BusinessMirror June 11, 2020

₧6-B biz eyed in new ecozones

By Elijah Felice Rosales

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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

GOVT TAPPING JAMES REID AS URBAN FARMING CHAMPION TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY AMID CONTAGION

RESIDENT Duterte’s approval of 12 new economic zones in the first half of the year is seen to have secured for the economy more than P6 billion worth of investments at a time the government is struggling to attract capital to the Philippines.

According to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), the President’s proclamation of 12 new industrial parks across the country will bring in P6.4 billion of investments. Duterte signed the papers between January and June licensing their operations as economic zones.

Mostly located in Luzon, the first half approvals are made up of nine information technology (IT) centers, two

manufacturing zones and one IT park, disclosed Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza on Wednesday.

“Peza is grateful to the President for his wise approval for the proclamation of new ecozones in the country amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” Plaza said. “Once export companies invest in these newly proclaimed ecozones, these will surely multiply investment and economic activities and opportunities in the Philippines.”

“Majority of the new ecozones— composing 67 percent of the total—will be located in Luzon, whereas the other 33.33 percent will be positioned in the Visayas and Mindanao,” she added.

The President issued the proclamations of Abiathar Commercial Complex, TDG Innovation and Global Business

Solutions Center, Ayala Bacolod Capitol Corporate Center and Silver City 4, all of which are IT centers, in January. During the same month, he signed the papers of Millennium Industrial Economic Zone, a manufacturing park.

In May and June the Chief Executive authorized IT centers GLAS Office Development, Bench City Center, Ortigas Technopoint Tower 1 & 2, NEX Tower and Robinsons Luisita 2 to operate as economic zones.

During the same period, manufacturing park Davao del Sur Industrial Economic Zone received the green light from Malacañang. IT park Batangas State University Knowledge, Innovation and Science Technology Park also got its presidential nod.

See “Ecozones,” A2

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JAN-MAY CUSTOMS TAKE DOWN 16.5% TO P210.2B www.businessmirror.com.ph

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Thursday, June 11, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 245

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

UNDERVALUED RICE IMPORTS COST GOVT P890M–FARM GROUP

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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HE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) on Wednesday claimed that undervaluation of rice imports continues with at least P890 million in lost tariff revenues from over 766,000 metric tons of staple imported from January to April.

In a statement, the FFF alleged that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) “continued to fail to check the gross undervaluation of rice imports, which has resulted in huge shortfalls in tariff collections.”

Citing BOC data, the FFF said tariff collections from January to April rice imports reached P4.8 billion, but noted that some shipments entered the country at lower freight on board (FOB) prices than the Customs’ own reference prices.

“Based on the FFF’s latest analysis, the BOC failed to collect an additional P471 million in tariffs during the first four months of 2020 due to the apparent undervaluation of FOB prices of imports,” the group said.

“About one-third of the volume imported was undervalued by at least 10 percent and accounted for 84 percent of the tariff shortfall,” the group added.

See “Rice,” A2

PLASTIC sheets divide sidewalk vendors and customers in Divisoria, Manila, as most parts of the metropolis moved cautiously toward resuming business in a “new normal.” NONIE REYES

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

EVENUES collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for the first five months of the year plunged by 16.5 percent year-on-year to P210.18 billion from P251.71 billion in 2019 as collections on nearly all major imported commodities suffered a bloodbath due to the pandemic.

Based on preliminary data obtained by the BusinessMirror, the bureau also missed its P213.51billion collection target for the January to May period by 1.6 percent or P3.33 billion.

Total revenues collected by BOC on imports dropped by 17.6 percent to P204.38 billion as of end-May this year from P248.06 billion last year.

On the other hand, total import volume slipped by 16.8 percent to 40.058 billion kilograms from 48.132 billion kg across all

commodities for the same period.

Customs Assistant Commissioner and spokesperson Vincent Philip Maronilla attributed the decline in revenue collections to the imposition of lockdowns in the Philippines and the country’s trading partners to slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s the effect of the pandemic on trade. March to May were periods of various quarantine arrangements not just in our country but also those with our trading partners,” Maronilla told the BusinessMirror.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.9510

In terms of top 10 country source, revenues on shipments from China for the five-month period dropped by P15.197 billion or 24 percent to P48.194 billion this year from P63.39 billion a year ago.

During the period, only the revenues from the shipments from the United States increased, with collections going up by 1.5 percent to P10.277 billion this year from P10.122 billion in 2019.

Despite the decline in the BOC’s revenue take for the period, Maronilla said they are still on track to hit the revised target of P520.4 billion this year.

He also expressed optimism that they would see a rebound in the bureau’s revenue collection by third quarter.

“As quarantine restrictions start to ease and the new normal sets in, we are looking forward to a better trade environment, hence better collections,” he said.

Of the top 10 commodities, the BOC lost the biggest amount of revenues on imported motor vehicles as its collection for such commodity fell by 23.5 percent (P8.796 billion) to P28.685 billion from P37.481 billion in 2019.

The next biggest decline in

revenues was from oil products as revenues slid by 13.3 percent (P6.985 billion) to P45.584 billion from P52.569 billion a year ago.

Of the top 10 commodities, it was only the revenue collection on rice that showed an uptick year-on-year.

Despite the rice import volume for the period plummeting by 32.2 percent to 1.25 billion kg from 1.847 billion kg in 2019, the bureau’s rice tariff collection ended on a positive territory.

Rice tariff collection of the government for the period was slightly up by 0.8 percent to P7.978 billion from P7.91 billion a year ago.

Maronilla said the rice import volume dropped due to the “decisions of supplying countries to control the volume of their exports because of the health crisis.”

Nonetheless, he said they are confident of hitting the P10-billion target for rice tariff collection to fund the allocation for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund under the Rice Tariffication Law. For May alone, BOC’s collection nosedived by 48.4 percent to P30 billion from P58.17 billion in the same month in 2019.

Continued on A2

JAIME AUGUSTO ZOBEL DE AYALA, chairman of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), signs a poster praising the bank employees as BPI Vice Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala looks on. The brothers visited the bank’s Ayala North Exchange branch to connect with employees as they prepare for operations to pick up with the implementation of the general community quarantine in Metro Manila and other areas. BPI vowed to make banking easier, more convenient and safer for all, whether through it’s physical branches or digital channels. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

n JAPAN 0.4638 n UK 63.5876 n HK 6.4453 n CHINA 7.0587 n SINGAPORE 35.9618 n AUSTRALIA 34.7409 n EU 56.6344 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3149

Source: BSP (June 10, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, June 11, 2020

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70K workers permanently lose jobs in five months–DOLE data

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

EARLY 70,000 workers were permanently displaced in the first five months of the year amid the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Wednesday.

Citing the latest displacement report from the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said they registered 69,022 employees who were retrenched by 2,068 firms from January to June 8, 2020.

Most or 25,634 of the affected workers were employed in the administrative and support service activities.

There were also significant retrenchments in the following industries: manufacturing (8,400); other service activities (6,095); wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (6,172); accommodation and food services activities (4,001); professional, scientific and technical activities (3,938); information and communication (3,470); financial and insurance (2,996); and construction (2,537).

Those with the least labor displacements are education (2,464); transportation and storage (1,975); agriculture, forestry and fishing (1,344); electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (479); human health and social work activities (450); real estate (390); arts and entertainment and recreation (293); mining and quarrying (151); water supply, sewerage, waste management and reme-

diation activities (3).

The bulk of the affected workers were registered in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon.

Actual reports

THE initial displacement figure this year was higher than that of full-year 2018, which was only 68,587. It is also expected to exceed the 88,947 full-year figure in 2019 as community quarantines continue to restrict business operations nationwide.

The DOLE earlier projected the number of unemployed workers this year could be as high as 3 million to 5 million.

In the April round of its Labor Force Survey, the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) said 7.3 million workers were unemployed nationwide.

Bello, however, noted that the figure of PSA is not based on “actual figures” like their displacement report.

“The 7.3 million is based on the survey result, not on actual [figures],” Bello explained.

The DOLE’s displacement report is the consolidation of data submitted by companies. It does not include unreported retrenchments, as well as the displacement of informal sector workers.

OUT of work since the lockdowns, a jeepney driver gets his unit ready in hopes of getting included in the government’s plan to tap jeepneys for delivery service, since they remain prohibited from plying their usual routes in quarantine areas. ROY DOMINGO

‘Playdown’ attempt MEANWHILE, the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) slammed the DOLE’s alleged attempt to play down the number of unemployed workers.

“We suspect that Secretary Bello’s delusion is aimed at downplaying the gravity of the situation that is now upon us to justify the government’s anemic response to

what the World Bank warns as the worst recession in 150 years,” Sentro secretary general Joshua Mata said.

Federation of Free Workers (FFW) vice president Julius Cainglet also criticized Bello’s statement, especially since the government is now preparing a stimulus package for Covid-affected establishments and workers.

“The reason we generate data

is we want to be guided in the policy decisions government takes.

Government should respond based on what the numbers tell us. The DOLE should not interpret the numbers differently just to suit its policy biases or just to make it look good,” Cainglet said.

Instead of reinterpreting PSA data, both labor leaders called on the DOLE to just focus on addressing the labor impact of Covid-19.

BTr raises additional ₧20B in tap facility bonds auction

INDIA ASSURES PHL OF STEADY SUPPLY OF ANTI-COVID DRUGS

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

AP/DAVID J. PHILLIP, FILE

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HE Indian government has given assurances that the Philippines will benefit from the vaccine it is now developing to fight the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the commitment to President Rodrigo R. Duterte during their 25-minute phone conversation on Tuesday evening.

“Prime Minister Modi likewise said that India is ready to extend all possible cooperation to the Philippines and that the Philippines will definitely benefit from the vaccine that India is developing,” Malacañang said in a statement on Wednesday.

India’s leader said they will also provide the country a steady supply of pharmaceutical products used to fight Covid-19.

“Prime Minister Modi assured the supply of affordable medicines and Covid-19 pharmaceutical products to the Philippines, including hydroxychloroquine,” the Palace said.

Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug, which is currently part of the Solidarity Trial of the World Health Organization (WHO) of potential drugs which can be used to treat Covid-19.

At least 220 Filipinos are currently participating in the WHO’s clinical trial.

For his part, Duterte lauded the Indian government’s gesture, which he said demonstrated its “commitment to cooperation to good neighbors.”

Duterte and Modi also mutually agreed in providing repatriation assistance for Filipino and Indian nationals affected by the Covid-related lockdowns.

Both leaders have committed to continue strengthening bilateral relations not only on public health concerns like the Covid-19 pandemic, but also on food security.

Samuel P. Medenilla

HE Bureau of the Treasury raised an additional P20 billion in 3-year Treasury bonds (T-bonds) during its tap facility auction on Tuesday.

This is on top of the P30 billion worth of T-bonds it also awarded on the same day.

Tenders during the tap facility auction reached P46.893 billion, more than twice the P20-billion offering.

The tap facility auction was open to all 11 government securities dealers-market makers.

The average auction rate for the tenor at 2.558 percent was lower than the previous auction and the prevailing secondary market rates, as well as the original

3.5-percent coupon rate.

With a remaining life of 2 years and 10 months, the 3-year Tbonds mature on April 21, 2023.

For this week, the Treasury sold a total of P88 billion in debt papers. Of which, P38 billion was raised through auctioning off Treasury bills, while the remaining P50 billion was raised via T-bond sale.

For this month, the Treasury aims to borrow P170 billion from the local debt market, the same level it programmed to borrow last month.

Prior to Covid-19, the government had set a P1.4-trillion borrowing program this year.

While the government has yet to firm up the revised borrowing program for this year, the Cabinetlevel Development Budget Coordi-

nation Committee (DBCC) expects a wider budget deficit this year at 8.4 percent of GDP or equivalent to P1.613 trillion.

Meanwhile, the country’s debtto-GDP ratio is projected by the government to increase to 49.8 percent this year from 39.6 percent last year.

For 2021 and 2022, the DBCC sees an even higher debt-to-GDP ratio of 51.5 percent and 52.3 percent, respectively.

Despite the projected increase in the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, economic managers had said this is still far lower than the most recent peak of 71.6 percent in 2004.

A budget deficit occurs when expenditures exceed revenues, while debt-to-GDP ratio is used to gauge a country’s ability to pay off its debt.

Jan-May Customs take down 16.5% to ₧210.2B Continued from A1

With this, the bureau also missed its P33.33-billion target for the month by 10 percent.

Revenue collection for the month for the imported commodities sank by 49 percent to P29.674 billion from P58.188 billion in 2019.

Except for rice, the bureau’s collection for all commodities was lower compared to last year.

The bureau suffered the big-

gest blow in revenue collection from oil products, with BOC’s take settling at only P5.041 billion from P16.984 billion in May 2019. This was a double-digit drop of 70.3 percent.

Meanwhile, rice tariff collection for the month surged by 20.5 percent to P2.508 billion from P2.081 billion in 2019. Rice import volume jumped by 6.9 percent to 366.552 million kg from 342.773 million kg in the same month last year.

By top country source, the BOC recorded a revenue loss of P8.325 billion from shipments from China alone in May this year. This represented a decline of 55.3 percent to P6.727 billion from P15.052 billion in the same month in 2019.

Aside from revenues from imports, Maronilla said they also collected P480 million from postclearance audit and some revenues from auction this year.

Rice…

Continued from A1

Citing BOC data, FFF said one shipment of 6,014 metric tons of rice with 5 percent brokens arrived from Vietnam in April 2020 with a declared FOB value of $319.63 per MT, which was 30 percent lower than the Customs’ $447 per MT reference price.

“BOC officials have maintained that they have to respect the declared FOB values of importers for as long as documentary proof is submitted, even if the values fall below their reference rates,” the FFF said.

“If this is the practice, what then is the purpose of the reference rates? What will now stop an importer from conniving with the exporter to issue undervalued invoices or issue two separate invoices to split the total cost of the imports?” the FFF added.

Furthermore, the FFF claimed that freight and insurance costs of the rice imports were also “grossly” misdeclared, resulting in lost tariff collections of about P416 million.

“An analysis of the BOC data reveals that importers spent less than 2 centavos per kilo, or about $0.30 per metric ton, to insure and ship rice from countries like Thailand and Vietnam all the way to Manila,” it said.

“In comparison, internationally published rates peg regular freight and insurance at a minimum of $33 per MT, or 110 times the value declared by importers. An estimated P416 million in tariff collections were lost because of this anomaly,” it added.

The FFF proposed that the BOC adjust its reference prices “to include internationally recognized insurance and freight rates so that it can properly detect undervalued imports.”

The FFF said it estimated that undervaluation in rice imports last year resulted in a tariff shortfall of P1.9 billion.

“By not diligently enforcing its rules, the BOC did not only reduce the government’s collection of much-needed tariff revenues. More importantly, it deprived millions of small rice farmers of a cumulative amount of almost P3 billion since the Rice Tariffication Law or RTL took effect in March 2019,” it said.

The amount, he added, “should have helped farmers cope with the ill effects of liberalized rice imports and even Covid-19.”

Ecozones…

Continued from A1

Plea for incentives WITH the investments the Peza is bringing in to the economy, Plaza pleaded before lawmakers to allow the agency to retain its menu of fiscal incentives granted to investors, but which are now on the verge of being overhauled under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) bill filed in Congress.

Under the CREATE bill, corporate income tax will be reduced to 25 percent, from 30 percent at present, on its first year of implementation. In exchange, incentives being enjoyed by economic zone locators, including the 5-percent tax on gross income earned paid in lieu of all local and national taxes, will be lifted after four to nine years.

“Despite the lacking efficiency factors, we’re able to continue to attract investors in the country because of our incentives which are tried, tested and proven to be globally competitive,” Plaza argued.

The Peza chief added it is the agency’s best practices, one-stop shop character, ease of doing business and menu of tax perks that make it viable in the investment competition globally. She said it is important for the Peza to retain these policies in order to keep on attracting investors to the Philippines in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is the reason we are appealing for the status quo of Peza’s incentives and powers,” Plaza said, recommending legislators to concentrate on the passage of stimulus packages instead of the CREATE bill.

The Peza is trying to recover from two consecutive years of double-digit investment declines.

In 2019 capital registered with the agency fell by over 16 percent to P117.54 billion, from P140.24 billion in 2018, on uncertainties caused by the move to rationalize incentives.

Economic zones, which the Peza oversees, employ roughly 1.6 million workers nationwide and contribute a huge sum into the country’s export receipts.

News

BusinessMirror Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, June 11, 2020

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Congress to keep close watch on pneumonia vaccine tender

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

PARTY-LIST lawmaker on Wednesday said Congress would closely watch unfolding developments related to the “biggest vaccine tender” to make sure that the Department of Health (DOH) is correctly spending the P4.9 billion allotted for procurement of pneumococcal vaccines.

Philreca Rep. Presley de Jesus said he filed House Resolution 906 to ensure integrity of the vaccine tender.

De Jesus said the resolution seeks to encourage an open, fair, and competitive bidding process for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, PCV10 and PCV13.

The resolution also urges the DOH to ensure the continuous “safe” implementation of the mandated National Immunization Program for children despite the challenges

posed by the virus pandemic.

“Definitely. First, as a policy, we should not delay the procurement of vaccines for VPDs [vaccinepreventable diseases], especially as we have seen a surge of VPDs in several pockets of community outbreaks,” he said following a webinar on “Communicating Key Truths in Public Health.”

“W hile the DOH promised a swift review of the PCV tender, we at Congress should make sure the

viability of all types of pneumonia vaccines,” he added.

For her part, House Committee on Health Chairman Angelina Tan said open communication in public health is critical to ensure factual, sciencebased information, especially during a pandemic.

Earlier, Tan said the House of Representatives is now studying the creation of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) to provide evidence-based information to the national government regarding vaccine immunization.

During a webinar, Health Undersecretary Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Health Technology Assessment Committee (HTAC) is still reviewing PCV10 and PCV13. The results of the review, she said, is still yet to be released but a Public Health Forum is set to happen this week.

“We have a public forum on Thursday based on the assessment that has been done by the HTAC so that we can address the different queries coming from our stakeholders. We can also consult on the different aspects of this assessment,” she said.

Last year, the DOH suspended a call for bidding for PCVs after medical experts noted that the bidding favored

DepEd exec reissues warning vs illegal printing, distribution of learning materials

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HE De pa r t ment of E duc at ion (DepEd) has issued another stern warning on the illegal printing and distribution of some online learning materials which could have originated from old and outdated workbooks.

“We have received reports of chain e-mails circulating containing links to learning materials claiming to be from DepEd and DepEd Commons. Do not be hoodwinked by these e-mails purporting to be helping for a cause but are in fact misleading. Our parents, learners, and teachers need only to visit commons.deped.gov. ph to access all of our learning materials for free,” said Undersecretary Alain Pascua.

Pascua said that since the launch of DepEd Commons, some unscrupulous individuals have tried to take advantage of the medium by downloading its materials for printing and selling them online.

Currently, the DepEd official said, chain e-mails have surfaced bearing DepEd’s name and that of DepEd Commons.

One e-mail read: “Passing this on: “If you have a yaya, driver, guard, gardener, or any staff member with children attending public schools, please take a load off their and their teachers’ backs by printing the workbooks of their kids for them!

We need to pull together to get through this. Our country’s greatest resource is its people. How can you help this country?

Start in your own home and get the word out for others to start in theirs.

Thank you, DepEd and Deped Commons.

[You will need a google/gmail account]” This short message is followed by links that users can click on that direct the user to unsecure web sites whose ownership are unknown.

Upon review, the materials do not conform to DepEd’s Most Essential Learning Competencies or MELCs. Pascua added that, “There are groups and individuals who are trying to discredit this

administration by distributing these outdated and unaccredited learning materials for the use of our learners as part of the blended leaning approach, and using DepEd’s name for their credit.”

He also reminded users to carefully discern from who and from where the e-mails are coming from.

Similar to the warning earlier issued by DepEd, the agency is bent on locating those responsible and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, including the filing of cases for violations of intellectual-property rights, copyright infringements, and other criminal and administrative actions.

Pascua reminded teachers and the public to be wary of educational materials being promoted as “authorized” or “official” DepEd MELCs, Workbooks, or Worksheets, and DepEd Commons materials.

He reiterated that all materials are still being quality assured (QA) by the Curriculum and Instruction (CI) strand, particularly Bureau of Learning Resources (BLR).

“All DepEd authorized and quality-assured materials are free, and they will be uploaded once finalized at the DepEd Commons where access and downloading will also be free.

Printed materials will also be provided by learning centers when necessary.”

Pascua appealed to everyone to report any unauthorized promotion, or distribution, of learning materials which is prejudicial to the efforts that are being undertaken by the agency.

Complaints and reports may be sent via e-mail to action@deped.gov.ph, or via the following contact numbers: Mobile: 0919-456-0027 (Smart) 0995-921-8461 (Globe) Hot lines: 8636-1663 8638-7530 8636-1942 8638-7529 8634-0222 8638-7531 8638-8641 8635-9817

a single manufacturer.

According to Vergeire, the government is spending P4.9 billion on the procurement of pneumococcal vaccines.

During the webinar, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society of the Philippines (PIDSP) Vice President Dr. Mary Ann Bunyi said both PCV10 and PCV13 are comparable in performance based on new evidence gathered by global health expert.

“We have been given updates on both PCV10 and PCV13. These updates have been reviewed and assessed by the immunization committee and we see that both are comparable,” said Bunyi.

“So, the updates that were given to us by both companies we have forwarded to the Department of Health and we leave it to the DOH, which pneumococcal vaccine will be made available for public use.

Especially given for free to the vulnerable children,” she said.

In February 2019, the World Health Organization reaffirmed its position that the two available PCVs in the market—PCV10 and PCV13—are equally effective in preventing overall pneumococcal diseases in children.

Buy, sell at a tap of a finger: Gatchalian pushes passage of Internet transactions bill

By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

S

EN. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, moving to facilitate online trading amid the virus pandemic, urged Congress on Wednesday to front-load the passage of the proposed Internet Transactions Act which, he said, will “make buying, selling and other transactions faster with just a tap of a finger.”

In filing Senate Bill 1591, Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, said the passage of Senate Bill 1591 will also “make online transactions easier and faster” as more Filipinos turn to the Internet to conduct daily businesses under the new economy.

The senator pointed out that e-commerce provides consumers with time-saving options and access to swift delivery of goods and services, adding that “it also presents value for money because from the seller’s perspective, set-up costs are lower and operating costs are kept at a minimum.”

At the same time, Gatchalian observed that the Philippines’s ecommerce is still at its developing stage despite the Philippines’s estimated 76 million active Internet users and high Internet penetration rate (71 percent vis-à-vis global average of 54 percent), longer hours spent daily on the Internet (10 hours vis-à-vis a global average of six hours and 42 minutes), and very high social-media penetration for population aged 13+ (99 percent vis-à-vis a 59 percent global average).

In a news statement, the senator cited a study by Google and Temasek, noting the Philippine Internet economy posted a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $7 billion in 2019. The value pales in comparison with those of Malaysia ($11 billion), Vietnam ($12 billion), Singapore ($12 billion), Thailand ($16 billion), and Indonesia ($40 billion). The country’s e-commerce market, on the other hand, remains at 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product, he added.

Moreover, Gatchalian asserted “it is paramount to enact SB 1591 to resolve key concerns” in the country’s e-commerce industry, citing lack of trust; Internet infrastructure; logistics infrastructure; payment mechanisms; lack of governing entity at the regional level that can fight cybercrime and settle cross-border disputes; difficulty in the process of returning product; taxation; and, online consumer complaints.

He added that the proposed Internet Transactions Act will also pave the way for the establishment of a singular office that will be “given the responsibility of carrying out provisions to ensure the implementation of Republic Act 8792, or the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000; and be the focal point in the monitoring and implementation of the Philippine e-commerce road map.

DOH: ₧1-M checks given to kin of 30 fallen health-care workers

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HE Department of Health (DOH) has announced that it has already accomplished the task given to them by President Duterte to distribute the monetary benefits of frontline health-care workers (HCWs)—who either perished or fell critically ill—in the fight to contain the virus pandemic.

Thirty of the 32 qualified beneficiaries of HCWs who have died already received the P1 million each, including 19 others who fell severely ill after

contracting the disease.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they are still coordinating with the two heirs of the surviving family members who are based in the United Kingdom and the United States, for the transfer of the government assistance.

“Another two were validated and added to the list [on Tuesday] to make the total 34. [However, upon verification, two were delisted from the list, so what was left were 32 in the list,” Vergeire told

the BusinessMirror late Tuesday night.

Two HCWs have been found ineligible based on the current implementing guidelines under Joint Administrative Order 2020-001, hence, their claimants have been delisted from the list of beneficiaries. The ineligibility was brought about by issues in the diagnoses specified on the death certificates.

Under the law, public and private health-care workers who contract severe Covid-19 infection while in the line of duty will be awarded a P100,000 com-

pensation, and P1,000,000 to the family of any health worker who may die while taking care of infected patients.

“Following the directive of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to immediately release the compensation to the bereaved families and recovered health-care workers by June 9th, DOH in its accomplishment report announced that heirs of fallen health-care workers due to Covid-19 have received compensation from the DOH,” the agency said in a news statement. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

TheBroa

Business

A4 Thursday, June 11, 2020 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

Govt tapping James Reid as urban farming cham

Covid-19 propels city-farming

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas,

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@jearcalas Reporter

HE coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic not only highlighted the flaws of various food systems in the world but also emphasized one vital thing that has been ailing the farm sector: neglect for food production.

The disruptions in domestic trade caused by lockdowns have resulted in an imbalance in the food supply, resulting in the shortage of food products in certain areas like the metropolis while having a glut in food-production areas.

Such a situation, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said, puts cities, particularly those in developing countries like the Philippines, in a vulnerable state with the urban poor having to bear the brunt of the food system disruptions.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting urban food systems worldwide, posing a number of challenges for cities and local governments that are obliged to deal with rapid changes in food availability, accessibility and affordability – which strongly impact the food security and nutrition situation of urban populations,” the FAO said in a policy brief.

“The bottomline is that poor people in urban areas are seriously affected not only by the spread of the virus itself but also by policies and measures to contain its spread – unless effective [programs] are put into place to mitigate these effects and to support their livelihoods,” it added.

Food system

THE FAO noted that the Covid-19 pandemic did not only expose “serious limitations” in the global food trade but also in the urban food system “functioning and resilience.”

“Along with the evolution of the pandemic and also in its wake, important questions have to be answered regarding how urban food systems can be better managed to avoid such events turning into food security, nutrition and

livelihood crises,” it said.

In fact, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on urban food systems hit Filipinos close to home: the lack of household food security.

Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, pointed out that the current public health crisis is an “eye-opener” that should prod authorities to promptly address the “limitations of the country’s food supply and shortcomings in its distribution system” Villar said a shift in government priorities for food production is not only urgently needed but would also change people’s mindsets on farming.

“We have seen a renewed interest and enthusiasm in urban farming and backyard gardening.

That’s a good indication and we should keep the momentum going,” she said.

Organizing programs

ACCORDING to Villar, “growing food in one’s backyard is the most effective way, especially for foodpoor families, to make sure that they will not go hungry during emergencies.”

The solon said urban agriculture is a key measure to avert and alleviate “food poverty,” particularly among the urban poor. “We can empower people to grow or produce their own food as much as we can, but agriculture officials and policy-makers should put in place a sustainable program to ensure that the people will not run out of food, with or without a crisis.”

Villar’s views weren’t lost on the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The DA said it is cognizant of

the various impacts on different layers and segments of the country’s food value chain of government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of these segments is household food security and urban agriculture.

In April, the DA kick-started its urban agriculture program aimed at boosting local food production, particularly ensuring household food security, during the public health crisis.

Outreach project

UNDER its urban agriculture program, the DA said it will distribute free seeds to interested individuals as well as partner w it h loca l gover nment units (LGUs) in Metro Manila and nationwide to establish an urban agriculture system.

“The urban agriculture initiative serves as one of the DA strategies to provide Filipino families, including city dwellers, who were affected by the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, with adequate, accessible and affordable food,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said. “With this project, we are empowering urban residents to be self-reliant and enjoy a regular source of nutritious vegetables.”

To date, the DA has served about 721,169 individuals/households out of the 966,956 households it targets to benefit from its urban agriculture program.

The DA added that it has already partnered with 19 provincial LGUs, 243 municipal-level and city-level LGUs and 13 communities, barangays and schools.

The DA is eyeing to partner with 20 provincial LGUs, 291 municipal-level and city-level LGUs and 41 communities, barangays and schools under its urban agriculture program.

Designating a champion

LAST May, the DA unveiled that local celebrity James Reid would be its Ambassador for Food Security. The DA added that Reid volunteered for the role.

Reid himself admitted he is not an “expert” in agriculture but disclosed that he wanted to use his “visibility” to champion agriculture.

“I am still new to the world of agriculture. I’ve always wanted to use my visility for something I believe in. I want to push for innova-

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and James Reid lead the launch of the Plant, Plant Plant program on May 26, 2020, at the DA Central Office in Quezon City.

tions in the field of agriculture,” he said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

Reid revealed that he started a new company, The Freshest Inc., which will focus on urban farming, particularly promoting hydroponics in cities as part of the new normal. The actor said he would release details of his new venture in the coming weeks.

Beyond gimmickry

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and newly designated Ambassador on Food SecurityJames Reid. Department of Agriculture. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

NONETHELESS, Reid disclosed that he plans to create “a lot of content” to expose to more people “the importance of urban farming” and, hopefully, “inspire” the youth to venture into agriculture and become “the next generation of farmers.” “[Farming] is something we tend to overlook and is something

that should not be taking for granted. I believe farming should be one of the biggest industries in the Philippines and something Filipinos should be proud of,” he said.

Economist Pablito M. Villegas said the DA’s move to tap Reid as “Ambassador for Food Security” could be viewed as the embodiment of the future of farming: Millennials with a passion for agriculture.

“This could be a sound investment of the DA as he could encourage a particular representation of the population the Millennials to venture in farming. To encourage them that there is money, there is hope and there is food security in agriculture [is a good move],” Villegas told the BusinessMirror.

“It could be easily misconstrued as a simple gimmick but,

if properly used by the DA, it can boost the demand for urban agriculture,” Villegas added.

Engaging LGUs

GOOD Greens + Co (GG+C), a subsidiary of Delbros group, has said that vertical farming infrastructure is one of the technologies that city dwellers and city LGUs could utilize in establishing and sustaining their very own urban agriculture systems in the new normal.

GG+C said the use of vertical farming infrastructure is ideal to kickstart urban agriculture in various cities in the country due to congested and limited space.

GG+C has built a 23-square meter tower farm in San Fernando, Pampanga, that produces the same volume as much as a 2,700-square

aderLook

sMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace | Thursday, June 11, 2020

A5

mpion to boost food security amid contagion

g opportunities to centerstage practices for urban agriculture.

This would not only ensure a working urban farming system but will also provide employment to young agriculturists, he explained.

The government should also complement its urban agriculture program with proper consumer education on why they should produce certain types of foods and the benefits of various products, Villegas added.

“Educating them what to eat and what kind of food they are able to access right now creates demand,” he said. “If people realize that food sold in the market is pesticide- and chemical-laden, then they would prefer to produce their own organic food.”

Reducing waste

meter plot of ground. The tower farm produces around 170 kilograms of vegetables, according to the firm.

“The company has plans to further its reach in Bacolod, Silay, Quezon City, Makati City, Siargao, Davao, and Boracay within the year. Food security is of primary importance, and is a key pillar of our national sustainability,” GG+C President Simon Villalon said in a recent statement.

GG+C sa id it cost s about P500,000 per farm tower but the LGU provides the land. Villalon said their expansion entails a mix of both privately-owned and publicly invested vertical farms.

“The vision for the Good Greens’ vertical towers is to be growing in the center of a vibrant and healthy community. The automated verti-

cal farms are designed specifically to maximize available space, and in our studies the harvest yield of our farms is ten-times the volume of traditional farming,” he said.

“A farm that would, for example, output 1.7 tons of greens monthly would require around 500 square meters to 800 square meters, and cost about P6 million,” he explained.

Creating a market

VILLEGAS, a former United Nations’ food security and value chain consultant, said various urban agriculture programs of the government in the past have repeatedly failed because of one key reason: they were not demanddriven.

Villegas explained that “assured markets” should be created

in order for urban farmers to sustain their food production and even go beyond household food security level.

“It has to be more on the demand and not supply lead. Create first the market. If it is only aimed for household food security it will not be sustainable. It should go beyond that the government should show that as a community, you can grow it together,” he said.

One way to create a market, Villegas explained, is by requiring LGUs to source all the food requirements of its employees, for example a city hall, from its own farmer-residents or from a partner subdivision that has a community garden or farm.

Villegas said LGUs could also kick-start providing their employees with healthy food packs every

pay day or once a month, which includes fruits and vegetables directly sourced from their urban farmers.

Urban farming

VILLEGAS added that LGUs could also pass an enabling order requiring households to plant in their own backyards or in their subdivisions their very own food requirements.

“When I was in Tonga, that small-nation state had a plantingorder law wherein all households must plant what he can produce for his household food security. The same could be done by the Metro Manila Council,” he said.

Furthermore, Villegas said LGUs should also hire agriculturists, preferably new graduates, for every barangay to sustain proper

THE Covid-19 pandemic also puts a spotlight on one of the usually neglected problems of the country’s food system: wastage.

Villegas said reducing food waste is also a vital component of urban agriculture as scraps could be turned into compost while other waste materials like plastic bottles could be utilized as gardening pots.

The FAO pointed out that reducing food loss and wastage is also one of the best ways to increase food production. Reducing food loss and wastage, the FAO said, would generate additional food supplies that could be distributed to households that are at most risk during this pandemic.

“FAO encourages countries to adopt holistic approaches to tackle food loss and waste reduction, in an effort to facilitate access to food for all and particularly for vulnerable groups during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.

Jovita B. Raval of the National Nutrition Council said the promotion of urban agriculture by the DA is a step in the right direction to ensure that households have available food supply.

However, Raval proposed that the DA educate city dwellers to produce healthy and nutritious food that would help them boost their immune systems and improve their well-being.

“We should really promote a sustainable healthy diet in our food system. Based on the studies of our experts, our healthy diet should be shifting to a more plant-based diet,” she said. “We should lessen consumption of meat products and move toward fruits and vegetables.”

Based on the survey of the National Economic and Development Authority, Filipinos would demand healthier food products as they seek to stay healthy and boost their immune system under the new normal.

Integrative ecosystem

PHILIPPINE Permaculture Association (PPA) founder Bert Peeter said the Covid-19 and the “New Normal” is a golden opportunity for permaculture to grow in the country. Permaculture is a system that works according to the ways how nature is designed, Peeters explained.

Peeters said permaculture could help urban cities to establish a sustainable and ecological farming system by assessing first the current assets that they have such as soil and water availability.

Peeters, who lives in an offgrid house in a Marikina subdivision, said greening the metropolis should be part of the “New Normal.”

He proposes pocket-parks and urban-farming zones in cities to

ensure that residents have a stable supply of healthy food and allow them to earn additional income.

Peeters said urban agriculture should be more of a community endeavor to ensure sufficiency of food stocks among city dwellers.

“Residents could now do barter with their neighbors if they have bumper crop harvests,” he told the BusinessMirror. “And better if they can go and trade with other cities as well.”

Tweaking the system

SEN. Francisco N. Pangilinan said the “Sagip Saka” (save farming) law that he principally authored, helped farmers to cope with the adverse impacts of Covid-19.

The direct and negotiated purchasing by LGUs and national government agencies for their agricultural needs, particularly for their relief operations and feeding programs, has been allowed by the Republic Act 11321 or the Sagip Saka Act, according to Pangilinan.

“Under that law, direct and negotiated purchasing of agricultural requirements of LGUs and national government agencies is now allowed. What happens now is that the government units become the ‘big brothers’ of our farmers,” Pangilinan said during a webinar hosted by Greenpeace Philippines.

“These provincial and municipal governments have jails to feed, have hospitals to feed; and they can now fill their requirements by buying directly from local farmers and fishermen there’s no need for a bidding process,” the lawmaker added. “W hat happens there, therefore, is that our farmers have an assured market already.”

The assured market and the right price for their produce are the best incentives for farmers to continue planting amid these challenging times, the senator said.

“This should be the new and better normal: farmers having access to the market at the right price,” Pangilinan said.

Yielding gains

THE DA has reported that local farmers have earned at least P2.38 billion for directly selling their produce to about 425 LGUs since the country was placed in various forms of quarantine measures or lock-downs. The DA noted that such an amount of farm procurement was unprecedented.

Pangilinan noted that the direct procurement by LGUs for farm products, as a way to fill their needs for relief packs, was able to save farmers from losing their income.

He cited as example the case in North Cotabato wherein the prevailing farm-gate price for squash was at P1 per kilogram but farmers were able to sell their produce at P4 per kilogram to local governments.

Pangilinan and Dar pointed out that such partnership shall continue and be strengthened under the “New Normal.”

Direct purchasing of farm produce, which promotes a shorter supply chain, should be part of the new normal especially for urban food systems, the FAO said.

“The crisis provides an opportunity to underline the multiple benefits of local food systems, enabling local actors to better coordinate during such crisis to avoid main gaps in food distribution, and above all, making cities more food resilient to such crisis thanks to existing urban and peri-urban food production, processing and the setup and maintenance of local food reserves,” the FAO added.

A6 Thursday, June 11, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

When will the Covid-19 pandemic end in Philippines?

A

N online article published by msn.com titled “Singaporean AI Predicts When Covid-19 Will End in the Philippines” should cheer up this nation of 100 million people. Trixie Zabal-Mendoza wrote: “Singapore University of Technology and Design is able to project the infection curve and when the virus will end for a particular country using an AI algorithm. For the Philippines, the algorithm predicts the virus will end some time in July.” The article paints a rosy scenario, but the good news being proffered should be taken with a grain of salt.

A Women’s Health article written by Lauren Krouse quoted Dr. Faheem Younus, the chief of infectious diseases at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, saying: “Honestly, it’s impossible to say if and when the coronavirus will die down because it’s a totally new virus, and therefore unpredictable. But pandemics have happened before, and they eventually pass as they become more contained, and as vaccines are developed and distributed.

But researchers do look at past pandemics to make very baseline predictions about when it might end. In the past, pandemics have typically lasted between 12 and 36 months.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the US, gives a sample of a past pandemic timeline: In 2009, a novel H1N1 flu pandemic (swine flu) occurred. The World Health Organization declared a pandemic in June 2009, and by mid-September, the Food and Drug Administration approved four vaccines for the virus, and they started getting administered in October. In late December, vaccination was opened up to anyone who wanted it, and the pandemic was deemed over in August 2010.

Sarah Cobey, epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist of the University of Chicago said no one knows yet how the pandemic will end. “This coronavirus is unprecedented in the combination of its easy transmissibility, a range of symptoms going from none at all to deadly, and the extent that it has disrupted the world. A highly susceptible population led to near exponential growth in cases. This is a distinct and very new situation,” she said.

Cobey said projections about how the pandemic will play out are speculative, but the end game will most likely involve a mix of everything that checked past pandemics: Continued social-control measures to buy time, new antiviral medications to ease symptoms, and a vaccine. The exact formula—how long control measures such as social distancing must stay in place, for instance— depends in large part on how strictly people obey restrictions and how effectively governments respond.

Dr. Rishi Desai, a former epidemic intelligence service officer in the division of viral diseases at the CDC, said better predictions will be made as more information becomes available about Covid-19. “My expectation is that Covid-19 will continue to be a threat for a good part of 2020, and that we will start to see the page turn in 2021. At that point, we may have a vaccine, and we will have much more experience with this disease,” Desai said.

We know that the Covid-19 virus is an unknown entity, and the best minds on Earth can only make educated guesses about what comes next and when.

Medical researchers have banded together like never before and are working on multiple fronts to develop remedies. If any of the several antiviral medications currently in development prove effective, then we can say that an end to this global disaster is in sight.

In the meantime, let’s all enjoy spending a lot more quality time with our families.

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Run for office James Jimenez

spox

O

ne of the saddest, but funniest, things I’ve heard recently was the story of a Barangay Chairman who was so exhausted from the work thrust upon him by the quarantine that he blurted out, “If I had known that being Punong Barangay was going to be this much work, I would never have run!”

This tale is, in all likelihood, apocryphal but it contains enough echoes of reality that it drives home the point: the work of an elected official—especially a local chief executive like a Punong Barangay—isn’t easy, and how that fact might conceivably come as a surprise to someone who entered into politics thinking that an elected official’s life is all power, privilege and play. Interestingly, almost as frequently as you hear people griping about how inept their barangay officials are, you also hear them considering a run for office themselves. And so the cycle goes on.

If you’re one of those people considering a run for office, here are the top 3 things you need to answer truthfully—to yourself if to no one else—before throwing your hat into the ring:

1. Why are you running for office?

If you’re running because you need a job or have nothing better to do, forget about it. Go apply at a call center instead. If you’re running because you want to “help people,” volunteering for a charity or NGO will probably be a better use of your time and energy. And if you’re in it for the money, the power, and the privilege, have pity on your country. If you’re going to run for office, do it only for the right reasons. Do it to serve the people, rather than yourself; do it to effect meaningful positive change in your community, your city, or your country.

2. What position are you running for?

W hen asked this question, people usually just respond with the title: “Barangay Chairman,” “Mayor,” “Councilor” or whatever.

The rough road ahead

It’s become trite to say that public office is a public trust. But it is, and because of that, whoever seeks to occupy public office must be held to higher standards of competence and accountability—not just by the public but by that very person who seeks the office himself. Do not go into it lightly, and make sure that you truly are ready to serve, rather than with the expectation that you will be served.

But ask them what’s expected from the people occupying those positions, and they start floundering.

The truth is that many people don’t really comprehend the work of elected officials, much less understand how one elected official fits into the grand scheme of government. Which is why, sometimes, people who end up in office seem to have no idea what they’re doing.

If you’re running, take the time to learn everything you can about the position you’re aiming for. Only then can you have a clear and welldefined vision of what the position you are running for truly and realistically represents. If you take this step, then you can avoid being that legislator who ignores the work of making laws because you’d much rather run relief operations.

3. Can you afford it?

S anticipated, the panic and drama that surrounded the medical aspects of the pandemic have shifted to economic concerns. That is probably a good omen as it may show that we will all live to fight another day.

The drama will continue as we try to recover in the next three months. And forget what might happen a year from now. We have to take this all in small batches. I wrote, “As we reopen our economic life, we have no idea how fast economic activity will recover.” We will continue to sacrifice. We will endure and prosper.

Perhaps life was better before the Internet. At least then people could be hysterical in the privacy of their own comfort room and cry themselves to sleep without the rest of the world having to listen.

But the Internet has allowed us to follow the experts for up-to-theminute updates or developments.

The World Health Organization has gone from “It’s no big deal” to “We’re ALL gonna DIE” and now with “Some of us are going to die.”

“We do know that some people who are asymptomatic, who don’t have symptoms, can transmit the virus on,” said Maria Van Kerkhove. But it may boil down to how one defines “asymptomatic.” Sounds like Bill Clinton trying to answer the question if he had sex with Monica Lewinsky (Google that youngsters).

Apparently “yes” and “no” are not in the question-answering vocabulary of politicians and experts.

In mid-March we all faced a precarious unknown future. It

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

A

This week alone the “settled science” is very fluid.

CNN.com: “The spread of Covid-19 by someone who is not showing symptoms appears to be very rare, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for coronavirus response and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.” Well that is a relief.

Except by Tuesday, CNN.com:

As a practical matter, you must accept that running for office costs money. For many candidates, running for office is a full-time job. Can you afford to lose your source of steady income? Do you have a funding source to fuel your campaign activities and support your family? If not, then you might be making yourself vulnerable to people who seek to “acquire” themselves an elected official via generous campaign donations that come with unbreakable strings. You don’t want to do that.

Recently, people have taken to saying that social media can replace money as the driving force for a campaign. Reality check: social media can help, but it can never be all you have. Social might be free to use, but to use it effectively requires far more than a spunky can-do attitude. Quality content is not cheap to consistently produce, for example, and without good content, you will not get the social media traction you need to power you all the way to the finish line.

It’s become trite to say that public office is a public trust. But it is, and because of that, whoever seeks to occupy public office must be held to higher standards of competence and accountability – not just by the public but by that very person who seeks the office himself. Do not go into it lightly, and make sure that you truly are ready to serve, rather than with the expectation that you will be served.

was worrisome and we prepared the best we could by stocking essentials. I have a 15-liter carboy of ethyl alcohol in my stock room now almost empty. We sacrificed a tremendous amount and most of us tried to keep a positive attitude through it all because...why not.

We survived. We should be extremely grateful that only a thousand Filipinos died at the hand of Covid-19 and not 100,000 by now.

But obviously we are not “out of the woods” yet, especially economically.

The economic numbers for April were expectedly terrible and May will probably be as dismal. The real test will come in a few weeks when June data is released as the quarantine is lifted. Then we can look with some accuracy toward the future.

Returning overseas workers are a problem, as we have no idea how well and how soon the domestic economy will absorb them.

Unemployment hit a historic high in April, as did the fall in exports.

See “Mangun,” A7

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

What’s in store for The Food from Heaven commerce after lockdown Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise Conclusion

I

F there’s one good thing that came out of the monthslong quarantine, it’s the rise of many informal entrepreneurs who have been able to sustain the circulation of regional money, albeit on a limited scale.

Where we live, enterprising neighbors have suddenly become cooks, bakers and retailers offering prepared or frozen foods, pastries, fruits, vegetables and household tools—all of whom have steadied the supply chain, giving economic movement to an otherwise bleak and isolated environment. This activity is not limited to our neighborhood. Other areas in the country, bereft of the much-needed day-today necessities made almost inaccessible by community quarantine restrictions, have witnessed the same phenomenon.

These suburban economic activities have also kept alive cashless commerce being offered by banks and other financial institutions. The cash-on-delivery payment option has been augmented by bank transfer transactions and such cashless conduits as PayMaya and G-Cash.

The isolation has brought out the creativity and resiliency of the oft-neglected middle class which, even when bypassed by the government’s social amelioration program, has found a way to earn decently by keeping commerce alive under the most trying conditions.

Perhaps what we are experiencing is a preview of the new normal where people-to-people commerce thrives. With 7.3 million Filipinos facing unemployment, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, it’s about time that people realize that work can be found outside offices and construction sites: right in their own homes! The resourcefulness and creativity shown by the middle class can be replicated and even polished to benefit the country after the pandemic.

This is why the case study sent to me by students of the De La Salle University makes a lot of sense.

The study advances the idea that everything can be done online. It illustrates the convenience and practicality of working inside the comfort of your own home. For instance, if you want to set up an advertising company, you just have to pool the talents of industry people.

Graphic artists, writers, etc., can work together without physically being together. It’s much like the multi-track recording done by music companies. The singer and the band do not necessarily have to be physically together in recording a single track in the studio. They could be anywhere. The final cut is mixed, edited and enhanced by a recording engineer.

Such work-from-home business model could be a boost to online

Mangun. . .

continued from A6

Who expected anything different?

“German exports plunged over 30 percent in April, the steepest fall since records began in 1950.” “Canada: Exports plunged 82 percent in April.” “US April imports from Asia plunged 18.5 percent.”

Neda’s Karl Kendrick T. Chua says, “Government is not capable to fund the ambitious economic stimulus approved by the House of Representatives.” Good. The private sector does not need any more tax burden right now.

“The Asian Development Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan to help the Philippine government

The isolation has brought out the creativity and resiliency of the oft-neglected middle class which, even when bypassed by the government’s social amelioration program, has found a way to earn decently by keeping commerce alive under the most trying conditions. shopping and other Internet-based marketing platforms. In fact, Acting Secretary for Socioeconomic Planning and Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines Karl Kendrick T. Chua believes that online shopping and other Internetbased marketing platforms will be key in the new normal. He says that cashless payment system and other financial technology programs would see an immense rise under the new normal.

According to Chua, “Businesses need to innovate and make full use of technology to resume operations, and cater to consumer needs and preferences by making online shopping easy, affordable, and secure for consumers, so that they need not go out to buy what they need and want.”

To do this, I believe that investments in information and communications technology will also have to be enhanced to meet the gush of online transactions and the consumers’ anticipation for reliable Internet connection. Financial institutions should also effect better cybersecurity measures to protect consumers and merchants alike.

Also, e-commerce has to be efficient and affordable for it to sustain economic activities and drive growth, while the country recuperates from the impact of the pandemic.

Chua says that food safety laws, regulations and standards, as well as sanitation protocols must also be observed to address the shift in consumer preference characterized by the rising demand for safe and nutritious food. “The Financial Consumer Protection Bill,” he says, “will provide the regulatory framework to protect consumers and reinforce confidence in financial markets. Information and education campaigns on insurance policies must be disseminated to the general public so as to avoid confusion and misinformation.”

For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com

fund its Covid-19 response program.” That’s also good. Ukraine with a population 42 million: “IMF Approves $5 Billion In Aid For Ukraine To Shore Up Economy.”

The drama will continue as we try to recover in the next three months. And forget what might happen a year from now. We have to take this all in small batches. I wrote, “As we reopen our economic life, we have no idea how fast economic activity will recover.” We will continue to sacrifice. We will endure and prosper.

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.

O

ur spiritual growth and development, the focus of the Ordinary Time in our Liturgical Year, gets an initial boost in the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Christ’s Body and Blood as our extraordinary sustenance. The gospel text (John 6:51-58) gives us a portion of the “Bread of Life Discourse” in the Fourth Gospel about the primacy and significance of Jesus Christ in the life of the world.

I am the living bread from heaven Flashback: Five thousand men in the desert have eaten their fill. The original helplessness of the situation was staggering: a vast hungry crowd, in the wilderness where so much food was not conceivable, and with only the paltry five loaves to start with.

But Jesus fed them all and still had twelve wicker baskets of left-over.

The enthusiastic crowd then moved to follow Jesus, who withdrew Himself from them across the Sea of Galilee. He escaped from them, for He knew they wanted Him as king because of their perennial need for food for the body.

“You are looking for me...because you ate and were filled,” Jesus now tells them in confrontation as the people caught up with him. He points out that they should strive and work,

not for “food that perishes” but “for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:26-27). Their exertion to locate Him for perishable food is really not worth it: they must instead search for the one on whom the seal of God has been set, the Son of Man, who alone gives eternal life. Attention is now concentrated on Jesus as He insistently and solemnly declares: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The bread I give is my flesh

The whole discourse of Jesus leads to this surprising claim. Jesus is personally the bread, the living bread for the life of the hungry crowd. The reaction of the people indicates that they understood Him in an immediate realistic sense, as Jesus means to

Thursday, June 11, 2020 A7

Risen and glorious with all power in heaven and Earth given to Him, Jesus now makes Himself available to the world in the sacraments of bread and wine, transformed in the power of the Holy Spirit into His own Body and Blood. So in the Eucharist Jesus is our food and life nourishment, literally sharing with us the eternal life that the Son has in communion with the Father. This life of divine communion and intimacy with and through Jesus is what salvation is all about, as it is proclaimed, celebrated and shared in the Eucharist. be understood. “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” This man from Nazareth, the Son of God come down from heaven, “became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14), and now He offers His flesh as food for eternal life. The reality of His humanity and faith in the incarnation are the basis for the realism of and faith in the mystery of the Eucharist: Jesus as the bread of eternal life offering Himself for the life of the world.

With all His authority, Jesus insists: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat this flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever

eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in Him.” Any metaphorical or allegorical interpretation here is preempted by the repeated use of the words: eat, drink, flesh, blood and food. The evangelist’s choice of these unusual words indicating the consumption of the immediate physicality (sarx in Greek) of Jesus, precludes any false spiritualization.

Alálaong bagá, in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, that meal in which He feeds His own and gives them His body and blood for their life of communion with Him, is real eating and drinking of real food.

Risen and glorious with all power in heaven and Earth given to Him, Jesus now makes Himself available to the world in the sacraments of bread and wine, transformed in the power of the Holy Spirit into His own Body and Blood. So in the Eucharist Jesus is our food and life nourishment, literally sharing with us the eternal life that the Son has in communion with the Father.

This life of divine communion and intimacy with and through Jesus is what salvation is all about, as it is proclaimed, celebrated and shared in the Eucharist.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

UP professors’ appeal to government: Save the informals, MSMEs to avoid catastrophe Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS

T

he Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released last week the results for the April round of the quarterly labor force survey. There were no surprises. Only horrible numbers pointing to the sad state of unemployment and underemployment in the country under the Covid-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate reached 17.7 percent, which is comparable to the rates recorded by the country in the late 1940s and early 1950s, which were years of recovery from World War II. However, 2020 is only the first year of the Covid pandemic, which is projected by expert epidemiologists to last at least two to three more years, on the optimistic assumption that reliable and affordable vaccines and remedies can be developed within this period. Meantime, workers are suffering due to job losses and lack of available work, regular or non-regular. The International Labor Organization reported that the lives, jobs and livelihoods of at least half of the global labor force, mostly informals and non-regulars, have been disrupted.

As reflected in the PSA survey results, the situation for the Philippine labor force is dire. Alarmed over the deteriorating situation of the Filipino workers, especially the non-regulars and the informals, the faculty of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR) have issued a collective appeal to the government: give special attention to the jobs situation in the microsmall-and-medium (MSME) firms and in the large informal economy.

Below is a reproduction of the complete statement-appeal of the UP SOLAIR faculty: “About 8 million Filipinos lost their employment in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019 corresponding to a decline in the number of employed from 41.8 million workers to 33.8 million workers (April 2020, Labor Force Survey, PSA). Moreover, for the majority of those who managed to stay employed, they do so at less than the standard 48-hour workweek. The percentage of workers who worked at least 48 hours a week dropped from 68 percent in the first

quarter of 2019 to 28 percent in the first quarter of 2020 or a decline by 18.6 million full-time workers. Of the 23.6 million part-time workers as of April 2020, 17.3 million cited the Covid-19 lockdown as the reason for working less than the standard workweek. Equally disturbing is the sharp decline in the labor force participation rate from 61.3 percent in April 2019 to 55.6 percent in April this year, the lowest since the 1970s and translates to 3 million less Filipinos in the working ages that are participating in the labor force.

“More catastrophic losses in both jobs and work hours are expected in the second and third quarters of 2020 in view of: (a) the expansion of the lockdown from Luzon in mid-March to virtually the rest of the country by early April 2020; (b) the extension of the community quarantine until a vaccine against Covid-19 is available and made more widely accessible; and (c) the influx of tens of thousands of displaced overseas Filipino workers.

“In the provision of the proposed P1.3 trillion economic stimulus package, we call on the government to ensure priority to both the economic recovery of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which comprise 99.5 percent of total business establishments, and the protection of their workers which account for 63.2 percent of all workers in the country, by providing higher financial incentives (e.g. zero-interest soft loans, deferment of loan payments for a year without penalties, wage subsidies for regular employees, etc.) to MSME employers who will keep at least the same level of employees before the lockdown and

As reflected in the PSA survey results, the situation for the Philippine labor force is dire.

Alarmed over the deteriorating situation of the Filipino workers, especially the non-regulars and the informals, the faculty of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR) have issued a collective appeal to the government: give special attention to the jobs situation in the micro, small and medium firms and in the large informal economy.

regularize their employment. We call on the government and employers to effectively involve trade unions and workers’ representatives in the crafting and implementation of any programs and adjustment measures that address economic and business recovery.

“The imposition of the lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus has inflicted the most severe damage upon the informal workers (e.g. tricycle and jeepney drivers, street vendors, own-account workers, etc.) who, without work and social security protection, were deprived of the means for survival

for themselves and their families.

We call for the immediate passage of the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, which mandates the State to uphold decent work standards for the informal workers.

“Finally, where the crisis has stripped most workers of their capacity to earn subsistence incomes, it becomes incumbent upon the State to adopt bolder and effective social reform measures. At the height of the Global Depression in the 1930s, then US President Franklin Roosevelt acted swiftly to curb economic paralysis by enacting the New Deal program of massive job creation through public works that was supplemented by the passage of laws recognizing the right of workers to associate and bargain collectively. Similarly, the then Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon made a bold response by launching a Social Justice Program and establishing the Department of Labor for the protection of labor.

We call on the government to take a swift and bold action for social reforms that are necessary to prevent the Covid-19 crisis from morphing into a national human and economic crisis, and to build social cohesion and solidarity through consultation and social dialogue with all affected sectors, including the organized and unorganized workers.”

For inquiries, please e-mail reneofreneo@ gmail.com.

Table 1.

Philippine Labor Force, April 2020 and April 2019 Key Employment Indicators

April 2020

April 2019

Total population 15 and above (000)

73,722

71,776

Labor Force (000)

41,018

44,022

Employed (000) Of w/h underemployed

33,764 6,388

41,755 5,607

Unemployed (000)

7,254

2,267

Labor force participation rate

55.6

61.3

Employment rate (of labor force) Underemployment rate Unemployment rate

82.3 18.9 17.7

94.9 13.4 5.1

In percent:

Source: PSA

A8 Thursday, June 11, 2020

BOI approves tax perks to help tourism enterprises in upgrade

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

T

HE Board of Investments (BOI) has approved fiscal incentives for tourism enterprises which are looking to upgrade their facilities to conform with health and safety standards amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat made this disclosure in Wednesday’s virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay, as she detailed the recovery plans for her sector. She said, among the incentives that BOI will be granting are “an income tax holiday [ITH] for a period of three years and duty-free importation of capital equipment.”

Qualified enterprises will only have to pay for the value-added tax on the imported equipment.

She added, the ITH will be “prorated according to the amount of upgrade/renovation.”

This was confirmed in a text message by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez to the BusinessMirror. The BOI, the investment and promotion arm of the DTI, will be issuing guidelines on the tax incentives shortly.

Examples of renovations/upgrade that can qualify for such tax incentives include renovation of guest rooms, food and beverage outlets, function/meeting rooms, recreation areas and/or other common areas; investment in new or upgrade of laundry, kitchen, housekeeping, employee facilities

and other back of house facilities; building of full, partial or movable partitions; installation of built-in thermal scanners, hygiene gates, and/or booths; upgrade or improvement of ventilation, air conditioning, air filtration systems, water systems, water treatment facilities such as sewerage treatment plants; a mobile check-in system; non-touch or no contact door lock systems and non-touch control panels in elevators and other areas.

Tourism enterprises that can apply for the incentives, she said, include hotels and resorts, Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibition (MICE) facilities, and tourist transport companies nationwide. In response to a question, Romulo Puyat said her agency will also be requesting BOI to include travel agencies and tour operators as eligible for incentives.

As the BOI will require the Department of Tourism (DOT) to

endorse the companies applying for the incentives, these necessarily have to be DOT-accredited companies. “If we will endorse them, then we have to know them, so of course, we will probably ask for accreditation. It’s in the law anyway.”

She stressed the DOT has waived its accreditation fees for primary tourism enterprises. (See, “DOT waives accreditation fees for new applicants, renewals,” in the BusinessMirror, April 12, 2020.)

Meanwhile, the DOT chief cautioned Air Asia Philippines about prematurely announcing flights to Caticlan and Kalibo, the gateway to Boracay Island, as the Boracay InterAgency Task Force (BIATF) had yet to approve the reopening of the island to commercial flights and leisure travel. “We’re going to Boracay tomorrow [Thursday] to check on their health and safety measures....

We have to decide on that [commercial flights] tomorrow.”

At the same webinar, A AP

President Ricardo P. Isla said the airline is currently flying 20 percent of its domestic routes—to Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro via Clark, Manila and Cebu. “And then moving towards next week, we’re actually going to be present in the following: Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Bacolod, Iloilo, then Kalibo and Caticlan again,” and before long, the airline would be serving 80 percent to 90 percent of its domestic destinations.

T he a i rl i ne of f ic i a l a l so expressed optimism “vacation activities” will commence by July or August, even without a Covid-19 vaccine in place, as long as there is contact tracing, and strict implementation of safety standards in destinations. Isla added Chinese tourists were ready to visit the Philippines, “the moment we manage Covid-19.” As such, he sees international tourism resuming

by September or October. About 50 percent of the carrier’s inbound business are from the Chinese market.

Assessing credit risk deemed more challenging in pandemic

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

T

HE banking industry may find it more difficult to evaluate credit risk when

extending borrowings as the anticipated economic recession weighs on payment capabilities of the borrowers.

ING Bank Manila Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, in an

LOW PRESSURE AREA 75 KM EAST OF BORONGAN CITY, EASTERN SAMAR INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE AFFECTING PALAWAN AND VISAYAS SOUTHWESTERLY WINDFLOW AFFECTING MINDANAO as of 4:00 am - June 10, 2020

e-mail to the BusinessMirror, said that there was still strong demand for loans because consumers will likely need additional funding to address cash flow concerns and rebuild

their business amid the coronavirus pandemic.

While this means that banks would have stable revenuegenerating activities, he noted that the sector could be dealing with assessing potential risk that comes along with providing loans.

“Given, however, the increased risks, stemming in large part from the challenging macroeconomic environment and rising debt, banks will be hard pressed to gauge the amount of risk associated with borrowers as making repayments in an environment of economic recession will be highly challenging,” he said.

The Philippine banking system’s total loan portfolio stood at nearly P11 trillion as of end-April, which was 8.08 percent higher compared to P10.18 trillion for the same period last year.

Of this amount, P252.26 billion was tagged as bad debts or nonperforming loans (NPLs).

This was 18.32 percent more compared to P213.52 billion last year.

RCBC Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort, meanwhile, is confident that the banking sector can handle such concern given its credit risk management systems which have been improving over the years.

“The assessment of credit risks/premiums has already improved in recent years, as also supported by the greater availability/sharing of credit information of various borrowers, thereby leading to better informed, more calculated and prudent lending-related decisions,” he explained.

UnionBank Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion warned that banks might deal with a more challenging situation when bad loans increase and become unmanageable.

Boosting loan demand

WHILE the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) extended measures to boost demand for loans, Asuncion said that it was up to the banks to market their borrowing services during this crisis.

Mapa said that even though demand for credit is always likely present, it could be improved by making the offer more attractive.

“Lower[ing] the prices for money [interest rates] is one angle to help bolster loan growth while pushing out the amortization schedule is another way to attract loan demand,” he said.

“Banks can also improve the quality of their product with ‘add-ons’ or features as financial institutions get creative with cross selling opportunities [insurance] or tailor fit loans to do tie-ups with the products associated with their loans [housing, auto, etc.],” Mapa continued.

Ricafort, meanwhile, said that monetary easing policy of the Central Bank has encouraged greater demand for borrowings, noting this made loans cheaper for businesses, households and other institutions.

Along with this, the RCBC economist said that the interest rate cut added more liquidity into the banking system to support its lending function.

“By freeing up money for banks to channel to the productive sector of the economy, BSP hopes to provide the environment that will be conducive for the economic bounce back,” Mapa added.

Grace period

AS more areas are placed under general community quarantine, the moratorium on debt payments is lifted as well.

Asuncion said that while the grace period extensions are encouraged, they should not be required.

“I would like to believe that banks are proactive in making sure that their portfolios are healthy and sustainable especially during these uncertain times,” he added.

Ricafort said that this matter should be dealt with on a caseto-case basis.

“It would be tempting to push for an extension to the grace period to give additional leeway for customers but we must also recognize the role of banks in the economy as financial intermediary,” Mapa said.

ADB gives PHL new $.5-B loan for CCT

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

@caiordinario

HE Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday announced that it is extending another $500-million loan to expand the country’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

In a statement, ADB said the loan is accompanied by a $3.1 million worth technical assistance to improve family, youth development sessions and update the list of eligible poor households, and help 3,000 households graduate from poverty through livelihood packages.

The technical assistance will also help support IT reforms to automate compliance verification and grievance redress and prepare for the integration of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) database with the government’s national ID system.

“The Philippine government is boosting social investment in Filipinos to break the decades-old intergenerational cycle of poverty,” said ADB Vice President Ahmed M. Saeed. “Through this project loan and technical assistance support, ADB is helping the Philippines expand these gains.”

The new loan will be on top of the $1.5 billion that has been extended by the ADB in the past 10 years, including a $200-million loan approved in April 2020.

The loan approved in April was used to provide unconditional emergency cash transfers to 4Ps households amid the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

ADB said the new loan is part of its country partnership strategy with the Philippines, which focuses on investing in Filipinos through program and project loans in secondary education, facilitating school-to-work transitions for young people, social protection, health interventions, and financial inclusion.

“With this loan, ADB’s total lending to the Philippines has reached $2.6 billion so far this year, exceeding its record lending of $2.5 billion in 2019,” ADB said.

ADB said its independent impact evaluations confirmed the 4Ps’ significant benefits to households. It said that for one, the incidence of hunger is lower for 4Ps households.

The evaluation said that with the conditional cash transfer program, the average enrollment rate for children aged 16 to 17 years old in 4Ps households increased to 88 percent, higher than the average rate of 70 percent for children in non-4Ps households.

The Manila-based multilateral development bank said the cash grants do not discourage parents from looking for and retaining employment. The level of employment of families receiving CCTs are the same as non-4Ps families.

The Expanded Social Assistance Project will help families maintain health and educational gains for their children achieved under the country’s 4Ps, introduced in 2008.

The program, implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, provides cash payments every two months to about 4.3 million households— as long as the children meet school attendance targets and go for regular health checkups; women avail of pre- and postnatal care; and the parents participate in family development sessions.

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DICT issues rules to hasten rollout of common towers

A

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

FTER two years of debate, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has finally released a concrete policy on shared telecommunications infrastructure.

Under Department Circular 8, the agency now requires Passive Telecommunications Tower Infrastructure (PTTIs) providers to secure a certificate of registration from the ICT agency before operating.

Independent tower companies (ITCs) shall be given a fiveyear license to operate. They should have at least the relevant construction experience, registration, license, and financial capacity of, or equivalent to, a contractor falling under Category A of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board to qualify.

Currently, there are 24 ITC participants under the previous

common tower program. A good number of them have started building shared telco infrastructure in some parts of the country.

Notably, the policy does not include limitations on ITC participants, which was proposed by former Presidential Adviser on ICT and now ICT Undersecretary Ramon P. Jacinto.

This particular issue served as a drag on policy making, and has forced former acting ICT chief Eliseo M. Rio Jr. to turn to creative ways—through memoranda or agreement with ITCs—to fasttrack the deployment of common towers in the country.

Under the new policy, common

tower providers are required to provide ample access slots for all telcos and the DICT to co-locate their respective antennas, receivers, transmitters, radio frequency modules, and other radio communications equipment.

They are also required to have fixed rates for telcos and other players looking to co-locate their radio equipment in the towers.

The policy also requires the ICT department to aid tower companies in their government permits. The policy reiterates that Barangays, Local Government Units (LGUs), National Government Agencies, and Homeowners Associations are required to follow the mandated maximum time period for the issuance of necessary permits, clearances, and certifications as provided under Section 15 of Republic Act 9485, otherwise known as the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018.

ICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II said the policy will help the shared infrastructure sector to give “birth to a robust ICT environment.”

Currently, the Philippines has 17,850 towers that serve over 100

million subscribers. This translates to a tower density of 0.14, or one tower serving 1,000 subscribers. The ideal tower density is at one tower per 1,000 subscribers.

The government hopes to build as much as 50,000 towers just to be on a par with neighboring countries, such as Vietnam and Indonesia. Having more cell towers will provide subscribers better coverage and speed.

“The finalization of this policy is a significant step in addressing the nation’s connectivity needs that is rendered more immediate by the pandemic,” said Honasan.

He added that the policy will help “provide a substantial area of investment and economic activity for jobs generation and employment opportunities in various regions of the country, especially in unserved and underserved areas.”

“With this development, we aim to help improve, not only the internet condition, but also the state of the country’s socioeconomic welfare through ICT in support of the President’s Balik Probinsya, Balik Pag-Asa Program.”

Max’s Group incurs losses due to lockdown

By VG Cabuag @villygc

M

ax’s Group Inc., the casual dining restaurant operator, said it incurred a net loss of P169.28 million in the first quarter, a reversal from last year's income of P138.57 million, due to the lockdowns.

Revenues fell 19 percent to P2.72 billion, from last year's P3.35 billion, the company said.

System-wide sales, comprised of sales generated by both company-owned and franchised stores, declined 13 percent to P3.99 billion, from last year's P4.58 billion.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said it is scaling down overhead costs and controlling working capital spend for the rest of the year, and putting on hold all plans for new store openings.

The company said it “continues to do an comprehensive review of its current store network to position each location for improved organic growth and profitability.”

“The cumulative impact of temporary store closures, dine-in restrictions and various fixed costs have resulted in a swift reversal from last year’s performance,” said Robert F. Trota, company president and CEO. “We anticipate that this trend will continue through the second quarter as well. Despite our conservative outlook, we are gradually making progress as we mindfully reopen more locations across our network.”

B

@TyronePiad

ank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) on Wednesday announced that its remittance partner MoneyGram waived fees for overseas money transfers from certain countries to ease the burden of its customers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, MoneyGram said that money transfers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain to BPI or BPI Family Savings Bank accounts through MoneyGram Online and mobile application will be waived.

BPI Inward Remittance Head Melinda Dulay said that "BPI and MoneyGram both want to provide safe, reliable, convenient and affordable money transfers for overseas Filipinos."

"By using MoneyGram's digital channels, our overseas Filipinos can securely send money to their families in the Philippines from the safety and convenience of their homes, which is especially important during this time," she added.

B1

ERC issues show-cause order against Meralco over bills

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

T

he Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued a show-cause order to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) for allegedly violating directives related to bill advisories.

Meralco, in the ERC order dated May 29, was told to submit its explanation on why it should not be held liable for its alleged violations of the ERC directives within 10 days from its receipt of the order.

“The Commission provided enough guidance to the distribution utilities on their dealings with their consumers during the periods of the Enhanced Community Quarantine [ECQ] and Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine, so as not to cause additional burden at the time of a Public Health Emergency due to Covid-19. We cannot tolerate such non-compliance and any erring party must be held accountable for their actions or misactions,” said ERC Chairperson and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera in a statement released Wednesday.

For its part, Meralco maintained it did not violate any rules.

“We confirm receipt of the letter from ERC and we are given 10 days from receipt to respond. We believe that we have complied with the existing regulations and directives set by the regulator and we will explain in

full to the Commission the basis for our actions and compliance.

We reiterate that Meralco has not violated any rule even if our operations were severely challenged by this pandemic,” said Meralco First Vice President and Head Regulatory Management Jose Ronald V. Valles.

The ERC indicated that Meralco allegedly violated certain directives in the advisories it issued in April and May. For one, the commission said distribution utilities must provide the word "estimate" on the consumer bill.

Also, the cumulative amount of electricity bill that was supposed to have fallen due within the ECQ shall be amortized in four equal monthly installments, payable in the four succeeding billing months following the end of the ECQ. The ERC also ordered that payments in areas covered by ECQ extension until May 15 shall commence no earlier than May 30. Meralco said it would come up with a separate bill that is more transparent and will be "very clear" to the consumers, following mounting complaints of a sudden surge in supposed electricity consumption for the month of May. The ERC, lawmakers and other consumer groups want Meralco to unbundle the exact rates that were charged to consumers during the ECQ period.

Security Bank’s Independence Day advisory

The company said it did well during the first two months of the year, but in mid-March, with the implementation of enhanced community quarantine, the company was forced to cease operations in malls and operate stand-alone and in-line locations in a limited capacity.

The company paused all its operations from March 26 to April 4.

Max’s has since reopened 573 stores, or 76 percent of its total store network.

In previous months, the company said it rationalized menu offerings for each of its brands, optimizing inventory, and growing its delivery and take-away channels.

“We believe that the convergent power of our brands gives us a unique resilience as we navigate what we acknowledge will be a challenging second quarter. Our delivery business continues to operate in multiples of 2-3x versus their previous same-

MoneyGram waives remittance fee in select countries amid pandemic

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Online users of the remittance firm in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia, meanwhile, will incur a flat rate of 1.99 EUR when making direct to bank account transfers.

MoneyGram Chief Operating Officer Kamila Chytil said that it was the company's strategy to "focus on expanding account deposit capabilities to more markets around the world" to boost its digital growth and mobilize the movement of money.

BPI said that it has partnerships with remittance companies across the world, many of which agreed to extend waivers or discounts on sending fees.

In the first quarter, the Ayala-led bank reported that its earnings reached P6.39 billion, 5 percent lower than P6.72 billion in the same period last year, after raising provisions for potential loan loss by more than twofold.

Shares in BPI fell by 2.07 percent, or P1.60, to finish at P75.70 apiece amid the 2.19-percent drop for the benchmark index on Wednesday.

store levels, demonstrating the continued trust and confidence consumers put in our portfolio of household name brands,” said Ariel P. Fermin, the company's COO. “Our goal is to successfully execute strategic shifts to thrive within the new normal.”

S

ecurity Bank on Wednesday announced that all its branches nationwide will be closed on June 12 (Friday), in observance of the Philippine Independence Day, per Proclamation No. 845, series of 2019.

“For assistance during this period, you may call our Customer Service hotline at [02] 8887-9188

Bacolod court issues new arrest warrants against Yanson siblings

A

regional trial court in Bacolod City issued a warrant of arrest against the four Yanson siblings and three others for allegedly taking control and possession of several vehicles belonging to Vallacar Transit Inc. The said case is still part of the feud between the family members involving control of the country's largest bus company.

In separate rulings on June 4 and June 5, Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 53 Judge Sue Lynn Lowie-Jolingan issued warrants of arrest against siblings Emily Yanson, Roy Yanson, Ricardo Yanson Jr., Maria Lourdes Celina Yanson Lopez for violation of Republic Act 10883, or the New Anti-Carnapping Act of 2016.

The arrest warrant also included Jerica Leanne Ramos, Jerina Louise Ramos, and Ma. Judy Alcala.

Judge Lowie-Jolingan, in a decision on June 5, also denied the motion filed by the accused to hold in abeyance the issuance of warrant of arrest and scheduled the arraignment and pre-trial on July 17. No bail was recommended by the court upon their arrest.

Court records show that on July 22, 2019, the accused took a Mitsubishi L-300 model 2012, Foton wing-van model 2017 and Foton wing-van model 2017. The complaint against the “Yanson Four” was filed by Vallacar Transit Operations Manager Gary Manayon, which also included grave coercion, when siblings, backed by the security guards of A-Y 76 Security Specialists Inc., “took possession and control, with intent to gain” at the bus company's main office on July 7, 2019.

Aside from the three vehicles owned and registered in the name of VTI, a Mitsubishi Delica

closed van model 1995 was also included in the complaint filed by the company. The court dismissed the case involving that vehicle.

Lawyers for the Yanson Four led by Sigfrid Fortun said the siblings maintain their innocence and are hopeful that the courts “will vindicate them from these unfounded accusations.”

“We will continue to pursue all remedies available in law to address the courts issuance,” the lawyers said. “There can no crime committed because, as majority shareholders and officers of Vallacar Transit Inc. they were exercising the powers of their office and management prerogative.”

“Also, please remember that there is still pending an intra-corporate dispute ongoing between the Y4 and Y2,” the lawyers said. “Y2” refers to the matriarch Olivia Yanson and son Leo Rey Yanson, the current president of the bus company.

“There can be no basis for warrants of arrests because the issue on who between the two contending parties legally manages and should operate Vallacar Transit Inc. has not been determined by the court,” the lawyers said. VG Cabuag Established in 1968, the 52-year-old Vallacar Transit was founded by the late Ricardo Yanson Sr. and wife Olivia. The company behind Ceres Liner, Ceres Tours, Sugbo Transit and Sugbo Tours is considered as the largest bus company in the Philippines transporting goods and 700,000 passengers daily.

The company has 15 terminals across Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The Yanson Group, the parent company, operates 4,800 bus units run by 18,000 employees, and has its main office in Bacolod City.

from 8 am to 5 pm,” the bank said in a statement.

The bank also said customers may visit its Facebook account or email the following: n Credit Cards—customercontact@securitybank.com.ph n Other bank-related concerns—customercare@securitybank. com.ph.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 11, 2020

SEC tells PHL corporations to strengthen cyber security

By VG Cabuag

T

@villygc

he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has advised corporations to strengthen their cyber security as more Filipinos turn to digital transactions during the pandemic.

In a notice, the SEC encouraged corporations to assess their exposure to cyber-security risks and craft the appropriate policies and measures, in light of recent reports of hacking incidents.

“Digital transformation benefits businesses, allowing them to improve their productivity and realize greater efficiencies, but not

without risks,” said SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino.

The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened the advantages of digital technologies as this allowed some companies to sustain their operations while the country was placed under several lockdown measures. As digital transactions increased, however, reports of

phishing attempts, data breaches and other cyber attacks emerged.

“Cyber security is more than an IT matter. It is a corporate governance issue that companies should give serious attention to and proactively manage, as cyberattacks could damage their reputation, disrupt their operations, and eventually jeopardize their profitability and enterprise value,” said Aquino.

“The boards of directors of companies must ensure that a robust cyber-security strategy is in place and that existing cyber-security measures, including regular penetration testing and risk assessments, remain effective amid the evolving security landscape.”

The SEC has been advocating cyber security and data privacy in the corporate sector, integrating best practices and standards

in various rules and regulations in the region.

TransUnion recently released its analysis of digital fraud trends in the Philippines. Its assessment found that the percentage of suspected online fraud originating from the Philippines more than doubled when comparing the periods January 1-March 10 and March 11-April 28.

It noted that the local telecommunications industry was hit with a whopping 3,139-percent increase in incidents during the quarantine period. Globally, the industry saw a 76-percent hike in fraudulent transactions.

TransUnion said this may be attributed to the shift in information gathering and dissemination to the online platform as governments discourage their population to prevent mass gathering.

Phoenix allows contactless payments

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

P

ublicly listed Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. said it is now offering contactless payment options at its gas stations to ensure safer transactions.

There are now 100 Phoenix gas stations all over Luzon that allow epayment options via Alipay, GCash, GrabPay, and WeChat Pay through QR code scanning.

The company is also set to implement this new method of payment at its stations in Visayas and Mindanao within the month.

Phoenix said it is the only one that offers the four e-payment options in the local oil industry. The move, it added, came as part of the company’s tightened safety protocols across its businesses to help stop the pandemic.

“Phoenix has always been an ad-

vocate of safe and secure service.

While we continue to provide quality products to our customers, we are also very serious in our rally towards stopping the spread of Covid-19.

We already made most of our employees work from home to avoid exposure to the virus. This time, we want to further ensure the safety of our customers by offering contactless transactions that could help flatten the curve,” said Phoenix Petroleum President and COO Henry Albery Fadullon.

Earlier, Phoenix introduced its own fuel delivery service for small and medium businesses to provide a more convenient option to those in need of quality fuel supply. The company is also currently offering Bangon Tsuper, a special rewards program for public utility drivers who need assistance while waiting for the eventual return of mass transportation.

Manulife reopens all customer service hubs

W

ITH the easing of lockdowns in Metro Manila and other areas of the country, Manulife Philippines has announced the reopening of all of its customer service centers to accommodate policyholders opting to do live transactions with their insurer.

During this period, all its branches will be open from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The reduced time of their operations form part of the firm’s preventive and proactive measures to guarantee the health and safety of both its employees and customers.

For added security, personal protective equipment, such as

masks, face shields and gloves, will be provided to customer service officers.

Floor guides and acrylic barriers have been put in place to ensure that social distancing and minimal contact are observed at all times.

Also, all individuals entering the premises will be required to don masks and undergo a temperature scan.

Even if the service hubs have reopened, the company urged customers to keep on using digital channels, particularly during the community quarantine period.

Clients can manage their policy details, view fund values, check for payments due, pay for their premiums and contact their insurance adviser via online.manulife.com.ph.

They may also settle their premiums on the Web through Manulife Philippines’s bank partners listed on its web site.

The insurer has enabled digital sales tools that support insurance advisers and allow them to aid customers find the right plan befitting their needs, and guide them through the purchase process sans meeting face-to-face. Roderick L. Abad

mutual funds

June 6, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 212.74 -20.69% -8.23% -4.74% -15.54% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0306 -37.28% -13.72% -6.38% -25.43% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.8728 -31.5% -12.86% -7.3% -21.9% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7286 -23.87% n.a. n.a. -18.78% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6935 -22.81% n.a. n.a. -18.34% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.5591 -18.41% -6% -4.23% -14.44% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.7238 -19.26% -8.8% n.a.

-15.21% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 76.55 -37.47% n.a. n.a. -25.92% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 42.9319 -19.5% -6.47% n.a. -16.28% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 455.49 -17.8% -6.02% -3.87% -14.51% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.9142 n.a. n.a. n.a. -11.25% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0737 -20.61% -6.44% -3.44% -16.57% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 31.6895 -20.14% -5.81% -3.08% -16.38% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.847 -20.99% n.a. n.a. -16.81% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.3755 -19.1% -5.9% -2.63% -16.23% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 731.78 -18.97% -5.9% -2.84% -16.09% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6637 -29.95% -9.99% -7.06% -22.05% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.3872 -23.35% -7.23% -4.08% -19.53% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8405 -19.03% -6.02% -2.76% -16.02% United Fund, Inc. -a 3.0737 -19.64% -4.59% -2.15% -15.87% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 98.2671 -18.73% -5.38% -1.98% -15.98% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b $0.9578 0.65% -0.93% -2.25% -6.87% 5.33% n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.3571 9.79% -1.57% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5691 -10.58% -4.23% -3.64% 0.4% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.1206 -9.48% -3.68% -1.63% -2.77% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.4903 -7.1% -1.68% -2.65% -5.37% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1916 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-16.15% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8759 -3.68% -0.59% -0.2% -4.44% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.5711 -4.72% -1.58% -1.27% -5.75% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.9203 -5.82% -1.84% -1.44% -6.13% -8.74% -2.79% -1.14% -6.92% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9788 Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.4033 -13.07% -3.51% -2.25% -11.92% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9684 -5.34% n.a. n.a.

-4.66% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8885 -13.2% n.a. n.a. -10.83% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8688 -14.97% n.a. n.a. -12.53% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8428 -15.95% -4.43% -3.42% -13.54% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03841 4.72% 2.53% 1.62% 0.47% -6.29% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $0.9726 2.42% 0.37% -0.73% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.8133 5.42% 3.68% 2.88% -2.49% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.0989 2.17% 1.67% n.a.

-2.65% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 363.94 4.21% 3.01% 2.47% 1.72% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9363 2.55% 0.88% -0.08% 1.8% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1821 4.68% 5.15% 5.11% 2.11% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2785 4.98% 2.74% 2.21% 2.4% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4319 6.43% 3.19% 1.88% 3.09% 3.89% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.5486 10.88% 2.29% 4.02% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a, 6 1.2879 6.77% 3.89% 2.11% 2.48% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9231 7.82% 4.16% 2.16% 3.56% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0233 10.03% 3.39% 1.58% 6.12% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1501 7.79% 4.7% 2.86% 2.41% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

1.7348 6.91% 4.13% 2.37% 1.98% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $472.23 3.48% 2.42% 2.59% 0.86% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є215.03 -0.53% 0.57% 0.86% -2.14% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2135 3.44% 2.67% 2.31% 0.52% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.026 2.36% 1.45% 1.2% 0.78% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0645 -1.25% -0.35% -0.03% -2.8% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.428 5.74% 3.05% 2.81% 1.01% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0602707 2.64% 1.83% 1.73% -0.07% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1661 4.45% 2.01% 2.2% -0.29% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 127.73 3.79% 3.13% 2.37% 1.55% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0397 2.66% n.a. n.a.

1.31% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.281 3.27% 3.03% 2.56% 1.3% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0439 1.7% n.a. n.a.

0.65% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.93 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-6.06%

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

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

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

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund).

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 10, 2020

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

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

47.5 105.5 75.3 20.6 7.67 40.9 9.5 22.3 48.25 98 18.72 102.5 54.5 17 2.5 0.3 0.59 165 1700 1.05

47.6 105.8 75.7 20.8 7.73 41 9.81 22.55 48.3 104.9 18.76 103 55.15 17.1 2.68 0.32 0.6 170 1750 1.08

46.5 109.7 76.95 20.9 8.08 42 9.51 23.7 48.5 100 19.1 108.2 55.65 17.2 2.7 0.32 0.61 168 1700 1.05

47.5 109.9 76.95 20.95 8.1 42.15 9.51 24.15 49 100 19.1 108.4 56.2 17.2 2.7 0.32 0.61 170 1700 1.05

46.5 104.7 74.2 20.6 7.65 40.25 9.51 22.05 48.3 100 18.7 102.5 54.5 16.9 2.41 0.3 0.58 165 1700 1.05

47.5 105.5 75.7 20.8 7.67 41 9.51 22.3 48.3 100 18.72 102.5 54.5 17.1 2.6 0.315 0.61 165 1700 1.05

2600 3858020 2128330 152300 1912400 5725700 200 570100 1000 310 49900 2738680 81350 11000 174000 230000 393000 250 50 1000

121500 408598484 160795503.5 3158785 14896544 233206450 1902 12929905 48660 31000 942700 283598046 4518006.5 187330 436820 70050 238860 41840 85000 1050

47000 4324107 -4484869 -827080 -578792 -1884905 -5033825 398600 -41872353 -1916048.5 10200 68000 1050

INDUSTRIAL

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

2.23 0.9 28.25 0.165 21 60.1 291.4 12.34 3.24 2.55 11 19.82 8.07 13.6 7.12 2.73 13.36 14.96 4.44 5.5 8.34 70 0.56 1.33 36.45 143 6.6 6.02 1.76 6.63 1.79 4.48 1.6 0.109 141.9 0.86 51.1 56.25 1.15 10.02 5.45 7.69 7.37 8.32 0.78 0.71 1.8 2.48 3.55 22.25 1.67 5.71 1.24 1.44 8.29

2.24 0.91 28.3 0.169 21.25 60.5 292 12.36 3.25 2.6 11.18 19.84 8.15 13.62 7.22 2.74 13.38 14.98 4.5 5.51 8.35 70.35 0.57 1.34 36.8 145 6.81 6.04 1.84 6.69 1.8 4.5 1.65 0.115 144 0.87 59.9 61.5 1.16 10.04 5.46 7.7 7.38 8.8 0.8 0.72 1.85 2.5 3.6 22.5 1.68 5.8 1.25 1.45 8.3

2.3 0.92 28.9 0.168 21.3 60.85 291 12.52 3.39 2.54 11.28 20.7 8.2 13.62 7.35 2.84 13 15.1 4.5 5.65 8.29 72.5 0.56 1.4 35 139.9 6.81 6.25 1.8 6.95 1.82 4.48 1.67 0.11 145 0.92 59.85 63 1.23 10 5.67 8.2 7.9 8.8 0.79 0.71 1.88 2.57 3.6 23 1.66 6 1.26 1.5 8.37

2.33 0.92 29 0.174 21.35 62 294.8 12.68 3.45 2.55 11.28 22.3 8.2 13.62 7.37 2.86 13.36 15.1 4.5 5.65 8.35 72.5 0.58 1.4 37 145 6.81 6.25 1.8 6.96 1.82 4.5 1.67 0.115 145 0.92 59.85 63 1.25 10.18 5.67 8.21 7.9 8.8 0.8 0.73 1.88 2.58 3.6 24 1.68 6 1.31 1.59 8.52

2.24 0.9 27.9 0.165 21 59.5 287 12.22 3.22 2.54 11 19.5 8.05 13.62 7.1 2.73 13 14.98 4.44 5.44 8.15 70 0.54 1.3 34.9 139.1 6.6 6 1.7 6.6 1.79 4.48 1.6 0.105 139 0.85 59.85 62 1.14 9.95 5.43 7.61 7.31 8.8 0.78 0.7 1.8 2.44 3.59 22.5 1.65 5.69 1.22 1.44 8.1

2.24 0.91 28.25 0.169 21 60.1 292 12.34 3.24 2.55 11.2 19.82 8.16 13.62 7.22 2.73 13.36 14.98 4.44 5.5 8.35 70 0.56 1.34 36.8 145 6.6 6.04 1.76 6.69 1.79 4.48 1.6 0.115 144 0.87 59.85 62 1.16 10.04 5.45 7.7 7.37 8.8 0.8 0.71 1.8 2.48 3.59 22.5 1.68 5.71 1.25 1.45 8.29

6835000 119000 936900 1750000 1556800 208450 291850 3614900 2887000 22000 19900 1549000 85300 2500 362000 1242000 3900 1679500 12000 5394500 70629600 2010100 1477000 16174000 119800 2982850 13600 1138800 36000 4411300 1016000 3000 49000 470000 1189370 7258000 210 140 16933000 6550300 1925700 4713700 13301600 600 449000 3712000 128000 1270000 6000 4900 6210000 563800 4406000 10267000 11497700

15593090 -43890 107610 26585370 -257565 299310 32860695 -23512550 12528216 -5796124 84693972 -4544474 44623658 18670016 9539160 -199260 55900 222158 32345972 2447260 689049 34050 2614958 26912 3436140 46550 50998 25187522 1901360 53460 29642751 5623713 583,241,732( 578,016,669.9997) 140869328.51 19668027.0004 829450 -5040 21710060 266770 4302265 717100 422679194 200794218 89880 -3405 6947483 -32893 63140 29219555 27702868 1843400 267890 13460 78950 -1670 52540 1100 169045682 6501258 6325670 4080 12568.5 8690 19846440 2100.0002 65505318 -62636538 10597682 -225753 36887163 -978356 100299539 11724798 5280 356060 2650080 232900 3139910 103159.9998 21570 112850 -96500 10332910 -563720 3267290 16205 5567950 -110710 15389490 8300 95,042,628( 3,460,378.0002)

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.53 0.54 0.56 0.56 0.53 0.54 4744000 2567990 ASIABEST GROUP 9 9.08 8.11 9 7.97 9 177300 1504801 AYALA CORP 780 781 793 793 775 781 463470 362599735 ABOITIZ EQUITY 49.2 49.9 51.7 51.95 48.5 49.2 1186390 58842135 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 7.09 7.1 7.33 7.39 7.04 7.1 62359300 444978689 1.78 1.79 1.86 1.86 1.76 1.79 1541000 2768550 AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR 6.21 6.22 6.21 6.23 6.2 6.21 12300 76390 0.53 0.55 0.57 0.57 0.53 0.53 123000 68890 ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A 0.61 0.62 0.62 0.62 0.6 0.61 2193000 1338670 ATN HLDG B 0.62 0.64 0.63 0.64 0.61 0.64 1269000 785530 COSCO CAPITAL 5.58 5.59 5.62 5.65 5.44 5.59 5620900 31408510 DMCI HLDG 4.5 4.52 4.6 4.62 4.4 4.5 9926000 44640690 FILINVEST DEV 8.49 8.7 8.7 8.7 8.5 8.5 6300 53610 3.21 3.84 2.77 2.77 2.77 2.77 100000 277000 FJ PRINCE A FORUM PACIFIC 0.194 0.2 0.19 0.194 0.19 0.194 180000 34360 GT CAPITAL 503 505 519 519 495 503 795770 401764805 3.45 3.5 3.45 3.5 3.45 3.5 18000 62850 HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT 65 65.05 66.8 66.8 63.1 65 1845150 119080952.5 JOLLIVILLE HLDG 5.3 5.63 5.64 5.64 4.91 5.63 7100 39953 LODESTAR 0.52 0.53 0.52 0.54 0.52 0.52 37000 19270 LOPEZ HLDG 2.68 2.69 2.72 2.72 2.68 2.68 943000 2545410 9 9.2 9.4 9.4 8.9 9.2 1851700 16918959 LT GROUP 0.445 0.5 0.53 0.53 0.53 0.53 1000 530 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.48 3.5 3.49 3.51 3.42 3.5 46738000 162649180 3.02 3.2 3.15 3.15 3 3.03 36000 109700 PACIFICA HLDG PRIME MEDIA 0.82 0.84 0.82 0.82 0.82 0.82 95000 77900 SOLID GROUP 0.99 1 1.03 1.03 0.99 0.99 132000 131720 SYNERGY GRID 160 171 162 174.8 162 164 470 79678 SM INVESTMENTS 925 935 945 945 905 935 1418950 1296968370 104 104.1 110 110 103 104 881660 93371180 SAN MIGUEL CORP 0.65 0.66 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 40000 26000 SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER 138.1 140.9 140.8 141 138 138.1 1750 242058 0.19 0.194 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19 120000 22800 WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG 0.142 0.15 0.151 0.152 0.15 0.15 240000 36330

34980 -53300 70666800 -19106367 -11532350 44113 601750 1242306 -3496290 -51000 12596115 -48850 -48470230.5 27709 -15600 -315280 1671916 47553380 811144815 2601963 -213982 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.58 0.59 0.56 0.61 0.56 0.59 6617000 3916000 ANCHOR LAND 8.99 9 8.95 9 8.95 9 13900 124891 AYALA LAND 36.25 36.4 37.85 37.9 35.6 36.4 9987800 364536200 -10721670 ARANETA PROP 1.04 1.06 1.07 1.07 1.02 1.04 61000 62770 BELLE CORP 1.43 1.44 1.44 1.45 1.43 1.44 205000 295270 1440 0.6 0.61 0.63 0.64 0.59 0.6 2862000 1758980 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 0.73 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.74 55000 40700 CROWN EQUITIES 0.125 0.129 0.124 0.125 0.124 0.125 920000 114560 CEBU HLDG 6.06 6.38 6.38 6.38 6.02 6.38 14500 88270 CEB LANDMASTERS 3.91 3.97 4 4 3.9 3.97 1261000 4971190 285360 CENTURY PROP 0.395 0.4 0.4 0.405 0.395 0.4 6620000 2633300 CYBER BAY 0.28 0.29 0.29 0.3 0.28 0.28 1620000 457050 DOUBLEDRAGON 18 18.18 18.62 18.66 17.72 18 233900 4233174 -313582 6.66 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.6 6.66 190200 1267768 459280 DM WENCESLAO 0.3 0.305 0.285 0.3 0.28 0.3 22740000 6,644,800( 3,857,550.0001) EMPIRE EAST 0.095 0.096 0.098 0.098 0.092 0.095 2080000 196040 EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND 1.03 1.04 1.07 1.08 1.03 1.04 10863000 11390680 -1473090 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.84 0.87 0.89 0.89 0.82 0.85 320000 270790 8990 HLDG 10.04 10.1 10.3 10.3 10.1 10.1 35200 356196 -249950 PHIL INFRADEV 0.89 0.9 0.93 0.94 0.88 0.9 3347000 3048020 79570 KEPPEL PROP 3.62 3.92 3.87 3.92 3.42 3.75 45000 170570 3.2 3.23 3.29 3.3 3.17 3.23 31108000 99924720 3181120 MEGAWORLD 0.153 0.154 0.158 0.158 0.153 0.154 8050000 1251510 MRC ALLIED PRIMEX CORP 1.43 1.49 1.43 1.49 1.43 1.49 25000 35810 ROBINSONS LAND 20 20.05 19.9 20 19.22 20 2236800 44137608 7494702.0006 PHIL REALTY 0.242 0.255 0.26 0.26 0.242 0.242 470000 118280 ROCKWELL 1.62 1.64 1.68 1.68 1.62 1.63 100000 163760 8150 SHANG PROP 2.69 2.72 2.7 2.72 2.68 2.72 121000 324880 -134120 STA LUCIA LAND 1.88 1.91 1.88 1.88 1.88 1.88 127000 238760 32.8 33 33.55 33.85 31.9 33 12070700 396,109,475( 80,266,914.9996) SM PRIME HLDG 3.91 4.01 4.01 4.05 4 4 88000 352520 VISTAMALLS SUNTRUST HOME 1.3 1.34 1.35 1.41 1.3 1.3 22179000 30014790 VISTA LAND 4.2 4.21 4.38 4.38 4.12 4.21 2530000 10749740 2788380

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MINING & OIL

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PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 15 15.4 14.76 15 14.76 15 335000 5022600 -3375000 GMA HLDG PDR 4.93 4.94 4.95 4.95 4.92 4.94 435000 2152000 -1564200

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.79 0.82 0.8 0.8 0.75 0.8 281000 216110 2350

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EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 97.55 98 99 99 97 97.55 26600 2600768.5 33367

Health&Fitness PRESCRIBING NATURE Synnovate championing local BusinessMirror

Editor: Eleanor Leyco-Chua

Thursday, June 11, 2020 B3

Civic group calls on govt to invest in menstrual health and hygiene

medicinal herbs and products in PHL T

W

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

ith all the uncertainties we are facing amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to feel relaxed, stay healthy and up to date with the current health trends.

Creating evidenced-based, locally sourced standardized products amid a pandemic is challenging but the Synnovate Pharma Corp., the naturals company of Unilab, believes that “this is the way to establish our footprint in the naturals space.”

Synnovate has remained true to its commitment to provide science-based, high quality, pharmaceutical-grade and trusted natural products and ingredients.

It offers creative, innovative, and ethical solutions for the natural health and wellness needs of today’s individuals and families for Synnovate aims to be the Philippines’ leading provider of natural ingredients championing local medicinal herbs and products in the health and wellness markets.

This year, Synnovate’s brand - Sekaya will have four product lines for Filipinos: Sekaya Botanic Infusions, Sekaya Raw Actives, Sekaya Food Supplements and Sekaya Botanicare.

It is in line with its goal to provide consumers with products that offer functional wellness.

Sekaya offers high-quality plant-based products that are proven by science and tested by tradition.

In a media virtual conference, Dr. Rolando Balburias, General Internal Medicine and IFM Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, reminded consumers to be extra careful in choosing all-natural products saying not all found on the market are backed by science.

“It’s through science that the medical industry learned how to process plants for efficacy and safety,” Dr. Balburias said.

In the same forum, Dr. Deanna Minich, an internationally-recognized teacher, author, scientist, speaker, and artist, has encouraged a more colorful meal.

“Stress can get in our way of eating healthy

as increased cortisol and changes in hormones can alter our cravings. Most of the time, stress eating often leads to eating low-nutrient foods,” Dr. Minich said.

Minich, who has more than 20 years of diverse, well-rounded experience in the fields of nutrition and functional medicine, including clinical practice, research, product formulation, writing, and education, designed “The Rainbow Diet” as a new approach to “food, eating, and your life.”

In 2019, she also published her work in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism where she introduced “The Science of Eating Rainbow.”

She pointed out that we must have red food, orange food, yellow food, green food, and bluepurple food in our plates: n Red is high in antioxidants and red-food carotenoids to help with reducing inflammation and modulating the immune system; n Orange is abundant in carotenoids, endocrine-regulating activities, and may play a role in fertility through the support of processes such as ovulation; n Yellow is rich in fibers to support a complex microbiome and assist in maintaining gastrointestinal health through gastric motility and/or digestive secretions; n Green is high in a variety of nutrients for cardiovascular health, such as vitamin K, folate, magnesium, potassium, and dietary nitrates; and n Blue-Purple or polyphenol-rich foods assist with learning, memory, and mood including flavonoids, procyanidins, flanovols, phenolic acids.

Not only ensuring that it only offers nature’s life-nurturing gifts that are backed by the brilliance of science, Sekaya focuses on plant-based ingredients that have been traditionally used for their health promoting benefits and are recently

EATING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IS ASSOCIATED WITH WELL-BEING:

backed up with scientific evidence.

This Filipino brand offers products that are scientifically studied and meticulously processed within pharmaceutical-grade facilities to ensure the safety and purity of each. They are tested against microbial contamination, pesticide residues, heavy metals, and molds—ensuring customers that what they consume is safe and of high-quality.

Sekaya Botanic Infusions n A curated line of medicinal botanic infusions

for specific health conditions served in loose-leaf formats; n With botanical blends originating from different cultures around the world, the tradition of consuming these botanicals for their healing benefits lives on, this time validated by scientific evidence; n All infusions are carefully sourced from 100 percent USDA and QAI certified organic farms all over the world, with each botanical ingredient authentically sourced from its country of origin; n Made with the highest quality of produce that are non-GMO, non-irradiated; and n As these organic ingredients get infused in wa-

ter, all healthy plant nutrients are extracted which the body then easily absorbs when consumed.

Sekaya Raw Actives n A curated line of superfoods for athletes served in powdered format; and n Made with the highest quality of products that are non-GMO, non-irradiated.

Sekaya Food Supplements n Sekaya’s flagship line of local products; and n A line of premium, pharma-grade, natural

food supplements that are 100 percent sourced and manufactured in the Philippines, designed to address the needs of Filipinos.

Sekaya Botanicare n A line of premium natural skincare products.

To order Sekaya Botanic Infusions, send message via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ sekayaph/), Instagram (https://www.instagram. com/sekayaph/), or send an SMS or Viber at 0917-5SEKAYA (735292). Sekaya will also be back in Lazada this June.

Stress induced by pandemic affects migraine sufferers around the world

M

igraine attacks may be more common these days because of stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic and as migraine sufferers experience headache, nausea, and vomiting they fear they have Covid-19.

Due to these overlapping symptoms and limited access to clinic visits and migraine medications due to the lockdown and fear of infection increased the risk of patients’ migraine to worsen, which can cause stress and anxiety.

Dr. Corina Maria Socorro A. Macalintal, consultant neurologist at the Asian Hospital and Medical Center during “TAMA NA: Iwas Migraine, New Normal,” a virtual media briefing organized by the Novartis Healthcare Philippines, said the situation is impacting migraine sufferers around the world.

According to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report, close to 14 people with Covid-19 experience headaches, which may include migraine headaches.

Meanwhile, a social-media analysis done by the Novartis found that the stress and anxiety induced by the pandemic have triggered migraine attacks in patients all over the world. The analysis looked at 3,645 posts (in English), mostly on Twitter, from March 15 to April 15, 2020, that mentioned migraine.

The main stressor among migraine sufferers was the overlap of migraine and Covid-19 symptoms such as headache, nausea, and vomiting.

“Stress, lack of sleep, strong odors, and certain foods are some of the common triggers of migraine,” said Dr. Macalintal.

She added that migraine sufferers may grow anxious due to the overlap of migraine and Covid-19 symptoms.

“Headache may be a manifestation of Covid-19 but it is not as common as other symptoms like fever and dry cough.

Migraine attacks may be more common these days because of stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic,” she explained.

Migraine is a type of headache disorder that involves recurrent attacks of moderate to severe head pain that is typically throbbing, often on one side of the head and associated with nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound. “ Fortunately, there are effective ways to ease symptoms and prevent migraine attacks.

To help manage migraine, Dr. Macalintal said, patients are encouraged to identify their triggers and try to avoid them.

Although over-the-counter pain relievers are often the first line of treatment in migraine, there are abortive therapies that are specific for migraine.

“We caution the patients to limit the use of these abortive treatments to no more than two days a week. Patients who have migraine attacks at least four days a month require

nity quarantine. Your doctor will determine which is the right treatment for you,” she said.

Prevention of migraine

Stress and anxiety induced by the Covid-19 pandemic are impacting migraine sufferers around the world. Fortunately, there are effective ways to ease symptoms and prevent migraine attacks. This was the key message of neurologists during “TAMA NA: Iwas Migraine, New Normal,” a virtual media briefing organized by Novartis Healthcare Philippines. Photo shows (from left): Dr. Rosalina Espiritu-Picar, President, Philippine Neurological Association; Dr. Corina Maria Socorro Azores-Macalintal, Consultant Neurologist, Asian Hospital and Medical Center; Bianca Gonzales-Intal, TV Host and Model; Dr. Giovell Barangan, Chief Scientific Officer, Novartis Healthcare Philippines, Inc.; and Jugo Tsumura, President and Managing Director, Novartis Healthcare Philippines, Inc.

preventive therapy,” she added.

Dr. Macalintal stressed that it is important for migraine patients to consult a neurologist as migraine management is individualized, depending on the patient’s other health concerns and different reactions to medications.

Patients, she pointed out, should exercise caution on medication overuse, which can cause a headache for “there are pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options for migraine management.”

“Migraine patients and their neurologists should discuss treatment goals, which should not be limited to stopping the headache attack but to prevent a recurrence. Newer treatment options on preventive management address recurrence and other limitations of oral medications,” she said.

Telemedicine

To cope with the limitations imposed by the pandemic to migraine sufferers, Dr. Rosalina Espiritu-Picar, president of the Philippine Neurological Association (PNA), said they encourage migraine patients who are stable and do not require acute emergency care to utilize telemedicine tools so that they can stay connected with their doctors.

The PNA has drafted telemedicine guidelines that all of its members follow to ensure the safety and privacy of both patients and doctors.

Telemedicine tools are a practical alternative to enable doctor-patient interaction while maintaining social distancing and complying with community quarantine protocols.

“Whenever I had to host shows and events, there were bright lights and loud sounds, which are all migraine triggers.

I have to take a strong medicine and take a nap backstage before showtime, so I could ease my migraine headache and be able to perform my role as host,” Bianca Gonzalez said. Her father is also a migraine sufferer.

Gonzalez stressed that it is important that persons with migraine will get support from their loved ones. Like her, Gonzalez said, she is grateful for the support of her husband whenever she has migraine attacks.

Likewise, she also thanked other migraine sufferers who express their support whenever she posts on social media.

“It’s a huge help knowing that I am not alone in coping with this debilitating disease.” Gonzales urges people who suffer terrible headaches and suspect migraine to consult a doctor. You can consult a doctor online during this commu-

In line with its commitment to reimagine migraine care, Novartis has developed erenumab, the first of its kind to be approved by the US FDA, EMA, Swissmedic and Australian TGA for the prevention of migraine. In the Philippines, erenumab is approved for the prevention of migraine in adults.

“Erenumab specifically targets the calcitonin gene-related peptide or CGRP receptor, which plays a key role in the pathophysiology of migraine. It has been shown to safely and effectively reduce migraine frequency, allowing patients to have more migraine-free days,”said Dr. Giovell Barangan, chief scientific officer, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.

Dr. Barangan said this innovative anti-migraine medicine is self-administered once monthly via a prefilled syringe.

“It does not require a loading dose and is easy to use. Erenumab has been launched in 43 other countries and is now available in the Philippines,” Dr. Barangan said. Around 12 million Filipinos suffer from migraine, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.

The Speak Your Migraine PH online survey conducted by Novartis among Filipino migraine sufferers revealed that stress and anxiety can trigger migraine attacks.

It is important for patients to monitor their migraine with available tools such as the Migraine Buddy, an advanced migraine headache diary and tracking app designed with neurologists and data scientists. The Migraine Buddy app is available on the App Store and Google Play.

“Monitoring migraine attacks can help migraine sufferers recognize trigger factors and warning signs. It can also help the doctor assess if the patient’s migraine medication is working.

The good news is that new treatment options on preventive migraine care are now available,” said Ms. Christine Fajardo, corporate affairs head, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.

To learn more about migraine and join the conversation with fellow migraine sufferers, visit the Speak Your Migraine Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/speakyourmigraineph.

To find a neurologist anywhere in the country and for a list of neurologists accepting telemedicine consultations, patients are encouraged to visit the official PNA web site at www.philippineneurologicalassociation.com or the trunkline of the hospital nearest them to ask for a neurologist.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

here are a lot of compounding problems for girls in reaching full potential due to lack of access to hygienic and affordable menstrual products, and clean water and toilets.

Save the Children Philippines has called for government investments on holistic approaches to address the underlying causes of poor menstrual health and hygiene as the world observes the Menstrual Hygiene Day celebration on May 28.

Atty. Alberto Muyot, chief executive officer of Save the Children Philippines, said that supporting menstrual health and hygiene will help millions of girls get access to education opportunities, protect them from discrimination and ensure their well-being.

“Girls particularly, are at risk of missing out on learning or not being able to participate in class when they have their period” Muyot said.

“Managing menstruation in school and at home becomes very challenging due to the absence of adequate resources and support, and these challenges are exacerbated in times of emergencies and disasters including the current Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.

Jonathan Valdez, School Health and Nutrition advisor of Save the Children Philippines, said the physical, emotional, and social aspects of girls’ overall health are at risk when it comes to menstrual health and hygiene.

In a school survey conducted

by Save the Children Philippines, it showed that majority of girls face the difficulty of concentrating and participating in their classes when they have a menstrual period.

“The limitation of human activities and competing resources due to impacts of the current Covid-19 crisis to families’ economy pose challenges to menstruating girls and women at home,” said Valdez.

He also raised concern on compounding difficulties being faced by girls with disabilities, those in deprived and marginalized communities who lack access to menstrual health and hygiene support.

Valdez said there is a pressing need to “break taboos and stigma” on menstrual health issues to address the needs of menstruating girls and women.

“Girls and women’s period will not stop for this current crisis, and the support to managing it should be included in our actions,” said Valdez. He added that the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, should integrate programs supporting the needs of girls and women in managing menstruation.

“Our collective actions should continue beyond the pandemic and step up in making investments so that no one will be held back because of their period,” Valdez said.

Save the Children Philippines has been distributing lifesaving hygiene kits, household kits, healthy food packs to thousands of low-income families in Metro Manila including those affected by the recent fire in Pasay City. The support also includes marginalized communities in Southern Mindanao to keep children and their families protected from Covid-19.

Save the Children Philippines is encouraging everyone to join its humanitarian response for menstrual health and hygiene management which also extends to providing menstrual health and hygiene education to girls and women in evacuation centers during emergencies such as typhoons and earthquakes and the recent Taal Volcano eruption.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

B4

Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 11, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Anita Linda, 95 S

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Claire Holt, 32; Shia LaBeouf, 34; Peter Dinklage, 51; Hugh Laurie, 61.

By Gerard S. Ramos Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor

HE was born Alice Buenaflor Lake on November 23, 1924, in Pasay City, the daughter of an American father and a mother from Iloilo. Of course everybody knew her as Anita Linda, her chosen nom de guerre when she entered show business in the early 1940s after being discovered by National Artist Lamberto Avellana.

Her last film credit was 2019’s Circa, an Adolf Alix Jr. drama for which Anita Linda won a Best Actress nomination. It was one of the many acting awards the actress had collected in a decades-long career.

In the early morning of Wednesday, June 10, Anita Linda passed away at the age of 95. The actress’s daughter, Francesca Legaspi, confirmed her death to the media. In a social-media post, Alix, who also directed Linda in Adela (2009) and Presa (2011), likewise confirmed her passing.

“The great Anita Linda...passed away this morning at 6:15 am at 95,” Alix wrote in his post on Wednesday morning. “This is a very sad day for me. I am trembling as I gather my thoughts...She [was] like my lola and part of my family.”

In a Facebook post, Liza Diño-Seguerra, the chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), said: “I just heard about the passing of the great Anita Linda from director Adolfo Alix Jr., and it’s heartbreaking. Last year, I posted my memorable encounter with her. A once-in-a-lifetime chance na makadaupang palad s’ya...this was what she said to me: “‘Liza, life has been good to me. Matanda na ’ko, malabo na ang mga mata ko, hindi na ako masyadong makarinig. Pero hanggang ngayon, nandito pa rin ako.

Ayokong iwanan ang buhay dahil masarap mabuhay.’

“It was such a humbling experience to have been able to spend a moment with one of our country’s living treasures. To Miss Anita Linda, the industry [has been] blessed to have you po. Thank you for being an inspiration to all of us. Your words will forever be in my heart. Paalam po. Hanggang sa muli...[heart emoji].”

In her seven decades as an actress, Linda created some of the most unforgettable performances ever to grace movie theaters. Her credits, include Sisa, Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo, Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, Isa Dalawa Tatlo, Bakit Bughaw ang Langit, Ang Babae sa Bubungang Lata, Mater Dolorosa, Adela, Lola Igna and Circa. Her awards include three from Gawad Urian, two from the FAMAS, and one each from the Young Critics Circle and the Cinemalaya, plus international honors from the Asia Pacific Film Festival, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, and the Asean International Film Festival.

The great director Lino Brocka dubbed Anita

Happy Birthday: Slow down and do things right the first time. Doing research and simplifying matters to fit your needs will help you steadily climb toward reaching your goal. There is no room for anger and petty differences if you want to get ahead. If something isn’t working, let it go and head in a direction that is more accommodating. Your lucky numbers are 8, 13, 20, 26, 31, 35, 44.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t let the changes others adhere to daunt you. Keep looking and moving forward, and you will reach your destination of choice. A physical change will give you the pick-me-up you need to get involved in something new and exciting. HHHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Look at your options. Someone you have worked with will offer you an alternative that can help you change your focus. Choose the path that not only interests you but offers the rewards you are trying to achieve. HH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Take time to do something that makes you feel good. Update your appearance, pick up a new hobby or pursue a fitness challenge that will make you feel good, look your best and boost your ego. HHHHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Embrace new beginnings. Be creative in the way you take care of your everyday chores and responsibilities. Your approach to life will open doors that were not available to you in the past. Incorporate changes that promote better health and fitness.

HHHHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Rethink how you spend your cash. Don’t let anyone tempt you with something that can affect your reputation or cause personal problems with someone you love.

Concentrate on making changes that will improve your health, well-being and appearance. HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Control your thoughts and emotions, and keep your response steady. Bring about the change you want to happen by offering a reasonable plan of attack to any situation that needs fixing. HHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A physical effort will be required if you want to get things done your way. Someone will exaggerate a situation to make you look bad. Let your work speak for you. What you accomplish will far exceed what someone says about you. HHH

h Linda as “The Face,” as hers—as breathtaking and breathtakingly fragile as Dresden china—was the weapon with which she seduced generations of film

audiences. It was her electrifying talent, however, that forever captivated generations of filmgoers.

Anita Linda will forever be missed. n

Call for proposals to WifiBody.Ph Virtual 2020 until June 15 DANCE artists have until June 15 to submit their proposals for this year’s Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) WifiBody.Ph Virtual 2020 as part of the Choreographers Series.

Amid the transition of CCP productions to online platforms for 2020, the CCP Choreographers Series, which will be held in August through October, aims to use digital platforms to expand the reach of its programs to a critical mass of people for the promotion of contemporary dance through WifiBody 2020 and NeoFilipino 2020 virtual editions. The series will migrate to online platforms via YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Aimed at becoming the prime mover of contemporary dance expressions in Philippine society, the CCP Choreographers Series was envisioned by series directors Denisa Reyes and Myra Beltran with

z

Nes Jardin. The series starts with (1) WifiBody.Ph, a competition for emerging choreographers; (2) Koryolab, a laboratory and showcase of experimental dance pieces by mid-career choreographers; and (3) NeoFilipino, a venue for established choreographers to create and stage major works in collaboration with artists of other art forms.

Criteria for joining this year’s WifiBody are as follows: one must be a Filipino citizen; has not created a major fulllength work; and must be committed to pursuing choreography as a profession and contributing to the choreographic discourse in the Philippines.

The location of the work must be the domestic space, employing innovative propositions on the use of space, on the architecture of that space, and on the

relation of the human body in both its kinesthetic and architectural possibilities in the proposed space. Applicants are encouraged to have a range of propositions on the treatment of the body—whether it is seen as an abstract form within the space, or a figurative rendering of the body performing domestic activities put together choreographically, or the body rendering feeling-states within the confines of the architectural space. Emphasis will still be on the level of movement research and innovation. Minute choreographic possibilities of the body are also considered, thus it is not necessary that the full body be always seen on view on the video, but the body must be present in full within frame in the course of the work. Props may be used but they are limited to the ones found within the domestic space. Transformations/

reconfigurations of ordinary items toward an abstract form are allowed and DIY innovation is encouraged. The use of sound or music that one has the copyright to is also encouraged. If accepted as a finalist, one will be given the opportunity to undergo workshops and mentoring for both dance and video. The final work will be a six to eight minute dance on video. There can be more than one space used within a domestic location in the entire work.

Applicants need to submit the following: a 100-word proposal of the work’s concept; identify the spaces to be used in the work; explain how the location contributes to the concept; and a one-minute movement study on video of the work.

The 100-word proposal and the link to the video will be sent via e-mail to ccpchoreoseries@gmail.com.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Put your ideas in motion. A passionate approach to whatever you decide to do will make a difference to someone who can influence your future.

Expand your plans, not your budget. HHHHH

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t share too much with too many. If you embellish, you will not be able to live up to your word. Stick to the truth, align yourself with like-minded people and avoid anyone playing emotional games. HH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A change to the way or where you live will be energizing.

Concentrate on using the past and present to create a future filled with life and prosperity. How you conduct yourself now will have a ripple effect on what lies ahead. HHHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Look at the human aspect of a situation, and you’ll find an innovative way to make positive adjustments.

A change you make will spark your imagination and encourage you to incorporate rules that will lead to a healthier life. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You’ll be eager to make a change, but before you do, consider who will be affected by the decisions you make. A discussion beforehand will lead to fair compensation that will allow you to move forward without conflict. HHH Birthday Baby: You are respectful, conscientious and a self-starter.

You are humorous and well-liked.

‘a-cue-stick’ by steven e. atwood The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Walk through puddles 6 Mortgage change, briefly 10 ___’s Disco (The Simpsons club) 13 Assuage 14 Vivacity 15 Angels’ big hits?: Abbr.

16 Dr. Seuss book about synesthesia?

19 Ewoks’ home 20 Opened, as a gate 21 Lean to one side 23 Marina ___ Rey 24 Trial venue for long-running disputes?

29 Contented cat sounds 33 Make less stuffy 34 ___ Kippur 36 Member of The Squad, informally 37 Critter that can regenerate its arms 39 Sanskrit for “great soul” 42 ___ Tuesday (Aimee Mann band) 43 Dry, like champagne 45 More out of it 46 “What a pity!”

49 Alcohol content of gasoline?

51 Michele of Glee 53 Funny Martha 54 Like some steel 58 Russian summer home 63 “This Donald Duck nephew has been on-screen too long!”?

65 Above, in poetry 66 Arabian chief 67 First-year player 68 What the right accent color makes a room do 69 Like pink cheeks 70 It might be attached to a washer DOWN 1 Shortly 2 Lady’s partner 3 Director Preminger 4 Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V 5 Female lobster 6 Return into Earth’s atmosphere 7 Israel’s national airline 8 Capacitance unit 9 Arched foot part 10 Emphatic warning in the library 11 Factual

2 Like thrift shop items 1 13 Pronoun within “seashells” 17 Prime Video competitor 18 Org. that defends rights 22 Greek I’s 24 Doesn’t eat 25 Vowel sequence in a children’s song 26 Eurasian range 27 Suggested behaviors 28 Former Patriot Brady 30 1:1, for one 31 “...wherefore art thou ___?”

32 Neckwear item 35 Intense way to be in love 38 NFL arbiter 40 Had on a wish list, say 41 First 30-day mo.

44 Hasty 47 Gave one’s wings a rest 48 Tougher to cut a path through 50 Arizona-to-New Mexico direction 52 1836 Texas battle site 54 Sign that anagrams to “post” 55 Nickname related to Ted 56 Group with Medicare information

57 Yale grads 59 Nautical greeting 60 Veggie that can be pickled 61 ___ apparent 62 Nautical assent 64 Windy City airport code

Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Parentlife BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Thursday, June 11, 2020

B5

Are we overwhelmed?

THE front jacket of the book Dawns: A Weekly Devotional for Self-Care and Spiritual Growth, written by Isa Garcia, Janina Marie Rivera and Ida Torres.

Could you have thyroid disease?

DID you know that many Filipinos suffer from thyroid-related disorders? At last January’s 13th Goiter Awareness Week forum, the Philippine Thyroid Association revealed that of 106 million Filipinos, 9 million (or 8.9 percent) more Pinoys have some form of thyroid disease—a staggering number next to the 5 million to 6 million Filipinos affected with diabetes.

A small butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck, the thyroid produces hormones that regulate the body’s metabolism. An out-ofwhack thyroid presents a slew of symptoms: weight loss or weight gain, irregular heart rate, fatigue, dry skin, sleep issues, and the most obvious sign: an enlarged thyroid.

But thyroid disease can be managed too, judging from the high-profile personalities who continue to thrive in their careers despite their health issues.

Supermodel Gigi Hadid and Hollywood stars Zoe Saldana and Gina Rodriguez have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disorder characterized by mild weight gain, intermittent menstrual periods, and intolerance to cold, among other symptoms. Quirky singer Sia has Graves’ disease, another autoimmune disorder that causes the thyroid to overproduce hormones. Symptoms include irritability, trouble sleeping, excessive sweating, goiter, and bulging eyes.

Could you have thyroid disease? The country’s top hospital, Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www.makatimed.net.ph), through its Section of Endocrinology, cites three common types of thyroid conditions and their respective symptoms and treatments.

■ GOITER. A prevalent condition in the Philippines, it is marked by an enlarged thyroid, which appears as a noticeable, noncancerous bulge in the front of the neck. “This can make swallowing difficult due to the compression of the esophagus, if the goiter is too big,” says Jimmy B. Aragon, MD, Section Chief of Endocrinology.

According to Dr. Aragon, goiter may be due to a diet deficient in iodine, although not as frequent now. “Women of reproductive age are also prone to goiter because they are experiencing some hormonal changes.” Diagnosed through physical examination and sometimes ultrasound, goiter is treated surgically if the goiter is large (especially if it interferes with your breathing and swallowing).

■ HASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITIS. A form of hypothyroidism, this condition happens when the immune system attacks the thyroid, destroying its ability to produce hormones. “Symptoms of this condition include some weight gain, dry hair and skin, constipation, a pale and puffy face, fatigue, and possibly goiter,” he explains. Women from their 40s to their 60s are vulnerable to this disease, but young women and teens can also get it.

According to Aragon, a blood test determines whether you have adequate amounts of the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and thyroid hormones.

“When your thyroid is damaged, your hormone level drops.” Hormone-replacing medication helps elevate thyroid hormone levels and relieves symptoms.

■ GRAVES’ DISEASE. A form of hyperthyroidism, Graves’ disease leads to such symptoms as anxiety, hand tremors, weight loss, fatigue, increased heart rate, frequent bowel movements, goiter, and bulging eyes. “Again, diagnosis depends on the presenting symptoms as well as results of the blood tests,” Aragon points out. “Taking medication and radioactive iodine, and in certain cases thyroid surgery, are ways to treat the disease.”

No matter what form of thyroid condition you might have, early diagnosis is key to overcoming the symptoms and averting any complications.

“Left untreated, hypothyroidism can lead to nerve damage and a difficult pregnancy,” says Dr. Aragon.

“Hyperthyroidism’s complications, meanwhile, include pregnancy issues, osteoporosis, weakening of the heart and its pumping capacity, as well as development of irregular heart beating that could result to blood clot formation leading to stroke.”

“If you have symptoms of thyroid disease, see your doctor immediately for some tests and a proper diagnosis,” Aragon adds. “With the right treatment, you can live a productive and healthy life.”

T

HE “new normal” is starting for many of us. Work hours have changed or dropped significantly. The commute is difficult or impossible due to limited public transportation. Payment due dates for bills have resumed. Home life has changed in various ways. We try to take things day by day but the uncertainty of many things continues to make us anxious.

Each of us copes differently. Positivity can be an active choice but also uniquely varies in doses.

It is important to find our strong focal point, while acknowledging the need for support. We all need to seek hope regardless of how far the end of the tunnel may seem. Amid these worries, it is good to find some quiet time for reading and spiritual reflection. Dawns: A Weekly Devotional for Self-Care and Spiritual Growth written by Isa Garcia, Janina Marie Rivera and Ida Torres shares these following tips: ■ TALK TO GOD. Don’t make this your last option.

You don’t have to say a “formal” prayer. Make your prayers as normal as breathing. The more you talk to God, the more natural it will feel to turn to Him when things get too overwhelming.

■ BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT. The act of physically taking a deep breath and releasing it after a few seconds can help your brain and your heart slow down. Do this a few times until you feel calm enough to think with a clear head.

■ STEP OUT/AWAY. If you need to leave a roomful of people, do it. If you need to walk away from a person you’re talking to, do it. When you need to leave that to-do list and walk around for a few minutes, do it.

When you’re ready to face whatever needs to be dealt with, go back.

■ READ, WATCH, OR LISTEN TO SOMETHING. It sometimes helps to do something that is so far from a current overwhelming task, just so that you can get your bearings back. Read a few chapters from a nonschool or nonwork book. Watch a few minutes of your current favorite show. Listen to soothing (or rocking!) music. The idea is to get your mind off things, if only for a while.

■ SLEEP. Yes, sometimes you just need to fully rest.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS ISA GARCIA loves to teach and write. She spends most of her time juggling both but she realizes there is a lot of joy in trying out new things. As of this writing, she finds herself immersed in boxing, soap making, and learning the ukulele. Isa is an enthusiast of life, love and God. She still writes letters. She wrote Found: Letters on Love, Life and God and Like Lines on a Map. Janina Marie Rivera loves stories. She grew up dreaming, studying and writing them. She is the author of A Night Bird Sings of Blindness and

Fear, published by OMF Literature. She is also the publishing director of the magazine One Voice, which you can find online at www.onevoicemagazine.com; and the editor in chief of the Dream Kits made for United Prayer Rising. Janina has been writing devotionals for iStudyEBS.com. She is passionate about God and life, often getting involved in various types of mission work. She also finds herself in the field of education, where she has professional experience in teaching elementary, high school, and college students. During leisure moments, you can find Janina painting landscapes on canvas or reading a book.

Ida Torres is OMF Literature’s digital marketing specialist, and her officemates believe she lives in the Internet. She previously worked in PR, advertising and events (EON, World Vision, M2Comms, Adobo Magazine). Her dream is to someday write and be paid to travel the world and watch concert festivals. She strongly believes in being open about your mental health struggles, being intentionally kind, and using digital media for social good. You can read more of her writing at www.idaflutterby.com. You can also follow her on Instagram (@emotionalnomad).

At one point in your life, or maybe more than a hundred points, things will become just too much.

Too many items on your to-do list. Too much pressure from your boss. Too much anxiety over things you have no control over. Too many people in the room with you. Too much anger over a situation. Too many things on your mind.

Now might be a good time to start a journal.

There is great relief in writing all our worries and insecurities down on paper than keeping things afloat in our hearts and minds. Then, as the book advises: Read the entry for the week...

Set aside time to meditate on the anchor verse... Respond to the journaling prompt in whatever way you wish.... And remember: Just when everything looks at its darkest, soon will break a new dawn.

This is an excerpt from Dawns: A Weekly Devotional for Self-Care and Spiritual Growth, coauthored by Isa Garcia, Janina Marie Rivera and Ida Torres. Published

by OMF Literature, Dawns is available at OMF Lit Bookshop and other leading bookstores nationwide.

The book can also be ordered online through shop. omflit.com ■ omflit.com.

❶ DRI-FIT shorts

for your dad’s workout from home or home training sessions.

❷ DADS will love this Fujifilm X-A7 Mirrorless Digital Camera that lets him shoot pro-level photos and videos.

❸ THE GoPro

Hero Max Action Camera is not only waterproof but also lets you shoot footage in a 360-degree angle.

❹ CALVIN Klein

Eau de Toilette and Davidoff Cool Water Eau de Toilette

❺ ADIDAS

Rubber Shoes for your dad’s fitness routine from home.

❻ KEEP your

dad’s gadgets secure and safe with this Pacsafe sling pack.

❶

❷

❸

Get that great gift for dad delivered WHETHER being homebound together has made you appreciate Dad more, or you’ve been missing him as boundaries separate, make him feel special with The SM Store’s Father’s Day Gift Essentials and have them delivered to him on his very special day through #SMCalltoDeliver.

The SM Store’s call to deliver catalogue features great gifts for Dad that will touch his heart: ■ A GIFT OF MEMORIES. Whether capturing family’s best moments or his new-norm adventures, dads will surely love a new gadget like the FujiFilm Mirrorless Digital Camera or Go Pro Hero Max Action Camera.

■ A GIFT OF TIME. Days with Dad are priceless, and it’s amazing how he has always found time for

you despite his busy schedule.

Organizers for his favorite watch collection will surely bring a big smile to his face.

■ A GIFT OF FASHION AND FITNESS. A nice pair of rubber shoes, tees, shirts and dri-fit shorts for your dad’s workout from home activity.

■ A GIFT OF SCENT-SIBILITY. Either a new scent or his signature fragrance will add zest to his special day.

■ A GIFT OF COOL. Keep Dad safe with smart and protective helmets as his takes his ride.

For other Father’s Day gift ideas, call the #SMCallToDeliver hotline (0917-8001074) weekdays, 10 am to 6 pm for inquiries, or check out the catalog www.thesmstore.com/call-todeliver-catalog.

❻

❹

❺

B6 Thursday, June 11, 2020

The Farm reopens health care services Araneta City celebrates Independence Day

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HIS Independence Day, Araneta City is launching a series of programs and initiatives that aim to help, inspire, and provide hope amid the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

“We know that these past few months have been very difficult for many Filipinos, and this Independence Day we hope

to empower people to help and inspire others,” Marjorie Go, Assistant Vice President for Marketing of Araneta City, said.

One of the highlights of Araneta City’s Independence Day celebration is a shadow show headlined by Asia’s Got Talent Finalist Shadow Ace on June 12.

The shadow show will pay tribute to our

heroic frontliners who are leading the battle against COVID-19 and will be livestreamed on the Facebook page of Araneta City.

Araneta City will also give their own frontliners a few treats from Coca-Cola in celebration of Independence Day. This is Araneta City’s way of showing their appreciation for the dedication and passion of their frontliners.

Meanwhile, to help small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that have been impacted by the declaration of strict quarantine measures, there is an all-Filipino food virtual bazaar through Facebook where customers can have some of the treats they pick delivered straight to their homes.

The event started last Monday, June 8. Araneta City will also run a digital promotion for 10 small businesses to give them a boost.

Araneta City is also running a digital promo to help some modernday heroes. Netizens can nominate someone that embodies heroism by posting a photo of their hero and writing a short caption explaining why they deserve to be honored, and then posting it and tagging Araneta City on social media. The chosen hero will be given a brand new bike by Araneta City.

“We are inspired by everyday Filipinos who have stepped up amid this crisis. Through these activities we are highlighting these inspiring people and businesses and we are showcasing their heroism,” Go said.

To know more about Araneta City and its activities, like and follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/AranetaCity, follow Araneta City on Instagram at instagram.com/aranetacity.

#SupportLocalAtSM this Independence Day from your home!

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HE Farm at San Benito, the country’s pioneer wellness resort, has recently opened to resume its medical and healthcare services as the country continues to contain the spread of Covid-19 virus.

Located in Lipa City, Batangas, The Farm is a holistic medical facility offering natural and holistic health programs which are crafted and conducted by internationally–trained medical doctors and professionals.

To help deal with the outbreak, it can administer Covid-19 antibody testing and prevention programs following strict safety and sanitation protocols based on the guidance of World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health.

Rooms and treatment areas are sanitized

by Sanivir Smoke which is certified by the Spanish Institute of Microbiology as an effective smoke disinfectant which kills germs

and Covid-19 virus on surfaces by 99%.

It is also a partner of world-class healthcare providers, such as Living Life Well Integrative Medical Clinic, a Cigna-accredited global health care provider.

The Farm also offers its newly-designed Immune Support Program which includes Covid-19 testing, conducive accommodation and environment perfect for healing and relaxation, holistic immune system support treatments, nutrient-rich organic vegan meals and beverages, microbiome nourishment, and mindful movements.

The program also includes psychoemotional session for mental health to prevent anxiety and psychological issues.

The all-inclusive program starts at PHP 50,000++ per person for 3 days / 2 nights. For details, visit www.thefarmatsanbenito.com, call (+632) 8884-8074, 0918-8848080, or email info@thefarm.com.ph.

ALCANTARA GROUP DONATES PPES TO SARANGANI FRONTLINERS. The Alcantara Group of Companies, through the Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation Inc., together with Sarangani Energy Corporation (SEC), Alsons Agri-Business Unit (ABU), and the Kamanga Agro-Industrial Ecozone Development Corp. (KAIEDC), recently donated over 8,000 facemasks, 3,000 gloves, 182 goggles, and 150 personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the Sarangani provincial government. Now classified under the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), Sarangani is a Covid-free province, with no confirmed case of the dreaded contagion. In photo aat the turnover of the protective gear are, from left, Sarangani assistant provincial administrator Engr. Gerald Faciol, provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer Rene Punzalan, KAEIDC property manager Max Allawan, chief of staff Cesario Cagas, and SEC’s HR-administration and project assurance manager Joel Aton. The Alcantara conglomerate is the top major business player in the province, with the 210-megawatt coal-fired thermal plant in Maasim town as flagship project.

Five creative ways school can continue teaching through the COVID-19 crisis

ABE’s crunchy Knockout Knuckles Crispy Pata available for takeout or delivery at SM Megamall.

Oryspa’s proudly Pinoy-made home & spa solutions are available at the following SM malls: Legazpi, Calamba, Davao, and Megamall.

N

OW is the time to taste, feel, and experience Pinoy pride – via your mobile phones!

Together with SM Supermalls’ continuous support to local and MSME tenants as we now transition to a new lifestyle, let’s take this chance to #SupportLocalAtSM and get our hands on our all-time Pinoy favorites – whether it be food, fashion, wellness, or other essential needs – and we’ll have them delivered to you in a few taps!

“This Independence Day, we encourage everyone to buy local as a way to help businesses, especially Filipino brands and homegrown MSMEs, who have been greatly affected by this pandemic,” said Jonjon San Agustin, SM Supermalls senior vice president for marketing.

Here’s a list of local finds you can check out at SM this Philippine Independence Day: 1. Filipino Food & Beverage. Crispy Pata, Kare Kare, Banana Chips, Tablea

Chocolate, Cordillera Coffee, Suman Latik – these are just some of the hard-to-makeat-home Filipino delicacies we all miss, and are available to take out or pick up from SM tenants. Simply join the Viber community “Takeout and Delivery at SM” here for a list of everything local that you crave.

2. Local Fashion & Accessories.

Filipino textiles and native design patterns are the new norm! Support local artisans by checking out a wide selection of locally made accessories, beachwear, and printed shirts and dresses available at SM. 3. Home & Living. Spruce up your space and shop for new tableware like woven placemats and coasters and locally made mugs and utensils for your quarantine home celebrations. Think local!

4. Health & Beauty. Many Filipino health and beauty products are world-class and sought after abroad. From shampoos, soaps, lotions, and even organic oils – there is definitely much to choose from for skin and body pampering.

5. Baby & Kids. Play dress up at home with your kiddos. From your newborns to your pre-schoolers, dress them in outfits that are proudly made by Pinoys!

All these and more can be viewed at SM’s Philippine Independence Day Digital Catalogue. Plus, you can have your purchased items delivered to your home via our pabili and delivery apps! The complete catalogue with details on delivery services is now available for download on your favorite SM mall’s Facebook page.

To give you some rock n’ roll at the convenience of your homes, shoppers can get a chance to watch Pinoy rock icon Bamboo via SM Supermalls’ first ever virtual concert happening on June 20 at 8pm via ZOOM. Fans can get a chance to win an exclusive pass for every single receipt purchase of P500 from June 10-14.

To know more about SM’s takeout and delivery services, visit www.smsupermalls. com or join SM Supermalls’ official Viber communities here.

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OME of the changes schools can implement effectively are a rescheduling of the academic calendar, a transition to online learning, and work-from-home schemes for employees.

Rex, the premiere learning provider of the country and a pioneer in distance and online learning, has been disseminating information and other materials to schools to help them cope with the impact of the crisis on their students, teachers, stakeholders, and business continuity. One of their partner-resource speakers Atty. Joseph Noel M. Estrada, enumerates five aspects that schools should consider changing if they are to remain agile, and emerge successfully from the crisis.

Estrada is the author of the Education Act and a managing partner of the Estrada & Aquino Law Office.

First, schools should be able to adjust their academic calendar to make up for the cancellations. Schools should likewise be allowed to postpone their graduation ceremonies at the appropriate time in consideration of the appropriate government regulations on COVID-19. Estrada also advises, “Venues, especially government properties like the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), should waive cancellation fees to schools who moved their schedule due to COVID-19.”

Second, schools may use different modes of delivery of education for the remainder of the academic year. These may include e-learning, the use of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Open Education Resources (OERs) that may be used offline, distance education, and other creative ways using online platforms to make sure students catch up with the last stretch of the academic year. Estrada points out, “The DepEd and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are expected to relax the rules applicable for schools who can actually implement e-learning or blended learning to address the disruption of classes brought about by COVID-19.”

Third, adapt a more flexible approach to

the “automatic pass everyone” proposed by some local governments, as this may not be the more prudent approach if the schools can still resort to other means to ensure that students have fully satisfied the requirements for their current academic level. However, if the schools have already satisfied the required number of class days for the academic year and that the meetings left are for co-curricular activities, they can shorten the school calendar and just assess the students based on their current class standing but with fairness and due consideration of the current situation.

Fourth, schools should likewise be able to innovate and facilitate alternative activities to enable their students to complete their required practicum/OJT and off-campus duties apart from the JS proms and other school-sponsored activities. Postponement or cancellation of these curricular activities require permission from the school’s partner institutions and may have some impact on their academics. These include OJTs and immersion programs, internship, clerkship and hospital duties of students in the medical and allied health programs.

Estrada suggests, “Partner institutions should allow schools to pre-terminate their agreement to deploy students without serious consequences on their students’ academic requirements (e.g., requiring them to repeat the entire program).

Fifth, to prevent disruption of work, schools may opt to implement work-fromhome schemes for all employees. Estrada says, “There is no hard and fast rule that schools may resort to during this peculiar situation that affects our school communities. In the absence of separate pay rules from the Department of Labor and Employment for teachers and school employees affected, they should be paid in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Code, appropriate school policies on employment, employment contracts, and collective bargaining agreements.

For more information on distance education and Schoology, please visit http:// www.rexpublishing.com.ph/schoology/.

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL, Japan formalize notes on infra projects, grants

Thursday, June 11, 2020 B7

Poland stands with PHL in defense, devt

S

ECRETARY of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. and Ambassador Koji Haneda of Japan signed and exchanged diplomatic notes at the Department of Foreign Affairs headquarters on June 8 that firmed up the latter’s support for two major Philippine infrastructure projects, as well as grants for agriculture development, higher education scholarships and critically needed health equipment.

SZCZEPANKIEWICZ FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. (left) and Ambassador Koji Haneda exchange diplomatic notes on official development assistance projects from Japan. NILO K. PALAYA/DFA

DOH’s response to the current pandemic and other health emergencies.

Non-project grant agreement for the economic and social development program of the Sugar Regulatory Administration: Costing ¥800 million (about P377 million), this is a follow-up to the 2001 grant aid farm-mechanization program aided by the Sugar-Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund. It will finance, among others, 94 units each of tractors, harrows, whole-stalk sugarcane planters and munchers.

In a statement, the embassy acknowledged the local sugarcane industry as one of the cornerstones of the Philippine economy.

The initiative will strengthen the sugar production sector through reduced production costs and increased productivity. More than 84,000 Filipino sugarcane farmers, whose meager sources of income are adversely affected by the pandemic, will benefit from this grant aid.

Japanese Grant Aid for human resource development scholarship (JDS) for 2021: A long-standing program, the project supports two-year Master’s and doc-

torate courses at prominent Japanese universities for young officials in the Philippine civil service who are seen to potentially assume key leadership roles.

The project will provide ¥337 million (about P159 million) to support 22 young Filipino officials from various governmental institutions as JDS fellows of postgraduate programs starting academic year 2021.

It also aims to enhance the JDS fellows’ expertise in their respective fields and to help build a pool of future Filipino leaders expected to contribute to the country’s overall economic development by returning to and working in the Philippines.

Since it started in 2002, a total of 361 Filipino JDS fellows have studied in Japan.

According to the embassy, the exchange of notes “further cements Japan’s status as the Philippines’s top provider of official development assistance for decades, and a vital partner in achieving the country’s development goals.” Last year in Tokyo, President Duterte called Japan the “gold standard” for Philippine development cooperation with foreign partners.

Described by the Embassy of Japan as performed in “austere rites,” the exchange of notes covered the following: Cebu-Mactan Bridge (fourth span) and Coastal Road Construction Project: With an estimated cost of ¥119.225 billion (approximately P56 billion), it involves the construction of a 3.3-kilometer bridge with a 3.385-kilometer elevated viaduct of two lanes per direction, and a 4.9-kilometer, four-lane coastal road with a 4.751-kilometer viaduct, among others.

The span aims to improve the capacity of the existing road network in the island-province and facilitate faster movement of people, goods and services. It will also provide an alternative route connecting central Cebu to the Mactan Economic Zone where many export-oriented industries are located.

Davao City Bypass Construction Project II: Costing ¥34.830 billion (or P17 billion), the project represents the next phase in the construction of a 45.2-kilometer road, together with tunnels and other associated infrastructure, to divert traffic away from Davao City.

It will connect the southern tip of the capital to the hub and ease vehicular movement in central Davao.

According to the embassy, these loan projects to be financed by Japan seek to tackle connectivity and traffic-congestion concerns confronting the rapidly developing metropolitan areas of Cebu and Davao. Both form part of the “Build, Build, Build” program. The embassy affirmed Japan’s strong commitment to such.

As a primary driver of economic recovery amid the pandemic, Japan sees these key infrastructures as helpful in stimulating trade, business and job opportunities in the provinces, as well as aiding the spread of growth throughout the Philippines.

Non-project grant aid for the economic and social development program of the Department of Health: Japan is extending up to ¥2 billion (or some P900 million) in grant aid to provide five computed tomography (or CT) scan machines, five x-ray machines, one magneticresonance imaging (or MRI) system, 10 hemodialysis machines, and four infectious disease surveillance sites.

The equipment is seen to support the

US pledges new Mindanao-based aid against ‘Covid’

Israel donates medical equipment to DND

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HE United States is providing an additional P201 million ($4 million) to help support vulnerable populations in Mindanao in their fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), bringing the total amount of its pandemic assistance to the Philippines to more than P978 million ($19.5 million).

On June 2, Ambassador Sung Y. Kim had an online meeting with Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) officials led by Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, who also chairs the BARMM Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19. The envoy reiterated the commitment of the US as a partner of the Philippines in addressing the virus outbreak in the region.

The meeting provided an opportunity for BARMM leadership to discuss challenges and present its Covid-19 contingency plan, while Kim and US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Lawrence Hardy II provided updates on their country’s assistance against the pandemic.

“In these trying times, I am inspired by the resilience and courage of the Filipino people,” Kim said. “The US and the Philippines have met and overcome many challenges together, and I am confident that by working together, we will overcome this [one] as well.”

With the additional $4 million in humanitarian assistance, USAID will protect vulnerable populations—those displaced by conflict and the recent earthquakes in Mindanao—from the ongoing global health crisis.

USAID and its partners will work with local governments, local health authorities and communities so that vulnerable populations have access to the most accurate and up-to-date health messages.

Said partners will reach more than 100,000 persons with distributions of essential hygiene supplies, handwashing stations and hygiene promotion to reduce transmission risks and help communities reopen. USAID will also continue to provide vital water supply in transitory sites in Lanao del Sur for families displaced by the Marawi siege and in North Cotabato for earthquake-affected communities.

The US has provided more than P228 billion ($4.5 billion) in development assistance to the Philippines in the past 20 years, including more than P29 billion ($582 million) in health assistance.

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HE State of Israel recently donated medical equipment to the Department of National Defense’s (DND) first responders to help them combat the onslaught of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Ambassador of Israel Rafael Harpaz personally turned over the items to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana in a ceremony held on June 2 at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

“The State of Israel presents its deepest gratitude to the first responders of the DND for their service to the Filipino people amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” Harpaz said.

The medical equipment donation included 60,000 surgical masks, 6,000 N95-filtered face masks, 9,000 gowns, 3,000 face shields, 100,000 gloves and 100 noncontact thermometers. They were handed over to the Office of Civil Defense for inventory and distribution, DND Spokesman Arsenio R. Andolong confirmed.

Prior to the ceremony, Harpaz and Lorenzana discussed the warm relations between Israel and the Philippines. The former continues to be in close cooperation with the Philippines in various fields, including agriculture, water technologies, sharing of

AMBASSADOR Rafael Harpaz (right) receives a token of appreciation from Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana during a turnover of medical supplies from Israel. OFFICE OF CIVIL DEFENSE-PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE/PNA military technologies and counterterrorism strategies, among others.

Significant developments have been achieved by both states in the fields of economy, agriculture,

tourism and more since the historic visit of President Duterte to the “Holy Land” in September 2018. He was the first Filipino chief executive in office to visit the said country. With a report from Priam Nepomuceno/PNA

ECCP cites ways to help health-care firms amid pandemic

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HE European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has urged the Philippine government to explore sustainable approaches to help health-care companies in the country in their operations amid the ongoing pandemic.

In a statement, the ECCP said pharmaceutical and medical-devices companies play a vital role in helping the government address the health crisis. It recommends providing these firms with real data and forecasts for on-demand products to meet the country’s needs for the coming months.

The business group proposed the implementation of procurement guidelines to expedite purchasing and acquiring diagnostics and medicines used for

treating the coronavirus disease 2019. It also called on the national government to support research-based pharmaceutical and medical-devices firms.

“We call for the implementation of mechanisms that help drive the growth of the health-care industry in the Philippines, among which policies that support and incentivize innovation, as well as encourage public-private partnership,” it added.

The group likewise asked the government to repeal Executive Order 104, which took effect on June 2. The EO has reduced the prices of drugs and medicines up to 50 percent, while putting a price ceiling on 133 drug formulas to help Filipinos access cheaper drugs and medicines.

It encouraged the government to consider increasing the health budget and medicines subsidies as well as expanding pooled procurement and multiyear contracts to increase the volume of healthcare products while institutionalizing price negotiations based on the sound review of medicine prices and economic viability of reduced prices of pharmaceutical products.

The ECCP said the price freeze on medicines identified under EO 104 could be implemented under a declaration of public health emergency. It also noted that effective implementation of such policies will build the country’s resilience amid the current health crisis. Kris Crismundo/PNA

by Jarosław Szczepankiewicz Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Philippines (Exclusive to ENVOYS&EXPATS)

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AM pleased to share with t h e B u s i n e s s M i r r o r ’s ENVOYS&EXPATS my thoughts on crucial international issues while inside the newly built modern office of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Manila. For the first time in history, Poland has fully established the seat of a diplomatic mission in Manila.

(I may confirm that the offices are functional, modern and spacious. The interior design follows the traditional Polish artistic movement called “Unism,” which adds an exotic and aesthetic flavor to the surroundings.)

Let us start with the worrying situation in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea. The People’s Republic of China (PROC) seized the moment to increase its influence by means that are not in-line with rules based on international order. It continues to pursue maritime expansionism in the disputed waters by establishing administrative districts there, escalating confrontations with the Philippines, Japan and Malaysia, then blocking Vietnamese fishing rights, and even creating tension in its shared land border with India.

The only way to deal with China is a strong and unified pressure from the international community. The Philippines needs strong alliances with the United States as well. Suspending the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement on June 1, “in the light of political and other developments in the region,” is a very positive move. This country shall find the right balance between pragmatic engagement with China and defense of traditional Philippine values: democracy, sovereignty and respect of international law.

The autonomous status of Hong Kong is another point of contention.

The China-wide People’s Representatives’ Assembly voted in May 2020 on a resolution to amend the Hong Kong Basic Law in the field of security. The new legislation enables PROC services to operate in the territory of the previously autonomous administrative unit in instances of “betrayal, terrorism, separatism and foreign intervention” which, given free interpretation, in practice, provides these services with the possibility of unlimited surveillance and repression of Hong Kong residents.

The shortening of Hong Kong’s autonomy by more than half the time, which China had committed to comply with in the 1997 Joint ChinaBritish Declaration, puts its credibility as a partner of international arrangements under a big question mark. We may expect mass emigration from Hong Kong, relocation of numerous American and European companies to other countries, and the city’s loss of intermediary status in the Western trade and capital exchange with China.

Fortifying the AFP, PAF

THE loss of several Philippine shoals to China, which are now artificial islands, is sufficient justification to improve rapidly the country’s defense capabilities. Despite financial restrictions stemming from the spread of the pandemic, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) is moving forward with the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s modernization program.

THE purchase of 16 S-70i combatutility helicopters manufactured by the Polish Aviation Works-Mielec (PZL-Mielec) is an excellent example of cooperation between our two countries. By the end of 2020, PZL-Mielec will hand over the first six units of S-70i Black Hawk helicopters to the PAF under a contract signed in 2019.

In addition, a fully armed version of the S-70i matches the needs of the PAF expressed in its program. The commonality between the armed Black Hawk and the already contracted 16 S-70is for the PAF combat-utility helicopter program will further enhance sustained cost-efficiencies between the two fleets. Armed S-70is are already in commission in three countries: the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Colombia.

Apart from complying with the PAF’s acquisition budget, the Armed Black Hawk S-70i has low flight-hour and sustaining costs for training sessions, spare parts and ground support, as well as high-flight availability. PZL-Mielec can meet the PAF’s schedule with the first Armed Black Hawk delivery in initial operating capability in June 2022, with the remaining aircraft and full operating capability within 2023.

Moreover, the draft of the memorandum of understanding covering the implementing agreement on Defense Cooperation between Poland’s Ministry of National Defense and the Philippines’s Department of National Defense is being finalized and should be available for signing by both parties soon.

Moving forward

IN the new security environment, a strong economic cooperation is essential to overcome the effects of the pandemic. Poland seeks for a more extensive opening of the Philippine market to goods, including agricultural products.

The elimination of barriers in trade and wider reciprocal access are for us of key importance.

We suppor t t he Eu ropea n Union’s trade negotiations with the Philippines and the regional bloc’s commitment to provide development assistance, continuing cooperation on climate change, sustainable development and global health issues. We will also move forward with connectivity to make our relations global, diversified and adaptable to the new challenges.

B8 Thursday, June 11, 2020 | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao

‘Fight Island’ to host four UFC shows

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HE UFC’s mysterious “Fight Island” is actually Yas Island, a popular tourist destination in Abu Dhabi where the mixed martial arts promotion will hold four shows in July.

The UFC revealed the location Tuesday and announced a series of fan-free shows at Fight Island, starting with a card tentatively featuring three title fights at UFC 251 on July 11.

UFC President Dana White made headlines at the start of the coronavirus pandemic when he announced plans to stage fights on an unnamed private island where the promotion wouldn’t face travel restrictions for fighters living outside the US. While his description conjured up images of an exotic setting with an octagon lapped by waves amid palm trees on an isolated beach, White instead was taking the UFC back to ultramodern Abu Dhabi. The UFC has staged past fight cards—most recently in September—on the leisure island in the United Arab Emirates.

The pay-per-view UFC 251 show is expected to be headlined by US welterweight Kamaru Usman’s title defense against Brazil’s Gilbert Burns. Australian featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is slated for a rematch with former champ Max Holloway, and José Aldo is expected to fight Russia’s Petr Yan for the vacant bantamweight belt.

UFC 251 also will feature a rematch between former strawweight champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade, according to White.

The UFC will hold subsequent shows on Yas Island on July 15, July 18 and July 25. The promotion signed a five-year deal to hold annual events in Abu Dhabi last year.

White told ESPN, his promotion’s broadcast partner, that Fight Island will encompass a hotel and restaurants along with an octagon. Only people directly involved with the fights will be allowed inside the area.

White also said the UFC will have a training octagon set up on the beach.

The UFC led the return of major pro sports in North America with three shows in Florida last month. The promotion has since staged two shows in Las Vegas, and three more cards are scheduled for this month. AP

NOVAK DJOKOVIC describes the protocols at the US Open as “quite extreme conditions for playing.”

Djokovic contemplates on skipping US Open

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ELGRADE, Serbia—Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is thinking of skipping the US Open—if it is played—and instead returning to competition on clay ahead of the rescheduled French Open.

Speaking to Serbia’s state broadcaster RTS on Tuesday, Djokovic said the restrictions that would be in place for the Grand Slam tournament in New York because of the coronavirus pandemic would be “extreme” and not “sustainable.”

“Most of the players I have talked to were quite negative on whether they would go there,” Djokovic said. “For me currently, as things stand, most probably the season will continue on clay at the beginning of September.”

Like many sports, tennis went on hiatus in March because of the Covid-19 outbreak. All sanctioned tournaments have been scrapped until at least late July.

That includes the French Open, which was supposed to end last weekend but was postponed until September, and Wimbledon, which was

GOLF BACK IN ACTION IN SCHWAB CHALLENGE Jordan Spieth (left) watches Ryan Palmer tee off from the first hole during practice for the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday. No face masks? No physical distancing? AP

By Doug Ferguson

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The Associated Press

ORT WORTH, Texas—Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson were together on the first tee Tuesday morning, just like they were three weeks ago at Seminole for a charity match that was the first live golf on television in 66 days.

This was different.

They were not wearing microphones and their caddies were at their sides, including Harry Diamond, who had been quarantined at McIlroy’s guest house in Florida the last two weeks. They will be playing for a $7.5 million purse at the Charles Schwab Challenge, along with more ranking points than have ever been distributed at Colonial.

This was real.

It just didn’t seem that way.

With no spectators and limited access, it felt like Colonial had been rented out for a corporate outing, only the employees happened to be the best players in the world— McIlroy and Johnson, Brooks

Koepka and Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele—all eager to return to work.

Golf is back.

It’s just not back to normal, and there’s no telling how long that will take, or what that will even mean.

“You can’t go into this thing thinking it’s going to be normal because it’s not,” Thomas said. “I would say 2020 is beyond a bizarre year so far, and especially in the world of sports. If we all want to get back and play the game that we love—and not just for us but for the fans and everybody at home—we’re just going to have to get over the fact that it’s going to be different and be a little weird.”

Weird was having a cotton swab on the end of a long, skinny stick that reached deep into the nasal cavity. This is a “condition of competition.”

In medical terms, it’s a PCR test to detect active infection of the coronavirus, and every player, caddie and essential personnel has to take one upon arrival.

Ropes were in place, even without fans.

Television cables run along the rope lines, and this helps keep mowers away.

Signs at Colonial preach social distancing, and this being golf, the signs said 6 feet was roughly two club lengths. Violations were plenty on Tuesday, from caddies and players riding next to each other in carts to the range, or a coach, caddie and player huddled together to set up a putting camera.

Then again, they’re all in the “bubble” the tour is trying to create for the return to reduce as much risk as possible. All have been tested.

Ryan Palmer, a Colonial member chosen to hit the first tee shot, says he has been ultra aware of precautions during the three months the Covid-19 pandemic shut down golf. That didn’t alleviate his anxiety after his test.

“I won’t lie to you, I was kind of nervous waiting for the results,” he said.

Players talk about needing to get it right with more eyeballs than usual—motor sports is the only other major sport that has resumed in America. But there’s only so much they can do. That’s why Commissioner Jay Monahan said he was confident in the plan to return, but “we won’t be comfortable until we’re told we can be comfortable.”

More than one player said he felt a responsibility for golf to get it right. But that goes beyond the course of play, even with no one watching.

“I think golf is probably the most likely and best chance for things to be successful as possible over probably any other sports, just given you’re outside,” Jordan Spieth said. “And then this weekly testing should keep guys clear. It’s really up to you. It’s on the individual. If you’re going to go out to eat or go out to crowded places, you’re going to risk potentially missing a few weeks.

“I have faith in the guys that are playing and that are within that bubble that they’re going to do what it takes within the week to ensure that they stay healthy,” he said. “And I think it’ll work well.”

Even in the quiet of a practice round that normally would be bustling with activity outside the ropes, the relief of being back to work was evident. Some players haven’t seen each other in three months. Barring injury, this is as long as anyone has gone between tournaments.

Analogies to opening day are not far off. The year starts on Maui for tournament winners who at most have gone two months without playing.

The new season typically starts a few weeks after

SPORTS ACADEMY LAW SIGNED

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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the creation of the National Academy of Sports (NAS), drawing praises from Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William Ramirez.

“I firmly believe that with this law, we will be able to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of sports development,” Go, one of the principal authors as chairman of the Senate Sports Committee, said after the President signed Republic Act 11470 in a simple ceremony in Davao City.

The NAS is the country’s first and only

canceled for the first time since 1945.

The US Tennis Association is expected to make a decision as soon as next week about whether to hold the US Open. Main-draw play is scheduled to begin August 31.

If that tournament is played, possible precautions that Djokovic said he wouldn’t appreciate include: n a 14-day quarantine required for people arriving from outside of the US. n restricted access access to courts, which he said means players “wouldn’t be able to train.” n a limit of one person per competitor at matches, instead of the larger entourages some players travel with. n limited ability to move around New York, including keeping players at hotels near the tournament site in Queens and not letting them go to Manhattan.

“Quite extreme conditions for playing,” Djokovic said. “I don’t think that is sustainable.” AP

dedicated sports institution that would be based at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority will head the construction of the academy.

“We are elated to see the hard work of our leaders in the Senate and Congress come to fruition with this law,” Ramirez said.

“With the establishment of the NAS in very close proximity to world-class facilities at the NCC, studentathletes could enjoy a level of training that is at par with the best in the world and at the same time be given quality education,” Go said.

“As the Chairman of the Committee on Sports, I would like to express my gratitude to my fellow legislators for coming together in support of this measure for the benefit of our youth and for the benefit of Philippine sports,” he added.

The NAS will develop and implement a secondary education program, integrated with a special curriculum on sports, targeting young Filipinos with the talent and desire to develop further their sporting skills.

Full scholarship will be offered to qualified natural-born secondary school students.

The institute would be equipped with the necessary sports facilities, housing and other amenities that concur to current international standards.

School buildings with sufficient number of classrooms and facilities would also be constructed at the complex.

The academy would be attached to the Department of Education in close coordination with the PSC, which would be tasked to develop the athletic skills and talents of students.

In addition to honing the students, the academy’s board would also be allowed to approve the hiring of licensed foreign coaches, trainers and consultants certified by the PSC. The sitting DepEd Secretary would be the first chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees. An executive director with a deep sports background would head the NAS’s operations.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

the previous one. Even when the tour announced in April its plan to return at Colonial, there was no guarantee it would happen.

“It would be nice if we could get some fighter jets flying over the first tee shots, something like that,” Spieth said. “But yeah, it’s got a little bit of that kind of excitement to it.”

The excitement will be internalized like never before. No spectators means no noise. Even for television, CBS anchor Jim Nantz said golf broadcasters often rely on the crowd reaction to determine the pitch in their voice.

Imagine a 20-foot putt on the 18th hole on Sunday and the celebration that follows— maybe not a lack of one, but certainly unlike anything golf has experienced.

It will be like that for five weeks, assuming the return goes smoothly and there’s no reason—inside the world of golf or around the country—that it needs to shut down.

For now, they’ll tee it up on Thursday. No mulligans. No gimmes.

“The 4-footer I have on the first hole matters,” Thomas said.

Just like normal.

Abueva’s return stalled by virus

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ALVIN ABUEVA’S return to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) would have to wait awhile—no thanks to the lockdown that’s on its third month now.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said Abueva is in the process of completing some sort of a “community service” to prove his sincerity to mend his ways when he returns to the pro league.

“We have requirements for him to complete. When he finishes them, we will evaluate his acts and make a decision,” Marcial told the online Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday.

Abueva appealed his suspension and agreed to conditions set by the league for his return.

“I’m still asking him to work on another requirement. That’s based on what we’ve discussed before,” Marcial said.

“But his tasks were put on hold due to Covid-19 pandemic. But the sooner he completes the tasks, the better,” he added.

The PBA slapped an indefinite suspension on Abueva for two infractions—applying a clothesline on TNT import Terrence Jones and making lewd acts on Ray Parks Jr.’s girlfriend.

The Phoenix forward publicly apologized for his misdeeds and appealed to the league to take him back. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Games go on in Taiwan ballparks with more fans, less restrictions

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FANS are only required to wear surgical face masks when they aren’t in their seats, and the stadiums are allowed to be up to 50 percent full of fans. AP

EW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan—The Taiwan baseball league is continuing as a trailblazer for sports resuming after the lockdown in the coronavirus pandemic.

An easing last weekend allows more fans at the ballparks, allows them to sit closer together and consume food and drinks while they’re supporting their teams in the Taiwan-based CPBL. Masks are optional, when seated.

The Taiwan league resumed play in April in empty stadiums while elite sports globally were still in lockdown, and last month started allowing up to 1,000 fans to attend games under strict social distancing measures.

On Sunday, after the government again loosened its Covid-19 restrictions, fans were only required to wear surgical face masks when they weren’t in their seats, and the stadiums were allowed to be up to 50 percent full of fans.

The CPBL is continuing to observe limited

social distancing by ordering a one-seat gap be maintained between fans.

The lifting of restrictions was welcomed at Tuesday’s game between the defending CPBL champion Rakutan Monkeys and the visiting Uni-Lions in Tainan.

Monkeys fan Martha Chen said she could now cheer as much as she wants without a mask.

The Uni-Lions held off a ninth inning rally to beat the defending CPBL champions 7-6.

“From now on, we don’t have to wear a mask when we watch a baseball game at the stadium.

This allows me to shout out loud as much as I want to cheer for my team,” the 31-year-old Chen, an air transport worker, said. “And my kid would not bother me with taking the mask off.

Kids find it hard to wear a mask.”

Uni-Lions pitcher Logan Darnell said the easing of restrictions on fans made it feel “a lot more like a baseball game.” AP