENR conditions.

The mine directly and indirectly employs 541 people from Barangay Berong and nearby communities. At the height of its operations, the company had a total work force of 925.

On a stand-alone basis, DMCI Mining’s first-quarter revenue grew 63 percent to P501 million from P308 million while net income jumped 167 percent to P144 million from P54 million due to the costcontainment measures employed by the company. VG Cabuag

REAP: Mini-grid systems to boost electrification in PHL

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

T

HE Renewable Energy Association of the Philippines (REAP) said on Monday that mini-grid systems would accelerate total electrification in the country.

“Mini-grid systems will play an important role in ensuring and accelerating the total electrification of the country. Being an archipelagic country, centralized power generation can be challenging if not costly,” said Erel Narida, REAP president.

Narida cited Sabang Renewable Energy Corp.’s (SREC) hybrid minigrid project located in Sitio Sabang in Barangay Cabayugan, where the Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park is located. He said the project would be a suitable solution for electrification, which is still at 88.3 percent or 2.78 million household unelectrified as of December 2017, citing data from the Department of Energy.

“Most of these households are located in the Visayas and Mindanao, mostly in small islands, either underserved using expensive diesel genset with limited operating or totally unserved. The mini-grid system can utilize the indigenous and new and renewable energy [RE] like solar, wind, hydro, biomass or ocean in power generation that will eventually reduce our dependence on diesel or imported energy,” Narida said.

The SREC is a consortium of Vivant Energy Corp., Gigawatt Power Inc. and WEnergy Global. It will operate a hybrid power plant—combining solar panels and diesel engines—and an electricity distribution system that will provide stable and reliable renewable energy in Barangay Cabayugan, Puerto Princesa City.

“Sabang Renewables has showcased such integration or hybridization of RE specifically solar, battery and diesel genset as back-up for power generation. This setup is more socially and environmentally acceptable due to reduced running time of diesel genset, and primary source of power is RE. For these reasons, this is worth emulating,” Narida said.

Narida said SREC has showcased they have the capability and capacity to put the said mini-grid system.

“Very encouraging for local minigrid developers to follow suit. The next challenge is to accelerate replication with more participation of local SMEs in the RE market space.

The easing of regulations, access to funds, adaption of new RE technologies on integration and understanding the market—both economics and social dynamics on island mini grid—are key factors we have to look into to accelerate this development,” Narida said.

Under optimal conditions, SREC’s hybrid plant will generate as much as 2.6 megawatts (MW) once it is completed. This will allow the mini-grid to provide power to approximately 10 public buildings, 18 small businesses, 19 hotels and restaurants, and 583 households.

The project is seen to save the environment from over 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide while providing stable and reliable energy that will improve everyday living in Cabayugan.

“We want to provide Sitio Sabang and Barangay Cabayugan with reliable electricity 24/7 at the most competitive rate possible. Since we will be the model for future minigrids in the country, we have spared no expense or effort in ensuring we give the best service,” SREC Chairman Emil Garcia said earlier.

Now Telecom to offer 5G wireless service in PHL

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

N

OW Corp.-subsidiary Now Telecom plans to offer 5G wireless services in the Philippines, as hype for the new generation of wireless technology continues to increase.

Rodolfo Pantoja, the newly elected Now Telecom president, said the board approved plans to adopt 5G technologies that allow the delivery of up to 20 Gigabit per second speed to enterprises and homes.

“5G will allow high wireless bandwidth in low latency scenarios, allowing for further complex technologies to exist. 5G is necessary for the Internet of Things to thrive. With cloud comput-

ing, you can now decentralize the business of telecommunications,” he said.

Related to this development, Now Telecom approved to offer Now Corp. an additional 11 percent of its shares through a share-swap transaction, giving Now Corp. a 30-percent shareholding in Now Telecom.

“Now Telecom stands true to its commitment in its franchise. We are a compliant telecommunications company. By being compliant with the terms of our congressional franchise, we boost the confidence of our Investors, both foreign and Local,” Now Telecom Chairman Mel Velarde said.

Velarde added that if needed, his group is “willing to explore other offering options such as listing by way of introduction for Now Telecom.”

Security Bank Eid’l Fitr Advisory

A

LL branches of Security Bank, except for Naia and Naia Terminal 3 branches, will be closed on June 5, 2019 (Wednesday), in observance of the Eid’l Fitr (Feast of Ramadan), per

Proclamation 729, s. 2019.

For assistance, you may call our Customer Contact Center at 88-791-88 or email us at customercare@securitybank. com. Thank you.

Duty Free all set to entice tourist arrivals to Naia T3 store

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28 Contributor

E

XPECTING the continuous inf lux of tourists in the country, Duty Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC) bared on Monday various initiatives to further draw prospective customers to its biggest landside store located at the arrival area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

Miaa.gov said the terminal is capable of servicing 33,000 passengers daily at peak or 6,000 passengers per hour.

Without citing the exact figure, the retail firm expects to cater to a big share of tourist arrivals at the aviation facility.

“We see a positive outlook as we are now mounting an integrated and aggressive marketing intervention,” Josh Aguilo-Mirafuentes, marketing officer of DFPC, told the BusinessMirror.

He cited, for instance, their use of digital marketing to reach a wider and more targeted market.

“We are also readying other promotion platforms such as Digital OutOf-Home [DOOH] and Out-of-home [OOH] advertising inside the arrival area of the Terminal 3,” he added.

This is on top of the consistent flyers aimed at influencing families and friends at the waiting area to go and check their pasalubong area even prior to the arrival of their loved ones, Aguilo-Mirafuentes said.

Opened on June 19, 2018, the Duty Free outlet at Naia Terminal 3 (Arrival Mall) carries a wide array of products from all over the world, including wines, spirits, liquor, groceries, perfumes, cosmetics, watches, apparel, sporting goods, home furnishing and chocolates.

“All brands that we sell at DFP are 100-percent authentic as they are directly imported from manu-

facturers abroad,” DFP Chief Operating Officer Vicente Pelagio A. Angala said.

Multipack items were also created exclusively for DFP to give more savings to its customers.

With an area of more than 3,000 square meters (sq.m.), this Duty Free outlet is three times the size of a regular airport store.

Given its size, the company is bullish on improved business performance of this branch and at the same time, continuous significant hold of the market.

“The largest terminal in Metro Manila, Naia Terminal 3 serves major airlines catering to the for-

eign tourists and OFWs which are the major market of Duty Free Philippines,” Angala said. “In terms of sales, the Naia T3 plays a key role, as it usually records the second- or third-highest contributor to sales.”

Over the last 32 years, the retail company has provided a duty and tax-free merchandising system to overseas Filipino workers, repatriates and regular local travelers.

Half of the revenues of DFP, a government-owned and -controlled corporation, is remitted to the Department of Tourism. The latter allocates it to finance tourism development projects.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 3, 2019

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 PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK PHILTRUST RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE BDO LEASING COL FINANCIAL FIRST ABACUS FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MEDCO HLDG MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

59.25 137.5 81.85 26.65 11.66 72.9 13.3 20.05 58.1 57.65 110 26.7 173.9 60 1.2 2.24 18.76 0.53 4.42 1.35 0.47 755 0.99 182.6 1750

59.7 138.4 82.45 26.75 11.7 72.95 13.7 22.2 58.2 57.75 119.9 26.8 174 60.1 1.24 2.25 18.78 0.58 4.49 1.4 0.485 780 1 184.9 1820

59.5 137 81 26.7 11.46 72.1 13.7 22 57.5 57.1 110 26.45 175 60 1.2 2.24 18.76 0.52 4.47 1.35 0.495 760 1 183.5 1755

59.7 139 82.95 26.8 11.8 73.8 13.7 22.1 58.5 57.75 110 26.75 176 60.6 1.2 2.24 18.78 0.52 4.49 1.4 0.495 780 1 183.5 1820

59.5 135.1 80.95 26.65 11.46 72 13.2 20.05 57.05 57.05 110 26.45 174 59.9 1.2 2.24 18.76 0.52 4.42 1.35 0.49 750 0.96 183 1750

59.7 137.5 81.85 26.65 11.7 72.95 13.5 20.05 58.2 57.65 110 26.7 174 60 1.2 2.24 18.76 0.52 4.49 1.36 0.49 780 0.99 183 1750

1000 2958780 3171690 115400 785100 3748160 12700 11500 191000 870 200 26100 342220 2360 10000 4000 26000 1000 52000 116000 100000 230 370000 1480 370

59698 408673019 260763444.5 3081320 9123174 272701184.5 168740 253900 11088495 50024.5 22000 695410 59808116 141747.5 12000 8960 487776 520 231380 157750 49250 173860 358420 271087 648450

6565 32946977 65063302 345615 -1632170 -23327369 -2205 1465972.5 53450 -10572320 -90654.5 -15600 -24000 -80674 -350250

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

1.41 36.25 0.295 23 77.5 389.2 23 6.12 4.75 2.38 12 41.9 6.55 14.06 15 14.5 5.65 10.22 7.66 107.5 0.7 43.35 287 33 9.55 12.64 1.23 13.98 1.54 5 1.91 171.5 1.29 2.5 65.5 2.53 5.3 15.96 10.32 13.72 20.25 9.12 1.41 1.31 115 2.02 1.61 3.4 4.9 43.9 2.41 10.4 1.68 5.6 1.21 25.1

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PACIFICA AYALA LAND LOG SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.59 13.78 930 55.4 15.98 6.7 0.75 1.25 1.24 6.94 10.6 13.8 0.247 865 6.21 62.9 5.95 0.47 4.62 15.18 0.53 4.55 0.039 3.71 1.33 425 960.5 185 0.89 264 0.233 0.295

1.42 36.3 0.3 23.1 78 389.4 23.15 6.15 4.78 2.39 12.3 42 6.6 14.1 16.2 14.7 5.7 10.24 7.68 108 0.71 43.4 289.6 50 9.79 12.68 1.24 14 1.55 5.08 1.95 172.8 1.3 2.65 70.35 2.54 5.8 16 10.34 13.74 20.35 9.4 1.42 1.32 117 2.03 1.7 3.5 4.97 44.9 2.42 10.52 1.69 5.69 1.22 25.5

1.38 36.7 0.29 23.1 78 384 22.9 6.12 4.79 2.34 12.18 42.25 6.6 14.1 16.2 14.8 5.65 10.2 7.67 107.5 0.71 43 288 50 9.51 12.76 1.24 13.5 1.53 5 1.95 167 1.28 2.5 65.5 2.51 5.3 15.96 10.12 13.7 20.2 9.4 1.48 1.22 110 2.03 1.6 3.5 4.99 44 2.35 10.3 1.71 5.69 1.2 25.6

1.42 36.95 0.3 23.5 78.5 389.6 23.3 6.16 4.79 2.42 12.3 42.75 6.64 14.3 16.2 14.9 5.75 10.28 7.68 108.9 0.72 43.4 290 50 9.79 12.78 1.25 13.98 1.55 5 1.95 173.7 1.3 2.5 65.5 2.57 5.45 16.12 10.32 13.82 20.95 9.4 1.5 1.32 117.9 2.03 1.6 3.5 4.99 44 2.42 10.56 1.71 5.69 1.22 25.6

1.37 36.2 0.285 23 77.25 375 22.9 6.06 4.75 2.3 12.18 42 6.55 14.06 16.2 14.3 5.65 10.18 7.61 107.1 0.69 42.5 284.4 50 9.5 12.6 1.21 13.5 1.53 5 1.91 165.7 1.26 2.5 65.5 2.51 5.3 15.96 10.12 13.54 20.2 9.4 1.38 1.2 110 2 1.6 3.5 4.98 44 2.31 10.22 1.68 5.32 1.18 25

1.42 36.3 0.295 23 77.5 389.2 23.15 6.12 4.76 2.38 12.3 42 6.6 14.06 16.2 14.5 5.7 10.24 7.68 108 0.7 43.4 287 50 9.79 12.68 1.24 13.98 1.55 5 1.91 171.5 1.3 2.5 65.5 2.54 5.45 16 10.32 13.74 20.25 9.4 1.42 1.31 115 2.02 1.6 3.5 4.98 44 2.42 10.52 1.69 5.69 1.21 25.5

345000 1631900 8720000 2326900 85020 247180 1119300 1666000 338000 19020000 45300 199000 97500 781100 200 153200 23800 5930200 1463600 122080 907000 57000 910270 10 24100 1300400 4540000 919900 387000 26000 96000 1965210 3170000 902000 20 12166000 35000 371700 1581700 522000 1442100 100 11858000 14949000 350 147000 2000 1000 15000 200 12239000 435900 282000 2600 203000 206100

477070 42300 59556600 38551380 2544100 579999.9998 53902405 34513620 6618631.5 -2230733 95790146 63432834 25877370 22746290 10150887 4234479 1608970 45342900 -363800 555736 8463135 -1602070 640598 11053680 -3388246 3240 2218616 -232446 135474 60,589,620( 16,215,098.0001) 11223004 5809078 13139828 1030817 642150 25200 2445385 357000 261469388 -16029990 500 231469 16490680 -1849332 5599630 -4157410 12718662 2731914 595750 130000 184450 336968869 47344037 4070290 427360 2255000 2220000 1310 30994800 -6186330 187750 5968766 1309734 16276966 1156562 7168718 1332548 29883670 -6757690 940 16915510 133100 19353960 -255050 39929 296860 -40199.9999 3200 -3200 3500 74800 8800 28966130 -785660 4542198 2331330 475200 14113 242430 12000 5235270 -

HOLDING & FRIMS 0.6 13.8 931 57 16 6.75 0.78 1.26 1.26 6.95 10.62 14 0.27 868 6.25 63.4 6.23 0.5 4.64 15.2 0.54 4.56 0.04 3.72 1.4 434 970 185.5 0.92 269.8 0.238 0.3

0.59 13.02 915 55.9 15.56 6.7 0.77 1.24 1.26 6.85 10.58 14.16 0.25 867.5 6.17 62.6 6.21 0.51 4.62 15.26 0.56 4.48 0.039 3.61 1.36 435 942 185 0.91 266 0.232 0.295

0.6 14.18 932.5 57.8 16.08 6.79 0.78 1.25 1.26 6.94 10.72 14.16 0.27 882.5 6.21 63.8 6.23 0.51 4.7 15.3 0.57 4.58 0.04 3.75 1.39 435 974 187.5 0.93 270 0.238 0.3

0.58 12.9 910 55.2 15.32 6.7 0.74 1.23 1.26 6.85 10.58 13.8 0.25 864 6.17 61.05 6.21 0.47 4.62 15 0.53 4.4 0.039 3.6 1.36 422 942 185 0.89 264 0.232 0.29

0.6 13.78 931 55.4 16 6.7 0.78 1.25 1.26 6.94 10.62 13.8 0.27 865 6.2 63.4 6.23 0.5 4.64 15.2 0.53 4.55 0.04 3.72 1.39 434 960.5 185 0.92 264 0.233 0.295

4799000 328900 591000 1472300 9213900 12800 486000 1652000 28000 2083500 3993700 382900 100000 90830 65000 2738620 9000 147000 4188000 2744500 346000 42095000 3400000 10625000 85000 130 372660 234160 1329000 3120 320000 36600000

2829470 44840 4458592 -91266 548674520 140377005 83004299.5 34958179.5 146887498 68318992 86532 26130 365260 2061870 35280 14360784 -203072 42566412 -8426326 5329124 48300 25400 78876535 -8013390 402420 61700 173334795 28483807.5 55924 69325 19356380 -426680 41712022 10886224 195120 190199860 54690140 132900 39309680 -3466180 116790 55638 358309310 121037315 43,439,470( 7,214,426.0001) 1200730 830128 -75612 74730 10792850 -266050

PROPERTY

ARTHALAND CORP 0.78 0.79 0.77 0.8 0.77 0.79 264000 205430 ANCHOR LAND 10.42 11.18 11.88 11.88 11 11 8200 90376 50600 AYALA LAND 52.15 52.45 49.75 52.5 49.65 52.45 26167400 1354922435 510231520 ARANETA PROP 2.04 2.05 2.04 2.09 2.03 2.05 153000 313170 BELLE CORP 2.33 2.34 2.28 2.33 2.26 2.33 483000 1110750 -64610.0001 A BROWN 0.78 0.8 0.82 0.82 0.79 0.8 938000 747830 CITYLAND DEVT 0.96 0.97 0.94 1.01 0.94 0.97 1616000 1580690 77370 CROWN EQUITIES 0.23 0.231 0.23 0.231 0.227 0.231 1110000 253560 CEB LANDMASTERS 4.77 4.78 4.98 4.98 4.75 4.78 4676000 22476290 5479130 CENTURY PROP 0.6 0.61 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.6 27355000 16384970 22750 CYBER BAY 0.38 0.39 0.39 0.39 0.38 0.38 420000 161000 DOUBLEDRAGON 25.95 26 25.5 26.2 25.4 26 1118600 28987810 10092750 DM WENCESLAO 10.06 10.08 9.89 10.1 9.84 10.04 366000 3656918 -145502 EMPIRE EAST 0.475 0.48 0.485 0.485 0.48 0.48 2080000 998900 -667300 EVER GOTESCO 0.126 0.132 0.132 0.132 0.132 0.132 100000 13200 FILINVEST LAND 1.74 1.75 1.71 1.77 1.71 1.75 70946000 123951160 -14767090 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.45 1.46 1.41 1.47 1.41 1.46 6386000 9278440 794840 8990 HLDG 15.9 16 15.96 16 15.62 16 446600 7103786 -165052 PHIL INFRADEV 1.81 1.82 1.85 1.87 1.8 1.81 2673000 4881760 -3620 CITY AND LAND 0.82 0.83 0.81 0.84 0.81 0.82 148000 122060 41350 MEGAWORLD 6.07 6.08 5.89 6.15 5.86 6.08 34228800 208602317 82461382 MRC ALLIED 0.31 0.315 0.31 0.315 0.305 0.315 11600000 3592500 12400 PHIL ESTATES 0.465 0.47 0.465 0.475 0.465 0.47 160000 74900 ROBINSONS LAND 27.1 27.15 25.95 27.4 25.7 27.1 5422500 146319850 109044610 PHIL REALTY 0.41 0.415 0.41 0.415 0.41 0.415 270000 111500 ROCKWELL 2.06 2.07 2.06 2.09 2.06 2.07 621000 1289800 -31349.9999 SHANG PROP 2.99 3 2.99 3 2.95 3 267000 797610 8970 STA LUCIA LAND 1.89 1.9 1.87 1.95 1.87 1.9 2479000 4738450 13300 SM PRIME HLDG 40.25 40.4 39.6 40.7 39.3 40.25 12859500 515340055 21618715 STARMALLS 6.41 6.45 6.3 6.48 6.28 6.41 89100 564359 SUNTRUST HOME 0.74 0.75 0.78 0.78 0.75 0.75 52000 39030 VISTA LAND 7.1 7.17 7.17 7.17 7.1 7.17 7000200 50038486 7841697

SERVICES ABS CBN 18.32 18.34 18.2 18.38 18.2 18.34 48600 888902 GMA NETWORK 5.38 5.39 5.37 5.4 5.37 5.38 153000 823593 MANILA BULLETIN 0.55 0.56 0.56 0.58 0.55 0.56 1047000 588480 GLOBE TELECOM 2246 2260 2170 2260 2166 2260 72535 162360400 100160750 PLDT 1358 1359 1340 1373 1331 1358 185595 251217990 40659370 DFNN INC 5.89 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 13600 80240 -61360 IMPERIAL 1.76 1.9 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 2000 3500 ISLAND INFO 0.122 0.126 0.124 0.125 0.122 0.122 1890000 233990 ISM COMM 6.13 6.14 6.06 6.17 6.02 6.14 2992900 18257487 2490127 NOW CORP 2.65 2.66 2.44 2.65 2.4 2.65 6118000 15469300 570080 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.36 0.365 0.365 0.37 0.35 0.365 6610000 2397150 PHILWEB 3.41 3.42 3.5 3.55 3.37 3.42 5162000 17889190 -2447870 2GO GROUP 11.42 11.44 11.44 11.44 11.24 11.44 20000 227552 6788 ASIAN TERMINALS 20.85 21.25 21.25 21.5 21.25 21.5 5300 113700 -88150 CHELSEA 6.65 6.66 6.64 6.68 6.59 6.66 807400 5356582 537806 CEBU AIR 91.8 92 90.2 93.65 90.2 92 412510 38099307 -1029323 INTL CONTAINER 134.4 134.5 136.9 136.9 134 134.5 3243470 438199690 103332993 LBC EXPRESS 14.02 14.9 15.5 15.5 14 14 1500 21150 LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.82 0.83 0.81 0.85 0.8 0.81 153000 124040 MACROASIA 21.15 21.2 21 21.2 20.7 21.2 933600 19680400 12074955 METROALLIANCE A 1.53 1.6 1.53 1.6 1.52 1.6 101000 154660 PAL HLDG 9.7 9.85 9.88 9.88 9.7 9.85 18500 182112 HARBOR STAR 2.28 2.29 2.28 2.3 2.23 2.29 1170000 2663800 -182600 ACESITE HOTEL 1.32 1.38 1.32 1.33 1.31 1.31 95000 125350 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.059 0.06 0.058 0.06 0.058 0.06 21240000 1259150 WATERFRONT 0.69 0.7 0.72 0.72 0.69 0.7 2057000 1430180 -7100 IPEOPLE 10.16 10.98 10.16 10.16 10.14 10.16 3100 31456 STI HLDG 0.67 0.68 0.67 0.68 0.66 0.67 5132000 3438350 823580 BERJAYA 2.9 2.95 2.85 2.98 2.85 2.9 504000 1469000 -26170 BLOOMBERRY 11.82 11.84 11.84 11.84 11.72 11.82 5983600 70645764 -38083394 PACIFIC ONLINE 3.2 3.24 3.26 3.26 3.2 3.24 29000 93070 9760 LEISURE AND RES 4.26 4.3 4.46 4.46 4.16 4.26 6715000 28812200 -4595980 MANILA JOCKEY 3.69 3.7 3.69 3.69 3.69 3.69 3000 11070 PH RESORTS GRP 4.83 4.98 4.82 4.98 4.73 4.83 78000 383440 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.8 0.81 0.79 0.81 0.78 0.8 9810000 7809180 -174330 PHIL RACING 8.11 9.49 8.46 8.5 8.11 8.11 13300 112813 TRAVELLERS 5.32 5.33 5.3 5.35 5.29 5.33 750100 4008166 -659700 METRO RETAIL 2.71 2.72 2.69 2.74 2.66 2.72 4088000 11022400 -1313950 PUREGOLD 44.55 46 44.2 46 44.2 44.55 1002000 44912800 2865265 ROBINSONS RTL 72.2 73.05 73.15 73.65 72.2 72.2 604080 44048059.5 -18212224 PHIL SEVEN CORP 122.8 123 122.8 122.8 122.8 122.8 200 24560 24560 SSI GROUP 3.25 3.26 3.16 3.28 3.16 3.26 17530000 56912450 -8126980 WILCON DEPOT 16.94 16.96 17 17.38 16.92 16.96 3530600 60265942 15818984 APC GROUP 0.43 0.435 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 740000 318200 EASYCALL 10.44 10.58 10.46 10.64 10.4 10.58 29900 312194 GOLDEN BRIA 402.2 414 405 415 405 414 3430 1417828 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.81 0.82 0.81 0.82 0.81 0.82 7023000 5717490 -345370 SBS PHIL CORP 9.4 9.58 9.5 9.63 9.4 9.4 15200 144295

MINING & OIL ATOK 10.7 12.38 12.38 12.38 12 12.38 1100 13428 APEX MINING 1.2 1.21 1.22 1.25 1.2 1.21 3338000 4088660 -183330 ABRA MINING 0.0018 0.0019 0.0019 0.002 0.0018 0.0019 148000000 281000 ATLAS MINING 2.67 2.82 2.84 2.84 2.66 2.66 62000 165240 BENGUET A 1.17 1.19 1.19 1.19 1.19 1.19 1000 1190 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.285 0.29 0.28 0.29 0.28 0.285 480000 137400 CENTURY PEAK 2.85 2.86 2.79 2.92 2.78 2.86 1105000 3152470 -99800 DIZON MINES 7.82 7.86 7.85 7.91 7.76 7.85 4800 37858 FERRONICKEL 1.51 1.53 1.51 1.55 1.5 1.53 18476000 28200070 15000 GEOGRACE 0.236 0.243 0.249 0.249 0.239 0.243 40000 9760 LEPANTO A 0.11 0.111 0.105 0.112 0.105 0.11 2220000 244060 LEPANTO B 0.107 0.11 0.106 0.11 0.106 0.106 170000 18270 -5500 MANILA MINING A 0.0074 0.0079 0.0074 0.0074 0.0073 0.0073 7000000 51300 MANILA MINING B 0.0074 0.0076 0.0075 0.0075 0.0073 0.0074 17000000 126900 MARCVENTURES 1.03 1.05 1.05 1.05 1.03 1.05 84000 87200 NIHAO 0.97 1.01 0.99 1.02 0.99 1.02 2000 2010 -990 NICKEL ASIA 2.26 2.28 2.27 2.31 2.26 2.26 1049000 2384280 -247660 OMICO CORP 0.56 0.58 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 51000 28560 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.88 0.9 0.88 0.9 0.88 0.89 58000 51210 PX MINING 3.25 3.26 3 3.25 3 3.25 2669000 8397240 -280020 SEMIRARA MINING 21.9 21.95 22 22.05 21.85 21.95 1030800 22628585 -3548195 UNITED PARAGON 0.0067 0.0068 0.0066 0.0068 0.0066 0.0068 12000000 80400 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 400000 4800 ORNTL PETROL B 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 1100000 12200 -1200 PHILODRILL 0.01 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.01 0.011 12500000 130500 PHINMA PETRO 3.58 3.61 3.57 3.62 3.55 3.6 140000 500700 PXP ENERGY 9.06 9.07 9.27 9.27 8.74 9.06 1690900 15278380 1148332.9997

PREFFERED

AC PREF B2 490 499 490 490 483 490 3760 1828770 4860 ALCO PREF B 98 99.9 98 98 98 98 2400 235200 SMC FB PREF 2 970 980.5 970.5 970.5 962 962 1000 966765 FGEN PREF G 104 104.3 104.3 104.3 104 104 18500 1925050 -47978 GLO PREF P 487 493 490 490 490 490 100 49000 GTCAP PREF B 920 959 920 920 920 920 10 9200 LR PREF 1 1.01 0.99 1 0.99 1 965000 961770 PCOR PREF 2A 970 996 996 996 996 996 10 9960 SMC PREF 2B 75.05 75.35 75.45 75.45 75 75.35 2760 207769 SMC PREF 2C 77 77.1 77 78 77 77.1 2900 223440 SMC PREF 2D 72 72.95 72.95 72.95 72.95 72.95 400 29180 SMC PREF 2F 73.9 74.7 74 74 73.85 73.85 26090 1928955 SMC PREF 2H 73 73.5 73.5 73.5 73.5 73.5 3940 289590 SMC PREF 2I 72.6 73 72.25 73.7 72.25 73 19720 1436065 -

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR GMA HLDG PDR

17.94 5.3

18 5.35

17.96 5.49

18 5.49

17.94 5.35

17.94 5.35

6500 41600

116770 222726

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

2.04

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 4.78 XURPAS 1

2.05

2.1

2.1

2.01

2.04

854000

1741170

-

4.79 1.01

4.82 1.03

4.87 1.05

4.76 1

4.79 1.01

208000 6190000

997690 6323990

-48200 248440

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

120.3

-18000 -216166

121

119.5

121

118.5

121

57550

6904820

-32130

www.businessmirror.com.ph

AirAsia execs divest to new holding firm A

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

IRASIA Inc., the operator of budget carrier AirAsia Philippines, is currently undergoing a corporate restructuring program with founding shareholders divesting their stocks in the budget carrier to a new holding company.

Marianne Hontiveros and Alfredo Yao divested their 15.7-percent share and 13-percent share in the airline, and sold it to F&S Holdings Inc., a

company led by lawmaker and existing AirAsia shareholder Michael Romero.

The valuation for the shares sold

and acquired will be determined soon. The transaction is expected to be closed by September.

After the closing of the transaction, F&S will hold the lion’s share of AirAsia Philippines at 44.4 percent. The balance of 39.9-percent and 15.7-percent shareholding will remain with Malaysia AirAsia International Ltd. and TNR Holdings of Filipino businessman Antonio Cojuangco. There will be no immediate change in the AirAsia Philippines board.

In line with the recent corporate restructuring, AirAsia Philippines plans to jump-start its initial public offering (IPO) within the year.

“We plan to put a valuation of

about $600 million for the company,” Romero said. “We float at least 20 percent.”

This exercise will help the company raise roughly P10 billion, which will be used to acquire new planes and for general working capital.

“We now have 23 airplanes, and we plan to have 50 airplanes within the next three years. We also want our revenues to grow from P30 billion this year to P50 billion within three years,” Romero said.

The company also plans to issue common shares worth $17 million and preferred shares of about P17 billion.

AirAsia Philippines aims to net roughly P2 billion in profits this year.

Palmary acquires minority stake in PhilWeb

L

ISTED firm PhilWeb Corp. and Palmary Corp. on Monday said it signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop their electronic bingo or e-bingo businesses starting this month.

Palmary also acquired a minority interest in PhilWeb. PhilWeb currently operates six e-bingo outlets while the Palmary group operates 16 outlets. Palmary Group is also an accredited supplier of e-bingo machines in the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s network of over 300 e-bingo outlets with over 30,000 e-bingo terminals.

“We are very excited about our future in the e-bingo business in cooperation with the Palmary Group,” said Gregorio Ma. Araneta III, PhilWeb chairman.

“When combined with our growing e-Games business, we now have an expanding, two-fold footprint in the whole electronic gaming sector,” he said.

PhilWeb is currently the service provider to 67 e-Games outlets and, together with the Palmary Group, would comanage 22 e-bingo outlets.

“I remain deeply committed to getting PhilWeb back to its former profitability levels, during which times we were able to pay out high dividends to stockholders and generate significant share-price increases, as well. We are also committed to our role in consistently increasing the revenues of Pagcor, which we have done for over 13 years,” he said.

Palmary also signed a share-purchase agreement to acquire 97.33 million shares of PhilWeb, representing 6.78 percent of the company. It did not state the price of the acquisition.

“I welcome the Palmary Group’s investment in our company, a great sign of faith in the positive developments we have attained in the past year. I believe this investment will result in positive gains for both over

RWM scoops up six Stevies

R

E SORT S World M a n i l a (RWM), the Philippines’s first integrated entertainment and tourism destination, won six trophies from the 2018 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is one of the world ’s premier award-giving bodies for business innovation. This is the third year in a row that RWM has been recognized by the Stevies, and the year it has received the most trophies for its various projects and programs.

It earned a Gold Stevie for “El Bimbook”—the souvenir program for its hit Filipino musical theater production Ang Huling El Bimbo in the Award for Innovation in Other Types of Publications Category.

The El Bimbook was noted for its creativity in going beyond the usual playbill format by taking inspiration from the musical’s plot and giving the program more substance by modelling it after a college yearbook.

RWM also received a Silver Stevie Award for Innovation in Brand Development for its production of the social-media video Luta Biay (Soil Life), as part of its Lucky Person of the Year Award initiative. The LPOY Award is done in partnership with one of the Philippines’s foremost society magazines, PeopleAsia, which gives out annual People of the Year awards for the countr y’s movers and shakers in various fields. RWM’s

LPOY Award sought to recognize indiv iduals whose hard work were able to uplift communities, and inspire others. Last year’s awardee and the subject of Luta Biay was Norman King, the first Ayta graduate of the University of the Philippines.

The company also earned two Silver Stevies in the Award for Innovation in HR Management, Planning and Practice for its Sama-Salo and ThrillChella employee engagement initiatives.

Its fourth Silver Stevie was for the RWM Mobile App which allows RWM members to receive real-time updates on RWM events and promotions, as well as allowing them to maximize their memberships through exclusive app-only deals.

Rounding up the slew of awards is a Bronze Stevie Award for Innovation in the Use of Video for its “Kaya Natin ‘To” Music Video which was created to inspire stakeholders to believe in the RWM vision after a challenging event.

“We’re very happy to receive these awards not just because it validates our hard work,” says Joee Guilas, RWM director for Cor p or ate Com mu n ic at ion s.

“RWM has always been committed to championing the Filipino and we believe that by proving that we are able to produce international award-winning work, we are showing everyone that the Filipino is truly world-class.”

the next few years,” Araneta said.

PhilWeb is an accredited service provider to Pagcor for its network of electronic gaming outlets. It also has a wholly owned subsidiary, BigGame Inc., which has Pagcor gaming

MUTUAL FUNDS

licenses for its e-games outlets.

Palmary is an operator of electronic bingo outlets and an accredited e-bingo machine supplier to Pagcor, for its network of electronic bingo outlets. VG Cabuag

June 3, 2019

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

PER SHARE RETURN* RETURN STOCK FUNDS ALFM GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 264.65 2.98% 0.45% 1.03% 4.92% ATRAM ALPHA OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 1.6252 5.77% 9.07% 3.31% 12.8% ATRAM PHILIPPINE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND, INC. -A 4.1327 0.82% 0.76% 0.35% 5.89% CLIMBS SHARE CAPITAL EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND CORP. -A 0.9477 5.23% N.A. N.A. 6.42% FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND ON MSCI PHILS. IMI, INC. -A 0.8823 5.44% N.A. N.A. 7.51% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN EQUITY FUND,INC. -A 5.519 3.66% 0.98% 1.15% 4.7% MBG EQUITY INVESTMENT FUND, INC. -A 122.96 9.16% N.A. N.A. 5.58% ONE WEALTHY NATION FUND, INC. -A 0.8841 2.85% -3.84% N.A. 6.21% PAMI EQUITY INDEX FUND, INC. -A 52.5972 6.06% 1.54% N.A. 6.89% PHILAM STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 546.86 4.81% 0.53% 1.08% 6.24% PHILEQUITY DIVIDEND YIELD FUND, INC. -A 1.3322 6.54% 2.33% 3.66% 6.24% PHILEQUITY FUND, INC. -A 39.1326 6.8% 3.12% 3.19% 6.83% PHILEQUITY MSCI PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC. -A,3 1.0552 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILEQUITY PSE INDEX FUND INC. -A 5.3327 6.93% 2.55% 3.47% 7.54% PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND CORP. -A 890.42 7% 2.26% 3.45% 7.47% SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. -A 0.9345 7.61% 1.42% N.A. 8.51% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE EQUITY FUND, INC. -A 4.3581 6.94% 2.41% 2.59% 7.37% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY PHILIPPINE STOCK INDEX FUND, INC. -A 1.0235 6.47% 2.2% N.A. 7.25% UNITED FUND, INC. -A 3.768 6.56% 4.12% 3.42% 7.63% EXCHANGE TRADED FUND FIRST METRO PHIL. EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC. -A,C,2 119.2221 7.45% 3.25% 4.53% 7.65% ATRAM ASIAPLUS EQUITY FUND, INC. -B $0.9508 -12.27% 4.85% -0.49% 2.34% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY WORLD VOYAGER FUND, INC. -A $1.2419 -3.19% 6.96% N.A. 12.38% BALANCED FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ATRAM DYNAMIC ALLOCATION FUND, INC. -A 1.736 3% -0.78% -1.22% 5.14% ATRAM PHILIPPINE BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 2.3205 1.41% 0.66% 0.77% 5.04% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND INC. -A 2.6575 2.81% -0.22% -1.24% 4.47% GREPALIFE BALANCED FUND CORPORATION -A 1.3599 1.82% N.A. N.A. 4.26% NCM MUTUAL FUND OF THE PHILS., INC. -A N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. N.S. PAMI HORIZON FUND, INC. -A 3.7117 3.11% -0.18% 0.53% 5.17% PHILAM FUND, INC. -A 16.7588 4.23% -0.01% 0.62% 5.35% SOLIDARITAS FUND, INC. -A 2.1513 3.64% 1.18% 1.95% 3.81% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BALANCED FUND, INC. -A 3.8795 5.83% 1.25% 1.62% 6.25% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2028, INC. -A,D,4 1.012 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2038, INC. -A,D,4 1.0119 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY ACHIEVER FUND 2048, INC. -A,D,4 1.0096 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DYNAMIC FUND, INC. -A 0.9943 5.91% 1.46% N.A. 7.88% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES COCOLIFE DOLLAR FUND BUILDER, INC. -A $0.03661 4.6% 0.9% 1.56% 3.86% PAMI ASIA BALANCED FUND, INC. -A $0.9472 -8.57% 2.76% -1.41% 1.17% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ADVANTAGE FUND, INC. -A $3.6286 -0.53% 5.22% 2.2% 9.68% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR WELLSPRING FUND, INC. -A $1.082 0.97% 3.31% N.A. 7.13% BOND FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 349.08 3.05% 2.03% 2.11% 1.66% ATRAM CORPORATE BOND FUND, INC. -A,1 1.8876 1.4% -0.22% -0.29% 1.53% COCOLIFE FIXED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 3.0377 5.41% 5.26% 5.25% 2.25% EKKLESIA MUTUAL FUND INC. -A 2.1694 2.54% 1.26% 1.66% 1.83% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN FIXED INCOME FUND,INC. -A 2.283 2.97% 0.68% 1.14% 3.34% GREPALIFE FIXED INCOME FUND CORP. -A P 1.6052 1.7% -0.46% -0.07% 2.61% PHILAM BOND FUND, INC. -A 4.0938 2.81% -0.2% 0.67% 4.44% PHILEQUITY PESO BOND FUND, INC. -A 3.6375 4.36% 1.57% 1.08% 3.42% SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. -A 0.9274 1.93% -0.53% N.A. 3.9% SUN LIFE OF CANADA PROSPERITY BOND FUND, INC. -A 2.9166 6.26% 1.92% 1.74% 5.45% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY GS FUND, INC. -A

1.6183 5.96% 1.38% 1.25% 5.09% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES ALFM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $456.28 3.17% 1.84% 2.67% 1.78% ALFM EURO BOND FUND, INC. -A Є216.15 1.7% 1.43% 1.42% 1.65% ATRAM TOTAL RETURN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -B $1.1728 5.5% 1.72% 2.07% 4.17% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $0.0254 2.42% 0.94% N.A. 2.42% GREPALIFE DOLLAR BOND FUND CORP. -A $1.7142 0.97% -1.28% 0.56% 1.42% PAMI GLOBAL BOND FUND, INC -A $1.0745 3.59% -0.2% -2.16% 3.56% PHILAM DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC. -A $2.2936 6.39% 0.91% 2.62% 5.64% PHILEQUITY DOLLAR INCOME FUND INC. -A $0.0586886 3.47% 1.4% 1.69% 3% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR ABUNDANCE FUND, INC. -A $3.0272 4.8% 0.41% 2.12% 5.4% MONEY MARKET FUNDS PRIMARILY INVESTED IN PESO SECURITIES ALFM MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 123.04 3.53% 2.3% 1.86% 1.82% FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A,5 1.0125 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. PHILAM MANAGED INCOME FUND, INC. -A 1.2053 3.27% 1.45% 0.92% 1.98% SUN LIFE PROSPERITY MONEY MARKET FUND, INC. -A 1.2401 3.54% 2.57% 1.96% 1.73% PRIMARILY INVESTED IN FOREIGN CURRENCY SECURITIES SUN LIFE PROSPERITY DOLLAR STARTER FUND, INC. -A $1.0262 2.1% N.A. N.A. 1.01%

A - NAVPS AS OF THE PREVIOUS BANKING DAY. B - NAVPS AS OF TWO BANKING DAYS AGO. C - LISTED IN THE PSE. D - IN NET ASSET VALUE PER UNIT (NAVPU).

1 - ADJUSTED DUE TO CASH DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JANUARY 29, 2018. 2 - ADJUSTED DUE TO STOCK DIVIDEND ISSUANCE LAST JUNE 5, 2018.

3 - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 3, 2019. 4 - LAUNCH DATE IS JANUARY 28, 2019. 5 - LAUNCH DATE IS FEBRUARY 1, 2019.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Oil extends drop as Trump fans growth fears on trade

O

IL extended declines— and was close to bearmarket territory—as an increasingly aggressive US trade policy fueled fears the world could be heading for a significant economic slowdown.

Futures in New York fel l as much as 2.6 percent after slumping 5.5 percent on Friday. China struck a combative tone in a white paper released on Sunday, blaming the US for the collapse in trade talks and saying it won’t be pressured into concessions. That came after the White House rattled markets on Friday by announcing tariffs on Mexican goods and terminating India’s designation as a developing nation, stopping it from exporting products to the US without duties.

Oil has now fallen almost 20 percent from a high in late April, wiping out about half of its rally in the earlier part of the year, mainly due to the increasingly fraught global trade environment. While a tense situation in the Middle East has been supporting prices somewhat, the White House indicated over the weekend that it would be willing to negotiate with Iran without preconditions. Meanwhile, whether Russia keeps cooperating with Saudi Arabia on production cuts is shaping up as an important price driver over the next few months.

“The oil market continues to trade with extremely high beta to risk as concerns over a global slowdown escalate,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management. “The latest sell-off should be a stark reminder of just how fragile the oil markets balancing act is, and should be enough to bring Russia back into the supply agreement fold.”

West Te x as Inter med i ate crude for July dropped 42 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $53.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 7:25 a.m. in London after falling as much as $1.39 earlier. The contract is now down 19.9 percent from its closing high on April 23. If it finishes more than 20 percent lower than the April peak it will officially be in a bear market.

Brent for August settlement fell 79 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $61.20 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The July contract closed 3.6 percent lower at $64.49 before expiring on Friday. The global benchmark crude was trading at a premium of $8.02 to WTI. There could be a recession in nine months if the US imposes 25-percent tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese exports and Beijing retaliates, according to Morgan Stanley. Investors may still be underestimating the risks to the global economy from the trade war, Chetan Ahya, chief economist, wrote in a note released on Sunday.

“There’s an increased likelihood the US slaps tariffs or implements measures to restrict trade against any countries it sees as engaging in unfair practices, such as China, Mexico and India,” said Takayuki Nogami, the chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. in Tokyo. ”Even Japan could be a target.”

Russia’s average daily oil output fell below its Opec+ target in May for the first time this year after buyers refused to take exports via Druzhba, the nation’s key pipeline to Europe, because of contamination. The country produced about 11.11 million barrels a day of oil last month, the lowest since June 2018. Bloomberg News

B

ANGKOK—Shares wobbled on Monday after United States and Chinese officials traded jibes in their widening clash over trade and technology.

China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.3 percent to 2,890.08 after surveys showed a deteriorating manufacturing outlook in May. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9 percent to 20,410.88, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.1 percent to 26,871.23. The S&P ASX 200 dropped 1.2 percent to 6,320.50.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3 percent to 2,067.85 after Samsung Electronics’ Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with top executives of the company to discuss strategy as it weathers slowing demand for computer chips and smartphones, and the repercussions of the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington.

“In this rapidly changing environment, we need to keep our unwavering focus on long term, fundamental leadership in technology,” Lee said in a statement provided by the company.

India’s Sensex rose 0.8 percent to 40,031.29. Shares were flat in Taiwan and rose in Singapore.

Markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were closed.

A private survey, the Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, held steady at 50.2 in May. But business confidence in the report issued on Monday slipped to the lowest level since the series began in April

W

PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump speaks at the US Air Force Academy graduation.

Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Air Force Academy, Colo. AP/DAVID ZALUBOWSKI

“America has had enough,” he tweeted. The president said last week that he will impose a 5-percent tariff on Mexican goods on June 10 to pressure the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to block Central American migrants from crossing the border into the US. Trump said the import tax will increase by 5 percent every month through October, topping out at 25 percent.

But the president has been here before, issuing high-stakes threats over his frustration with the flow of migrants only to later back off. They include his threat earlier this year to seal the border with Mexico.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and allies in the business community have signaled serious unease with the tariffs that they warn will raise prices for consumers and hurt the economy. Some see this latest threat as a play for leverage and

B3

Asian markets wobble as US, China trade barbs over tariffs 2012. The official manufacturing PMI, issued on Friday, sank to one of the lowest levels in three years.

China released a “white paper” report on Sunday that blamed the conflict on the Trump administration, but stopped short of announcing details of a plan for retaliation against a US blacklisting of Huawei Technologies. On Friday, it said it would soon announce its own list of “unreliable entities” consisting of foreign businesses, corporations and individuals.

Wang Shouwen, China’s vice commerce minister, said Beijing will issue more specific information on the list soon, but that it was aimed at enterprises that “violated market principles” and cut supplies of components to Chinese businesses for noncommercial reasons.

Meanwhile at a meeting in Singapore, China’s defense minister warned its military would “resolutely take action” to defend Beijing’s claims over self-ruled Taiwan and disputed areas of the South China Sea. In his comments to defense chiefs, officials and academics at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Gen. Wei Fenghe did not direct that threat at the US, and US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was not in the audience.

White House: Trump ‘deadly serious’ about Mexico tariffs ASHINGTON—A top White House official said on Sunday that President Donald J. Trump is “deadly serious” about imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, but acknowledged that there are no concrete benchmarks being set to assess whether the US ally is stemming the migrant flow enough to satisfy the administration. “ We intentiona l ly lef t t he declaration sort of ad hoc,” Mick Mu lv a ne y, t he ac t i ng W h ite House chief of staff, said on Fox News Sunday.

“So, there’s no specific target, there’s no specific percentage, but things have to get better,” Mulvaney said. “They have to get dramatically better and they have to get better quickly.”

He said the idea is to work with the Mexican government “to make sure that things did get better.”

On Monday, top officials from the two countries will start meetings in Washington. Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Marquez plans talks with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Two days later, delegations led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard will meet.

But Trump played down the effort. “Mexico is sending a big delegation to talk about the Border,” the president tweeted on Sunday.

“Problem is, they’ve been ‘talking’ for 25 years. We want action, not talk.”

Trump claims Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades but that the abuse will end when he slaps tariffs on Mexican imports next week in a dispute over illegal immigration.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

doubt Trump will follow through.

GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, called the tariffs a “mistake” and said it was unlikely Trump would impose them.

The president “has been known to play with fire, but not live hand grenades,” Kennedy said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

“It’s going to tank the American economy,” he said. “I don’t think the president’s going to impose these tariffs.”

Mexican officials are due to meet later this week with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a bid to come to a resolution.

“I think what the president said, what the White House has made clear, is we need a vast reduction in the numbers crossing,” Kevin McAleenan, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Mulvaney, who also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, said

Mexico could take various steps to decrease the record numbers of migrants at the border.

He suggested the Mexican government could seal its southern border with Guatemala, crack down on domestic terrorist organizations and make Mexico a safe place for migrants seeking to apply for asylum.

“There are specific things that the Mexicans can do,” he said.

Mulvaney insisted that Trump’s threat is real. “He’s absolutely, deadly serious,” Mulvaney said.

E conom i s t s a nd bu s i ne s s groups are sounding alarms over the tariffs, warning they will hike the costs of many Mexican goods that Americans have come to rely on and impair trade.

But Mulvaney played down those fears, saying he doubts business will pass on the costs to shoppers. “American consumers will not pay the burden of these tariffs,” he said.

He also suggested the tariffs were an immigration issue, separate from the trade deal the United States is trying to negotiate with Mexico and Canada.

The tariff threat comes just as the administration has been pushing for passage of the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement, which would update the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Several top GOP lawmakers have expressed concerns that Trump’s tariff threat could upend that deal. The chairman of the Finance Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said last week the tariffs would “seriously jeopardize” passage of that agreement, which needs approval in Congress. AP

But Wei did have tough words on the trade war with Washington.

“As for the recent trade frictions started by the US, if the US wants to talk, we will keep the door open.

If they want to fight, we will fight till the end,” Wei said. “As what the general public of China says these days, a talk, welcome. A fight, we’re ready. Bully us, no way.”

In the US, the stock market stumbled on Friday to its first losing month of 2019 in May, primarily due to President Donald J. Trump’s decision to broadly wield his tariff powers, first against China over trade and then against Mexico over immigration.

Friday’s losses came after Trump shocked investors by announcing plans via Twitter to impose tariffs on Mexico in a bid to compel the nation’s third-biggest trading partner to crack down on migrants attempting to enter the US. “Let’s understand that trade conflicts are the catalyst for the real issue; slower global growth leading to stagf lation and recessionar y conditions,” Chris Weston of Pepperstone said in a commentary. “With the weekend news flow centering again on trade, where a Chinese white paper attributed the blame on relations to Trump, amid Chinese authorities investigating FedEx, it all suggests things will only get worse before they get better.”

The move spurred a broad sell-off that sliced more than 350 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed down 1.4 percent at 24,815.04.

The selling left the benchmark S&P 500 index 6.6 percent lower for the month as it lost 1.3 percent to 2,752.06.

It’s the first time the S&P 500 has dropped for four straight weeks since autumn 2014.

The Nasdaq slid 1.5 percent to 7,453.15. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 1.4 percent to 1,465.49.

The new tariffs on Mexican goods shocked investors who were already nervous about a global trade war crimping economic growth. It’s especially hard on automakers that import vehicles from Mexico.

Investors have been fleeing to safer holdings all month. The shift to utilities and bonds quickened earlier in May after the US and China broke off negotiations. The US then pushed more tariffs on Chinese goods along with a ban on technology sales. That prompted retaliatory tariffs from China and threats over supply flows of rare earths and other key resources.

The flight to safe havens has pushed the Japanese yen strongly higher against the US dollar. On Monday the dollar was trading at ¥108.26, down from ¥108.28 late on Friday. Until late last week, the dollar had been trading at about ¥110.

The euro rose to $1.1172 from $1.1170 late Friday.

Increasing uncertainty over the economic outlook has drawn energy futures sharply lower.

Benchmark US crude oil gave up 54 cents to $52.96 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It tumbled 5.5 percent to settle at $53.50 a barrel on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, skidded 90 cents to $61.09 per barrel. It closed 3.6 percent lower on Friday. AP

Wall Street warns of mounting recession risk from trade war

W

ALL Street’s biggest banks lined up to warn investors of growing recession risks from the escalating trade war between the US and China.

A global recession could start w ithin nine months if President Donald J. Trump imposes 25-percent tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese exports and Beijing retaliates, according to Morgan Stanley.

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the probability of a US recession in the second half of this year had risen to 40 percent from 25 percent a month ago.

“Recent conversations with investors have reinforced the sense that markets are underestimating the impact of trade tensions,” Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a report. “Investors are generally of the view that the trade dispute could drag on for longer, but they appear to be overlooking its potential impact on the global macro outlook.”

Such warnings may set the tone for financial markets and will inform this week’s gathering in Japan of the Group of 20 finance chiefs. The potential for a marked slowdown in the world economy was underscored on Monday by weakening manufacturing gauges across Asia.

“Globa l g row t h now look s likely to slip below trend for the rest of this year,” JPMorgan Chief Economist Bruce Kasman and colleagues wrote in a report.

Also sounding the alert, economists at Goldman Sachs Group

Inc. said they now expect the US to impose 10-percent tariffs on the remaining $300 billionworth of imports from China and on all Mexican goods, too. The bank lowered its US second-half growth forecast by about half a percentage point to 2 percent and said its sees a greater likelihood of interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

“While it is a close call, the outlook has not yet changed enough for cuts to become our baseline forecast,” Goldman analysts led

by Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said in a note.

The rift between the Trump administration and China has escalated as each side blames the other for the breakdown in talks.

The trade war is also taking on a global dimension amid simmering tensions bet ween the US and the European Union, while Trump is threatening to impose tar iffs on Mexican goods in response to il lega l immigration.

Morgan Stanley’s A hya advised clients that if the conflict continues, growth will suffer as costs increase, customer demand

B4 Tuesday, June 4, 2019

GLOBE SUPPORTS BORACAY SUSTAINABILITY WEEK, JOINS BEACH CLEANUP DRIVE DLSU HOSTS NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMANITIES, LITERATURE

T I

N support of the government’s call for responsible and sustainable tourism, Globe Telecom joined the weeklong celebration of Boracay’s rehabilitation.

Almost 300 participants from the Globe Store in Boracay, Boracay Foundation Inc., Boracay Interagency Task Force, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary, Team Boracay Cyclist, Philippine National Police, Malay Solid Waste, and Asean Centre for Biodiversity worked together to ensure that the country’s favorite summer getaway retains its pristine condition. The team gathered 32 bags of plastic waste and trash scattered along the popular White Beach, where local and foreign tourists often converge.

At the same time, Globe put up an eco-booth in D’mall, where anyone can exchange their plastic bags with eco-bags to for a more sustainable practice.

“Boracay has always been very close to the hearts of every Filipino. Recently, it became the center of everyone’s attention...

Beyond business, we will help make the island a safe and sustainable eco-tourism destination through replicable and scalable solutions,” Globe Senior Vice President for Consumer Mobile Business Issa Guevarra-Cabreira said.

Six months prior to Love Boracay, in partnership with Manila Water Foundation, Globe has initiated several sustainable long-term rehabilitation activities for Boracay, such as the construction of a communal septic tank in Sitio Ilaya, Barangay Balabag; and the provision of two months worth of Virgomin organic-water treatment for septic tanks to all 4,000 households.

Besides sanitation projects, together with Save Philippine Seas, Globe has conducted a three-day workshop on marine biodiversity attended by local business owners, students and teachers. The workshop focused on ways to protect marine life by adopting sustainable approaches to business operations, such as reducing the use of single-use plastic.

HE De L a Sa l le Universit y Department of Literature held “Writing the Classroom 3: A national conference on the teaching of humanities and literature” from May 16 to 18 at the Andrew Gonzalez Hall of the university’s Manila campus.

Endorsed by the Commission on Higher Education, the conference featured keynote lecture by DLSU fellow Dr. Marjorie Evasco, as well as roundtable fora on the interdisciplinarity of literature and industry.

Pa r t ic ipa nts a lso had t he opportunity to attend masterclasses in Southeast Asian literature, critical theory, literary translation, literature and humanities, literature and creative writing, literature and social sciences, literature and sciences, and literature and performance.

To help educators, a teaching manua l, tit led Breaking Walls: A Collec t ion of Literat ure Teaching Modules, was distributed to conference participants. Prepared by the faculty

LOCAL PARTNERS FOR PROGRESS Top officials of the local government units were present at the opening and start of works of the Harbor Link Segment 10 and the connector road of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex), which was undertaken as a private-public partnership under President Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program, in partnership with the MVP Group of Companies through Metro Pacific Investment Corp. In photo are (from left) Rep. Ricky Sandoval of Malabon City, Navotas City Mayor John Rey Tiangco, Former Manila Mayor Erap Estrada, Rep. Toby Tiangco of Navotas City, Caloocan City Mayor Oca Malapitan, and MVP Group of Companies Media Bureau managing director Mike Toledo.

The Nlex-Harbor Link Segment 10 is a 5.65-kilometer elevated toll road, or expressway, traversing from MacArthur Highway in Karuhatan, Valenzuela City, passing through Malabon City and up to C-3 Road in Caloocan, while the Nlex connector road is an 8-kilometer elevated expressway passing over the right-of-way of the Philippine National Railways.

poetry, fiction, drama and creative nonfiction both as genre and /or creative-writing courses; and literary criticism (Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstr uction, feminism and postcolonialism).

Educators from various regions of the country attended the conference.

GRAND TAIPAN: TODAY’S REAL ESTATE GAME-CHANGER

I SHE LEARNS, SHE LIVES Insular Life and best-selling author Rose Fres Fausto (front row, ninth from left) recently conducted a financial-literacy workshop for employees of the Insurance Commission, as part of the Insular Life (InLife) Sheroes program. Joining Fausto are Insular Life executives: Noemi Azura (10th from left), executive vice president and chief strategy officer; and Ana Soriano (sixth from right), vice president and public relations head. The InLife Sheroes program is part of Insular Life’s advocacy to empower Filipino women to achieve a better life by providing risk-mitigation solutions in their lifetime, and educate them on financial management, health and well-being.

members of t he Depa r t ment of Literature and funded by the Office of the Vice President for Lasallian M i s s io n , t he m a nu a l c o nt a i n s modules on teaching Afro-American, A ng lo -A mer ic a n a nd Ph i l ippi ne literatures; 21st-Century literature from the Philippines and the world;

T could be intimidating for some to start an enterprise—what more a rea l-estate company—r ight at a time when the Philippines is experiencing its property boom of the 21st Century.

But Joeben Tai had one goal, and that’s to be a real-estate developer— he took the risk and leap of faith to start Grand Taipan in 2016. Rightly so, he had enough experience as a real-estate broker, which gave him a deeper understanding on the trends and gaps in the industry.

“Being a real-estate broker, I got to know and learn different projects being offered in the market. I also received feedback from my clients with what they want and what’s lack ing in a proper t y they have acquired. Having heard all of this, I knew I can do more if I had my own real-estate development company,” Tai recalled.

He knew he would face tough challenges along the way, but the toughest for him is “being new” itself.

He explained, “You need to earn the trust and respect of everyone that they may believe in what you’re doing.

This not only applies to the clients, [but] as well as project partners and my employees.”

Ta i ’s opt i m i st ic approac h to things reflects in how he deals with challenges. “I see these challenges as opportunities to do something different and to be able to learn valuable things,” he enthused.

Three years into running Grand Taipan, the founder and president continues to be a keen observer in his industry. “The Philippine real-

estate industry is getting mature as Filipinos are more knowledgeable and discer ning in buy ing re a l e s t at e. P ro p e r t y developers are also gett ing compet it ive.

They’re looking at the market needs and also adapts to what the buyers want,” he said.

He added, “I study and find ways to improve our projects and the company.

T he c l ie nt s a nd you r employees all depend on you, so you need to do your best every day.”

Apply ing a l l this, Grand Taipan is able to conceptualize the right projects, find strategic locations and offer unique propositions.

When asked about his vision for the company, “I see Grand Taipan to be a prime mover of the realestate industr y. We’re not on ly const r uct ing buildings but landmarks i n e ver y a rea we a re i n. We’re developing projects my company and I can be proud of.”

Gra nd Ta ipa n’s prem ier rea lest ate de ve lopment t he Ver a no Greenhills, which is to be completed in 2022, was named Best Condo Architectural Design and was cited Highly Commended for Best Condo Interior Design at the 2018 Property Guru Philippines Property Awards.

Making sure that it offers utmost

class and comfort, Grand Taipan has tapped two world-class consultants: Asya Design, the country’s premier arc hitect ura l f ir m, to create an iconic architectural style; and Hirsch B e d ne r A s s o c i at e s , t he world ’s leading hospitality-design firm, to achieve modern and sophisticated interior design.

A true inspiration, Tai had this piece of advice to the new breed of Filipino real-estate brokers, “Never limit yourself on what you can achieve.”

THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT BIG NAME IN CULINARY SCENE STARTS NOW!

G DEFINING THE FUTURE OF ENERGY SUNSMART shocks at the 2019 Power and Electricity Show, the largest energy event in the Philippines, held at the SMX Convention Center on May 24. A small solar device, it is able to produce usable electricity by way of a solar panel and a battery. And despite it compact size, it can still power up lights and a fan, and charge mobiles phones. “My husband William and I wanted to change the perception of solar power being only for those who can afford the high-entry cost. We want all Filipinos to benefit from the available solar power,” SunSmart President Jenny Ngai says. “I believe, in due time, my company will be able to fulfill its vision of creating a completely renewable energy-powered development”. For inquires, e-mail at sunsmart.isp@gmail.com.

E T r e a d y, c h e f s a n d cooking enthusiasts!

Dubbed “Kitchen Hero: Chefs’ Edition”, the first-ever regional-tonational cooking tilt will go from north to south, and across 16 regional stops in the country to recognize a new generation of talented chefs.

“We believe that the Philippines has some of the best and most talented chefs in the world,” says Isla LPG Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ruben Domingo. “Through this competition, we aim to recognize these chefs who are vital in bringing Filipino cuisine to the world stage. At the same time, we are on a quest to explore and highlight Filipino specialties that are unique to

our provinces.”

Participants must be Filipino professional chefs with at least three years of kitchen experience gained locally or abroad. They must be currently employed as a professional chef in a hotel, restaurant or any food-service establishment.

The competition will comprise of two rounds. The first round will be the regional competition where contestants from different provinces per region will compete to determine who, among them, will represent their region in the national competition. The second round will be the semifinals and grand finals where all regional champions will cook off to the championship.

The culinary creations will be judged by renowned chef and Solane Kitchen Hero ambassador Chef Sau del Rosario, and bestselling author and Solane Kitchen Hero competition director Nancy Reyes-Lumen. It will be based on the following criteria: 50-percent featured ingredients and 50-percent originality and creativity.

The competition will conclude on September 7 at Eastwood City.

The winner will take home P100,000 and will embark on a culinary trip to Japan with customized stops at different food and drink destinations.

To know more about Solane’s culinary tilt, visit www.solane.com.ph and https:// www.facebook.com/solane.ph/.

Sports

GOLDEN State guard Stephen Curry evades the defense of Toronto center Marc Gasol in Game Two of the NBA Finals. AP

BusinessMirror

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| Tuesday, June 4, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

WARRIORS SHOW CHAMPION’S HEART

“It was a great win. We got to go home and protect our home floor and we’ll see about all the injuries,” Coach Steve Kerr said.

T

By Brian Mahoney The Associated Press

ORONTO—The Golden State Warriors relied on a champion’s heart to overcome their weary bodies.

Klay Thompson scored 25 points before leaving with a hamstring injury, Stephen Curry had 23 and the Warriors ran off the first 18 points of the second half on the way to a 109-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night that tied the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals at one game apiece.

With Kevin Durant already out and Thompson eventually joining him in the fourth quarter, the Warriors don’t feel great—but they would’ve felt a whole lot worse flying home in a 2-0 hole.

“I think that when you get to this stage, our DNA shows up,” Curry said.

Andre Iguodala, himself slow to get up after a hard fall in the first half, made the clinching 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left after the Raptors scored 10 straight points to cut it to 106-104.

Kawhi Leonard had 34 points and 14 rebounds for the Raptors.

They had won five straight since falling behind 2-0 in the Eastern

Conference finals.

Curry appeared to be laboring as well in the first half, returning to the locker room in the midst of six straight misses to start the game.

But the Warriors cobbled together a good enough finish to the second quarter to keep it close, then stormed out of the locker room with one of their vintage thirdquarter charges that have been so frequent during their run to five straight NBA Finals.

“Third quarter we didn’t play well enough. We missed too many shots,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said. “They got out in transition and got a little confidence going. We lost the game there.”

DeMarcus Cousins was inserted into the starting lineup and delivered 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and Draymond Green had 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists—missing by one assist a fourth straight triple-double.

The series moves to their Oracle Arena for Games Three and Four, with the first NBA Finals to be played outside the US assured of returning to Canada for Game Five.

The Warriors will hope to have enough healthy bodies to get through it. Thompson landed awkwardly after a three-point attempt early in the fourth quarter and limped off soon after, with backup center Kevon Looney

already missing the second half with a chest or shoulder injury.

And Golden State is still without Durant, who missed his seventh straight game with a strained right calf but hopes to return during the series.

For now, they got key contributions from Quinn Cook, who hit three three-pointers, and veteran center Andrew Bogut, who wasn’t even part of the roster most of the season but came off the bench for three baskets.

“It was a great win. We got to go home and protect our home floor and we’ll see about all the injuries,’” Coach Steve Kerr said. “But I’m very proud of our team and in particular all the guys off the bench.”

Kerr said Thompson told him that he thought his injury was minor and he’d be fine, but added that “Klay could be half dead and he would say he would be fine.”

Kerr was unsure the nature of Looney’s injury.

Fred VanVleet scored 17 points for the Raptors, who had red t-shirts with their slogan “We The North” hanging on seats around the arena.

The Warriors sure were seeing red, especially Curry, during a mostly miserable first half when they missed 20 of their first 28 shots.

He hung his head and didn’t even attempt to run back when VanVleet stole the ball from him and made a lay-up to give Toronto an 11-point lead with a little more than two minutes remaining in the half.

But Curry made two free throws for the final points of the half to cut it to 59-54, then the Warriors came

back and pitched a shutout until nearly the midpoint of the third quarter during a series-changing—perhaps season-changing—swing.

Iguodala had five quick points including a threepointer that moved Golden State into the lead at 6159. The surge continued with three straight baskets from Thompson and three more from Green, whose last one capped the 18-0 run that Elias said was the longest to start a half in NBA Finals history and made it 72-59 before Toronto finally got on the board with a 3-pointer with VanVleet with 6:20 remaining in the period.

“They moved the ball really well and were running freely,” Raptors center Marc Gasol said. “Once they run freely, everything opens up for them.”

The Warriors had won 12 straight Game Ones and this was their first time playing from behind in the finals since they were down 2-1 to Cleveland in 2015.

They showed no signs of concern during the off days, and Thompson suggested part of the problem during their 118-109 loss on Thursday was rust after they had nine days off in between series.

Their bigger problem early in Game Two was the defense of the Raptors. But Toronto—which had a 23-0 advantage in second-chance points—missed a chance to take a comfortable lead into the half and couldn’t overcome its 37-percent shooting, with Pascal Siakam going five for 18 for 12 points after scoring 32 in the opener.

NURSE ADDRESSES BAD SHOOTING T

KAWHI LEONARD of Toronto scored 34 points, but his teammates were not able to provide support. AP

ORONTO—It all came apart in about six minutes for the Toronto Raptors.

They went scoreless over their first 12 possessions of the second half, a stretch during which what had been a double-digit lead late in the second quarter became a doubledigit deficit to the Golden State Warriors.

With that, the lead was gone for good.

And so, too, is the Raptors’ home-court advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals. The Warriors were tested late but held on, ultimately defeating the Raptors, 109-104, in Game Two to even the title series.

Game Three is on Wednesday night on the Warriors’ home floor, Oracle Arena.

“We had four or five decent possessions there and we just came away empty on all of them,” Raptors Coach Nick Nurse said. “And then we had probably four or five that were not good possessions, either. So certainly, the offense hurt the chance to get the defense set up there.

I’m going to have to rewatch that.

“Probably not going to enjoy that very much, but I’m going to have to check it out.”

The costly six minutes included: Eight missed shots

by Toronto, five turnovers and 18 consecutive points given up to the Warriors—the biggest run of consecutive points to open a half in NBA Finals history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Throw in the last two points of the half for Golden State, and it was a 20-0 run in all, which Elias said was the longest ever in a finals game.

Pascal Siakam was zero for three in that bad stretch.

Kawhi Leonard was zero for two, as was Marc Gasol— who had two of the turnovers on offensive fouls. Fred VanVleet missed a three-point try.

They led, 47-35, in the second quarter, 58-48 late in the half—and the Warriors, in a flash, turned that around and went up 72-59. Add it all up, and it was a 24-1 run for the two-time defending champions.

“Third quarter, we didn’t play well enough,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said. “We missed too many shots. They got out in transition and got a little confidence going. We lost the game there. Missing shots and not getting back on defense hurt us.”

Even after all that sputtering, the Raptors still had

chances. Leonard made three free throws—two for a foul, one more for a technical on Stephen Curry—with 1:08 left to get the Raptors within 106-101. The Raptors forced a turnover on the next possession, and then got a 3-pointer from Danny Green with 27 seconds left to close the deficit to two.

Then they needed to get as defensive stop.

They didn’t get it. A helter-skelter possession for Golden State was capped by Andre Iguodala’s 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left, allowing the Warriors to escape Toronto with a series split.

“It was all about our defense and we held them to 37 percent and forced 15 turnovers and guarded the threepoint line well,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “So it was championship defense—and that’s what it's going to take.”

There will be more than the bad stretch for the Raptors to lament before Game Three rolls around.

The Raptors shot only 37 percent. They were 11 for 38 from three-point range. They couldn’t take advantage of the Warriors again being without Kevin Durant, losing Klay Thompson in the fourth quarter with hamstring tightness and seeing key reserve big-man Kevon Looney leave with a chest contusion.

Now they’ll need to win at least once on the Warriors’ home floor to win a title.

“We’re in the same boat they kind of were in coming here,” Nurse said. “We got to go out there and get one, right? That’s all we got to do is get one. And we can do that.” AP

Spo

Business

C2 Tuesday, June 4, 2019

NO. 6 MAGIC C NUMBER FOR LEE6

Cantlay rallies from 4 down to dominate Memorial golf

D

UBLIN, Ohio—Jack Nicklaus is a gracious tournament host at the Memorial who doesn’t mince words, and it paid off for Patrick Cantlay.

When they bumped into each other earlier in the week in the grill room, Nicklaus told him he had to learn how to finish. And then when Cantlay saw him again at lunch going into the weekend, Nicklaus told him how.

Nicklaus said to have fun, to look around at all the fans having a great time, to relax and to go win the golf tournament.

Cantlay had a blast on Sunday with the best closing round by a winner in the 44 years of the Memorial. He rallied from four shots behind with an eight-under 64, a round so under control that Cantlay’s longest putt for par was from 8 feet on the final hole, with Nicklaus watching behind the 18th green.

He poured it in to secure a two-shot victory over Adam Scott.

“I finished it,” Cantlay said to Nicklaus as he walked off the green.

Martin Kaymer, trying to end five years without a victory, started with a two-shot lead and never recovered from a four-hole stretch on the back nine when he made consecutive bogeys and failed to birdie the par-five 15th.

He closed with a 72 and finished third.

Scott was the last player to have a chance and ran off three straight birdies until narrowly missing birdie putts on the last two holes. He shot 68.

“Being able to win on this golf course, in front of Jack, making that putt on the last hole, I can’t tell you how good it feels,” he said.

Engaging in private, Cantlay doesn’t smile much on the golf course and isn’t about to force one. But the advice from Nicklaus— Cantlay first met him when he won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s best college player in 2011—stuck with him.

Look around, soak it up and enjoy it.

“I definitely said that to myself down the stretch today on the back nine,” said Cantlay, who finished at 19-under 269. “It put me a little more at ease, and I hit a lot of really nice, quality shots with the lead.”

Cantlay first caught Kaymer with a 3-wood to 10 feet for a two-putt birdie on the 11th.

Kaymer, in the group behind him, matched the birdie. That was his last one. Cantlay followed with an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 14 and a 5-iron that set up a long two-putt birdie on the par-five 15th.

By then, Kaymer was making bogeys and Scott was stuck in neutral until it was too late.

“I knew that you can’t really make any mistakes coming down the stretch,” said Kaymer, whose last victory was by eight shots in the 2014 US Open at Pinehurst No. 2. “But all credit to Patrick. He played a great round of golf. He deserved to win—19-under par is amazing.”

Scott finished at 19 under at Torrey Pines and lost two by to Justin Rose. He was 17 under at the Memorial—only six players have done better at Muirfield Village, one of them being Cantlay on Sunday.

“It’s disappointing not to win, for sure,” Scott said. “I really played good golf this week, and it just wasn’t good enough.”

Cantlay’s only disappointment was that it took him 19 months to win for the second time on the PGA Tour. But then, he hasn’t been around as long as it seems. Cantlay was low amateur in the 2011 US Open, and the next week shot a 60 at the Travelers Championship. AP

JEONGEUN LEE6 wins her first major title on Sunday, the first $1-million women’s winner’s check ever handed out by the US Golf Association. AP

STAN’S THE MAN! P

ARIS—This is why Stan Wawrinka went through two operations on his left knee in the span of a month.

Why he dealt with the rigors of rehabilitating that joint.

Why he did all the work, on and off the court, required to get back on the grind, to raise his ranking from outside the top 250, to matter again in the sport he loves.

So he could participate in, and win, matches like the five-hour, nine-minute test of excellence, endurance and emotions that the 34-year-old Wawrinka barely claimed against the 20-year-old, caked-inclay Stefanos Tsitsipas by a 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 score on Sunday at the French Open to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time in two years.

And so he could advance to what comes now: a matchup on Tuesday against his friend and countryman Roger Federer, who hasn’t dropped a set so far in the tournament.

“That’s the reason why [I] came back.... I love and enjoy to play in front of people, to play in the biggest tournaments you can play. Today was something really special,” said Wawrinka, who won the 2015 championship at Roland Garros for one of his three major trophies. “For sure, when I’m on the court, I try to enjoy and remember, also, everything I have done to be here.”

Exhausted as he was by a match finally decided by a backhand that floated past Tsitsipas and landed on the outside edge of a line, Wawrinka still possessed the energy to joke about facing Federer, who has won 22 of their previous 25 meetings.

When a reporter, perhaps trying to offer some hope, pointed out that Federer, 37, is the older man, Wawrinka smiled and responded: “Yeah, but he is much better than me, also. So never forget that.”

The No. 6-seeded Tsitsipas was not in any mood to laugh: He said this close-as-can-be loss—he accumulated more total points, 195194—caused him to shed post-match tears for the first time in a long time.

“Never experienced something like this in my life. I feel very disappointed,” said Tsitsipas, who upset Federer at the Australian Open in January en route to his first Grand Slam semifinal. “Emotionally, wasn’t easy to handle.

I will try to learn from it as much as I can.”

Asked moments later what lessons he might have gleaned, Tsitsipas looked blankly

ahead and answered in a monotone: “I have no idea. My mind is so empty right now. I cannot even think, so I don’t know.”

As the sun blazed, unobstructed by clouds, and the temperature soared toward 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), Wawrinka and the diving-for-volleys Tsitsipas provided by far the best theater around the grounds.

Spectators at Court Suzanne Lenglen cheered wildly for Wawrinka when he egged them on, cupping his ear or flapping his arms or even blowing a kiss. Tsitsipas’s electric, netrushing style earned support, too, although he chastised himself early on for playing “like a freaking zombie!”

The key, ultimately, was this: Wawrinka saved 22 of 27 break points, including 8 of 8 in the fifth set.

“I was so close. So close. I gave him room to do whatever he likes, all those break points,” Tsitsipas said, pausing frequently between words. “So many break points. So many.”

Nothing quite so riveting earlier, when Federer beat 68th-ranked Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, to become the oldest men’s singles quarterfinalist in Paris since 1971.

Federer is back at Roland Garros for the first time since 2015, when he lost to Wawrinka in the quarterfinals. They’ve known each other forever, basically, and paired up to win a doubles gold medal for Switzerland at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I’m just happy for the guy that he’s back after his knee problems. They were severe, and that’s why I think he’s really happy he got sort of a second life on tour. Because I think for a while there, he wasn’t sure if he was ever going to come back again. It’s nice to see him pain-free and playing well,” said Federer, who didn’t face so much as a single break point on Sunday. “I hope he’s not at the level of ‘15, but we’ll find out, because there, he was crushing the ball. It was unbelievable.”

Joining Federer in the quarterfinals, oddly enough by the same score, was 11-time champion Rafael Nadal, who was never troubled by 78th-ranked Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina. Nadal next meets No. 7 Kei Nishikori or Benoit Paire, whose match was suspended because of darkness with Nishikori leading two sets to one. AP

STAN WAWRINKA comes out smoking after a five-hour, nine-minute test of excellence. AP

HARLESTON, South Carolina—Six is certainly a magic number for US Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6.

The 23-year-old South Korean won her first major title on Sunday, the first $1-million women’s winner’s check ever handed out by the US Golf Association (USGA) and her first victory as a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour rookie. And she did by shooting 1-under 70 at Country Club of Charleston to finish at, naturally, six-under 278.

“This is kind of really interesting how I finished 6 under at an LPGA tournament,” Lee6 said through an interpreter. “So, this is really lucky number to me.”

Lee6 has the number in her name because she was the sixth player with the name on the Korean LPGA. She has embraced the number, answering to it and writing a large “6’’ on her balls. Her South Korean fan club is called “Lucky 6.” Jeongeun Lee5 tied for 34th at four over, 10 shots behind Lee6.

Lee6 opened a three-shot lead with three holes to play before facing some nerves with bogeys on the 16th and 18th holes to tighten things up. But when third-round coleader Celine Boutier’s blast from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole rolled off the green, Lee6 had the biggest win of her life.

“I didn’t even expect to win the tournament this fast,” Lee6 said. “I think this is very lucky that I won this major championship tournament.”

Lee6, playing two groups ahead of Boutier, was practicing putts when the Frenchwoman could not make the sand shot. Lee6 bent down in joy when her victory was secure, countrywoman and 2011 US Women’s Open winner So Yeon Ryu coming over to embrace the new champion.

“I felt pretty nervous starting on the holes 16, 17 and 18 after

Thiem, Federer share laugh on Serena incident

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ARIS—Roger Federer found the whole thing worthy of locker-room joking: 2018 French Open runner-up Dominic Thiem’s news conference was abruptly stopped to make way for the sudden arrival of Serena Williams following her loss at the tournament.

With a grin, Federer said on Sunday: “I thought that was funny.”

Williams was so eager to get her media obligations over and done with Saturday evening that she met with reporters a little more than 10 minutes after her match ended—much sooner than usual.

So Thiem, who was supposed to speak about his third-round win, was told to make way. He called that “a joke, really.”

“I don’t know what went wrong, but something went wrong for this to happen,” Federer said after beating Leonardo Mayer in straight sets. “Maybe they should have kept Serena still in the locker room, not waiting here in the press center. I don’t know exactly what happened. I understand Dominic’s frustration.”

For Thiem, “it’s just about, ‘How in the world did this happen?’” Federer said. “I don’t think he’s mad at Serena or anybody.”

Thiem, too, was finally able to laugh about the incident.

“We joked about it,” Federer said. “That’s why I’m very much aware of what happened, and that’s why we are laughing in the locker room about it now.” AP

PSC, Taiwan stage sports seminar

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IFTEEN representatives from industry, the government and academe took part in the Apec Workshop on International Sports Events and Local Economic Development on Monday in Manila.

The event was staged by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Sports Administration (SA) and Ministry of

THE legendary Jack Nicklaus presents the Memorial trophy to Patrick Cantlay. AP

Education of Chinese Taipei. The topics included the effects of international sports events on local economic development.

PSC Commissioner Ramon Fernandez welcomed the delegates and, in his speech at the opening ceremony, he underscored the importance of the Unesco-cited Children’s Games in various coastal islands of the country that promote sports, tourism, community resource and ecosystem management.

SA Director General Kao Chin-Hsung said that the Apec Sports Policy Network (ASPN) initiated and launched by the SA in 2016, conducts two international meetings and issues three Apec Sports Newsletters each year.

“We would like to express our gratitude to the Philippine Sports Commission’s collaboration for this workshop. This project will truly enable the participants to obtain and share information on the policies and integrating sports events and tourism,” Kao said.

Krzysztof Kropielnicki, Head of Sportcal Events, expounded on the impact of sports events. The other speakers were Dr. Huang Ching-Yao, director of Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy of the National Chiao Tung University; Rene Meily, president of QBO Innovation Hub in the Philippines; and Joan Norton, manager of ilab UQ Accelerator.

opening the large lead,” Lee6 said. “But I tried the best that I can.”

The victory came a few days after Tiger Woods’s former swing coach, Hank Haney, made disparaging remarks about women’s golf by predicting a “Korean” would win and “I’d go with Lee.” Haney was suspended for his comments on his PGA Tour SiriusXM radio show when asked who’d win. “I’d go with Lee,” Haney said. “If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.”

Haney was suspended for his remarks.

Haney sent Tweets on Sunday night congratulating Lee6 and saying his prediction was based on statistics and facts. “Korean women are absolutely dominating the LPGA Tour. If you asked me again, my answer would be the same but worded more carefully.”

Lee6 said her focus had been fully on the tournament. Because she hasn’t mastered English, “I didn’t really understand him that much, so I didn’t really think about it,” she said.

Boutier made a double bogey on the final hole to fall into a tie for fifth at three under. She shot 75. Lexi Thompson, Ryu and Angel Yin tied for second, two shots behind. Thompson shot 73, Ryu 70 and Yin 68.

Boutier tried to get on No. 18 in two. “And then if I made the putt, then it would be best,” she said.

“But I missed the green, so...”

Gerina Piller, Jaye Marie Green, Mamiko Higa of Japan, and third-round coleaders Yu Liu of China and Boutier tied for fifth. Piller was the only under par at 68. Higa and Liu shot 74s.

Boutier and Liu, the good friends and former Duke teammates, figured to fight for the title. Instead, both threw away chances early as they combined for three bogeys and a double bogey on the first three holes.

Thompson began the round a shot off the lead in search for a second career major. But she too struggled early with bogeys on the first, third and fourth holes to drop off the pace. AP

Ramirez starts work as CdM

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PHILIPPINE Sports Commission Commissioners Ramon Fernandez and Celia Kiram pose with Sports Administration Director General Kao Chin-Hsung.

HILIPPINE Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William Ramirez buckles down to work as chef de mission to the 30th Southeast Asian Games by meeting top officials of national sports associations (NSAs) on Tuesday at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Ramirez’s goal is to hear from the NSA brass and draw a game plan for the Games where the country’s goal is to finish No. 1 in the medals race.

Sixty NSA officials are expected to answer the roll and air whatever issues that need addressing five months ahead of the SEA Games set from November 30 to December 11.

Ramirez took over as chief of mission from Monsour del Rosario, who was sacked along with several other executive board members by Philippine Olympic Committee President Ricky Vargas in a heated General Assembly on May 27.

The PSC chief said he will be meticulous on the progress report of the NSAs, but will similarly emphasize unity among the sports leaders.

“The country is at stake, and perhaps with that spirit, it is important for the athletes to see us united,” Ramirez said.

Vargas was also invited to the gathering.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

orts

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Elims under way for men’s golf team

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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

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SWISS CAROLINE WINS

possession, third year guard Alec Stockton was whistled for an inbound violation with 19 seconds.

The Falcons called for time out to map out their chance to tie the match with a triple.

With Jerrick Ahanmisi well-guarded, the ball swung the way of rookie Aaron Fermin, who hit a triple with 44 seconds left to put Adamson University behind by three.

FEU forward Barkley Eboña was a second too late to challenge that shot. This time, he was all over Fermin whose shot missed badly as sailed out of bounds.

FEU had the ball with three seconds left, but the Falcons were unable to foul to send

Tamaraws center Patrick Tchuente to the free throw line as the Morayta-based team claimed its third win in five matches.

“Every time we play a UAAP [University Athletic Association of the Philippines] team it is a good gauge to see where we are in our preparations,” FEU Head Coach Olsen Racela said.

Tchuente led FEU with 14 points, while Ken Tuffin and Hubert Cani added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Lenda Douanga finished with a double double of 17 points and 16 rebounds, while Jerom Lastimosa and Fermin each added 10 points for the Falcons, who fell to 4-2.

Last Friday, FEU survived a scare from

Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) when the Generals rallied from an 18-point deficit. The Tamaraws held on for a 73-72 win.

In the other seniors match, the Generals ended their Preseason Cup stint with a huge 78-69 win over the College of Saint Benilde Blazers.

The Generals played consistent and relentless basketball for 40 minutes as they outworked the more talented Blazers.

“The attitude of not giving up and playing for 40 minutes is what we are trying to instill in the boys,” said EAC Head Coach Oliver Bunyi, whose Generals finished the tournament with a 2-5 record.

Undermanned CEU downs St. Clare College

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EVEN-MAN Centro Escolar University continued its Cinderella run—this time in the Philippine Basketball Association Developmental League semifinals—after turning back St. Clare College Virtual Reality, 76-75, in Game One of their semifinals series on Monday at the Paco Arena in Manila.

Rich Guinitaran scored the gamewinning lay-up with 13.7 seconds to go as the Scorpions’ defense held fort in the endgame to move a win away from advancing to the championship.

“You have to give it to the boys. Though we’re just playing with just seven guys, I told them when we step inside the court, it’s all about winning,” CEU Coach Derrick Pumaren said.

That late bucket was the biggest of Guinitaran’s 18 points, six rebounds and two assists as he provided support to another big day for center Maodo Malick Diouf.

The Senegalese bruiser again set the league record for most rebounds with 33 to compliment his 19 points, eight blocks, four

assists and four steals in 40 minutes of action.

Kurt Sunga chipped in 16 points and six rebounds and Franz Diaz got 13 points, four assists and two rebounds.

CEU, however, almost lost the game after Irven Palencia went berserk and scored eight of the last 12 points for St. Clare which took a 75-74 lead with 51.6 seconds remaining.

But he could not take the Saints home, muffing his short stab off a steal on the other end and Junjie Hallare also missed his potential game-winner at the buzzer.

DUEL OF IRONS UP IN PGT CEBU

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Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen (center) displays her medal as she poses with runner-up Dimity Lee Duke of Australia (right) and third placer Laura Wood of New Zealand after regaining the Century Tuna Ironman 70.3 presented by Big Boss Cement crown in Subic last Sunday.

By Rick Olivares

OR the second straight game, it came down to the final possession for Far Eastern University (FEU) to pull out a 66-63 victory over Adamson University in the Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup on Monday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Leading the Soaring Falcons by three, 66-63, and the ball in their

Emana sisters turn heads in Carmona ICA ELLA EMANA hacked out a pair of victories in contrasting fashions while sister Kaye Ann pulled off a shock win in the premier side as they grabbed the spotlight in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Manila Southwoods age-group tennis tournament in Carmona, Cavite.

The second seeded Mica Ella took the girls’ 14-under singles crown with a 6-3, 6-1 rout of giant-killer Chelsea Roque then out-steadied Kaye Ann to complete a come-from-behind 4-6, 7-5, 10-7, triumph in the 16-under finals of the Group 1 tournament presented by Dunlop.

But the unranked Kaye Ann bounced back strong in 18-U play, upending No. 3 Julia Ignacio, 5-3, 4-2, then trouncing second seed Gaby Zoleta, 6-3, 6-3, before crushing No. 1 Francesca Cruz, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals to complete the big day for the Quezon City siblings at the Manila Southwood Golf and Country Club tennis courts.

Kriz Roque Lim, meanwhile, picked up another win in 10-unisex division the hard way, turning back Gavin Kraut, 4-1, 2-4, 10-6. Though the Urdaneta bet failed to add the boys’ 12-under crown with a 1-6, 1-6 setback to brother John Prince Lim, he still shared the Most Valuable Player honors with Mica Ella in the tournament that featured a number of three-setters.

“This string of reversals and matches decided via the distance underscored the level playing field in the circuit. Through their regular stints, the Emanas and the Lims continue to improve and their recent feats should inspire other young players,” Palawan Pawnshop President and CEO Bobby Castro said.

Other singles winners were Los Baños JT Bernardo (boys’ 14-under), Manila Polo Club’s Miguel Castillo (16-under), Red Ante (18-under) and Czarina Ilano (girls’ 12-under) from Imus, Cavite, while bagging the doubles titles were Kaye Ann-Dominique Lhuillier and the Lim siblings (14-U); Zoleta-Ignacio and Ante-Angelo Lozares (18-under); and Kriz Roque-Noah Llira (10-under unisex).

Bernardo held off Andre Coladilla, 7-6(3), 6-0; Castillo repulsed Stephen Catipon, 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-3; Ante survived Castillo, 7-6(3), 7-6(5); and Ilano rallied past Margarita Labio, 4-6, 6-3, 10-1, in the tournament sanctioned by Unified Tennis Philippines made up of PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s, Dunlop, Slazenger and B-MEG.

F.E.U. ROLLS TO 3RD STRAIGHT WIN IN PRESEASON CUP

JHONNEL ABABA (below) wants to repeat as champion while Tony Lascuña tries to snap a long title spell marred by disappointing finishes and injuries.

HE chase for spots in the national men’s golf team vying in this year’s 30th Southeast Asian Games begins on Tuesday with 43 of the country’s top and rising players slug it out in the two-stage qualifier at the Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac.

Reigning national junior champion Aidric Chan heads the cast that includes the likes of Carl Corpus, Josh Jorge, Don Petil, Paolo Wong and Sean Ramos.

Others tipped to contend are Kristoffer Arevalo, Leandro Bagtas, Paqo Barro, Elee Bisera, Perry Bucay, Luis Castro, Dan Cruz, Luigi Guerrero, David Guangko, Basti Lorenzo, Gabby Manotoc, Aniceto Mandanas, Ryan Monsalve, Carlo Quimson, Jacob Rolida, Lanz Uy, Rald Sarmiento and Joachim Yu. The organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines said the top 12 players plus ties and players within 10 strokes of the leading scorer after the 72-hole Stage 1 will advance to Stage 2.

Players with 160 scores and above will be cut from the remainder of the elims.

After Stage 2, the top 3 players with the total combined scores from two eliminations will make the SEA Games men’s squad.

Stage 2 will be played from June 10 to 13, also at the hazard-laden Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed layout.

The SEA Games women’s team, meanwhile, will be composed by the Asian Games gold medal squad composed of Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go.

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REMIUM will be on accuracy and putting as the men of the tour tackle a short but tricky Club Filipino de Cebu course when the rich International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) CFdC Invitational fires off on Wednesday in Danao City.

Short by the pros’ standards, the par-71, 6692-yard course is still expected to challenge the field’s skills, particularly in iron play and course management with its unpredictable surface also tipped to add up to the challenges that abound around the layout carved from steep hills.

Volleyball stars usher in Superliga tourney in forum

It also features dog-leg holes that could lure the long hitters to take the risk and use their drivers in a bid to gain ground against the rest of the bidders in the P3-million event kicking off a four-leg Visayas swing of the Philippine Golf Tour’s (PGT) milestone 10th season.

Jhonnel Ababa reigned when CFdC first hosted a PGT leg last September although the multi-titled Davaoeño shotmaker did it via the short route, winning it in 54 holes after heavy rain canceled third round play.

But with forecast of an overall good weather for the week, the 79-player cast headed by the country’s top guns, a host of foreign aces and six invitees brace for four days of battle and a wild finish in the event sponsored by ICTSI. “No one holds a distinct advantage here.

It’s a tricky course which requires good course management skills,” said Tony Lascuña, seeking to come out strong in a bid to snap a long title spell marred by disappointing finishes and injuries.

While Ababa is upbeat of scoring a repeat, the rest of the pack also exude confidence of putting up a solid showing, including veteran Jay Bayron, former Philippine Masters champion Jerson Balasabas and PGT Asia leg winners James Ryan Lam, Justin Quiban, Joenard Rates and Rene Menor.

The list also includes PGT winners, led by Dutch Guido Van der Valk, Zanieboy Gialon, Charles Hong and Mars Pucay with the longhitting Rey Pagunsan also coming into the event brimming with confidence coming off a

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HE Philippine Super Liga (PSL) ushers its All-Filipino tournament with a press conference during a special session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum on Tuesday at the Amelie Hotel-Manila.

“The boys hung tough,” Pumaren said.

Palencia fired 18 points and eight steals for Saint Clare, while Joshua Fontanilla got 14 points and four assists.

Game Two is set on Thursday at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS VINCENT JUICO @VJuico Instagram vpjp_j vince.juico@gmail.com

Sportaneous THERE’S a lot to talk and write about in the world of sports—268-pound “heavyweight” emphasis on heavy, Andy Ruiz Jr. shocks the world, specifically the boxing world, by knocking out alphabet soup titleholder Anthony Joshua.

Joshua was an 11-1 favorite to win against the pudgy Ruiz, who, quoting Rocket from the movie, Avengers: Endgame describing an equally pudgy Thor as “looking like melted ice cream.” Well, this Mexican-American melted ice cream-looking pugilist now holds three heavyweight title straps.

Ruiz is the first-ever Mexican-American heavyweight world champion. The young man deserves everything that he’s getting. Despite getting knocked down in the third, he kept going, lesser fighters would’ve quit but Ruiz comes from a long line of Mexican boxers who never give up. nnn

victory in the National pro-am at Splendido.

Former national champion Lloyd Go is also out to make an impact in his maiden stint on the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. as spearhead of the six invitees, including PGT Asia leg winner David Gleeson of Australia, Mateo Gomez and Sebastian Lopez of Colombia, Englishman George Twyman and Jack Sullivan, also from Australia.

Also vying for the top P550,000 purse in the event backed by Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Champion, Summit Mineral Water,

K&G Golf Apparel, BDO, Sharp, KZG, PLDT and MY Shokai Technology Inc. are Americans Lexus Keoninh, Charles Lee, Pete Vilairatana and Sean Talmadge, Aussies Fidel Concepcion and Calum Junifer, Koreans Hyang Myung Chal, Kim Young Hyun, Park Jun Sung, and Japanese Ryui Hashimoto, Makoto Iwasaki, Yudai Suzuki, Kei Matsuoka, Kanata Nakagawa, Ryo Nishimura, Raiki Okamoto, Emilio Parodi of Argentina, PGT Q-School top-notcher Marcos Pastor of Spain, Thai Pachara Sakulyong and Peter Stojanovski of Macedonia.

PSL Chairman Philip Ella Juico and other league officials, along with representatives of all participating teams, are gracing the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Braska Restaurant, Amelie Hotel and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Ara Galang and Aby Maraño of F2 Logistics, Rachel Ann Daquis

and Jheck Dionela of Cignal, Foton’s Jaja Santiago and Mina Aganon, Marinerang Pilipina’s Chiara Permentilla and Kaithlyn Viray and Petron’s Mika Reyes and Ces Molina are some of the players expected to appear in the weekly session.

PSA members are enjoined to attend the public sports program that start at 10 a.m.

Cignal HD eyes share of lead

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IGNAL HD shoots for a fourth straight win and a share of the lead with PLDT Home Fibr as it takes on a winless Instituto Estetico Manila (IEM) side on Tuesday in the Spikers’ Turf Reinforced Conference at the Paco Arena in Manila.

The HD Spikers kept their hot run by blasting the defending champions Air Force Jet Spikers, 25-18, 25-20, 25-14, last Sunday with the power-hitting Marck Espejo unleashing a 15-hit game and skipper Ysay Marasigan chipping in nine markers.

That makes Cignal the heavy favorite against

IEM in the 1 p.m. match of another explosive triple-bill in the country’s premier league organized by Sports Vision.

Animo guns for its third win in four games as it faces Easytrip at 3 p.m. with the former, like Cignal, tipped to get past a rival that has dropped its fourth straight game in the 12team league that includes the national team priming up for the SEA Games the country is hosting late this year.

Air Force also tries to improve to 3-1 as it tangles with another winless squad in VNS Volley Club (0-2) at 5 p.m.

EUROPEAN football perennial contender Liverpool are finally UEFA Champions League Champions after 14 years. Their last title was in 2005. I’ve learned to admire and support this team only because of their talisman, Egyptian international Mo ”The Pharoah” Salah who is the quiet unassuming superstar of the Reds. nnn

MIXED martial arts fighter Alex ”The Mauler” Gustafsson has called it a career after losing his fight against Anthony ”Lionheart” Smith at UFC 237 in Stockholm, Sweden.

It’s very sad and unfortunate to lose in front of your countrymen.

After the fight, he took off his gloves and lay them on the octagon floor saying “The show is over guys.” Gustafsson, in my humble opinion, gave Jon Jones everything he could handle and more before narrowly losing when they fought each other a couple of years ago for the light heavyweight world championship.

I have a feeling he’ll be back—never a good idea to make decisions while you’re emotional. I think he just needs to take a break from fighting, maybe a sabbatical of some sort to decompress his mind and body after all that hard work and training.

Air Force actually played without top gun Bryan Bagunas, who is currently playing in Japan, with Ranran Abdilla taking the scoring cudgels by scoring 12 points for the Jet Spikers, who fell to 2-1.

In other games, the Philippine Army Troopers struggled past a lowly Easytrip-Raimol squad, 25-23, 17-25, 22-25, 25-16, 15-10, to join Team Rebisco Philippines at 3-1, while the Animo Green Spikers subdued the Sta. Elena Ball Hammers, 25-23, 25-18, 25-22, for a 2-1 mark.

PJ Rojas fired 21 points for Army which also drew eight markers from Joel Villonson.

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ERONA, Italy—Richard Carapaz became Ecuador’s first Grand Tour champion as he won the Giro d’Italia on Sunday, while American Chad Haga was fastest on the final stage’s individual time trial.

Carapaz, who rides for Movistar, keeled over his handlebars with emotion inside the Arena di Verona after the 17-kilometer (10.5-mile) route.

The 26-year-old Carapaz has worn the leader’s pink jersey since winning the grueling 14th stage on May 25.

“This is the biggest moment of my sporting life,” Carapaz said. “In this final time trial I just suffered from start to finish until I reached the arena of Verona. It’s fabulous to win the Giro d’Italia.”

The Ecuadorian finished the threeweek race one minute, five seconds ahead of home favorite Vincenzo Nibali and 2:30 ahead of Slovenian cyclist Primoz Roglic, who leapfrogged Mikel Landa into third spot.

“I don't have any regrets, we all had a good Giro d’Italia, which was very hardfought,” Nibali said. “I had great rivals, Carapaz showed he is strong and that he deserved it...Carapaz didn’t steal anything, he was really strong.”

Both Carapaz and Nibali took their children onto the podium with them as they collected their trophies.

Carapaz’s parents had also flown over from Ecuador and revealed it was the first time they had been on a plane.

Haga had told his wife to stay at home.

“Maybe that was a mistake,” the Team Sunweb cyclist said as he smiled through tears of joy in a post-race interview. “This is for everyone who believed in me and supported me, and sacrificed for me.

“I gave everything today and to finally win...it’s very special.”

Haga had thought about quitting cycling after he and five other teammates were hospitalized after being hit by a car while they were training in Calpe, Spain.

The incident happened in January 2016, when he was part of Team Giant-Alpecin.

It was Haga’s first stage victory in a Grand Tour. He was four seconds faster than Victor Campenaerts and six faster than Thomas de Gendt. AP

CARAPAZ WINS GIRO d’ITALIA Sports BusinessMirror

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| Tuesday, June 4, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

ECUADOR’S Richard Carapaz poses with the trophy after winning the Giro d’Italia cycling race in Verona, Italy. AP

MEXICAN PRIDE!

NEYMAR IN HOT WATER R

IO DE JANEIRO—Soccer star Neymar has responded to a woman’s allegation that he raped her in Paris by issuing social-media posts meant to show the accuser sent friendly messages following the alleged attack, and police turned up at a training session on Sunday to investigate.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward arrived by helicopter in Teresopolis, Brazil, where he joined the national team in training for the Copa America tournament that starts June 14 in Brazil, but he made no comment to the news media.

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EW YORK—Andy Ruiz Jr. could have passed for any New Yorker, just a roly-poly guy in a too-tight Knicks jersey and sideways baseball cap weaving his way through a crowded sidewalk on his way back to the hotel. But those people were there cheering for Ruiz, outstretched arms for selfies, pats on the back, asking for autographs and a few fans yelling “Mexican pride!”

Maybe the boxing world didn’t know much about Ruiz before he was nearly booed out of Madison Square Garden as he stepped into the ring against undefeated champion Anthony Joshua. But they learned a whole lot more after he stepped out a champion, posing for pictures with the WBA/IBF/ WBO/IBO championship title belts draped over his arms—an appropriate number, one for each time he flattened Joshua at the Garden.

“It’s an upset, isn’t it,” Joshua said. “The bookies said I was a favorite. One shot on top of the dome kind of rattled me a bit. But the better man won. Respect to Andy. Now I move forward.”

Ruiz, the first fighter of Mexican descent to win a heavyweight title, stirred memories of Buster Douglas and other heavyweight shockers when the massive underdog knocked down Joshua twice in the third round and two more times in the decisive seventh to stake his claim to shares of the heavyweight crown. Debate the health or relevance of boxing all you want, but for a night, at an electric Garden stuffed with celebs and 20,000 singing, roaring fans, there was no better place to be in sports.

Most casual sports fans couldn’t name a modern boxer outside of Floyd Mayweather Jr., and there were plenty of fans wearing Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali shirts at the Garden, the mystique of boxing’s past that often swallows the present stirring in the home of some of boxing’s most historic bouts. The 29-year-old Ruiz already has attracted some A-list fans—The Rock and Conor McGregor tweeted congratulations—and could score more if he can stretch his 15 minutes into a few successful title defenses.

“I think it’s going to do a lot for my community, for Mexico,” Ruiz said. “Now they can say that they have the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world. I’m just happy that it’s me.”

Ruiz, a portly fighter out of Southern California, has an affable personality and earned the last-minute title shot (after Jarrell Miller’s failed drug tests booted him to the sideline) not through angry made-for-TV demands or even convincing KO’s through the ranks. Instead, he got bold and sent promoter Eddie Hearn a direct message on Instagram asking for a shot that said, “Give me this fight, I will fight harder than any of the names you’ve mentioned, I will give you a better fight and I will beat Anthony Joshua.”

Hearn agreed to the pitch and a main event was hatched.

PARIS Saint-Germain forward Neymar was accused of raping a woman last month, but the Brazilian star quickly denied the allegations in social-media posts. AP

ANDY RUIZ JR. shocks the world by demolishing Anthony Joshua. AP

Ruiz, knocked down in the third round, is quick to make fun of his girth—his generously listed 270 pounds puts the heavy in heavyweight. His trunks sat a bit too low for his flabby frame as he faced off against the chiseled Joshua. With four championship belts in front of him on a table, Ruiz said he would get in shape for an expected rematch later this year.

“Now that I have this time, I want to get in shape and look like a Mexican Anthony,” Ruiz said, laughing. “But I was ready for war. I was ready for all 12 rounds.”

Is the heavyweight division ready for the upheaval ahead?

Joshua was positioned as the star of the division, and the British fighter made his fight debut in the United State to great fanfare. Joshua milked the applause of the crowd and soaked in the spotlight as he walked to the ring. His win seemingly a mere formality, Joshua knew bigger, lucrative bouts against the likes of Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder were on the horizon. The oft-ignored heavyweight division got a boost over the last few years and any combination of Joshua, Wilder and Fury fights would mean big business and title unification in the muddled mix of boxing organizations.

Wilder, owner of the WBC crown, decided to give Luis Ortiz a rematch. Ortiz battered Wilder for parts of their fight in early 2018 before running out of gas and getting knocked out. Wilder tried to steal the

headlines this week when he announced his rematch with Fury was set for 2020.

Wilder and Fury fought to a split draw in December in Los Angeles, with Wilder retaining his WBC heavyweight title after knocking down his British challenger twice.

“Naturally, you’re going to speak about Wilder and Fury,” Joshua said. “That’s how it is.

Why would I try and block out the fact that there’s other competition out there? I still want to compete.

That’s why I ask,

what’s next?”

For Joshua, it’s back to challenger status, a setback that will cost him the megafight he craved this year.

And for Ruiz? The Mexican everyman who looks more fit for Saturday morning sparring at the YMCA than holding boxing’s biggest prize must prove he’s no onefight wonder like Douglas. AP

Police agents from the Rio de Janeiro state cybercrimes unit visited the training ground and the police communications department confirmed by e-mail they would “investigate the supposed disclosure of a video on the part of Neymar.” But it gave no further details.

According to a Brazilian police report obtained on Saturday by The Associated Press, the Brazilian woman, who was not identified, told officers the incident took place May 15 at 8:20 p.m. at the Sofitel Paris Arc de Triomphe hotel. The woman went to police in São Paulo on Friday.

São Paulo state’s Public Security Secretariat, which oversees police, confirmed that the complaint was registered, but said the investigation is confidential.

The woman told police she had exchanged Instagram messages with Neymar, was invited to Paris by one of his representatives and was booked into a hotel. There, she said, they “touched each other, but in a given moment Neymar became aggressive and, with violence, had sexual intercourse against the victim’s will.”

She said she left Paris two days later and said she did not file her complaint in Paris because she was shaken.

Neymar, 27, strongly denied the allegation.

“There was a relationship between a man and a woman between four walls. On the next day nothing happened,” the striker said. “I hope investigators read the messages and see what happened.”

He posted an Instagram video on Saturday showing messages and photos he said he received from the woman in a move to bolster his assertion that the encounter was consensual. The messages include at least one dated May 16, with no reference to the alleged assault.

The Associated Press could not confirm that the woman mentioned in the Instagram post was the person who filed the police complaint.

Earlier his father and agent, Neymar da Silva Santos, told Brazil’s TV Band that his son had been blackmailed by her lawyer.

The Paris police and the city’s prosecutors’ office said through spokesmen that they were unaware of any complaint.

During a post-training news conference, Brazil midfielder Fernandinho said he had heard about the allegation against Neymar “with great sadness and surprise.”

“I am convinced that the case will be cleared up as quickly as possible. I believe in Neymar’s innocence,” the Manchester City player said.

Neymar has had problems on and off the pitch recently. One week before the accusation of rape became known, he lost the Brazil national team's captaincy for the Copa America to veteran Dani Alves. Coach Tite did not lay out the reasons for the move, but he was under pressure to punish Neymar for his disciplinary problems at Paris Saint-Germain.

After PSG lost the French Cup final to tiny Rennes on April 27, Neymar had an altercation with a fan and publicly criticized teammates he didn’t name for not listening to him enough.

That was one of his first matches since January, when he once more picked up a fifth metatarsal injury in his right-foot—the same sort of injury that affected his performances in the last World Cup. AP

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Gracious God

EAR gracious God, You pursue us in goodness and kindness all our days. In faith we pray: Let us walk by Your light, oh God. Give wisdom and light to Pope Francis, bishops and leaders in Your Church. Lead us to fix our minds and hearts on Jesus and to extend His love to everyone.

Rescue those who are in the shadow of death. Bestow grace on the unbelievers so that they may see the light and truth about the son of God. May God bless us with every spiritual blessing and lead us to true and lasting friendship with Jesus. Amen.

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

❶ ❶ BUOY-STYLE

Fisherman pendants wrapped in custom blue cording, from Zero Lighting, reference the seaside location of this Montauk home, designed

by Ghislaine Vinas. Crisp whites and blues also reference the beach and water.

❷ SAN

Francisco artist Rex Ray’s Padauk surfboard wallpaper for Flavor Paper brings a groovy vibe into the bedroom of a home in Montauk designed by Ghislaine Vinas.

Vinas gave the clients’ vintage tiki-style table lamps a coat of fresh white.

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CIRCLES: THE RECENT RISE OF CONTEMPORARY KOREAN ART FROM THE OUTSIDE IN D4

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

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Nautical décor with modern panache

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By kim Cook The Associated Press

ESIGNERS are playing with the idea of nautical décor in new ways, with furnishings and style notes that say “classic contemporary” instead of “kitschy cute.” There might be life preservers on the wall, but they’re probably vintage, and paired with modern chairs. There might be art, but instead of the usual beachy tableaux, there are close-up wave prints, or oversize photos of sea creatures.

It’s a look that still pays homage to a home’s waterside location—actual or aspirational—but in a stylish way.

New York designer Ghislaine Vinas recently did a project out in the sandy seaside enclave of Montauk, New York. A fresh palette of white and blue was accented with Vinas’s signature punches of bright orange, green and yellow.

Beach-chair-style stripes of color adorn furniture pieces and shower tile. Porthole-style mirrors in various iterations anchor bathroom vanities. And scattered throughout the home are nautical references given a playful spin.

For example, in the open plan living area, Vinas hung a group of white sphere light fixtures suspended in blue netting; they look like boat buoys.

Blues ranging in intensity from sky to pool to navy were used in textiles and rugs throughout the house.

And there’s loads of lively art, from photoprints of giant waves to San Francisco artist Rex Ray’s groovy surfboard wallpaper, as well as a group of whimsical, painted shark heads from California ceramicist Lorien Stern.

“For this Montauk project, the client’s roots are strong in Florida, and she has fond memories of time spent on the beach in the 1970s,” Vinas says. “So we adopted a super tongue-in-cheek aesthetic and mixed it in with a classic but cool Hamptons beach vibe.”

That mash-up led her team to dub the home “Floritauk,” a name the client liked so much that it stuck. Vinas also introduced tasty citrus hues like lime, orange and lemon to the décor.

“We loved this homage to Floridian agriculture, and decoupaged a vintage dresser with fruit cut-outs,” she says.

While Vinas went for a playful seaside vibe, Minneapolis-based designer Raena Albers opted for something a little more serene in one of her recent projects. “My clients moved to Minnesota from the Pacific Northwest, and have a huge affinity for sailing,” she says.

Albers referenced that coast’s moody palette of sand, mist and ocean in the furniture and accessories.

A smart little model sailboat graces a mantel, while

Pushing boundaries beyond extraordinary SOME buildings beg you for attention, while others simply connect with you.

Developed by Nova Group, the striking new NEX Tower on Ayala Avenue in Makati visually engages you. It feels lively and vibrant, and it inspires excitement and admiration when you stop to take a closer look. It makes you wonder about the daring minds that unleashed their imaginations to create such a stunning work of art and architecture.

If buildings are meant to be living time capsules, then NEX Tower makes you feel present and connected to the space. At the same time, it seems like you’re looking into a future where society has shifted toward innovative and sustainable architecture. NEX Tower stands boldly with its striking crystalline form, featuring world-class architecture, top-level construction, premium materials and the highest sustainability criteria to set a new standard for commercial real estate in the country.

Ricardo “Chut” Cuerva, Nova Group managing director, makes sure that there’s always something to admire from every angle both inside and outside the building.

Cuerva developed NEX Tower to be an architectural landmark as well as a model for wellness and sustainability.

He partnered with world-renowned architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), noted for designing Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and the iconic One World Trade Center in New York City. He envisions NEX Tower

to serve as a catalyst to develop properties into innovative and sustainable architecture, a much-needed direction for the streetscape of Makati.

NEX Tower is not just meant to be admired from a distance. When one enters its lobby, a massive 11-meter living green wall proudly greets you. The green wall provides fresh air, natural elements and grand scale to a city that has become detached from nature.

The building carefully manages natural resources, achieving the highest sustainability criteria by using the highest efficiency air-conditioning equipment available on the market, and a low emissivity, double pane curtain wall throughout the building. NEX Tower is targeting to save at least 50 percent in water consumption through rainwater collection and low-flow water fixtures. The building is precertified at Gold level LEED certification by the US Green Building Council. Beyond LEED certification, the building offers multiple landscaped areas for occupants to commune with nature. In addition to the living green wall, there are three other landscaped outdoor spaces within the tower where building tenants can be around plants, including the top-floor roof garden.

Nova Group is confident to offer NEX Tower as the best workplace in the market to serve multinational corporations, financial institutions and leading local firms to serve its occupants, their businesses and the community around it.

a gallery wall of white-framed, watercolor seabird prints adds interest in a family seating area.

Wal-mart and Wayfair have several well-priced options if you’re looking for a rope-trimmed table lamp; some have the rope wrapping a base, while on others the rope itself is the lamp base.

At Ballard Designs, there’s a mirror framed in faux white coral that would make a statement; it’s available in wall-mountable and floor sizes. Suzanne Kasler’s bold, graphic nautical flags come framed in natural wood. Salvaged wood from Thai fishing boats is used to make interesting lamp bases in several sizes at Continental Home. There are floor and table lamps made of gathered driftwood here, as well.

Cle Tile carries British artist Boris Aldridge’s Ocean, Tide Pool and Water tiles, part of his handmade porcelain and poured-glass collection in an array of deep, liquid blues. Water sparkling on the bay inspired San Francisco designer Erica Tanov’s Shimmer collection for Cle. Each tile is crafted in Northern California of solid brass, and when arranged on a wall they do resemble sunlit water—or mermaid’s scales.

If you like the idea of a siren’s song on the wall but don’t want to go with tile, consider designer Genevieve Gorder’s Pearl Belly repositionable and removable wallpaper at Tempaper. A dreamy, iridescent finish brings both mermaids and shells to mind. n

LOC&STOR 24/7 SLEX BRANCH TO SERVE MARKET IN THE SOUTH IS your home filled with excess possessions accumulated through the years? Have parts of your household been converted into dusty bodegas crammed full of stuff like luggage, seasonal décor and clothing, kids’ books, and sports equipment?

Take heart. You can reclaim your guest room, garage or laundry room from the unwieldy mess by taking your nondisposables to a self-storage facility.

Make that Loc&Stor 24/7 (www.locnstor247.com), the first world-class self-storage facility in the country that gives home and business owners a safe, secure and professionally operated place to store goods that are not currently needed but cannot be disposed of.

Loc&Stor 24/7 has three strategically located facilities around the Metro: one in Pasig City and two in Makati City (JP Rizal and Urban Avenue).

Moreover, a facility has just opened at the South Luzon Expressway, giving residents and business owners from Alabang, Parañaque, Magallanes, Las Piñas, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and other nearby areas easy and fast access to it—whether on a short- or long-term basis. The minimum rental period is one month.

The Slex facility provides the same world-class standard that storers have learned to trust and is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Like the other branches, it offers seven sizes of storage units to accommodate customers’ varying needs. The smallest can accommodate up to eight balikbayan boxes, while the jumbo-size unit can fit contents of a 20-feet container or up to 180 balikbayan boxes. Even better, you can easily upsize or downsize your unit.

Only you and your authorized representatives can access your stored possessions, using unique PIN codes that arms and disarms your unit’s alarm. And because all access to your unit is electronically logged, the system will notify you through e-mail if your unit has been opened.

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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

VICTORIO C. VALLEDOR is the man behind the Premyo Valledor Awards, which encourages Bicolano writers to pursue novel writing in any Bicol language.

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He’s looking for the next great Bicol novel Y EARS before he was founder, president and CEO of premier insurance brokerage firm Lockton Philippines Insurance and Reinsurance Inc., Victorio C. Valledor was simply a boy from Bicol who discovered early the pleasures of reading.

Born in Manila and raised in his family’s native Catanduanes from age three to 16, the son of a home economics teacher and nephew of a school principal remembers poring over the pages of the Philippine Free Press “because that was the only magazine that could reach us, there were no newspapers in our town,” he says. He also read Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and other pocketbooks his uncle brought home from trips to Manila. “My mother was a teacher so I could spend as much time as I wanted in the library and get any book I want,” he adds.

Yet, despite his access to a wide array of literature, Valledor realized there was one type of book he never got his hands on: a novel in the Bicol language.

“Wala pa,” he admits. “I cannot recall ever having read a book by a Bicolano when I was younger. Maybe because they were not accessible in the libraries at the time, but I do not remember coming across a single book by a Bicolano.”

That’s about to change—and with Valledor’s involvement at that. The Lockton president and CEO is the gentleman behind Premyo Valledor, an annual writing competition and search for the best original novel written in the Bicol language. Bicolano writers of all ages are eligible to join the contest and there are no limitations on the novel’s theme, style or number of pages.

Of the eight entries submitted to the recently concluded first Premyo Valledor, four were shortlisted, and two were chosen as winners: Niles Jordan Breis’s Kalatraban sa Alkawaran and Jerome Hipolito’s Dyurnal Intris. At an awards ceremony held at the Ateneo de Naga University, Valledor presented Breis

and Hipolito each with a handmade trophy by Daet artist Paolo Gerero and a cash prize of P50,000.

The honor doesn’t end there. Kalatraban sa Alkawaran and Dyurnal Intris will be published by the Ateneo de Naga University Press, and book tours will expose Bicolanos to literature of their kind, hopefully inspiring other writers and would-be authors to pen their own novels in their native tongue.

“Bicol is really the most diverse language in the country,” says Valledor, who credits his longtime friend, award-winning book author, educator, columnist and National Book Development Board Chairman Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz for pitching the idea of a novel-writing contest. “My province of Catanduanes is a very small province with only 11 towns, but the dialect in the northern part is very different from the dialect in the southern part.”

“The same is true in the mainland. Here in Naga, they claim to speak the pure Bicol but, of course, the people in Legazpi will contest that. And even if Naga is an hour-and-a-half’s drive away from Legazpi, both practically speak the same dialect—and yet the towns in between them have a different dialect. That’s how diverse the Bicol language is. So, when Neni came up with the idea of the contest, I thought it was a great opportunity to nurture and propagate the language.”

It’s certainly an expressive one, judging from the crowd’s lively reactions to the excerpts from the winning novels that were read aloud by actors at the event. Bries’s novel, a post-martial law tale about the uncorrupted body of a desaparecido resurfacing after 32 years (and his best friend who comes home to authenticate it), was written in the language of his town, Tabaco City in Albay. Hipolito’s novel, journal entries of a young student wanting to write a novel, uses the Bicol of Naga, which is spoken in his hometown of Calabanga.

“Hopefully every Bicolano will have access to these books,” says Valledor, whose eponymous contest reflects not only his pride in his mother tongue,

HARLAN COBEN’S ‘RUN AWAY’ HAS AN ARRAY OF EMOTIONS

By Jeff Ayers The Associated Press SIMON works on Wall Street, and his wife, Ingrid, is a successful doctor. They had a wonderful family life until their oldest daughter, Paige, leaves to attend college. At first, things seem to be going well, but something happens that turns Paige into a drug addict and she runs off with her abusive dealer. Simon learns that Paige occasionally sings for money in Central Park. When he approaches her, she runs. He goes after her, but her boyfriend and dealer, Aaron, confronts him. Simon punches him, and within moments bystanders tackle him and Aaron gets away.

Simon soon becomes vilified on social media as the rich guy violently hitting an underprivileged person.

For three months Simon waits for the furor to die down, always wondering if Paige is OK and hoping he can find her and get her the help she needs. Three months after the incident in Central Park, a police detective arrives at Simon’s office with questions.

Author Harlan Coben is a master at taking what seems to be an ordinary family and exposing the façade and secrets that are buried just below the surface. With Run Away (Grand Central Publishing), his writing and storytelling are firing on all cylinders and the seemingly straightforward tale takes a sharp

turn when it’s least expected. The narrative continues to navigate that twisty mountainous road until the shocking conclusion. The book has an array of emotions and an unpredictable outcome.

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Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Bar Refaeli, 34; Russell Brand, 44; Angelina Jolie, 44; Noah Wyle, 48.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Don’t buy into someone else’s plan. Concentrate on using your strengths and skills to get ahead. Don’t be fooled by anyone who tries to make you feel bad or who puts you down. Head in the direction that offers the most promise and that you find positive and fulfilling. A minimalist lifestyle will help you get back on track. Your lucky numbers are 8, 13, 24, 26, 33, 45, 47.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’ll need to communicate if you want to solve pending problems. Be willing to listen and work with others to come up with solutions that benefit everyone.

Anger will not solve problems, but compromise and sharing will. HHHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A positive change of attitude will please someone who cares about you and how you excel in life.

Experience will prompt you to think twice before you say yes to someone trying to take advantage of you. HHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): How well you handle your money matters. If you are too accommodating or generous, it will make it easy for someone with less integrity to take advantage of you. Overreacting is not the way to deal with a sensitive situation. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Keep personal secrets hidden. Make a difference to your community, and alter the way you look and present yourself to the world. It’s up to you to make the improvements that will enhance your life. HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Make a change for the right reason, not because someone is pressuring you to do so. Use your intelligence, and call on people you know you can count on for good advice or for a contribution that will help you reach your goal. HHHH

but his love for printed, tangible reading materials.

One of the first to invest in a Kindle, he never used it and ended up passing it on to his cousin, singersongwriter Noel Cabangon.

“The feel of a book, the smell of a book,” says this lifelong reader with relish, “there’s nothing like it.” n

‘SPEARHEAD’ IS A WELL-RESEARCHED WWII TALE WITH his two previous books, journalist Adam Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good, old-fashioned yarn.

In Spearhead: The World War II Odyssey of an American Tank Gunner (Ballantine Books), he doesn’t venture far from what he does best. Again, he returns to World War II, but he follows men on the ground rather than in the skies. And, again, he finds a hidden hero worthy of highlighting. This time, it’s Clarence Smoyer, a gunner from a working-class family in industrial Pennsylvania.

We follow Smoyer and the US Army’s 3rd Armored Division’s Easy Company across the battlefields of Germany in 1944. In his third book, though, rather than speeding through the narrative’s twists and turns with nary a bump in the road, Makos regales readers with every detail of every firefight. For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream, but to the average reader, it gets to be a bit tedious.

That said, Makos’s writing remains strong and dramatic with passages like “The bark of German tank guns knifed the woods” and “As if the Germans had been listening, they suddenly cut their power. The hot engine hissed, then went silent.”

And some of the strongest storytelling comes near the end when Smoyer, now well into his 80s, meets his German counterpart. The seminal battle of Smoyer’s service took place on the streets of Cologne where he faced off with an enemy tank, and two civilians trying to flee were killed.

Smoyer had been haunted by their deaths all his life. Turns out, Gustav, the only surviving German tanker from that day, had been haunted, too. Their meeting in 2013 at a Cologne hotel bar is cinematic. AP

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Embrace the positive people and situations in your life, and stop worrying about what you cannot do or change. Use your skills and strengths to get things done that will help you earn respect from those who matter. HHHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Look past any controversy you face. It’s the end result that will count, so stay focused on what you want to achieve, and use your intelligence and worthwhile contacts to help you reach your goal. Build on solid ground. HH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ll hit the jackpot if you let your passion motivate you and your desire drive you to the finish line.

Follow your heart, and enforce what you want to see transpire. Affection will improve your relationship with someone special. HHHHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Think big, but be reasonable. Don’t let anyone mislead you or talk you into something you know you shouldn’t do. There are no quick fixes or shortcuts, so take your time and do things right the first time. HHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you want help, send a message. Lay out your plans, and gather the information you require to work out any foreseeable kinks. Practical application will bring worthwhile results. Romance will tighten your relationship with someone you love. HHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Don’t let your emotions trick you. Now is not the time to follow your heart. Use your intelligence to guide you in a direction that will keep you safe from anyone trying to use you. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Change begins within. Mull over incidents and the type of connection you have had with others.

What you have experienced will help you recognize when someone isn’t being honest with you. Steer clear of situations that are indulgent or emotionally unhealthy.

HH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are insightful, generous and innovative.

You are curious and popular.

‘fresh takes’ BY DEXTER COLEMAN The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 One whose pants are on fire, figuratively 5 Slightly open 9 Permit 14 ___-Zaba (classic taffy bar) 15 Waikiki locale 16 Savanna or rain forest 17 The Queen’s deodorant?

20 Say yes 21 Soft fabrics 22 Gives cards to 25 Hot dog grippers 28 Spy’s deodorant?

34 Medical insurance grp.

35 “___ My Name” (Destiny’s Child song) 36 Cool 2002 Disney film?

37 Toothed wheel 40 Small goods vendor 41 Reds or Cavaliers fan, probably 42 1960s-1970s Bruin Bobby 43 Infinity doesn’t have one 44 Warrior’s deodorant?

6 They shouldn’t outweigh benefits 4 48 More repulsive 50 At this point 55 Standards of perfection 59 Single man’s deodorant?

62 NBA great Ray 63 Aware, socially and politically 64 Prefix meaning “eight” 65 All ___ lead to Rome 66 Sailor’s septet 67 Common lunchtime DOWN 1 Kilauea contents 2 Bird venerated in ancient Egypt 3 Basics 4 Like Cars and WALL-E 5 It comes from the heart 6 ___ alai 7 Epiphany exclamation 8 Where to spend kopeks 9 Aid partner 10 Unwanted scalp dwellers 11 Mythology 12 Black cat, e.g., to some

3 Dabs with water 1 18 Tip jar bills 19 More golden-brown, as hair 23 Hurdle for a future atty.

24 Bashful 25 Pulsate 26 D-Day beach 27 Tag player’s cry 29 Repetitive condition: Abbr.

30 Marry 31 Units of hay 32 Secret ___ (spy) 33 Grape or strawberry candy 35 Neighbor of Guinea-Bissau 38 Soldier’s bed 39 Villain of 2001: A Space Odyssey 40 JFK or LBJ 42 Kitchen utensil brand 45 Traffic directors?

46 Give up, as land 47 Crater Lake’s state 49 A and B, for a record 50 Ski resort fixture 51 Angelic-sounding Xbox game

2 Most-applied-to US college 5 53 What many furry dogs do 54 Swamps 56 West Coast gas brand 57 Jared of Requiem for a Dream 58 Diddy’s given name 60 Sushi bar eggs 61 The Wailers’s original genre Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

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ALEX BRUCE

FILIPINA RAPPER ALEX BRUCE DROPS NEW SINGLE ‘PULL IT OFF’

AFTER racking up more than a million views on YouTube for her live performance of “Mind As A Weapon,” 12-year-old hiphop prodigy Alex Bruce returns with a take-no-prisoners jam that’s built on the strength of her talent and personality.

“Pull It Off,” the first official single under Sony Music Philippines, continues the Batangas-based rapper’s streak of empowering hip-hop anthems.

Sure, it lives up to the charismatic appeal of “Dopest,” the trap-influenced demo released four months ahead of her debut. But this time, we hear a convincing introduction of a future star confidently rapping about not needing other people’s approval, delivering her verses with both fire and excitement.

Given music history’s lack of coverage on the contributions of Filipina artists in hip-hop, it’s quite interesting how someone so young like Alex Bruce was able to champion an unrelenting brand of self-expression that puts authenticity at the forefront of her lyrics, reminding us of a younger Ruby Ibarra or Cardi B minus the vulgarities.

With Jim Poblete at the helm of the production, turning Alex Bruce’s sharpened skills into a star-making showcase that’s beyond theatrical, expect nothing less of “Pull It Off.” It’s a song that will surely end your summer on a high note.

“Pull It Off” is now available on streaming and download platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes store and Deezer via Sony Music Philippines.

A diminished ‘Godzilla’ still bests ‘Rocketman,’ ‘Ma’

N THE Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jeffrey Solares.

MSO IN ‘SYMPHONIC SUNSETS CONCERT AT MAKILING’

PEOPLE from all walks of life trooped to the Tanghalang Maria Makiling, National Arts Center in Los Baños, Laguna, to watch the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jeffrey Solares perform in a concert recently. The event was presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines through its Cultural Exchange Department in cooperation with the Philippine High School for the Arts. Featured soloists include Diomedes Saraza Jr. (violin), Dr. Barney Fojas (guitar), Roy Ressurrecion (oboe) and Andrea Versoza (piano).

Titled Symphonic Sunsets at Makiling, the Manila Symphony Orchestra performed John Williams’s Medley (Starwars, Superman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, ET), Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” Moricone’s “Gabriel’s Oboe” from The Mission, “One Summer’s Day” from Spirited Away, “Minamahal Kita,” “Ati Cu Pung Singsing,” “Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas,” “Cavatina” from The Deer Hunter; Queen/ Gershwin’s “Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue,” Super Mario and Pokemon medley, and themes from Frozen, Game of Thrones, Avengers, Mission Impossible and Angry Bird.

An open theater in the slopes of Mount Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna, the Tanghalang Maria Makiling is a National Arts Center structure that can accommodate up to a thousand audience complete with state-of-the-art lights and sound system suitable for low-, medium- and large-scale productions and performances.

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press

EW YORK—The latest iteration of the Godzilla franchise took over the top spot from Aladdin and roared louder than Elton John at the weekend box office, but it still left a notably smaller footprint on North American theaters than its city-wrecking predecessors.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, was brought down to size by poor reviews and middling interest from moviegoers, selling $49 million in tickets, according to studio estimates on Sunday. While still good enough for No. 1, that total was $10 million to $15 million off industry expectations and close to half of the $93-million debut of the previous Godzilla movie.

Still, the weekend, led by one of the most classic movie monsters, brought Hollywood’s summer season into full swing. Last week’s top film, Disney’s live-action, blue-Will Smith Aladdin remake, slid to second with $42 million in its second weekend. And a rush of newcomers, including the Elton John biopic Rocketman and the Octavia Spencer-led horror film Ma, swelled theaters with a variety of options.

Dexter Fletcher’s fantastical Elton John biopic Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton, didn’t launch with the same bravado as last year’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. But it opened solidly in third with $25 million. The weekend’s most profitable release, by percentage, was likely the Blumhouse Production thriller Ma, which made $18.2 million against a $5-million budget.

Even with a toothless Godzilla, the weekend was up drastically—62 percent, according to comScore— from the same weekend last year, when the swiftly

forgotten Solo was in its second weekend.

Part of the appeal of giant monster films from a studio standpoint is their popularity in Asia. This Godzilla fared best in China, opening there with $70 million. It made $130 million internationally overall.

But in Godzilla, some see a flagging franchise of unrealized potential. In its three recent blockbuster iterations going back to Gareth Edwards’s 1998 Sony release, none have drawn much praise from fans or critics. This latest one, directed by Michael Dougherty, has a 40-percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Warner Bros. is developing a face-off movie between Godzilla and King Kong, who was last featured in Kong: Skull Island. That 2017 release opened with $61 million and went on to make $566 million worldwide.

Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros., believes the $200-million budgeted King of the Monsters can keep drawing moviegoers to the studio’s ongoing monster franchises.

“The avid fans of Godzilla came out on Thursday and Friday,” said Goldstein. “The real key for us is how broadly can we expand over the next couple weeks?

Can we hold on to an interest that’s wider than the regular Godzilla fans? I think we can.”

In Godzilla’s shadow, counterprogramming thrived. Coming off its acclaimed premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Rocketman, which Elton John executive produced, opened well if not spectacularly for Paramount Pictures. The R-rated biopic cost about $40 million to make.

Aiming to capitalize on the British singer’s worldwide appeal, the stars of Rocketman have circled the globe ahead of release. It added $19.2 million internationally. In Russia, the film’s local distributor cut out scenes depicting homosexual activity and drug use. John and the filmmakers criticized the move as “a sad reflection of the divided world we still live in.”

Though Rocketman shares much with Bohemian Rhapsody—including Fletcher, who helmed the Mercury film after Bryan Singer departed production—its makers have sought to distance it from last year’s Oscar-winning $900-million sensation. “That movie is a unicorn,” Egerton said in Cannes. “Our movie is a different animal.”

Ma, fashioned by Blumhouse as the production company’s contemporary answer to Misery, reteams Spencer with The Help director Tate Taylor. Spencer’s first solo lead performance drew an especially diverse audience, 57 percent of which was female.

“The best news this weekend was for the industry itself,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst

Antonio Banderas grateful for a later-in-life Cannes award

By Gisela Salomon The Associated Press MIAMI—Antonio Banderas waited 40 years to receive one of the most prestigious awards an actor can obtain: the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. And he says he prefers it that way.

“When awards come at an early age, they make you make many mistakes, but I haven’t made any mistakes,” said Banderas, 58, in an interview this week with The Associated Press in Miami.

Banderas, whose credits in Hollywood include The Mask of Zorro, was honored for his role as Salvador

Mallo in Pedro Almodóvar’s latest drama, Pain and Glory.

It is their eighth film together, but the first in which Banderas portrays a version of his friend-director. In Pain and Glory, Mallo is a famous filmmaker reflecting on his life and his career that is based on Almodóvar, including a recreation of the director’s Madrid apartment.

“Pedro Almodóvar is a very private person and I understood him,” Banderas said. He took a step to “show a part of himself that he had never revealed before.”

The film was a favorite for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, but Banderas

was the one honored. “It’s a bittersweet feeling,” said Banderas, who was in Florida for Miami Fashion Week.

When he took the stage to receive the award, he did it in his name and in the name of his character, or Almodóvar himself.

“I played him and because of that it is an award that I share with him,” said Banderas, whose credits with the director include Labyrinth of Passion, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

“I am extremely grateful and I have incredible respect and love for this person that has given me so much,” he said.

for comScore. “Even if the top movie didn’t earn $100 million, we had a big up weekend and we need more of those to get out of this deficit that we’ve been in since basically the beginning of the year.”

The news, though, wasn’t good for Booksmart, the acclaimed teen comedy starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever. Amid its disappointing widerelease opening last weekend, director Olivia Wilde appealed on social media for fans to support a movie “made by and about women.” On its second weekend, Booksmart couldn’t turn it around, earning $3.3 million on 2,518 screens.

Overseas, Cannes’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite, a social satire from Korean director Bong Joon-ho, opened with $24.6 million. That was driven largely by stellar sales in South Korea where Bong’s raucous thriller easily outpaced Godzilla.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to comScore.

Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, $49 million ($130 million international) 2. Aladdin, $42.3 million ($78.3 million international) 3. Rocketman, $25 million ($19.2 million international) 4. Ma, $18.3 million ($2.8 million international).

5. John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum, $11.1 million ($12.7 million international) 6. Avengers: Endgame, $7.8 million ($8.6 million international) 7. Pokémon Detective Pikachu, $6.7 million ($14.6 million international) 8. Booksmart, $3.3 million 9. Brightburn, $2.3 million 10. The Hustle, $1.3 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the US and Canada), according to comScore: 1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, $130 million 2. Aladdin, $78.3 million 3. Parasite, $24.6 million 4. Rocketman, $19.2 million 5. Doraemon: Nobita’s Chronicle Of The Moon Exploration, $18.4 million 6. The Secret Life of Pets 2, $17.2 million 7. Pokémon Detective Pikachu, $14.6 million 8. John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum, $12.7 million 9. Avengers: Endgame, $8.6 million 10. Happy Little Submarine: Space Pals, $3.4 million. n

GODZILLA: King of the Monsters, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, was brought down to size by poor reviews and middling interest from moviegoers, selling $49 million in tickets on its opening weekend. Still, the number was enough to give it a No. 1 finish.

Art

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

D4

www.businessmirror.com.ph

THE rise to global fame of the decades-old Korean minimalist art movement, called Tansaekhwa, which translates to “monochrome painting,” spurred local art awareness in Korea. A testament to this is Park Seo-Bo: The Untiring Endeavor, the 160-piece retrospective of the 87-year-old Tansaekhwa pioneer, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul. The show runs until September 1.

TANSAEKHWA TAKEOVER

The recent rise of contemporary Korean art from the outside in Korean art, Kim said the global and local momentum of the nation’s art boom could be sustained the same way how all of it started.

“Everything began with a Korean art gallery recognizing the beauty of Tansaekhwa. I think there should be more world-class art galleries around Korea to introduce Korean art to the international viewers,” he said. “Secondly, I see so many good Korean artists who just don’t have enough opportunity to be introduced worldwide. The major barrier is language.”

To ensure the continued and wider exposer of contemporary Korean art, which Kim characterizes as “dynamic” and “strong,” he said there should be more materials on Korean art written in English, along with more investment from the Korean government and business conglomerates.

“With this,” he said, “maybe we will have an even bigger chance in succeeding and introducing Korean art to the world.”

CIRCLES JT NISAY

jtnisay@gmail.com

S

EOUL, South Korea—There are more birds than cars and people combined on this blooming spring morning at Cheongwadaero, the road that cuts through the nation’s former and current seats of power.

Flanked on one side by the timeworn stone walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the home for 500 years of 27 monarchs from the Joseon Dynasty, and on the other, the imposing steel fences of Cheongwadae, the Korean presidential residence also known as Blue House, Cheongwadae-ro bridges Samcheong-ro on the Palace’s east and Hyoja-ro on its west. The two streets, right smack in the heart of Seoul, are lined up with art galleries, coffee shops, or combinations of the two—a testament to how much Koreans value culture and caffeine.

There are over 100 galleries and museums around Seoul, ranging from public establishments, to private galleries that renovate old structures into exhibition spaces, to a growing number of local branches of renowned global brands. Perhaps more glaring than the strength of the city’s art infrastructure is the demand it caters to.

Just last March, one of the nation’s most anticipated art events of the year opened to a rousing success at the Seoul Museum of Art with the first retrospective in Korea of influential 20th century British artist David Hockney. Cocurated by the London-based institution Tate with 133 pieces on display, the ongoing show garnered 40,000 people on its first four days.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), meanwhile, draws a guest count of 2.8 million people per year for all its four branches around the nation, with the Seoul branch attracting almost half of it with up to 7,000 visitors per day.

Blockbuster exhibits that attract more than 100,000 viewers over the course of its run have ramped up in Korea as general interest on the arts rose over the past few years. According to art professor and art magazine publisher Kim Bokki, there has always been a place for the arts in the hearts of Koreans, but the recent breakthrough didn’t totally spring from internal development. Rather, he sees it as a reaction to an external force: the growing global popularity of a Korean art movement that emerged in the 1970s.

Tansaekhwa, or Dansaekwha, took the international art scene by storm just a little over five years ago, pushing the Korean art market to become the 10th biggest in the world in 2016, according to Artprice.com. The movement is characterized as modernist abstraction, spearheaded by artists who lived through the Korean and Japanese wars, and are now in their 80s.

These people, as an Art Radar Journal article writes, “sought to escape the devastating social situation through new art styles.” Pioneers such as Lee Ufan, Chung Chang-Sup and Yun Hyong-Keun, among others, produced nonfigurative paintings in neutral

colors that are less rational and conceptual in subject, but more material-oriented.

Critics, however, compare Tansaekhwa with its contemporary Western models. In a 2014 interview with White Hot Magazine, renowned curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath talked about their New York show, titled Overcoming The Modern. Dansaekhwa: The Korean Monochrome Movement, and drew the line between the two minimalist movements.

“Unlike the reductionism of what is perceived as minimalism in the West, [the Tansaekhwa artists’] approach is more about accretion and layering,” Bardaouil and Fellrath said. “This is where the energy in these works reside.”

Kim, the Korean art professor, doubled down on the movement’s purity, saying that the Tansaekhwa pioneers were not influenced by Western artists as they do not speak English.

“They don’t exactly know the concept of Western abstract art, but they have been doing this [process] for so many years that they have created their own style of abstract art,” he said.

As curator Henry Meyric Hughes put it in his 2014 Art in Asia story, titled The International Art Scene and the Status of Dansaekhwa, “As opposed to Western modernists, who revolted against mainstream academic art and aesthetic idealism, and wanted to be provocative, subversive, obscure and defiant of systems of hierarchy and authority, Tansaekhwa artists sought to connect to their roots,” which he pointed to as “combination of elements from the cultural traditions of the Joseon Dynasty” and “oriental spiritualism.”

Kim added that the muted colors of Tansaekhwa pieces differ from that of Western arts. The Korean artists, he said, were inspired by nature and their everyday lives.

For one, paper was a prominent material in traditional Korean architecture, often used to protect doors and windows. These papers darkened over time, as well as from smoke when people cooked rice using wood. Kim said these dark, marks on papers inspired certain Tansaekhwa artists in their creation, the same way how Korean flowers informed their shades of red and yellow and pink.

The movement also focuses on the “meditative aspect of art production,” as well as “the relationship between materials, materials and creator, artwork and viewer” as an “exploration of the physical limitations of materials and their ability to interact with the viewer,” goes the Art Radar Journal story.

The movement’s phenomenal rise on the international stage began in 2013 when Joan Kee, an art history associate professor at the University of Michigan, released a book, titled Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method. Her work was the first publication on the topic written in English and basically introduced the under-the-radar Korean art style to the West.

The following year, three major exhibitions showcased Tansaekhwa artists in Seoul, Paris and Los Angeles, triggering a flurry of shows featuring the movement.

There was no bigger benefactor from the developments than the octogenarian pioneers of the Tansaekhwa. According to figures from a 2015 story by The New Yorker, the auction record of then-81-year-old artist Ha Chong-Hyun was $13,303, with half of his eight auctioned works going unsold in a span six years. Then the craze hit and he watched “45 of his paintings go on the auction block, with nine selling for more than a hundred thousand dollars.”

“To be honest, it was not possible to make a living making this kind of work in Korea,” Ha said in the story. “I was so tired and it’s such welcome news.”

The institutional and commercial obsession hit its climax in 2015, when Seoul-based Kukje Gallery mounted in collaborations the highly commended group exhibition Dansaekhwa as part of the official Collateral Event program of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Kim said that’s when general art appreciation in Korea really took off, saying “because there are many exhibits about Korean art around the world, art awareness in Korea is also increasing.”

He added, “Tansaekhwa is what made Korean art very famous globally. That’s why even the general public, like students and housewives, can access the abstract works of Tansaekhwa easier than before.”

In May 18, the MMCA Seoul opened Park Seo-Bo: The Untiring Endeavor, a retrospective on the venerated Tansaekhwa pioneer. On view until September 1, the show draws in crowds by the droves, with 160 pieces on display at the facility’s premier spaces, Galleries 1 and 2.

Kim said there were many attempts by Korean artists to make their mark on the global stage prior to the rise of Tansaekhwa, but the minimalist movement was the one to make it due to the global audience’s current penchant for historically charged pieces, as well as the universality of the genre.

And now that the art world has turned its head on

n Next week: A look at the current shows of some of Seoul’s most famous galleries and museums.

CATALINA AFRICA’S THIRD SOLO EXHIBITION AT SILVERLENS

SILVERLENS presents The Quality of Sunlight is a Filter Through Which Our Thoughts and Feelings Pass, Catalina Africa’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

Her previous exhibitions in Silverlens are The Mystery of the Abstract Jogging (2012) and Part 1: Reverse Boomerangs and Other Exercises for Pleasure (warm up/ cool down) (2015).

On view until July 6, The Quality of Sunlight is a Filter Through Which Our Thoughts and Feelings Pass presents paintings, objects, and video that explore the genre of landscape painting reconfigured into the artist’s unique visual language of patterned abstraction along with a personal narrative of illumination inspired by life near the sea.

Spanning several large paintings depicting the terrain she calls home, Africa reimagines the space of painting into a labyrinth of caverns and enveloping corners, womb-like for their depth and mystery, a complex for exploring artistic consciousness. She says, “Inevitably, it is about painting—a continuous refinement of my relationship to it, thus making akin the process of painting to the process of self-discovery.”

In staging her presence, the artist signs with a handprint echoing man’s first consciousness inside the cave several millennia ago, a way of performing magic to control destiny. Africa filters the rarefied air of her world with diagrammatic zones of emotional and imaginative power—dream mazes apparently, at certain times aided by the pure spirit of a child, the artist’s daughter, in making these pictures with the weight of authenticity. In another instance, the artist’s whole being seems to dissolve into atomic composition while experiencing the sensuousness of time, lying in the sand, into a state of bliss—a means of “translating emotional states into direct visual experience.”

Catalina Africa’s search for the authentic provides a unique style of painting toward ecstatic states of abstraction, followed by a rendition of the world without regard for the ordinary, in visionary fashion, filtering the ephemeral from the infinite.

The Quality of Sunlight is a Filter Through Which Our Thoughts and Feelings Pass is on view alongside Flux by Bea Valdes at Silverlens, 2263 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City.