BusinessMirror June 17, 2020

BIR extends tax amnesty deadline anew

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HE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has further extended the deadline for the tax amnesty on delinquencies from June 22 to December 31 this year, even as it struggles with five-month revenue data that the Finance chief has described as “not very pretty.”

The extension, BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa told the BusinessMirror, would give delinquent taxpayers more time, given that “many are restricted because of the lockdown.”

BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay announced the extension of the deadline for availment of tax amnesty on delinquencies through Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 61-2020 dated June 9.

The circular said the extension was done “in consideration of the current circumstances prevailing in the country in relation to the World Health Organization’s declaration of Covid-19 Global Pandemic.”

LEO VINCENT S. ATIENZA, industrial designer at bus-body manufacturer Del Monte Motor Works Inc. (DMMW), shows the interiors of a Del Monte Land Transport Bus Co. (DLTBCo) provincial bus retrofitted to comply with physicaldistancing regulations. DLTBCo is a subsidiary of DMMW. NONOY LACZA

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This was not the first time that the BIR extended the deadline of availment of tax amnesty on delinquencies, citing the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and other major provinces.

Collections halved

IN a separate event on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said preliminary data on the collections of BIR and Bureau of Customs (BOC) for the month of May are around 50 percent lower than the same month last year.

While Dominguez said they will be releasing the specific figures soon, he attributed the drop in revenue collections due to the imposition of the lockdown.

He also admitted the cumulative figures from January to May were also “not very pretty.”

“As we announced a few weeks ago, they are quite bad, mainly because

our tax deadlines have been postponed.

However, we expect to catch up by the end of the deadline, which is the end of this month. So we expect to collect the taxes that were due from income last year.

They were supposed to be paid in April and we gave them time to file, so that’s why compared to last year, our collections were quite low now,” he said.

The BusinessMirror earlier reported that revenues collected by the BOC for May alone nosedived by P48.4 percent to P30 billion from P58.17 billion in the same month in 2019, based on preliminary data. For the first five months of the year, revenues collected by BOC also plunged 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.

See “Tax,” A2

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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Wednesday, June 17, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 251

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RECOVERY TIED TO INFRA PHL STILL AT BOTTOM OF ASEAN IN INDEX ON COMPETITIVENESS

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ONE of the workers constructing a temporary housing facility for hospital workers passes by a poster honoring medical frontliners at the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) in Quezon City. The LCP is one of the country’s referral hospitals for Covid-19 patients. NONIE REYES

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

HE Philippines and Japan signed on Tuesday two new loan agreements worth a total of P75.5 billion (about ¥154 billion) for two big-ticket infrastructure projects in the Visayas and Mindanao as the government aims to revive the ailing economy through infrastructure investments.

This, as the Finance chief told reporters the government will also boost agriculture as the other engine of recovery from the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) Chief Representative Eigo Azukizawa signed the agreements for the P57 billion (¥119 billion) loan to support the construction of the Cebu-Mactan Fourth Bridge and the Coastal Road Construction project in the Visayas and the supplemental financing of P18.5 billion (¥35 billion) for the Davao City Bypass Construction Project.

In his opening statement at the

DOMINGUEZ: “With their high multiplier effect and job-generating potential, investments in infrastructure will be the engine for rapid recovery in the near term.”

signing, Dominguez said the country’s recovery strategy relies heavily on restarting the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

“With their high multiplier ef-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.2930

fect and job-generating potential, investments in infrastructure will be the engine for rapid recovery in the near term,” he said. “We are happy, therefore, that two major projects facilitated by the Japanese people through the Japan International Cooperation Agency that were accelerated through high-level consultations, will now be ready to break ground. These are crucial components of the Build, Build, Build program that will help our economy bounce back from the adverse effects of this crisis.”

Jica’s Azukizawa said the Philippines and Japan once again reached another milestone in their friendship. “In a broader sense, I hope that these projects will also contribute to the economic recovery of the country amidst the Covid-19 pandemic as we fully support your government’s pronouncement that restarting and accelerating the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program should be one of many strategies for reviving the Philippine economy,” Azukizawa said.

The loans for the projects both carry highly concessional lending terms of 0.10 percent (a tenth of a percent) interest rate per year for non-consulting services and 0.01 percent (a hundredth of a percent) for consulting services, with a ma-

turity period of 40 years inclusive of a 12-year grace period.

The Cebu-Mactan Fourth Bridge and the Coastal Road Construction project is the biggest infrastructure project in the Visayas under the “Build, Build, Build” program with a total estimated cost of P76.4 billion (about $1.59 billion or ¥168.96 billion).

Jica committed to fund 75 percent of the total cost through Official Development Assistance (ODA) financing; local financing will cover the remaining 25 percent or P18.82 billion (about $442.76 million or ¥49.73 billion).

This project aims to improve the capacity of the road network connecting mainland Cebu and Mactan Island, to facilitate the faster movement of trade and people between the two areas.

A 3.3-kilometer bridge with an elevated viaduct of 3.38 km (fourlane road, with two lanes in each direction); and a 4.9-km four-lane coastal road with an elevated viaduct of 4.75 km will be built.

This will also allow the future expansion of the four-lane bridge to six lanes.

On top of the loan, Jica will also finance the detailed engineering design for the project, seen to

By Elijah Felice Rosales

HE Philippines moved up one notch to 45th among 63 economies in the 2020 cycle of the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, but remained to be the lowest ranked among Southeast Asian nations included in the yearly study.

The Philippines improved to 45th, from 46th last year, in the 2020 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook. In spite of registering the only progress among Southeast Asian countries, it was the lone economy in the region to be in the lower quartile of the survey.

Leading the region was Singapore, which placed overall globally, followed

by Malaysia at 27th, Thailand at 29th, Indonesia at 40th and the Philippines at 45th.

The Philippines also made no improvement in the four pillars that are assessed in the study. Its ratings declined in economic performance to 44th, from 38th; in government efficiency to 42nd, from 41st; and in business efficiency to 33rd, from 32nd.

It also kept its rank of 59th in terms of infrastructure, a pillar in which Manila has made no significant progress even in the previous editions of the yearbook.

According to the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness, the Philippines is expected to face difficulty in terms of alleviating the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Likewise, it is projected to have a hard time resuming projects listed under the “Build, Build, Build” program.

“Some of the challenges that the Philippines face in 2020 include mitigating the economic impacts of Covid-19 and adjusting to the new normal, preparing the health-care system for possible succeeding waves of Covid-19, ensuring adequate and prompt aid to vulnerable households and businesses, quickly resuming the government’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure investment program and reviving business and consumer confidence,” the AIM center said in a statement on Tuesday.

This year’s survey accounted for hard data from 2019 and executive opinion gathered from February to April 2020. As such, the insights may have captured in some form the effect of the ongoing health crisis to the global economy.

The top finishers of the yearbook are Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, noting the trend that smaller economies are becoming more competitive against their superpower counterparts.

The United States dropped seven notches to 10th spot, while China declined six places to 20th. Both countries have yet to resolve their trade conflict last year.

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4684 n UK 63.4647 n HK 6.4892 n CHINA 7.0947 n SINGAPORE 36.1716 n AUSTRALIA 34.7776 n EU 56.9669 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4061

Source: BSP (June 16, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Wednesday, June 17, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Koko Pimentel may keep Senate seat till 2025–electoral tribunal T

By Butch Fernandez

HE Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) has unanimously upheld the reelection of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III to a six-year term until 2025, junking for lack of merit consolidated petitions seeking to unseat him for violating the constitutional ban on senators serving more than two consecutive terms.

“In conclusion, respondent [Pimentel] was not prohibited to run and be elected for the 20192025 Senatorial term as he has yet to serve two consecutive senatorial terms in full within the contemplation of prevailing law and jurisprudence,” ruled the nine-member Tribunal chaired by Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

The nine-member Tribunal af-

firmed in its 17-page ruling that “the instant consolidated petitions for quo warranto are hereby dismissed for lack of merit.”

The SET took guidance from the case of Abundio Sr., and ruled that the concept of involuntary interruption or break in service applied to the circumstances of Pimentel’s assumption of his 20072013 term, where he served only

SEN. Aquilino Pimentel III

AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

the last one year and 10 months.

The rest of the six years was served

by Juan Miguel Zubiri, against whom he filed, and won, an electoral protest.

After serving the one year and 10 months of the 2007-2013 term,

Pimentel ran anew and won a seat for 2013 to 2019. This, the complainants claimed, already constituted his “second term,” but the SET disagreed.

Being an interrupted term, the 2007-2013 Senatorial term “can-

not be counted against respondent for purposes of counting the term limitation provided by the Constitution,” the SET ruled.

The quo warranto case against Pimentel was filed by Reymar R. Mansilungan and Efren A. Adan.

Meanwhile, the SET said that “the matter of amending the 2013 Rules of the Senate Electoral Tribunal based on the considerations discussed in this Decision is referred to the Office of the Secretary for eventual deliberation and approval of the members of the Tribunal pursuant to the Rule thereof, without any pronouncement as to costs.”

Apart from chairperson Justice Perlas-Bernabe, also sitting in the Senate Electoral Tribunal who affixed their signatures in accord with the pro-Pimentel ruling were: Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo and Senators Richard J. Gordon, Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay, Pia S. Cayetano, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Franklin M. Drilon and Manuel Lito Lapid.

With ₧75-B yen loans, recovery tied to infra Continued from A1

start groundwork in 2021 and be completed in 2029.

Davao project

THE Davao City Bypass Construction project will reduce congestion in Davao City and improve accessibility to its major development hubs through the construction of a 45.5-km, four-lane bypass road.

It also includes a 2.3-km main tunnel, utilizing advanced Japanese construction technologies, and 0.5km four-lane cut-and-cover tunnel section running through the mountainous terrain in Barangay Magtu-

od, Davao City.

Stretching from the Davao-Digos intersection of the Pan Philippine Highway at Toril, Davao City, to the Davao-Agusan National Highway in Panabo City, the project will reduce travel time between the two points from the current one hour and 44 minutes—using the existing Maharlika Highway— to only 49 minutes.

It will start construction this year and will be operational by 2023.

The P18.5-billion loan agreement signed on Tuesday for the project is supplemental to the loan accord worth P9.27 billion (¥23.9

billion) signed in 2015.

Also at the signing ceremony were Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar.

The Philippines and Jica have so far signed for around $1.5 billion, including the newly signed loan agreements.

Agriculture, too

FOLLOWING the loan signing, Dominguez also told finance reporters that the government is also looking at agriculture as an engine of growth to help the country recover from the pandemic.

Dominguez, once agriculture

secretary under former President Corazon Aquino, said this is because the impact of the lockdown on the agriculture sector is not as severe as that of the manufacturing and assembly sectors, explaining that agriculture is mostly in areas with very low or zero Covid-19 cases.

“So yesterday I had a long discussion with [Agriculture] Secretary [William] Dar. And we, again, looked at the plans and programs for the Department of Agriculture, so I think infrastructure and agriculture will play key roles in bringing us out of this Covid-19 recession,” he said.

He reiterated that the demand for food is inelastic as people need to eat.

By also focusing on agriculture, Dominguez said, the government can boost the economy outside Metro Manila, and this augurs well for the President’s Balik Probinsya program.

The government’s economic team expects the economy to contract by 2 percent to 3.4 percent this year due to the pandemic.

This could be the country’s worst GDP growth rate since the economic contraction of 6.9 percent in 1985 based on 2018 constant prices.

Tax…

Continued from A1

Payment deadline extension

ASIDE from the BIR, several government agencies, including state-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), have already announced further extension of their respective payment deadlines.

On Tuesday, PhilHealth said in a statement it is extending anew the deadline of payment of contributions for self-paying members until June 30 this year, while its flexible and deferred payment scheme shall remain an option for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Employers in the public and private sectors have also been advised that their premium remittances for the applicable months of February, March and April 2020 can be paid until June 22, 2020, without interest, in line with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

Meanwhile, PhilHealth also issued Advisory No. 2020-037 to prescribe “rules [that] may be observed

by OFWs affected by the enforcement of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.” It said that OFWs “may pay at the previous rate of P2,400 as initial payment” and are “granted one year or 12 months from the date of their initial payment to complete their balance for the year.

The advisory clarified that “premium payment shall be voluntary [for OFWs] for the duration of the pandemic,” and that although temporarily suspended, the provisions of the Universal Health Care Law still apply pending its amendment by Congress.

PhilHealth said repatriated migrant workers or OFWs in distress are advised to present a certification from the Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration to the local social welfare officers for them to be considered as indirect contributors of the program. Under the UHC Law, contributions of indirect contributors are subsidized by the national government.

For its part, the SSS on Monday announced that it is extending anew its contribution payment deadline up to June 30, 2020.

The extension covers contribution payments of regular employers for the applicable months of February, March and April 2020, and contribution payments of household employers and self-employed/voluntary/nonworking spouse members for the first quarter of 2020. Bernadette D. Nicolas

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Esperon pushes signing of ATB as DOJ files comments to Palace

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM & Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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ATIONAL Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has pushed for President Duterte’s signing of the anti-terrorism bill (ATB), stressing the proposed law is needed to stop the spate of attacks and curb the growth of terrorism in the country.

This developed as the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it is set to submit today (Wednesday) to the Office of the President its comments and recommendations on the ATB that was recently passed by Congress and is now awaiting President Duterte’s signature for it to become a law.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said their scrutiny on the constitutionality of every provision of the bill has been completed, along with their draft comments, for submission to the President.

“We finished our brainstorming session yesterday [Monday], examining and inter-relating with one another and each and every section of the enrolled antiterrorism bill,” Guevarra said.

“We are drafting our comments today [Tuesday] and will send our internal communication to the Office of the President tomorrow,” he added.

In an online press briefing on Tuesday morning, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, said the bill has yet to be submitted to the office of President Duterte.

“Probably the enrolled proposed legislation is still being studied by the Office of the Executive Secretary since it has

not reached the table of the President for signing,” Roque said.

From the point of view of national security, Esperon said the current law, for which the proposed measure seeks to replace, has proved to be “too weak” in dealing with the challenges posed by terrorists.

“The primary reason for this weakness has been the infirmities of the Human Security Act [HSA] of 2007, which severely restricts law enforcement’s capabilities and effectiveness,” Esperon said in a news statement sent to military reporters.

“For instance, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa had recalled that during his term as chief of the Davao City police, his men had no recourse but to release a suspected terrorist on the ground that the arresting officers would be fined P500,000 per day for failure to prove the crime of terrorism, as required by the HSA,” Esperon said.

“Months later, a video surfaced where the same suspect was shown beheading a captive,” the national security adviser added.

In pushing for the enactment into law of the bill, Esperon cited the too many cases of attacks that were carried out by local and foreign terrorists, especially in Mindanao, and how the country has struggled to prevent them.

Some of these cases were the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in Manila by the al-Qaeda in 1995, the Super Ferry bombing in 2004 by the Abu Sayyaf Group wherein 116 people were killed and

the Davao City Roxas night market bombing in 2016 that killed 14 people.

Esperon also cited the siege of Marawi City in 2017 by local and foreign terrorist fighters in their quest to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia and the successive suicide bombings in Sulu, one of which was even carried out by a radicalized Filipino.

“The Philippines is no stranger to the perils of international terrorism. Numerous instances in our past have proven that we are considered a safe haven for international terrorist organizations,” the national security adviser said.

“The Philippines has unfortunately been a staging ground for extremist terrorist organizations due to our lax counterterrorism laws.

Emphasizing the gravity of terrorism plaguing the country is the 2019 Global Security Index ranking, which ranks the country ninth in the list of nations significantly and negatively affected by terrorism, he added.

Esperon said the spate of attacks, including those carried out by communist rebels have underscored the need for “reform in the country’s prosecution and investigation capabilities, particularly for extremists operating in the country.”

Defending against criticisms that the bill will curtail basic and fundamental rights, the former military chief said it will “not diminish, but rather guarantees and strengthens civil liberties and constitutional rights of citizens.”

With Samuel P. Medenilla

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, June 17, 2020 A3

House sets investigation into ‘inexcusable’ delays in SAP fund distribution

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

H

@joveemarie

OUSE leaders on Tuesday filed a resolution to look into reported delays in the distribution of cash and other assistance in connection with the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Led by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, eight lawmakers filed House Resolution 973 also to find ways to assist the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in doing the task.

Cayetano said Congress will be looking into DSWD’s “lengthy and complicated procedure” for the distribution of the SAP benefits, which requires “a total of 30 steps and five layers of approval, with an estimated completion time of three weeks.”

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, an emergency subsidy amounting to a minimum of P5,000 to a maximum of P8,000 per month shall

be provided to 18 million low-income households for two months.

However, Cayetano said the distribution for the second tranche of assistance to the beneficiaries has yet to be completed.

“The DSWD arbitrarily and without consultations with the LGUs [local government units], based the number of recipients on the 2015 national census, slightly adjusted upwards. Five years have passed and certainly the population has increased since, and thus the estimate proved inadequate,” the resolution said.

Earlier, Cayetano, in his speech before the adjournment of the First Regular Session, admitted that “there are problems in the implementation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One law that are understandable.”

He also underscored that “there were problems in the implementation that are inexcusable.”

“There is no question that we are here to support the efforts of those agencies tasked to implement the program. But we also have to do what is right and demand accountability for the failures and delays that have plagued the distribution from the start,” he said.

The resolution said this “inexcusable” delay is contrary to the general principle espoused by President Duterte that the most vulnerable Filipinos shall get the resources at the fastest possible time with the least number of requirements and regulations.

Aside from specifically looking into the SAP distribution mess, Cayetano said the inquiry will also include other assistance programs of the DSWD in the wake of Covid-19.

A4 Wednesday, June 17, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Peza urges Palace to okay 71 ecozone proclamations, gain P76-B investments

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

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HE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is calling on President Duterte to approve the proclamation papers of 71 economic zones pending before his office that would result in over P76 billion worth of investments.

In a virtual news briefing on Tuesday, Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said her agency wrote a letter to the President asking him to proclaim all 71 economic zone applications awaiting his signature. Peza data showed that once approved, these economic

zones would translate to P76.13 billion in committed investments.

Broken down, majority of these economic zones are engaged in manufacturing, agro-industrial and information-technology centers and parks in the provinces.

Likewise, the Peza relayed a separate letter to the President requesting for the immediate lifting of Administrative Order 18. The AO, issued last year, implemented a moratorium for the application, processing and approval of new economic zones in Metro Manila to compel investors to locate in the countryside.

Plaza said it is crucial now more than ever to lift AO 18 and allow the

putting up of new economic zones in the Philippine capital given the limited office space available.

Citing data from Leechiu Property Consultants, Plaza said there are only 34,000 square meters of office spaces available in Metro Manila at the moment. She argued this will not be sufficient enough to accommodate new and expansion projects of IT investors this year, especially when they try to recover next year.

“We wrote two separate letters to the President: one for the moratorium on ecozones here in Metro Manila, the other for the proclamation of new parks,” Plaza explained.

“In those letters, we said we need

to lift AO 18 while we are still improving the countryside, especially the infrastructure there. We cannot convince these IT firms to go to the countryside unless it is already fully developed,” she added.

According to Plaza, there has been no response yet from the President’s office with regard to their two requests, but she is hoping Duterte would listen to the plea of the investors given the uncertainty surrounding the economy.

“We were outsmarted by Covid-19.

With the pandemic in hand, we just have to do our best to keep out investors, to let our present investors survive and expand,” Plaza said.

‘LIFT BUREAUCRATIC BARRIERS IN DIGITAL INFRA BUILDUP’

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio

& Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

A

CONSUMER advocacy group on Tuesday urged the government to remove bureaucratic barriers that hinder the development of digital infrastructure in the country, even as the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said investing in the country’s digital transformation would be difficult and may require greater market competition.

“We call on the government to fully enforce the Ease of Doing Business law and permanently demolish the bureaucratic barriers in national and local levels,” said CitizenWatch Philippines convener Orlando Oxales.

He said the first step is to demolish the bureaucratic barriers that have been causing construction delays of telco towers and other essential facilities for decades.

“This is a reality that continues to impede the development of underserved areas that need these digital technologies to boost economic activities and attract investments,” CitizenWatch said.

New digital skills needed

IN a news statement, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, for his part, said the new normal will require Filipinos, especially those working, to acquire new digital skills.

Chua emphasized the importance of digital transformation particularly in government offices. This will allow the government to continue to deliver educational, training, and other social services.

“It will be a difficult process.

While the government itself invests in infrastructure, we also need to have competition policies that will encourage the private sector to help improve the country’s informationtechnology infrastructure. The challenge is how to bring down the cost while increasing the quality of services,” Chua added.

Chua said the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Online Program (TOP) can make technical education more accessible to Filipinos through the use of information and communications technology (ICT).

Currently, he said the TOP has 70 available online courses under 16 categories. The TOP was launched

in 2012 to serve as an open educational resource.

After more than a year, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) released on May 29 the guidelines on the common tower policy.

CitizenWatch also asked regulators to audit and rationalize the permitting and certification requirements imposed on all telco projects and ensure that the seven-day limit on permits prescribed in the recently released Department of Information and Communication Technology Circular 8 on Common Tower Policy Guidelines is strictly implemented.

Oxales said developing a telecom infrastructure has become more urgent in the current times because the coronavirus pandemic has sparked a rush toward a digital transformation of society.

“We have learned to embrace digital platforms as a convenient, safe, and reliable tool for business activities. Information and communications technologies have become the default tool as we are learning to adjust to a no-contact mode of interactions,” he said.

With the onset of the new normal, Oxales said the demand for fast and reliable Internet access and mobile

phone services will grow exponentially as more people integrate digital tools into their lives. “Hence, there is urgency in strengthening our digital infrastructure to provide the reach and bandwidth to efficiently serve this surge in cloud users,” he said.

“This is the time to wield the political will of this government to permanently resolve the frustrating reality of long and circuitous bureaucratic gauntlets that civil works contractors of telco projects must go through causing months of delays and unnecessary costs before construction can even start,” Oxales said.

CitizenWatch said strengthening the country’s telecommunications and digital infrastructure in both urban and rural areas to broaden the reach and access to cloud-based services for the entire population should be the top priority by government in its post-Covid recovery strategy.

CitizenWatch noted that Filipino consumers have been learning fast and embracing technology as the default tool to work and conduct daily transactions.

“This fast-growing demand for more bandwidth and higher Internet speeds threatens to strain our current telco capacities if capacities are not expanded quickly,” Oxales said.

54% of Pinoys see diversity benefiting devt–poll. . .

Further, those who had interactions with a greater diversity of people in the country were most likely women, at around 30 percent in the Philippines. The highest was in Mexico at 46 percent.

“And in 10 of 11 countries, those with higher levels of education were more likely to say they regularly interact with people of other ethnicities or races. [In some countries, those with less education were less likely to answer the question],” PRC said.

The data, however, showed that Filipinos were split on interacting with people who have different religious views, the same as Kenya.

Data also showed 61 percent of Filipinos indicating they socialized outside their religion said they often interact with members of other religious groups while 50 percent said they

rarely interacted with those outside their religion.

With this, Filipinos who were more open to interacting with people of different religion tended to have more positive opinions about each other.

However, data showed, while the favorable views about Christians in the Philippines was “nearly universal” at 97 percent, the favorable views about Muslims in the country is significantly lower at only 57 percent.

“Among Filipino Christians who said they often interact with members of other religions, 61 percent gave favorable marks to Muslims, while 50 percent of those Christians with less frequent cross-religious interactions reported positive views of those in their

IMO okays PHL plan on maritime standards “While this Strategy prepares us to the upcoming 2022 audit, this document serves as a sustainable solution in ensuring that despite frequent changes in leadership or shifting of priorities, our fulfillment in full and effective implementation of the IMO Conventions remains on top of our efforts,“ he said.

Originally slated for 2020 and 2021, the IMO audit of the Philippines was deferred by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vingson noted that the Philippine Strategy ensures that stakeholders “can remain confident that the Philippines remains focused in promoting a safe, secure and efficient sustainable maritime transport system that minimizes pollution while conserving energy and available resources.”

...

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country who practice Islam,” PRC said.

The Washington-based think tank noted that about 93 percent of Filipinos are Christian and only 6 percent were Muslim.

Results for the survey were based on face-to-face interviews conducted under the direction of D3 Systems Inc. The results are based on national samples.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Jan to May rice imports reaches 1MMT–data

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

T

HE country’s rice imports from January to May has reached over 1 million metric tons (MMT) as private traders brought in over 300,000 metric tons (MT) of staple in May alone, latest government data showed.

Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that over 150 private traders and importers have brought in about 1.086 MMT of rice during the five-month period.

The importers, which are companies, farmers organizations, cooperatives, used about 1,440 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC).

The bulk of the imports, or about 968,329.885 MT, during the fivemonth period came from Vietnam, BPI data showed.

BPI data also showed that the importers have already used at least about 38 percent of the total 3,749 SPS-ICs issued to them to bring in more than 3.1 MMT of rice.

With the remaining unused SPS-ICs, eligible traders and importers could still bring in about 2 MMT of rice this year, based on BPI data.

Arvin International Marketing Inc. topped the importers list with total rice imported volume during the five-month period of 57,620.02 MT followed by Gold and Perfect Corp. at 54,644 MT, according to BPI data.

During the five-month period, the private sector imported the most volume of rice in May at 324,030.415 MT. The volume was 9.37 percent higher than the

296,273.2 MT recorded volume in the same month of last year, based on BPI data.

BPI data also showed that May imports were the highest monthly volume recorded since the rice industry was deregulated in March 2019 after Republic Act 11203, or Rice Trade Liberalization law was enacted.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been urging the private sector to continuously apply for SPS-IC and bring in rice shipments to ensure that the country has sufficient stockpile during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected that the Philippines would remain the world’s top rice buyer for the consecutive year this 2020 with a total purchase of 2.5 MMT. In fact, the Philippines’s rice imports next year may rise by a third to a record 3.3 MMT, making it the world’s top rice buyer for the third straight year ahead of China, according to USDA. USDA attributed the increase to “tighter” stocks coupled by lower production, which it projected to fall by 3.5 percent to 11 MMT next year. USDA estimated the local milled rice production this year could decline by almost 3 percent to 11.4 MMT from 11.732 MMT last year.

“With lower production and tighter stocks, larger imports are expected to enable consumption to rise marginally,” it said in the report.

“The 2019 rice tariffication law has made imports more available in the market, depressing overall milled rice prices,” it added.

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

U.S. revokes emergency use of drugs touted by Trump against Covid-19

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ASHINGTON—US regulators on Monday revoked emergency authorization for malaria drugs promoted by President D onald Trump for treating Covid-19 amid growing evidence they don’t work and could cause serious side effects.

The Food and Drug Administration said the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus.

Citing reports of heart complications, the FDA said the drugs’ unproven benefits “do not outweigh the known and potential risks.”

In a separate announcement, the FDA also warned doctors against prescribing the drugs in combination with remdesivir, the lone drug currently shown to help patients with Covid-19.

The FDA said the anti-malaria drugs can reduce the effectiveness of remdesivir, which FDA cleared for emergency use in May. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are frequently prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and can cause heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage. The agency reported on Monday that it had received nearly 390 reports of complications with the drugs, including more than 100 involving serious heart problems. Such reports represent an incomplete snapshot of complications with the drugs because many side effects go unreported.

FDA’s move means that shipments of the drugs obtained by the federal government will no longer be distributed to state and local health authorities for use against the coronavirus. The decades-old drugs are still available for alternate FDA-approved uses, so US doctors could still prescribe them for Covid-19—a practice known as off-label prescribing.

Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic researcher who has been a frequent FDA adviser, agreed with the decision and said he would not have granted emergency access in the first place.

“There has never been any high-quality evidence suggesting that hyrdoxychloroquine is effective” for treating or preventing coronavirus infection, he said, but there is evidence of serious side effects.

On Thursday, a National Institutes of Health panel of experts revised its recommendations to specifically recommend against the drug’s use

except in formal studies, and “that, I’m sure, had influence on the FDA,” Nissen said.

The actions by FDA and NIH send a clear signal to health professionals against prescribing the drugs for coronavirus.

Trump aggressively pushed hydroxychloroquine beginning in the first weeks of the outbreak and stunned medical professionals when he revealed he had taken the drug preemptively against infection.

After Trump’s repeated promotions, prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine soared, contributing to shortages.

No large, rigorous studies have found the drugs safe or effective for preventing or treating Covid-19. And a string of recent studies made clear they could do more harm than good.

Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA associate commissioner and an Obama administration appointee, said the agency had tarnished its reputation by clearing the drugs based on scant evidence and under apparent political pressure.

“This is an agency that gains its credibility from the strength of its scientific pronouncements,” said Lurie, now president of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The lesson of this whole tawdry episode is that it’s the old, painstaking ways of science that ultimately deliver safe and effective therapies.”

The only remaining drug with FDA authorization against Covid-19 is remdesivir, an intravenous medication from Gilead Sciences that has been shown to help severely ill, hospitalized patients recover faster.

Late Monday afternoon, the FDA announced it would update remdesivir’s prescribing label to warn against combining it with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. The agency said results from laboratory tests suggest the drugs interfere with remdesivir’s virus-fighting ability in human cells.

Despite that risk, regulators said they have not yet seen the problem in patients.

The FDA granted emergency use for the antimalaria drugs in late March at the same time the US government accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine that had been donated by two foreign drug manufacturers.

Millions of those doses were shipped to US hospitals to treat patient who weren’t enrolled in clinical trials. AP

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

A5

Rise in infections shows need for vigilance as world reopens B

ERLIN—European countries reopened borders on Monday after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, although international visitors are still being kept away and there was uncertainty over whether many Europeans will quickly embrace travel outside their home countries.

Reopening continued in Mexico and Brazil despite cases climbing in the two largest nations in Latin A mer ica, where author ities struggled to handle the pandemic’s effect on already-weak medical systems. In the US, Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors to highlight the “good news” around efforts to fight the virus despite several states reporting a rise in infections, which could intensify as people return to work and venture out during the summer.

The need for constant vigilance came into sharp focus as China, where Covid-19 first emerged in December, rushed to contain an outbreak in the capital of Beijing.

The head of the World Health Organization said more than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported globally each day in the last two weeks, and countries that have curbed transmissions

“must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that it took over two months to reach 100,000 reported cases, now a daily norm. Each day, nearly three-fourths of the new cases come from 10 countries—mostly in South Asia and the Americas, he said.

Pence said in a private call with governors that except for a few places, the US is seeing strong drops in virus-related hospitalization and mortality rates. In audio of the call obtained by The Associated Press, Pence urged governors to make it clear to residents that “there’s a lot of really, really good news.”

White House officials have played down the severity of the virus surge in places like Arizona and Texas. On Monday, the nation’s second-mostpopulated state set a one-day high in hospitalizations of coronavirus patients for the seventh time in eight days. Arizona’s hospitals were at about 82 percent capacity.

Meanwhile, Germany and France d ropped border c hec k s nea rly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers. Greece welcomed visitors on Monday with passengers on f lights from other European countries not having to undergo compulsor y coronavirus tests.

The European Union’s 27 nations and other European states aren’t expected to start reopening to visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of July and possibly later.

Spain allowed thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands without a 14-day quarantine in a pilot program designed to help authorities gauge what’s needed against possible virus flare-ups.

Martin Hofman was delighted to board a flight from Dusseldorf to the island of Mallorca because he said his vacation couldn’t be postponed.

“To stay in Germany was not an option for us,” Hofman said. “We are totally happy that we can get out.”

In Mexico City, residents were free to drive without restrictions, and subway and bus stations that had been closed resumed service on Monday as the city of 9 million continued its gradual return.

The reopening is based on hospital occupancy levels. As of Saturday, the capital and the surrounding state had 74 percent of their hospital beds occupied.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador encouraged Mexicans to get out of the house and get the economy moving again.

“Health is the most important

thing, but at the same time, the economy, well-being, the return to coexistence, harmony and freedom,” López Obrador said as he began his second weeklong road trip, this time from the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. “We can’t let fear overwhelm us.”

In Beijing, where an outbreak was traced to a market that supplies much of the city’s meat and vegetables, thousands lined up for tests. Authorities confirmed 106 cases since Friday in what looks to be the largest outbreak since China largely stopped its spread at home more than two months ago.

Tests were administered to workers at the Xinfadi market, anyone who had visited it in the past two weeks, or anyone who had come in contact with either group. The market is Beijing’s largest wholesale food market, prompting inspections of fresh meat and seafood in the city and elsewhere in China.

Authorities also locked down the neighborhood around a second market, where three cases were confirmed. In all, 90,000 people are affected in the two neighborhoods in the city of 20 million.

China had relaxed most of its controls after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March. AP

A6 Wednesday, June 17, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Govt must make health services more accessible

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fforts to stop the spread of Covid-19 have practically taken up all the attention and time of many health workers all over the world after the coronavirus that first surfaced in China late last year has become a pandemic. The speed at which the coronavirus spread made it imperative for both the government and the private sector to act fast before it overwhelms the entire health-care system. The “invisible enemy,” which has killed more than 400,000 people and infected more than 8,000,000 around the world, has shown that it is fairly capable of crippling developed countries with the best health-care systems.

Unfortunately, other health programs and patients suffering from other diseases were made to take a backseat as governments focused on stopping Covid-19 on its tracks. For instance, a Bloomberg report published in April noted that cancer deaths in the United Kingdom this year could be higher than the pre-pandemic estimates. Citing researchers at the University College London and Health Data Research UK said cancer treatment, testing and screening have been severely disrupted as the country moved to free up thousands of hospital beds to treat Covid-19 patients.

This is not unique to the UK, as the virus has already spread to many parts of the world, including the Philippines. Apart from the sidelining of other health services to focus on fighting Covid-19, the restrictions to mobility due to the lockdown also made it impossible for Filipinos to seek medical care for their illness. Others are wary of going to hospitals due to concerns over getting the virus in these health facilities.

Other public health services, such as vaccination and blood donation, also had to take a backseat to the pandemic. The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) had been urging the public to donate blood as supply has dwindled due to the Covid-19 crisis. Sen. Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, had noted the number of people in hospitals who are badly in need of blood transfusion—cancer patients, accident victims and people with blood disorders (See, “Bloodletting is another casualty to pandemic; Red Cross’s Gordon appeals for donors,” in the BusinessMirror, April 18, 2020).

The PRC renewed its appeal to blood donors just a few days ago as Gordon said the PRC is in danger of running out of blood supply. It needs an average of 12,000 to 13,000 blood bags a day for emergency situations nationwide but as of June 10, its blood bank has only 9,000 bags.

The situation is so dire that the blood supply crisis has already resulted in the death of some patients waiting for blood donation in hospitals.

The Covid-19 crisis is far from over and Filipinos will continue to have difficulty going to health facilities to avail themselves of medical services. This, however, should not prevent the government from implementing the necessary adjustments and adopting innovations to make health services accessible, especially to the poor. There are now available tools, such as telemedicine, that the government and the private sector can tap while the country is grappling with all the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Legal obligations of employers under the Social Security Act of 2018

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In case employers permanently closed or temporarily suspended their operations due to the implementation of enhanced community quarantine amid the Covid-19 threat, or had any changes/updates in their data/ records with the SSS, they must inform the nearest SSS branch office using the Employer Data Change Request Form.

So, what are the legal obligations of employers under Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018?

Basically, employers are required to register their businesses with the SSS by accomplishing the Employer Registration Form (R-1) and to report all their employees for coverage using the Employment Report Form (R-1A) within 30 days from date of their employment. As such, they must also require their prospective employees to register via online with the SSS and present their Social Security (SS) numbers to their respective companies for corresponding deductions of their monthly contributions as mandated by the SSS Law. Employers must also deduct from the salaries/wages of employees their share in the monthly SSS contributions and loan amortizations, including the Employees’ Compensation (EC) contribution, and remit these to the SSS through branches with tellering facilities or accredited banks and collection partner agents within the prescribed schedule of payments.

Nowadays, employers must

technology (IT) structures. They should register their company’s bank account to the SSS so that sickness and maternity benefit reimbursements can be deposited directly and safely to their respective bank accounts for faster transactions, instead of receiving checks through mail. It is important to note that all these reimbursements will be in their favor, as sickness and maternity benefits of their employees should be paid in advance.

Although it is not mandatory, employers should take the initiative to use a part of their office workstations to facilitate employees’ online registration with My.SSS to anticipate future filing of salary loan applications online. Employees can also access their SSS records such as coverage, contributions, status of claims, and others without leaving their workplace, thereby instilling their sense of responsibility of regular checking and monitoring of their SSS records.

Likewise, employee-members can also check the same records using the SSS Mobile App at their most convenient time.

In case employers permanently closed or temporarily suspended their operations due to the implementation of enhanced community quarantine amid the Covid-19

Aurora C. Ignacio

All About Social Security ith the Covid-19 pandemic currently shaking the world’s economic landscape, disrupting business activities, and closing many operations that could help spike up unemployment, business owners might need this little refresher not only to have a solid legal cornerstone but also to survive as they operate in accordance with the law. present the Payment Reference Numbers when paying to enable real time posting of their employees’ contributions and loan payments.

They can generate these PRNs through their My.SSS accounts or via the SSS Mobile App or Text-SSS once registered online at the SSS web site (www.sss.gov.ph).

Business owners must always be ready to present their records such as payrolls, books of accounts, other pertinent records for inspection by the SSS or its authorized representatives quarterly or as often as the SSS may require. Thus, to avoid violations or non-compliance to the SS Law, employers should maintain true and accurate work records of their employees, which include employment records, official receipts for payments of monthly contributions and loan amortizations, and records of sickness, injuries, death of employees in manual logbook or electronic file for EC-related contingencies.

As the SSS is perfecting the digitalization of its various online service delivery facilities, employers must likewise conform or adapt to the changing information and

threat, or had any changes/updates in their data/records with the SSS, they must inform the nearest SSS branch office using the Employer Data Change Request Form (R-8).

W hile registered employed members have the responsibility to keep themselves updated with the changes and improvements in the SSS policies and benefits, it is also the legal obligation of the employers to update their employees of such changes.

Employers who are compliant with the Social Security Law are more at peace than their delinquent counterparts. Most often, non-compliant employers get a number of SSS and other labor-related complaints from their workers, which usually lead to fines or potential lawsuits, and unnecessary legal and labor expenses.

Receiving a demand letter from the SSS legal office and hiding from the authorities should be the last thing on every employer’s agenda, especially during this time of public and health crisis.

That’s because they are subjected to criminal, civil, and administrative sanctions. Under RA 11199, they could face imprisonment ranging from six to 12 years and a fine of P5,000 to P20,000 without the benefit of probation. Aside from that, delinquent employers should pay the contributions due plus 2 percent penalty per month for delayed payments and damages incurred.

Quoting India’s famous political leader, Mahatma Gandhi, “Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.”

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

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

Europe risks another sovereign debt doom loop

By Marcus Ashworth Bloomberg Opinion

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he European Union has been relaxing its rule book for banks—painstakingly built up in the decade or so since the financial crisis—as it tries to manage the impact of coronavirus. Unfortunately, the move might create big problems if economic activity fails to recover.

That’s because the regulations are being eased just as the European Central Bank is about to inject a huge amount of liquidity into the euro-zone monetary system. This will lead almost certainly to commercial lenders acquiring more sovereign debt through what are known as “carry trades”— where they borrow cheaply from the ECB and seek to make a safe profit by buying investment-grade

The impetus to push more money into the finance system and to encourage government borrowing is entirely understandable right now. But it risks leaving the euro zone exposed again to its Achilles heel of having a banking system that funds sovereign debt. This may all be necessary to reinvigorate the European economy but danger lurks.

bonds that yield more than their borrowing cost.

So banks will be snapping up more debt from their national governments, potentially creating an infernal “doom loop,” where a bank will struggle if the value of its government bondholdings plunge in a market rout (say if the economy tanks again)—and the lender’s and

the sovereign’s fate would be locked together. This became a systemic threat early in the last decade, stoking the 2012 euro crisis.

Europe’s financial response to the pandemic has been admirable, and it makes sense to loosen banking rules to ensure the wheels of the economy can turn again. But the latest relaxation is risky. It will temporarily free lenders from taking a hit to their capital ratios should their portfolios of government debt shrink in value, in essence removing part of the requirements to mark-tomarket (in other words, mark down any market losses).

This is a bold move as the ECB is simultaneously pump-priming the banking sector with as much liquidity as it wants, to spend however it wants. The past three months have already seen a record jump of €200 billion ($225 billion)

in EU banks’ holdings of euro sovereign debt, according to analysts from Jefferies International Ltd. Looser capital rules will just add to the attraction.

This week’s main event will be a new round of ultra-cheap ECB loans to banks, known as targeted long-term refinancing operations (TLTROs), with rates as generous as minus 100 basis points. The central bank is literally paying banks to borrow. Frederik Ducrozet, a strategist at Pictet Wealth Management, estimates that lenders will take up 1.2 trillion euros. Inevitably some will be parked in liquid government debt, at least in the short term.

Much of this extra money will end up being used by bankers in those carry trades. In this case, banks will borrow at -1 percent in the TLTRO scheme, then invest in government See “Europe,” A7

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Green finance and the insurance industry

The irony of Philippine legislation Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

MAKE SENSE

Atty. Dennis B. Funa

INSURANCE FORUM

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he insurance industry is one of the leading investors in green bonds in the country.

Climate change challenge Climate change is the great challenge of our time. The Philippines is vulnerable to this challenge with numerous typhoons devastating the country every year. The cost to our economy is astounding. It has been estimated that economic losses due to climate change could reduce the region’s GDP by up to 11 percent by 2100.

Addressing these environmental challenges requires expenditures in eight eligible classification sectors (energy, buildings, transport, water, waste, land use, industry and ICT), which may be financed through bond issuances and loans. The bond markets have become an important source of long-term finance. These expenditures should target sustainable development that shifts away from greenhouse gas, fossil fuel, carbon emissions, and natural resource intensive industries. In other words, green finance will be a weapon against climate change.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020 A7

The Philippines is a significant player in green finance in Asean.

Its largest recipient of proceeds is the energy sector. It has issued a total of $2 billion of green bonds, 75 percent of which was issued in 2019. The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) was the first Philippine bank to issue dollar-denominated Asean Green Bonds when it raised $300 million in 2019.

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mid the public outcry, if not outrage, generated by the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which could soon be signed into law

by President Duterte, I would like to share my thoughts on how the now enrolled bill went through the process.

I’m not a lawyer. So I will not discuss the merits of the provisions of the bill, nor will I dwell on the policy positions of both those for and against the Anti-Terrorism Bill.

However, I am surprised by the fact that only a few days had passed after the Anti-Terrorism Bill became an enrolled measure, a significant number of congressmen who previously signed their approval of the bill, withdrew their support for the controversial legislation.

The sudden change of heart by these honorable congressmen bewilders me. The House merely adopted Senate Bill 1083 in coming out with House Bill 6875, the legislation that would repeal the Human Security Act of 2007, thereby doing away with

the need for a bicameral conference.

Now the sixty-four-dollar question: Why did these House members affix their signature to the bill if they had concerns about it?

With all their resources and access to legal minds, even House members who are non-lawyers were supposed to have studied the bill thoroughly before signing their approval. After all, not all laws are perfect, if ever there is one. There will be instances when a new law would be in conflict with another existing law.

In one of my earlier columns, I discussed the inconsistency in the declaration of age when a child can be criminally liable for his acts, a conflict demonstrated between the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act and

The sudden change of heart by these honorable congressmen bewilders me. The House merely adopted Senate Bill 1083 in coming out with House Bill 6875, the legislation that would repeal the Human Security Act of 2007, thereby doing away with the need for a bicameral conference.

Now the sixty-four-dollar question: Why did these House members affix their signature to the bill if they had concerns about it? the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act. The former states that children below 18 years old at age of offense cannot be held criminally liable for their act, unless they acted with discernment. On the other hand, the latter states that the youth from age 15 to 30, are allowed to be elected as Sangguniang Kabataan officials, govern the affairs of the youth council and manage governmentprovided funds for its programs and projects.

Is this not a recognition by law that the youth, under the Sangguniang Kabataan Act, upon reaching age 15, are already discerning individuals and therefore allowed to govern

themselves? While under the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, youth offenders below 18 years old at age of misdeed, cannot be criminally liable for their crime, unless they acted with discernment. Which law shall we now follow in determining the age of discernment among the youth, in relation to their exemption from criminal liability as provided by law? Is it 15 and below or under 18 years old?

I am appalled by the fact that not a single member of the two Houses of Congress noticed this glaring inconsistency. Not even the concerned House Oversight Committee.

How sure are we now that all laws passed by both Houses of Congress have been thoroughly studied and well-thought-out?

I cannot fault President Duterte if he signs the Anti-Terrorism Bill into law, because the President relies on Congress in the crafting of laws. As we all know, legislation of laws is a Congressional mandate and the President’s task is to sign these bills into law.

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza is the chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade; a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.

The Philippines is a significant player in green finance in Asean.

Its largest recipient of proceeds is the energy sector. It has issued a total of $2 billion of green bonds, 75 percent of which was issued in 2019.

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) was the first Philippine bank to issue dollar-denominated Asean Green Bonds when it raised $300 million in 2019. In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the Guidelines on the Issuance of Green Bonds under the Asean Green Bonds Standards (GBS).

In 2016, the ADB issued $225 million climate bond through the BPI to finance the rehabilitation of the Tiwi-Makban geothermal facility. In 2018, the first internationally rated triple-A peso-denominated green bond, the Mabuhay Bond, amounting to $90 million was issued by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through BDO Unibank. In 2018, China Banking Corporation issued its first green bond raising $150 million with the IFC as its sole investor. The proceeds were earmarked for climate-related projects such as renewable energy, green buildings, energy efficiency and water conservation.

The Philippines had seven green bond issuances in 2019. Among the significant green bond issuances in the country are: a) RCBC’s P15 billion Asean green bond and P8 billion Asean sustainability bond, for a total of P23 billion, issued in 2019. RCBC became the first bank to issue a Green Peso Bond, and only the fourth bank to issue bonds under BSP Circular 1010. This Asean green bond was three times oversubscribed (ING Bank was the sole Green Structuring Advisor for RCBC’s green finance framework); b) BDO’s $150 million issuance in 2018; c) AC Energy’s $410 million Asean green bond; c) Bank of the Philippine Islands’ issuance in CHF in the Swiss market, raising CHF100 million, at a negative yield of -0.02 percent (the first for a green bond from Asia); d) AC Energy, a subsidiary of Ayala Corp., had four green bonds issued in 2019, for a total of $810 million. Among these was the first and only perpetual green bond from Asean in December 2019, for $400 million.

Europe. . .

Letters to Jose Rizal chronicle the 1882 Philippine cholera epidemic

Asean green bonds

Asian green bonds are recent developments. In fact, the first Asian green bond was only issued in 2013 by the Export-Import Bank of Korea, to raise $500 million. The first green bond from an Asean member was issued in 2016 by the Philippine-based AP Renewables. It was a local currency green bond partially guaranteed by the ADB and certified under the Geothermal Criteria of the Climate Bonds Standard. In contrast, as of 2018, 628 issuers around the world have issued green bonds worth $521 billion since 2007.

Philippine green bonds

continued from A6

bonds and investment-grade corporate debt that provide a juicy return.

This might improve lackluster bank profitability, but at what cost if it means lenders are then holding too much government debt?

It’s one thing for the ECB to own as much as €450 billion of Italian government bonds, and quite another for commercial lenders to be so exposed to one nation. Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is already that country’s second-largest creditor, with about €100 billion of its national debt. Piling yet more government borrowings into the Italian banking system, which holds a higher percentage of its country’s bonds than any other euro-area nation, might not be a good idea.

The impetus to push more money into the finance system and to encourage government borrowing is entirely understandable right now.

But it risks leaving the euro zone exposed again to its Achilles heel of having a banking system that funds sovereign debt. This may all be necessary to reinvigorate the European economy but danger lurks.

Bond traders love the Fed. The PBOC? Not so much

By Shuli Ren | Bloomberg Opinion

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raders are getting grumpy. Just when the Federal Reserve is buying US corporate bonds and stabilizing markets, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) appears to be engineering money market chaos without a clear policy agenda.

Even amid a global market meltdown this spring, investors kept their faith in China. While a quarter of US junk bonds got downgraded

by Moody’s Investors Service in April, that figure was just 13 percent in Asia, data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch show.

You’ve got to give China some credit for getting money flowing.

Property developers, which account for over half of Asia’s high-yield universe, started seeing easier financing back home. After all, the arch of any debt curve bends toward central bank policies. In time of distress, Beijing could keep a steady hand, many hoped.

But now traders are sitting at their desks, staring into thin air.

It’s no longer clear what the PBOC is up to. They wonder if the twoyear onshore bond-market bull run is coming to an end.

Just take a look at how volatile China’s equivalent of the Fed funds rate has been lately. In just one month, the seven-day repurchase rate, or the short-term rate that

By Jeffrey Asuncion

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holera is an acute infection caused by contaminated food or water. It first hit Europe and North America between 1831 and 1832, but originated centuries before in India. Cholera is not endemic to the Philippines. The disease came to the country as a consequence of the Spanish colonial government’s focus on global trade and commerce.

In 1882, a cholera epidemic affected many parts of the Philippine archipelago. It first hit Zamboanga, and then went on to Panay Island before reaching Manila. When the epidemic arrived in the colonial capital city, it led to the closure of the University of Santo Tomas and the secondary-level colegios.

Some of the letters that Jose Rizal received from his brother described the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the country. Rizal at that time was in Spain for his higher studies.

In a letter dated July 24, 1882, Paciano Rizal first reported to Jose about the fiesta in Calamba before revealing the cholera epidemic in Manila. Paciano made an interesting observation: the author-

ities in Manila were covering up the outbreak “so that abroad they [foreign governments] will not declare this port dirty and consequently create another obstacle to export trade.” In Calamba, there were three cases of cholera and all were fatal, Paciano added.

Writing on August 24, 1882, Antonino Lopez informed his brotherin-law, Jose, that some religious processions were being held in Calamba’s poblacion and in other barrios, hoping to seek divine intervention to stop the epidemic. Furthermore, he wrote to Rizal that authorities in Calamba had forbidden the bringing, hiding, and consuming of dried and fermented fish, which were believed to help worsen the epidemic.

In a letter dated August 25, 1882,

banks use to lend to each other, jumped 50 basis points to 1.8 percent.

This is partly the result of a crackdown on interest rate arbitrage.

Since the virus outbreak, billions of dollars of easy money have stayed in the financial system, rather than flowing to the real economy, the central bank discovered. Much of it wound up in so-called structured deposits, a form of high-yielding wealth management product, which have ballooned by over 2 trillion yuan ($282.1 billion) in the first four months of the year. Instead of paying salaries or shoring up working capital, large corporations have been taking out cheap bank loans and issuing low-yielding bonds to get juicy returns instead.

While bond yields fell amid the pandemic, those offered by wealth management products held up. Regional banks and other financial institutions were borrowing heavily in the easy-money repo market, which means those steady yields were only achieved through high leverage. By guiding repo rates back

Paciano described to his younger brother the quarantine being implemented during that time on “students and non-students, colegialas and non-colegialas.” Authorities were confining them, on the lookout for those showing symptoms of cholera. All schools in Calamba were closed, while provinces were “isolated from each other.” In the last

While it’s commendable that the central bank wants to send its money to Main Street, is this sudden policy flip-flop a good idea? Why should anyone invest in a market where basic funding costs take a roller-coaster ride on a daily basis? Ultimately, the problem is that China has too many interest rates.

up to make such borrowing more costly, the PBOC can stamp out this carry trade, the thinking goes.

Consider, too, that China operates with a loose interest rate corridor. The ceiling is the rate at which banks can borrow from the PBOC through its standing lending facilities, and the floor is the rate paid on lenders’ excess reserves held at the central bank. Officials aim to keep the seven-day repo rate, which is managed via openmarket operations, at the middle of the range. But lately, the corridor has collapsed. Perhaps it’s time to bring the repo line back up, the PBOC reasons.

In the first two weeks of June, the central bank has been tightening its fist, pulling a net 250 billion yuan from the banking system. On Monday, the interest rate offered on its medium-term lending facility

was officially declared in Manila, the port there was closed to ships coming from “dirty/infected ports.” Passenger boats coming from Manila and traveling to Laguna de Bai had to be quarantined and fumigated in Santa Cruz, Laguna for 12 hours. n Communications between the pueblos or towns were forbidden

In a letter dated July 24, 1882, Paciano Rizal first reported to Jose about the fiesta in Calamba before revealing the cholera epidemic in Manila. Paciano made an interesting observation: the authorities in Manila were covering up the outbreak “so that abroad they [foreign governments] will not declare this port dirty and consequently create another obstacle to export trade.” sentence about the cholera, Paciano wrote: “The cholera inspires such fear that the court, the Civil Guard, and the telegraph are very busy.”

Paciano Rizal had written the most comprehensive details of the cholera epidemic to Jose in his September 15, 1882 letter: n When the cholera epidemic

unless with expressed permission from the central government in Manila. n Residents of Calamba were going to their church in accordance with the pastoral letter of the Archbishop of Manila. They were also praying to San Roque, the patron saint for epidemics, and even held

remained unchanged, signaling the PBOC had no intent of easing, even as a second wave of the coronavirus hit Beijing over the weekend.

While it’s commendable that the central bank wants to send its money to Main Street, is this sudden policy flip-flop a good idea? Why should anyone invest in a market where basic funding costs take a roller-coaster ride on a daily basis?

U ltimately, the problem is that China has too many interest rates. On the wholesale banking side, borrowing costs have come down, thanks to cuts in the MLF and reverse repo rate. But on the consumer banking side, the oneyear benchmark deposit rate hasn’t changed since 2015, because muchhyped reform never happened. As a result, retail investors expect the yield on wealth management products to remain high. Hence, the levered-up carry trade.

But with all these rates, it’s hard to gauge the real stance of monetary policy. The PBOC now comes across as clueless, unaware that its shifting stance has serious knockon effects. Even with the best of intentions, such an inconsistent framework derails China’s resolve to open its financial markets to foreigners. A market with too much interest rate volatility is a scary proposition.

nightly processions until the late hours of the evening. Every afternoon, bonfires were lit in many parts of the town, to serve as “disinfectants” against the choleracausing microbes. n At the height of the epidemic, an average of 15 people died daily because of cholera. Paciano failed to specify whether the average was for the entire Philippines or for the Calamba/Laguna areas only.

But people who suffered from the disease were not cared for by their relatives. If they died, the victims were buried in a cemetery alongside the Chinese who were deemed non-Catholics and were also being stigmatized at the time.

We can glean from the examples above myriad lessons how our people suffered, and how authorities responded when an epidemic appeared during the Spanish colonial period.

Asst. Prof. Jeffrey Asuncion is a faculty member at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He is handling Philippine History, Rizal, and Science and Technology in Society courses.

A8 Wednesday, June 17, 2020

IMO okays PHL plan on maritime standards

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

T

HE International Maritime Organization (IMO) Member State Audit Scheme (Imsas) Council has approved the Philippines’s strategy in enforcing global maritime standards, a plan that boosts the country’s hurdling of an industry evaluation slated for 2022.

In a statement, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) said the Imsas gave a thumbs up on two “vital documents for the mandatory audit,” namely, the Cross Table of Responsibilities and the draft Philippine Strategy on the Implementation and Enforcement of Relevant IMO Instruments. Transportation Assistant Secretary for Maritime Narciso A. Vingson Jr. said the two documents are required to fulfill the audit requirements of the IMO. He explained that the Cross Table delineates the obligations and interrelationship among maritime entities performing flag State, port State and coastal State functions as prescribed by the relevant IMO Instruments.

On the other hand, the Philippine Strategy aims to enhance maritime safety and protection of the environment and to meet international obligations and responsibilities as a member of the IMO. Continued on A4

Citing sharp shortfall amid pandemic, PhilHealth seeks UHC implementation delay

A

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

MID the Covid-19 pandemic, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) recommended the “general delay” in the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law.

This, after PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales admitted that the stateowned insurance agency is now experiencing a shortfall as it has only collected 10 percent of what it collected in 2019.

“We have benefit expense of P52.5 billion and we have collected premium income of P46.5 billion.

We are spending 13 cents more per peso per premium collection,” Morales told lawmakers during the first joint congressional oversight meeting on the UHC law.

“To tell you the truth, our collection is about 10 percent of what it

was last year. The collection from direct contributors is not significant because [businesses are not operating due to the Covid-19 pandemic],” he said.

Morales also said the PhilHealth will be running a fund deficit by end of 2020 and will be maintaining that shortfall up to 2024. Based on Morales’s presentation, the deficit will reach less than P100 billion every year starting 2021.

According to Morales, the PhilHealth had proposed a P153-billion subsidy for 2020, but was only granted over P71 billion. He said, “this was not enough to fund the premium of

all indirect contributors.”

For 2021, he said the PhilHealth will ask for a P138-billion subsidy from the government.

Moreover, Morales said PhilHealth is also recommending to postpone the implementation of the expanded primary care benefits, which covers more illnesses, disabilities and maintenance medicines of members.

He earlier told lawmakers that the PhilHealth is suffering a net loss, because “we were not given the funding which we asked to support the funding of the UHC.” Morales continued: “We [are] admittedly affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are reconfiguring our corporate budget for 2020. It was not enough to fund premium contributors; thus, affecting PhilHealth’s capacity to cover all benefits,” he said.

“They are not paying premium [due to the crisis] so we are falling back on our reserve which we anticipate is going to take a hit,” he explained.

According to Morales, the insurance agency wants to focus on the “lighter expenditure” of the primary health care like organization, accreditation of providers and the registration of members.

For Covid crisis

INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ) AFFECTING PALAWAN, VISAYAS,AND MINDANAO as of 4:00 am - June 16, 2020

EARLIER, Morales said the PhilHealth has rolled out a P30-billion fund for this Covid-19 crisis.

For their part, House Committee on Health Chairman Angelina Tan and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, authors of the UHC law, expressed concern on the recommendations of the PhilHealth.

With the challenge of Covid-19, PhilHealth should “instead strengthen the implementation of primary care services,” Tan told PhilHealth.

Hontiveros also told PhilHealth that it would be wise to focus on primary health care in order to preempt higher expenditures due

to serious health cases.

“For every one dollar you will spend on primary care, the country can save 3 to 4 dollars in tertiary care, including hospitalization, even more so during a health crisis or pandemic,” stressed the senator.

Unpaid claims

MEANWHILE, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged PhilHealth to settle at least P18 billion in unpaid reimbursement claims of accredited hospitals spread throughout the country.

“This is very urgent, especially because we are still facing this Covid-19 pandemic and we all need the full operations of our hospitals with the necessary medical personnel. We don’t want our hospitals to close, scale down services nor lay off medical personnel because of nonpayment of claims by PhilHeath,” he said.

Citing data of the Philippine Hospitals Association of the Philippines, Rodriguez said PhilhHealth owed PHAP members P14 billion as of December 2018 and P4 billion at the end of 2019. The group is composed of 733 hospitals with 44,700 beds nationwide.

As an offshoot of financial difficulties, he said hospitals, “are retrenching some of their employees to ensure their sustainability.”

And, “as a result of unpaid claims, PHAP members have signified their intention ‘to hold back or hold in abeyance’ their accreditation with PhilHealth, which would be very detrimental to the Filipino people,” Rodriguez said.

He asked the House of Representatives to express its collective sense urging PhilHealth to settle the hospitals’ unpaid claims.

During the joint oversight hearing, Philippine Medical Association President Dr. Jose Santiago said they sought to suspend premium contributions until December 2021 to give time for the health sector to go back to normal.

Palace to ask PITC, DA to explain G2G rice importation

By Samuel P. Medenilla

M

@sam_medenilla

ALACAÑANG on Tuesday said it is now seeking answers from the Department of Agriculture (DA) on the rice importation by the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), for which no presidential authority has yet been presented, as required by law.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said he will raise the issue during the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) meeting on June 18, 2020.

“We still have have no information on that. On Thursday...we will ask both DA and PITC [to explain],” said Roque in a online briefing on Tuesday.

“We will ask them if they already have authorization to import rice,” he added.

The question was raised to Roque after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Monday that PITC has no legal authority

to import 300,000 metric ton (MT) of rice through a government-togovernment arrangement (G2G). As such, DBM cannot release funds even though PITC had already sought tenders for the deal.

DA and the National Food Authority are providing “technical advice” to the PITC, which is an attached agency of DTI, for the said G2G importation.

DBM noted that under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) or Republic Act (RA) 11203, DA and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) currently have no mandate to import rice.

Last March, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the IATF gave its goahead for the PITC to import 300,00 metric tons of rice.

However, RA 11203 only allows the government to import rice if it declares a rice shortage. Currently, there is no such declaration from the government.

DBM also said it could not provide the P7.45-billion budget, which is needed for the said procurement since it claimed the process is yet to be approved by President Duterte.

54% of Pinoys see diversity benefiting devt–poll

By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

M

ORE than half of Filipinos consider diversity to be beneficial to a country’s development, according to a survey among 11 emerging economies by the Pew Research Center (PRC).

PRC’s survey data showed 54 percent of Filipino respondents said the country would be better off if there were more diversity in society.

Only 12 percent of respondents said the country would be worse off if there are more people of different backgrounds and races in the country.

“In most countries surveyed, people who interact more with those who are different from them —whether religiously, ethnically or racially—tended to be more positive toward societal diversity,” PRC said.

The PRC survey asked about social divisions in 11 emerging countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Colombia, Lebanon, Kenya, Venezuela, and Mexico, among others. In some countries, the PRC asked about religious and ethnic groups while in others it asked about refugees and migrant groups. However, in other countries, they asked about both migrants and refugees.

In the Philippines, they focused on Christians and Muslims. More than half or 54 percent of Filipino respondents said increasing diversity in society made the country a better place to live in.

The percentage of those who said the Philippines would be better off is the third highest among the 11 emerging countries. The highest is India with 68 percent followed by Colombia, 66 percent.

Around 32 percent of Filipino respondents said there would be no difference, which placed the Philippines in 5th place among the surveyed countries. The country that had the highest percentage of respondents in this category was Mexico at 55 percent.

The data also showed that 12 percent of surveyed Filipinos said the country would be worse off with higher diversity. This is the second lowest among the 11 countries.

Venezuela had the lowest at 9 percent while the country with the highest number of respondents saying increasing diversity will make their country a worse place to live is Lebanon at 75 percent.

Rare interactions

THE PRC data also showed that in the Philippines, interactions between Christians and Muslims are rare or never happen. This made the Philippines the third highest “never/rare” response rate among the 11 countries.

Data showed 61 percent of Filipino respondents said they never or rarely interact with people of a different race or ethnicity or, in this case, religion.

This means only 38 percent of Filipino respondents said they interact with others occasionally or frequently.

However, PRC noted that in all countries surveyed, the younger members of the population are more open to interacting with people of different races, ethnicity, religion.

In the Philippines, around 44 percent of those who said they interacted with Muslims or Christians frequently belonged to the 18 to 29 age group.

This was followed by the 30 to 49 age group with 38 percent and the 50 years old and above group, with 32 percent saying they interacted with different races, ethnicity, religion.

Continued on A4

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Office space demand in PHL surges despite health crisis’

T

By VG Cabuag @villygc & Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

raditional business-process outsourcing firms (BPO) drove demand for office space in key Philippine cities, which rose by a third in January to May, according to real-estate broker Leechiu Property Consultants.

David Leechiu, CEO of the company, said some 211,000 square meters of office demand was recorded for the first five months of the year, 34 percent higher, or 54,000 square meters, from last year's 157,000 square meters.

Of this demand, Metro Manila comprises up to 60 percent, and the rest came from the provinces. This despite the decision of the government to place the National Capital Region under lockdown starting mid-March to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Firms from the information tech-

nology and business process management (IT-BPM) accounted for 37 percent, followed by Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) mainly from China at 13 percent.

Traditional offices, corporate tenants and flexible workspaces accounted for the rest.

Demand from the IT-BPM and Pogos combined with improving investor and public confidence should bring up office demand to approximately 800,000 square meters by year-end, Leechiu said.

“We expected zero demand in the second quarter of 2020 but

despite the ECQ/MECQ [modified enhanced community quarantine], we’ve seen transactions concluded,” said Leechiu.

“Philippines is most likely the only office market in the world that is still growing in demand today.

We also expect IT-BPM demand to surge once more by year-end when both the Philippines, US and other countries would have adopted to a new normal.”

He also said he expects Pogos to make a comeback by the end of June and further drive demand.

Leechiu said the operations of most Pogos would hit 30 percent to 50 percent by end-June following a compromise agreement between the operators and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The tax agency has threatened to stop the operations of Pogos pending the settlement of their tax obligation.

“As soon as travel restrictions are lifted, we are optimistic that POGOs will be back to full capacity, and will start revisiting their expansion plans.” Leechiu said many firms in China are also likely to transfer their customer service operations to the Philippines.

These developments, he said,

T

steps to ensure the well-being of our employees and society."

“While we maintain a strong balance sheet, the company has decided to prioritize financial flexibility to prepare for what has yet to come.

Management sees it best to conserve our resources as we strive to strike a balance between protecting the interest of our stakeholders and maintaining a sustainable growth trajectory for the company over the long term.”

Despite the impact of the pandemic, SM Prime said it remains optimistic about an eventual re-

covery in consumer spending.

The company retained its capital expenditures of P80 billion for the year as it focuses on nearly completed projects seen to bring about sustainable returns. At the same time, SM Prime will continue to explore opportunistic acquisitions and investments that are well within its core competencies.

On Monday, SM Prime said it is investing some P100 million to upgrade its e-commerce platform, which will connect brick and mortar stores to their customers, in keeping with pandemic-induced

B1

RCI enters into options contract with LDA Capital

would keep the office property market buoyant and will provide sources of revenue for the Philippine government.

Prospects

Leechiu also said new office spaces would be smaller than initially projected. While construction has already resumed in current office projects, work capacity may still be at 50 percent owing to the imposition of social distancing and the deployment of a skeletal workforce.

Depite the jump in office space demand, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he is not upbeat about the prospects for the Philippine real estate market.

While he acknowledged that the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) law somehow accounts for this positive development, Recto said in a text message to BusinessMirror: “REIT is helpful, however, I expect office space, real estate in general, will be weak.”

Asked about the basis for his “weak” projection, Recto replied: “Work from home. Social distancing.

Prices are dropping. Stock prices of publicly-listed real estate companies have dropped a lot.”

SM Prime announces cash dividend he board of shopping mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc. has declared P5.34 billion in cash dividends, equivalent to about 15 percent of the previous year's net income, to all its shareholders.

The company has approved cash dividends of P0.185 per share, with total value of P5.34 billion to stockholders of record as of June 30, payable on or before July 14.

“This is both an extraordinary and challenging time for each of us,” SM Prime President Jeffrey Lim said. “The company is taking all the necessary

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

changes in consumer behavior.

“We acknowledge the growing popularity of e-commerce especially during the pandemic and SM Prime is allocating up to P100 million to accelerate our online presence with our e-commerce platform,” said Lim. “We will start with the click and collect which enable our tenants and our customers to meet virtually in the platform. Moving forward we see e-commerce as a strategy to complement our malls business and connect our retail tenant to our customers.” VG Cabuag

Photo from www.roxasholdings.com.ph

T

he board of sugar firm Roxas and Co. Inc. (RCI) has agreed to enter into an P800-million call and put option agreement with LDA Capital Ltd. as part of the company's fund-raising activities.

The company said it will sign the call and put option agreement on Wednesday.

An options contract grants the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a set price on or before a certain date. A call option gives the holder the right to buy a stock and a put option gives the holder the right to sell a stock. “ T h is equ it y pl acement commitment is part of RCI’s fund-raising activities aimed at strengthening its subsidiaries, with the proceeds to be utilized for additional working capital and to support the reduction of bank debts to manageable levels,” the company said.

LDA Capital is the investor and LDA Capital LCC will act as the deal’s arranger.

Under the agreement, RCI has the right, but not the obli-

gation, to sell treasury shares to the LDA by issuing a put option notice, in which the company will control the timing and maximum amount of the put option.

The term of the put option is 36 months from signing of the agreement. All transactions with the said agreement will be subject to required regulatory and board of directors' approvals, it said.

Roxas board also approved the grant of a call option to the investor, which shall allow LDA to purchase up to 99 million common shares of the corporation at an exercise price of P2.38 per share, exercisable any time during the term of the agreement. Shares of the company closed on Tuesday at P1.90 apiece.

LDA Capital is a global alternative investment group with expertise in complex, cross border transactions worldwide. The firm provides capital solutions to companies seeking financing in underserved markets and in complex conditions on a global basis. VG Cabuag

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 16, 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 PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH

46 102.1 70.7 19.98 7.4 38.95 9.35 17.44 21 47.1 18.44 103.5 54.25 0.67 16.9 2.51 0.94 0.3 0.56 166

46.85 102.4 71 20 7.42 39.15 9.5 18.4 21.2 49.5 19.1 103.9 55.9 0.75 17.1 2.69 0.99 0.31 0.57 168

47 101 69.5 20.5 7.49 38.7 9.89 17.32 21 47.1 17.8 101.2 54.1 0.75 16.9 2.72 0.92 0.285 0.56 166

47 103.6 72.45 20.5 7.67 39.5 9.89 18.5 21.35 47.1 18.5 105.4 56.5 0.75 17.1 2.72 0.92 0.31 0.58 168

46 101 69.5 19.7 7.22 38.35 9.5 17.04 20.9 47.1 17.8 101.2 54.1 0.75 16.9 2.72 0.92 0.285 0.56 165.8

46 102.4 71 20 7.4 39.15 9.5 18.5 21 47.1 18.44 103.5 55 0.75 17 2.72 0.92 0.31 0.57 166

6400 2842990 2355790 216900 1099000 4843100 2200 1900 634200 1000 90300 565680 15410 19000 3900 2000 7000 150000 1206000 1470

295400 290454418 166792604 4333130 8109854 188265300 21193 33240 13347420 47100 1663284 58657122 849870.5 14250 66290 5440 6440 43550 687690 244114

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 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 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 PRYCE CORP CONCEPCION GREENERGY INTEGRATED MICR IONICS SFA SEMICON CIRTEK HLDG

2.36 0.88 27.9 0.16 20.6 57.8 280 12.64 3.17 2.62 10.9 19 8.06 7.09 2.68 12.54 15 4.27 5.28 7.9 69.65 0.55 1.29 33.5 142.5 6.41 5.88 1.69 6.29 1.9 1.59 0.108 133.1 0.81 51.05 56.5 1.11 10.88 5.26 7.51 7.31 8.5 0.74 0.76 1.9 2.31 3.55 4.2 21.6 1.62 5.65 1.1 1.43 8.19

2.37 0.93 28 0.164 20.65 57.9 283 12.66 3.19 2.76 11.1 19.2 8.1 7.2 2.69 13 15.1 4.3 5.35 7.95 69.95 0.56 1.3 34.8 142.6 6.8 5.9 1.7 6.3 1.91 1.64 0.11 134.5 0.82 59.45 63.9 1.12 10.9 5.28 7.53 7.35 8.98 0.75 0.77 1.92 2.33 3.63 4.33 22 1.63 5.66 1.14 1.44 8.2

2.25 0.93 27.2 0.16 20.8 57.75 285 12.2 3.18 2.8 10.84 18.88 8.05 7.06 2.63 12.5 15 4.27 5.18 7.8 70.5 0.53 1.26 34.8 144 6.39 5.91 1.69 6.2 1.82 1.6 0.109 135 0.82 50.9 56.5 1.11 10.52 5.13 7.5 7.4 8.98 0.73 0.69 1.89 2.27 3.63 4.22 22 1.6 5.42 1.1 1.32 8.26

2.38 0.93 28.1 0.165 21 57.9 285 12.64 3.26 2.95 11.2 19.4 8.15 7.25 2.7 12.52 15.18 4.27 5.4 8 72.4 0.55 1.31 34.9 146.3 6.8 6.15 1.69 6.38 1.91 1.6 0.109 136.1 0.83 59.45 59 1.15 10.96 5.4 7.65 7.65 8.98 0.75 0.82 1.9 2.48 3.63 4.22 22 1.65 5.7 1.14 1.48 8.4

2.25 0.93 27.2 0.158 20.6 57.75 277 12.2 3.17 2.75 10.84 18.88 7.95 7.04 2.57 12.5 15 4.27 5.15 7.74 69 0.53 1.25 34.7 141.5 6.39 5.83 1.67 6.06 1.8 1.59 0.109 133.1 0.8 50.9 56.45 1.1 10.52 5.13 7.47 7.2 8.5 0.72 0.69 1.89 2.27 3.6 4.21 22 1.6 5.42 1.08 1.3 8.17

2.37 0.93 28 0.164 20.6 57.8 283 12.64 3.19 2.75 11.1 19 8.1 7.2 2.68 12.52 15 4.27 5.35 7.95 69.65 0.55 1.3 34.8 142.5 6.41 5.88 1.69 6.3 1.9 1.6 0.109 133.1 0.82 59.45 59 1.11 10.88 5.26 7.53 7.35 8.98 0.75 0.76 1.9 2.3 3.63 4.21 22 1.63 5.65 1.14 1.44 8.2

14894000 4000 523200 1380000 3386900 61710 623620 5819500 899000 59000 58700 771200 64800 90600 977000 1800 2105600 11000 1022700 45469200 1038130 1015000 8054000 144900 1862660 19400 1176400 36000 940100 6131000 26000 400000 1407060 7486000 70 140 8448000 2325700 532700 1556300 5274700 2700 121000 5731000 131000 461000 8000 15000 7100 3128000 169600 791000 7107000 3858300

272400 -51811757 -31046641.5 191189.9999 -3169392 -53086080 -2070505 -1029258 -8876653 13500 -10140 -112999.9999 -14940

34788770 3720 14570960 220220 70300755 3566619 174523880 72333502 2876940 163570 648738 14709210 523469 643754 2587840 22516 31667314 46970 5453869 359035078 72685196.5 551890 10362590 5042585 266897821 124381 6955383 60730 5805751 11472160 41510 43600 188859730 6092110 3905 7958.5 9436520 24929064 2809262 11712053 39384539 23734 87470 4393140 248570 1068200 28860 63170 156200 5084840 951622 878250 10026030 31829750

1306220 930 -5598100 71550 -65556790 -3106004 -29600318 8391654 -489410 -115974 -2680544 -93800 -1093546 -4270 -3031897 -355375374 -1328061 24860 86030 4360424.9999 101982702 -47434 -1323907 3161294 18800 -43600 -95338875 -801900 -104130 -278710 -517206 150800 -1079092 1796 -6000 -9410 -136400 184059.9998 96168 45199.9997 -41000 32291

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.5 0.51 0.5 0.51 0.495 0.51 2149000 1077950 9.1 9.2 9.79 9.79 9.05 9.1 34100 313349 ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP 774 775 759 786.5 755 775 556590 430913805 46.9 47.2 46.8 47.25 46 46.9 1153700 54154490 ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL 7.26 7.29 6.9 7.35 6.9 7.29 30197100 215474066 AYALA LAND LOG 1.74 1.75 1.68 1.74 1.68 1.74 842000 1450720 6.16 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 3500 21700 ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.5 0.52 0.51 0.52 0.51 0.52 37000 18950 0.59 0.6 0.59 0.6 0.59 0.6 495000 292500 ATN HLDG A 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.61 0.59 0.61 502000 296220 ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL 5.44 5.46 5.5 5.5 5.42 5.46 4539200 24819950 4.32 4.33 4.31 4.42 4.28 4.33 9357000 40677530 DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV 8.01 9.83 9.86 9.86 8.01 8.01 56400 459524 FORUM PACIFIC 0.18 0.199 0.199 0.199 0.199 0.199 10000 1990 491 492 473.4 493 473 491 317590 154842222 GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV 3.18 3.37 3.39 3.39 3.38 3.38 7000 23670 62.35 63.35 61.1 63.95 61.1 63.35 1512160 95250454 JG SUMMIT 4.86 5.6 5.64 5.64 5.64 5.64 200 1128 JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR 0.57 0.58 0.54 0.61 0.53 0.57 28182000 15576840 2.63 2.65 2.61 2.64 2.6 2.63 203000 533320 LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP 8.65 8.97 8.68 9.01 8.46 8.97 1320400 11563444 MABUHAY HLDG 0.48 0.52 0.47 0.52 0.47 0.52 66000 33170 3.44 3.45 3.4 3.49 3.4 3.45 44431000 153153440 METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA 0.8 0.82 0.8 0.8 0.77 0.8 138000 107960 2.53 2.65 2.64 2.65 2.64 2.65 5000 13240 REPUBLIC GLASS SOLID GROUP 0.95 0.99 0.97 0.97 0.94 0.94 253000 239640 155 173 173 173 170 170 430 73130 SYNERGY GRID 927 940 921 940 916 940 126940 118565045 SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP 102.9 105 104 105 102.3 105 135990 14072755 0.62 0.64 0.63 0.64 0.6 0.64 274000 169020 SOC RESOURCES 135 136 136 136 136 136 220 29920 TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS 0.185 0.195 0.185 0.185 0.185 0.185 40000 7400 0.142 0.149 0.145 0.151 0.142 0.149 390000 55870 ZEUS HLDG

-40120 119577455 -417090 17931653 -63300 296220 1677105 -21213370 -459524 50819942 3390 -25901074.5 1770 -126120 -2430823 -940 7019560 -13998660 -2757680 -

PROPERTY

ARTHALAND CORP ANCHOR LAND AYALA LAND ARANETA PROP BELLE CORP A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES CEB LANDMASTERS CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON DM WENCESLAO EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE 8990 HLDG PHIL INFRADEV KEPPEL PROP CITY AND LAND MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND SHANG PROP STA LUCIA LAND SM PRIME HLDG VISTAMALLS SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

0.55 8.59 35.5 1.05 1.4 0.56 0.72 0.124 3.92 0.405 0.28 19.16 6.45 0.265 0.095 1.01 0.8 10.1 0.86 3.64 0.7 3.28 0.147 1.43 17.96 2.69 1.88 31 3.65 1.23 3.91

0.56 8.99 35.9 1.06 1.41 0.58 0.74 0.129 3.95 0.41 0.295 19.26 6.5 0.27 0.096 1.02 0.81 10.3 0.87 3.8 0.72 3.31 0.148 1.45 18 2.7 1.91 31.1 3.8 1.24 3.92

0.56 9 36.35 1.02 1.43 0.57 0.72 0.121 3.94 0.39 0.295 20.5 6.5 0.27 0.092 1.01 0.79 10.1 0.85 3.8 0.7 3.3 0.149 1.41 18.2 2.71 1.9 31.7 3.7 1.25 3.91

0.56 9 37 1.06 1.47 0.59 0.72 0.129 3.97 0.43 0.295 20.6 6.69 0.27 0.096 1.05 0.81 10.3 0.86 3.8 0.7 3.39 0.15 1.45 18.8 2.71 1.92 31.95 3.9 1.28 3.96

0.55 8.5 35.2 1.01 1.41 0.56 0.72 0.12 3.9 0.39 0.29 19.1 6.46 0.25 0.09 0.99 0.79 10.08 0.82 3.8 0.7 3.25 0.146 1.4 18 2.71 1.9 30.6 3.6 1.22 3.84

0.55 8.99 35.9 1.05 1.41 0.58 0.72 0.129 3.95 0.405 0.29 19.16 6.46 0.27 0.096 1.02 0.79 10.1 0.86 3.8 0.7 3.31 0.148 1.45 18 2.71 1.9 31 3.8 1.24 3.91

3247000 3100 10427100 58000 587000 865000 2000 2120000 278000 24210000 190000 1381500 91500 3850000 810000 30094000 537000 97900 2024000 3000 5000 20801000 5460000 33000 1848100 32000 94000 8352600 217000 2474000 3366000

1787970 26898 373083395 59830 834460 491260 1440 258930 1098520 9640600 55400 27064778 597381 1023650 74160 30163720 425650 988782 1698520 11400 3500 68795720 807940 46910 33670954 86720 178980 259466315 805500 3072760 13136330

17000 -99258340 142000 -227999.9999 -64000 -452580 8000 1033935.0001 -56529 270000 -11538370 -771640 1997190 -191340 -8497280 -0 -170925865 -6717870

SERVICES ABS CBN 15.42 15.44 15.68 15.68 15.4 15.42 574200 8899752 5.13 5.14 5.1 5.15 5.09 5.14 852400 4368435 GMA NETWORK MANILA BULLETIN 0.37 0.38 0.365 0.38 0.365 0.38 260000 95850 13.04 14.48 13.8 14 13.02 14 4100 57212 MLA BRDCASTING GLOBE TELECOM 2152 2160 2160 2182 2122 2160 73315 158300450 PLDT 1223 1225 1215 1230 1211 1223 169305 206905100 0.053 0.054 0.05 0.055 0.05 0.054 29920000 1608810 APOLLO GLOBAL DFNN INC 2.92 3.05 3 3.08 3 3.08 3000 9130 2.73 2.74 2.58 2.74 2.57 2.74 31628000 84992010 DITO CME HLDG 1.2 1.4 1.26 1.26 1.26 1.26 10000 12600 IMPERIAL ISLAND INFO 0.076 0.081 0.077 0.081 0.075 0.081 950000 72050 2.09 2.1 1.98 2.17 1.98 2.09 5775000 12162570 NOW CORP TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.181 0.188 0.182 0.192 0.18 0.18 2830000 516310 PHILWEB 2.36 2.38 2.36 2.43 2.3 2.38 1171000 2770130 10.28 10.3 10.26 10.88 9.82 10.3 370100 3808071 2GO GROUP ASIAN TERMINALS 16.5 16.9 16.9 16.9 16.9 16.9 100 1690 3.69 3.7 3.59 3.69 3.49 3.69 889000 3217810 CHELSEA 44.95 45 44.6 46 44 44.95 787300 35523555 CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER 104 105 99.7 105 98.65 105 2359490 240585560 13.4 13.8 14 14 13.4 13.8 10800 147010 LBC EXPRESS LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.75 0.84 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 9000 6750 6.39 6.4 6.17 6.5 6.17 6.4 7452200 47453031 MACROASIA 2.56 2.58 2.42 2.6 2.35 2.56 2186000 5488660 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 2.22 2.54 2.4 2.47 2.4 2.47 35000 86280 6.55 6.9 6.89 7 6.5 6.9 159500 1058096 PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR 0.85 0.88 0.82 0.88 0.81 0.88 339000 282580 ACESITE HOTEL 1.15 1.22 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.15 16000 18400 0.026 0.028 0.026 0.028 0.026 0.027 33700000 898800 BOULEVARD HLDG WATERFRONT 0.39 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.39 0.4 510000 199200 815.5 860 800 879 752 850 390 320265 FAR EASTERN U 7.63 8.2 8.47 8.89 8.15 8.2 1700 14301 IPEOPLE STI HLDG 0.305 0.31 0.3 0.31 0.3 0.31 2160000 660100 2.18 2.21 2.11 2.24 2.11 2.21 56000 122180 BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY 7.5 7.6 7.32 7.64 7.32 7.6 7345400 55218761 PACIFIC ONLINE 2.15 2.17 2.08 2.18 2.08 2.17 311000 658730 1.57 1.58 1.57 1.58 1.55 1.58 206000 323150 LEISURE AND RES PH RESORTS GRP 2.61 2.8 2.5 2.87 2.5 2.84 205000 553820 0.335 0.34 0.335 0.34 0.33 0.34 5090000 1720700 PREMIUM LEISURE 7.33 7.46 7.22 7.5 7.22 7.46 2455100 18019012 ALLHOME METRO RETAIL 1.56 1.58 1.54 1.59 1.54 1.56 3389000 5288090 44.5 44.55 45.1 45.5 44.4 44.5 3557700 159103410 PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL 66.7 67 68 68 66 67 423440 28327418 PHIL SEVEN CORP 132 134.8 135 135 130 130 1200460 156062082 1.2 1.24 1.18 1.23 1.18 1.2 1848000 2233690 SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT 15.88 15.9 15.48 15.9 15.48 15.88 3325800 52764640 0.32 0.34 0.33 0.35 0.32 0.34 570000 186100 APC GROUP 7.08 7.28 7.08 7.49 7.08 7.28 28100 199859 EASYCALL GOLDEN BRIA 295 320 308 308 308 308 50 15400 0.213 0.216 0.218 0.218 0.212 0.216 2570000 548330 PRMIERE HORIZON

-85684150 -102942585 9130 622160 17480 -505249.9997 -61050 137330 -65378 1689.9999 -19924295 -76007244.5 -2760 -385651 -3948 -8300 -53100 -7750 847 -147300 -3410974 849000 -469549 101400 -29071550 -14191246 -14839 -1025330 -8355824 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 9.82 10.16 10 10.18 9.82 10.16 4400 44048 APEX MINING 1.05 1.07 1.04 1.06 1.03 1.06 1869000 1956900 -157000 0.001 0.0011 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 111000000 111000 ABRA MINING ATLAS MINING 1.94 1.99 1.94 1.94 1.94 1.94 12000 23280 1.16 1.2 1.16 1.21 1.16 1.16 230000 276280 BENGUET A 1.14 1.38 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14 5000 5700 5699.9999 BENGUET B COAL ASIA HLDG 0.18 0.192 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.18 10000 1800 2.67 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.68 2.7 405000 1091500 810000 CENTURY PEAK 7.6 7.69 7.47 7.7 7.25 7.68 1076400 8157400 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 0.91 0.92 0.85 0.93 0.85 0.91 5884000 5313720 210030 0.217 0.222 0.215 0.229 0.21 0.222 3140000 687520 GEOGRACE LEPANTO A 0.079 0.08 0.07 0.088 0.07 0.079 44850000 3581870 0.077 0.082 0.075 0.083 0.075 0.078 250000 19690 LEPANTO B 0.0062 0.0063 0.0063 0.0063 0.0062 0.0062 14000000 88000 MANILA MINING A MARCVENTURES 0.56 0.58 0.58 0.59 0.53 0.56 458000 260300 1.21 1.22 1.21 1.26 1.16 1.21 25908000 30588570 NIHAO 1.95 1.96 1.85 1.96 1.85 1.96 11282000 21660310 300810 NICKEL ASIA OMICO CORP 0.35 0.375 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 110000 38500 0.5 0.53 0.5 0.53 0.5 0.53 419000 210780 ORNTL PENINSULA PX MINING 2.37 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.37 2.4 214000 512720 -108000 SEMIRARA MINING 12.98 13 12.98 13.34 12.8 12.98 674500 8774636 -1436614 6.51 6.64 6.42 6.65 6.42 6.64 36800 242488 ACE ENEXOR ORNTL PETROL B 0.0085 0.0095 0.0095 0.0095 0.0085 0.0085 12000000 108000 0.0076 0.0079 0.0079 0.0079 0.0079 0.0079 1000000 7900 PHILODRILL PXP ENERGY 4.99 5 4.92 5.09 4.92 4.99 1078000 5405770 -867190

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 98 99 99 99 98 99 2030 200940 AC PREF B1 506 518 518 518 518 518 50 25900 100 101.5 100 100 100 100 25000 2500000 50000 ALCO PREF B AC PREF B2R 502.5 504 502.5 502.5 502.5 502.5 240 120600 100 100.4 100.2 100.4 100.2 100.4 100 10032 CPG PREF A 101 101.5 100.1 101.5 100.1 101.5 100 10108 DD PREF GLO PREF P 510 520 520 520 520 520 10 5200 1011 1018 1011 1011 1011 1011 1985 2006835 GTCAP PREF B 99.75 100 100.4 100.4 100 100 23840 2384016 MWIDE PREF PNX PREF 3A 99.5 100 100 100 100 100 10 1000 103.5 106 104 104 103 103 1470 152410 PNX PREF 3B PCOR PREF 2B 1001 1030 1000 1000 1000 1000 6000 6000000 1021 1050 1049 1050 1049 1050 1230 1291390 PCOR PREF 3A 1065 1070 1065 1065 1065 1065 130 138450 PCOR PREF 3B SMC PREF 2C 77.15 78 78.75 78.75 77 78 23250 1812925 75.7 75.95 75.65 75.7 75.65 75.7 10000 756880 SMC PREF 2E 76.5 78 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 650 49725 SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G 75.5 76.7 75.5 76.8 75.5 76.8 4200 322250 75.5 76.5 76 76 76 76 30000 2280000 SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I 75.5 78.8 77.5 78.9 77.5 78.9 21200 1672120

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 14.74 14.8 14.76 14.76 14.72 14.74 48300 711906 GMA HLDG PDR 4.9 4.95 4.83 4.95 4.83 4.95 45000 217850 9900

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.75 0.77 0.77 0.77 0.75 0.75 6000 4570

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 1.87 1.88 1.86 1.92 1.86 1.88 2598000 4915460 349210 KEPWEALTH 6.25 6.35 6.31 6.4 6.12 6.25 64900 403104 2.25 - 2 2.25 1.91 2.25 141859000 301217460 2172780 MERRYMART XURPAS 0.58 0.59 0.57 0.6 0.57 0.59 988000 573730

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 95 95.4 93 96.5 93 95 17260 1636465 1885

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ERC orders co-ops, NGCP to update power projects

T

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

he Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Tuesday directed all distribution utilities (DUs), electric cooperatives (ECs) and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to submit an updated capital expenditure (capex) program.

ERC Chairman and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera said there is a need to review and reassess their respective capex applications to include the changes in the demand profile and the effects of the current pandemic.

A letter was sent to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), NGCP and the DUs’ associations, particularly the Philippine Electric Plant Owners Association Inc. (PEPOA), Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (PHILRECA) and the National Association of General Managers of Electric Cooperative Inc. (NAGMEC).

“The Commission noted that the assumptions and forecasts used by the DUs and the NGCP for their proposed projects may need to be adjusted, including the timelines or the projects themselves, as the same may no longer be realistic under the current demand and supply scenario,” said Devanadera.

The ERC recently resolved to determine measures that will mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for all stakeholders especially the consumers. This is in keeping with the sensitivity of the challenges the global order is facing due to the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thus, the Commission directed the DUs and the NGCP to review the assumptions used in its applications

and update on the various capex projects pending before the commission.

The factors they must consider in re-assessing their capex projects include the demand forecast of the areas where the proposed projects will be implemented; timetable on the implementation of the proposed projects; and possible course of action of DUs to address these concerns.

“We expect to receive the DUs and the NGCP’s compliance to our directive within 30 days from receipt of the subject letter through email. We trust that the regulated entities will extend their usual support to the Commission by assisting us in determining the necessity and timeliness of these capex projects and its possible impact to the electricity consumers given the unprecedented situation brought about by the global pandemic,” said Devanadera.

Meralco had already reduced its network capex to P9.34 billion this year, from P17.84 billion, as various projects were stalled by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

“Because of the ECQ, the design, engineering, and construction, and even procurement of our capex project have been delayed that we had to recast our budget from P17.84 billion to P9.34 billion. This is only for the network side,” said Meralco First Vice President and Head of

MORE Power installs facility to prevent outages in Iloilo

M

ore Electric and Power Corp.

(MORE Power) moves to prevent power outage incidents in Iloilo City while a modernization program is in progress with the installation of a looping system of the 69-kilovolt (kV) sub-transmission facility.

As part of the company’s three-year modernization program, MORE Power said the looping system will provide backup power supply whenever it conducts preventive maintenance and repairs of the five substations in the city.

MORE Power Chief Operating Officer and President Roel Z. Castro explained that a loop system rings through the service area and returns to the original point. The loop is usually tied to an alternate power source. By placing switches in strategic locations, MORE Power can supply power to the customer from either direction and minimizes outages, Castro said.

The company’s modernization program is worth P1.8 billion. Part of this is the replacement of more than 130 transformers that were previously installed by Panay Electric Co. (Peco).

So far, MORE Power has replaced over 100 wooden electric poles with concrete ones.

MORE Power started its upgrade of the dilapidated facilities and equipment of the city’s distribution system as soon as it took over its operations from Peco.

Castro said unscheduled and unannounced power outages can be attributed to the combination of high pilferage and unreliability of the old equipment.

“But we assure our consumers of immediate response to these unexpected brownouts so we can hasten the restoration of supply.”

So far, MORE Power has completed the repairs of the Jaro, City Proper and La Paz substations since last month. The remaining two substations will undergo the same works in the coming weeks, added Castro.

Apart from correcting the load demand of each substation, the improvements will also prepare the distribution system for the growing demand for power in the next five to 10 years, Castro said.

MORE Power is also expecting the arrival of a 10MVA mobile substation that will be used to augment the capacity of the overloaded substations.

The old transformers that were installed by Peco have been replaced to avoid explosions that could lead to widespread and unexpected brownouts in the city, Castro said.

MORE Power is also addressing the problem of jumpers or illegal connections, which overload the distribution system. Castro said illegal connections do not just burden legitimate consumers who pay for stolen electricity by way of the so-called systems loss but it also takes toll on the system as they are never included in the demand profile of Iloilo City.

“We already streamlined the application of new connections in coordination with the local government so that more jumpers, particularly informal settlers, will be enticed to apply for connections. Aside from that, most of the jumpers found out that they will pay less for their supply because we reduced to rates to at least P9 per kilowatt-hour compared to P20 per kilowatt-hour they paid to individuals who perpetuate the illegal connections,” Castro added. Lenie Lectura

Networks Ronnie Aperocho.

PHILRECA said it will also comply with the ERC directive.

“We are confident that the ECs can comply with the request of the Commission since the ECs already came up with their respective EcRM-SP or the Electric Cooperative Risk Management and Sustainability Plan.

We believe that in preparing the EcRM-SP they already reviewed, assessed and considered the possible revisions in their capex applications,” PHILRECA General Manager and Executive Director Janeene DepayColingan said via SMS. The group likewise appealed to the ERC to “promptly act on the said capex applications” since it has significant impact on the operations of the ECs.

Power supply

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy directed all DUs and ECs to ensure that households in the provinces are getting stable and sufficient power supply as schools shift to blended learning program.

“I have given my order to all cooperatives through National Electrification Administration Administrator Edgardo R. Masongsong to

mutual funds

ensure stable supply of power in their respective franchise areas,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said.

“This directive is not only to help the students as they attend online classes but a sufficient and stable supply of electricity at this time is what businesses need as we revive the local economy.”

Cusi said his office has received reports that in the ongoing summer classes, several power interruptions were experienced in rural areas. “It was brought to my attention that some students from General Santos and North Cotabato were not able to join online summer classes and submit assignments on time due to power interruptions, and not due to Internet connectivity.”

According to a Department of Education memorandum, remedial, enrichment and advancement classes for summer 2020 started on May 11.

It included Saturday classes and will end after a six-week period.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said the utility firm will comply with the directive of the DOE. “In fact, we have already been reviewing our Distribution Development Plan for submission by the end of the month.”

June 16, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 201.83 -24.59% -10% -5.28% -19.87% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0261 -37.15% -13.4% -6.48% -25.75% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.7282 -34.43% -14.45% -7.94% -25.83% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7055 -25.92% n.a. n.a. -21.36% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6906 -22.17% n.a. n.a. -18.69% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.3395 -21.96% -7.72% -4.91% -18.56% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.685 -23.26% -10.5% n.a.

-19.75% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 78.97 -35.33% n.a. n.a. -23.57% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 40.6406 -23.58% -8.33% n.a. -20.75% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 433.24 -21.51% -7.64% -4.57% -18.68% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8857 n.a. n.a. n.a. -14.02% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0258 -23.72% -7.97% -4.06% -20.29% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 30.1797 -23.57% -7.51% -3.77% -20.36% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8022 -24.68% n.a. n.a. -21.21% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.1404 -23.14% -7.83% -3.46% -20.74% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 692.86 -22.97% -7.8% -3.64% -20.55% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6319 -32.38% -11.53% -7.74% -25.78% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.2027 -27.33% -9.07% -4.87% -23.91% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7955 -23.04% -7.94% -3.59% -20.51% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.9119 -23.16% -6.44% -3.04% -20.29% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 92.9958 -22.77% -7.31% -2.8% -20.49% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9324 -4.48% -1.85% -2.41% -9.33% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.3405 4.86% 4.91% n.a.

-2.77% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5399 -12.27% -4.98% -3.82% -1.47% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0605 -11.98% -4.64% -1.99% -5.53% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.424 -9.6% -2.67% -2.99% -7.89% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.189 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-17.29% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8429 -5.34% -1.31% -0.3% -6.12% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4762 -7.63% -2.56% -1.56% -8.26% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.5122 -8.42% -2.8% -1.72% -8.54% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9289 -10.97% -3.68% -1.38% -9.26% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2997 -15.72% -4.63% -2.61% -14.6% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.941 -8.2% n.a. n.a.

-7.35% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8498 -17.08% n.a. n.a. -14.71% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8287 -18.91% n.a. n.a. -16.56% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8111 -19.47% -5.7% -3.88% -16.79% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03837 3.42% 2.26% 1.6% 0.37% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $0.9815 1.01% 0.26% -0.26% -5.43% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.7983 2.5% 3.49% 2.99% -2.88% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1022 0.89% 1.7% n.a.

-2.36% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 364.82 4.33% 3.05% 2.55% 1.96% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9383 2.55% 0.94% 0.01% 1.91% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.185 4.61% 5.14% 5.1% 2.2% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.282 4.79% 2.69% 2.28% 2.56% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4344 5.69% 3.17% 1.84% 3.19% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.553 9.9% 3.73% 4.12% 2.43% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.2884 6.44% 3.88% 2.11% 2.52% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9283 7.21% 4.02% 2.36% 3.7% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0239 9.3% 3.31% 1.75% 6.18% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1603 7.4% 4.65% 3.01% 2.74% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7351 6.04% 3.97% 2.48% 2% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $472.58 3.38% 2.36% 2.68% 0.93% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є215.28 -0.62% 0.54% 0.94% -2.03% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2162 3.18% 2.74% 2.54% 0.75% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0258 1.18% 1.19% 1.12% 0% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0702 -0.93% -0.33% 0.13% -2.28% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4286 4.61% 2.84% 3.02% 1.03% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0604458 2.62% 1.89% 1.85% 0.22% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1648 3.69% 1.72% 2.41% -0.33% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 127.92 3.81% 3.15% 2.4% 1.7% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0404 2.63% n.a. n.a.

1.37% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.282 3.22% 3.03% 2.57% 1.38% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0443 1.67% n.a. n.a.

0.68% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.92 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-7.07%

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."

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Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

GSIS starts releasing benefits to families of govt frontliners who died of Covid-19

I

N a letter to President Duterte, Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) President and General Manager Rolando Ledesma Macasaet reported that the state pension agency has already released the life insurance proceeds plus the additional P500,000 benefit to families of four government frontliners who succumbed to Covid-19.

Macasaet said in his report that the GSIS recently released a total of P7.8 million in life insurance benefits plus an additional P2 million in benefits to legal heirs of the government medical frontliners who died of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid-19). He added the agency is “currently in the process of validating the insurance claims of 18 other claimant-families.”

In his letter, Macasaet also assured the executive branch that GSIS will accelerate the insurance claims process for the families of other Covid-19 victims among government frontliners.

“Once we have all the documentary requirements, we commit and assure that GSIS will release their insurance checks within two work days,” he said.

Macasaet added that the GSIS is “constantly coordinating” with the Department of Health (DOH) to assist the claimants in obtaining the required documents to facilitate

the release of their insurance claims within two days.

As GSIS members, all medical frontliners in government are covered by the compulsory life insurance program of GSIS. In addition to this, GSIS will grant an additional P500,000 to families of public health frontliners who died after treating or serving patients who are infected by the virus.

Macasaet said the GSIS “automatically covers all frontliners in government who are providing assistance to Covid-19 patients at DOH; treatment and rehabilitation centers; and medical centers and hospitals including those administered by local government units and state universities and colleges.”

He added that the beneficiaries are not limited to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers but also extends to medical technologists and technicians, janitors, security guards, ambulance drivers and the like – “as long as they can prove that their job involved regular exposure to Covid-positive patients.”

The BFF beneficiaries stand to receive an average of more than P1 million each, including their GSIS regular life insurance.

“This is the least that we can do to show our appreciation to our modern-day heroes who risked their lives in the service of our nation,” Macasaet said.

Islamic finance sector seen sluggish until 2021

T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

BANK BACKS VICO

Tenders for 35-day T-bills hit nearly double the offer

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T

he Bureau of the Treasury fully awarded P15 billion in 35-day Treasury bills (Tbills) on Tuesday’s auction despite the security capping at a higher average rate.

The auction was still oversubscribed by 1.5x as tenders reached P22.815 billion, above the P15-billion offering.

However, the Treasury did not open the tap facility window for an additional offering of the tenor.

The 35-day T-bills fetched a higher average rate at 2.101 percent, up by 3.6 basis points from 2.065 percent previously.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the increase in the average rates can be attributed to banks wanting to be within the inflationforecast ecosystem.

On Monday, the Treasury raised an additional P7.71 billion in 364day T-bills through the tap facility auction, which was opened to all 11 government securities eligible dealers-market makers.

This is on top of the P20 billion

it raised earlier on the same day via auctioning off 91-day, 182-day and 364-day T-bills.

For this week, the Treasury has raised P42.71 billion in T-bills, including those from the Monday’s tap facility auction.

In a related development, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on Tuesday told reporters that the government is still maintaining the 70-to-30 borrowing mix ratio for this year in favor of domestic sources despite measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to stall the economy.

Dominguez added the Philippines getting a credit rating upgrade to A- from the Japan Credit Rating Agency will help in the terms and cost of financing of the so-called “Samurai” bonds, which the Philippines plans to issue in the second half of this year.

“The timely upgrade …affects not only the government bonds or issues but it will also open the eyes of foreigners to the possibility of making foreign investments, either through direct investments or through buying our bonds, more likely,” Dominguez said.

@Tyronepiad

he Islamic finance industry would slow down until next year as the coronavirus pandemic prompts an economic slump, S&P Global Ratings said.

“The significant slowdown of core Islamic finance economies in 2020, because of measures implemented by various governments to contain the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, and the expected mild recovery in 2021, explain our expectations,” Mohamed Damak, S&P Global Ratings head of Islamic finance said.

Governments across the globe have been imposing lockdowns and banning travels in a bid to contain the virus. However, these measures have induced massive economic downturn in the world as businesses scaled down operations, closed tem-

porarily or shut down permanently.

To recall, S&P said that the sector had a strong performance in 2019 on the back of a robust sukuk market.

Sukuk is an Islamic financial instrument that complies with Islamic religious law. Proceeds from the issuance of sukuk are allocated for asset acquisition, wherein each investor holds partial ownership.

While the industry has long-term potential yet to be unlocked, the credit-rating agency said that sukuk issuance was time-consuming and deemed more complicated than conventional instruments.

“Furthermore, industry players

Deutsche Bank expects further cuts in policy rates to boost economy

D

This photo courtesy of Standard Chartered Bank shows Mayor Vico Sotto (center), SCB Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing Mai Sangalang (second from left), Philippine Business for Social Progress Program Officer Mareon Villegas and other bank officers Jazmine Garcia and Rainier Cruz. The SCB recently said it donated to Pasig City about 1,000 reusable personal protective equipment sets and more than 27,000 pieces of nitrile gloves for health workers. SCB said these PPEs will be distributed to the Pasig City General Hospital, Rizal Medical Center, Tricity Medical Center and Pasig City Health Department for the city’s quarantine facilities.

The PPE sets include washable coveralls, foot covers and face shields to help protect their medical staff from risk of Covid infection. To note, SCB won a total of 10 Sub-Custodian Bank awards including Best Sub-Custodian Bank in the Philippines at the Global Finance Sub-Custodian Bank Awards 2020. This is the second consecutive year that SCB Philippines received the recognition.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020 B3

eutsche Bank AG expects monetary authorities to bring interest rates down to 2.25 percent as doing so would aid the sluggish economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In its recently published research, the multinational investment bank and financial services company’s macroeconomics team for Asia said it was expecting two more 25-basis point (bp) policy rate cuts, or 50 bps in total, this month and in August.

“With the economy contracting much more than the government expected, and inflation at the bottom of the central bank’s target band– and the currency strengthening–we think there is still more room for BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] to cut rates,” the bank said.

The Monetary Board is set to decide on the direction of key policy rate on June 25.

In a recent Bloomberg interview, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno has said he was “happy” with the current policy rate, noting that further steps are hinging on the economic conditions. Deutsche noted that the Central Bank has trimmed the policy rates by a total of 125 bps already, the highest among the interest rate cuts in east Asia. The overnight reverse repurchase facility currently stands at 2.75 percent.

This is on top of the other relief measures including the 200-bp cut on banks’ reserve requirement and bond acquisitions to fuel the liquidity in the market. Diokno earlier said the Central Bank was willing to cut the reserve requirement further if

needed as well.

Supporting the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the BSP also allowed the banks to consider loans provided to MSMEs as part of reserve requirements.

Earlier, RCBC Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort and ING Bank Manila Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said they were expecting a 25-bp cut in the coming monetary policy meeting this month.

Ricafort said that the slight easing in inflation could “still provide some leeway and/or flexibility to cut the local policy rates on the next monetary policy-setting meeting.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that inflation slowed to 2.1 percent in May, down from 2.2 percent a month ago and 3.2 percent a year earlier. The inflation averaged at 2.5 percent as of end-May. Apart from lower inflation, Mapa said that the policy rate cut could be triggered by the need to provide additional stimulus to an economy nearing a recession, especially after the unemployment rate escalated dramatically amid the pandemic.

At least 5 million Filipinos lost their jobs in April following the pandemic-induced lockdown in several parts of the country, according to PSA. This translates to 17.7-percent growth in unemployment yearon-year.

UnionBank Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, meanwhile, shared that the “current policy rates are already appropriate and the BSP is watching other metrics aside from inflation.” Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

have been discussing the potential use of social instruments to help companies and individuals economically affected by the pandemic,” S&P said.

“With the right coordination between different Islamic finance stakeholders, we believe the industry could create new avenues of sustainable growth that serve the markets,” Damak added.

Earlier this year, Moody’s Investors Service said that the Philippines might potentially venture to sukuk issuance, especially after passing an Islamic finance and banking law.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) signed Circulars 1069 and 1070—which cover the establishment of Islamic banks and approval of the Shariah Governance Framework—before 2019 ended to ensure compliance to banking requirements.

Republic Act 11439 (“An Act Providing for the Regulation and Organization of Islamic Banks”) was signed into law in August last year, which the BSP welcomed as potentially boosting Islamic financing and

inclusive growth.

Moody’s said that proceeds could fill in the financing needs of the country for its ambitious infrastructure drive. The massive “Build, Build, Build” program of the government, for one, is expected to improve the country’s infrastructure and connectivity while shoring up the construction industry with higher spending and more job opportunities.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno earlier said that three conventional banks expressed interest in establishing Islamic banking units.

While the Central Bank did not provide names, it noted that these were two local banks and one foreign bank.

The potential market for Islamic financial instruments is seen to be dominated by Moslems who accounts for around 10 percent of the country’s population.

Global sukuk issuance might rise to $75 billion in 2020 from $71 billion last year, Moody’s Senior Vice President Christian de Guzman said.

The bulk of the issuance is expected to come from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey.

ICTSI raises $400 million from sale of unsecured senior notes offshore

P

ort operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) on Tuesday said it has raised some $400-million 10year unsecured senior notes in the offshore market, the first local company to do so against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is the first time that the port operator tapped the offshore market in two years since the issuance of perpetual bonds in 2018.

Proceeds of the notes issuance will be used to refinance and extend the maturity of ICTSI’s liabilities and for general corporate purposes.

“The transaction furthers ICTSI’s prudent balance sheet management and capital structure optimization initiatives in response to the economic disruption” due to state measures to contain the Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, the company said. The notes were priced with a fixed coupon of 4.75 percent per year, payable on a semi-annual basis and a price of 99.607 to yield 4.8 percent per year.

“Upon issuance, the notes will constitute direct, unconditional, unsubordinated and unsecured obligations of the issuer, pari passu without any preference among themselves and with all other outstanding unsecured and unsubordinated obligations of the issuer,” it said.

The offering attracted strong demand from a wide array of accounts and pricing was compressed 45 basis points from initial marketing to final pricing levels.

Demand allocable at final pricing was in excess of $1.85 billion from over 111 accounts, equivalent to order-book oversubscription of over 4.6 times.

The notes were distributed with fund managers and asset managers having allocated approximately 65 percent of the offering, 21 percent to banks and private banks and 14 percent to insurance and pension funds. By geography, investors in Asia took 80 percent of the offering, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at 19 percent and offshore U.S. 1 percent.

ICTSI said it moved swiftly to capitalize on the conducive market backdrop and pent-up investor demand to be the first Philippine corporate issuer to access the international bond markets following the volatility from the covid-19 pandemic and the drop in oil prices.

Upon issuance, the notes will also be the first corporate bond offering from the Philippines to feature investment grade terms with no financial or leverage covenants.

“This transaction is in line with our focus on prudent balance sheet management, which allows us to sustainably execute on our business strategies and increase ICTSI’s resilience particularly in this time of economic disruption,” ICTSI’s Senior Vice President and CFO Rafael D. Consing Jr., said.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan acted as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the offering. VG Cabuag

Firms partner to boost online consumer lending

O

nline payment solution provider Dragonpay Corp. and First Digital Finance Corp. announced last Tuesday a joint project allowing e-commerce platforms to ease financing at the point-of-sale.

Providing credit line for online consumers without debit or credit card via propriety algorithm, FDFC’s platform is incorporated into the merchant’s checkout with a single integration within the alternative payment system of Dragonpay.

“We are excited to launch this payment solution with Dragonpay and combine our ecommerce offerings into

a single solution,”FDFC President Georg Steiger said. “Our joint payment offering will enhance both the merchant and end-customer experiences especially during this difficult period as the pandemic affects consumers’ ability to pay upfront.”

FDFC’s platform called “BillEase” is offering on-demand credit through participating merchants and preventing fraud and credit risks, according to Steiger.

The executive assures that activation for merchants already using Dragonpay can be done in a few minutes and “seamless.”

“This single platform solution is focused on boosting average order value, increasing conversions and fuel growth for merchants with no inclusive payment solution,” Steiger said.

Dragonpay President Robertson Chiang, meanwhile, said that the partnership with FDFC would “give shoppers the exact solution which enables them to enjoy a more inclusive payment alternative at their own terms.”

In April, FDFC and Lazada launched a financial-relief program to support online merchants during this pandemic.

It is aimed at providing working capital support to the affected micro, small,

and medium enterprises via the fintech platform.

The loans to be applied by online merchants seeking additional capital will be based on their sales record before the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

The said program is open to Lazada sellers who have been in operations for at least six months on the platform.

Loans, with interest priced between 2 percent and 3.5 percent, are processed within one banking day. Borrowers have an extra one-month grace period for payment deadline under the program.

Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

B4

Show BusinessMirror

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

z

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Venus Williams, 40; Will Forte, 50; Greg Kinnear, 57; Barry Manilow, 77.

Happy Birthday: Make your intentions clear, and hold yourself responsible for any error made this year.

Leave nothing to chance or unfinished. Distance yourself from anyone who doesn’t share your beliefs or interests. Direct passage to your goal will save you time, money and regret. Choose your friends and associates wisely, and share only what’s necessary. Your lucky numbers are 8, 11, 20, 27, 31, 34, 46.

NO PHYSICAL DISTANCING

SO this older star is going to be formally signed up by a network. Given the present health situation globally, it was assumed the signing would be done symbolically online. But, no, the older star wanted a grand physical signing with top network executives present. Perhaps the older star does not realize that the executives can come to the signing riding their cars, stay for five minutes and leave but it’s the staff that has to put everything together. It’s a surprise that at a time like this, some people can be this insensitive.

The older star did not even take into consideration the prospect of social distancing because of Covid-19.

The star reportedly even wants members of the press present during the event.

IT’S GOODBYE

NOBODY believed this relationship would last, except the couple. The girl, an actress, thought the guy, who has been in many long-term relationships, was the love of her life. Well, it turns out he wasn’t. The controversial couple has reportedly broken up, mainly because the girl wants a commitment (meaning marriage) while the guy isn’t very sure. So where did they go wrong? The guy refused to commit because he was reportedly skeptical about the girl’s past. The girl’s past was questionable to him but then she isn’t a teenager. She’s been in relationships. The guy himself has been in several relationships. Why is he holding the girl to certain standards? We know he hasn’t exactly been a saint and the only reason why he’s still around is because of his family’s connections.

SHE CHEATED

THE celebrated beauty’s new romance with an actor is not really new, if rumors are to be believed. She and the actor have allegedly been seeing each other even before she and her longtime boyfriend split due to certain differences. One of these differences is reportedly money. Before the celebrated beauty made it big, she was a struggling model and her boyfriend helped her a lot financially. He was very active and he had work, so it was natural that he would pay for some of her bills and, at some point, even give her spending money. When she became popular, she met the actor, who has always been her crush, and they fell in love.

They had to hide the fact that they were dating for over a year because they didn’t want people to figure out things. Of course, people eventually did.

ENHANCED

SO there’s a new sexy star who’s with a known talent agency and this girl is making waves. A big star online, the girl is known for her fair skin, beautiful face and sexy body. But already, pictures of her “old” face and body have surfaced, leading people to conclude that she is manufactured, so to speak.

There’s really nothing wrong with that. Another starlet, who also rose to fame because of her sexy body, has obviously had enhancements done. So many celebrities have, including a starlet who was supposed to take on a legendary role. Somehow pictures of her without the enhancements have surfaced and her studio is now having hesitations, aside from them having problems of their own.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Put your physical well-being first. If you need rest, take a nap. If you are feeling unfit, start an exercise routine.

If you want to lift your spirits, pamper yourself. Your happiness is your responsibility. If you want to change, take the initiative. HHH

b

Kelly Clarkson and her husband Brandon Blackstock at the 60th annual Grammy Awards in New York in 2018.

Kelly Clarkson seeks divorce from husband of nearly 7 years

L

OS ANGELES—Kelly Clarkson has filed for divorce from her husband of nearly seven years, Brandon Blackstock.

The singer, talk show host and judge on The Voice filed court papers to end the marriage under her married name Kelly Blackstock on June 4 in Los Angeles. The 38-year-old Clarkson and the 43-yearold Blackstock have a five-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.

Clarkson cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split and requested that she not be

required to pay Blackstock spousal support.

The filing asks that the singer’s legal last name be restored to Clarkson and it indicates that the couple had a prenuptial agreement. The two wed in October 2013 in the first marriage for Clarkson and the second for Blackstock. Blackstock, a talent manager who is the son of Clarkson’s former manager, has two children from his first marriage.

Messages seeking comment from the couple’s representatives on Thursday were not immediately returned. AP

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Think, prepare and pursue your plans. A change will give you the boost you need to make things happen. Set up a video conference with people who can offer good advice and experience to help you excel. HHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Take your time, and go over every detail before you make a move.

Question anything or anyone who doesn’t seem right. It’s better to play it safe and get things right the first time. Someone will disappoint you if you are too revealing. HHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Embrace change, and make it work for you. Look for a way to make your surroundings more appealing, entertaining and clear. Designate a space for self-improvement, a home spa, a workout area or a baking nook—whatever makes you happy. HHHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Don’t leap into something too quickly. Give yourself a chance to crunch the numbers and determine if what someone is trying to persuade you to do is in your best interest. Don’t rush; time is on your side. HH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take a virtual tour to a place that intrigues you. It will prompt you to order in from a restaurant that offers traditional cuisine from that area of the world. A cultural experience will enhance your life and help you broaden your outlook. HHHHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): It’s difficult to abide by rules that don’t fit your personality. Be creative, and you’ll discover new ways to enjoy spending more time at home. Take an online course that will update your skills or teach you something new.

HHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Express your opinions. Take part in finding solutions and making a difference. A change of heart will help you make adjustments to the way you do things.

Don’t trust someone with your possessions, assets or passwords. HHH

GLAIZA DE CASTRO

ricky davao

tom rodriguez

divine tetay

rhian ramos

GMA stars talk about portraying LGBTQ characters GMA Artist Center just launched a new show, titled How Do You Feel?: Usapang Artista.

Shown on GMA Artist Center’s YouTube channel and GMA Network’s Facebook page every Saturday night at 8 pm, it is produced by acting coach Ana Feleo and Artist Center talents Chynna Ortaleza, Benjamin Alves and Mikoy Morales.

The show is a roundtable discussion where GMA actors exchange thoughts about acting and the entertainment industry including their approach toward their craft, forms of expression, innovative improvisations, and experiences in show business.

For the first episode on June 6, Artist Center senior actors Benjamin and Chynna were part of the roundtable discussion, with award-winning actor Gabby Eigenmann as special guest, while up-andcoming artists Elle Villanueva, Sophia Senoron and

Psalms David also joined the discussion.

Ana Feleo facilitated the discussion.

In celebration of Pride Month this June, the next two episodes of the show gather actors who have portrayed LGBTQ characters onscreen: My Husband’s Lover star Tom Rodriguez, The Rich Man’s Daughter lead actresses Glaiza de Castro and Rhian Ramos, comedian Divine Tetay, and esteemed director and Fuccbois star Ricky Davao.

Facilitated by Chynna, who also played a lesbian character on The Rich Man’s Daughter, the latest episode of How Do You Feel?: Usapang Artista will surely be a colorful discussion as the guests talk about the actors’ process to open people’s eyes to the beauty of their preparation and experiences.

The first part of this Pride Month special aired on June 13 while the second part will air on June 20, also at 8 pm.

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You’ll face opposition if you don’t abide by the rules.

Review suggestions made by those setting the regulations, and you’ll find a way to make the most with what you are allowed to pursue. HHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Consider ways to make your environment user-friendly. Enhance your surroundings, add to your entertainment center or come up with novel ways to spend time with those who live with you. HHHHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): An honest approach regarding the way you look or feel about yourself will lead to physical and financial adjustments that are geared toward a better you and a brighter future. Set up a routine that helps push you toward a healthier lifestyle. HH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Reinvent how you use your skills, knowledge and experience to serve the current job trends. Making yourself readily available to help those in need will help you maintain a healthy cash flow. The change will turn out to be life altering and profitable. HHHH Birthday Baby: You are intense, conscientious and determined.

You are creative and excitable.

‘comparatively speaking’ by paul coulter The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 It becomes another name when surrounded by “H” and “N” 5 Bookie’s quote 9 Waxing crescent, e.g., for the moon 14 Water barrier at a zoo 15 Nerd 16 Speaking tour events 17 “Money ___ everything” 18 Bank (on) 19 Dark 20 Liquid that’s more low-calorie?

23 One may catch a moray 24 Touch on the shoulder 25 Window ledge 29 Captured again 32 Pinewood derby org.

34 Run out of power 35 ___ bond 37 Fancy parties 39 Movie preview that’s more amusingly exaggerated?

43 Confused fight 44 A bit, colloquially 45 Bonanza find

46 Average name?

49 Nobel-winning chancellor Willy 52 A single time 54 Nonkosher meat 56 Classic sporty Ford, briefly 58 Casino worker who’s more tapped out?

62 Banned 65 Frozen beverage brand 66 Adjust, as a viola 67 “Ants in one’s pants” or “bee in one’s bonnet” 68 Final Four org.

69 Blues singer James 70 “Social contract” philosopher John 71 Teri of Mr. Mom 72 Couch cushion line DOWN 1 Writer Zola 2 More optimistic 3 Completely botch 4 Back then 5 No gentle giant 6 Animal on a XING sign 7 Dutch pottery city

8 First US space station 9 Spitting sound 10 Big and little clock parts 11 The whole shebang 12 Make tracks?

13 “Errare humanum ___” 21 Marched 22 Good periods 26 Doing nothing 27 “You’re not telling the truth!”

28 Arles article 30 Number of syllables in this answer 31 White wine aperitif 33 Perturb 36 Pennies: Abbr.

38 Best Actor nominee for The Fixer 39 Large Hadron Collider acronym 40 A Star Is Born actor Baldwin 41 Burgle 42 Pirate’s exclamation 43 Dairy farm sound 47 “Lookie here!”

48 Rousing 50 Thin with water 51 31-ounce Starbucks size

53 Kindle download 55 Big drawer?

57 It’s often hard to remember 59 Colosseum setting 60 Backside 61 “___ me!” (“Goodness!”)

62 As late as, for short 63 Ruckus 64 Cristal pen maker Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Image BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Art Step in the Right Direction by the Shang Community features above designs created by Haylin, Juan Paolo Nacar, Karen Gomez, Wyna Dizon, Patrick Tiongson and Karla Mae Muega.

Eye-catching safety stickers welcome back shoppers WITH its recent reopening, Shangri-La Plaza involved its community in designing safety-distancing markers as part of the measures that keep the mall a safe environment for returning shoppers.

The initiative invited mall guests to come up with their own designs for social distancing stickers, which would be applied to floors and elevators. Since the announcement of Art Step in the Right Direction in its social-media pages, Shangri-La Plaza has collected several hand-drawn and digitally made designs from Shang Community members of different ages. Six of the creations can now be seen and experienced around the mall by visitors.

Aside from the social distancing markers, ShangriLa Plaza pioneered putting together an experienced and first aid-trained Emergency Response Group as part of its safety protocols, making regular rounds in its premises. The mall continuously conducts mandatory temperature checks at all entrances, has made automatic hand sanitizer dispensers available at the entrances, restrooms, and other key areas, and performs regular rigorous sanitation. All mall guests and employees are required to wear a face mask to enter and throughout their stay.

Shangri-La Plaza resumed operations with slightly reduced business hours, from 11 am to 7 pm daily.

Aside from supermarkets and essential stores, retail outlets, including fashion, beauty and home brands, are already open. More information is available at www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficial.

Belmont, Savoy hotels unveil Safe Stay campaign

HOME-GROWN Megaworld properties Belmont Hotel Manila and Savoy Hotel Manila gear with up for the “new normal” regime in the hospitality industry as they embark on a world-class health and safety campaign for guests.

Dubbed “#SafeStay...We Care,” the program is a collaboration with its longtime partner Diversey Philippines in sanitation to assure guests of a safe stay with its stringent health measures.

“Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 health crisis in these uncertain times, the team, through careful planning and coordination, has commenced a series of initiatives to ensure that we are ready for the ‘new norm’ and other government-mandated protocols once we have resumed normal operations,” says Savoy and Belmont area general manager Avinash Menon. The safety campaign has five components—Safe Welcome, Safe Space, Safe Team, Safe Eats, and Safe Sleep—to ensure guests’ welfare from arrival to departure.

On top of the common thermal scanning, physical distancing and wearing of face mask, key protocols include luggage sanitation check, regular disinfection of guest rooms and high-frequency touchpoints, public areas and facilities, and 24-hour in-house clinic, and thorough disinfection of bed linens and towels during laundry, among others.

In addition, the hotel team members will be wearing personal protective equipment, masks and hand gloves to observe strict hygiene, and Grab ‘N Go concepts and limited in-room dining.

Both located at the Newport City across the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City, Savoy is an 11-story, 684-room airport hotel and recipient of the Best New Hotel TripZilla Excellence Awards in 2018.

The 10-storey, 470-room Belmont is recipient of The World Luxury Hotel Awards in 2019 and the Airport Hotel of the Year by the London-based Travel and Hospitality Awards in 2017.

More information is available at www. belmonthotelmanila.com or www.savoyhotelmanila.com.ph.

Keep rowing together I

F you think motivating your team while they are in the office is a challenge, what more when the majority of the work force is working from home? I imagine it might feel like you are part of a rowing boat and you are the only one paddling hard while the rest are hardly doing so. When this happens, how do you rally your team when everyone is distracted by the waves of uncertainty threatening to engulf the boat you are trying hard to steer?

Simon Sinek, a popular motivational speaker, once said: “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” This holds the key to ensuring people stay and exert the necessary discretionary effort when everything is chaotic and seemingly uncertain. When leaders invest in what their teams value and what keeps their team motivated, it becomes easier to unite them when needed. This is what is meant by engagement—when your team does not have to be told to row but take it upon themselves to do so not only because they need to but because they want to.

People become engaged when they find meaning in what they do, and when they are valued as an integral part of the team and ultimately the organization.

When your team has a clear direction on where the team and the organization is headed, it becomes easier for them to contribute. And while profit may be the primary consideration of companies, your role as a leader is to invest in people and how they grow as a person and as a professional. And while your team understands the company exists for profit, they also need to understand that you have their best interest at heart. Some employees express their discontent explicitly by complaining, while others do so by just walking out, or, worse, joining your competitor.

A common indicator of engagement is when your team is physically present and you can see them exerting their entire self onto the task. But when your entire team works at home, that becomes an issue. It then becomes incumbent upon you as their leader to make sure everybody understands what they need to do and deliver as expected. Timelines need to be clear and your team needs to understand how work is distributed, so team members do not feel there is more work for some than others. Take the time to plan out workloads and ensure everybody

New working conditions need new ways of working. And if you have not invested so much time in getting to know your team, it is never too late. As a leader, your team looks to you to navigate the rough waters. In times of calm, you need to invest in holding their hand so when you encounter turbulent waters, you can focus on steering the boat and rallying them to look ahead. Because when stormy weather like this pandemic endangers your team’s boat, your team needs to understand that the only way they can get out of it is by rowing together. knows what they need to do, and you address any issues which could derail the completion of their work. They need to understand that their actions affect other team members. Adjust the workload as needed by taking into consideration special needs.

And just like any relationship, the more you know about your team members, the easier it is for you to push or pull as needed.

Understand where your team is coming from by listening and being patient. If you are not getting the results you expect, try looking at what you said and how you said it. Communication is mostly nonverbal and communicating with team members you cannot see face to face can lend to missed communication cues which would normally not happen when in faceto-face situations. Just like facial expressions and body language convey meaning, provide as many context cues in the way you write down and give instructions so these become less prone to misinterpretation, especially in e-mails and short messages.

Your goal is to be understood so you need to communicate at the level where they can understand you. When you are understood properly, your team can execute what you want them to accomplish. If they constantly miss the mark, reflect on how you communicate and look for the most effective way to get your message across.

During team meetings, make sure you do not move on to the next topic without giving your team an opportunity to clarify or ask questions. This is one way to ensure that at the end of the meeting, people understand what they need to do and how their work contributes to the whole team.

Since your team does not meet often and there are less interactions in a work-from-home situation, encourage your team to talk to one another and even encourage collaboration by pairing your team or asking team members to work on one project at

a time. This will provide a venue for your team to interact more and get to know other members of the team. Set a regular time for catch-up for the whole team and also for individual members—especially those who need it the most so you can maximize what they can bring to the table. This will also give your team the opportunity to air their concerns without fear of being ridiculed by other team members.

And when they need to work on certain aspects of what they need to accomplish, provide all available opportunities for them to grow. As their leader, you need to provide the necessary support when trusting them to complete a project, or coach when needed.

Follow the 70-20-10 principle in training your team— people learn 70 percent more from experience, 20 percent more from others, and 10 percent from formal training. As the leader, you manage that environment of learning in your team. While online training provides the foundation, your team needs to apply what they have learned so that what they have learned will be retained. This means providing venues for team members to interact and learn from each other.

You can have team members do a short presentation of challenges they have encountered in their work and how they overcame them. This will provide a venue for sharing ideas and tightening processes to make your work faster and easier.

New working conditions need new ways of working. And if you have not invested so much time in getting to know your team, it is never too late. As a leader, your team looks to you to navigate the rough waters. In times of calm, you need to invest in holding their hand so when you encounter turbulent waters, you can focus on steering the boat and rallying them to look ahead. Because when stormy weather like this pandemic endangers your team’s boat, your team needs to understand that the only way they can get out of it is by rowing together. n

Brooks Brothers joins list of faded luxury facing bankruptcy

By Lauren Coleman-Lochner & Eliza Ronalds-Hannon Bloomberg News ANOTHER icon of luxury goods and Wall Street culture may be headed for the bankruptcy auction block, with Authentic Brands Group LLC and mall landlord Simon Property Group Inc. in talks to buy Brooks Brothers Inc. Authentic and Simon would team up to bid for the two-century-old chain after a potential Chapter 11 filing by the retailer, according to people with knowledge of the talks. They asked not to be identified because the process is private. Authentic has a history of buying well-known brands that have fallen on hard times, and Simon, the nation’s biggest mall landlord, has a stake in keeping its prime tenants in business. It’s been a tough few years for high-end goods, even before the Covid-19 outbreak forced Brooks Brothers to temporarily close its stores.

Retailers including Barney’s New York Inc., Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and Dean & DeLuca have gone bust as shoppers shunned malls in favor of online outlets.

“These aspirational-type brands can expect a bumpy year ahead,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Deborah Aitken, who monitors the luxury market. The Brooks Brothers brand hasn’t made “enough of a transition to leisure, street and athletic wear.”

Relaxed dress codes also hurt Brooks Brothers, with suits and ties no longer the standard even at blue-chip corporate offices, top Wall Street brokerages and whiteshoe law firms where Brooks Brothers clothing was once a status symbol. It didn’t help that the pandemic pushed would-be customers to work from home and forced the cancellation of weddings and other formal events, cutting down on demand for new clothing. Representatives for Authentic Brands and Brooks Brothers declined to comment. A representative for Simon didn’t immediately

comment. Authentic and Simon have teamed up before on similar deals to rescue Forever 21 Inc. and Aeropostale Inc. On its own, Authentic bought Barneys New York Inc. out of bankruptcy. Mall operators like Simon, meanwhile, have been stepping up their involvement following a wave of store closings and bankruptcies. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. created a $5 billion fund this year to buy stakes in retailers.

Brooks Brothers dates to 1818, when it opened its first store in downtown Manhattan, not far from what is now the city’s financial center.

Its suits became the uniform of the Wall Street macher, but as it expanded, it opened more stores selling lowerpriced goods in malls and on Main Streets, some of which are dragging on its performance now.

British merchant Marks & Spencer bought the company in 1988, then sold it to billionaire Claudio del Vecchio in a deal completed in 2002.

B5

B6 Wednesday, June 17, 2020

SSS opens COVID-19 calamity loan assistance program; applications to be accepted online

The Philippine Rowing Association starts mission possible

The Philippine Rowing Team with Coaches Nicanor Jasmin, Maria Emforneya, Edgardo Maerina, and Benjamin Tolentino Jr. at their training facility in Quezon City.

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HE Philippine Olympic Committee continues to bring pride to the country as the Philippine Rowing team brought home numerous medals won across different tournaments. Just recently, the members of the Philippine Rowing Association brought home one gold medal, two silver medals, and one bronze medal competing at the 2019 Asian Rowing Coastal Championships in Thailand. They also bagged three gold medals during the 30th SEA Games.

Armed with these achievements, the team is now working on bringing more attention to the sport by making it accessible and promoting it in schools and provinces all over the country. This is especially challenging due to the strict qualifications to be a part of the Philippine Rowing Association. Part of these include a height requirement of at least 5’6 for girls or at least 5’11 for guys, and training three times a day from Monday to Sunday. The team

is hoping to recruit more members in time for the 31st SEA Games.

The coaches originally started with different sports but eventually developed their passion for rowing due to the practice and level of discipline that it builds up in the athlete. The sport easily allows individual training, and provides whole body workout while enjoying nature. For the athletes, challenging oneself and setting progress goals are a main motivation.

On starting their impossible, the coaches and athletes gave inspiring and heartfelt advice which further shows their passion for the sport: "Whoever has a dream, if they are working hard, they should work harder to achieve it," said Cris Nievarez, 30th SEA Games Gold Medalist for lightweight men’s single sculls.

“Keep on going to pursue your goals.

For us, the impossible happened during the

SEA Games because we thought it was impossible to achieve Gold. Even though we were thinking it was impossible during our training, we focused on our goals and we made it possible," said Melcah Caballero, 30th SEA Games Gold Medalist for women’s singles sculls and women’s doubles sculls.

“Continue dreaming… just love what you’re doing and keep going to achieve your goal. Dreams are for everyone, not just for the rich or for the poor. Some of our fellow men who are less fortunate but have a lot of dreams garner success or improve themselves through their hard work," Coach Nicanor Jasmin shared.

While training is important, the team’s camaraderie is important too. Last February, the team headed to Baguio for their team building activities, where the team bonded and strengthened the team’s dynamic while still incorporating a few training routines as they enjoyed the local scenery of Baguio. The Philippine Rowing Association is one of the country’s teams who are using the 29-seater Coaster turned over by Toyota Motor Philippines to the Philippine Olympic Committee last December 2019. This transportation support is part of TMP’s efforts to help Philippine national athletes reach their fullest potential through mobility.

POC President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said “This is a big help to Philippine sports, especially to our athletes, coaches and officials. It offers mobility, convenience and comfort especially when commute is difficult."

Cargill PH to help ensure food security amidst the pandemic

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HE COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it significant changes to the market and the food supply chain. Many farmers and other food producers are also being adversely affected as they continue to experience challenges firsthand.

With governments continuing to find ways to address the issues brought about by the pandemic, Cargill Philippines, the local subsidiary of the global food and agriculture company, has remained in operation to help ensure food production and supply in the country.

“We recognize the role we play in food security, and at the onset of this crisis, we knew we could not simply stop operations especially at a time like this.

Equally important, we value our employees and keep their personal safety and livelihood as our top priority.

Comprehensive measures have been taken to ensure their safety in and out of the workplaces,” said Sonny Catacutan, President and CEO of Cargill Philippines.

Cargill Philippines operates five business units across the country, including poultry meat production, animal nutrition, and grains and oils. Across its operations, Cargill Philippines has applied strict precautionary measures including work from home arrangements, quarantine measures, rotating skeletal workforces, providing disinfection and sanitary kits for all locations, as well as equipping employees with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

In Sto. Tomas, Batangas, where the company’s poultry meat production plant, C-Joy, is operating, the company continues to produce at levels consistent with market demand, providing shuttle services and on-site accommodations to its employees. While keeping its commitment to institutional markets, Cargill PH has also entered the retail space and stretches its service to commercial outlets and grocery stores to make its products available to more consumers in need.

In addition to supporting customers on meeting market needs, Cargill PH also worked very closely with other vital parts of the agriculture supply chain, ranging

from coconut farmers and poultry growers to transport and logistics companies, in this difficult time. Together we help to ensure not only a resilient supply chain, but also the livelihood of people in this whole supply chain.

Cargill PH partnered with Rise Against Hunger (RAH) to distribute food packages that have benefited frontline health workers at the Philippine General Hospital, and C-Joy has provided over a half a million eggs to its employees and the Jollibee Group Foundation to benefit hospitals and communities. This came on top of the donation of over 60,000 live chickens to beneficiary families as both a means for livelihood and household nutrition.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, there are four dimensions to Food Security: Physical Availability of Food, Economic and Physical Access to Food, Food Utilization, and the Stability of

the other dimensions over time. Of these four, Cargill is most integral to the first two: Availability and Access.

“It’s critical that we keep the market open as farmers are dependent on this for their livelihood. People and animals rely on companies like ours for their food and nourishment, and availability and access are the first steps to ensure food security.

“We will continue to adapt to the changing conditions of this pandemic, and as we move towards General Community Quarantine, we are looking forward to collaborating even more with the government and other industry players to help ensure food security. Our commitment is in helping Filipinos have access to safe, nutritious and sustainable food as far as our businesses are concerned, and provide assistance where we can especially as we forge towards recovery,” Catacutan concluded.

Virgin Labfest conducts fundraising for Artists Welfare Project, Inc.

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HE Cultural Center of the Philippines, in partnership with Tanghalang Pilipino and Writer's Bloc, makes good on its promise to protect the livelihood of theater artists by pushing through with the special online edition of Virgin Labfest, the festival of untried, unstaged and untested plays.

With the theater festival underway, premiering last June 10, the three collaborators step up and conduct a fundraising activity for the benefit of ARTISTS WELFARE PROJECT, INC., which supports various projects for cultural workers and displaced artists in the country.

After watching the live online performance, you might want to share your appreciation and donate through the

KTX (Kapamilya Tickets) or Ticket2Me. Check out https://ktx.abs-cbn.com/ events/25519/lab-for-a-cause-virginlabfest-2020-kapit-fundraising/. You need to register or log in to donate. After registering, select VLF (Denomination/ Amount) and click Book Tickets, which will lead you to payment options. Follow the instructions to complete the purchase.

To donate via Ticket2Me, go to https:// ticket2me.net/e/24046/VLF2020# or download the app on Google Play or App Store. After signing up and logging in, search the VLF event at the home page and click. Click the Buy button, select the number of tickets to purchase from the dropdown list and click Proceed to check out. Review and click Let's Pay to confirm.

Select your payment option and follow the

instructions.

Or you can scan the event's QR code posted on the CCP website (www. culturalcenter.gov.ph) and it will redirect you to the Ticket2Me payment platform.

In both KTX and Ticket2Me, buying tickets denotes donating for the VLF cause. Proof of donation/purchase will be sent to your email.

The special edition of VLF will run until June 28, 2020. To watch, visit the social media pages of CCP and VLF to watch the live performances of VLF 2020: Kapit. Or you can download or visit the Vimeo app/ website to watch all recorded content and behind-the-scene footages.

For inquiries, you can email CCP Sales and Marketing Department at ccpsalesandpromo@gmail.com

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HE Social Security System (SSS) on Monday opened its Calamity Loan Assistance Program (CLAP) for its members who are affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio said the SSS estimates around 1.74 million potential member-borrowers for the program.

Depending on the average of their monthly salary credit in the last 12 months, members may apply for a loan of up to P20,000.

"We recognize that the impact of COVID-19 is greater than other calamities we have faced in the past. With that in mind, we have extended the payment term of this particular CLAP to 27 months, inclusive of a three-month moratorium period, and have lessened the interest rate to six percent per annum," Ignacio said.

Normally, CLAPs have a payment term of 24 months and an interest rate of 10 percent per annum.

Loan amortizations for COVID-19 calamity loans will begin in the fourth month from their respective approval dates. No advance interest will be charged for the said loan. A service fee of one percent of the loan amount will be charged and deducted from the loan proceeds.

Loan payments not remitted on its due date will bear a one percent penalty per month.

To qualify for the loan, a member must: have at least 36 monthly contributions, six of which should be posted within the last 12 months before the application; have a work or home

address within the Philippines as reflected in the SSS database; have not been granted any final benefit such as total permanent disability or retirement; and have no outstanding loans under the Loan Restructuring Program or previous CLAPs. Members must also be registered at the My.SSS web portal on the SSS website at www. sss.gov.ph to apply for the loan.

"The threat of COVID-19 will likely remain in the coming months. To this end, we have developed an online facility in the My.SSS web portal in which we will receive all calamity loan applications to reduce face-to-face transactions in our branches," Ignacio explained.

Documents proving that a member is a resident of a declared calamity area, which is a usual requirement for the CLAP, will no longer be required for COVID-19 calamity loans since the entire country is placed under the state of calamity.

Member-borrowers may choose to receive their loan proceeds via their respective Unified Multi-Purpose Identification cards enrolled as an ATM, Union Bank of the Philippines Quick Card, or through checks sent to their preferred mailing address.

"Through the CLAP, we are hoping to help with the financial needs of our members who may have lost their sources of income or suffered financial burden due to the COVID-19 situation," Ignacio said.

Qualified members may apply for the said CLAP until September 14, 2020.

Ending Hunger for the Hardest Hit Households in Manila

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UNGER and malnutrition affect 1 in 3 Filipinos, and the consequences of this last more than a lifetime.

Social Weather Stations (SWS)’ survey from late 2019 stated that 2.1 million families suffered from involuntary hunger, ranging from moderate to severe. These difficult circumstances have only worsened with the onset of COVID-19, trapping many families in their homes, struggling without work, unable to feed themselves.

To address the needs of the hardesthit communities and families, ASSIST has launched KuBO (Kusina ng Bayan sa Oras na pangangailangan or Community Kitchen in Times of need) as a movement to fight hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines.

The name of the project takes inspiration from the traditional Filipino stilt house or nipa hut as well as the folk song of the same name that enumerates different nutritious vegetables in the Philippines.

As part of GlobalGiving’s Accelerator Program, a fundraising opportunity for nonprofit organizations around the world, ASSIST hopes to raise Php 750,000 to build community kitchens for KuBO that will provide nourishment to an initial 500 family beneficiaries residing in the hunger and povertystricken areas of Manila on a regular basis.

Through this initial fundraising, ASSIST hopes to not only gain the support needed

to establish these community kitchens but also foster a sense of Bayanihan, a spirit of communal unity and cooperation to help our fellow Filipino. The program will eventually be scaled to sustain the community kitchens to feed these families on a regular basis, to reach communities outside of Manila, and to empower the target beneficiaries through education on food preparation, hygiene, and sanitation.

Donations can be made through the globalgiving.org/projects/assist-communitykitchens or through bank transfer (see image) that will be accepted from 08 June 2020 (9:00 PM, PH Time) until 27 June 2020 (11:59 AM, PH Time).

Sustained Flight: Eagle Cement celebrates Philippine Eagle Week in partnership with the Philippine Eagle Foundation

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AGLE Cement Corporation (EAGLE CEMENT) strengthens its partnership with the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) this Philippine Eagle Week (June 4-10) by pledging continued care and support to Viggo, the Company’s adopted Philippine Eagle within the PEF’s conservation program.

Viggo is an official ambassador for the conservation of the species. Since becoming sexually mature recently, he has successfully established a bond with his caretaker as his “human surrogate mate” through sexual imprinting. This enables PEF to collect sperm samples from Viggo for its artificial insemination breeding program. As such, Viggo plays a significant role in safeguarding the species from extinction as he is one of the PEC’s potential semen donors.

Furthermore, Viggo is the first captivebred Philippine Eagle trained to perch on a gloved fist. He continues his flight training to be one of the featured eagles in the flight

demonstrations at the PEC. EAGLE CEMENT has been providing essential benefits such as food, enclosure maintenance, and veterinarian and keeper care annually for Viggo since 2017, and will continue to do so until 2022. EAGLE CEMENT’s partnership with the PEF is among a series of initiatives that the Company is taking to advocate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Promoting biodiversity (SDG 15) [1] and leveraging the power of partnerships to generate sustainable development (SDG 17)[2] are two pillars of EAGLE CEMENT’s commitment to protect the delicate balance of our ecosystem.

“We join the PEF in calling on corporations, large and small, and regular Filipinos to support the conservation of Philippine Eagles, especially as they are still considered endangered today. As our national bird, they embody the health of our forests, the state of our natural resources, and the proud national heritage of our people. In these disruptive times, the Philippine Eagle, like the people it represents, should not only be celebrated but also protected,” said John Paul L. Ang, Eagle Cement’s President and CEO. If you wish to support the PEF amid COVID-19, you may donate to the foundation through https://www. philippineeaglefoundation.org/donate.

To learn more about Eagle Cement’s commitment to Viggo, you may also visit www.eaglecement.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

PPHI puts importance ON health and safety @brownindio

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HE onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge facing the realestate sector since the 1997 Asian financial contagion.

A worker answers a health survey before undergoing the rapid testing

Handwashing stations are provided to workers

PPHI conducted the rapid testing to 700 workers on May 18 and 19 in its five projects sites in Tanza, Cavite; Lipa, Batangas; San Pablo and Calamba, Laguna; and Pandi, Bulacan with the goal of testing 100 percent of its personnel workers, which include both construction workers and project site personnel such as security guards, maintenance, and property management staff. Meanwhile, PPHI’s contractor Megawide Construction Corp. also conducted tests to its personnel who have started returning to PPHI sites, bringing the total number to more than 800 workers.

PPHI’s five projects in north Luzon and Calabarzon covers a total of 91 hectares and 8,799 units. Moreover, Celis said the tests were conducted in these areas as part of the company’s Covid-19 prevention and control measures for all project sites, where workers are also provided with the appropriate sleeping quarters, canteen and handwashing stations. He

also pointed out orientations were given by PPHI to enforce proper hygiene, as well as social distancing.

Aside from following the guidelines issued by the national government, Celis pointed out that these measures are critical in the efforts of the local government units to contain and further prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease outside of Metro Manila.

“With the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the entire country, housing developers like us are called to embrace bayanihan and help in ways with lasting impacts. Aside from safeguarding the health of families inside our own developments, these measures of PPHI contribute and support the provinces of Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, and Bulacan in their respective efforts to protect their entire communities and industries,” added Celis, who is also the president of the National Real Estate Association.

The PPHI partnered with Centuria Medical Makati, Raya Wellness and Preventive Medicine, and Megawide Construction Corp. for this initiative.

Tagaytay Highlands–A Good Investment for your Second Home

Artist’s perspective of Horizon Terraces’ site development plan

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aking the right investments is a challenge that may stump even the most astute business people when a global crisis hits. For property seekers, however, the pandemic has underscored how real-estate investments show potential for both appreciation and cash flow.

As a tangible item, real estate allows more control than other forms of investment—more so now when volatility in the stock market is seen by wise investors as an opportunity to reassess asset allocations and consider how real estate can fit into their portfolios.

Apart from diversifying one’s portfolio, property investments protect net worth while the market goes up and down—proving that owning a second home can yield great results in the long term while ensuring a future home for legacy buyers.

With a community quarantine still in place in key areas, investors are now seeing the wisdom of buying properties located in lush mountainous areas. These locations serve as an idyllic retreat from congested and overcrowded

JLL says offices will face a ‘new normal’ in future amid Covid-19

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By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

In a study, the Lobien Realty Group pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic has delivered a lethal blow to the local real-estate industry resulting in the halting of a lot of business and economic activities in the country.

Being responsible corporate citizens, the private sector particularly real-estate developers introduced measures to uplift the well-being of their personnel, the workplace and the community.

PHirst Park Homes Inc. (PPHI), the affordable housing firm of Century Properties Group and Mitsubishi Corp., recently conducted Covid-19 rapid testing for 100 percent of its site personnel on May 18 and 19 as it resumed construction in its five project sites in Tanza, Cavite; Lipa, Batangas; San Pablo and Calamba, Laguna; and Pandi, Bulacan.

“Our policy is only those who would test negative will be allowed back to the project sites. Workers who are fit to work will stay on site for the duration of the construction and will undergo daily health monitoring and thermal scanning,” PPHI President Ricky M. Celis said in a press statement.

Celis said PPHI directly tested 700

Wednesday, June 17, 2020 B7

cities by virtue of their generous open spaces for leisurely walks, jogging, breathing in fresh air, and observing physical distancing. And if one such locale is just a road-cruise from the Metro, it also provides a convenient option for telecommuting (working from home).

Imagine doing this while staying safely cocooned in Tagaytay Highlands (www.tagaytayhighlands.com), the Philippines’s premier mountain resort exclusive for members.

More aptly defined as a weekend vacation and golfer’s haven, the Highlands is now also regarded by city dwellers as a tranquil space for productivity, a suburban community with plentiful nature scenery as its everyday backdrop.

Located 90 minutes away from the Makati Central Business District, Tagaytay Highlands is also very accessible to other nearby business centers. Its proximity to hospitals, schools, retail establishments, industrial and technological parks, churches, banks, gasoline stations, and access roads enhances its value as a prime property investment.

Property seekers will be gratified to know that to suit varying needs of different individuals and families, Tagaytay Highlands features internationally themed residences with their own world-class amenities situated on expansive lot cuts, signature log cabins, and spacious units at mid-rise condominiums—each property a dream home one can design for their retirement years and also the next generation.

With homes thoughtfully designed to take the outdoors in, Tagaytay Highlands’ residents savor year-round cool weather and stunning vistas of Taal Lake, Mount Makiling, Canlubang Valley and Laguna de Bay. Yet, amid such a breathtaking natural environment, Tagaytay Highlands’ modern conveniences allow its career-driven homeowners to continue working from their homes.

The latest addition to Tagaytay Highlands’ Horizon Community, Horizon Terraces is a good option for an investment, with its Asiancontemporary residential structures featuring picturesque views of nature.

Horizon Terraces houses Garden Suites,

with well-appointed living spaces and the conveniences of a modern condominium lifestyle. Buildings are oriented toward views of nature around: Taal Lake, Midlands Golf Course, Mount Makiling and Central Garden. A fivestory, low-density residential condominium, Garden Suites offers one- and two-bedroom units of 43 to 68 square meters, well-planned to accommodate the different needs of growing families.

Aside from Garden Suites, Horizon Terraces also offers Garden Villas—three-bedroom townhouse units of 136 to 168 square meters.

The low-density villa makes up only five to seven units per cluster for privacy and security.

Garden Villas include spacious living areas, a multifunctional den that can be converted to a separate bedroom or home office, balconies, and a terrace that leads to views of Taal Lake and Midlands Golf Course.

Residents of Horizon Terraces’ Garden Suites and Garden Villas get to enjoy playing rights to The Country Club at Tagaytay Highlands (TCCATH Share) and Tagaytay Midlands Golf Club (TMGC Share), respectively.

With it being an upscale mountain resort, township services and support facilities are readily available for every homeowner: 24hour security, 24/7 lifeline emergency medical facility, affiliations with nearby hospitals and clinics, firefighting services, helipad, chapels, Wi-Fi access, and a 7-Eleven convenience store.

With such amenities and safety measures in place, Tagaytay Highlands assures investors and property seekers that their investments are in good hands.

Tagaytay Highlands currently offers flexible payment terms to help investors parlay their wealth into real assets through property investment. Reni Salvador

S organizations prepare to return to the office amid an easing of lockdown restrictions across Asia Pacific, many are considering how their corporate real-estate portfolios should look in the “next normal.” According to a survey by JLL, more than 80 percent of its clients have started to explore alternatives to keep their business operational or carry out certain modifications to their offices.

The real-estate firm’s latest “Guide for Workplace Design Considerations” outlines some short- to long-term priorities, including space planning solutions, tech-enabled experiences and operational functions that help corporates navigate the complex reentry journey.

The guide also highlights how companies can reassess their office footprint with decentralization scenarios or redesigns that can protect their businesses and people in the long run.

“Office reentry will be a gradual and multiphased journey that is likely to evolve as economies open up again,” said Martin Hinge, executive managing director, Project & Development Services, JLL Asia Pacific. “As people head back to the office, our clients’ No. 1 priority is to ensure that they’re welcoming people back to a safe and healthy environment.”

This includes setting up private, enclosed workstations, fitting social and break-out spaces with labels or physical dividers, or even installing thermal imaging technology in the building lobby and reception areas.

“In the Philippines, we are already seeing clients considering fewer workspaces on their production floors as a means to improve social distancing.

However, in some cases, the footprint of the workstations are slightly larger and with higher partition panels,” said Calum Swinnerton, JLL Philippines’s head of

Project and Development Services.

He also cited other measures being considered to improve employee well-being, including the installation of Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV)-rated filters on heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) technology systems to help filter out viruses; ultraviolet lights to kill viruses; and automated sliding doors on main entrances to lessen contact.

“The market will evolve based on lessons learned due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Swinnerton.

JLL Philippines’s report “The implications of the Covid-19 lockdown on the Metro Manila real-estate market” identified health and wellness to emerge as a critical aspect of building and office design.

“We may see developers and occupiers place greater emphasis on building health as they incorporate health and wellness elements in their buildings and offices moving forward. In addition to applying for green certifications, the industry may now include WELL certification as part of the norm,” the report said. The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being.

Swinnerton added, “The benefits of fresh air quality to the office environment is not just becoming more publicized in terms of well-being to the occupants of the property, but also in terms of higher productivity and fewer lost work days of staff. Green building initiatives such as LEED, BERDE, and WELL, which has standards on fresh air requirements, is becoming more commonly implemented by developers for their buildings. This is also becoming a growing demand of existing and future tenants as their corporate responsibilities.”

Arthaland partners with KMC for green estate

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RTHALAND Corp. has once again partnered with KMC for its newest LEED neighborhood, Sevina Park. KMC will be the exclusive leasing agency for the top developer’s flagship mixed-use development just outside Metro Manila.

Arthaland Senior Vice President for Sales and Leasing Operations Oliver Chan, and KMC Managing Director Michael McCullough did the first-ever virtual signing via Zoom to formalize the partnership.

“KMC has been our trusted partner for previous developments and there is no doubt that they are our top pick for trailblazing estates,” Chan said regarding the partnership. “With their marketing innovation and excellent track record, we are confident that they will help in delivering success to Sevina Park.”

McCullough also proudly shared that KMC has been working with the developer for seven years and counting. He said, “We have been working together on different leasing strategies and to see those efforts pay off makes it worthwhile. Helping our clients ex-

ceed their expectations and hearing their appreciation of our efforts means a lot to us.”

Located in Sta. Rosa Laguna, the Philippines’s first and only LEED neighborhood community will be comprised of residential, student residence, office, and retail spaces. Sevina Park is currently vying for both LEED Neighborhood Development and LEED Home certifications, true to Arthaland’s pure portfolio of green and sustainable developments.

Chan said that Sevina Park aims to provide sustainable benefits by ensuring access to necessities, wideopen spaces, walkability, and bicycle friendliness. “LEED HOME will provide the homeowner with health and wellness benefits on top of energy and water savings,” he said.

McCullough also shared his enthusiasm for the new development as Arthaland continues to push the boundaries of sustainability as a LEED developer. He said, “It is always amazing to be part of their projects as they have been at the forefront of these groundbreaking sustainable estates.”

Sports BusinessMirror

B8 Wednesday, June 17, 2020

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

SEA GAMES-STYLE UAAP SEASON 83 EYED IN 2021 A

COMPACT and full-calendar University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 83 in the first quarter of 2021 is in the works.

Ateneo Athletic Director Emmanuel Fernandez, the outgoing Season 82 president, said an option to stage a Southeast Asian Games-like Season 83 was an option raised by the UAAP Board of Managing Directors.

“The SEA Games was over in two weeks, so what’s stopping the UAAP from doing the same,” Fernandez told the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum webcast on Tuesday morning.

The Philippines hosted the 30th SEA Games from November 30 to December 11 with a mammoth program of 56 sports consisting of 530 events. Competitions were held simultaneously in multiple venues.

The UAAP program, on the other hand, has far less 14 sports—basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, badminton, taekwondo, table tennis, swimming, judo, baseball, softball, athletics, fencing, tennis, chess and football. It also includes a cheerdance competition.

“If the volleyball season runs from February to May, what’s stopping the UAAP from running basketball side-by-side with the volleyball tournament? Nothing,” Fernandez added.

Plania

GenSan boxer all geared up in Vegas fight

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OXER Mike Plania had no problem at Tuesday’s official weigh in and is now geared up to become the first Filipino to figure in a major sports event amid lockdowns and quarantines wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The General Santos City native Plania tipped the scales at 119.5 pounds, while his opponent, World Boxing Organization No.1 contender Joshua Greer Jr. weighed 120.1 pounds on the eve of their nontitle fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday.

Bob Arum’s Top Rank is promoting Wednesday’s five-fight card which will be staged without fans.

“I feel really good and I will do everything to win tomorrow [Wednesday],” Plania said.

This is one step away from the world title.”

Plania boasts of a 23-win record, with 12 knockouts, against one defeat. Cuban Moro Fernandez will be at his corner.

“I dedicate this to my country, to my team, especially Sanman, and to my family, the 23-year-old Plania said.

Greer, a native of Chicago, has an impressive and almost similar impressive record of 22 wins (12 knockouts) and one loss.

He won 19 consecutive fights making him a top prospect in the weight class dominated by Filipino Johnriel Casimero and Japanese Naoya Inoue. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Tarō Yamamoto mixes politics with sports.

SEASON 82 President Emmanuel Fernandez and league Executive Director Atty. Rebo Saguisag grace Tuesday’s online forum.

Fernandez, who was joined in the forum by UAAP Executive Director Atty.

Rebo Saguisag, however, stressed all plans would depend on the progress against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’ are planning to have a full calendar, but of course, that would be dependent on the government and the member-schools themselves,” Fernandez told the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Go For Gold, Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant and

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and powered by Smart. “These are students and normalcy in the schools will take precedent.”

“Everything is on the table, we have all the plans, but we cannot assure anyone,” Saguisag said. “But we are targeting of course the best-case scenario.”

Fernandez also bared the league’s intention to formally close Season 82 with a ceremony awarding the general championship trophy to University of Santo Tomas (UST).

“It will be a closing ceremony with a season recap—the awards and the turnover,” he said. “It will be a taped two-hour show [by coveror ABS-CBN], with highlights of the events prior to the pandemic.”

But Fernandez stressed stress won’t be naming an Athlete of the Year for both genders.

“That’s because the other sports or events have been canceled when the pandemic struck and quarantines were imposed,” he said.

The UAAP canceled the second

semester events when the enhanced community quarantine was imposed last March 16 in Luzon.

Fernandez would also hand the UAAP flag to Season 83 host De La Salle in the same program.

UST would be hoisting its 44th seniors general championship trophy—the most in the league with Far Eastern University a far second with 16—and 21st in the juniors division. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

PBA FINES, SUSPENDS BALDWIN T

HE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) on Tuesday slapped the now controversial American-New Zealander Tab Baldwin a P75,000 fine and a three-game suspension for his unsavory remarks against the PBA and local coaches.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial handed the punishment a day after Baldwin tried to clear the air with league officials in his capacity as one of the assistant coaches at TNT KaTropa.

“I feel bad that this has happened and that is not my intention,” Baldwin was quoted as saying by the PBA’s official web site.

Baldwin faced an online inquiry with Marcial, deputy commissioner and operations chief Eric Castro and legal counsel Melvin Mendoza on Monday upon orders of the Commissioner’s Office.

“He apologized and said he was taken out of context,” Marcial said. “I told him this [PBA] is the propel channel for him to air his comments.”

Marcial “I have a job to do [as commissioner] and you also have a job to do [as a member of the TNT coaching staff]. So I hope you will respect my decision,” Marcial told Baldwin.

“Yes Comm, I have no choice. I’ll respect your decision,” Marcial quoted Baldwin on his reply to the panel.

“Yes Comm, I have no choice. I’ll respect

Baldwin your decision.’ So ganun ang tema.’”

Baldwin’s penalty fell under PBA rules covering statements made by players, coaches, team owners and managers and any other league personnel that are deemed detrimental to the league. His three-game suspension would take effect once the league returns to action.

Baldwin drew the ire of the Philippine basketball community when he told a coaches podcast that the PBA’s single-import conference is a “big mistake” and that Filipino coaches are “tactically immature.”

Baldwin, a former coach of the New Zealand men’s national team and Gilas Pilipinas, said he made his comments in reply to the question “what surprised me when I first came to the Philippines.”

San Miguel Corp. sports director Alfrancis Chua, a former coach with Sta. Lucia Realty and Ginebra, NLEX’s Yeng Guiao and Magnolia’s Chito Victolero, as well as the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines and NorthPort owner Rep. Mikee Romero went vocal in slamming Baldwin.

The 62-year-old Baldwin coached the Ateneo Blue Eagles to three consecutive University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s crown. He also heads the Gilas Pilipinas Youth national basketball program. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Plan to hold 2020 US Open without fans awaits govt OK

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Al Mendoza alsol47@yahoo.com

THAT’S ALL

Time to rename him ‘Bad Baldwin’ WHAT Tab Baldwin did recently unmasked himself as an impostor.

All along, he gave us the impression that he was a well-meaning, decent and even intelligent gentleman of the first degree.

That he was practically the “no word man” as he opened his mouth as rarely as a cow would moo.

Didn’t he virtually give Sandy Arespacochaga, his deputy at Ateneo, all the latitude to talk in postgame interviews every time the Ateneo Blue Eagles won in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines basketball wars?

He’d often retreat to a corner after a victorious match, preferring the warmth of solitude over the glare of the spotlight.

Turns out that was all a façade.

All for show.

Wasn’t he mean, callous, arrogant and, well, stupid like someone I know who dove into a pool head first, knowing the pool was only 3 feet deep?

Look what he’d just done.

He called our coaches tactically immature.

He branded foolish the PBA’s (Philippine Basketball Association) one-import policy.

He accused Fiba (World Basketball Federation) as being “criminal” in imposing a player-selection rule for Fiba members set to play in Fiba events.

Lastly, he criticized PBA officiating as favoring imports over locals.

What could be more goddamn idiotic than saying all that bullshit?

From out of the blue, Baldwin burst into the scene and uttered in public those nonsense, as though parading himself as God’s gift to Philippine basketball?

Hey, you are but a poor imitation of Trump, the man America now loves to hate.

If angry Yeng Guiao would call you “Ugly American,” I wouldn’t blame him. Yeng, who founded our country’s coaches association, is hurting.

OK, Tim Cone kept his cool. Understood.

Baldwin is his fellow American.

But not Mikee Romero, the NorthPort owner and presently a deputy speaker in Congress.

“As a guest in the country,” Romero said, “he [Baldwin] has no right to question the format, much more the integrity of the PBA and its officials.”

Well, with all due respect, your honor, I beg to disagree. Baldwin had all the right to do what he did. In a democracy, anyone is free to wallow in his own sea of stupidity.

Perhaps, Mr. Speaker, it’s about time you and I stopped calling him Tab Baldwin.

How about Bad Baldwin?

THAT’S IT Yes, there was a time when PBA teams had two imports apiece. Andy Fields and Snake Jones come to mind for Toyota. For Crispa, Cyrus Mann and Tom Cowart. If memory serves, only one import at a time then was allowed to play. That was in the ’70s, when business was good. It’d soon stop when it became too expensive to maintain the setup. Then in 2016, the PBA returned the format but only to lower-ranked teams in the standings, with the second reinforcement an Asian standing 6-foot-3 or below. Obviously a flop, it was scrapped just as fast.

OVING closer to holding the first Grand Slam tournament of the coronavirus pandemic, the US Tennis Association (USTA) is awaiting the go-ahead from the New York state government to play the US Open in New York starting in August—without fans and with strict health protocols.

“We’re ready to move forward,” USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier said in a telephone interview Monday, “as long as we get all the approvals we need.”

A formal announcement could come this week.

“We’ve received a proposal and we’re reviewing it,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, wrote in an e-mail.

Like many sports, the professional tennis tours have been suspended since March because of the pandemic. The French Open was postponed from May and currently is slated to start a week after the September 13 end of the US Open; Wimbledon was canceled altogether

for the first time since World War II in 1945.

Even if the state OKs the US Open, one significant question would remain: Which players actually would participate?

Such top names as both No. 1-ranked players, Novak Djokovic and Ash Barty, and defending men’s champion Rafael Nadal, have expressed reservations about heading to Flushing Meadows, where an indoor tennis facility was used as a temporary home for hundreds of hospital beds at the height of the city’s coronavirus crisis.

Already ruled out, regardless: Roger Federer, who has won five of his men’s-record 20 Grand Slam singles titles at the US Open but announced recently that he is out for the rest of the year after needing a second arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

With international TV contracts—including an annual average of $70 million from ESPN alone—helping offset the loss of money from ticket sales and other onsite revenue, and facing a recession that already led to the recent

J

Former actor pledges to cancel Olympics if voted Tokyo governor

APANESE politician and former actor Tarō Yamamoto promised that he will prioritize cancelling the Olympic and Paralympic Games if he is elected Governor of the Japanese capital next month.

Leader of anti-establishment party Reiwa Shinsengumi, Yamamoto pledged the cancelation of the Games as his first order of business if elected on July 5.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Tokyo 2020, which were originally scheduled for July and August this year, is now due to

begin on July 23 next year.

Shinsengumi also promised all Tokyo residents a relief handout of $950 in response to the pandemic.

Incumbent Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is expected to be reelected, having officially confirmed on Saturday that she would run again.

Koike’s handling of the pandemic has

elimination of more than 100 jobs at the USTA, the association’s board decided to go forward with its marquee event despite concerns about Covid-19 and international travel.

“At the end of the day, there are three factors involved in the decision-making. No. 1 is creating a plan that has health and safety at the forefront. No. 2 is whether conducting the US Open is the right thing for the sport of tennis. And No. 3 is whether it can be done in a financially viable manner. We believe we can hit all three of the objectives,” Widmaier said.

“But we do need to approach this in a stepby-step manner, and when all of the steps are completed, that is when we can make an official announcement.”

The plan shared with the state government includes: zero spectators; limited player entourages; assigned hotels; increased cleaning at the tournament grounds; extra locker room space; daily temperature checks and occasional testing for Covid-19. AP

been popular during the crisis, unlike her former Liberal Democratic Party colleague and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who recently had a polled approval rating of only 38 percent, while 70 percent supported the Tokyo Governor’s stance.

Yamamoto would likely split the vote from left wing and centrist parties who so far are

THIS scene from last year’s US Open would be missed for quite some time because of the virus threat. AP

set to back Kenji Utsunomiya, former head of the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations.

Speaking on a radio program on Saturday, Yamamoto claimed the chances of him running for election are “fifty-fifty,” for which campaigning officially starts on Thursday. He announced his candidacy formally on Twitter on Monday.

Yamamoto started a career in politics after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, becoming an anti-nuclear protestor and later a member of the House of Councillors for six years.

As an actor, Yamamoto is best known for his role as Shogo Kawada in the popular dystopian thriller Battle Royale.

Insidethegames