BusinessMirror June 25, 2020.pdf

IMF sees worse pandemic fallout

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

HE economic fallout caused by the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is now expected to be worse with countries expected to post even slower growth this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Based on the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update, the IMF said this includes the Philippines, whose GDP is now expected to contract 3.6 percent this year, lower than the initial estimate of 0.6 percent in April.

The IMF also downgraded its forecast for 2021 to 6.8 percent from the 7.6-percent estimate it

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made in April. The government expects the economy to contract 2 percent to 3.4 percent this year and rebound to 8 percent to 9 percent next year.

“Consumption growth, in particular, has been downgraded for most economies, reflecting the larger-than-anticipated disruption to domestic activity,” the IMF said in its update.

“The projections of weaker private consumption reflect a combination of a large adverse aggregate demand shock from social distancing and lockdowns, as well as a rise in precautionary savings,” it added.

The IMF also expects investment growth to be tempered

globally. However, it said policy support would offset some of the uncertainty caused by the decline in domestic demand.

These are crucial growth drivers for the Philippines as consumption accounts for a huge chunk of the country’s GDP. Inflation in the country has also indicated a slowdown in demand, with the increase in prices slowing to only 2.1 percent in May.

Emerging market and developing economies, which include the Philippines, are expected to see a contraction of 3 percent in 2020, 2 percentage points below the April 2020 WEO forecast.

The IMF noted that the downward revision on the growth forecast

for emerging market and developing economies over 2020-21 of 2.8 percentage points is higher than the revision for advanced economies at 1.8 percentage points.

But excluding China, the IMF said the downward revision for emerging market and developing economies over 2020-21 is 3.6 percentage points.

“The hit to activity from domestic disruptions is projected closer to the downside scenario envisaged in April, more than offsetting the improvement in financial market sentiment. The downgrade also reflects larger spillovers from weaker external demand,” the IMF said.

See “IMF,” A2

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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PACKAGE MOVING SOON AS COVID UPENDS LIFE OF OFWs, MIGRATION POLICY TWEAK URGED

By Butch Fernandez

W

THESE plump and luscious grapes are not from the vineyards in California’s Napa Valley, but from the Twin Lakes community in Laurel, Batangas. Three grape variants grow in the vineyard, a feature of Megaworld subsidiary Global-Estate Resorts Inc.’s (GERI) 1,200-hectare mixed-use leisure and resort community. The grape variants are the Catawba grapes, the Brazilian hybrid and the Red Cardinals. Contrary to popular belief, grapes thrive in tropical countries like the Philippines, where hot weather extends for months throughout the year. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

By Bernadette D. Nicolas & Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

T

HE economic managers are set to come up with an agreement with both houses of Congress on the fate of the stimulus packages that are expected to keep the economy afloat amid the pandemic, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

Although he did not answer categorically whether a special session would be called to tackle the measures needed to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic, Dominguez said they will make sure the special session would be “productive” should the President call for it.

“We’ll see. We’ll see if it’s, you know, a special session if that is called by the Office of the President. But we want to make sure that if there’s a special session for

that actually we will come out with something rather than nothing,” he said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday.

Dominguez’s remarks came just a day before the last day of effectivity of the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act today, June 25.

In a related development, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda also said on Wednesday that a special session will be called for the

ITH 345,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, and tens of thousands still awaiting repatriation, the call to revisit the country’s labor migration policy has become more urgent, with immediate focus on upskilling the repatriates as the local job market now also faces millions of laid-off workers.

The huge challenge was laid down on Wednesday by the chairman of the Senate Labor committee, as resource persons from government and migrant solidarity groups painted the grim reality facing the OFWs, who for four decades have shored up the Philippine economy but now face the biggest crisis as host countries are whipped by the pandemic.

“The problems that plagued us in government are no laughing matter. I think it’s but appropriate to give credit to the efforts of DOLE, DFA and all other agencies directly and indirectly involved in the repatriation of OFWs and extension of all possible assistance to our workers, especially on the implementation of TUPAD, CAMP and SBWS,” said Sen. Joel Villanueva.

Earlier, he and other senators heard the problems on the ground of the Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and of Labor and Employment (DOLE), whose lean manpower is beset by lack of funding, Covid-19 infections, and the restrictions imposed by host countries which make it harder for them to reach out to OFWs in distress.

Former Labor Undersecretary Susan “Toots” Ople, participating remotely in the hearing, cited nonstop reports reaching the NGO she runs, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, of OFWs rendered jobless by the pandemic but unable to come home because repatriation flights are subject to restrictions both in the host countries and the Philippines. Many face hunger, abuse, homelessness, but not everyone can be helped at the same time since the labor officers and consulate employees have also been hit by infections.

The Labor committee also touched on the DOLE and DFA challenge in repatriating at least 62,000 more workers who have expressed intention to come home, besides the 59,000-plus who have been flown home since February.

Compounding their problem, Saudi Arabia, which hosts the biggest number of OFWs, gave Philippine authorities a 72-hour Continued on A2

Continued on A2

DOLE: Remittances may dip 30-40%

By Samuel P. Medenilla

T

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday said it expects a 30- to 40-percent reduction in remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this year due to the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

“Based on the number of repatriations we are getting, your honors, and based on the number of displaced OFWs, we are expecting

a reduction of 30 to 40 percent [in remittances],” Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said at a Senate Labor committee hearing.

This is higher than the remittance decline projected by economic experts, which only ranges between 2.5 percent and 6.7 percent.

Earlier this month, the DOLE said the Covid-19 crisis affected the employment of at least 341,000 OFWs.

It noted this may still increase

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as many countries are still struggling with the effects of Covid-19.

On Wednesday, summing up the hearing, Labor Committee chairman Sen. Joel Villanueva cited a figure of 345,000 reaching his office.

Last year, over $33.5 billion worth of remittances from OFWs abroad was injected in the economy.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, however, has already reported a 10.9-percent dip in remittances in February, when the pandemic

was starting to be felt around the world, to $2.62 billion from $2.94 billion in the previous month.

OWWA’s dilemma

ALSO at the Senate hearing, lawmakers were told the soaring number of returning OFWs is expected to whittle down the P18-billion trust fund of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to just P10 billion to P11 billion this year.

See “DOLE,” A2

MANILA Mayor Isko Moreno and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna attend a thanksgiving Mass officiated

by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, at the Manila Cathedral, in celebration of Araw ng Maynila, the city’s 449th founding anniversary, on Wednesday. ROY DOMINGO

n JAPAN 0.4713 n UK 62.8090 n HK 6.4752 n CHINA 7.1106 n SINGAPORE 36.1081 n AUSTRALIA 34.7567 n EU 56.7570 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3814

Source: BSP (June 24, 2020)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, June 25, 2020

IMF…

Continued from A1

The IMF sees global growth at 4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 WEO forecast. Next year, the IMF said, global growth is forecast to reach 5.4 percent, 0.4 percentage points lower than the April estimates.

The global lender said consumption and investment are expected to strengthen next year, albeit gradually.

Global GDP next year is forecast to just exceed its 2019 level.

The largest economies in Asia and the world, China and India, are both expected to register slower growth this year.

China’s GDP growth is projected at 1 percent in 2020, supported in part by policy stimulus, while India’s economy is projected to contract by 4.5 percent following a longer period of lockdown and slower recovery than anticipated in April.

“For the first time, all regions are projected to experience negative growth in 2020. There are, however, substantial differences across individual economies, reflecting the evolution of the pandemic and the effectiveness of containment strategies; variation in economic structure (for example, dependence on severely affected sectors, such as tourism and oil); reliance on external financial flows, including remittances; and precrisis growth trends,” the IMF said.

The IMF is not the first multilateral development agency that has downgraded its growth forecasts for global and Philippine economic growth.

A week ago, the Manila-based multilateral development bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), slashed its forecast for Philippine GDP to a contraction of 3.8 percent this year. Initially, ADB forecast GDP growth to average 2 percent this year.

The World Bank estimates GDP growth to contract 1.9 percent this year before rebounding to 6.2 percent next year. In 2022 the World Bank estimates growth will be 7.2 percent.

DOLE… Continued from A1

OWWA Administrator Hans J. Cacdac noted that OWWA is expected to spend another P4 billion to P5 billion before the end of the year to provide accommodations, food and transportation to the thousands of OFWs being repatriated after losing their jobs in the pandemic.

“We know this is funds for OFWs and we are willing to spend them. But we are also thinking of the sustainability factor and we are hoping the good senators and the bills at hand will provide suggestions for us to sustain the private trust fund that we administer,” Cacdac said.

As of June 18, 2020, OWWA provided aid to 37,272 Covid-affected OFWs, spending P1.1 billion to assist them.

Of which, P152 million was from the emergency fund given to it by Congress, while the remaining P915 million was taken from OWWA’s trust fund.

“We have spent P784 million on hotels since March 15 and the number of OFWs we have billeted since that time is around 28,000. So we incurred a P29,000 per capita cost for an OFW,” Cacdac said.

The remaining P132 million was spent for food of the affected OFWs.

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BOI sees investment numbers in rebound in 2nd half of 2020 T

By Elijah Felice Rosales

HE Board of Investments (BOI) expects capital inflows to recover by the second half of the year, as commitments from foreign firms overseas, most of which are manufacturers, should be realized by then.

Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon M. Lopez on Wednesday said investment projects that were pledged before the quarantine are slated to be rolled out in the second half. As such, investment numbers are expected to rise over the next months after suffering declines in the first half on hampered economic activity.

“BOI figures are down up to April because we had no activity. In May and June, we approved some projects already and figures are up about 100 percent. FDIs [foreign direct investments], of course, are affected by the quarantine,” Lopez said, although he has yet to reveal the exact figures for BOI investments.

“What we have to look out for

is month-on-month and quarteron-quarter changes to see if we are recovering economically,” he added. “As for BOI, we continued the processing of approval of projects, so I’m sure there will be a rebound in figures.”

Investments registered with the BOI from January to April crashed 71 percent to P84.1 billion, from P286.7 billion during the same period in 2019.

Capital applied by local firms declined 68 percent to P70.7 billion, from P219.7 billion, while those from foreigners went down 80 percent to P13.4 billion, from P66.9 billion. BOI officials attributed the plunge to the coronavirus pandemic that disrupted business plans worldwide.

On the prospect of recovery, Lopez said some of the manufacturing investments committed last

year and in early 2020 will soon be started.

Included in this are the iron and steel projects in southern Luzon and Mindanao, investors of which have apparently just waited for the lockdown to be eased for construction work to begin. Likewise, the trade chief revealed there is an optic producer in Luzon that is eyeing to expand operation.

Details of these investment projects will be released in the BOI’s quarterly report on investment figures, which, according to Lopez, will come out soon.

“There are the usual BPO [business-process outsourcing] investments on financial services that we are expecting to enter as well. However, most of our investment leads are really on manufacturing,” he explained.

Right now, the trade chief said

the BOI is focused on communicating once again with the local governments in facilitating the entry of new investors.

Local governments, he added, have been busy with all the social projects the state has been implementing to support households through the quarantine. Now that the lockdown is eased, they can be tapped to help investment promotion agencies get investors to their jurisdictions.

“The lockdown is the reason we really slowed down economic activity. Local government units have been too busy in distributing the social amelioration funds. Because of that, investment processing had to be put to a halt, but not now. We made sure to keep those commitments active and warm so they can come in once the restrictions are relaxed,” Lopez concluded.

3-TRANCHE STIMULUS PACKAGE MOVING SOON Continued from A1

finalization and approval of the threetranche economic stimulus package.

Salceda also said these moves already secured the “blessing” of the government’s Economic Development Cluster (EDC).

Sought by the BusinessMirror to confirm if the EDC indeed agreed on the schedule of the rollout of the threetranche stimulus package, Budget Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Rolando Toledo said “these are all still in the discussion.”

Finance Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Tony Lambino also told the BusinessMirror that the EDC and the leadership of Senate and House of Representatives are “still coordinating” on the extension of first Bayanihan law and the passage of Bayanihan II.

Funds raised

IN the same forum, Dominguez said the government has so far raised a total of $4.83 billion in concessional budgetary support financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) of France.

Of the total financing accessed by the Duterte administration from these development partners, $2.26 billion was disbursed for government programs.

The government recently raised $2.35 billion from the US dollar market with the lowest coupon rate ever in the country’s history.

From domestic sources, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas provided P300 billion to the national government to help fund the Covid-19 response.

To date, Dominguez said, the government has raised P1.2 trillion in net domestic borrowings from the beginning of the year to cover the budget deficit, which has widened as revenues fell while state spending ballooned to finance programs to beat the unprecedented crisis.

As of end-May, the country’s budget deficit widened to P562.2 billion, nearly 695-fold from just P809 million in the same period last year.

The Department of Budget and Management has thus far released allotments totaling P355.6 billion for the Covid-response efforts.

A total of P149.2 billion in dividends was also received from governmentowned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) since the start of the year to support the fight against the virus.

Dominguez said that while the government contracted more borrowings and allowed for a much larger budget deficit this year of 8.4 percent of GDP or P1.613 trillion—possibly reaching 9 percent of GDP—to cushion the impact of the pandemic, the government “cannot banish the basics of fiscal discipline at the risk of bringing ourselves to bankruptcy or severe unsustainable indebtedness.”

Although a “generous” stimulus package may be “ideal,” the finance chief said if it is “unfundable and unsustainable,” it is just “wishful thinking.”

He added: “Prudence dictates that we keep our powder dry. We should be

able to finance fighting the second wave should that happen.”

Tax reforms

THE government, meanwhile, will continue to implement tax reforms to support budgetary requirements amid the pandemic. These reforms include the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) bill that aims to immediately reduce the corporate income tax (CIT) rate from 30 percent to 25 percent and provide a targeted fiscal incentives system; and taxing the digital economy.

On Wednesday, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said both houses of Congress and the economic managers are finally reaching a compromise to roll out the muchneeded additional stimulus package in three tranches, with the last tranche to be inserted under the 2021 national budget.

He said these moves will help the country reach his projected 9.1-percent GDP target in 2021.

Moreover, Salceda said a special session will be called for the finalization and approval of these economic stimulus packages.

In a memorandum addressed to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Salceda and two other co-chairmen of the economic cluster of the House Defeat Covid-19 Committee recommended the House adoption of the Senate counterpart bill to Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy of the Philippines (ARISE).

Salceda said they recommended the adoption of the Senate’s Bayanihan to Recover As One Act—the counterpart of the House’s ARISE bill—conditional on certain terms deemed essential to a rapid and sustained recovery.

If ever, this version will be the second stimulus package, since Congress considered the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act as the first stimulus package.

Salceda said the Senate plan, which currently amounts to a total of P157 billion, may be further capped to P140 billion.

The Senate plan includes: P56 billion for sectoral support; P12 billion for procurement of testing kits; P18 million for cash-for-work program; P21 billion for unemployment support; P50 billion for credit stimulus programs.

This second stimulus is expected to be implemented up to September of this year.

3rd stimulus

ALSO, Salceda said the House leadership is now considering the Executive Department’s “openness” to a third tranche of economic stimulus.

He said this recovery measure can include roughly half or around P280 billion of the difference between the proposed ARISE and the emerging Senate version.

“This will depend on whether the median deficit among economies within the Philippines’ credit rating and income classification peer group moves. This is in keeping with the House’s earlier suggestion that while the Philippines does not have to come up with the biggest

economic stimulus package, neither should it come up with the smallest,” said Salceda.

The target implementation of this third stimulus is the fourth quarter of this year.

4th stimulus

CONGRESSMEN also recommended including, in the 2021 national budget, the remaining half of the stimulus package or around P280 billion of the difference between the Senate version and ARISE, which will not be included in a third stimulus tranche.

With this, he said the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP) has 9.1-percent GDP growth as the “underlying economic growth target.”

“Considering that the Philippines’ average economic growth is at the 6.6-percent level over the past three years, this would imply an embedded stimulus that will help reach the 9.1-percent level,” Salceda added.

Meanwhile, lawmakers said the immediate rollout of the measures is necessary to trigger the P551-billion credit stimulus proposed by the House, including loan provisions to micro, small and medium enterprises along with the extension of credit guarantees.

The target implementation of this stimulus package is first quarter of 2021.

On June 4 the House endorsed for Senate approval the proposed P1.3trillion ARISE. But the National Economic and Development Authority said the spending plan under ARISE or House Bill 6815 bill was “not fundable.”

As Covid upends life of OFWs, migration policy tweak urged Continued from A1

deadline to bring home the remains of over 200 Filipinos who died in the kingdom of natural causes since the lockdowns began three months ago. The government has said it will no longer bring home the remains of 107 others who died of Covid-19, and they will be buried in the kingdom, since cremation is barred there and their bodies cannot be brought home in urns, as public health policy dictates.

“Before the coronavirus pandemic, we have already been talking about issues confronting our workers here and abroad. The issues have become more intense with the pandemic. Obviously, the impact on us Filipinos is tremendous, since we are present in almost every country and continent—5 percent of all labor migrants globally are Filipinos; we are ranked No. 7 worldwide,” Villanueva said at the end of a three-hour hearing.

Summing up the hearing, Villanueva said that to date, there are 345,000 OFWs displaced due

to Covid-19. Of this total, 59,000 OFWs have been repatriated; and around 62,000 OFWs more signified an intent to be repatriated, but only over 16,000 have completed their papers.

He cited estimates that remittances from OFWs are expected to decline by 30 percent to 40 percent in 2020. “This means a reduction in the OFW remittances by $10 billion to $13 billion.”

Migration policy

MEANWHILE, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) “projects that around P4 billion to P5 billion of their budget would be spent in the second half of 2020. This means that this trust fund, originally at P19.6 billion, is expected to decline to P13 billion by 2021,” Villanueva pointed out.

“Taking stock of the woes of our OFWs amid this pandemic, I believe that we really need to revisit our migration policy. Actually, we have been discussing this even before the pandemic through the proposed Department of Overseas

Filipino Workers—not to encourage migration-for-work but to address the plight of our kababayan abroad,” Villanueva continued.

As much as possible, he said in a mix of English and Filipino, “we should create jobs for our people here in the country. Along this line, we need to focus right now on providing loans, capital, emergency employment and training opportunities, which are the main goals of the bill that is the subject of our hearing today.”

He singled out Sen. Sonny Angara’s bill “on digital careers which can be a smart investment in our workers for the new normal. And I believe that Tesda [the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] will play a significant role in this regard.”

Right now, 7.3 million people are jobless per the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and based on the DOLE’s projection, 10-15 percent of workers or around 4 million might lose their jobs for the rest of the year, Villanueva noted.

“I really believe that we should

focus on training to help our workers cope with disequilibria brought by this pandemic. That’s why we need to maintain expenditure levels on education and training. Realigning funds for training will hurt long-term economic recovery.

Long-term and concrete actions are necessary but we also need ‘band-aid’ or quick-fix solutions,” stressed Villanueva.

Speedy repatriation pushed

THE senators, meanwhile, affirmed findings the Duterte government would need to release additional funds for OFWs displaced by the pandemic in the Middle East and other continents.

Minority Leader Frank Drilon, a former Labor secretary, suggested that the OWWA tap its existing P18.8-billion fund to bring home over 150,000 stranded OFWs and provide them with “financial and livelihood assistance.”

Drilon stressed the need to first repatriate the OFWs away from places affected by the pandemic and “talk about funding

later” after OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac told senators the ongoing repatriation of OFWs, if it stretches until next year, will “bankrupt” OWWA.

Responding to Drilon’s suggestion, Cacdac admitted to the committee they were “not quite sure if we will hold on to the money given that 2021 may be worse, or go out and provide the fullest assistance to the OFWs.”

Drilon asserted that the agency should tap its existing P18.8-billion funds to bring home all 150,000 stranded OFWs and provide them financial and livelihood assistance.

In response, Cacdac voiced concern the OWWA fund may be depleted down to P1 billion by the end of 2021 “if the situation continues to worsen.” He added that in order to repatriate, quarantine and bring home all 150,000 OFWs, OWWA would need at least P4.5 billion—a sum that Drilon promptly affirmed can be provided, noting “its current funds could still absorb [as the OWWA] still has P18.8 billion in trust funds.”

Drilon said, “Congress will be willing to assist OWWA in making it financially viable if it is able to show that in these times of crisis, OWWA can respond properly. We are more than willing to help if you are able to execute your mandate well.”

Earlier, the Senate Minority Leader filed Resolution 417 calling for an inquiry to assess the need for remedial legislation “on the adequateness and sufficiency of the OWWA assistance” to OFWs affected by the pandemic.

OWWA investments

AT the same time, Drilon also vowed to review the laws that restrict OWWA’s investment after it was found out that the OWWA only earned less than 3 percent from its more than P18-billion investment in 2019 in order to help the agency to become financially viable.

He expects an upcoming inquiry to focus on “whether the investment system for Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System should be adopted for OWWA.”

The Nation BusinessMirror

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, June 25, 2020 A3

‘MACHO’ PINOYS TOLD DOJ probes report of ex-Wirecard TO CONTROL URGE TO executive’s ‘visit’ to Philippines SIRE MORE CHILDREN J T

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

O all “macho” Filipino guys desiring to sire more children than they could probably handle, or feed, clothe and send to school, read this.

The Commission on Population (Popcom) is pressing for Filipino men’s deeper involvement in reproductive health as measure to control any further growth in population.

In an e-mail to the BusinessMirror, Popcom Executive Director Dr. Juan A. Perez III said the so-called macho culture among Filipino equates virility with the number of children a man has.

As a result, Perez said, there is persistently higher fertility among the poor. Among the poorest quintile, the average family size of 4 to 6 and highest quintile have 1 to 2 children.

“Males in the Philippines—and in many developing countries as well—have a significant and influential role in the fertility of women they are married to, or in a relationship at all age groups,” Perez said.

Based on the Young Adult Fertility Survey of 2013, Perez said males who are considered batang ama at 15 to 19 years old want to have three children, while women who are batang ina at the same age want only two children.

Perez said these preferences reflect those of older couple based on the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2017 and other similar surveys conducted earlier.

Based on these, fertility preferences of males are higher than females. Males want 3 to 4 children while females want only 2 to 3 children.

“The consequence has been high fertility among women in v ulnerable situations—poor women with lower educational achievement, women married or in relationships with older

men—who are on the receiving end of this toxic macho environment,” Perez said.

With this, Popcom and the Department of Health (DOH) decided to create KATROPA or Kalalakihang Tapat sa Responsibilidad at Obligasyon sa Pamilya program.

The Popcom earlier said the program called on men to be more responsible and proactive participants as marital partners, fathers, and even as father-figures to their communities.

Perez said direct participation of men in KATROPA and in the reproductive health classes have been increasing over the years.

In 2019, around 1.88 million men, women, and couples attended the Popcom and the Department of Health’s reproductive health classes nationwide.

This included over 1.2 million couples; 538,644 females; and 56,595 males.

Popcom said city and municipal chiefs who have also lent their voices in support of KATROPA include Pasig City Mayor Victor Ma. Regis “Vico” Sotto, Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez and San Juan City Mayor Francisco Javier “Francis” Zamora.

Sotto and Gomez vowed to back the movement through their video messages posted in the “Usap Tayo Sa Family Planning” Facebook page which has gained considerable engagements in the social-media network.

Local government units’ also adopted the initiative and localized it as “Mentako” in Cordillera Administrative Region which means “Lalaki Tayo” in Igorot dialect and “ITAY” which stands for “Itaguyod mo Tatay ang Yaman ng Buhay” in Tagaytay and in Region 4A. In Remigio, Cebu, the program was named MARPA which stands for Men In Action Of Responsible Parenthood or “Kalalakihan Tinud-anay sa ilang Responsibilidad ug Obligasyon sa Pamilya.

USTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate certain individuals who have been linked in the scandal involving German payments company Wirecard AG, which claimed to have lost 1.9 billion euros, or $2.1 billion, due to alleged fraud.

Guevarra, in a text message to reporters, confirmed that prior to the controversy, Jan Marsalek, chief operating officer of Wirecard, reportedly arrived in the country on March 3, 2020, and left after two days.

Marsalek, who was in charge

did not enter the Philippines.

The names of two of the country’s biggest banks—BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)—are being linked in the scandal.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno claimed that those behind the reported anomaly are only using the names of two banks to cover their tracks as initial reports showed that none of the missing $2.1 billion entered the Philippine financial system.

Both banks have denied Wirecard was their client.

Lawyer Mark Tolentino, former assistant secretary for the Department of Transportation who was sacked by President Duterte in 2018, is also being linked in the scandal.

His law firm, M.K. Tolentino Law & Business Consultancy Office admitted opening and maintaining foreign-currency deposit accounts with BDO and BPI but did not name their clients, citing absolute confidentiality required by the Foreign Currency Deposit Act. Tolentino’s camp denied knowing, or participating “in any alleged irregularity” involving Wirecard’s money.

“The NBI and AMLC will work together insofar as there are indications of money laundering. I have no info on whether Wirecard is operating in the Philippines. As to Marsalek, we found something curious in the BI data base but let’s leave it at that,” Guevarra said.

Justice dept orders NBI to keep track ADB okays $126-M loan for MWSS’s of ‘malicious’ information on socmed Bigte-Novaliches Aqueduct 7 project

J

USTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to create a system to monitor unfounded and malicious information in social media.

Guevarra issued the order as he assured that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would be willing to extend assistance to Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo in investigating the fake news claiming that she sent spoiled hot meals to frontliners of a hospital in Quezon City.

“Today we are asking the NBI to establish a system of monitoring the spread of false and malicious information in social media, establishing the source, determining if there’s a pattern, habit, or scheme, and taking the appropriate steps to preser ve evidence of wrongful behavior for possible prosecution in the future,” Guevarra said.

He said the system should enable the NBI to easily investigate and facilitate complaints about malicious and fake social-media posts.

Guevarra said the Office of the Vice President (OVP) has not sought the DOJ’s help yet in determining

Lacson refutes Carpio, IBP head, on anti-terrorism bill’s provisions While affirming his “respect and admiration” for Carpio, Lacson added, however, that he would “prefer to go along with my former and present colleagues in Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, not only because of the power of overwhelming numbers, but more so, I am absolutely certain these legislators, as well as their respective legislative staffs and legal researchers had diligently studied, researched, and scrutinized a landmark measure like the Human Security Act of 2007 before casting their affirmative votes, as this is the usual and time-honored practice in legislative work. Nothing less could be said of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 as proposed.”

Lacson recalled that apart from his legislative staff, six of them lawyers, he also consulted counterterrorism experts both local and foreign, notably from Australia and the United States, noted to be countries with strong democracies “to help me ably defend this measure on the Senate floor for seven straight session days of intense interpellations and three days of back-and-forth period of amendments by many of my colleagues, including such distinguished members of the Bar as eminently qualified as Justice Carpio and Atty. Cayosa, such as Senators Drilon, himself a Bar placer; Koko Pimentel, a Bar topnotcher; Francis Tolentino, Richard Gordon, to name some of them.”

Lacson noted that Justice Carpio himself

of overseeing daily operations of the company in Southeast Asia, was reportedly fired from his position and is being blamed for the financial mess.

But the DOJ secretary said, “There are some indications that he may have returned recently and may still be here.”

Thus, Guevarra said he had directed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to conduct further investigation to confirm if Marsalek is still in the country.

Guevarra said he has instructed the NBI to coordinate with the AntiMoney Laundering Council (AMLC) despite earlier pronouncement by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that the missing money of Wirecard

had acknowledged that Section 18, similarly worded as Section 29 of the Anti-Terror Bill, has not been ruled unconstitutional by the High Court.

“For the life of me, I could not understand why the honorable Justice thinks this argument works for his cause when the Supreme Court is clear on the matter of ‘presumption of constitutionality.’ To underscore, the Supreme Court, in Tano vs Socrates, GR 110249 dated August 21, 1997 ruled, and I quote: “It is of course settled that laws [including ordinances enacted by local government units] enjoy the presumption of constitutionality. To overthrow this presumption, there must be a clear and unequivocal breach of the Constitution, not merely a doubtful or argumentative contradiction. In short, the conflict with the Constitution must be shown beyond reasonable doubt. Where doubt exists, even if well-founded, there can be no finding of unconstitutionality. To doubt is to sustain.”

It is difficult to understand why a former magistrate, Lacson added, would not know such basic and significant jurisprudence.

Allaying apprehensions aired over the bill, Lacson affirmed that Section 29 of the bill provided adequate “safeguards to avoid abuses by requiring a written notification to be immediately given to the judge of the court nearest to the place of arrest, with copy furnished to the Anti-Terrorism Council.”

“We have proposed that the same notification be also provided to the

the person behind circulation of a supposedly fake social-media post accusing her of sending spoiled food to the Diliman Doctors Hospital located along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

However, the DOJ chief said, it was not necessary for VP Robredo to first seek their help before the NBI would take any action on the fake news circulating in the social media.

“VP Robredo’s camp has not requested the DOJ/NBI to investigate this complaint. But we will be ready to help should the VP wish to pursue the matter,” Guevarra said.

On her Facebook account, VP Robredo recently denied that she went to the Diliman Doctors Hospital nor did she deliver spoiled food.

She asked the public to report those who are spreading similar lies against her.

Among those who allegedly spread the rumor was a certain “Jacques Phillip.”

Robredo said her camp is now gathering evidence as she would no longer tolerate those who intentionally posting fake news on social media.

continued from a12

Commission on Human Rights—a requirement not present under the Human Security Act of 2007,” the senator added.

In a webinar last June 17, Lacson recalled that the ex-Justice Carpio emphasized the inviolable fundamental rights that no less than the Constitution has clearly expressed: first is that only a judge can issue warrants of arrest; and second, that warrants of arrest must be issued only upon probable cause. “I have no argument on this. Neither is there anything in the Anti-Terrorism Bill that says otherwise.

But what I will argue, is his averment that the proposed measure blatantly transgresses such fundamental rights.”

The senator assured that the AntiTerrorism Bill does not allow encroachment by the Executive (particularly the AntiTerrorism Council) on the court’s exercise of judicial powers, such as the issuance of warrants of arrest; nor does it propose to amend Rule 113, Section 5 of the Revised Rules of Court by adding another circumstance in the conduct of a valid and lawful warrantless arrest.

“This is contrary to Justice Carpio and other critics’ oft-repeated claims that Section 29, which I think is the most assailed provision of the proposed measure, allows the Anti-Terrorism Council, a body composed of officials from the Executive Department to give a written authority to police and military personnel to arrest without warrant any person on mere suspicion of being a terrorist. Nothing can be further from the truth,” Lacson said.

Joel R. San Juan

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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HE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an investment loan for the BigteNovaliches Aqueduct 7 (BNAQ-7) project, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) announced on Tuesday.

The project, once completed, is expected to boost the operational capacity of the MWSS to service the growing number of water consumers in Metro Manila and nearby towns and cities in the Greater Manila Area (GMA), such as Cavite and Rizal provinces.

“The approval of the loan is a testament to BNAQ-7’s, or AQ # 7, importance, scale, impact, and confidence to MWSS’s project execution performance,” the MWSS said.

The $126.02-million loan for AQ 7 is a separate loan from ADB, as part of the expanded Angat Water Transmission Improvement Project (AWTIP), to be constructed after the operationalization of the new Tunnel 4, also an ADBfinanced project.

Tunnel 4 was partly opera-

tionalized during the period of enhanced community quarantine and is currently in the final stages of completion. It will be fully operational by July.

Once completed, the new aqueduct will have a capacity of 1,500 million liters per day and will replace the old and leaking Aqueduct Nos. 1 and 2, which can only deliver 300 MLD. According to the MWSS, the higher design capacity provides substantial safety factor to the water security of Metro Manila and the flexibility in repairing other aqueduct systems.

“This will ensure that the water releases from the Umiray-AngatIpo system will flow to the different treatment plants of the MWSS’s concessionaires. MWSS is proud to have ADB to be its partner again for AQ 7,” the MWSS said.

The ADB has financed several reliability projects for the improvement of the MWSS’s conveyance systems, such as the Angat Water Supply Optimization Project, the Manila South Water Distribution Project, the Umiray-Angat Transbasin Project, and the ongoing AWTIP.

IATF to decide next week on request to allow certain classifications of FNs to reenter PHL

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USTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) is likely to decide next week on the request to allow foreign nationals (FN) with permanent visas and working on state flagship infrastructure projects to reenter the country.

Guevarra, who is one of the members of the IATF, said the IATF technical working group (TWG) is now discussing the matter after a foreign embassy requested the Philippine government to allow the entry of their nationals who are holders of Bureau of Immigration (BI)-issued permanent visas.

The request covers foreign consultants and technical workers from the said country whose expertise may be needed in the construction of flagship projects under the Duterte administration.

But, the DOJ chief said the IATF’s decision will not only cover the requesting country but other FN who are similarly situated.

“As any action on this request may affect nationals of other countries, the IATF referred the matter to a technical working group to determine how many such foreign nationals are involved and to make a recommendation to the IATF. The matter of allowing foreign technical workers to return and resume work on

flagship projects was brought up by the Department of Public Works and Highways [DPWH]. It is likewise being studied by the aforementioned TWG. The IATF may decide on the matter next week,” Guevarra said.

The task force is also studying the possibility of allowing foreigners who belong to another category such as those who have retired in the country and those who have set up businesses, to return to the country.

“We also have to see how many foreign nationals are really involved. If they comprise a manageable number, the IATF may consider to allow them to reenter,” he added.

The DOJ secretary said that many of these foreigners who want to enter have already been staying in the country, but were abroad when the lockdown was imposed.

They also have to consider the effect of allowing entry to these foreigners to the repatriation of more than 100,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are studying these matters very carefully. We have to deal with the repatriation of thousands of OFWs and we do not want them to be crowded out by foreign nationals who will likewise have to be tested and quarantined upon arrival,” Guevarra said, stressing that the task force’s priority are the OFWs.

Joel R. San Juan

A4 Thursday, June 25, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Cusi: Time is ripe to begin public talks on merits of nuclear power generation

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

NERGY Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said Thursday “time is ripe” for the conduct of public discussions to include nuclear power in the Philippines’s energy mix to meet growing electricity demand.

“I personally feel that the time is ripe for intensified and informed public discussions on nuclear energy, as well as its potential role in our energy security agenda. Today, in fact, the Philippines is the only Southeast Asian country/ that has an active nuclear power program.

“Despite growing opposition, the push for nuclear energy’s inclusion in the energy mix will help ensure the country’s energy security and address possible future power emergencies,” said Cusi during the 5th Global Conference on Energy Efficiency.

Cusi was among the five global keynote speakers who talked about Recommendation No. 7 of the Global

Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency, “Engaging at All Levels of Society to Accelerate Efficiency Progress.”

The agency’s approach in the energy mix is technology neutral, which imposes no cap in the type of technology.

“I have been asked many times why we adopted this ‘technology neutral’ policy. We have to be real: we are lack of capacity and there is an urgent need for the Philippines to build its power capacity fast. And to attain energy security, we must make sure that we have abundant sources at this stage.

“This technology neutral ap-

proach leads me to one of the most controversial and politicized topics in the Philippine energy sector—the utilization of nuclear power for energy security and efficiency,” he said.

The Philippines was one of the first Southeast Asian countries to embark on a nuclear power program with the creation of the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1958.

Two decades later after the commission’s establishment, the country became host to Southeast Asia’s only nuclear power plant in the 1980s— the 621-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Its construction started in 1976, with total investment amounting to $2.3 billion, by the time it was completed in 1984.

Unfortunately, the plant’s operation never saw the light.

“I strongly believe, and I have said this already several times in the past: It is high time for the Philippines to be open to the idea. Nuclear power is a reliable alternative to attain energy sufficiency and meet future power demands.

All those arguments that have been said against the nuclear power plant had been answered by time. In

hindsight, the Philippine economy would have been different had we tapped nuclear power in the 1980s,” added Cusi.

In 2018, Cusi submitted a proposed national policy on nuclear energy to President Duterte for approval. The proposed national position not only covers the use of the mothballed Bataan BNPP but also the development of modular nuclear power plants across the country.

A survey was also conducted back then. Results of the survey were not made public but Cusi said he was “pleased” with the results, “as it showed that the respondents are aware that nuclear energy possesses, both benefits and risks.”

“The public’s perception on nuclear energy is also changing as reflected in the nationwide survey that we commissioned last year. I am still hopeful that the Philippines will be able to use nuclear energy in the future.”

The DOE, through its Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organization, has been working closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess the feasibility of safely and responsibly harnessing nuclear energy in the Philippines.

No bigger money than time: Salceda renews push for passage of CREATE

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday has warned anew the consequences of further delays in passing the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE).

Panel Chairman and Albay Rep. Joey S. Salceda issued the warning following an assessment by Fitch Solutions, the leading international credit bench marker, that the slow pace of tax reforms is “discouraging” foreign investors and is contributing immensely to the decline in net inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI).

Salceda said the two-year loss in FDI due to delays in passing CREATE, or Package 2, of tax reforms was $6 billion to $12 billion.

Earlier, Fitch Solutions Senior Country Risk Analyst Michael Langham said the delays in the 2019 budget approval and passage of tax reform laws slowed FDI net inflows last year. Net inflows dropped 23.1 percent from a year earlier to $7.647 billion.

Langham added that, “As we saw in 2019, FDI really dropped quite sharply and a lot of that was over policy uncertainty as well as the weaker outlook for the global economy.” Langham also said the proposal to lower corporate income tax will place the country at par with its neighbors but the measure, which is still pending in the Senate, could deter potential investments.

Salceda said President Duterte and the Cabinet approved Package 2 of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package in Janu-

ary 2018 and the House was always quick to pass versions of this reform.

“Well, now that crisis has come and the noise is being set aside in favor of more essential indicators in the economy, international observers and investment advisers are validating the substance of my claim,” Salceda said.

“When it comes to economic decisiveness, there is no bigger money than time.

The more time you lose over policy uncertainty, the greater your foregone growth is,” Salceda added.

“I first filed this reform when I was a freshman congressman, when I authored the Subsidy Council Act in 1998. I pushed for this again, as the proposed Investment Code, in 2006. I am now in my fifth term, and I have filed this every term, in improved versions. The economic losses we are suffering by not passing this is immense, and I cannot even begin to imagine the size of the opportunity cost if I counted back to 1998,” he added.

According to Salceda, CREATE will make the country’s investment incentives one of the world’s best and most accountable.

“As for the arguments, wala nang bago.

The opponents have nothing left. I will be very frank: even if you were a country with the ugliest investment code in the world, as long as you are legally open to FDI and as long as your policy is set, someone will find your country to be suited to their specific needs,” Salceda said.

Under CREATE, Salceda said, the country will have “a low basic CIT [corporate income tax] rate of 20 percent, a standard menu of incentives, and a bonus menu of incentives for the best investors.”

“So, the debate between this investor, or that investor, leaving is frustratingly superfluous. There are so many investors in the world that we are driving away because we could not make up our minds about getting this passed. I dare those who threaten us to leave to name themselves and show me their financial statements so I could see which part of the balance sheet we can help with, with amendments to the proposal. No one has called my dare. No one has submitted a cost-benefit analysis either. It’s all spooking the public with unfounded claims,” Salceda said.

“We can always make money. We can always modify our incentives if CREATE proves to be in need of tweaking. But none of the opponents can ever bring back the three years we have wasted in their repetitive opposition. It is said that time is money. I say, there is no bigger money than time, because the potential of well-managed time is infinite. And the Filipino people’s time has been wasted,” he added.

Salceda has also reiterated that the House is willing to adopt the Senate version of CREATE to fast-track the approval of the measure as long as it is fiscally sound.

CREATE is still pending before the plenary of the Senate.

CREATE seeks an outright cut in the country’s CIT rate from 30 percent to 25percent. The proposal further offers more flexible incentives, with an immediate 5 percent income tax slash, after which the CIT will be reduced by 1 percent every year from 2023 to 2027 until it reaches the 20-percent mark.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Devanadera hails SC decision on ERC’s control over WESM

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HE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling, which affirmed the commission’s delegated police powers on spot market prices.

“We are happy that the Supreme Court appreciated the real intention behind ERC’s action when it imposed price controls for the spot market back in 2006, which is to protect the consumers from unusually high market prices. The interest of the consuming public has always been the ERC’s paramount concern and consideration,” said ERC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Agnes VST Devanadera.

The SC’s 15-page ruling denied the petition filed by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) seeking the reversal of the Court of Appeal’s (CA) 2009 decision and affirming the delegated police power vested by the law on ERC. The SC order effectively prevents collection by the PSALM of a total of P9 billion in supposed accumulated billings that would have impacted consumers.

T he High Tribunal basically agreed with the CA’s decision dated August 28, 2009 and Resolution dated November 6, 2009 in CA-G.R.

SP 106322, upholding the ERC’s order directing the implementation and adjustment of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market settlement prices for the third and fourth billing periods for the year 2006.

The SC affirmed that the ERC has been vested with police power under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) which provides that in the exercise of its investigative and quasijudicial powers, it may act against any participant, or player, in the energy sector for violation of any law, rule or regulations and penalize abuse of market power.

The ERC, in its assailed decision, ruled to adopt the National Power Corp.’s time-of-use rates as substitute prices, instead of the actual market prices for the relevant periods considering that the historical data were not reflective of the market conditions prevailing during the relevant period. The NPC-TOU rates were used as benchmark for the said rates have passed the test of reasonableness.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is very much appreciated as it confirms and validates the efforts of ERC in protecting the consumers as they are affected by the rates,” Devanadera added. Lenie Lectura

Corn imports in MY 2020-2021 to reach 600,000 MT–GAIN report

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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HE country’s corn imports in market year 2020-2021 may rise by a fifth to 600,000 metric tons (MT) due to higher feed demand fueled by a 3-percent expansion in local poultry production, a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) said.

The GAIN report, prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service in Manila, projected that corn imports would expand by 100,000 MT from 500,000 MT recorded in the previous market year.

A corn market year (MY) starts in June and ends in July of the following year.

“Feed corn demand will increase in tandem with the projected 3-percent expansion in poultry output in MY 20/21,” the report read, which was published recently.

“The local poultry industry was projected for stronger growth, but the closure of the food service sector during the pandemic significantly limited demand,” it added.

The GAIN report estimates that local corn production in MY 2020-2021 would rise also by 100,000 MT to 8.2 million MT from 8.1 MMT estimated output in the current market year.

The report added that corn feed demand would increase to 6.7 MMT from 6.6 MMT due to expansion of the local poultry industry.

The devastation caused by the African swine fever (ASF) on the local hog industry forced pig raisers, particularly backyard ones, to shift to broiler chicken production to cut losses and take advantage of consumers’ higher demand for chicken meat.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) projected that the country would have a chicken meat surplus of at least 160 days to 314 days this year.

In a worst-case scenario, the DA estimates that chicken meat supply would reach 1.536 MMT, about 406,216 MT higher than the total demand of 1.13 MMT. This would result in a 160-day chicken meat surplus.

In a best-case scenario, the country would have a 314 day surplus heading to 2021 as supply could peak at nearly 1.75 MMT, outpacing a lower demand of 953,644 MT and as Filipinos cut consumption due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

The country’s corn output in the first quarter declined by 3.4 percent to 2.34 MMT, from last year’s 2.42 MMT, as low farm-gate prices discouraged farmers from planting more corn.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that corn production in the January-to-March period contracted by 82,169.71 MT. Historical PSA data also showed that this is the lowest first quarter corn output in four years since the 1.92 MMT recorded volume in the January-to-March period of 2016.

Philippine Maize Federation Inc. President Roger V. Navarro said low farm-gate prices discouraged farmers from planting corn.

“Farm-gate prices were really bad during harvest,” Navarro earlier told the BusinessMirror.

The average farm-gate price of yellow corn in the first quarter declined 11.6 percent to P12.27 per kilogram, from last year’s P13.88 per kg, PSA data analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed. Also, the average quotation for white corn fell 5 percent to P13.87 per kg from P14.6 per kg.

“This year I believe corn production would decline as the lack of rain would delay planting. However, the reduction in output would be mitigated by lower demand by poultry and hog sectors due to dampened demand for meat products caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 [Covid-19],” said Navarro.

2021 proposed natl budget ready for submission next month, DBM’s Avisado says

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

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HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday said it is eyeing to submit its proposed P4.3-trillion national budget to President Duterte during his next State of the Nation Address (Sona) next month.

“We are expected to be able to pass this to the President…during his Sona by the second week of August for his approval and then after that it will be submitted to Congress,”

Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said during an online news briefing on Wednesday.

The budget secretary said they will be conducting the executive budget review by the first week of July to meet the target.

During the said assessment, Avisado said they will brief the agencies of their budget ceilings for their 2021 programs, which, he said, should focused in combating the effects of Covid-19.

“This means, we will concentrate more on labor intensive projects and activities to give income opportuni-

ties to the most vulnerable and to the most affected sector and workers both in public and private sector,” Avisado said.

Last year, DBM was able to submit the proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget to Congress on August 20, 2019— 30 days after the Sona of Duterte last year.

Additional expenses

CURRENTLY, Avisado said, the government already spent P355 billion for its Covid-related responses.

Of which, P247 billion are

f rom p o ol e d s av i n g s , w h i l e P96 million came from unprogrammed appropriations.

Of the pooled savings, P51 billion were used to provide subsidy to displaced workers of micro, small and medium enterprises, while P45.7 billion was released to the Department of Health (DOH) for its interventions for the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We expect to continue facing additional expenses from the effects of Covid-19, not only in Metro Manila but for the entire country,” Avisado said.

This additional expenses include Social Amelioration Program coverage as well as the implementation of the “blended learning” of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Supporting documents

IN a related matter, Avisado said they will be submitting to the Ombudsman the documents it required in relation to its investigation on the alleged anomalies in the DOH’s Covid-related responses.

“We are ready to submit tomorrow [June 25] as far as I know the documents being requested by the

Office of the Ombudsman to help with their investigation,” Avisado said.

The Ombudsman is now looking over the purported irregularities in DOH’s procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as in its delay in the release of compensation for medical frontliners, who were infected with the virus.

He said they are ready to address the possible gaps in DBM’s operations, which may be identified by the Ombudsman after its ongoing probe.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

China warns US over actions against 4 more media outlets

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EIJING—China warned on Tuesday it will take countermeasures after the US added four more Chinese media outlets to a list of organizations that should be considered “foreign missions” in the United States because of their ties to the government and ruling Communist Party.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian attacked the Trump administration’s move as “yet another example of the US’s flagrant political suppression of the Chinese media,” saying it would interfere with their reporting on the US and betray America’s commitment to freedom of the press.

“We strongly urge the United States to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, and immediately stop and correct this wrong practice that serves no one’s interest. Otherwise China will have to make the necessary legitimate response,” Zhao said.

The US decision on Monday to add the four organizations to the list, which already included five others, doesn’t directly impede their ability to conduct journalism but could force some to cut staff in the US and is likely to further aggravate relations between the two countries.

State Department officials sa id t he fou r orga n i z at ions, including state-run CCT V, will be required to submit the identities of all staff in the US and any real estate holdings just as they would if they were foreign embassies or consulates.

The five other Chinese organizations were directed to cap the number of people they can employ in the United States in March — a month after they were designated as foreign missions.

China responded by revoking the media credentials of all American journalists at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

State Department officials said the organizations are essentially mouthpieces for the Communist Party and Chinese government, not legitimate news outlets.

The US designated Soviet outlets as foreign missions during the Cold War. That precedent reflects the bitter state of relations between the United States and China, which are at odds over the origin and response to the coronavirus, trade, human rights and other issues. AP

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A5

Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many patients gasping for life

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ONAKRY, Guinea—Soaring demand for oxygen prompted by the coronavirus is bringing out a stark global truth: Even the right to breathe depends on money.

In wealthy Europe and North America, hospitals treat oxygen as a fundamental need, much like water or electricity. It is delivered in liquid form by tanker truck and piped directly to the beds of coronavirus patients. Running short is all but unthinkable for a resource that can literally be pulled from the air.

But in poor countries, from Peru to Bangladesh, it is in lethally short supply. Across sub-Saharan Africa, oxygen is a costly challenge for government-funded medical facilities such as Guinea’s Donka public hospital in the capital, Conakry.

The hospital’s planned oxygen plant has never started up. So instead of piping oxygen directly to beds, a secondhand pickup truck carries cylinders over potholed roads from Guinea’s sole source of medical-grade oxygen, the SOGEDI factory dating to the 1950s.

Outside the capital, in hospitals and medical centers in remote villages and major towns, doctors say there is no oxygen at all.

“Oxygen is one of the most important interventions, (but) it’s in very short supply,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC and current president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.

In Bangladesh, the lack of a centralized system for the delivery of oxygen to hospitals has led to a flourishing market in the sale of cylinders to homes.

In Peru, the president has ordered industrial plants to ramp up production for medical use or buy oxygen from abroad. He allocated about $28 million for oxygen tanks and new plants.

But a massive production increase or an impromptu private marketplace are both out of reach

Flyers hiding Covid-19 infection show risks of reopening borders eople infected with coronavirus were allowed to board aircraft and travel to Hong Kong in recent days, highlighting the challenge of controlling the pandemic at the same time governments seek the safest ways to reopen borders.

Hong Kong’s health authority said one infected passenger arrived on Sunday from Manila on a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. flight, and another was on a Cathay Dragon flight from Kuala Lumpur. Both were diagnosed with Covid-19 before they traveled.

It also said 45 passengers on Emirates flights from Dubai over the weekend either were confirmed or probable cases. The airline only restarted flights to Hong Kong this month.

The infections underscore the risk of peeling back restrictions while the global pace of infections keeps accelerating. Airlines worldwide, largely propped up by government bailouts, have been lobbying to get their planes back in the air as they face more than $84 billion in losses this year.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents almost 300 airlines, in May recommended steps to protect passengers and crew from infection, such as temperature checks at the airport and wearing face masks on the plane.

But the Hong Kong cases show that infected passengers can bypass voluntary requirements, and there’s little airlines can do.

“Taking temperatures and having passengers wear masks on flights are steps we can do to ensure the virus doesn’t spread,” Korean Air Lines Co. said in a statement. “For measures to be put in place to ensure that infected passengers don’t fly, it has to be done by the authorities and it’s not something an airline like us can do on our own.”

IATA last week outlined recommendations for Covid-19 testing, saying it ideally would be

Thursday, June 25, 2020

done before arriving at the airport and within 24 hours of travel. If testing is required during the travel process, it should be done at departure, and governments would need to mutually recognize test results, IATA said.

Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection said the 30 new cases on Monday and 16 on Tuesday all had a travel history during the incubation period.

The passenger flying on Cathay Flight 906 from Manila, a 58-year-old man, tested positive in the Philippines on Saturday, the day before he arrived.

Cathay said it learned about the passenger from health authorities after the plane landed. The airline is following “prescribed procedures in conducting disinfection of aircraft and informing the operating crew and employees,” as well as helping to trace those who were in close contact with the man.

A spokesman for the Philippine Immigration Bureau said it wasn’t the agency’s job to check health clearances.

“We only check the passport and boarding” pass, spokesman Melvin Mabulac said.

The passenger on Cathay Dragon Flight 734 was a 39-year-old woman returning from India via Malaysia, Hong Kong’s health department said on Tuesday. After landing, she declared she’d tested positive and had been treated for the virus in India last month.

The Centre for Health Protection, which advises against all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong, said it is in contact with authorities in the Philippines and India to obtain more information about the cases.

The Hong Kong arrivals aren’t likely to be isolated cases. While some countries, including Australia, have said their borders are likely to be effectively closed for the rest of the year, others— including members of the European Union—are working on allowing more international flights.

Bloomberg News

in Guinea, where GDP per capita is $850.

Alassane Ly, a telecommunications engineer and US resident who split his time between the Atlanta suburbs and his homeland, boarded a flight to Guinea in February. He promised his wife and young daughters he’d be home by April to celebrate Ramadan.

Then he fell ill. On May 4, struggling to breathe and awaiting results for a coronavirus test, he was turned away from two medical facilities that said they weren’t equipped to help.

Finally, his brother-in-law drove him through curfew checkpoints to Donka hospital, where he finally got the oxygen he had sought all day.

It was apparently too little and too late. Within hours, he was dead. Six weeks later, his coronavirus test came back positive.

His death sparked a furor in Guinea, prompting denials from the health minister that Ly had received anything except the best care.

Ly’s widow, Taibou, said she can accept her husband’s death as God’s will, but said she cannot accept a medical system that failed.

“One life is not worth more than another,” she said from her home in suburban Atlanta.

Dr. Aboubacar Conté, head of Guinea’s health services, said four hospitals in outlying cities will eventually get their own on-site plants to ease what he acknowledged is a need for oxygen outside the capital. Only two have funding so far.

Conté, who was diagnosed with coronavirus and hospitalized briefly at Donka himself, was

Medical workers offload cylinders of oxygen at the Donka public hospital where coronavirus patients are treated in Conakry, Guinea on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Before the coronavirus crisis, the hospital in the capital was going through 20 oxygen cylinders a day. By May, the hospital was at 40 a day and rising, according to Dr. Billy Sivahera of the aid group Alliance for International Medical Action. Oxygen is the facility’s fastest-growing expense, and the daily deliveries of cylinders are taking their toll on budgets. AP/Youssouf Bah

philosophical about the gap between wealthy nations and those like Guinea.

“Technology comes gradually,” he said.

For many severe Covid-19 patients, hy poxia—radically low blood-oxygen levels—is the main danger. Only pure oxygen in large quantities buys the time they need to recover. Oxygen is also used for the treatment of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, the single largest cause of death in children worldwide.

Yet until 2017, oxygen wasn’t even on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

In vast parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia, that meant there was little money from international donors and little pressure on governments.

“Oxygen has been missing on the global agenda for decades,” said Leith Greenslade, a global health activist with the coalition Every Breath Counts.

The issue got more attention after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson narrowly survived coronavirus, crediting his recovery to the National Health Service and “liters and liters of oxygen.” But Johnson is a prominent figure

in one of the world’s wealthiest countries.

Unlike for vaccines, clean water, contraception or HIV medication, there are no global studies to show how many people lack oxygen treatment—only broad estimates that suggest at least half of the world’s population does not have access to it.

In the few places where in-depth studies have been carried out, the situation looks dire. In Congo, only 2 percent of health care facilities have oxygen; in Tanzania, it’s 8 percent, and in Bangladesh, 7 percent, according to some limited surveys for USAID. Ever y where t hat ox ygen is scarce, pulse oximeters to measure blood-oxygen levels are even scarcer. By the time lips turn blue, a frequent measure used, a patient is usually beyond saving.

Some places have made progress, largely thanks to local activists who have pushed for plants and better access outside just the largest cities. Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda all have made it a priority, according to Dr. Bernard Olayo of the Center for Public Health and Development in East Africa.

But in Guinea, not a single hospital bed has a direct oxygen supply,

and the daily deliveries of cylinders are taking their toll on budgets, with each one costing $115.

Doctors outside Conakry say oxygen is just another necessity they do without, joining basic painkillers, thermometers and reliable electricity on a long list.

“All we can do is send someone elsewhere if they are in need,” said Dr. Theophile Goto Monemou of Sangaredi Community Hospital.

In mid-June, at least two people tested positive for Covid-19 t here. One was d r iven more than six hours by ambulance, according to the Sangaredi Mayor Mamadou Bah. Guinea’s official coronavirus tally is more than 4,988 coronavirus cases and 27 dead. The tally is an undercount as testing is limited.

Dr. Fode Kaba, a cardiologist at a public hospital in Ratoma, an outlying neighborhood of Conakry, said he has no oxygen at hand and no intensive care beds. When people seeking urgent care can’t breathe, he calls an ambulance to send them to Donka about 20 minutes away and hopes for the best. But, he acknowledged, “If you don’t get it right away, it’s death.” AP

US coronavirus cases surge to highest level in 2 months

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EIJING—New coronavirus cases in the US have surged to their highest level in two months and are now back to where they were at the peak of the outbreak.

The US on Tuesday reported 34,700 new cases of the virus, according to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University that was published on Wednesday.

There have been only two previous days that the US has reported more cases: April 9 and April 24, when a record 36,400 cases were logged.

New cases in the US have been surging for more than a week after trending down for more than six weeks. While early hot spots like New York and New Jersey have seen cases steadily decrease, the virus has been hitting the south and west. Several states on Tuesday set single-day records, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.

Cases were also surging in other parts of the world. India reported a record daily increase of nearly 16,000 new cases. Mexico, where testing rates have been low, also set a record with more than 6,200 new cases.

But China appears to have tamed a new outbreak of the virus

in Beijing, once again demonstrating its ability to quickly mobilize vast resources by testing nearly 2.5 million people in 11 days.

In the US state of Arizona, which on Tuesday reported a record 3,600 new infections, hundreds of young conservatives packed a megachurch to hear President Donald Trump’s call for them to back his reelection bid.

As he did at a rally in Oklahoma over the weekend, Trump referred to the virus with a pejorative term directed at its emergence in China.

Ahead of the event, the Democratic mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, made clear that she did not believe the speech could be safely held in her city—and urged the president to wear a facemask. He did not. Trump has refused to wear a mask in public, instead turning it into a red-vs.-blue cultural issue.

Earlier Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress that the next few weeks are critical to tamping down the surge.

“Plan A, don’t go in a crowd.

Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask,” said Fauci, the infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health.

In China, an outbreak that has infected more than 200 people in

the capital this month appeared to be firmly waning. China on Wednesday reported 12 cases, down from 22 the day before.

Beijing reported seven new cases, down from 13.

Officials in Beijing said they tested more than 2.4 million people between June 12 and June 22. That’s more than 10% of the capital’s population of about 20 million.

Authorities began testing people at food markets and in the areas around them. They expanded that to include restaurant staff and the city’s 100,000 delivery workers. China also said it used big data to find people who had been near markets for testing, without specifying how.

The vast majority has tested negative, though one courier delivering groceries from supermarkets tested positive.

A single inflatable mobile lab in one district was capable of conducting 30,000 tests a day, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

South Korea, which successfully tamed its first wave of infections, is seeing another rise. While the first outbreak was centered in its fourth-largest city, the current outbreak is in the Seoul region,

where most South Koreans live.

Authorities reported 51 cases on Wednesday. Its increase of 40 to 50 cases every day over the past two weeks comes amid increased public activity and eased attitudes on social distancing.

In India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, the densely populated cities of Mumbai and New Delhi have been hardest hit.

The country has reported more than 450,000 cases of the virus, including more than 14,000 deaths.

The situation in New Delhi is a rising concern, with the federal government criticizing its poor contact tracing and a lack of hospital beds.

Mexico reported nearly 800 new deaths on Wednesday. The country has recorded more than 190,000 cases and more than 23,000 deaths, although officials acknowledge both are undercounts due to extremely low testing rates.

Mexico has performed only about half a million tests, or about one for every 250 inhabitants.

Worldw ide, more than 9.2 million people have contracted the virus, including more than 477,000 who have died, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. AP

A8

Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 25, 2020

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z

GMA News reaches highest-ever ranking as top 5 online video publisher worldwide

Today’s Horoscope

Consistently leading as the Philippines’s No. 1 online news video publisher, GMA News exceeded its own record anew as it marked its highest-ever global ranking based on the May 2020 leaderboard of social video analytics Tubular Labs.

Ranked fifth worldwide under the News and Politics category, GMA News tallied 458.6 million video views on Facebook while it recorded 181.5 million video views on YouTube for the entire month of May. At the same time, 24 Oras’s livestream remains to be the most-watched local newscast both on Facebook and YouTube. The network’s flagship newscast began streaming globally on GMA News’ Facebook page and YouTube channel on May 11.

GMA News’ online leadership is also made possible through the efforts of the GMA News and Public Affairs Digital team. Its Digital Video Section has also been producing viral and online exclusive explainers, talk shows, and human interest stories, keeping netizens informed and at the same time inspired especially during the Covid-19 crisis.

Among its top original videos that raked in millions of views is the “Need To Know” series of explainers to help shed light on the social and political issues that have surfaced amid the pandemic.

“Need to Know’s,” “Paano nasugpo ng Vietnam ang Covid-19?” video reached a whopping 16.4 million views; while its “Kailan dapat sumama sa pulis?” and “Covid-19 vaccine, kaya ba in 18 months?” videos got 1.8 million and 1.7 million views, respectively.

On the other hand, the viral human interest story “Milagro sa gitna ng Covid-19 pandemic,” about a couple who successfully conceived a child after seven years despite the wife’s condition, touched the hearts of a lot of netizens and registered 3.2 million views.

GMA News and Public Affairs also recently launched its first Zoom talk show hosted by GMA News anchor and Covid-19 survivor Howie Severino called “Quarantined with Howie.”

All these videos and more are being premiered on GMA News Online’s web site, www.gmanews.tv, and later on are available on GMA News’ Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Happy Birthday: Change your goals to suit the economic trends better. Staying one step ahead of the competition will help put your mind at ease and give you the incentive to set unique alternatives that are more conducive to what you have to offer. Don’t downplay what you know or the experience you’ve gained. It’s up to you to market yourself for success. Your numbers are 4, 12, 23, 25, 32, 39, 43.

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Busy Philipps, 41; Linda Cardellini, 45; Ricky Gervais, 59; Carly Simon, 75.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Stay calm, think matters through thoroughly and move forward with kindness and compassion. Sensitive issues are likely to arise if you don’t choose your words wisely.

Choose self-improvement over trying to change others.

A little love will go a long way. HHHHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Consider others when making decisions. Discuss your plans with loved ones before you begin something new. A healthy, positive attitude will encourage others to pitch in and help instead of standing in your way. HH DWAYNE JOHNSON

Shakira, Dwayne Johnson highlight coronavirus equity concert

N

EW YORK—Dwayne Johnson will host and Shakira, Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Hudson will perform on a globally broadcast concert calling on world leaders to make coronavirus tests and treatment available and equitable for all.

The advocacy organization Global Citizen and the European Commission announced on Monday that Global Goal: Unite for Our Future—The Concert will air on June 27. Other artists performing in isolation include Usher, Justin Bieber, Coldplay and Chloe x Halle. The concert will also feature appearances from Billy Porter, Charlize Theron, Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Salma Hayek and David Beckham.

It will be broadcast on NBC in the US and other television stations, radio stations, web sites and streaming outlets around the world.

“The event aims to lift up the global community that is tackling equitable access to healthcare, and other enormous injustices facing our world,” Johnson said in a statement.

Organizers say the show is not a fundraiser, but is instead intended to draw awareness to the disproportionate impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on marginalized communities.

“Global Citizens around the world are calling for systemic change, change that brings about justice for everyone, everywhere, regardless of where they were born or the color of their skin,” organization founder Hugh Evans said in a statement. “If we are to end Covid-19 for all, we need our world leaders to commit the billions of dollars needed to equitably deliver testing, treatments and vaccines.”

The concert will follow Global Goal: United for Our Future—The Summit, an streaming event featuring panel discussions and interviews by journalists like Katie Couric that’s also meant to be “a global pledging moment where world leaders, corporations and philanthropists will announce new commitments” to help equitably distribute tests, treatments and vaccines, as well as rebuild communities, the statement said. AP

A Father’s Day tribute: How dads equip their kids (Part II) Continued from A9 Filipino parents find that blended physical and digital (phygital) is important in learning.

He also explained how HP’s New Asian Learning Experience Study identifies millennial parents’ attitudes toward learning and how their personalities impact the way their children learn. The study shows that while print and digital each have their own strengths, a combination of digital and print is most beneficial in helping children stay focused and engaged while they learn.

Parents in the Philippines said that printed

materials were better used for activities related to art (61 percent), math (60 percent) and memorization (50 percent), whereas electronic materials better facilitated learning in music or auditory skills (60 percent). Reyes explains that millennial parents grew up on traditional learning methods, but also gained more exposure to technology. They know that things evolve quickly. Therefore, they want their kids to be future-ready. As a dad, he recommends equipping our kids with practical tools like HP Pavillion x360 which is a light laptop/tablet.

He also recommends printers like the HP Ink Advantage or the HP Smart Tank. He says that it is

efficient to get all your equipment from one brand that is also strong in customer support. HP offers pickup and return service; as well as Whatsapp support and Viber Chat Support for the Kronos product, from Monday to Saturday, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.

Reyes also emphasizes that during this pandemic, our role as parents changes at home. We need to help our kids learn from home.

Parents have to wear a teacher’s hat and provide a blended learning of both physical and digital media. As a father, he said, “I am a part of it. As much as it is difficult and challenging, it is equally and even more rewarding.” n

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Pick up information that will help you keep your skills updated.

The more you have to offer, the easier it will be to maintain a healthy income. A positive attitude will encourage higher expectations. Personal improvements will pay off. HHHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Channel your energy into something creative. Use your skills to work effectively with the changes that are going on around you. The decisions you make now will reflect how well you do as you move forward. Be open to suggestions. HHH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do what makes you happy. Taking care of the people you love and doing something that makes you feel good about the way you look or the type of person you are will help you move in a direction that offers a stable future. HHH

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Don’t take chances when it comes to your job, health or money. Look for a definite route to follow, and you’ll discover an opportunity into which you can parlay your strengths, skills and knowledge that will make you happy. HHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Stick to a plan that is simple, doable, practical and within your financial means, and you will find a path that is stimulating as well as rewarding. Refuse to let negative influences bombard you. Stay focused on your goal.

HHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Learn as you go. Your intuition is on target. Broaden your spectrum, and visualize how you see things unfolding. Embrace the future with optimism and the flexibility to adapt to whatever comes your way. HHHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Anger won’t solve a sensitive situation, but honesty and integrity will. Listen to what others say, but don’t buy into someone’s ideals. Take the path that feels comfortable and true to your beliefs. HH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Discussions are vital if you want to make a change that affects others. Get everyone on board by offering incentives. If you pump up people, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish. HHHHH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Spend more time on personal achievements and positive domestic changes. Refuse to let emotional matters stand between you and what you want to happen. Discipline will be your saving grace when faced with a challenge. Romance is in the stars. HHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You’ll come up with a good plan that will encourage you to make lucrative decisions. A change regarding how you earn your living will entice you. Reconnecting with someone you have enjoyed working with will lead to an opportunity. HHH Birthday Baby: You are cerebral, innovative and ambitious.

You are memorable and considerate.

‘nested words’ by kevin christian & michael lopez The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Western US gas brand 5 Turn in a road 9 Taylor Swift’s “I ___ You Were Trouble” 13 Security concern 14 The fifth element 15 I, to Iphigenia 16 Buccaneer’s angry rodent?

19 Just a single time 20 Place for a smartwatch 21 Most Wanted list org.

22 Courtroom statement 24 Important falsehood from outer space?

32 Ivory’s counterpart 33 Before, in Arles 34 Red or black insect 35 ___ d’Azur (French Riviera) 36 Clinical trial stage 37 Rwandan people 38 Egyptian boy ruler 39 Theological belief 40 Gave a hoot 41 Beer in the most hackneyed story?

44 When a play’s conflict is often established 45 Toothpaste tube letters 46 Caribbean island where Papiamento is spoken 49 Possible cause of boredom 54 Wooden Russian set, or a physical analogue for the starred answers 57 Unleash 58 Loft occupants?

59 ___ Bator, Mongolia 60 Flat-topped hill 61 New high school graduate, usually 62 Picks for a position DOWN 1 Chow chow?

2 Bridle attachment 3 Reiner or Sagan 4 “Sure, whatever” 5 Anjou relative 6 The “E” of HOMES 7 “Neither snow ___ rain...”

8 Some crime scene evidence, briefly 9 Culkin of “Succession” 10 Sushi wrapper

1 H’s, to Hera 1 12 Power unit 14 Country between Togo and Nigeria 17 Actor Maguire 18 Pontificate digitally 22 Blood bank supply 23 One starts at a terminal 24 Factions 25 On the subject of 26 Led Zeppelin’s “Whole ___ Love” 27 Papeete’s location 28 Nautical “Halt!”

29 Dern of Marriage Story 30 Programmers don’t snack on its chips 31 Piano practice piece 36 Nuisance 37 Can escape 39 Rot 40 Gave up, as land 42 ___ Tar Pits 43 “Humble” rapper Kendrick 46 Alternative bands?

47 Like some expensive eBay items 48 Salt Lake City collegians

9 Croc or moccasin 4 50 Related 51 Jazzy Fitzgerald 52 Like a ___ in the face 53 Government IDs 55 Last mo. whose name starts with a vowel 56 Pronoun for a boat Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

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Parentlife BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 25, 2020

A9

A Father’s Day tribute: How dads equip their kids (Part II) HP Country Manager Ian Reyes with his family

C

ontinuing from last week, here are the next forms of “equipping” my husband does for my kids: n THE LOVE FOR HOME. My husband always emphasizes to my kids that our family is our most important team. We are there to support each other. He even shows my kids the value of loving chores as an expression of family love.

He taught Meagan to cook steak, pork chop and fish properly. He guides our kids on how to take good care of our dog Brad. n THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER. Most of all, my husband equips our whole family with tons of laughter. His jokes are from of an older generation but for some reason, my daughter gets them. He shows the kids that he looks out for each of our happiness and tries his best to provide it for us.

Last week, I was fortunate to interview the country manager of HP, Ian Reyes, who is also a father of two.

He shared how he equips his kids: “As early as we can, we start teaching them the values that Cookie, my wife, and I believe are important to us as a family.

These are the values of prayer [we pray together daily], respect and kindness [respect for each other in our family and for everyone around; taking care of each other, and helping out in daily chores] and resilience [don’t give up; just keep trying].”

His advice to fathers: “Raising your child/ children means being involved in parenting. Be a present coparent with your wife in teaching them the values, morals and discipline they will uphold as they grow older. Showing them the equality, love and respect you and your partner have for each other will be essential in your children’s character building.”

Reyes shared that HP created “Print & Play” from a need to equip parents and kids to bridge the gap between education in school and learning at home by supplementing their child’s learning while making playtime at home more engaging. This is very timely especially during this pandemic, where our kids are spending more time at home.

You can download various activities from different age groups as seen but not limited to below: n TWO TO FOUR years old Animal Fun: Level—Easy.

Estimated time—10 minutes. Help! The little bunny is trapped! Tag team with your little one to save the poor rabbit and help him find his way through the maze— start from where the red arrow is pointing and exit through the green arrow. n FOUR TO EIGHT years old. Put the Fruits Correctly: Level—Medium. Estimated time—20 minutes. Are you a professional packer? Sort the fruits into the right boxes. Work with your child to help put the fruits in the right boxes through the maze. n EIGHT TO 12 years old. Creating a Seventh Wonder of the World: Level—Difficult. Estimated time—40 minutes. Have you always wanted to explore the world and visit its so-called seven wonders? Take craft-making to another level by having your little one build their very own miniature Taj Mahal.

“Print & Play” has been launched globally including seven countries in Asia. It has global partnerships with Crayola, Time Kids and Canva, among others. It is great to know that Philippines is the No. 1 country in Southeast Asia accessing this with 7.4 million visits to the site. This suggests that most

Continued on A8

MakatiMed partners with UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCDCCC) to improve cancer care in the Philippines.

Makatimed health-care legacy endures after 51 years AS leading health institution Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www.makatimed.net.ph) marks it 51st anniversary, it maintains its enduring commitment to provide high-quality health care to its patients, especially now that the world faces the health crisis of this lifetime: the Covid-19 pandemic.

Established by visionary doctors on May 31, 1969, MakatiMed leveraged its best practices throughout the years while still seeking to advance medical care, improve clinical processes, and innovate health-care delivery in the country.

Some of the select outstanding milestones of the premier hospital in the past year include global partnerships with Parkway Hospitals Singapore for the continued advancement of medical education and services between the two hospitals; the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a bid to boost cancer care in the Philippines; and India’s Max Hospital’s ANG Centre for Liver & Biliary Sciences, to develop a state-of-the-art liver transplant program in the country.

The top hospital gained several notable recognitions such as the DOH30 Hospital Star Award 2019 after a rigorous evaluation of its best practices in delivering safe, quality and appropriate health-care services within the DOH’s criteria; and the Hall of Famer in Infection Prevention and Control Hospital Best Practices, being declared the overall winner for Level 3 hospitals for upholding the highest standards in the prevention and control of health care-related infections.

Aside from these awards, MakatiMed’s Department of Neurology qualified for the 2019 Q2 Gold Category Award and was recognized during the Asia Pacific Stroke ConferenceWSO Regional Meeting held at SMX Convention Center; while members of the Section of Pulmonary Medicine’s training program were recognized for their achievements. MakatiMed doctors also contributed to the success of Filipino delegates at the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

In terms of innovations, the hospital acquired PELD (Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy), a new endoscopic system that allows for a minimally invasive approach that enables patients to have a lesser chance of infection, minimal blood-loss and post-surgical pain, and faster recovery time.

The Department of Science and Technology awarded a P16.4 million grant to MakatiMed’s team of doctors and scientists for a study on the use of stem cells as treatment to wounds caused by diabetes, making it the only hospital in the Philippines to receive a DOST grant for a research on umbilical cord-derived stem cells.

Finally, MakatiMed introduced the MVP Rewards feature of its Patient ID card, with which patients may unlock deals and discounts by presenting the card to partner establishments nationwide. Along with easier and accurate registration benefits, the MakatiMed Patient ID card with the MVP Rewards sticker allows patients to earn points when they avail of the hospital’s health-care services.

A10 Thursday, June 25, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Virus pushes people into extreme poverty

T

he poorest of the poor are bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still raging around the globe. Although restrictions have been eased a bit in many countries, current business activities are still a far cry from anything that resembles normalcy. The situation is especially dire for people living under difficult conditions, like the homeless and people living in slums. The World Bank said the pandemic could push about 49 million people into extreme poverty in 2020.

The United Nation’s World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security, said Covid-19 will increase hunger—and may even cause a new global food crisis. The WFP provides food assistance to an average of 91.4 million people in 83 countries each year. Currently, the UN body said 135 million people go hungry every day, and the pandemic is seen worsening global hunger with an estimated 265 million people without food by the end of the year. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. It wasn’t a pretty picture to begin with, but this makes it truly unprecedented and uncharted territory,” said Arif Husain, WFP chief economist.

From the International Labor Organization: “The Covid-19 pandemic is exacerbating already existing inequalities—from catching the virus, to staying alive, to coping with its dramatic economic consequences. Policy responses must ensure that support reaches the workers and enterprises that need it most.” The ILO added that globally, 2 billion workers (61.2 percent of the world’s employed population) are in informal employment.

Informal workers are the most vulnerable because they have no welfare protection, access to good health care, or the means to work from home.

They are more likely to face higher exposure to health and safety risks without appropriate protection, such as masks or hand disinfectants.

Closer to home, an incident in Albay last week painted a grim picture of the pandemic’s devastating effect on poor families. A high school student hanged himself after endlessly worrying that his family won’t be able to afford the needed electronic gadget for him to study online in the coming academic year. The unnamed student allegedly told his parents how sorry he was for causing additional expense to their already struggling family. “He told me that our family was already poor and that he was making our parents poorer because of the gadgets that we need for school this year,” said the victim’s younger brother.

After the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered companies because of government-imposed lockdowns, the Philippines reported its highest-ever unemployment rate. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, at least 7.3 million Filipinos had no jobs in April as a result of governmentimposed lockdowns to curb the outbreak. As we continue to grapple with the harsh reality of the Covid-19 pandemic, the poor continue to suffer and are getting anxious.

Is the worst over? If not, when will the pandemic end? Sadly, even medical experts have no definite answer to this question. Nobody knows when the pandemic will end. This idea alone torments people, especially the most vulnerable sectors that are in danger of being pushed into extreme poverty.

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James Jimenez

spox

O

N June 1, 2020, I created the Facebook Group called “Ask Comelec” (https://facebook.com/groups/askcomelec) as a response to the need to make online alternatives available to the general public eager to see to their voter registrations.

The problem was that, with the Comelec deploying only skeleton work forces, my Department—the Education and Information Department—which is responsible for fielding queries from the public, wasn’t particularly well-equipped to handle telephone inquiries. And so, we turned to the one online platform that we were reasonably sure everyone had some access to—either directly or through friends and family.

Now, we have more than 500 members and still steadily growing. The questions are coming in, with most inquiries dealing with, not surprisingly, voter registration. For the most part, the administrators of the Group (called Admins), respond to these questions but lately, we’ve seen more people—regular people not connected with the Comelec— posting replies to queries, purely on their own intiative. Needless to say, this is a welcome development that shows the Group is well on its way. However, we’re also being very careful about it. Our Admins monitor these responses closely, fully aware that this is one of the ways misinformation can creep in. So far, however, no such problems.

The questions posted on the group fall into two broad categories. Routine questions—or questions that are frequently asked or which can be adequately responded to by quoting or referring to

the appropriate Comelec rules and Resolutions—are answered immediately, subject only to the availability of Admins.

For example, we got this question: “How can one transfer his/her registration? Thank you.”

This is considered a routine question since it deals with an established process and, well, we get asked this a lot. So we replied: “Once #VoterReg2020 resumes, you may apply for Transfer of Registration Records from one City/District/Municipality to another by personally appearing before the Office of the Election Officer [OEO] of your new residence with your accomplished application form.

“Download the application form here: https://comelec.gov.ph/; Print the form using substance 20, legal-sized bond paper [Note that the form is 1 page only, back-to-back]; Tick the oval appropriate to your type of registration and supply

Stay frosty, Philippines

Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug

Senior Editors

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Ask Comelec

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

he term “stay frosty” dates back to the jungles and highlands of the Vietnam War when “staying cool” was just not enough. Like many military terms, it has found its way into popular language. The connotation has broadened.

From an admonishment to stay alert and on one’s toes, the phrase has evolved to include being prepared, calm, ready for action, and on edge for anything that might come your way.

The Philippines needs to be on “stay frosty” mode and to do that now.

The continuing discussion about phasing in the “modern jeepney” might be a good example of being “not frosty.”

This has been talked about since forever. We formalized the idea with The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization in 2017.

But to hear some people talk, using “modern jeepneys” would be

the same as requiring drivers to be circumcised a second time. Then again, since countless kilometers of streets and highways have not changed much since a Sarao jeepney was exhibited at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, why should the vehicles that ply these roads change?

However, a short trip down memory lane might be instructive on how “staying frosty” saved the Philippines from the worst of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Granted, sometimes being a “basket case” is fortunate since everyone ignores you. While all the institutional

the necessary information in the blank fields; Personally appear before the OEO of your new residence to submit your accomplished form and undergo the digital capturing of biometrics information [picture, fingerprints and signature]. Bring at least one valid ID with photograph and signature, which reflects your new residence address as proof of residence.

“Forms are available for free at the OEO, but the applicant may opt to do steps 1 and 2 above to save time. However, it should only be signed and thumb marked before the registration staff.

Hope this info helps.”

Now this is one of the more detailed responses simply because the question called for a rundown of the multi-step process. Some questions, however, require only simple responses. So, to the question: “What if Senior Citizen is the one who needs Voter’s Certification, can I just send a representative?,” the reply was similarly brief: “Good afternoon!

You may get a voter’s certification in behalf of the senior citizen provided that an authorization letter is provided by the senior, a photocopy of his/her ID, and your ID.” Responding to nonroutine questions—those which are novel, infrequently asked, or which requires the application of pertinent Comelec rules and Resolutions—is a little more process heavy.

Depending on how “tough” the question is, it is either responded to directly by the Directors of the Education and Information Department, or is referred to a resource person in the relevant Office, Division, or Department in the Comelec. Occasionally, a question is directly escalated to the appropriate Department Director. The response from the resource person is then returned to the

Admins—all of whom are Information Officers of the EID by the way—who are tasked at that point to prepare the responses for posting.

Most often, this “processing” involves translating the responses to Filipino. On occasion, the Admins are also expected to insert links to online resources—such as uploaded copies of Comelec resolutions referred to in the response. Once that’s done, the prepared response is posted online.

One interesting example of a nonroutine question asked us to explain the usefulness of a voter’s certificate. “I just want to know what is the purpose of voter’s certificate? If you’re registered and voting, why do you still have this?”

In response, we posted: “The voter’s certificate is your proof that you are a registered voter of a particular place. It is used by many government offices— such as the DFA and various LGUs—as a valid form of identification. As you pointed out, if you’re a registered voter, you’re not required to get one. You certainly don’t need it to exercise your right to vote. But it is a useful document to have nonetheless.”

The Group has only been up 21 days, and we anticipate more questions to come up as we get closer to the resumption of voter registration. Covid-19 disrupted the election calendar and not just for voters. As we get closer to the elections of 2022, even candidates, stakeholder groups, and other political actors will have lots of questions about how we’re getting back on track and how we’re dealing with the need to work safely around the challenges posed by the pandemic. We expect that “Ask COMELEC” (https://facebook.com/ groups/askcomelec) will only grow bigger as it becomes an indispensable component of our new normal.

lenders were flying to Bangkok, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur, Manila was not on their itinerary. So, while all the others were piling up massive mountains of foreign denominated debt, the Philippines—or at least the government— was still in “begging bowl” mode.

But then as now the private sector companies that have been living free and easy are going down hard. During an investors’ briefing in the middle of the Asian crisis, I asked John Gokongwei if his companies were protected from a depreciating peso. He replied that he did not have to worry unless the peso went to 52 to one US dollar.

The peso hit that level in 2003. Gokongwei was still frosty.

While many economies around the world are showing a quick rebound, think of the situation this way. The Philippines broke a leg badly in a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver.

While the cast could come off soon, we may still need to use a cane and be careful.

The “drunk driver” is in deep trouble not only from the accident. China recorded an historic number of corporate bond defaults in 2019 and the GDP growth rate before Covid-19 was

likely negative. Wall Street keeps finding bogus financial statements from the 400 Chinese companies listed on the stock market. Depending on China in any way for exports is a losing deal.

While some are complaining about the Philippine government debt— mostly for political pogi points—staying frosty since 2004 means we have the ability to raise the debt without hurting the government’s fiscal health.

We are going to see many businesses disappear and many “for rent” mall spaces. But the Philippines with its balanced economy that is not overly dependent on any one sector—especially exports—will be ready for the future.

Returning OFWs is a problem. Dead international tourism is a problem.

We will adjust. We just need to be ready and alert. And any comment about “Frosty the Snowman” probably means you are part of the isolated rich and spent too much time watching American cartoon shows.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web

site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Nuke power in PHL back in the agenda

Total commitment Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise

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ne of President Duterte’s “achievements” during his official visit to Russia on October 2, 2019 was a memorandum of intent signed by officials of both countries “to jointly explore the prospects of cooperation in the construction of nuclear power plants in the Philippines.” A proposal to build a floating nuclear power plant in the country was also broached by Russia.

It looks like the paperwork for the project is moving fast, the details of which were drowned out by public concern and issues about the Covid-19 pandemic. This has prompted Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, to press the Department of Energy (DOE) to publicly release its report on the integrated work plan for nuclear infrastructure in the county.

“By being transparent, we are telling the Filipinos that the government is serious and committed in discussing and investigating whether nuclear power might be part of the country’s future energy policy,” he was quoted in the news as saying.

There is valid reason to be alarmed.

Doubts on the safety of nuclear power still linger, especially since the country’s possible partner in this undertaking had suffered from one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters in 1986 caused by a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel—the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located in the Ukraine which was then still a part of the Soviet Union.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi late last year called for the creation of Nuclear Energy Program Implementing Organization (NEPIO) to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) policy guidelines in steering an exploration on the feasibility of nuclear energy development.

Gatchalian notes the DOE has yet to provide any specific details of its nuclear energy agenda, and has repeatedly called out the agency for its lack of transparency.

In October last year, Gatchalian chided DOE’s obscurity on its nuclear plan on reports that the Philippines and Russia signed a deal on exploring the possible construction of a nuclear power plant in the country. “The basic question is—is nuclear energy fit for the Philippines?” Gatchalian asked, even as he filed a resolution asking the Senate energy panel to conduct an inquiry on the status of the country’s nuclear energy plan. “Will it deliver the promises of lower electricity cost at very minimal risk? Most importantly, what will we do with the nuclear waste in the long term?”

I understand that the Philippines has to come up with viable energy solutions to prepare for the expected power shortfall the country faces in the near future. But there are other cleaner and safer energy sources that the Philippines can tap and are in fact already in the pipeline. If it were not for the pandemic, these projects would have been operational much earlier than their expected two- to four-year completion.

First Gen Corp., for instance, has been negotiating with various gas suppliers and buyers, having chosen Japan’s JGC Corp. as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Batangas City. First Gen is in talks with them for short-term supply contracts for the period 2021-2023.

But there’s one project that could have supplied the country with clean energy on short notice if only if it were allowed to. The LNG project of Energy World Corp. (EWC) in Pagbilao, Quezon Province, is almost complete. It remains dormant because it has not been permitted to tap into the existing transmission grid in the area. For years, the company has been seeking government’s help in securing approval to tap into other private firms’ existing transmission grid in the area, to no avail. The company is locked and loaded to add to the country’s energy

requirement, if and when it is cleared to do so, while it is building its own transmission line.

EWC Chair Stewart Elliott in the company’s yearly report stated last year that the plant will be operational by late 2021 (this date has been moved because of the lockdown). This only means that the company is confident that its substation currently undergoing construction is near completion. Just the same, if the company were allowed to tap into the existing transmission grid, it could have readily contributed to the country’s energy needs. This project is expected to beef up the country’s power requirement now that the Malampaya gas reserves are about to run out.

The LNG Hub Terminal, the first of its kind in the Philippines, can process 3 million metric tons of LNG per annum, which is sufficient to generate up to 3,000 MW of gas-fired power plants, and even up to 6,000 MW of power when its second tank currently being constructed becomes operational. The project costs over $750 million of direct investment in the Philippines, and has created over 800 direct jobs during the construction period.

According to Cusi, “The country should have a clear position on nuclear power. A well-informed decision is key to a sustainable and comprehensive energy program. With all the new findings, technological advancements and successful experiences of countries around the world, nuclear energy holds much promise for longterm energy plans.”

In the United States a nuclear-power reactor recently opened for the first time in two decades. But this reactor, called Watts Bar Unit 2—one of two near Spring City, Tennessee —isn’t new. Most of it was built in the 1970s and 1980s alongside Unit 1, which came online in 1996 and has performed flawlessly. The two reactors are essentially identical in terms of safety, technology and output. But there has been one major advancement in the 20 years separating their openings: widespread acceptance of fossil fuels’ role in climate change, and the urgent need to wean the economy from it.

This development bolsters the government’s position that going nuclear is a viable, not the only, option to fill in the projected energy gap in the near future. Nuke plants undoubtedly give out clean energy. Because of their zerocarbon emissions, they somehow ease the fears of climate change.

Scientists, policy-makers, and climate strategists have been figuring out what the future of renewable energy will look like. They came up with these options: find a way to clean up coal; build batteries capable of storing energy from capricious renewables, or go nuclear. Each option has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. But nuclear is a strong contender because it is the only technology that actually exists.

“We are supposed to be adding zerocarbon sources, not subtracting, or simply replacing, to just kind of tread water,” US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was recently quoted as saying.

BusinessWise, however, believes that nuke plants are multifaceted systems operated by humans, a situation where errors are unavoidable.

In the field of nuclear power, human error has often been cited as a cause or contributing factor for numerous accidents and catastrophes, such as flooding, earthquakes and extreme weather conditions, fires, equipment failures, and improper maintenance, among others.

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

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he discourse of Jesus on the cost of discipleship, or on the mission His disciples share from and with Him, details fundamentally the detachment they must have from everything else and the total commitment to Him demanded of them (Matthew 10:37-42). The love of Jesus Christ must come before all else and must be the basis of all else.

More than father and mother The total commitment of Jesus Himself to the will of His heavenly Father sets the tone for those who would follow after Him. One has to make a decision: choose His way and become His disciple, or reject it and deny Him. To believe in Jesus is to go the full extent of His gospel: God is absolute and ultimate. This radical claim underlines the fact that God demands of us an absolute and unique commitment. Ultimate reality demands ultimate commitment.

“I am the Lord your God...you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Love of God with one’s entire being is the first commandment; it is second to none.

The followers of Jesus must have proper priorities, the correct hierarchy of values. Not worthy to be His disciple is anyone who loves father

or mother, son or daughter (to say nothing about spouse) more than Him. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ demands that we measure up to Him; Jesus is our standard. That is why we are called after Him: Christians, Christ’s people—maka-Kristo (for Christ) and ala-Kristo (Christlike). This ultimate loyalty means we invite everybody else to join us and be of kindred spirit with us (kadiwa, kapuso), so that we can all be kapamilya (one family and communion) with God in and through Jesus Christ. Our ties of kinship marked by natural love and affection must be based on and promoted by our commitment to Jesus, not in competition with it.

Carrying the cross

Matthew rounded up the necessary attitude of the followers of Jesus by referring to the post-resurrec-

Thursday, June 25, 2020 A11

The followers of Jesus must have proper priorities, the correct hierarchy of values. Not worthy to be His disciple is anyone who loves father or mother, son or daughter (to say nothing about spouse) more than Him. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ demands that we measure up to Him; Jesus is our standard. tion understanding that the cross is the root of their identity. The cross of Jesus represents both His total commitment to God’s purposes and the human, religious-political rejection of those purposes by His enemies. And as the cross was the measure of the love of Jesus for us, it is now the measure of our love for Him. We cannot be worthy of Jesus, if we do not also take up our cross symbolizing our radical commitment to God and to Jesus and to His gospel and therefore our readiness to suffer any pain and even death.

Anybody following and imitating Jesus will necessarily have to face the rejection and opposition of those from one’s own family perhaps or from society who would want our ultimate loyalty, the allegiance we owe only to God. The cross, to loss one’s life on account of Jesus, is the way to life.

Hinging on the imagery of “finding and losing,” to “find” one’s life means decidedly to live on one’s own

terms and according to one’s own philosophy. Such a “selfie” life can give only temporary satisfaction, never a life of ultimate fulfillment.

The life that one willingly “loses” in self-sacrifice and in communion with Jesus will be rewarded with eternal life. We Filipinos are proud of our first kababayan to be canonized to have measured up to Jesus Christ’s total commitment to God, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, who faced martyrdom with extraordinary flair, proclaiming that he would offer a thousand lives is he had them for his God whom he would never deny or exchange for anything.

Alálaong bagá, discipleship has its rewards. The dynamic relationship between Jesus and His followers reflects the intimacy between Him and His heavenly Father. Just as to receive Jesus is to receive the Father who sent Him, to receive his disciples is to receive Jesus. “Whoever receives you receives me,” demonstrates the esteem Jesus has for His followers. He identifies himself with them, as they are asked to identify themselves with Him. Jesus identifies Himself with every just person, be they the least of the little ones, and He promises a sure reward to anyone who receives and loves Him in their persons.

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

Empowering the vulnerable communities in the war against Covid-19 Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS

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ayati Ghosh, the Executive Secretary of the International Development Economics Association, explained that under a pandemic, the health of the richest depends on the health of the poorest. She wrote: “Pandemics like Covid-19, alarming and destructive as they are, can serve a useful purpose if they remind everyone of the critical importance of public health. When a contagious disease strikes, even a society’s most protected elites must worry about the health of neglected populations. Those who have advocated privatization and cost-cutting measures that deny health care to the most vulnerable now know that they did so at their own peril. A society’s overall health depends on the health of its poorest people.”

Indeed, Covid-19 has made many realize that the health of one is the health of all. In line with this, the response of most governments to the Covid-19 threat is to lock down whole communities to protect each community from the spread of the virus. At the same time, governments have rushed to rebuild their respective public health-care systems, most of which were in varying states of neglect and stagnation due to the past neo-liberal policy of leaving everything to the market. This is why outside of China, the countries that have successfully managed or contained the virus spread are those with good existing public health-care systems such as Cuba, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

However, the wholesale program of isolating communities from each other has resulted in the devastating paralysis of the economy and the consequent collapse of businesses, livelihoods and jobs in virtually all countries. For the vulnerable segments of society, the health-economic crisis has also been transformed into a food-hunger-survival crisis for many families. To save people’s lives, the Philippines and other countries paired the lockdown measure with a program of social amelioration and relief good distribution.

However, the question is: how

long can a financially-strapped government sustain a program of relief distribution, wage subsidy and other forms of assistance? Congress has been pushing for new trillion-peso stimulus packages to rev up the economy, revive businesses and create jobs. In response to these Congressional initiatives, both the DOF and Neda have cautioned the legislators that the government is now in the red and that not enough funds can be sourced further from new borrowings. There are virtually none from the BOC and BIR, whose collections have gone down dramatically.

So how can the most vulnerable segments of society survive in a flattened economy amidst a deepening fiscal crisis facing the government?

Earlier, we wrote that the government should tweak its “Build, Build, Build” program away from the costly big-ticket infra projects in favor of labor-intensive low-cost community rebuilding and infra development projects in the most depressed and vulnerable communities. We also wrote that the government, given the natural timidity of big private investors to invest today and the collapse of the global and national markets, should be the lead job creator and employer in Covid times.

The point is that the government has no choice but to manage a Keynesian-style piloting of the economy. But can it do this without fleshing out a clear development framework? Can it be Keynesian while pushing at the same time for neo-liberal policy measures such as opening up the economy to FDIs through generous fiscal incentives at a time when FDI flows are slowing down worldwide? And what can the government do in addressing the survival needs of the vulnerable segments of society now that funds are drying up?

This author is proposing another policy approach: transform the vulnerable communities as partners in waging the war against Covid-19.

They should stop being passive receivers of amelioration assistance.

They should be developed and treated as partners in the war against the pandemic. The transformation can happen as follows: 1. Build up community awareness, knowledge and skills in combating the spread of the virus and in building up community wellness.

The community here covers all members of the community, families and government and non-government organizations existing in the community. Organized communities with enlightened leaders are in the best position to initiate and institutionalize preventive measures against Covid-19 and other infectious diseases such as social distancing and good practices in sanitation, health and water management.

2. Use the Covid-19 crisis to institutionalize and build up the primary health-care system, the necessary base nationwide for the successful implementation of a universal health-care system, as successfully illustrated by the experiences of Cuba, Thailand and Vietnam. The building up of the primary health-care system requires the establishment of a clinic and health facilities as well as the hiring of needed health personnel.

However, the role of a primary health-care system is a complex one.

The WHO’s Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 explains it as follows: “Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self reliance and self-determination.” It addresses the “health problems in the community, providing promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services.”

But in addition, the system also involves the “promotion of food supply and proper nutrition” as well as coordination in relation to “aspects of national and community development, in particular agriculture, animal husbandry, food, industry, education, housing, public works,

communications and other sectors.”

In short, community wellness in Covid times should be developed around the idea of a well-functioning system of primary health-care system, which addresses the community health, economic and livelihood concerns in a holistic manner.

3. Revive livelihoods and jobs at the community level without violating the rules on management of the spread of the virus such as social distancing and wearing of safety masks. Here the role of social dialogue, consultations and problemsolving at the community level is critical. Very often the informal workers and commnuity-based micro and solo enterprises are ignored or forgotten in existing and proposed stimulus packages. One explanation is that many informal workers have livelihoods that are not registered and are not counted under the MSME business grouping. These include the home-based workers, street vendors, jeepney/tricycle drivers, service workers contacted through the barangay or cellular communication, informal construction workers, and so on.

As to the micro and family businesses, they are usually cited as the justification for the stimulus packages. However, experience shows that these businesses, which constitute almost a million, are usually left out in national policy formulation on government assistance to distressed businesses. The government is understandably comfortable talking on the details of stimulus packages with the big industry associations and established business chambers.

The challenge then is for the government, at the national and local levels, to work out stimulus plans involving the most vulnerable or weakest in the MSME cluster. One way of approaching this is for government officials to find out the situation at the community level and talk directly to the people. During the ECQ in Metro Manila, some visionary mayors like Vico Sotto did just that, by going around various communities and working out practical solutions on maintaining livelihoods by consulting and talking directly to those affected by the ECQ. In the end, organized, disciplined and empowered communities are better partners and allies for the government compared to docile and vision-less quarantined communities.

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from the em's trilrcent onth P2.16

A12 Thursday, June 25, 2020

Rural banks resilient, to weather worst impact of pandemic–exec

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By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@Tyronepiad

HE rural banking sector is resilient enough to withstand the adverse financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a bank executive said.

GM Bank Luzon Inc. President Tomas S. Gomez IV said during a webinar hosted by the Institute of Corporate Directors that rural banks, given their robust fundamentals, could overcome the current crisis.

“Like the banking sector in general, rural banks, as a whole, coming into this pandemic are wellpositioned to absorb some pain and adapt,” said Gomez, who also served as president of Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines

in 2008 to 2009.

The sector, he said, has sufficient capitalization, noting that capital adequacy ratio stood at 19.5 percent as of end-December 2019.

This is nearly double the industry requirement.

According to preliminary data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the entire Philippine banking system's capitalization reached P2.35 trillion in April, which is 2.08 percent higher than P2.30 trillion a month ago and 8.9 percent more than P2.16 trillion

the year earlier.

Gomez said the rural banks have a “good” liquidity ratio of 52.9 percent amid the pandemic.

“Therefore, depending on each bank’s risk appetite, there is ample cash to support businesses,” he explained.

He noted that rural banks also have been recording return on equity of 9 percent in the past couple of years.

Currently, Gomez said there are 447 rural banks with 2,810 branches across the country, 95 percent of which are located outside Metro Manila.

While rural banks are seen to be robust, the GM official said that they should still conduct impact assessment to identify the most affected sectors during the pandemic.

Gomez noted that, in general, the sector has the biggest exposure in the agricultural value chain.

“The bulk of our customers are

small holder farmers, commercial farmers, traders, millers, input suppliers [and] food supply transport delivery,” he explained.

Despite financial constraints amid the pandemic, Gomez observed that some farmer-clients continued to pay their borrowings according to the deadline, not opting to defer even after the debt moratorium imposed by the government.

The same case was also noted for borrowers from the micro enterprise sector, he said: 40 percent to 50 percent were voluntarily paying their weekly or monthly amortizations shortly after the lockdown.

This, as business activities for the sector—including hardware, basic goods, junkshop and sarisari stores—began picking up after lockdown eased, he added.

“At the same time, rural banks have little or no exposure to the most impacted businesses,” Gomez said, referring to airlines, bus

companies, hotels, tourism and restaurants, among others.

“Given the general nature of the lockdown, which was focused on highly urbanized areas, the rural banking sector, I think, in terms of lockdown, did not suffer as much,” he added.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

(RCBC) President Eugene S. Acevedo, in the same webinar, agreed that the banks should be able to evaluate the severely impacted industries to minimize exposure.

Among these are real estate, manufacturing, transport, storage, construction, food services, accommodation and entertainment, he said. Banks should then be able to run various sensitivities to estimate the initial impact of the pandemic-induced crisis, he said.

Apart from this, the RCBC chief said that banks should be able to equip employees with much-needed skills as the banking sector enters the so-called new normal.

Lacson refutes Carpio, IBP head, on anti-terrorism bill’s provisions

By Butch Fernandez

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@butchfBM

EN. Panfilo Lacson, speaking before the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), shot down apprehensions

by former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, over the Congress-approved Anti-Terror Bill (ATB) awaiting President Duterte to sign it into law.

Lacson informed the MAP forum

EASTERLIES AFFECTING THE EASTERN SECTIONS OF VISAYAS AND MINDANAO as of 4:00 am - June 24, 2020

that “records of the Senate archives will tell us that the phrase ‘having been duly authorized in writing by the Anti-Terrorism Council...’ under Section 29, which is now being challenged as unconstitutional by Justice Carpio as well as IBP Presi-

dent Domingo Egon Cayosa, was actually Senator Franklin Drilon’s amendment in the Human Security Act of 2007, later accepted by another giant in the legal profession, the sponsor of the Human Security Act of 2007, former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, and is merely being retained in the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.”

Lacson clarified that the legislative intent of the ATB is clearly to premise Section 29 on a valid warrantless arrest, as also lawfully allowed in other crimes that are not related to terrorism.

He said the provision is compliant with Rule 113, Section 5 of the Revised Rules of Court, noting that under the proposed Anti-Terrorism Law, a warrantless arrest is allowed under the

same circumstances as in any other crime, by virtue of: (a) in flagrante delicto arrest; and (b) a hot pursuit arrest.

“It was never the intention of Congress to amend the rules on warrantless arrest or what we also refer to as a citizen’s arrest,” Lacson affirmed, noting that the same phrase contained in Section 18 (entitled “Period of Detention in the Event of an Actual or Imminent Terrorist Attack ”) of the Human Security Act of 2007 has the same language of Section 29 of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, voted favorably by a number of distinguished legal experts and luminaries, among others, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives.”

Continued on A3

RED CROSS TO PUT UP COVID TEST SITES IN TOURISM HUBS

THE Philippine Red Cross Bio-Molecular Laboratory in Mandaue, Cebu, capable of 4,000 tests a day, will be operating soon.

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ITH the international tourism industry facing its biggest slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic and anticipating a mad scramble to recover once travel restrictions are eased, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is set to put up molecular laboratories in the country’s tourism hubs to pave the way for the reopening of the tourism industry.

The PRC’s chairman and CEO, Senator Richard J. Gordon, said the PRC will open testing centers in Boracay, Bohol, Palawan and Siargao to enable them to advertise that workers and residents there have been tested and cleared of infection so tourists could come in.

“As we did in Subic and Clark, we will also install testing equipment in Boracay, Bohol, Palawan and Siargao. Once we’ve tested all the employees [in the tourism establishments] and the residents there, then we can advertise to the whole world, ‘we have tested all the employees here, we have tested everybody here so now you are welcome to come down.’ And jobs can be generated right away here,” said Gordon, a former Secretary of Tourism.

After inaugurating the laboratories in Clark and Subic last week, Gordon stressed that testing will not only allow for infected people to be separated from those who are not so they won’t infect them, but it would also enable people to get back to their jobs faster.

“I emphasize this—the logic behind the testing is that we can separate the people who are sick from the people who are not sick so they won’t contaminate. But the more important reason is—if we are able to do that, we can get our jobs back faster.

Our economy is down, we need to test them fast so they can get back to work,” he said, adding that tourism will also provide jobs.

With access to reliable and fast testing and with preventive measures in place, there would be minimal chances of further spreading the disease in the said areas, he argued.

“With reliable testing centers in those areas, once they arrive at the airports the incoming travellers can be tested quickly and housed in quarantine so residents won’t fear contamination. We have to ensure victory over Covid and at the same time, we need to revive our economy,” Gordon said.

Sotto seeks more funds for MSME support plan

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HE government should augment the budget earmarked by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for its Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program aimed at helping micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday.

Sotto said the P1-billion budget for the program is not enough to help MSMEs jumpstart their businesses follow ing the economic dow ntur n that they suffered when most prov inces were placed under str ict quarantines in a bid to contain the spread of the coronav ir us disease.

“Many small and medium companies are just starting to resume operations, with most if not all of them operating at 30 to 50 percent. They suffered huge income losses when their businesses were shut down for more than two months.

It is the responsibility of the government to help them recover from their meltdown,” Sotto said.

The DTI’s C ARES loan facility aims to help MSMEs by providing loans ranging from P10,000 to P200,000 for micro enterprises and up to P500,000 for small enterprises. The loan is channeled thru the agency’s financing arm SB Corporation.

The program was launched in mid-May. Barely a month after the program opened, the SBC announced it was suspending loan applications as it has already breached the loan facility’s funding capacity of P1 billion.

Sotto said the application period was too short.

“Many MSMEs were still in the process of assessing their income losses and have yet to determine the amount of funding assistance they needed to restart their businesses. The one-month application period was too short for them to have availed of the government loan.

The DTI should reopen the application period to allow more small and medium businesses to apply,” Sotto said.

The Senate President likewise said the DTI should ask the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to infuse extra funds for the CARES program, which has a P1-billion loan allocation.

Data from the DTI show there are over 1 million business establishments in the country, of which, 99.52 percent or 998,342 are MSMEs. Most of these MSMEs are located in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) regions.

Sotto said the DBM can tap the Executive’s Covid emergency response budget for the needed extra funds.

“We are calling on the DBM to augment the fund for the CARES program so that the application period can be reopened. In a time of crisis, it is important for government to show it cares for the small,” Sotto said.

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SMIC to come out stronger after pandemic–Sy-Coson

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

M Investments Corp. (SMIC) on Wednesday said is adapting to changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and expects its core businesses of banking, retail and property to come out stronger after the crisis.

“The pandemic has made us more aware of the two important things for our customer—convenience and safety, and for ourselves, adaptability and transformation,” SMIC Vice Chairman Teresita T. Sy-Coson said during the firm’s online annual

stockholders’ meeting.

“We have been improving our online and physical experience in operations across the group. From the banking to the retail to the mall to the property businesses.”

“Coming from this lockdown,

we were able to operate a hybrid way of reaching our customers.

We are excited to strengthen this new offering. And going forward, we will transform into a stronger and more adapted SM After this crisis.”

SM President Frederic C. Dybuncio said SMIC's units have their respective e-commerce initiative strategies either as a direct participant or as a service provider.

“As a direct participant, we have our own online shopping sites.

And then we also actually have our own stores in several of the other e-commerce platforms, just to be able to access a much wider customer base for SM products,” Dybuncio said.

“We also are working with several partners to develop a grocery delivery service, particularly at this

time as a service provider. We use our physical presence of our malls and stores as pickup locations for click and collect for e-commerce.

“We also provide logistics support such as warehousing and last mile delivery, using the different logistics companies that we actually bought within the group,” he noted. The SM Group will also provide the digital payment network to its banks, as well as their e-wallet service to their joint ventures such as with GrabPay Philippines.”

SMIC also declared cash dividends to shareholders worth P5.1 billion equivalent to P4.25 per share. The total amount is equivalent to 50 percent of its 2019 net income attributable to the parent company.

It will be given to shareholders on record as of July 9 and payable on July 23.

Hotels revise capex due to Covid-19

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

H

OTEL companies are revising capital expenditures (capex) and timetables for opening of properties in the light of the Covid-19 outbreak, which has restricted the travel of their anticipated guests.

In the webinar “Hotel Industry: Through and Beyond Covid-19” hosted by real-estate services provider Santos Knight Frank, Arthur Gindap, senior vice president and business unit general manager for Robinsons Hotels and Resorts said the company has some 20 property projects ongoing, most of which will continue, but two possibly “deferred for later simply because if you start to open these things anytime soon, demand just won’t be there…. But we're moving with about seven properties in full blast on and we’d like to open by say next year, and we are going to be the largest hotel company by

Globe grants free access to Covid Kaya

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

G

lobe Telecom Inc. is providing free mobile data access to frontline workers as well as suspected Covid-19 patients through its partnership with the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization.

In a statement, Globe Chief Sustainability Officer Yolanda C. Crisanto said Globe or TM users may input their information in the Covid Kaya mobile app for them to use the so-called Cart System site for free.

Covid Kaya is an electronic case investigation form used by local government units, laboratories, and hospitals to input Covid-19 patients details and information which can be seen by other facilities of the DOH for faster and easier validation of cases.

The Cart System is a patient information system which allows suspected Covid-19 patients to get on queue in a specific testing center before going to the facility. This gives the facility control over the number of people visiting to prevent overcrowding. “Through this initiative, we hope this further helps the DOH in detecting incidents and gathering information on Covid-19 so we can have a comprehensive and evidence-based national response to the pandemic,” she said.

The DOH reported on Wednesday that Covid-19 cases in the Philippines have already exceeded 32,000. The agency said the country recorded 470 new cases (357 fresh and 113 late), 2,204 deaths and 8,656 recoveries.

2023-2024.” These projects include: Summit Hotel and Go Hotel in Naga, this year, and in 2021, a Go Hotel in Tuguegarao, Summit Hotel in General Santos, as well as Westin Sonata Place in Ortigas, H2G Bridgetowne in Libis, and FILI in NuStar Cebu. FILI is Robinsons Hotels’s 5-star brand.

He declined to share the capital expenditures allocated by Robinsons Land Corp., the parent company, for hotel projects this year, and in 2021.

For her part, SM Hotels and Resorts and Conventions Corp.

(SMHCC) Executive Vice President Peggy Angeles told the BusinessMirror separately, “After three months and with the uncertainty as to when the pandemic will end we are currently reviewing the capex.

We will continue with our ongoing projects [but] we will have to review for the next two years as we redirect our capex to what is more essential for operating the hotels and convention centers.”

At the webinar, she said SMHCC will continue with the projects it

has started before Covid-19, such as Lanson Place serviced apartments and hotel at the Mall of Asia slated to open in 2022, Park Inn by Radisson in Bacolod (2021), the additional 100 rooms for Park Inn by Radisson at Clark (end-2020), SMX Convention Center Clark (2021), and the SMX Convention Center in Olongapo (2020). The openings of Park Inn in Bacolod, the Clark extension and SMX Clark had been delayed, however, due to the enhanced community quarantine which affected the construction industry as well, she said.

Many hotels and resorts have already started upgrading their facilities in keeping with stricter health and safety guidelines issued by the Department of Tourism. A number of hotels have also begun investing in digital booking and payments systems to ensure less physical contact between the guests and hotel frontliners.

The investments are costly, acknowledged Bruce Winton, general manager of Marriot International

Manila, but he appealed to his colleagues that these not be passed on to the guests in the form of higher room rates, or food prices.

“Consumer spending has been affected and we're sensitive to that, but I also think the consumer will realize that the operations are becoming more expensive to run. We have got more equipment, [we] work more, and more capital funding is required to make changes and adjustments to the properties, like amenities in the room,” he said. “[But] I think, pushing the prices up is ambitious, at best unlikely, but deeply disconcerting to try to drive business into your hotel. It’s gonna hurt everybody and may not be feasible. If I was going to make a broad-stroke statement, I would just say, let's just keep things the way they are and add as much value as much confidence as possible. But that you know, if we ever get in a price war, it will kill what little industry there’s left for us to seek a living from.”

PSE closes office, trading floor

T

he Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) on Wednesday said it has shut down its main office and physical trading floor in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, to decontaminate its premises after an employee tested positive for Covid-19.

The PSE said its offices will remain shut for 24 hours starting Wednesday morning, when all employees and traders who reported for work have been asked to vacate the premises.

Stock market trading will not be affected by the closure of the trading floor as trading participants are equipped to conduct offsite trading. Business functions of the PSE will also not be hampered by the closure as its employees have an alternative work arrangement, it said.

The PSE will initiate contact tracing to identify the individuals that the employee was in close contact with when the staff member was in the premises of the exchange.

“We are deeply concerned that one of our employees tested positive for Covid-19. Because of this, we need to take the appropriate steps to curb the spread of the virus. We are closing down our premises for decontamination and for any other necessary measures to ensure that the health of our employees will not be comprised,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said.

Aside from the decontamination, the PSE has asked employees who were in close contact with the staff who tested positive for coronavirus to selfquarantine.

“We will abide by the protocols prescribed by the DTI-DOLE [Department of Trade and IndustryDepartment of Labor and Employment] Interim Guidelines on Workplace Prevention and Control of Covid-19 in the event a worker is suspected or confirmed as having Covid-19,” Monzon said. VG Cabuag

Thursday, June 25, 2020

B1

Airbus exec: Airlines’ safety features minimize risk of virus transmission

By Recto Mercene @rectomercene

P

assengers of many major air carriers are safe from the threat of coronavirus infections because of several layers of protections built into the aircraft, considered as “industry standards” over the years.

This was explained by Anand Stanley, newly appointed president of Airbus Asia-Pacific during a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.

Stanley said passengers must trust the safety features of modern airliners so that air travel would soon resume.

One of this factors is "cabin air quality,” Stanley said, adding that cabin air quality in one of the key elements that the aviation industry has maintained to keep trust passenger's in air travel.

He said maintaining air quality is an industry effort by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), airport and airline regulators and other agencies “all working together.”

Stanley said all of these agencies have contributed tremendous amounts of efforts “to manage airflow, including social distancing and the wearing of the appropriate medical mask among others.”

“Aircraft cabin provides very, very low risk for the transmission of virus,” Stanley assured, adding that there are “built-in advance air filtration system that manage airflow pattern.”

He said one of these is the renewal of air cabin every two to three minutes.

“You will not find this level of air safety in any other mode of transport,” Stanley said, adding that the air inside airplane cabins is “similar to the operating theaters in hospitals.”

To clarify, Stanley explains that cabin air flow is recycled and drawn from the air outside of the airplane. Although he did not mention it, outside air temperature of most airplane’s cruising altitude is minus 30 to 50 degrees Celsius, and the air is practically free from any pollution.

“Fresh air is continuously introduced during the flight. A plane’s jets are sucking in and compressing huge volumes of air to burn with the aviation fuel, and the excess cabin air is vented through valves to the rear of the plane to keep the cabin pressure constant,” said BBC Science Focus.

Stanley said this fresh air is forced down from the top cabin towards the bottom at very high speed, “at 1 meter per second velocity.” He explained that this air is sucked out from the floor of the airplane and expelled outside.

Stanley The vertical velocity of this downward air is so fast that there is not enough “transversal motion” to transmit the virus. “This transversal flow or row-to-row motion is completely avoided because of the downward flow.”

The other way of cleaning air inside airplane cabins is with the help of “high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters.

“HEPA filters remove 99 percent of the particles from cabin air,” Stanley said, adding the filters are fine enough to catch the coronavirus, “which is a large virus.”

The website said “air purifiers with HEPA filtration efficiently capture particles the size of [and far smaller than] the virus that causes Covid-19.”

“The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] believes the virus is mainly transmitted by person-toperson contact, but there is growing evidence that it may also be transmitted through the air. If that is confirmed to be the case, HEPA filters will capture airborne coronaviruses,” according to its web site.

“The virus that causes Covid-19 is approximately 0.125 micron [125 nanometers] in diameter. It falls squarely within the particle-size range that HEPA filters capture with extraordinary efficiency: 0.01 micron [10 nanometers] and above.”

The Airbus executive said airline companies are trying to point out the efficiency of cleaning cabin air to instill confidence among travelers.

“The airlines industry will recover when we see the recovery of passenger traffic,” Stanley assured, adding that if the industry is able to communicate the safety inside airplane cabins, “then air travelers would be convinced to shed their inhibitions and take to the sky once more in this challenging times.”

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 25, 2020

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 24, 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 PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK PHILTRUST RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

46 100.1 71.8 21.45 7.72 38 21 48.15 96.5 16.78 108.5 54.25 0.69 17.6 2.53 0.99 0.29 0.55 164 1701

47 101.1 72 21.5 7.73 38.25 21.05 49.3 109 17.1 108.8 54.45 0.75 17.7 2.78 1 0.3 0.57 169 1760

47 102.6 72.5 21.4 7.85 38.2 21.15 47.9 96.05 17.58 110 54.95 0.7 17.2 2.53 1.07 0.3 0.55 161 1701

47 102.7 72.6 21.6 7.85 38.5 21.25 49.3 109 17.58 110.5 54.95 0.77 17.6 2.53 1.07 0.3 0.57 169 1701

47 100.1 71.15 21.35 7.66 38 20.9 47.9 96.05 16.78 106.1 54.1 0.69 17.2 2.53 1 0.3 0.55 161 1701

47 100.1 72 21.5 7.73 38 21.05 49.3 109 16.78 108.8 54.25 0.77 17.6 2.53 1 0.3 0.57 169 1701

300 1102510 1485230 210700 1594200 1574800 1205300 500 20 61700 1540860 13090 224000 10500 8000 52000 200000 521000 230 5

14100 110948735 107035516 4528300 12357746 60067555 25314760 24250 2050.5 1050616 167335593 710946.5 156670 182010 20240 54200 60000 292050 38245 8505

-41321689 -37131054.5 -528500 -3507735 -29763635 -23040135 17000 -34508210 -572839 -34400 15940 -

INDUSTRIAL ALSONS CONS 1.21 1.25 1.28 1.28 1.21 1.21 1561000 1928440 ABOITIZ POWER 26.7 27.05 28.25 28.25 26.7 26.7 1785500 48261495 -28997315 FIRST GEN 21.05 21.5 22 22 20.9 21.5 629400 13528275 -429365 FIRST PHIL HLDG 58.5 59 59.1 59.1 58 58.5 13690 797302 -616831 MERALCO 266.8 267.8 276.6 277 265.6 266.8 291990 78684112 -45232744 MANILA WATER 12.32 12.34 12.3 12.66 12.3 12.32 1965600 24433422 4310656 PETRON 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.18 3.15 3.16 1570000 4966920 -221240 2.86 2.95 2.9 2.96 2.85 2.95 41000 119650 PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM 11.14 11.46 11.5 11.5 11.14 11.46 218000 2490378 -844484 18.2 18.26 18.78 18.78 18.2 18.2 409200 7477418 -5115722 PILIPINAS SHELL 8.03 8.07 8 8.09 7.99 8.03 17800 142843 SPC POWER AGRINURTURE 7.9 7.95 7.85 8 7.71 7.9 963500 7598788 -93265 2.6 2.65 2.63 2.65 2.59 2.6 854000 2232700 89040 AXELUM 12.12 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.12 12.14 4500 54654 CNTRL AZUCARERA CENTURY FOOD 14.2 14.38 14.7 14.9 14.18 14.38 850900 12434264 -2247110 DEL MONTE 4.32 4.4 4.32 4.32 4.31 4.31 8000 34500 DNL INDUS 5.04 5.08 4.98 5.12 4.97 5.04 2413000 12121150 -3129700 EMPERADOR 8.05 8.1 8.05 8.21 8.04 8.05 71249800 576,336,352( 573,996,025.9997) SMC FOODANDBEV 68.15 68.5 68.5 68.8 67.25 68.5 78010 5308076 223038 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.57 0.58 0.57 0.59 0.56 0.58 886000 509630 14120 FRUITAS HLDG 1.26 1.27 1.26 1.28 1.26 1.27 3733000 4733440 166370 32 32.5 33 33.3 32 32.5 28300 928420 -105390 GINEBRA 143 143.9 144.5 147.5 141.3 143.9 741670 106726464 -1608936 JOLLIBEE 6.4 6.81 6.7 6.81 6.35 6.81 18300 122020 -13620 MACAY HLDG 5.92 5.93 5.92 6.02 5.91 5.93 856300 5099794 -603623 MAXS GROUP 0.135 0.137 0.138 0.138 0.135 0.135 380000 51360 48600 MG HLDG 6.12 6.17 6.12 6.22 6.12 6.17 249400 1542446 -796713 SHAKEYS PIZZA 1.63 1.65 1.64 1.68 1.63 1.63 17385000 28542050 24637720 ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP 4.31 4.4 4.35 4.35 4.35 4.35 5000000 21750000 -21750000 ROXAS HLDG 1.6 1.66 1.61 1.61 1.6 1.6 12000 19290 SWIFT FOODS 0.104 0.116 0.108 0.116 0.103 0.116 420000 45160 UNIV ROBINA 128 128.1 132.4 133.9 128.1 128.1 1195360 154882929 -87004261 VITARICH 0.86 0.87 0.9 0.9 0.85 0.86 5555000 4802400 273180 CONCRETE A 55 58.6 58.6 58.6 58.5 58.5 300 17568 CONCRETE B 56.15 61.95 58 58 56.15 56.15 1220 68812 -6176.5 1.11 1.12 1.1 1.12 1.1 1.12 5161000 5735460 -1124500 CEMEX HLDG 9.9 9.96 10 10 9.9 9.96 120700 1199793 -4990 EAGLE CEMENT 5.07 5.08 5.21 5.24 4.97 5.07 1043600 5331429 -387135 EEI CORP 6.95 6.96 6.45 7.2 6.35 6.96 13588000 94967529 441318 HOLCIM 7.71 7.73 6.7 7.78 6.55 7.71 15596400 114552768 -10282220 MEGAWIDE 8.9 9 9 9 9 9 500 4500 PHINMA TKC METALS 0.73 0.76 0.75 0.78 0.73 0.73 69000 52590 VULCAN INDL 0.84 0.86 0.88 0.88 0.82 0.86 1559000 1306700 CHEMPHIL 125.1 135 135 135 125 125 120 15980 CROWN ASIA 1.97 1.99 1.98 2 1.96 1.97 56000 111040 EUROMED 2.24 2.27 2.28 2.28 2.22 2.24 269000 603780 PRYCE CORP 4.09 4.19 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.2 21000 87780 CONCEPCION 20.55 21 21 21.85 21 21 7900 166930 -109200 GREENERGY 1.81 1.82 1.84 1.85 1.79 1.82 4191000 7637360 -14270 5.61 5.7 5.79 5.79 5.55 5.7 679600 3816700 2580479 INTEGRATED MICR 1.08 1.09 1.1 1.1 1.08 1.09 641000 695720 IONICS SFA SEMICON 1.29 1.3 1.37 1.37 1.27 1.29 4058000 5316930 CIRTEK HLDG 8.23 8.24 8.88 8.91 8.23 8.23 24700400 213169293 1217469

HOLDING & FRIMS

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES TOP FRONTIER ZEUS HLDG

0.485 9.5 786 46.7 7.01 1.72 6.13 0.5 0.56 0.55 5.2 4.31 8.05 3.14 470.4 3.36 61 0.63 2.7 8.3 0.475 3.87 0.8 0.92 932 100.1 0.62 128.2 0.138

0.49 9.61 791 46.75 7.05 1.73 6.22 0.52 0.57 0.6 5.28 4.32 8.2 3.78 471.6 3.4 62 0.64 2.72 8.36 0.53 3.88 0.82 0.94 937 100.3 0.65 135 0.143

0.49 9.88 800 48 7.1 1.72 6.2 0.51 0.57 0.61 5.2 4.38 8.22 3.05 485 3.4 61.5 0.67 2.7 8.46 0.52 3.84 0.82 0.94 940 101.6 0.62 128.4 0.143

0.49 9.88 805 48.05 7.15 1.73 6.2 0.51 0.59 0.61 5.28 4.38 8.22 3.05 487.6 3.4 63 0.67 2.72 8.6 0.53 3.93 0.82 0.94 940 101.6 0.64 128.4 0.143

0.485 9.21 786 46.75 7 1.7 6.2 0.5 0.56 0.6 5.16 4.32 8.05 3.05 470.4 3.39 60.5 0.62 2.66 8.3 0.5 3.84 0.78 0.94 931 99.8 0.62 128.1 0.138

0.485 9.5 786 46.75 7.05 1.73 6.2 0.5 0.57 0.6 5.2 4.32 8.05 3.05 470.4 3.39 61 0.63 2.7 8.3 0.53 3.88 0.82 0.94 937 100.3 0.62 128.1 0.143

4290000 16200 181010 817300 50274100 1350000 3800 14000 1094000 8000 1027100 10395000 29900 22000 117050 13000 1895460 1410000 225000 1281600 190000 83192000 27000 72000 150740 225440 51000 310 1190000

2086000 153980 143009800 38477705 353874454 2312230 23560 7040 623530 4860 5364501 44970420 241210 67100 55516886 44170 117106125.5 904050 604660 10798842 98800 323638810 22100 67680 141217375 22566426.5 31640 39755 166280

-767250 -57022250 -25725990 -8794909 1700 23560 1000 3845451 -30068840 -42662 -14326762 -34000 -61546102 -295900 -8703746 -85384100 -25251445 -11263633.5 -11556 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.53 0.54 0.54 0.55 0.53 0.54 981000 526770 AYALA LAND 34.05 34.5 36.1 36.45 34.05 34.05 17104500 596214135 ARANETA PROP 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.03 1.02 1.02 32000 32690 BELLE CORP 1.41 1.42 1.42 1.42 1.41 1.42 252000 355880 A BROWN 0.71 0.72 0.69 0.74 0.69 0.72 6415000 4626990 CITYLAND DEVT 0.74 0.76 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.74 46000 34040 CROWN EQUITIES 0.123 0.124 0.123 0.123 0.123 0.123 170000 20910 6 6.2 6 6 6 6 65200 391200 CEBU HLDG CEB LANDMASTERS 4.18 4.21 4.2 4.22 4.15 4.21 2628000 11035170 0.37 0.385 0.38 0.385 0.365 0.37 18800000 7040850 CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY 0.27 0.28 0.255 0.28 0.25 0.28 390000 105500 DOUBLEDRAGON 17.94 17.96 18 18.24 17.6 17.96 489600 8805504 6.3 6.5 6.38 6.5 6.3 6.3 36300 229415 DM WENCESLAO 0.265 0.27 0.265 0.27 0.26 0.27 2140000 572750 EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO 0.098 0.099 0.105 0.105 0.093 0.098 740000 73840 FILINVEST LAND 1 1.01 1.01 1.02 1 1.01 14308000 14448990 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.87 0.88 0.88 0.89 0.86 0.86 577000 503180 8990 HLDG 9.89 9.98 10.08 10.08 9.8 9.89 48600 481118 PHIL INFRADEV 0.87 0.88 0.89 0.91 0.88 0.88 1375000 1226380 KEPPEL PROP 3.3 3.35 3.4 3.4 3.35 3.35 38000 128950 MEGAWORLD 3.06 3.09 3.16 3.19 3.06 3.06 22123000 68963900 0.155 0.158 0.159 0.159 0.155 0.158 7920000 1241620 MRC ALLIED PHIL ESTATES 0.295 0.315 0.295 0.295 0.295 0.295 50000 14750 PRIMEX CORP 1.41 1.44 1.44 1.44 1.39 1.44 33000 46320 ROBINSONS LAND 17.1 17.24 17.52 17.54 17.1 17.24 1225700 21235040 0.236 0.247 0.248 0.248 0.232 0.236 160000 37840 PHIL REALTY ROCKWELL 1.53 1.55 1.59 1.59 1.55 1.55 3000 4730 SHANG PROP 2.69 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.72 10000 27200 STA LUCIA LAND 1.88 1.9 1.91 1.91 1.8 1.88 101000 188700 SM PRIME HLDG 31 31.1 31.5 31.85 31 31 5232800 163428030 VISTAMALLS 3.71 3.78 3.81 3.81 3.75 3.78 85000 320920 SUNTRUST HOME 1.32 1.33 1.38 1.39 1.32 1.33 5117000 6900740 VISTA LAND 3.9 3.91 3.93 4 3.9 3.9 1226000 4819580

-280397485 -179630 12580 -3711360 337980 -66686 -2700 -5717760 -33370 -241866 -36097240 -13004938 24480 -80153155 19050 -2552420

SERVICES ABS CBN 15.22 15.24 15.4 15.42 15.1 15.24 633400 9636658 GMA NETWORK 4.88 4.89 4.91 4.91 4.88 4.88 312000 1526680 MANILA BULLETIN 0.365 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.365 0.365 240000 87950 MLA BRDCASTING 13.04 13.5 14.06 14.06 13.02 13.04 1600 21278 GLOBE TELECOM 2094 2126 2130 2130 2082 2094 54995 115468440 PLDT 1212 1213 1250 1250 1213 1213 139965 170915250 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.049 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.049 0.05 10000000 499500 2.68 2.96 2.9 2.96 2.66 2.68 136000 380550 DFNN INC 3.59 3.6 3.71 3.83 3.58 3.6 76444000 281179080 DITO CME HLDG 1.3 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.3 1.3 10000 13640 IMPERIAL ISLAND INFO 0.074 0.079 0.074 0.079 0.074 0.079 390000 30360 NOW CORP 2.11 2.12 2.3 2.31 2.1 2.12 10165000 21931510 0.176 0.179 0.181 0.184 0.173 0.179 7090000 1254300 TRANSPACIFIC BR PHILWEB 2.31 2.32 2.27 2.36 2.25 2.32 752000 1741930 2GO GROUP 9.95 10 10.18 10.2 9.92 9.95 49900 497824 CHELSEA 3.81 3.83 3.85 3.85 3.75 3.81 2259000 8601800 CEBU AIR 41.5 41.6 41.5 41.9 41 41.5 780300 32246895 INTL CONTAINER 100.8 101 101.5 101.5 99.9 100.8 807840 81417329 LBC EXPRESS 12.9 13.2 13.5 13.5 13 13.2 22200 290352 MACROASIA 7.1 7.11 6.13 7.1 6.12 7.1 27214900 183801066 METROALLIANCE A 2.46 2.47 2.5 2.56 2.42 2.47 1472000 3659490 6.9 7 6.6 7 6.6 6.9 54800 383151 PAL HLDG HARBOR STAR 0.83 0.85 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.83 509000 425240 1.24 1.31 1.33 1.33 1.23 1.26 12000 15370 ACESITE HOTEL BOULEVARD HLDG 0.025 0.026 0.025 0.026 0.025 0.025 11700000 292800 GRAND PLAZA 12.02 13.24 12.02 12.02 12.02 12.02 300 3606 WATERFRONT 0.385 0.39 0.385 0.385 0.385 0.385 250000 96250 CENTRO ESCOLAR 6.3 6.48 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.3 1700 10710 FAR EASTERN U 775 830 776 776 776 776 490 380240 IPEOPLE 7.51 8.84 8.84 8.84 8.84 8.84 300 2652 STI HLDG 0.305 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.3 0.31 3220000 975250 BERJAYA 2.07 2.08 2.08 2.16 2.08 2.08 76000 161810 BLOOMBERRY 7.4 7.44 7.39 7.5 7.25 7.4 1904500 14084613 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.97 2.09 2.05 2.09 2.05 2.09 34000 70820 LEISURE AND RES 1.53 1.59 1.6 1.62 1.52 1.53 221000 340130 2.87 2.9 3.16 3.26 2.85 2.87 1146000 3466480 PH RESORTS GRP 0.335 0.34 0.34 0.345 0.335 0.34 6630000 2261850 PREMIUM LEISURE 7.6 7.65 8.12 8.15 7.5 7.65 5173500 40191033 ALLHOME 1.65 1.66 1.64 1.67 1.63 1.65 2756000 4572880 METRO RETAIL 44.75 44.8 44.75 45.4 44.75 44.75 317000 14216595 PUREGOLD 63 63.1 64 64.3 62 63.1 247630 15693109.5 ROBINSONS RTL 126 129 129 129 129 129 180 23220 PHIL SEVEN CORP SSI GROUP 1.18 1.19 1.23 1.23 1.16 1.18 4399000 5228400 WILCON DEPOT 15.3 15.32 15.14 15.4 15.14 15.3 2885100 44143518 APC GROUP 0.325 0.335 0.33 0.335 0.32 0.325 790000 256500 EASYCALL 7.27 7.3 7.51 7.9 7.3 7.3 208300 1544407 GOLDEN BRIA 280 290 310 310 290 290 200 59294 IPM HLDG 4.61 5.08 4.5 5.1 4.5 5.08 16400 75780 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.207 0.212 0.211 0.212 0.206 0.212 2690000 564210 4.83 5 5.03 5.03 5 5 11300 56530 SBS PHIL CORP

-48605930 -78492775 -268130 2804520 -87080.0001 69299.9997 -994.9999 197020 -11639630 4905003 -5187710 840 2520 -3445523 71910 -33560 102000 12830292.9999 1409740 -3228820 -5490951 -1215230 820878 14600 4180 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 9.84 10.2 10.48 10.5 9.84 10.2 11000 109476 APEX MINING 1.16 1.17 1.24 1.28 1.16 1.16 21558000 26533180 -1188800 ABRA MINING 0.0009 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.0009 0.0009 2749000000 2480200 ATLAS MINING 1.92 1.99 1.95 1.99 1.88 1.9 363000 687500 BENGUET A 1.01 1.16 1.16 1.17 1.01 1.01 26000 27190 BENGUET B 1.14 1.3 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14 9000 10260 10260 0.181 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19 110000 20900 COAL ASIA HLDG CENTURY PEAK 2.7 2.71 2.71 2.71 2.7 2.71 275000 745050 271000 7.56 7.58 7.51 7.6 7.51 7.56 13900 105348 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 0.91 0.92 0.85 0.91 0.85 0.91 5425000 4845770 -971580 0.233 0.235 0.231 0.237 0.23 0.235 640000 148930 GEOGRACE LEPANTO A 0.089 0.09 0.084 0.092 0.084 0.09 32070000 2858620 LEPANTO B 0.09 0.093 0.088 0.094 0.088 0.09 1890000 171410 MANILA MINING A 0.0068 0.0069 0.0065 0.0068 0.0065 0.0068 95000000 633300 MARCVENTURES 0.58 0.6 0.61 0.61 0.58 0.58 459000 270800 22280 NIHAO 1.3 1.33 1.29 1.35 1.26 1.33 296000 387000 NICKEL ASIA 1.93 1.94 1.83 1.95 1.83 1.94 19772000 37528650 -3364910 ORNTL PENINSULA 0.48 0.52 0.52 0.53 0.47 0.52 1684000 817445 PX MINING 2.38 2.4 2.34 2.47 2.34 2.4 658000 1581440 -339280 SEMIRARA MINING 12.94 12.96 13 13.12 12.94 12.96 1496100 19422414 -10183314 0.0038 0.0039 0.0039 0.0039 0.0039 0.0039 5000000 19500 UNITED PARAGON ACE ENEXOR 7 7.04 6.75 7.3 6.75 7.04 1374300 9664525 -11615 0.0082 0.0083 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 2000000 16400 ORNTL PETROL A ORNTL PETROL B 0.0086 0.0095 0.0095 0.0095 0.0086 0.0086 12000000 108600 PHILODRILL 0.0075 0.0077 0.0077 0.0077 0.0077 0.0077 20000000 154000 PXP ENERGY 6.82 6.85 6.95 7.5 6.63 6.82 19940100 142798666 -691400

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 99 100 99.75 99.75 99 99 87860 8699647.5 ALCO PREF B 100.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 80 8120 AC PREF B2R 503 504 503 503 503 503 90 45270 -10060 DD PREF 100.1 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 7550 766325 FGEN PREF G 107 110 109.9 110 109.9 110 45640 5020301 GTCAP PREF A 1000 1010 1000 1000 1000 1000 300 300000 1011 1024 1018 1024 1018 1024 4525 4620200 -4084000 GTCAP PREF B 100.3 100.5 100.5 100.5 100.3 100.3 93100 9356530 MWIDE PREF PNX PREF 4 1000 1001 1001 1001 1001 1001 1000 1001000 PCOR PREF 3A 1060 1069 1060 1060 1060 1060 1000 1060000 PCOR PREF 3B 1050 1070 1069 1070 1069 1070 950 1015690 SMC PREF 2C 76.9 76.95 76.95 76.95 76.95 76.95 190 14620.5 SMC PREF 2D 75 75.85 75 75 75 75 1000000 75000000 SMC PREF 2F 78 78.4 78 78 78 78 985490 76868220 -1446120 SMC PREF 2I 78 78.7 78 78 78 78 44680 3485040

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 14.54 14.68 14.12 14.62 14.12 14.54 283700 4100946 -2650036 GMA HLDG PDR 4.63 4.79 4.63 4.63 4.61 4.61 28000 129570

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.72 0.75 0.74 0.74 0.72 0.72 59000 42860

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ITALPINAS 2.09 2.1 2.05 2.13 2.02 2.09 5617000 11652460 -464710 KEPWEALTH 6.27 6.37 6.26 6.76 6.21 6.27 87200 547093 MAKATI FINANCE 1.9 2.46 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1000 1900 MERRYMART 3.52 3.53 3.5 3.81 3.45 3.52 129428000 469351750 9631210 XURPAS 0.57 0.58 0.58 0.59 0.57 0.57 668000 386440

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 94 96 96 96 94 94 11900 1131267.5 72980

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SEC wants more independent directors in exchanges’ board

T

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to require exchanges and other organized markets in the Philippines to have more independent directors in keeping with international best practices and as prescribed by the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines.

Under a draft memorandum circular released on June 23 that it opened for public comment through July 3, independent directors shall constitute at least a majority of the members of the board of directors of exchanges and other organized markets.

This prescribed number of independent director of at least three is also under the 2015 implementing rules and regulations of the Securities Regulation Code.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. currently has three independent directors, four non-brokers and the rest are stock brokers.

The said rule will also apply to the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., the trading floor for fixed income securities.

The draft memorandum circular aligns with the best practices of major and comparable markets in many economies, where independent directors comprise the majority of

the board of securities exchanges, the SEC said.

In Bursa Malaysia, for instance, seven of its eight directors are nonexecutive directors. As disclosed, the seven directors have no family relationship with any other director or major shareholder, have no conflict of interest with the exchange, and have not been convicted of any offense within the past five years.

In the Singapore Exchange, eight of its 11 directors are independent and non-executive. Two seats are occupied by non-independent and non-executive directors, and the remaining seat by a non-independent and executive director.

The Australian Securities Exchange also adopts a policy that a majority of its directors must be independent. Its board of directors may have a minimum of seven and a maximum of 15 seats.

In the Stock Exchange of Thailand, meanwhile, its board of governors is composed of a maximum of 11 people. Six members are appointed by the country’s securities regulator and four are elected by members of the exchange. The president, who is

elected by the board, sits as an exofficio member.

Independent or outside directors also currently comprise the majority of the members of the board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; Japan Exchange Group, which owns the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Exchange; Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which owns the New York Stock Exchange; and the London Stock Exchange.

To further promote good governance and investor protection, exchanges and other organized markets in many economies impose ownership restrictions or disclosure requirements for substantial shareholdings.

In Malaysia, a shareholder will have to secure approval from the finance minister before it could own 5 percent or more of an exchange.

In India, persons acting in concert cannot hold more than 15 percent of a bourse, while Canada also bars a shareholder from owning or controlling 10 percent of any class or series of voting shares in an exchange without approval from the financial regulator.

‘Digital channels to boost MSME profitability’

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

M

icro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can improve their revenue stream by maximizing digital platforms amid the pandemic, an audit firm advised.

Isla Lipana & Co. said these companies should not only exert efforts to trim their costs, but should also have the initiative to increase profitability.

For example, businesses could have online distribution channels through partnership with e-commerce platforms or use social media pages to widen their market reach.

This, at the same time, would include cashless payment channels and online delivery services, the audit firm said.

MSMEs can better the customer experience they provide by using digital platform for product and service inquiry, Isla Lipana said. “Explore live video streaming to promote, sell and demonstrate products or services.”

Apart from this, the audit firm said businesses can also look for alternative or additional revenue channels that can be potential sources of

future growth.

MSMEs should always remember their cash position, taking note the sources and uses of funds, the audit firm said. These entities must employ a 13-week cash forecast to see if they are liquid enough to finance everyday operations.

“A reliable and robust forecast underpins the approach to cash management and provides increased confidence in making rapid tactical business decisions such as implementing cost reduction schemes, negotiating with customers, suppliers and lenders, and exploring possible flexibilities on loan covenants.”

By managing working capital more efficiently, the audit firm said MSMEs could save cash more.

“Better working capital management can lead to cash benefits. It is critical to understand the key components of working capital and see if there are opportunities for improvement.”

Isla Lipana said working capital could be improved by evaluating credit risk policies amid the pandemic while employing a quick collection method.

The MSMEs could check in with their suppliers if they could have

Clark tourism market seen picking up after easing of restrictions

C

lark Freeport—As various firms and facilities here resume operations, the tourism and hospitality market in this free port is expected to pick up after the setbacks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a recent interview, Widus Hotel General Manager Tarek Aouini is optimistic that tourism activities will improve as hotel facilities are now allowed to operate, while some restrictions have started to ease.

“We assume that the market will start to grow again and so we will keep ensuring, showing, and proving to our clients that they are safe. I believe that the market will soon pick up,” he said.

With their operations back on track, Aouini also mentioned that they are continuously implementing strict protocols and guidelines to ensure the safety of all returning tourists and guests.

“Some other business travelers have also started to come back. But of course, again, we still have to follow all the guidelines and the mandatory requirements and recommendations to make sure that safety comes first to our staff and to our guests. We are now dealing with more business travelers and players,” he added.

According to Aouini, their hotel has started

to operate again with 50-percent occupancy. He also said that some of their employees have also returned to work.

“We have been operating for 50-percent occupancy with our staff under the Task Force Team,” he mentioned.

Under Administrative Order 2020-002 issued by the Department of Tourism, accommodation establishments including hotels, motels, ecolodges, condotels, inns, and other establishments providing similar services in areas under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) are allowed to operate at 50-percent capacity and accept all guest bookings, either related to work or leisure.

Meanwhile, Aouini shared that while they heed to the new normal, safeguarding the wellbeing of their employees and guests will be their priority.

“We are still one step to reach the new normal. And to reach that, first of all, safety comes first for our guests and staff. So we have to keep making sure that we follow the protocols and the guidelines and slowly the local market will feel that safety is there and that they are safe to go to the hotels,” he said.

more favorable terms, it said.

The businesses should handle its inventory well by considering the true size and value of a stock to avoid unnecessary purchases and production, Isla Lipana added.

“Overall, it is important to understand the efficiencies and inefficiencies of the different processes

mutual funds

within working capital to ensure that improvements would work best for the company, suppliers and customers.”

According to Isla Lipana’s recent survey, 44 percent of the MSMEs are seeking better working capital management while 39 percent considers finance as their primary concern.

June 24, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 206.07 -23.05% -9.02% -5.2% -18.19% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0313 -37.19% -13.7% -6.16% -25.38% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.7973 -32.52% -13.44% -7.57% -23.95% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7167 -25.05% n.a. n.a.

-20.11% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6772 -23.94% n.a. n.a.

-20.26% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.4138 -20.43% -7.31% -4.79% -17.16% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6992 -21.66% -9.78% n.a.

-18.09% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 80.78 -33.62% n.a. n.a.

-21.82% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 41.4973 -21.9% -7.27% -4.02% -19.08% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 441.73 -20.17% -6.68% -4.47% -17.09% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.918 n.a. n.a. n.a. -10.88% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0459 -22.27% -7.05% -3.88% -18.73% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 30.8216 -21.91% -6.53% -3.56% -18.67% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8194 -23.22% n.a. n.a.

-19.52% -3.27% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.2293 -21.54% -6.75% -19.03% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 707.56 -21.38% -6.73% -3.47% -18.86% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.648 -31.18% -10.41% -7.5% -23.89% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.2711 -25.75% -8.02% -4.7% -22.29% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8125 -21.43% -6.87% -3.41% -18.81% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.9878 -21.17% -5.33% -2.65% -18.22% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 95.0114 -21.15% -6.22% -2.63% -18.76% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9694 -2.94% -0.41% -1.51% -5.74% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.38 5.58% 0.09% 5.98% n.a.

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5674 -10.79% -4.16% -3.58% 0.29% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0946 -10.32% -3.99% -1.76% -3.97% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.4435 -8.83% -2.4% -3.07% -7.14% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1897 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-16.98% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8529 -4.95% -0.91% -0.45% -5.61% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.5049 -7.16% -2.05% -1.66% -7.5% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.6466 -7.93% -2.27% -1.78% -7.75% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9515 -3.09% -1.37% -8.2% -9.88% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.339 -14.77% -4.03% -2.57% -13.58% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9479 -7.63% n.a. n.a.

-6.68% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8625 -15.85% n.a. n.a.

-13.44% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8427 -17.55% n.a. n.a.

-15.15% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8205 -18.35% -5.15% -3.88% -15.83% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03847 2.26% 2.33% 1.64% 0.63% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $0.9796 -1.34% -0.34% -5.62% 0.43% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.8683 2.55% 4.18% 3.18% -1.09% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1124 0.46% 2.07% n.a.

-1.45% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 365.11 4.36% 3.08% 2.5% 2.04% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.9391 2.48% 0.88% -0.05% 1.95% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1853 4.55% 5.09% 5.06% 2.21% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2784 4.52% 2.63% 2.19% 2.4% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4286 5.33% 3.1% 1.79% 2.95% 4.538 Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 9.15% 3.62% 2.28% 3.78% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.2876 6.23% 3.85% 2.1% 2.46% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9096 6.28% 3.91% 1.97% 3.2% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0225 8.9% 3.27% 1.6% 6.04% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1565 7.03% 4.54% 2.89% 2.62% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

1.7322 5.69% 3.85% 2.31% 1.83% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $473.51 3.4% 2.44% 2.7% 1.13% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є215.45 -0.81% 0.57% 0.99% -1.95% 2.48% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2172 2.73% 2.79% 0.83% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 1.17% 1.32% 1.2% 0.39% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0686 -1.88% -0.36% -0.08% -2.43% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4391 3.88% 3.01% 3.01% 1.47% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0605193 2.37% 1.91% 1.8% 0.34% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1702 2.91% 1.75% 2.35% -0.16% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 128.03 3.79% 3.18% 2.41% 1.79% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0407 2.61% n.a. n.a.

1.4% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2828 3.19% 3.03% 2.58% 1.44% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0447 1.66% n.a. n.a.

0.72% Feeder Fund Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.93 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-6.06%

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

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

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

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

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

Health&Fitness Responsible Journalism: BusinessMirror

Editor: Eleanor Leyco-Chua

Thursday, June 25, 2020 B3

How the Media Can Unite Against COVID-19

E

By Eleanor A. Leyco-Chua

very day, an individual is bombarded with thousands of information and there are countless news and information platforms that are readily available on the Internet. And now that we are going through a difficult ordeal having access to credible information matters the most.

Amid this Covid-19 pandemic, the work of journalists all over the world is to ensure that all the data and information about the virus and its repercussions are correct and reliable. The burden to properly inform the people has always been one of the duties of the media, whether there is a crisis or none.

To examine the role of media within the Covid-19 landscape

and how organizations can collaborate better to eradicate the invisible enemy, a joint initiative between the Breakthrough ACTION at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and Internews Philippines, with support from USAID held a webinar—Responsible Journalism: Part of the Solutionwebinar—series on June 10 and 11 and gathered local jour-

nalists, communication specialists and health experts.

Award winning journalist Howie Severino who was one of the first media personalities that was diagnosed with Covid-19 kicked off the webinar and shared that journalists must balance the need to inform with the need to keep themselves safe. “We have to live for the next story,” said Severino.

Stressing the importance of objectivity in reporting he said that “The media [has to] give out a complete picture that includes the negatives and positives. We have to convey the fearsomeness of this because it’s not something you take lightly, but we also have a chance to turn our trauma into something transformative. We can do this through stories of survival and happiness.”

He also added that in maintaining a journalist’s objectivity it is also necessary to speak with more empathy.

Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Tan, Professor of Anthropology and Philosophy in UP Diliman and

Clinical Professor in UP Manila, said that by looking at various perspectives a reporter can improve the quality of reporting.

“There are preexisting economic and social problems that the media must address, such as unemployment, drop-in health services, and housing shortages. These issues were magnified during the lockdown, and journalists must connect the dots to paint a more accurate picture,” Dr. Tan said.

He also called for more purposeful storytelling beyond basic reportage. “Journalists are healers and givers of hope, too.”

Dr. Beverly Ho of the Department of Health (DOH), on the other hand, affirmed the significance of messages that are empowering and encouraging in the long term.

“Covid or no Covid, what we push for is for people to maximize their health so they can reach their full potential—economically, socially, and otherwise,” said Ho, DOH Health Promotion and Communication Services director, while adding, “We need

people’s resilience as we move forward. The media has the power to change mindsets and fuel their motivation.”

Day 2 of the Responsible Journalism webinar series speakers were renowned journalist Ellen Tordesillas and Celine Samson of nonprofit news organization VERA Files. They emphasized the importance of fact-checking and debunking rumors. The discussions focused on fact-checking and fighting misinformation and fake news.

“The Internet has become a breeding ground for fake news even before the pandemic,” Tordesillas said. “At its worst, misinformation can endanger one’s health,” she added, referring to reports of citizens using dubious cures.

Samson, on the other hand, advised readers to be more discriminating when digesting news. “Keep an open mind, but always make sure to check and counter check.”

According to Floreen Simon, Training Director at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the bulk of the responsibility

falls on the media to be more vigilant and journalists must be aware of the entire spectrum of a story.

“Know the science, know the politics, do the math,” she stressed.

When data dissemination falls short, DOH Executive Assistant to the Secretary Atty. Faith Laperal urged for more open collaboration. “The objective of our Covid response has always been to move beyond mere government efforts and reach out to the entire society,” she clarified. “We have always been open to feedback.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a lot of challenges to everyone, from the issues of health— physical, mental, spiritual—finances, employment, relationship, among others, and in this trying times journalists can be a beacon of hope and empowerment through information. It is an opportunity for journalists to do more than just writing and reporting but help in building public trust that will lead people toward a solution, as the Philippines continues the fight against Covid-19.

Webinar series launched to address allergic rhinitis How to keep your children

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

A

llergic rhinitis is common, affecting all age groups, between 10 to 30 percent of adults and up to 40 percent in children and adolescents. This prevalence is higher than skin allergies and asthma.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that around 400 million people worldwide suffer from allergic rhinitis.

Those who suffer from this may experience mild to moderately severe symptoms, such as runny nose, nasal obstruction, sneezing, and itchiness that makes it very bothersome.

Making it more worrisome, allergic rhinitis can be aggravated by co-morbidities such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, conjunctivitis, sinusitis, polyposis, upper respiratory tract infection, and otitis media, which may render a person unable to conduct daily life normally.

As a consequence, this may lead to poor quality of life, sleep disorders, and learning and attention impairment.

To help people with allergic rhinitis, common nasal allergy, which according to the WHO affects 1 in 5 Filipinos, a webinar series was launched. The sessions are aimed at providing clarity on the causes of allergy and how it can be properly managed, hence the event name “Live With Clarity.”

The first of a three-part series started on June 5 with Dr. Natividad A. Almazan, the Head of the Research and Development Office at the Manila Central University College of Medicine & Hospital and a fellow of the

Philippine Society of Otolaryngology.

The “Live With Clarity” webinar series also provides awareness on common allergens that trigger allergic rhinitis and how to reduce the risk of exposure from them.

Pollens are among the ubiquitous allergens with their presence in grasses and flowers, while dust mites are another common type found at home.

Environmental pollution caused by vehicles running on fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and sulfur dioxide that increase the level of toxins in the air.

Likewise, pet animals like dogs or cats may be a trigger for some. Types of seafood, spicy food, cosmetics, and topical products could also cause allergy. Family history also contributes to the chances of people getting allergic rhinitis.

According to Dr. Almazan, only specialists can properly diagnose whether a patient is

suffering from allergic rhinitis or not.

This is typically done by conducting a standard skin prick test done on the patient’s arm. Sterile needles are used to introduce suspected allergens and then the doctor evaluates the skin reaction after 15 to 30 minutes.

Dr. Almazan stressed that the first step to the treatment of allergic rhinitis is avoidance of triggers.

Also, as a habit, people prone to allergic rhinitis should observe general sanitation— ensuring regular house cleaning and changing of beddings and draperies to prevent dust mites from accumulating. Often, the cause of asthma is the same as that of allergic rhinitis.

For a long time, patients who take oral antihistamines to manage allergic rhinitis feel drowsy or groggy after a short period due to the sedative effects of this medication, which is a common side effect from first or older generation antihistamines.

In most cases, whether intermittent or persistent allergic rhinitis, the mainstay treatment is second-generation oral antihistamines. These are considered as non-sedating medication that can be taken in the morning and will not cause drowsiness for an average person who starts the day heading to work.

“Based on a survey on preference for treatment of allergic rhinitis, people prefer the medication targets the symptoms that accompany the condition, has fast action relief, minimal adverse effects, non-habit forming, and long-lasting,” said Dr. Almazan.

Claritin is a second-generation antihistamine that meets the criteria on what medication is preferred by patients.

Depending on the severity of the allergy, the doctor may prescribe other medications like intranasal corticosteroids (INCS), leukotriene receptor antagonist, decongestants and immunotherapy.

“These medications and treatment approaches have to be monitored, so you have to consult with your doctor and avoid selfdiagnosis,” said Dr. Almazan stressing that all the information should not replace consultation with doctors.

The “Live With Clarity” series will continue with sessions to focus on allergies in the elderly on July 3 and children & adolescents on July 13.

Those interested can check out their schedules at Claritin Philippines’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/claritinphilippines/.

safe during pandemic

C

hildren are now spending their time at home due to the pandemic.

With this, parents now pay more attention to the safety of their children.

In light of the National Safe Kids Week, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire and OIC-Children’s Health and Development Division Chief Dr. Anthony Calibo discussed how parents can keep their children safe, as well as what to do in case of an emergency.

“Kahit na po tayo ay nasa apat na sulok ng ating tahanan, dapat pa rin po tayong maging mapagmatyag sa anumang panganib na maaring makasakit o magdulot ng sakuna sa ating pamilya, lalong-lalo na po sa mga bata,” said Vergeire.

Almost 50 percent of childhood, injuries occur at home, with about 89 percent of those injuries being unintentional.

According to Calibo, parents can prevent injuries by limiting their child’s access to potentially harmful objects or areas. It is also important for parents to keep a watchful eye as they play and move around to avoid potential injuries.

Calibo explained that in the event of an emergency, parents may contact their

barangay health officials who can safely escort them to the nearest emergency room.

For parents with access to a private vehicle, they are encouraged to call the emergency room ahead of time so the medical staff can properly receive them.

Emergency rooms across the country have been modified with separate patient pathways for Covid-suspected patients and non-Covid-suspected patients.

Some children, especially infants, may not be able to use a face mask properly and may have a difficult time breathing, so Calibo proposes that parents use a breastfeeding or nursing cover as an alternative. The pediatrician also recommends parents to be extra mindful of keeping themselves sanitized constantly.

“Ngayong lumuluwag na ang ilang restrictions ng quarantine, manatili po tayong alerto at ipagpatuloy ang pagsasagawa ng mga health protocols natin,” said Vergeire, reminding the public to observe the health guidelines, such as physical distancing, proper use of PPE, proper hygiene, and cough etiquette.

“Ang health protocols na ito ay malaki ang maiiambag, kapag tayong lahat ang gumawa, sa pambansang laban sa Covid-19,” she added.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Frontliners, farmers, informal workers receive aid

I

n keeping the bayanihan spirit alive during the Covid-19 pandemic, the FWD Life Insurance Corporation (FWD Insurance), part of pan-Asian FWD Group, has launched three corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives designed to empower those in need.

“The spirit of bayanihan is alive amid the evolving Covid-19 situation and we are inspired to care and be of service by supporting our partner organizations and reaching out to communities in need,” said Li Hao Zhuang, FWD Insurance president, and chief executive officer referring to projects aim to help healthcare frontliners, farmers and informal workers affected by the Covid -19 pandemic, as well as cancer patients.

“We are living in extraordinary times and at FWD, we’d like to step-up for our brothers and sisters in need,” said Li Hao Zhuang.

In April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic grew, FWD Insurance launched its charity drive to aid health-care frontline workers of St. Luke’s Medical Center Foundation (SLMFC).

Through this project that raised a total of P 1,000,000, every eligible FWD protection product bought in April generated a donation to the SLMCF to aid in its continuing need for

personal protective equipment (PPEs).

“We sincerely thank FWD for its contribution that would greatly help our medical personnel in the fight against Covid-19. The funds generated will go a long way in safeguarding our health-care workers who are in the frontlines in protecting our patients who are being treated for Covid-19,” said Olivia Yao, St. Luke’s Medical Center’s Vice President for Resource Development Group.

Meanwhile, among those displaced by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) are the farmers and informal workers, considered as two the most vulnerable sectors.

In April 2020, the FWD Insurance reached out to them.

The FWD employees held a fundraising drive for farmers and informal workers to cushion the economic burden caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

The generated funds were used to purchase produce from farmers in Cordillera and provided to families of displaced informal workers in Metro Manila as relief packs.

In collaboration with the AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation and its partner charity, relief packs were also given to families residing along the FWD—Muntinlupa-Cavite Ex-

pressway (MCX). In December 2019, the FWD and AC Infra, fully-owned subsidiary of the Ayala Corp. (AC), announced their Expressway Sponsorship Program that unveiled the newly renamed FWD-MCX. In February and March 2020, FWD Insurance launched its charity drive for the benefit of the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) and its various cancer research and awareness programs.

The FWD Insurance raised a total donation of P1,214,000 from all eligible protection products sold during the program period.

“It is an even greater challenge coping with cancer during the pandemic. Through FWD’s generosity, the Philippine Cancer Society will be able to give some of our underprivileged countrymen a fighting chance against cancer and support our other ongoing research and awareness programs too,” said Dr. Rachael Rosario, executive director of PCS as she expressed her heartfelt appreciation to FWD, as well as its advisors and customers for their donation.

We believe that with bayanihan and malasakit, we will get through this pandemic stronger than ever,” Li Hao said.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Hi-Precision Diagnostics Partners with LGUs as Accredited COVID-19 Testing Lab

H

i-Precision Diagnostics (HPD) has received its Covid Testing Lab accreditation to perform the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, which is the gold standard in Covid-19 confirmatory testing. With this accreditation, HPD intensifies its mission to serve with compassion and provide quality healthcare for the Filipino people.

The Covid Testing Lab Accreditation is an outstanding achievement for the HPD team, which played an active role in the country’s initiative to augment the daily testing capac-

ity and combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The vigorous five-stage accreditation was carried out by several healthcare authorities namely, the World Health Organization(WHO), Department of Health (DOH), and Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM). The PCR test was initially be performed on June 3 through HPD’s partnership with the local government units of Pasig and Valenzuela. Joint efforts with Quezon City LGUs will also be happening soon. However, details for the availability of PRC testing for walkin patients have yet to be announced.

TheBroa Will Pinoys abroad shrug of

Business

B4 Thursday, June 25, 2020 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

who had paid?”

Many Filipinos abroad criticize Circular 2020-0014, saying migrant workers already have health insurance courtesy of their foreign employers, while permanent residents and dual citizens get free medical treatment in host countries.

Businessmirror

& Jeremaiah M. Opiniano

F

Ofw Journalism Consortium Reporting from Manila, Philippines and Adelaide, Australia

IVE notifications on an easygoing Thursday buzzed the more than 1.4 million users who follows the official Facebook page of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth).

Of those notifications posted last June 11, one trended the most: PhilHealth Advisory 2020037. That post generated over2,000 emoticon reactions, over1,500 comments and more than 3,900 shares.

The advisory reminded Filipinos abroad to pay the new amounts of premiums, starting with P2,400 (around $48) as first payment and the rest of the year’s balance (P2,400 multiplied by 11 months or around $528.22) to be paid within the next 12 months. The advisory was a reiteration of Circular 2020-0014, which Philhealth released last April 22.

Circular 2020-0014 stirred the online platform so much that a few days after its issuance, about half-a-million signatures were generated by an online petition against it.

Criticisms against the Circular died down after President Duterte announced last May 4 that overseas Filipinos’ membership in PhilHealth is voluntary during the country’s battle with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

However, the Universal Health Care (UHC) law (Republic Act 11223) still mandates all working Filipinos to be covered by UHC and become mandatory PhilHealth members. Since mid-May, PhilHealth has been consulting with legislators on possible amendments to RA 11223 and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

Wit h Ph i lHea lt h Adv isor y 2020-037, however, criticisms against the health insurer stirred again. That Philhealth post acquired more than 1,200 grumpy face emoticons.

Mandated by law

FOR PhilHealth President and CEO R icardo C. Morales, the agency is just following the law.

Morales told BusinessMirror on June 24 that premium payments of OFWs should still be mandatory as the law states that all Filipinos must be covered by the UHC law.

“Yan ang sinasabi sa batas, e.

[That’s what the law says.],” he said in a phone interview. “The entire citizenry should pool together the resources so that” the financial risks would be spread out. “Otherwise, [spending for healthcare would all be] out of pocket. Anytime na magkasakit, kung may pera ka ok; kung wala, sorry” [If one who has money gets ill, that’s okay; but if you don’t have money; sorry.]

The retired Armed Forces of the Philippines Brigadier General added that “as much as possible, we want to include the entire population; and all those who can pay should try to meet the obligations [because] we don’t know when we are going to need healthcare.”

Morales’s view is shared by PhilHealth Vice President for Corporate Affairs Shirley B. Domingo.

“We can at least suspend [the provisions] in the [UHC] law’s IRR [implementing rules and regula-

Tracking back

THE PhilHealth Overseas Filipinos Program came from a “Medicare” program for members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OW WA). The Medicare program and its funds were turned over to PhilHealth in 2005 since Republic Act 7875 (the 1995 National Health Insurance Act, which was amended into R A 9241 and R A 10606) had created PhilHealth as the country’s social health insurer.

Then young under PhilHealth’s aegis, the Overseas Workers Program (OWP) launched on July 1, 2007 an “Expanded and Enhanced OWP Outpatient Benefit Package.”

The package adopted a “zero-copay” system that gave OFW members and their dependents entitlements without needing to shell out additional money.

Mandatory annual premiums for OFWs were then at P900, and were even tied to releasing OECs from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

The annual premium increased to P1,200 in 2011, then this amount doubled to P2,400 in 2014.

In 2014 also, PhilHealth began classifying OFWs under “informal workers.” And when the OECs were issued online starting 2015, PhilHealth membership became voluntary.

tions], or at least move the payment period further back —but not do anything against the law,” Domingo told the BusinessMirror in a separate interview.

Congress is currently reviewing the UHC law and its IRR.

Ifs and choices

SOME, however, question how useful and attractive the health insurance product is for migrant workers.

An economist believes Circular 2020-0014 will only drive overseas Filipinos to continually shrug off payment notifications from PhilHealth.

If payment is mandatory and the premium fees are “really high,” that circular “will result to great opposition,” according to Migration Economist Aubrey D. Tabuga of the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS).

The said circular “deters labor migration itself, for those who have a luxury of choice,” Taguba said. She added that even lessskilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will find these mandatory premium payments as additional financial burden as the stalling global economy threatens incomes of millions.

In a May 15 webinar, Domingo said making overseas Filipinos voluntary members requires amendments to RA 11223.

But for now, the provisions for PhilHealth premium payments under RA 11223 “still apply, although temporarily suspended due to the pandemic, pending amendment of (RA 11223), if any, by...Congress,” Advisory 2020-037 writes.

General scope

ROOTED in RA 11223, Circular 2020-0014 mandated a broader segment of the overseas Filipino population—not just land-based OFWs and sea-based OFWs—to pay increased premiums in their full amounts.

RA 11223 now mandates all Filipino citizens to become mandatory PhilHealth members. Circular 2020-0014 includes not just the land-based OFWs and sea-based OFWs, but also dual citizens, “Filipinos living abroad,” “overseas Filipinos in distress” and “other overseas Filipinos not previously classified elsewhere.”

Premium rates and amounts in Circular 2020-0014 are similar to premiums paid by Philippinebased workers, albeit the latter get an equal share of premium payment from their employers.

The circular classifies overseas Filipinos as “direct contributors under the UHC law,” making their “payment and remittance of premium contributions as mandatory.”

Previously, PhilHealth payments from 2007 to 2014 were mandatory and were tied to the issuance of the overseas employment certificate (OEC) for OFWs.

Rates increases

PHILHEALTH computed the latest premiums of overseas Filipinos based on their monthly income.

Surge in membership

O verseas Fi lipinos w i l l be made part of three groups of contributors: low income (annual premium of P7,488 for those e a r n i n g P 20, 8 0 0 a nd b e lo w monthly), middle income (premium ranging from P7,506.72 to P21,600, for those earning bet ween P20,852 to P60,000 monthly), and high income (premium of P21,600 for those earning P60,000 and above monthly abroad).

With 2020 as a “transition year,” premium rates for overseas Filipinos’ premium contributions will be 3.0 percent. This rate becomes 3.5 percent in 2021, 4.0 percent in 2022, 4.5 percent in 2023, and 5.0 percent in 2024 onwards. These rate increments for Filipino citizens in the homeland and overseas are provided in the law’s IRR. Given also their physical stay overseas, Filipinos abroad are called “indirect contributors,” Domingo explained. That being the case, Circular 2020-0014 gives them a maximum of one year to pay the total annual premium.

Domingo said overseas Filipinos can pay the first month prior to their departure and pay the balance in the remaining 11 months.

Penalties for unpaid dues are assessed after a year’s grace period.

The same scheme was also mentioned in Advisory 2020-037.

“That’s how flexible the arrangement is for overseas Filipinos,” Domingo pointed out.

Adjusting payments

MORALES argues that OFWs get to benefit more from paying these premium payments.

“We have always maintained na mas malaki naman yung benefits na nakukuha nila kaysa sa binayad nila [they would get more benefits compared to their payment] at least for the last three years,” he told this newspaper. “Sa millions of OFWs natin, 360,000 lang ang paying OFWs and they are asking for a position in the Board [and] less than one percent ang premium na nakukuha namin sa kanila [Out of millions of OFWs, only 360,000 are paying and we only get less than one percent in total premium collection.]”

W hile he admitted that PhilHealth has yet to work out the payment of premiums through online channels, Morales said OFWs can pay their contributions through partner banks and collecting agents.

“Well, kaya nga meron tayong [that’s why we have a] flexible payment scheme [wherein] they don’t have to pay the full amount.

They would be given one year within which to complete the payment and then, during that time, I don’t know what amendment would happen to the [UHC] law,” he told the BusinessMirror. “Baka pagkalabas ng [Maybe after the] amendments, there will be other answers; other options to them.”

Morales added that “In so far as healthcare [coverage], you know [it is] flexible: we can adjust the payment period and then do some other [approaches] to soften the impact. [But] beyond that, we can no longer cross the legal boundary.”

Not eligible

BACKSTOPPING Duterte’s May 4 order, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III ordered the suspension of a specific provision—Section 10.2.C—in the IRR of R A 11223 “in light of Covid-19 and its economic impact on OFWs.” PhilHealth Overseas Filipinos Program Senior Manager Chona S. Yap said the adverse reaction last May was “expected.” Circular 2020-0014 presented the cost of premiums in “real peso terms,” Yap said in the May 15 webinar of the information group Rights Corridor.

A month later, Domingo told BusinessMirror voluntary membership under UHC is “difficult” (mahirap) because everybody will benefit from UHC and, thus, “everybody has to contribute.”

Even the droves of OFWs repatriated and returning home because of the pandemic can benefit from UHC, she adds.

“It is hard to tell OFWs who did not pay premiums that they are not eligible,” Domingo said.

“If they did not pay and they will use our current schemes (under UHC), isn’t that unfair to those

PHILHEALTH reached a high of 3.14 million overseas Filipino members in 2013 but the number plunged to 0.96 million in 2014.

Even as premiums being paid by overseas Filipinos increased from 2007 to 2018, the number of actual PhilHealth OWP members plummeted to their lowest in 2018: 337,426.

However, PhilHealth’s 2019 data saw an exponential surge in OFW membership: 3.628 million, a historic record [see Figure 1].

Available audited data from 2007 to 2017 show the highest premium collections from overseas Filipinos reached a record P2.521 billion in 2014, as the highest benefit payments made to this membership group was at P1.669 billion in 2016 [see Figure 2].

Domingo explained that the POEA, in 2015, had a one-stop shop hub for OFWs processing their OECs and requirements, including PhilHealth membership, prior to going overseas. W hen POEA discontinued the one-stop shop, PhilHealth membership “ became voluntary, that’s why premium collections from OFWs declined.”

Not surprisingly, overseas Filipino members’ premium contributions make up a miniscule, even declining share of overall PhilHealth premiums collected and paid.

OFW members’ premium payments made up some 2.55 percent (P630.07 million) of PhilHealth’s total premiums collected in 2007 (P24.71 bi l l ion). However in 2019, the P1.021 billion worth of premiums OFW members paid is just 0.7 percent of the agency’s total premium collections, worth P146.43 billion.

That 2019 OFW share to PhilHealth’s total collections is the lowest in the history of the agency’s Overseas Workers Program, ironic to the exponential surge of

aderLook

sMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace | Thursday, June 25, 2020

B5

ff PhilHealth’s notifications?

Figure 1: Membership and beneficiaries of the OWP

Figure 2: Financial performance of PhilHealth’s Overseas Workers Program

Sources: Stats and Charts and Annual Reports, PhilHealth (2007-2018); COA-audited reports of PhilHealth

Sources: Stats and Charts and Annual Reports, PhilHealth (2007-2018); COA-audited reports of PhilHealth

OFW membership to 3.628 million (says PhilHealth’s 2019 Stats and Charts).

Reforming system

GIVEN the UHC law, Domingo said forthcoming gradual changes in health service delivery will lead to better pooling of health expenses, by both the Filipino insurer and by PhilHealth.

Which is why premium payments from Filipino citizens at home and abroad, as “direct contributors,” will help finance these gradual reforms of the country’s health system under a UHC regime, Domingo said.

Other contributors are the national government, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and proceeds from “sin” and sugar beverage taxes.

The collection issue for overseas Filipinos is tied to how the country will be financing the yearold implementation of universal health care. But if PhilHealth remains the major financing agent of UHC, some health policy analysts say ordinary Filipino families will continue drawing expensive outof-pocket payments to access better medical care.

Health policy analyst Ramon Pedro P. Paterno of the University of the Philippines-Manila mainly disagrees with the “insistence on (primarily) financing UHC through premiums.”

UHC’s main source of funds should “still (be) taxes from general appropriations,” Paterno said.

Informal sector

PATERNO cites UHC financing analyses from the World Health Organization (WHO) that lowincome and midd le-income countries like the Philippines should have annual government budgets as “the main source of compu lsor y revenues for the health system.”

That is because of the country’s large informal sector, with these workers “not earning enough for a decent living,” according to Paterno, who is an analyst of the UP Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies (IHPDS).

With overseas Filipinos being part of PhilHealth’s “informal sector” (since their employers are abroad), Paterno believes collecting premiums from them “becomes a very complicated issue.”

Workers formally employed in the country pay premiums through automatic salary deductions. Meanwhile, and as it has

been practiced, Filipinos abroad pay online and through the PhilHealth representatives in some embassies and consulates of the Philippines.

Then again, Paterno said if government’s UHC implementation will depend on PhilHealth premium collections, the approach will not be financially sustainable.

“Direct contributions such as payroll taxes for health insurance will not generate sizeable revenues given the very narrow levy base” coming from formally-employed Filipino workers, Paterno explained.

Government package

IN response to the premium increments (from 2020 to 2024) mandated for all Filipino citizens abroad and at home, Tabuga said these premiums “should be at a minimum but with (an) option to avail of better services with a higher fee —that which should be voluntary.”

The UHC’s promises of better benefits from PhilHealth, covering both in-patient and outpatient medical care, can be attractive for overseas Filipinos’ dependents, Domingo said. As for outpatient benefits, Domingo refers to Konsulta (Konsultasyong Sapat at Tama or consult in English), where initial and follow-up consultations, targeted health risk screening and assessment, and some diagnostic tests and medicines will be provided by private and public health facilities.

The attraction of those benefits prevails, Paterno said, if Filipinos abroad “are in the Philippines, waiting for their next overseas employment.”

Those “ better benefits” will come if government implements the promised “comprehensive primary care outpatient package, combined with ‘no balance billing’ or ‘no out-of-pocket payout’ if (they’re) confined in a public hospital,” Paterno adds.

Domingo said the new UHC will lead to better pooling of health expenses by Filipinos given the prospective implementation of PhilHealth’s “fixed payment rate” so that patients and their families will now know how much to shell out.

Hoping for support

HOWEVER, Morales recommended delaying the implementation of Konsulta during a first joint congressional hearing on the UHC law last June 16.

He admitted shortfalls in the

agency’s premium collection as an impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 10 percent (or P46.5 billion) of 2019 premium collections have been tabbed thus far, Morales claims.

That is because premium payments from direct contributors, like employed workers, are affected by business closures and job displacements in the past months.

Morales added that PhilHealth will run a fund deficit by the end of this year and have a shortfall of less than P100 billion annually.

The deficit, he said, will run from 2021 to 2024: the major years of the five-year transition period of the UHC law’s expanded primary care benefits.

PhilHealth also plans to ask for a P138-billion subsidy next year from the national government.

The net loss of the agency prevails because “we were not given the funding which we asked to support the funding of the UHC,” Morales told legislators.

If implementing Konsulta will proceed, Domingo said PhilHealth may probably run the program gradually starting with senior citizens and indigents.

f rom overseas Fi l ipinos.

Seafarer Gar r y Dela Tor re didn’t need any Facebook notification to voice out his displeasure. Quarantined at a small hotel in Recto, Manila, since April 24 until he was cleared to go home recently, Dela Torre was

Tabled for discussion

MORALES clarified that what PhilHealth is proposing is the delay in the implementation of the expanded primary care benefit package or Konsulta for six months.

Still, he clarified that “This is still not a decision; this is an item for discussion.”

Morales said the budget for Konsulta for this year alone is originally P26 billion, as the project’s implementation is originally set to be done by phases.

“What I had in mind [for Konsulta] was to extract the national health profile so that we would have an idea [of the] health profile [of the] entire population: how many are sick of what, where they are located and what will they require,” he told this newspaper.

Morales admitted this “is a very ambitious project [because we have] 108 million members and we have to assign each patient to a health facility.”

Scorning payments

A S Adv isor y 2020 - 037 had been ma k ing t he rou nd s in so cia l med ia since June 11, cr iticisms against it have persisted.

T he post generated more t ha n 1, 50 0 comments on Facebook , most ly protest ing t he col lection of new premium pay ments

PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo C. Morales

“truly mad [galit talaga]” when PhilHealth first announced the new premiums.

His shipping company covered his medical insurance as his wife is a PhilHealth member. But if the social health insurer still imposes Circular 2020-0014, Dela Torre

says: “I will not be a PhilHealth member.”

“I will not work in a ship anymore, if that is the case,” Dela Tor re said of the mandator y PhilHealth payments for migrant workers like him. “I will just stay here at home.”

B6 Thursday, June 25, 2020

Alcantara Group donates PPEs to Sarangani frontliners

SM Cares, Safeguard promote proper handwashing for #SafeHandsAtSM

W

E usually wash our hands fast – but did you know that there are proper steps of handwashing?

SM Cares and Safeguard team up for the #SafeHandsAtSM campaign to educate and encourage people to practice the five steps of proper handwashing – especially in this time of pandemic.

“As part of our safe malling commitment, handwashing is our first line of defense against illnesses, and is also crucial during a global health crisis.

We very excited to partner with Procter & Gamble’s Safeguard, the leading brand in health and personal care, to raise awareness on the importance of this matter,” said SM Supermalls President Mr. Steven Tan. To ensure that all areas of your hands are properly washed, simply follow these steps: (1) wash palms; (2) back of hand; (3) in between fingers; (4) fingernails; (5) and thumbs, and keep scrubbing for at least 20 seconds. Afterward, rinse and dry your hands thoroughly, since good handwashing is our most effective shield and protection from all kinds of viruses.

“Safeguard, being 54 years in the country, has become much of a household name. From our beige bar soap from long ago to our hand sanitizers and liquid hand

soap now, we have always committed ourselves to serve the needs of the Filipino people, just like SM has. And in the same way, I believe that both have been ingrained so much in Filipino culture that it is only natural to do this partnership,” said Procter & Gamble Vice President for Skin & Personal Care Ms. Shweta Sharma.

As part of the #SafeHandsAtSM campaign, Safeguard has made its liquid hand soap available in restrooms of all SM malls across the country to help the community fight the spread diseasecausing germs. Information materials on the five steps of handwashing are also deployed in restrooms and high-traffic areas in SM to remind customers while in the mall.

Withthis,Safeguardand#SMDaresYOU to take on the #SafeHandsAtSM Challenge on TikTok from June 23 to 30. Just take a full body video of you properly washing your hands and dancing to your favorite tunes, tag your squad and use the official hashtag #SafeHandsAtSM, and be one of the 10 lucky winners who’ll get exciting giveaways!

This partnership with Safeguard forms part of SM’s programs to ensure Safe Malling as all SM malls continue to carry out strict safety and sanitation measures

to assure the community that the malls are safe, clean, and compliant with health and sanitation protocols over and above government regulations.

Through simple efforts like washing your hands, not only are you protecting yourself, but those around you. To know more about #SafeHandsAtSM, visit www.smsupermalls.com and https://www.safeguard.ph, or visit their social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok.

Revisiting big issues , inspiring stories, docus through Facebook pages

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VEN in the middle of a pandemic, Filipinos continue to inspire with stories of hope, hard work, and unity as shown by the budding entrepreneurs and documentarists featured on the Facebook pages of ABS-CBN programs “My Puhunan” and “#NoFilter.”

On “Kuwentuhan at Kumustahan sa My Puhunan,” which are posted on weekdays, Karen Davila interviews determined Filipinos who have found was to earn extra income despite the current health crisis.

One of them is a bone cancer survivor, who is now a successful entrepreneur, Karen also listened to the stories of employees who are juggling the demands of their job with taking care of their families as they work from home.

Viewers also got inspiration from an OFW who has a booming business in Greenland, and learned about handling money and starting a business from experts like Chinkee Tan. Meanwhile on “#NoFilter,” viewers

can pick from a variety of short documentaries produced by students who are dreaming to become a documentarist like Jeff Canoy, whose mobile documentary for “#NoFilter” called “Tao Po,” won at the New York Festivals.

Using smartphones, students who joined the program’s #KuwentongQuarantine Online Workshop developed their own documentaries that can now be seen on the program’s Facebook page.

One student showed the experiences of different Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic, while another followed the activities of stranded students in Baguio, who chose to spend their time helping frontliners.

Viewers can also revisit past episodes of “Failon Ngayon” that tackled important issues such as teenage pregnancy and discounts on maintenance medicines on its Facebook page.

Don’t miss out on stories from ABSCBN News and Current Affairs that will definitely inspire and open minds and hearts. Follow “My Puhunan” (fb.com/ MyPuhunan), “#NoFilter” (fb.com/ nofilterabscbn), and “Failon Ngayon” (fb.com/Failon.Ngayon). For more news, follow @abscbnpr on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or visit abs-cbn.com/ newsroom.

THE ALCANTARA GROUP OF COMPANIES, through the Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation Inc., together with Sarangani Energy Corporation (SEC), Alsons Agri-Business Unit (ABU), and the Kamanga Agro-Industrial Ecozone Development Corp.

(KAIEDC), recently donated over 8,000 facemasks, 3,000 gloves, 182 goggles, and 150 personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the Sarangani provincial government. Now classified under the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), Sarangani is a Covid-free province, with no confirmed case of the dreaded contagion. In photo at the turnover of the protective gear are, from left, Sarangani assistant provincial administrator Engr. Gerald Faciol, provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer Rene Punzalan, KAEIDC property manager Max Allawan, chief of staff Cesario Cagas, and SEC’s HR-administration and project assurance manager Joel Aton. The Alcantara conglomerate is the top major business player in the province, with the 210-megawatt coal-fired thermal plant in Maasim town as flagship project.

Food delivery: What the ‘new normal’ would be like

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oodpanda, the country's on-demand food delivery service, offers a wide variety of food and groceries as Filipinos are slowly adjusting their lifestyles and daily routines to the 'new normal".

People have remained indoors and have been dependent on delivery apps more than ever. From ordering food, doing groceries, and even being productive for work, people spend more time on technology and have pivoted to online platforms.

Some of the daily demands that used to be physically separated from you during work hours are now very close by, which makes your plate feel more full nowadays.

With foodpanda, you can opt to order both food and groceries that you need for the day. Leave the job to our reliable riders who’ll come rushing to you with everything you want and need in one go.

As long as you get a hold of every favorite food that you miss pre-GCQ days, we know that it will more than suffice. That’s why foodpanda is committed to bringing you all the food that you love, right when you want it. Now that foodpanda is open in more cities like Zamboanga, Palo, Tarlac, Sta. Rosa, Kabanklan and Tagum, expect that you can try more curated and local dishes whenever, wherever!

With the continuous spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), do yourselves and your community a favor and refrain from going out. Allow foodpanda to help you in getting things done whether it’s food or groceries that you need for the day. If you happen to have the urge to send care packages to someone you love, all you need to do is put in the address of the

foodpanda delivers daily essentials via shops

recipient for a special delivery whether it’s food, drink, or grocery. In the same way, you can also do this for yourself without going outside and still have your favorite food and other supplies delivered safely.

“The unprecedented times have caused disruption in our lives, but we at foodpanda believe that there’s a solution for us to live worry-free. As we have broadened our scope beyond food delivery services, our partnership with select retailers will also make those pantry essentials, medicines, pet supplies and anything necessary delivered securely at home,” said foodpanda managing director Daniel Marogy.

Ambitions and desires take the spotlight on GMA Heart of Asia’s ‘Misty’

Entrepreneur Wilbert Tolentino creates virtual challenges for charity and fun amid the ongoing crisis

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HE lockdown may have become the craziest thing for many Filipinos -- and the rest of humanity -for disrupting our normal activities.

But the quarantine has also given us time to appreciate our homes as a safe haven during the pandemic. And while at home, we all learned the "new normal" together -- basically distancing ourselves to the rest of the world and becoming healthy, fit and hygienic -- by eating nutritious home-made meals, hydrating, getting the right sleep and having some exercise routine, keeping ourselves clean by washing hands and of course, taking a bath more often.

We had fears and anxiety about the corona virus: from killing us instantly or turning us into zombies once we get infected. Thanks to modern medicine and our health experts, the virus wasn't like that and many have already recovered from the illness it brought them.

Not too many are excited to the rising economic movement courtesy of the more relaxed quarantine.

This is so because of the rising Covid-19 cases. That grim reality makes many among us not keen of going out and earn even with the depletion of funds for the family's expenses.

Good thing many philanthropic individuals, groups and organizations have come up with various projects to help ease out the life of the Filipinos amid the pandemic.

One of them is Mr. Gay World-Philippines 2009

titlist turned entrepreneur Wilbert Tolentino.

A respected LBTQia personality who is known for his generous heart, Wilbert and his team conceptualized the Sir Wil Online Challenge to provide fun and financial assistance to different sectors of the society during the quarantine.

Armed with creativity and dedication to his advocacy of creating quality live entertainment, the result were highly innovative, well-produced virtual events that promote the the very essence of quaratine: Stay Home. Save Lives. We Will Beat COVID 19!

Pageant aficionados had the best of their time staying home and watching virtual competitions starting off with Queen of Lockdown Transformation which was won by Popoy Son Roxas. Another brainchild, the Ginoong Quarantino had Allen Ong Molina as champion. While Lady Ivana made it as grand winner in the Drag Queen challenge .

Marianne Crisologo was hailed as Most Beautiful Beki while chosen as Extreme Cutie Quest grand champion is Mary Letim Ponce. The Online Star Influencers titles went to Sachzna Laparan and Shaina Denniz for Seasons 1 at 2.

Meantime, huge cash prizes and relief packs were given away to winners of Wil or No Wil online game shows.

The ongoing contest is the Sir Wil Media Challenge for entertainment, lifestyle and pageant media. Over

Wilbert Tolentino

P200,000 is at stake with the grand prize winner to receive P100,000!

The Sir Wil Online Challenge promises to come up with more exciting competitions with fabulous prizes as the community quarantine continues!

For more information, visit the FB page at SIRWIL Media Challenge Official.

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EGINNING June 29, Kapuso viewers are set to meet the powerful character of Arianne, played by three-time Baeksang Best Actress titlist Kim Nam-joo, on GMA Heart of Asia’s newest offering ‘Misty.’

This drama will highlight the intriguing story of a popular anchorwoman in a primetime news show whose seemingly puttogether life and career will be threatened by a dark and tragic secret.

One day, Arianne becomes the suspect

in a murder case involving Kevin Lee, a golf champion and her past lover. She will seek the professional help of her husband Tommy Kang, played by Ji Jin-Hee. He worked as a prosecutor in the past, but now works as a public defender and will take on her case.

Will Arianne get away from all the controversy?

Witness how this woman’s journey will unfold beginning Monday right after ‘Meant To Be’ only on GMA Heart of Asia.

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SFA joins special foreign ministers’ confab on Covid

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ECRETARY of Foreign Affairs (SFA) Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., together with counterparts in the region and the Russian Federation’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, convened a Special Asean-Russia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

The said online discussion on June 17 focused on cooperation between the regional bloc and the Eurasian country as a leverage to address the spread of Covid-19 while managing recovery and dealing with long-term socioeconomic challenges posed by the health crisis.

Locsin spoke about the pandemic exposing the vulnerability of supply chains, as he called for cooperation to increase the resilience and adaptability of markets that must be kept open to avoid stagnation of economic activity.

He stressed that every week without economic movement meant “losing ground,” as diminishing purchasing power makes for a more difficult recovery.

‘Fresh thinking’ needed THE secretary found it imperative for the topic of Covid-19 to lead the agenda of the 15th East Asia Summit.

He emphasized the need for fresh thinking on solutions to the impact of the pandemic on the global economy. He also underscored the pandemic’s wide security implications.

The country’s top diplomat also noted that the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific is premised on the organization being in the driver’s seat in the region’s security architecture, based on the principles of inclusiveness, openness, cooperation and respect for international law. He expressed the hope that Russia, as a Pacific power, contributes to shoring up this regional structure.

At the meeting, many ministers

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. (right) represents the Philippines at the Special Asean-Russia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Covid-19. DFA

expressed their desire to step up economic recovery plans alongside sustained focus on health management so that the region emerges stronger from the crisis. They agreed to use Asean-led mechanisms to put forward people-centered policies in responding to pandemics, ensuring that individuals are equally provided with health care, treatment and consular assistance, while maintaining the momentum of economic integration and openness in the region with unimpeded trade and supply-chain connectivity.

Collective responses pursued

FOR his part, Lavrov assured ministers from the bloc of his country’s commitment to the Asean-Russia Strategic Partnership. He also noted that “pandemics affect global politics significantly,” and affirmed the

transcontinental state’s commitment to pursue a collective response to prevent, control and contain infectious diseases within the region using Asean-led mechanisms. The Russian official also recognized the substantial efforts of regional organizations in pursuing efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Both sides emphasized that the pandemic should not weaken, but instead bolster, the Asean-Russia partnership, and that continuously strengthening cooperation is key to overcoming the unprecedented and multidimensional challenge of Covid-19.

Locsin observed that, “We have entered a brave new world in the writer’s original sense: a world that will need bravery to survive, courage to dare, and above all, trust among everyone to prevail.” DFA

Indian envoy concludes tour of duty

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UTGOING Ambassador of the Republic of India to the Philippines Jaideep Mazumdar paid a farewell call on Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. at the Department of Foreign Affairs on June 17.

Locsin commended Mazumdar for his exemplary service and notable contributions to strengthen PhilippineIndian ties since the latter arrived in Manila in 2017.

The outgoing ambassador’s tenure saw India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Philippines for the Asean Summit in 2017, followed by President Duterte’s official trip to the subcontinent for the Asean-India Commemorative Summit. In October 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind of India embarked on a state visit to the Philippines in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Mazumdar’s term of almost three years was also marked by the signing of various agreements between the two countries, spanning agriculture, defense, tourism, investments, science and technology, culture, maritime security, enterprises, air services and the mutual

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. (second from left) and Ambassador Jaideep Mazumdar (second from right) with their spouses, Maria Lourdes B. Locsin and Parvati C. Mazumdar. NILO PALAYA/DFA training of diplomats.

The SFA observed closer trade relations between the Philippines and India during the past few years, with the country now looking at closer coopera-

tion with the latter on defense and pharmaceuticals, among others. Locsin also thanked India for its cooperation with the Philippine government on the repatriation of both Filipino and Indian nationals,

citing the accommodation of Filipinos returning from India on flights chartered by the Indian government to bring back its nationals from the Philippines.

For his part, Mazumdar reiterated India’s commitment to forge closer cooperation with the Philippines in the areas of health and food security, especially amid the current pandemic. The Indian diplomat also affirmed his country’s support for Asean initiatives, which he underscored are in-line with India’s Act East policy.

Joining the call were the two diplomats’ spouses Maria Lourdes B. Locsin and Parvati C. Mazumdar. Mrs. Locsin thanked Mrs. Mazumdar for her active involvement in various social and charitable activities and initiatives of diplomats’ spouses. The latter expressed her own appreciation for the warm reception they received during their three-year stay, and the support they received toward the success of activities initiated by the Embassy of India.

The Indian envoy concluded his Philippine tour of duty on June 19, as he will take up a new assignment in Austria. DFA

FATA: Tourism among 1st to recover after pandemic

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DIPLOMATIC EXCELLENCE Ambassador of Japan to the Philippines Koji Haneda (fifth

from left) was accorded the very first Ambassador Carlos P. Romulo Award for Excellence in Diplomatic Service on June 18 by the Rotary Club of Manila, in collaboration with the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation. The accolade is in recognition of the envoy’s contribution in strengthening bilateral ties between his country and the Philippines in the areas of economic relations, development cooperation, infrastructure development, the Mindanao peace process, and people-to-people exchanges. EMBASSY OF JAPAN

ITH economies reeling from the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the Federation of Asean Travel Associations (FATA) is confident the tourism industry within the region will be one of the first to get back to normal.

FATA President Datuk Tan Kok Liang said once tourism within the region recovers, it will quickly become the catalyst for the revival of other affected sectors linked to the industry.

“Ensuring that the travel and tourism industry is the first to recover would mean instant activation of a wide range of related microeconomies,” Liang said. “The impact from the tremendous growth of tourism in Asean will be an eye-opener, creating curiosity and branding opportunities in international markets.”

For his part, FATA Secretary-General and current Philippine Travel Agencies Association President Ritchie Tuaño said the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan (ATSP) for 2016 to 2025 remains their guidepost during the pandemic and beyond.

We need to continue to position and brand Asean as a single-market destination. Then, within each member-state, subregional destinations and circuits must be promoted, Tuaño confirmed. FATA members will work with governments in the region to ensure that tourism survives during the pandemic, while ensuring

stakeholders’ readiness post-Covid-19.”

FATA likened the Asean—with its 622-million population—as having the potential of domestic tourism within Europe, China and the United States.

Last year, tourist arrivals to the region reached 133 million—10 million ahead of the ATSP projection.

This has translated to tourism playing a crucial role in economies within the bloc, contributing at least 2 percent to 14.50 percent to each member-country’s gross domestic product.

Liang said they are also banking on the Asean member-states’ declaration of closer cooperation in the sharing of information and exchange of best practices, as he described it as a boost to stakeholders’ and travelers’ confidence: “It will further build resilience and prepare the region to effectively implement and manage sustainable tourism in the aftermath of a crisis.”

On June 19, FATA organized an online forum dubbed, “Way Forward for Tourism in Asean” which hosted tourism officials from various governments and national tourism organization heads from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines as resource speakers.

With more than 7,700 members, FATA addresses challenges and trends in the tourism industry within Asean. Recto Mercene

Thursday, June 25, 2020 B7

Canada presents new envoy to PHL

By Recto Mercene @rectomercene

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ANADA’S new ambassador to the Philippines Peter MacArthur presented his diplomatic credentials to President Duterte on June 19 in a ceremony conducted through a videoconference.

In his remarks, MacArthur reiterated Canada’s commitment to the Philippines: “Our amazing people-topeople links, expanding academic partnerships, growing trade and investment, as well as our cooperation on youth employment, women’s health and empowerment, and a commitment to maintaining the gains of peace in Mindanao underpin our dynamic relations.”

He further stated, “Our two countries stand together in solidarity with the international community in cooperating to address the current [coronavirus disease 2019] Covid-19 pandemic.”

MacArthur also emphasized that efforts continue to deepen the bilateral trade relations between the Philippines and Canada: “Some of the oldest businesses operating in the Philippines are Canadian, today employing thousands of Filipinos. We seek to further expand commercial relations with such an important Asean economy—including services and direct investments.”

Important roles

PRIOR to his appointment as ambassador to the Philippines, MacArthur was ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste from 2016 to 2019. He also served as director general of the South, Southeast Asia and Oceania Bureau of Canada’s former Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Between 2015 and 2018, he was also Canada’s senior official at meetings of the Asia-Pacific

Economic Cooperation Forum.

MacAr thur has served in numerous positions abroad, including as trade commissioner in Moscow, New Delhi and Hong Kong; MACARTHUR EMBASSY OF CANADA as consul heading Canada’s trade office in Mumbai; and as minister of commerce and senior trade commissioner in Tokyo. At the headquarters in Ottawa, he was deputy director of economic relations with Russia and in the same capacity for policy and strategic planning.

He also worked as director of the trade commission service for overseas operations, and also for the China and Mongolia division. As director general for global business opportunities overseeing industry sectors, he focused on science and technology cooperation.

People as ‘bridges’

ACCORDING to the embassy, people-to-people links between Canada and the Philippines continue to be strong.

There are more than 840,000 Canadians of Filipino origin in Canada: “[They] who now live and work in our country have been a welcome addition to Canadian society. Their success contributes to Canada’s diversity and prosperity.”

MacArthur concluded, “The trans-Pacific bridges they have built are solid, setting the stage for the next stage in our friendly relationship.”

The newly appointed ambassador is a graduate of McGill University and studied at l’Institut d’etudes politiques de Paris. He is married with two children.

US provides technical training on virus testing

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HE United States, through its Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), led a two-week molecular biology training to strengthen the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing capabilities of Filipino medical technologists.

From June 1 to 12, the US Department of Defense’s Philippines-AFRIMS Virology Research Unit (PAVRU) trained four medical laboratory technologists on biosafety, biosecurity, respiratory sample processing and storage, as well as Covid-19 testing techniques at the V. Luna Medical Center, the biggest military medical facility in the Philippines.

During the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, PAVRU provided the medical center with testing and laboratory-supply support, including reagents, laboratory consumables, access to equipment and guidance for molecular testing.

In addition, the unit offered technical guidance as the military hospital designed, renovated and equipped a dedicated Covid-19 testing laboratory which includes biosafety cabinets, centrifuges and biomedical freezers. With PAVRU support, the medical facility and its personnel have completed nearly 3,000 Covid-19 tests on behalf of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

PAVRU and the AFP have maintained a strong partnership since the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, when they teamed up to support disease

MEDICAL technologists stand to benefit from the recent training from the US. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES

testing in the Philippines. With the onset of the current pandemic, PAVRU is once again working directly with and supporting the Philippine Army’s personnel in their fight against Covid-19.

AFRIMS is an overseas laboratory of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. Since 1893, WRAIR has worked to reduce the impact of some of the world’s most debilitating diseases.

German scholars take interest in ‘Noli,’ ‘Fili’

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RANKFURT—A growing number of German scholars are keen on studying Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo as the two novels provided the framework for a Master’s degree summer course, “Jose Rizal y El Realismo Español,” which is being conducted from April to July 2020 as part of the Ruhr University in Bochum’s Philippine Studies program.

The course, attended online by students of Spanish literature under Prof. Roger Friedlein, attempts to define the essence and strategies of realist writing in metropolitan Spain and the Philippines.

“Rizal is not only one of the key figures of the Philippine independence from Spain who has biographical links to Germany, but he is as well a poet, dramatist and essayist—one of the most interesting Spanish-speaking novelists of the 19th century,” Professor Friedlein said.

The academician added that through the course, German students are gaining a better appreciation of Rizal’s novels as a valuable source of knowledge in the study of colonial society. They are also able to keenly establish connections and similarities in literary techniques between Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Philippines, which were both distant territories of Spain in the 19th century.

“I am glad that German scholars have taken interest in studying Rizal’s writings and see their enduring relevance,” Consul General Evelyn D. Austria said. “As we commemorate [his] 159th birth anniversary, the course is but a timely reminder that there will always be something in Rizal the people of today can emulate. There is always something [Rizal] for everyone—including the Germans.”

The two novels are related to Spanish literature of Realism, which was the dominating literary aesthetic of Rizal’s time. Since they were

JOSE RIZAL and his literary masterpieces originally written in Spanish, Rizal’s novels are being studied in comparison with Doña Perfecta (1876) and Fortunata y Jacinta (1887) by Benito Pérez Galdós, one of the most influential Spanish realist novelists.

The course is the third seminar conducted at Ruhr University under its “Philippine Initiative” program, which is an interdisciplinary cooperation of researchers with an interest in topics related to the Philippines. Two other Philippine-related courses held recently were “Las Filipinas Hispánicas” (The Spanish Philippines) and “Berichte der Entdeckungsfahrten nach Südostasien” (Chronicles on the Voyages of Discovery to Southeast Asia).

The program forms part of the recently signed cultural agreement between the Philippine Consulate General in Frankfurt and the university.

The agreement, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda, aims to support academic and research activities on Philippine matters and the creation of a center that would serve as a hub for Philippine-related projects in Southern Germany.

The activities may be followed on the blog, philippinen.blogs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de. DFA/Philippine Consulate General-Frankfurt

B8 Thursday, June 25, 2020 | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao

UH-OH...NOVAK TESTS POSITIVE! W

ORLD No. 1 Novak Djokovic became the fourth tennis player to test positive for coronavirus after competing at the Adria Tour, a charity event he himself organized.

Djokovic, who faced a significant backlash for hosting the series of events, revealed he and his wife Jelena returned a positive test for Covid-19.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion also apologized for “each individual case of infection” stemming from the Adria Tour.

“The moment we arrived in Belgrade we went to be tested. My result is positive, just as Jelena’s, while the results of our children are negative,” Djokovic said. “Everything we did in the past month, we did with a pure heart and sincere intentions. Our tournament meant to unite and share a message of solidarity and compassion throughout the region.

“I am extremely sorry for each individual case of infection. I hope that it will not complicate anyone’s health situation and that everyone will be fine,” he stressed.

Viktor Troicki, currently ranked 184th in world, was the third player to test positive for Covid-19 after competing in the charity event hosted by Djokovic in Serbia and Croatia. His pregnant wife also returned a positive test.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov withdrew from the second leg of the competition in Zadar with illness and tested positive for coronavirus when he returned home to Monaco.

Borna Ćorić of Croatia was the second player to test positive, with one of Djokovic’s coaches and another member of Dimitrov’s entourage also reportedly returning a positive coronavirus test.

The final of the event in the Croatian city between Djokovic and Russia’s Andrey Rublev was immediately canceled as a precaution following news of Dimitrov’s positive test, but players had already embraced at the net after matches, played basketball together and partied at a packed Belgrade night club.

Participants were not obliged to observe social distancing rules as Croatia had relaxed lockdown measures before the start of the tournament, but their behavior still drew criticism from players, pundits and fans.

“Once you start having mass gatherings with people coming in from all sorts of countries, it’s a recipe for it to kick off,” said three-time Grand Slam winner and two-time Olympic champion Andy Murray, as reported by BBC Sport.

“So it’s kind of a lesson for all of us—if we weren’t already—to take this extremely seriously, and to have as many safety measures in place as possible,” Murray added.

Fellow Briton Dan Evans, world number 28, said Djokovic should “feel some responsibility in his event.”

“Put it this way, I don’t think you should be having a players’ party and then dancing all over each other,” he said. “He should feel some responsibility in his event and how it’s transpired.

“Running exhibitions is good. But even if the guidelines in that country are not 2 meters,

RAVENA HEADS FOR JAPAN

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HIRDY RAVENA is turning pro. But the former Ateneo star is not bringing his act to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Japan’s B.League announced on Wednesday that Ravena will suit up for San-En NeoPhoenix in the league’s upcoming season.

The 23-year-old ex-king Blue Eagle, younger brother of NLEX guard Kiefer Ravena, signed with the Japanese squad to fulfill his dream of turning professional in a foreign league.

The three-time University Athletic Association of the Philippines champion and Finals Most Valuable Player will be the Japanese team’s first Asian import for the 2020-2021 season.

According to the league’s statement, “Asian player quotas” is a new competition system which recruits players from the continent to improve competitiveness and “expand business in the Asian market.”

“B.League has engaged communication with foreign countries to promote internationalization since the first season in 2016,” the statement said. “We are very pleased to welcome Ravena to B.League for the first year of Asian player quotas. We will continue to collaborate and cooperate with Asian partners to develop basketball in Asia.”

Ravena decided to skip the 2020 PBA Rookie Draft where he is a projected top pick in favor of the Japanese league.

The B.League plans to open in October. NeoPhoenix finished with a season-worst 5-36 won-loss record. Ramon Rafael Bonilla THIRDY RAVENA will suit up as an Asian import in the Japanese B.League.

‘Home Jam: Dunkers Only’ up

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BS-CBN Sports will stage the “Home Jam: Dunkers Only,” a slam dunk contest featuring three high-flying University Athletic Association of the Philippines stars, via live streaming on the ABS-CBN Sports Facebook and Instagram accounts on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Ready to flaunt their hops and creativity for the sake of fun and bragging rights are University of the Philippines’s Juan Gomez de Liaño, Ateneo’s Thirdy Ravena, and De La Salle’s Jamie Malonzo, who will deliver three rounds of dunks from their respective locations.

The winner of the dunk-off will be determined by judges Kobe Paras, 2013 and 2015 Fiba 3x3 Under-18 World Championship dunk champion, and former National Collegiate Athletic Association champion and NorthPort Batang Pier point guard Robert Bolick.

National University’s Shaun Ildefonso, who hosts the ABS-CBN Sports digital show “SRSLY,” will call the competition.

it’s not a joke, is it?” he added. “Even if the guidelines were taken away in this country to normal, I’d still be trying to keep myself out of the way as much as I could from other people.”

Rublev, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Croatia’s Marin Čilić revealed they returned negative tests after competing in the event, but are set to selfisolate for the next 14 days.

The series of events was set up by the 17-time Grand Slam winner to fill the void of tennis tournaments caused by the coronavirus pandemic and help players get back to match fitness after an extended break.

Professional tennis has been on hold since March due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York City in August is set to be held without fans in response to the pandemic, with measures in place that Djokovic had previously branded “extreme.” Insidethegames

NIKOLA JOKIC is quarantining in his native Serbia. AP

Nuggets’ Jokic has coronavirus

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NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I am extremely sorry for each individual case of infection.

Is the rush to play tennis this year really worth it?

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press

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HO knew a tennis ball could be so dangerous?

Certainly not Novak Djokovic, whose incredibly misguided decision to flout the coronavirus pandemic with a series of tennis exhibitions ended with the world’s best tennis player, his wife and who knows how many others infected. He’s now sorry, of course, but tell that to anyone who ends up on a ventilator because he couldn’t wait to get back on the court.

His fellow players didn’t exactly line up in support of Djokovic, who previously spouted anti-vaccination views and did not encourage social distancing or masks at the exhibitions.

“Speedy recovery fellas, but that’s what happens when you disregard all protocols. This is not a joke,” Australian player Nick Kyrgios tweeted.

Danger lurks everywhere in today’s new world and not just in Djokovic’s orbit, where three other players in his exhibitions in Serbia and Croatia also tested positive. The pandemic that shut down sports three months ago continues to wreak havoc even as leagues, teams and players struggle to find a new way forward.

Colleges already are reporting positive Covid-19 tests among athletes returning to campus in the US, and there are reports of a

number of positives in the NFL that include star Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. A woman’s soccer team pulled out of a proposed NWSL restart when several players were infected and at least one Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) already has said she won’t play a proposed season because of health concerns.

NBA stars are worried, and so are National Hockey League players as their leagues race to finish makeshift seasons. The National Football League, meanwhile, continues to forge ahead with its plans to play even as teams report positive tests on an almost daily basis.

And while baseball owners and players wasted time arguing about their season, spring training facilities were ordered closed after a spate of new infections and the Phillies reported a dozen cases in their organization alone.

It was never going to be easy for any sport to return with a pandemic of historic proportions still raging. There’s still way too much unknown about how the coronavirus spreads for athletes to trust anyone—even the experts—with their lives.

And as the rate of infections rises in states across the country, the question has to be asked.

Is the rush to play this year really worth it?

Owners and team officials say yes, largely because there are billions of dollars in TV contracts at stake. Money is also the motivation for players on the Professional Golfers‘ Association (PGA) Tour, who were elated to be able to play for pay once again even as one of their own tested positive after playing last week.

Fans are happy to see sports coming back, that’s for sure. So are sports bettors, who in recent months had little other than Russian table tennis matches to wager on.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that a sport like football simply can’t be played under current conditions. That’s especially true in colleges, where protocols change from school to school and there is no way to really build a

bubble to protect players.

The NFL has a better shot, but not much better. The nation’s chief infectious disease doctor said as much last week when asked about the possibility of football returning.

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble—insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day—it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

Indeed, if the PGA Tour and boxing and UFC can’t keep their athletes from getting the virus, it’s hard to see how those running team sports can figure out a way for everyone to stay safe.

That includes the NBA, which has a 113page plan to protect players that might as well be tossed out the window with the surge in cases in Florida.

And who, if anyone, thinks MLB really is not inept after all and can somehow safely handle staging games in stadiums across the country?

It may be time to accept the new reality in sports, just as we’ve had to accept it in life. The things we once took for granted now have to be rethought, with health the No. 1 priority.

That includes tennis tournaments, from the US Open still scheduled in August to Djokovic’s ill-fated exhibitions.

“I pray for everyone’s full recovery,” Djokovic said in a statement of remorse.

You’ve got to wonder who will be issuing the apologies when NBA stars start testing positive by the handful or when half an NFL team is infected.

Who tells the parents of a college football player that for all of everyone’s seemingly good intentions, their son has come down with Covid-19.

And who can say anything when the unthinkable happens—as it surely will—and athletes actually die?

The bottom line is there’s no real reason— other than money—to take the risk. We’ve gotten this far without sports, and we can make it to the end of the year without them.

ll-Star forward Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets has tested positive for the coronavirus and is quarantining in his native Serbia, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Jokic is expected to return to Denver long before the team leaves for the Disney complex for the restart of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season next month, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because neither the player nor the team acknowledged the positive test publicly.

ESPN and The Denver Post previously reported Jokic’s positive test, which came on the same day that another top Serbian athlete—Novak Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player—revealed that he and his wife had tested positive for the virus.

Djokovic and Jokic were together at an event earlier this month, though it cannot be concluded it played in a role in the positive test of either athlete.

Jokic is averaging 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds this season for Denver. Only four other players—Minnesota’s KarlAnthony Towns, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Atlanta’s John Collins and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo—are averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds this season.

When the season resumes July 30 at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, the Nuggets will start with a 43-22 record, placing them 1 1/2 games behind the second-place Los Angeles Clippers and 1 1/2 games ahead of fourth-place Utah in the Western Conference playoff race.

Photos of Jokic during the NBA’s shutdown clearly suggest that he’s slimmed down during his time off, and Nuggets President Tim Connelly raved about the new physique earlier this month to Altitude Sports Radio.

“He’s got abs,” Connelly said in that interview. “I’ve never seen him have abs before.”

Last week, Nuggets Coach Michael Malone revealed he tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies and added that he believes he had the virus in March. AP

TNT KaTropa, PLDT-Smart Foundation offer help to Mandaluyong fire victims

T THE TNT KaTropa join the relief effort organized by the PLDT-Smart Foundation. Shown are (standing from left) Gryann Mendoza, Jjay Alejandro, Mark Dickel, Team Manager Gabby Cui, PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) President Esther Santos, Your 200 Pesos Cofounder Michele Gumabao, Aldo Panlilio, Alagang Kapatid Foundation Inc. Executive Director Menchie Silvestre and PSF staff Arcel Dacir. In front are (from left) PSF staff Elvira Gumangan and Emma Araojo and TV News 5 team.

HE TNT KaTropa recently provided financial assistance for the fire survivors in Mandaluyong through the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF).

The team also joined the distribution of hot meals and grocery packs to the families who were currently evacuated at the Nueve De Febrero Elementary School and other evacuation centers in Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City.

Players Kib Montalbo, Jjay Alejandro and Gryann Mendoza led the relief activity, along with Coaches Mark Dickel and Bong Ravena, as well as Team Manager Gabby Cui and Assistant Team Manager Miguel Fernandez.

“We hope that through this relief effort,

we are able to bring some joy and comfort to the families whose lives are forever changed by this tragedy. A big thanks to the PLDT-Smart Foundation for giving us an opportunity to be part of this activity,” said Cui, also PLDT-Smart assistant vice president.

Earlier this month, a residential area burned down in Mandaluyong City where 600 families were rendered homeless, while Mila Taon Carillo, 69, was killed by the fire that hit 200 houses in Correctional Road corner 9 de Febrero in Barangay Addition Hills as reported by the Bureau of Fire Protection.

“Our hearts are with the families affected by this tragedy. As they try to move forward with their lives amid the pandemic, we hope

that our gesture enables them to cling to hope especially during this difficult time,” PSF President Esther Santos said.

The PSF organized the relief activity in coordination with Mandaluyong Councilor Charisse Abalos-Vargas.

The activity was also staged in partnership with Your 200 Pesos, an initiative that aims to feed families affected by the pandemic. It is led by former volleyball star, TV personality and beauty queen Michele Gumabao and Strength and Conditioning Coach Aldo Panlilio.

Through the partnership, PSF aims to widen its reach to provide hope and help to more people in need amid the Covid-19 pandemic.