BusinessMirror June 28, 2021

VACCINE HESITANCY: WHAT’S THE SCORE? THE Philippines Graphic and PHAPCares Foundation led a webinar on “Vaccine Hesitancy: Epekto sa Buhay, Epekto sa Bayan," on Friday (June 25). Joining the virtual forum were: (First row) Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando, Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia, BusinessMirror and Philippines Graphic Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon, BusinessMirror Editor in Chief Lourdes Molina-Fernandez, Philippines Graphic Wellness Editor Anne Ruth Dela Cruz; (second row) Dagupan Mayor Marc Brian Lim, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Benhur Abalos, Parañaque City Administrator Fernando Soriano, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong; (third row) Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano, Special Adviser to the National Task Force Against Covid-19 Dr. Ted Herbosa, PHAPCares Foundation President Yee Kok Cheong, PHAPCares Foundation Executive Director Dr. Rosarita Siasoco, and DOH Health Promotion Bureau Director Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho. Story on page A10.

REBOUND AT RISK FROM COVID VARIANT—EXPERTS

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n Monday, June 28, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 257

P25.00 nationwide | 3 sections 22 pages |

PORK SHIPMENTS TO PHL COULD HIT RECORD HIGH THIS YEAR—SUPPLIERS

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

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HIS Eminence Jose Fuerte Cardinal Advincula, DD, Metropolitan Archbishop of Manila, officiates at Holy Mass at Mary Comforter of the Afflicted Parish at Barangay Maricaban in Pasay City. The Eucharistic celebration was part of a series of events marking his assumption as the main shepherd of the Catholic flock in the capital city. Cardinal Advincula was installed in solemn rites at the Manila Cathedral on Thursday (June 24). ROY DOMINGO

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

AMPING up vaccination is crucial to mitigating the possible adverse impact of the Covid-19 Delta variant on the economy, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and local economists.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua told BusinessMirror over the weekend that the Delta variant could

lead to another spike in Covid-19 cases. This will also reduce the economy’s chances to recover.

Continued on A2

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.8380

HE country’s pork deficit of about 400,000 metric tons (MT) and lower tariff rates will result in record shipments of pork from foreign meat suppliers to the Philippines this year.

The United States Meat Exporters Federation (USMEF) and Dutch Meat Industry Association (COV) told the BusinessMirror they expect record-high pork exports to the Philippines this year.

COV International Affairs Director Frans van Dongen told the BusinessMirror that the Philippines is one of their key markets in Asia. The Netherlands has seen a steady increase in pork exports to the Philippines in recent years.

Van Dongen noted that in contrast to the drop in total pork exports of the European Union to the Philippines last year, the pig meat shipments of the Neth-

erlands rose to 27,000 MT from 24,000 MT, accounting for 20 percent of total EU volume.

“This year, we are further growing. We are already at the level for the first months of last year. This is a new record year for pig meat for the Netherlands,” Van Dongen said in a recent interview. “This year, [shipments] will rise above 30,000 metric tons.”

Van Dongen said the Philippines’s pork supply shortfall is driving the increase in Dutch pork exports.

He also said the decline in pork prices in China due to its high inventory level has tempered the Asian nation’s demand for Dutch pork. This encouraged Dutch exporters to look for alternative markets like the Philippines.

“China is really a big factor and it is one big and very important market for us. If a lot of exports go to China then less will go to the rest, if less goes to See “Pork shipments,” A2

NG subsidies to GOCCs soar to ₧44.7B in May

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

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@BNicolasBM

HE national government gave P44.69 billion in subsidies to state-run firms in May this year, with Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) cornering the bulk of the amount.

Subsidies extended to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) surged by nearly 50 percent compared to only P29.8 billion in the same month a

year ago, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

Other government corporations, including PhilHealth, received the biggest share of subsidies at P39.34 billion in May, while the remaining P5.35 billion went to major nonfinancial government corporations.

Government financial institutions have yet to receive any amount since the start of the year.

Out of P44.69 billion in subsidies in May, PhilHealth received P36.5 billion.

Trailing PhilHealth in the list of

GOCCs with the biggest subsidies during the month are National Irrigation Administration or NIA (P3.3 billion), National Housing Authority or NHA (P1.95 billion), Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. or PCIC (P1.75 billion) and National Dairy Authority (P205 million).

5-month total down 7.75%

MEANWHILE, the government gave a total of P79.94 billion in subsidies to GOCCs from January to May this year, down by 7.75 percent from last year’s

P86.66 billion.

During the five-month period, most of the subsidies were given to other government corporations at P52.83 billion while P27.1 billion went to major nonfinancial government corporations.

Even for the January-to-May period, PhilHealth still took the lion’s share of subsidies at P45.46 billion.

It was followed by NIA (P14.2 billion), National Food Authority (P7 billion), NHA (P5.18 billion) and PCIC (P1.75 billion).

See “NG subsidies,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4406 n UK 67.9971 n HK 6.2909 n CHINA 7.5458 n SINGAPORE 36.3703 n AUSTRALIA 37.0290 n EU 58.2686 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.0231

Source: BSP (June 25, 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, June 28, 2021

DBM releases ₧9-B SRA to DOH for health workers

A

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

ROUND 300,000 public and private health workers can now finally expect the payment of their Covid-19 special risk allowances (SRA) on or before June 30 after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it has already released P9.02 billion in funds to the Department of Health (DOH).

A few days after receiving the budget request from DOH on June 23, the DBM said it has already released the Special Allotment Release Order and the Notice of Cash Allocation amounting to P9.02 billion to cover the payment of Covid-19 SRA from December 20, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

The funds cover the payment

of SRA not exceeding P5,000 per month. The grant of the Covid-19 SRA shall be pro-rated based on the number of days that frontline health workers physically report for work in a month.

“With the funds now made available to the DOH, qualified public and private health workers can expect the payment of the SRA

NG subsidies…

The national government provides subsidies to state-run firms

Continued from A1

to fund operations not covered by the corporate revenues or to finance

not later than June 30, 2021,” the DBM said in a statement over the weekend.

“The DBM is committed to fulfill its mandate of promoting the efficient and effective management of the national budget to support its budget priorities while also ensuring that the needs of the Filipino people are met, especially of healthcare workers in this time of pandemic,” it added.

Citing data from the DOH, Budget Assistant Secretary Kim Robert De Leon said in a radio interview on Sunday that 298,202 health workers directly catering to or in contact with Covid-19 patients are eligible for SRA. De Leon said the funds for Covid-19 SRA were sourced from the appropriations under Bayanihan 2, adding that DOH is working hard to release the funds on or before June 30. To recall, appropriations under Bayanihan 2 are only valid until June 30 this year.

Asked for the reason for the delay in the release of funds, De Leon explained that it was only on June 1 when they finally had the legal basis to release funds for Covid-19

SRA for health workers after President Duterte issued Administrative Order No. 42.

“First of all, our basis for giving Special Risk Allowance is embodied in Bayanihan 2, and we know that this [the law] expired on December 19 or December 20, 2020, so the primary basis for the grant of SRA really ended last December 20; and our new basis for extending SRA was Administrative Order No. 42 which the President issued last June 1, 2021,” he explained, mostly in Filipino.

The day after the issuance of AO 42, De Leon said the DBM sent the signed joint circular for SRA to DOH. The DBM then received the circular from DOH on June 16.

Nonetheless, De Leon expressed confidence that DOH will be able to release the funds to health workers on or before June 30.

Health workers had earlier held protests to demand from the government the release of their allowances before Bayanihan 2 expires by the end of the month. As of May 31, P18.4 billion in Bayanihan 2 appropriations have yet to be obligated by agencies, according to DBM.

specific programs or projects.

Last year, the national government spent a total of P230.42 billion in subsidies to GOCCs, the highest since 1986 when the government

started collecting data. PhilHealth cornered the biggest allocation, receiving P62.4 billion or 27 percent of the total subsidies released during the period.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

REBOUND AT RISK FROM COVID VARIANT–EXPERTS Continued from A1

In March, the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) placed the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby provinces, including Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ ) due to the surge in Covid-19 cases.

This cost the economy about P180 billion, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (See: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2021/04/16/lopez-pegstwo-week-ecq-losses-at-p180billion/).

“If we are not careful and don’t manage it well from the source, it can result in another spike. Another spike will reduce our recovery prospects,” Chua told BusinessMirror.

“Accelerating vaccination is key.”

Economists weigh in

Of the city’s total population, 4.7 percent have been vaccinated.

LOCAL economists like De La Salle University’s Maria Ella Oplas agreed with Chua and said vaccination was the only way to prevent the spread of the new strain.

If the government fails to curb the spread of the Delta variant, Oplas feared the government’s recent efforts, including the inoculation of millions, would be in vain.

The government has put in place a P2-trillion recovery program which includes the Bayanihan 1 and 2; the passage of the CREATE Law which lowers taxes and provides incentives to firms; and the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Act (FIST) which addresses liquidity problems of the private sector.

The list includes the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) which aims to address solvency problems of firms; the Build, Build, Build program; and the 2021 national budget.

“The government should take vaccination seriously and intensify it. For now, that is the only way we can fight the spread of that strain.

Otherwise, everything the government had worked hard for will be in vain,” Oplas said.

Bulacan

Contact tracing, testing

Supply, distribution issues to spell success of Covid vaxx rollout Continued from A10

FOR his part, Governor Daniel Fernando has asserted that to end this pandemic, “Vaccination is the solution.”

As of June 16, he said over 161,000 doses have been administered for the first dose; and 34,045 for the second dose.

Parañaque

PA R A Ñ A Q U E C i t y A d m i n i strator Fer nando Sor iano said they aim to vaccinate 60 percent of t hei r tot a l popu l at ion by November.

As of June 23, he said that a total of 190,297 doses were administered (first and second doses).

Vaccine supply

MEANWHILE, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that even if they wanted to hasten the vaccination rollout, they are hounded by delays in the vaccine supply.

It’s “ just a matter of time” that the “Delta” variant, considered as a variant of concern, will be detected in the city, he worried.

“We were very optimistic and we were very enthusiastic also in opening our economy. It’s just unfortunate that we have this problem [delay in vaccine supply],” he lamented.

“And then there comes the Delta variant . . . something inevitable . . . in a matter of time we will get hit by the Delta variant.

We can’t prevent it and I don’t think we would be able to prevent it and we have to prepare for it and that will significantly delay the full opening of our economy.

So far, I am talking only, so far as Baguio City is concerned,” he stressed.

FOR Action for Economic Reforms (AER) Coordinator Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III, more Filipinos could get vaccinated by ensuring adequate supply and better access to these supplies.

Vaccination is important, Sta. Ana told BusinessMirror, since real world data already showed that vaccines are effective in containing the delta variant.

Apart from vaccinations, Sta. Ana said the government must also veer away from imposing restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19. This will only constrain economic growth.

Instead of quarantines, Sta. Ana said the government must improve

testing, contact tracing, and quarantining. Efforts to help those negatively affected by the lockdowns should continue.

“The government must continue providing ayuda (aid) to those who will be affected. All this will of course require resources. Government thus should spend more but at the same time see to it that the budget is efficient and responsive to fighting the pandemic,” Sta. Ana said.

Ivermectin, other means

FORMER Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo L. Neri told BusinessMirror over the weekend that the government should also be more open to other means of combating the virus.

Neri said the use of Ivermectin to complement the vaccines is one way to widen the choices for treatment in the country.

He added that the government can also start looking into Nitric Oxide nasal spray and determine if this can be produced locally to make it more affordable.

“It’s good to have a wider array of weapons against this mutating virus. Together with cheaper accurate and fast testing and other precautions we may be able to get back to normal,” Neri said.

He added that the government should also increase the use of vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax since those who took the Chinese vaccines would require booster shots.

Last week, Indonesia recorded a surge in Covid-19 cases to around 2 million due to the delta variant of the virus. The delta variant, first detected in India, has already become the dominant strain in Kudus and Bengkalan towns in Java.

A delta variant outbreak in Sydney, Australia has also triggered lockdowns and the mandatory use of masks while the outbreak in Israel has postponed the reopening of its borders to foreign tourists.

Earlier, Chua said quarantine restrictions and the fall in consumption translate to a total income loss of around P1.04 trillion in 2020 or an average of P2.8 billion pesos a day.

Quarantine restrictions led to an average annual income loss of P23,000 per worker. However, he said this average masks wide differences across sectors and jobs, and some workers are hit much harder, especially those who lost their jobs.

Nonetheless, he said the government’s response this year has improved visits to public transport stations to a contraction of 40 percent this year from a decline of 80 percent last year.

More Filipinos, Chua said, have also started going back to work.

Those going to work is only down by 25 percent this year compared to a decline of over 40 percent last year.

Pork shipments China then more will go to the rest,” he said.

Van Dongen also said the Netherlands’ share to the total EU pork exports to the Philippines will continue to expand this year as Germany is still not allowed to export pork to the Southeast Asian nation due to concerns over African swine fever (ASF).

Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data showed that the country’s total pork imports from the Netherlands in January to May more than tripled to 22,406.793 MT from last year’s 7,211.166 MT. Pork imports from the Netherlands reached 25,008.175 MT in 2020.

US pork exports

THE USMEF noted that US pork exports to the Philippines, excluding variety meats such as offal, surged by over 640 percent year-on-year to nearly 30,800 MT as of June 10.

Continued from A1

Latest US weekly export data also showed that US pork exports, excluding variety meat, has reached 31,225 MT as of June 17, 611 percent higher than the 4,389 MT recorded a year ago.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showed that the latest US pork exports to the Philippines is just 2,745 MT shy of surpassing its 2020 shipments of 33,999.3 MT, which was the highest in seven years.

“That’s an unprecedented volume. It’s the highest ever through the reported period,” USMEF Senior Vice President Joel Haggard told the BusinessMirror. “I think we are [on track for a record-high volume].”

The US posted its highest pork export volume to the Philippines in 2010, when it reached 43,951.3 MT, based on USDA data.

Continued on A3

Economy BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Govt sets 3-mo period to review employment recovery strategies

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HE government has set the review period on the implementation of its National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) for workers who were affected by the pandemic.

Last Friday, President Duterte finally signed Executive Order (EO) 140 adopting NERS and creating the task force to monitor its implementation.

The EO has been pending in the Office of the President (OP) since it was first announced in February.

Under the issuance, the NERS Task Force will be required to submit an evaluation on the effectiveness of its programs within three months from the effectivity of the order, and every three months thereafter.

EO 140 will take effect immediately after it is published in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

“There is a need to revitalize the

economy and create a national employment campaign that will promote and implementjob-generating programs of various government agencies under the new normal,” Duterte said.

The NERS task force will be chaired by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and cochaired by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

DOLE also serves as the secretariat of the task force.

Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique R. Tutay said they already got some initial feedback from the government agencies that are part of the task force.

“Happy to note that it’s moving, though some agencies modified some of their enrolled Programs [under NERS],” Tutay told the BusinessMirror in a Viber message. Samuel P. Medenilla

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, June 28, 2021 A3

PHL, South Korea keen on concluding free-trade pact

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

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HE Philippines and South Korea have reiterated the urgency of concluding their free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations soon to strengthen economic cooperation.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in a statement over the weekend, said that Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Kim In-Chul recently met to discuss their country’s policy direction to enhance bilateral trade relations.

“Both officials emphasized the need to immediately conclude the on-

going PHL-ROK [Republic of Korea] free-trade agreement negotiation to enhance market access of key products of interests of the two countries,” the Trade department said.

The trade officials of both countries also tackled cooperation on innovation and the automotive industry.

Earlier this year, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo told the reporters they are aiming to settle FTA negotiations with South Korea

by June. The FTA talks were launched in 2019.

The Philippines is eyeing to reduce, if not lift, the tariff on agricultural products shipped to

Korea, particularly bananas, under the FTA deal.

Currently, the country's banana shipments to Seoul are given 30-percent duty. This puts the Philippines at a disadvantage given that Central American countries and Vietnam are given or will receive preferential treatment on their banana exports to South Korea.

South Korea, meanwhile, is asking the Philippines to eliminate the 5-percent tariff for vehicles 3,000 cc and below.

Following the first shipment of okra (lady fingers) to South Korea this month, the DTI said the country looks forward to delivering more

agricultural exports.

The exports of fresh, green okra pods will be sourced from Tarlac province initially. There are currently four local okra exporters, including Jelfarm Fresh Produce Enterprise; Greenstar Produce, Philippines Inc.; AAMC Foods Corp.; and Hi-Las Marketing Corp.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the country's exports to South Korea dropped by 22.1 percent to $2.53 billion last year from $3.24 billion year-on-year. Imports from South Korea, meanwhile, amounted to $6.68 billion last year, which is 21.2 percent lower than $8.48 billion in 2019.

Win pushes satellite-based tech to boost PHL digital education NHA hits 84% of 190K permanent

S

ENATORS were asked over the weekend to frontload passage of a bill boosting digital education in public schools as soon as Congress reconvenes its regular session on July 26.

In filing Senate Bil l 2250, Senator Sher w in Gatcha lian moved to ma ximize use of satel lite technolog y to “w iden inter net access nationw ide” in rol ling out dig ita l technolog y in public schools, g iven the ser ious connectiv it y issues that hounded both teachers and students dur ing the pandemic-induced lockdow ns.

Gatchalian said SB 2250, to be known as “Satellite-Based Technologies for Internet Connectivity Act of 2021,” aims to “expand nationwide access to satellite-based technologies as an alternative connectivity

solution to ensure universal access to the Internet.”

The senator suggested that while students have yet to return physically to school, it is timely to line up early preparations for promoting digital education throughout the country.

Gatchalian’s enabling legislation provides that government organizations, public and non-profit private institutions, and volunteer organizations engaged in education, health, finance, agriculture, environmental management, climate change management, disaster preparedness and crisis response be allowed to own and operate satellite-based technology to aid and augment their activities.

In order to provide internet services through satellite-

Pork shipments...

Haggard also said that aside from the need of the Philippines for pork, two other factors will affect US shipments to the Philippines.

For one, Haggard said demand from China—the world’s top pork consumer—would continue to have a big impact on the volume of shipments to Asia.

He said prices in China have crashed in recent weeks and the EU is benefiting from this. This, he said, is creating a spillover effect on US pork exports to other countries, such as the Philippines.

However, Haggard noted that rising domestic pork prices in the US have reached record levels and this could limit American exporters’ shipments to the Philippines.

“We are concerned with the competitiveness of our prices.

Because of our strong domestic market, our restaurants have been reopened in the past three months, there has been exceptional demand, driving up our prices,” he said, adding that the US is not competitive against Europe in certain pork cuts like bellies.

Nonetheless, Hag gard said the US is “willing to supply” the Philippines with its pork requirements since there is still “plenty of room” to expand in the Southeast Asian market.

The Philippines lowered its pork tariffs to as low as 10 percent and increased its pork minimum access volume (MAV) by 200,000 MT in its bid to boost domestic pork supply, arrest rising pork prices and temper inflation.

MAV plus

MORE than a third of the additional 200,000 MT of pork MAV must be sold in the next four months, based

based technologies, “especially in areas where it is expensive to roll out wired or mobile wireless networks," a satellite is used to get internet signal from the internet service provider (ISP) to the user, he explained.

How it works: “The ISP sends a wireless internet signal to a satellite in space, while the satellite dish is connected to the modem of the user, which then connects the user to the Internet.”

Gatchalian said the digital option bill complements the Public Education Network (PEN) which the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) aim to put up, assuring the public that “this initiative aims to fasttrack the installation of digital connectivity in public schools

continued from a2

on the approved MAV plus rules to boost domestic supply.

The MAV Management Committee (MAV-MMC) divided the pork MAV+ distribution into two batches: 70 percent or 140,000 MT must be sold from July to October, while the remaining volume of 30,000 MT must be distributed within November 2021 to January 2022.

The MAV-MMC’s allocation was higher than the 55 percent-45 percent allocation recommended by a Department of Agriculture (DA) inter-agency technical working group (TWG). (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2021/06/02/d-a-panelimport-55-of-mav-plus-withinjuly-september/) The final pork MAV+ distribution allocation is also higher than the oneyear spread proposed by the MAV Advisory Council (MAV-AC) to distribute the volume equally every month.

(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/05/20/ higher-pork-mav-panel-pitches1-year-period/) The MAV-MMC thumbed down the proposal of the DA inter-agency TWG to allocate a certain volume of the pork MAV+ to specific sectors.

Instead, the pork MAV+ will be allocated on a “first-come first-served basis” with a maximum limit of 50 full container load or about 1,250 MT per application per importer, based on the approved guidelines.

The higher distribution and scrapping of the allocation per sector is intended to ensure “faster” arrival of the much needed pork supply, government officials told the BusinessMirror.

“No more allocation per sector. It is open on a first come, first serve basis so that we ensure faster arrival of the needed pork supply,” Agriculture

Undersecretary William C. Medrano said via SMS on Sunday.

The MAV-AC earlier pushed for the allocation of MAV+ for the pork producers’ sector as a way of helping them recoup the losses they incurred due to ASF. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua hailed the approved distribution allocation scheme, saying the country needs more supply “now than later.”

Under the approved r u les, other importers or new entrants will be “given equal opportunity subject to the agreed manner of distribution.”

“Certain flexibility based on historical data and importation experiences of [Bureau of Animal Industry] and [National Meat Inspection Service] shall be applied to facilitate the full utilization of the additional volume within the MAV year,” read MAV-MMC Resolution 1, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.

The pork MAV+ rules were unanimously approved by the MAV-MMC, noting that the guidelines meant to “ensure compliance and attain the real intent and purpose” of President Duterte’s EO 133 which seeks to immediately address domestic pork supply shortfall and “provide consumers with adequate and affordable food and to lower inflation.”

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar confirmed to the BusinessMirror that pork imported through the MAV+ mechanism cannot be used for processing purposes to produce bacon, hams, and other processed meat products.

However, Dar said meat processors may still participate in the MAV+ mechanism provided that they sell the imported pork directly to buyers.

and DepEd offices.”

He clar ified that under the PEN, the DICT w il l aug ment f uture satel lite capacit y of the DepEd for students from Last Mile Schools to access dig ita l education, noting that using public schools as common tower sites is a lso par t of the t wo agencies’ agreement.

Gatchalian recalled that a National ICT Household Survey in 2019—the year just before the Covid-19 pandemic that forced millions of students to be taught remotely amid serious connectivity issues— showed 82.3 percent of households do not have access to the internet. Also, a paper from The Asia Foundation pointed out that 74 percent of public schools remain unconnected to the Internet.

Butch Fernandez

houses targeted for Yolanda victims

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VER 141,000 housing units have been constructed by the National Housing Authority (NHA) for victims of typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan), or 84 percent of target.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the government had set a goal to build 190,972 housing units for victims under the Yolanda Permanent Housing Program (YPHP) of NHA as of the second quarter of the year.

“Another 18,749 are under construction. The remaining 30,994 housing units are expected to be completed before the end of the term of the President,” Nograles said in a statement on Sunday.

Nograles made the disclosure following the regional pre-State of the Nation Address (Sona) event

held by the Office of the President in Tacloban City, Leyte on June 25, 2021.

Typhoon Yolanda, given a super storm category 5, is one of the most devastating calamities to ever hit the country, killing over 6,000 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Among the areas hardest hit by the typhoon is the Visayas, particularly in the provinces of Samar and Leyte.

In Eastern Visayas, where both provinces are located, the NHA already built 40,225 housing units and another 7,943 are still being constructed.

Nograles said 16,186 housing units in the region were distributed by the government through virtual awarding ceremony. Samuel P. Medenilla

A4 Monday, June 28, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

The Nation BusinessMirror

House panels OK Boracay superbody amid objections

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

D

ESPITE opposition from government agencies, local government units, stakeholders, and fellow congressmen, two committees in the House of Representatives approved the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority (Bida) as a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC).

The means the Substitute Bill to House Bills 4175, 6214, 6285, 7249, 7256, 7280, 7294, 7313, 7360, and 7931 creating the Bida, as contained in a House Committee Report, is now up for plenary discussion.

Since then, a “No to Bida as GOCC” movement has been set up on the island, supported by a number of residents and business owners. A businessman in Boracay who requested anonymity told the BusinessMirror, “They railroaded the Bida in the committee. The approval was scripted even though there were many participants who spoke out against it.”

The Substitute Bill, not only will “manage, develop, preserve, and rehabilitate” Boracay, it also gives Bida control over Brgy. Caticlan in the municipality of Malay, “and the entire area occupied by the airport, which extends to the municipality of Nabas.” It also gives Bida the power to “contract, lease, buy, sell, acquire, own or dispose movable and immovable, as well as personal and real property of whatever nature, including shares.” (See, “New bill on Boracay Island regulatory authority opposed,” in the BusinessMirror, February 28, 2021.

‘Boracay is for all Filipinos’

AFTER interested parties made plain their opposition to the bill, Rep. Eric Go Yap (ACT-CIS), coauthor of the HB6214 with Davao Rep. Paolo Z. Duterte—son of President Duterte —and another Davaoeño, Sandro L. Gonzalez (Marino), sought the approval of the Substitute Bill during a hearing on June 15, saying he understood the concerns raised by those

IN an earlier visit to Boracay, DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu expresses support to islanders opposing the House of Representatives’ proposed legislation to establish a government corporation to administer Boracay Island. FROM ONE BORACAY MOVEMENT FB PAGE

opposed to the proposed legislation.

But he said in Filipino, they saw “a golden opportunity to create a GOCC. We shouldn’t pass this up; Boracay is not only for those in Aklan but it belongs to all Filipinos as it has been a huge help to the country. That’s why I and chairman Paolo Duterte will not stop until we pass this Bida bill because we know it’s for everyone’s good.”

However, Yap failed to respond to theissuesraisedbythenationalgovernment agencies, LGUs, and colleagues in the House opposed to the Bida.

For one, Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores said, the proposed bill “encroaches, diminishes, or even divests the constitutionally and legally mandated powers of local government units, specifically its local autonomy and power to generate and apply resources and just share in the national taxes.” He added, “There are 19 existing government agencies that can undertake the function of the Bida.”

Overtourism, overdevelopment

NATIVIDAD BERNARDINO, chairman of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group and a director of the Department of Environment and National Resources, pointed out, “The problem of Boracay is one of overtourism and overdevelopment. What we need in terms of sustaining the rehabilitation and ecological sustainability of the island is a regulatory body instead of a GOCC.” She stressed that the island has already exceeded its carrying capacity for the environment and population, and “There is no more space for further investment and development.”

Interior Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III said the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force, proposed a professionally managed Bida “primarily to manage and ensure that the environment in the area will not be degraded and preserve it to make it sustainable.”

John Castillo of the Department of Budget and Management said the agency agreed with the Department of Finance that Bida as a GOCC, "will create a redundancy... and is inconsistent with the ongoing policy of streamlining the government corporate sector.” (See, “Dominguez nixes proposed Boracay authority’s roles,” in the BusinessMirror, March 2, 2021.)

Aklan Rep Teodorico Haresco Jr. cited Executive Order 138 of President Duterte signed on June 1 implementing the so-called Mandanas Ruling, where the Supreme Court ruled that “basic services and facilities shall be devolved from the national government to provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays... ” He said he earlier supported the younger Duterte’s original bill establishing a Bida as a regulatory authority, but couldn’t understand why it morphed into a GOCC in the proposed new legislation.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Comelec sets timeline for bidding of P55-M AES review contract

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HECommissiononElectionshas setthebiddingforitsP55-million contract for the certification of the Automated Election System (AES) to be used in the 2022 National and Local Election to next month.

On Thursday (June 24), Comelec's Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) started the sale and issuance of bidding documents, worth P50,000, for the said contract to preselected international certification entity (ICE).

Among the bidders identified by the poll body are PRO V & V; SLI Compliance; and TUV Rheinland Philippines Inc. To recall, PRO V & V won the contract to review the AES used in the 2019 elections.

In a bidding advisory, SBAC Chairman Allen Francis Abaya said the process will be conducted through a Limited Source Bidding (LSB), which makes use of a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion.

To qualify for the LSB, the ICE should have completed, within the

past six years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract on the certification of a public automated election system.

The government makes use of an LSB for “specialized types of goods and consulting services, where only a few suppliers or consultants are known to be available.”

Comelec scheduled a prebid video conferencing for the AES review contract on July 7, 2021, 10 am, through Microsoft Teams.

The deadline for the submission of bids is on 8 am of July 19, 2021, which will also be the date for the opening of the online bids—also held through Microsoft Teams.

Abaya noted that Comelec has the right to reject any and all bids, declare a failure of bidding, or not award the contract at any time prior to contract award.

He said bids received by Comelec in excess of the P55-million approved budget for the contract for the project will be automatically rejected during the bid opening. Samuel P. Medenilla

DHSUD to turn over completed projects in Marawi starting July

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

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HE Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) will start inaugurating or turning over completed Marawi projects in July.

DHSUD Secretary and Task Force Bangon Marawi Chairman Eduardo Del Rosario said the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City is already 68 percent complete.

Del Rosario said by July, the DHSUD will also award 170 permanent housing units and inaugurate three more barangay complexes inside the Most Affected Area (MAA).

“Starting next month, we will either be inaugurating or turning over completed projects,” del Rosario said in a statement.

Del Rosario said the December deadline for major infrastructures will be met. In his latest visit to Marawi, the TFBM head led the inauguration of the Barangay Rorogagus Health Station and the Lilod Guimba Bridge.

On Thursday, the TFBM inaugurated the Masjid Disomangcop, also inside MAA. It is the first to be completed among several mosques being constructed and repaired.

The repair of Masjid Disomangcop was supported by the Ayala Group via their compliance with an incentivized balanced housing program.

“The road networks are very important because these will signal for us [the time] to allow those residing in Sectors 4 to 9 to come home and build their respective houses by October [this year],” the housing czar said.

“So when these road networks are completed as programmed by end of September, starting October, we will allow the entry and construction of private houses by October,” he added.

Another important accomplishment, according to Secretary Del Rosario, is the repair of masjids. He noted that based on the President’s instructions, the TFBM intends to focus on the reconstruction of mosques before any other project.

After a difficult repatriation, BI arrests US woman GOVT EXECS FACE CHARGES FOR MARINE PLASTIC POLLUTION DFA empties Syria shelter of in minor’s abduction human trafficking survivors T

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HE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) repatriated at the weekend 22 survivors of trafficking in persons (TIP) and illegal recruitment scams, following a lengthy stay in Syria.

This historic repatriation, DFA said, is part of its commitment, as an Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) member agency, “to arrest, investigate, and prosecute all human traffickers and illegal recruiters, combat the heinous crime of trafficking in persons, and assist the trafficking survivors in granting opportunities for a new life and a new hope, upon their arrival in the Philippines.”

The Philippine embassy in Syria said in a statement, “For the first time in history, the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) Shelter of Philippine embassy in Syria shall be fully emptied out of all the wards.”

The 22 Filipinos arrived in the Sunday morning (June 27), after lengthy diplomatic negotiations with the Syrian Arab Republic and filing cases against illegal recruiters and human traffickers, under the helm of Philippine Chargé d’affaires, (CDA) to Syria, Vida Soraya S. Verzosa.

One of the FWRC wards said: “Sa wakas, uuwi na po kami. Akala namin wala na kaming pag-asa makauwi pero salamat po sa DFA

at sa Philippine Embassy sa Syria [Finally, we are coming home. We had already lost hope that we can go home, but we are thankful to DFA and the Philippine Embassy in Syria].”

The ward recalled that they were in the shelter for nearly three years due to the difficulties in securing their exit visas from the employers and the recruitment agencies.

Before boarding their flight, the wards tearfully expressed their gratitude through CDA Verzosa, for all the help of the DFA Philippines Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA), Sarah Lou Arriola and the Embassy for assisting them.

The DFA, meanwhile, said the difficult repatriation was made possible “through the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, and the Office of the Presidential Advisor of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

The DFA has referred the cases of the trafficked Filipinas to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) head, Hans Leo J. Cacdac, as part of the community reintegration program once they arrive at their local government units after their quarantine period. Recto L. Mercene

HE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has arrested an American woman facing trial in the US for contempt of court and defying a court order in a child custody case.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Cyndie Mamuad Mesina, 54, was arrested by agents of the BI’s fugitive search unit (FSU) along Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila on Thursday.

It was discovered that Mesina is already an overstaying alien, and does not possess a valid travel document as confirmed by US authorities.

Mesina’s arrest followed release of a mission order by Morente in response to the request of US authorities who informed local counterparts that an arrest warrant has been issued against Mesina by the Superior Court of California in County of San Mateo, which cited her in contempt of court and for child abduction or deprivation of custody. The said violations refer to the act of one parent keeping a child from the other parent despite a court order prohibiting it.

Mesina is also accused of exhibiting disrespectful behavior towards the court process in the US, thus, the issuance of the arrest warrant.

The suspect has been transferred to the BI’s detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending issuance of the order for her deportation by the BI Board of Commissioners.

Mesina’s name will also be included in the BI’s blacklist which would bar her from returning to the country. Joel R. San Juan

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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ARIOUS stakeholders led by ocean conservation advocacy nongovernment organization Oceana are taking the first step in the legal arena to press concerned government agencies, particularly the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), to implement Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 and address the worsening marine plastic pollution.

In a statement, Oceana said notices to sue were served to the NSWMC through Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and heads of national agencies which include Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato dela Peña, Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark S. Villar, and Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin Abalos Jr., among others.

Serving the notices to sue

is the first step to compel the NSWMC—composed of various government agencies—through their officials to act to counter what complainants deem as “apathy to the heavy burden of mounting plastic pollution” inundating the country’s waters, land and air.

Oceana Vice President Atty.

Gloria Estenzo Ramos said: “We can no longer bear the inaction of the NSWMC which has failed to implement its mandated task to prepare a list of nonenvironmentally acceptable products and packaging (NEAPP). Their lack of concern for 20 long years is far too deplorable and inexcusable. The groups believe it was time to interpose and take the necessary action on this issue.”

The Philippines produced 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste—more than half a million metric tons of which were leaked to the ocean, a study by Ocean Conservancy in 2015 revealed.

The Waste Assessment Brand Audit 2019 report of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), meanwhile, showed that the country produced daily 164 million pieces of sachets, 48 million shopping bags, 45.2 million pieces of labo bags.

As provided in Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, the

NSWMC is mandated to prepare a list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging (NEAPP) within a year after the law’s effectivity and updates every year thereafter.

The NSWMC is composed of 14 national government agencies and private sector representatives.

The manufacture, distribution or use of nonenvironmentally acceptable packaging materials and the importation of consumer products packaged in nonenvironmentally acceptable materials are prohibited under Section 48 of RA 9003.

RA 9003, signed on June 26, 2001, was enacted to promote the adoption of a systematic, comprehensive, and ecological solid waste management program to ensure the protection of public health and development.

The groups’ move comes on the heels of a resolution filed by House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda on June 2 to investigate and audit the NSWMC. In the resolution, Legarda— who was one of the principal authors of RA 9003—pointed out that “despite these legal mandates and budgetary support is given in 2016 and 2017 amounting to P1.3 billion, the commission has unjustifiably failed to act on its ministerial function of preparing the list of NEAPP.”

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, June 28, 2021 A5

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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ONGOVERNMENT organization Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) is optimistic that its petition to increase pork tariff rates to as high as 44 percent amid the shortfall in domestic supply would be granted by the Tariff Commission (TC).

The group claimed that the TC, the country’s top tariff body, “would be on the side of agriculture this time” as its position was based on “solid data.”

It also reiterated its position that meat importers and traders are the only ones “making a killing” from lower pork tariff rates, citing the “huge disconnect” between the landed cost of shipments and retail prices.

The group pointed out that at the current lowered tariff rates of as low as 5 percent the landed cost of imported pork should range from P74.76 per kilogram (kg) to P80.76 per kg. It also said in its presentation that the landed cost of pork imports slapped with a 15-percent tariff should range from P81.65 per

kg to P87.78 per kg.

Despite this, the group noted that the retail price of pork is from P330 per kg to P370 per kg.

“We are very optimistic that our petition will be granted and this time, we are optimistic that the TC will be on the side of the agriculture sector,” the group said during the TC’s public hearing on their petition to hike pork tariff rates.

This is the second public hearing on pork tariff rates conducted by the TC. The first hearing, which was held in February, focused on the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) proposal to reduce tariff rates.

The group also questioned the DA’s opposition to its petition, saying that the department should side with producers.

“Why is the DA disputing our proposals? If they think our data is wrong then it should dispute our data,” the group said.

Agriculture Undersecretary William C. Medrano said the DA’s position is to “respect and implement” President Duterte’s Executive order (EO) authorizing the reduction in pork tariffs and increase in pork

BUSINESSMIRROR FILE PHOTO

‘Petition to hike pork tariffs based on solid data’

minimum access volume.

Medrano said the pork tariff reduction, which started last April 7 and would end on May 15, 2022, is

a “short-term” measure by the government to address the shortfall in domestic pork supply and arrest rising prices.

The DA official said the country is now starting to feel the impact of lower pork tariffs as the influx of imports, particularly bellies and

pork cuts, has stabilized prices.

Citing the DA’s daily price monitoring reports, Medrano said the average price of fresh locally-produced pork kasim sold in Metro Manila wet markets has stabilized at P340 per kg while pork liempo is at P370 per kg, or P30 to P40 lower than their peak prices in January.

Medrano also disclosed that imported frozen pork kasim is now being sold for P290 per kilogram.

However, the Office of Sen. Cynthia A. Villar raised concerns about the prices disclosed by Medrano during the public hearing.

Atty. Rhaegee Tamana, Villar’s chief of staff, said stability of prices is not the ultimate goal of the EOs of the President but to bring down retail wet market prices to pre-African swine fever levels.

Medrano said further reductions in the retail price of pork would be seen in the coming months since the EO has only been in effect for “barely two to three months.”

Sinag filed a petition before the TC to raise the in-quota pork tariff rate to 40 percent and the out-quota rate to 44 percent.

FMC Corp. expands local Mimaropa recognized anew in-house sales field force as best regional office in NIA

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MC Corp. announced last Friday that it has completed the recruitment of its own local field force in the Philippines, bringing to almost 130 full time employees onboard.

The company said it has worked with third-party agents in the Philippines since 2012 to reach and engage farmers, retailers and distributors.

In 2020, the company decided to bring on board the third-party field force directly as full time employees. FMC said its decision affirms its commitment to the Philippine agriculture sector as well as its growing investment in the country.

“As a company we are committed to delivering innovative crop protection solutions to our customers and having a positive impact on the farming communities that we serve,” Country Manager for FMC

Philippines Veronica Tiburcio said in a statement.

“Having an in-house field force, with in-depth knowledge of the crop protection industry and a strong understanding of customer needs, will be a real game changer for us. It will greatly improve our business agility and operations, and allow us to further enhance our service to customers and the farming community.”

FMC said its move to an in-house field force comes at a time when job security in the industry has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We can now better manage training and development, and accelerate employee growth by providing them the knowledge and skills they need to advise and support farmers, especially when farmers are facing challenges from the ongoing pandemic,” Tiburcio said.

In addition to a commercial office, FMC also operates a rapidly growing shared service center in Manila which supportsthecompany’sglobalbusiness.

FMC, an agricultural sciences company, provides innovative solutions to growers around the world with a robust product portfolio, fueled by a market-driven discovery and development pipeline in crop protection, plant health and professional pest and turf management.

This powerful combination of advanced technologies includes leading insect control products Prevathon, Benevia and Verimark powered by Rynaxypyr and Cyazypyr active ingredients respectively; Steward and Marshal insecticides; Authority and Command Plus branded herbicides; and the flutriafol-based fungicide Pointer. FMC employs approximately 6,500 employees around the globe.

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IMAROPA was again recognized as the Best Regional Office while Palawan was hailed as the Best Irrigation Management Office for the year 2020 in National Irrigation Administration (NIA) nationwide.

NIA Mimaropa and Palawan previously held the title in 2018. Headed by Regional Manager William P. Ragodon and Division Manager Conrado V. Cardenas Jr., the two offices received the award during the virtual conduct of NIA’s 58th Founding Anniversary Celebration on June 22.

Overall, NIA Mimaropa said in a statement it accomplished 93.58 percent of its target in project implementation despite the restrictions brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This accomplishment led to area generation of 1,055 hectares and

area restoration of 342 hectares farmland in the region.

Moreover, one major factor in the accomplishment is the increased irrigated area which contributes to food security of the Filipinos where NIA Mimaropa developed 76.29 percent of the 143,558.95 hectares potential irrigable area in the region.

Additionally, NIA Mimaropa said it attained 202.24 percent cropping intensity under National Irrigation System (NIS) and 181.09 percent under Communal Irrigation System (CIS). Irrigation Cropping Intensity as defined in NIA Memorandum Circular No. 12 s.

2015 is the ratio of the total annual area irrigated to include area irrigated during the wet season, dry season and 3rd crop against the Firmed-Up Service Area expressed in percentage.

“Also, one significant accomplishment of NIA Mimaropa is the completion of the Bongabong River Irrigation Project in Oriental Mindoro in line with the Build, Build, Build Program of the President Rodrigo Duterte. The 890-million irrigation project is partially operational and is now serving an area of 4,152 hectares with 2,083 farmer beneficiaries. Said project is scheduled for inauguration and partial turnover this second semester,” it said.

“NIA Mimaropa and its three Irrigation Management Offices ensure that they fulfill their part in attaining NIA’s vision to provide efficient irrigation service for the inclusive growth of the country and in the improvement of the farmers’ quality of life particularly in these trying times.”

Heat dome smashing northwest records began with China rain

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EAVY rain in China, an expanse of warm water stretching across the North Pacific, and kinks in the jet stream are combining to drive an unusual heat wave that willsetrecordsinthePacificNorthwest.

Seattle and Portland may post their hottest June days in history, while heat warnings are posted in Canada as far north as the Arctic Circle. The dangerously hot temperatures raise wildfire risk, may worsen air pollution, and pose public health threats in a region where many don’t have air conditioning.

The warmth is building under a so-called heat dome that may have been exacerbated by climate change.

It’s similar to the weather pattern earlier this month that led to a California heat wave, according to Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections. Kinks in the jet stream have pinned summer weather in place leading to prolonged heat waves and drought, as well as storminess and flooding.

“The unusual waviness of the jet stream was associated with a pattern we have been seeing more often in summer, which has been connected to human-caused climate change,” Masters said.

The current heat wave over the Northwest started with flooding rains across China on June 23, said

Masters. That fed energy into the jet stream across the North Pacific, making it stronger than usual and setting off a chain reaction of weather patterns that led to the high pressure ridge building over western North America and driving temperatures up in the United States and Canada.

The heat, as well as the conditions that have caused widespread drought across the US West, may have been made worse by warm water stretching across the North Pacific, as well as parts of the Bering and Chukchi seas near Alaska, said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Center. That pattern may have been exacerbated by less

sea ice in the Arctic this year, a situation made worse in recent decades by climate change.

The worst heat will center on the Northwest and then seep east into Idaho by Monday, though California will also see oppressive conditions.

The Golden State’s power grid manager said it’s closely watching the situation. Excessive heat warnings cover areas east of Los Angeles, where temperatures could reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) Sunday and Monday, and other parts of the state.

Portland will likely have its hottest day Sunday, when temperatures reach 107F, which would set a new June heat record, according to the

National Weather Service. Seattle may reach its peak Monday with a high of 106F smashing its all-time high of 103F. “It’s very impressive,” said Dan Petersen, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center.

“It is fairly rare for a heatwave of this magnitude to get this far north.”

Temperatures throughout the region will run 25 to 30F above normal.

The extreme weather just days after the official start of summer signals threats may intensify through the season and challenge officials struggling to deal with growing heat, drought and wildfire risks. Electric grids across the West are forecast to

be strained in coming months as hot weather sends power demand surging and drought leaves less water in hydropower reservoirs. California has already had its first threat of supply shortages, less than a year after the first rolling blackouts in two decades.

The drought across the West will make this weekend’s heat even hotter because the sun’s energy will go mainly into raising temperatures rather than evaporating moisture in the soil, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and author of The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change.

Overnight lows are forecast to remain in the low 70s in Seattle, also a record. Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Monday, June 28, 2021

UK Covid cases hit highest since Feb. 5 amid ‘grab a jab’

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Bangkok, 9 provinces restrict movements to curb rising cases

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ONDON— The UK on Saturday recorded its most new coronavirus infections since early February as the National Health Service ran a “grab a jab” initiative to further drive up vaccination rates.

Government figures showed that another 18,270 people tested positive for the virus across the U.K, the highest daily number since Feb. 5. Over the past week, nearly 100,000 have tested positive, around 50% increase up on the week before. That has raised questions over whether lockdown restrictions will end as planned.

Daily cases have risen fairly sharply over the past few weeks as a result of the delta variant, which was first identified in India and is considered by government scientists to be between 40% and 80% more transmissible than the previous dominant strain.

It accounts for nearly all the new cases in the UK. Most of the new confirmed cases are among younger age groups, which haven’t yet received Covid-19 vaccines. The latest spike came as hundreds of walk-in vaccination sites, including at stadiums and shopping centers, opened in England over the weekend in a bid to boost vaccine numbers, particularly among those younger age groups.

“This is a phenomenal achievement and it’s fantastic to see so many young people coming forward for their jabs, doing their bit to protect themselves and their loved ones,” Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said.

The spread of the variant up-

A health worker administers a dose of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to a disabled person in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, June 25, 2021. AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit

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Protesters match during an anti-lockdown protest, in central London, Saturday, June 26, 2021. Aaron Chown/PA via AP

ended the Conservative government’s plans to lift all remaining restrictions on social contact in England this week. The plan is to lift those restrictions on July 19, but whether it will do so could largely depend on whether the vaccine rollout has created a firewall that protects the most vulnerable. The other parts of the UK—Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—are following similar plans.

The hope is that the link between infections and those needing hospitalization and subsequently dying has broken because of the rapid rollout of vaccines. As of Saturday, nearly two-thirds of the UK population have received at least one vaccine dose while 48% have had two.

Recent analysis from Public Health England showed that two doses of the main vaccines the U.K. is using are highly effective against hospitalization from the delta variant—96% in the case of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 92% for the AstraZeneca jab.

Though the number of people in hospitals and dying have been edging up over the past couple of weeks, they haven’t risen at the same rate as infections. On Saturday, the government said another 227 people have been hospit a l i zed , t a k i ng t he to tal to 1,505, nowhere near the 40,000 levels recorded earlier in the year during the peak of a second surge. Virus-related deaths also remained relatively low at 23, taking the death total to 128,089.

Worries about the vaccines were heard as thousands of anti-lockdown protesters marched through central London on Saturday. Some even threw tennis balls into Downing Street, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has his office and residence.

“Shame on you,” some chanted.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned after breaking social distancing rules with an aide he was allegedly having an affair with. The tabloid Sun newspaper had run images

appearing to show the married Hancock and senior aide Gina Coladangelo kissing in an office at the Department of Health.

In a letter to Johnson, Hancock said the government owes “it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down.”

Johnson had been facing widespread calls to fire Hancock, who had apologized for breaching social distancing rules. Coladangelo is a friend of Hancock ’s from their days together at Oxford University and was appointed to his department last year.

“The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis,” Hancock said in his letter of resignation.

“I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance, and apologize to my family and loved ones for putting them through this,” he said. “I also need (to) be with my children at this time.” AP

Malaysia to extend lockdown, boost Covid aid—Muhyiddin

China says no strings attached to vaccine shipments overseas

alaysia is set to extend a nationwide lockdown that was originally due to end Monday as the number of new Covid infections still remains too high, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.

The movement restrictions will now stay in place until the nation’s daily caseload falls below 4,000, Muhyiddin said on Sunday, according to a tweet from the Bernama news agency.

The government will announce more comprehensive assistance to all groups of society on Monday or Tuesday, he said during a visit to a vaccination center in the state of Selangor.

Extending the lockdown will be an additional blow for Malaysia’s economy, which the government is currently expecting to bounce back in the last three months of the year. The World Bank on Wednesday slashed its 2021 growth forecast for the nation to 4.5% from 6%. The government said this month it

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is revising its earlier estimate of 6% to 7.5% due to the lockdown.

The closing of all but essential sectors is costing the economy 1 billion ringgit ($241 million) a day, Muhyiddin said last week while unveiling a recovery plan. The prime minister unveiled a 40 billion ringgit package at the end of May, the government’s third this year.

Malaysia’s infection rate has declined below 1 since the initial lockdown measures took effect on June 1, from a peak of 1.21 in May when daily cases topped 9,000. Still, new infections remain elevated, with the country adding 5,803 on Saturday alone.

Malaysia expects to transition to the second phase of its recovery plan once new daily cases drop below 4,000, 10% of the population is fully vaccinated, and usage of ICU beds is at moderate capacity, Muhyiddin said earlier in June.

Bloomberg News

EIJING—China said Saturday that it provides vaccines to other countries with no political conditions attached, responding to a story by The Associated Press saying China pressured Ukraine into withdrawing from a multi-country statement on human rights in China’s Xinjiang region by threatening to withhold a Covid-19 vaccine shipment.

A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it welcomed Ukraine’s decision to take its name off the statement at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, adding “we haven't heard that Ukraine has encountered any difficulty in importing vaccines from China.”

The Associated Press, citing diplomats from two Western countries, reported that Ukraine had pulled its name from the statement Thursday after China warned it would

block a planned shipment of at least 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines unless it did so. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

China's written response to AP did not directly address the specific charge, but said, “China’s provision of vaccines and anti-epidemic materials to other countries is not meant to gain benefits from other countries and there isn’t any geopolitical purpose nor any political conditions attached.”

Ukraine had briefly joined the statement by over 40 countries presented by Canada at the Human Rights Council on Tuesday. The statement urged China to allow immediate access for independent observers to Xinjiang, where human rights groups have alleged mistreatment of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the region. AP

ANGKOK—Faced with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, the Thai capital on Sunday announced a ban on indoor dining and gatherings of more than 20 people, in addition to the closure of construction sites and the sealing off of workers’ quarters in Bangkok and nine other provinces.

The measures will remain for 30 days.

Thailand reported 3,995 confirmed cases and 42 dead in the last 24 hours. The numbers have doubled recently, and health officials blame a lack of cooperation from migrant workers employed in construction and in factories.

“Camps were closed but workers sneaked out to markets and communities, and spread the disease,” Apisamai Srirangson, spokesperson for the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said Friday. She said that “bubble and seal” disease control measures had proved successful within 28 days in handling clusters in Samut Sakhon province, south of Bangkok, but not in the capital.

The situation has become critical as the number of hospital beds in Bangkok for seriously ill Covid-19 patients runs short despite the creation of several field hospitals. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said Friday that a proposal for a seven-day curfew for all of Bangkok has been rejected for the time being.

Under the new restrictions, construction workers will be isolated in camps in Bangkok and five neighboring provinces, and in the country’s four southernmost provinces, all virus hotspots.

Department stores and malls in Bangkok can stay open until 9 p.m., but food and drinks in restaurants is allowed only for takeaway. Seminars, meetings and parties are canceled.

If more clusters are discovered, the governor can seal off those communities.

Travelers from the 10 provinces, including Bangkok, will be isolated and quarantined.

Authorities, meanwhile, are planning to go ahead with a plan to allow fully vaccinated foreign tourists to visit the southern resort island of Phuket without undergoing a 14-day quarantine that is otherwise mandatory. Thailand is anxious to begin the recovery of its lucrative tourism industry, which has been devastated by the pandemic and consequent travel restrictions.

Thailand has administered a rou nd 8.66 m i l l ion vacc ine doses, with around 9% of its 69 million people receiving at least one shot. Critics charge that Prayuth’s government failed to secure timely and adequate vaccine supplies. He says Thailand now has agreements that will ensure enough vaccine for about 70% of its population by the end of the year. AP

Australia’s widening Covid outbreak forces more curbs

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illions of A u s t r a lians were under virus restrictions Sunday to fight a Covid-19 outbreak that includes the highly contagious Delta strain.

While the count of new local cases was comparatively low, including 30 in New South Wales state, officials fearful of the highly contagious variant warned the tally may climb. The flare-up puts more pressure on the government to step up a vaccination program that has lagged behind some other developed nations.

“There will be cases that will follow,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a televised briefing Sunday, adding he’s confident the nation will contain the pathogen and that more vaccines are being rolled out.

The restrictions span the country, including a 48-hour lockdown f rom Sund ay in Da r w in—t he capital of the Northern Territory —and another already underway in Sydney through July 9. Other rich nations like the US and UK are aiming to move past such steps after ramping up vaccines.

Doses administered so far in Australia are only enough to cover 14% of the population, compared with 50% in the US and 57% in the UK, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker.

The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he couldn’t rule out an extension of the Darwin lockdown, which fol-

lowed the detection of four new local cases in the region. The cluster is linked to a worker at a Newmont Corp. gold mine in the Tanami Desert in the central Northern Territory, and hundreds of employees are now in isolation, according to a statement.

In New South Wales, where Sydney is grappling with the Delta variant, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Sunday “case numbers are likely to increase even beyond what we have seen today.” The state’s 30 new local cases were recorded in the 24 hours through Saturday night, and some of those people were in the community while potentially infectious, Berejiklian said.

Elsewhere, the state of Queensland announced two new local cases and imposed additional curbs to help combat the virus. Restrictions like mask wearing were introduced in Perth in Western Australia after a positive test result. South Australia closed most of its state borders and is considering whether to impose tougher virus curbs for a one-week period.

One area of focus Monday will be the financial-market reaction.

Australian shares and the currency have been largely resilient to flareups and movement curbs this year. The S&P/ASX 200 index is up almost 11% in 2021 as loose monetary policy and pandemic support programs shore up economic growth. The Aussie has weakened about 1.4% over the period against the US currency. Bloomberg News

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Monday, June 28, 2021 A7

‘Like hell’: Ethiopia airstrike survivors recall massacre

A

DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Maerg was serving customers at his cafe in Ethiopia’s Tigray village of Togoga when the military airstrike occurred, filling the room with dust and bringing down debris that struck him on the head.

“Everything was covered in black smoke, it was like a hell,” he told The Associated Press by phone, recounting one of the deadliest attacks in the Tigray conflict. “There was so much blood.”

Seven people were killed in his cafe alone, and some 30 were wounded, including his sister-in-law, who suffered burns on her face, hands and legs. Outside, he said, he saw dozens more bodies. As time passed, he watched in horror as survivors realized that Ethiopian soldiers were blocking medical aid from arriving.

“Wefeelveryangrybecausealotof lives could have been saved,” he said.

Such witness accounts are emerging after Ethiopia’s military has said it was responsible for the airstrike that struck Togoga's busy marketplace on Tuesday, which health officials said killed at least 64 people and injured dozens more. Many died when soldiers blocked medical teams from reaching them, or from taking them to hospitals in the regional capital, Mekele, just 60 kilometers (37 miles) away, health workers said.

The military said the airstrike targeted Tigray fighters dressed in civilian clothes who had gathered to celebrate Martyrs' Day. But witnesses told the AP that although fighters loyal to Tigray's former leaders had been active in the surrounding countryside days before the airstrike, armed men were not in Togoga on the day of the attack.

Most of the victims were women and children, said a doctor who treated people at the scene.

In a war that has been largely

fought in the shadows, with communications and transport links often cut since fighting in Tigray began in November, the airstrike in Togoga was a rare instance of a massacre emerging almost immediately. Within minutes, one former resident had tweeted the news. Within hours, there was international condemnation.

“Reprehensible,” the United States said, as it, the United Nations and the European Union again called for a cease-fire in Tigray, where thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands now face the world's worst famine in a decade.

Shaken survivors of the airstrike challenged the Ethiopian government's narrative, saying only civilians had been killed.

“There were not any fighters in the marketplace, just rural people who had arrived for the market,” said Luel, a farmer who was buying clothes there when the earth shook and his leg was broken by the blast. He said he saw “around 60” bodies on the ground. As with others interviewed, the AP is using only his first name for his safety.

Habtay, who also was shopping in the market, also said no fighters were present. He suffered a shrapnel wound to his stomach but couldn't reach a hospital until Thursday, two days after the bombing.

"Everything was covered in dust and smoke," he said. Helpless, he watched some survivors try to give each other first aid.

Medical care would not reach people for hours, even more than a day. Health workers told the AP

they were repeatedly denied access to the Togoga by Ethiopian soldiers on the day of the attack and the following morning. One doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said soldiers shot at his ambulance when it tried to pass a checkpoint.

Yohannes, a farmer hit in the chest by a bomb fragment, said a convoy of four ambulances attempting to evacuate him and other patients to hospitals in Mekele was blocked by soldiers and ordered back to Togoga. One patient died after returning to the village, he said.

Even after reaching Mekele, six wounded survivors of the airstrike were detained en route to a hospital, a regional health official said, on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Three were later released, but the others, including a teenage boy, were held at a military barracks, the official, who described the situation as “very desperate.” It was not clear why they were detained.

The airstrike occurred at a pivotal moment in Ethiopia, a day after much of the country voted in a national election that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has promoted as part of political reforms.

But the war in Tigray, sparked in part because the national election was delayed last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, has overshadowed the vote. The election itself has drawn criticism by the US and other observers who pointed to the detention or harassment of some opposition figures and deadly insecurity in parts of the country.

Ethiopia, with the airstrike, again finds itself on the defensive. It has disputed allegations that its troops have committed widespread human rights violations in Tigray—though the UN has said all sides in the war have committed them—and it asserts that aid has reached 5.2 million people in the region of 6 million.

AP

‘Not fun’: Northwest heat wave builds and all-time records fall

P

O R T L A N D, O r e . — O r egon’s largest city broke its all-time heat record on Saturday. It could beat the new mark on Sunday.

Forecasters say many Pacific Northwest communities may sweat through the hottest days in their histories as temperatures soar during a heat wave that has sent residents scrambling for relief.

Stores sold out of portable air conditioners and fans, hospitals canceled outdoor vaccination clinics, cities opened cooling centers, baseball teams canceled or moved up weekend games, and utilities braced for possible power outages.

Portland, Oregon, reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42.2 degrees Celsius) Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The previous heat record for Oregon’s largest city was 107 F (41.7 C), a mark hit in 1965 and 1981.

Seattle reached 101 F (38.3 C) Saturday, making it the hottest June day on record and only the fourth time in recorded history the usually temperate city had topped 100 degrees.

The forecast was for even hotter temperatures on Sunday and Monday. Many all-time heat records could be broken. In Seattle, the highest temperature ever measured was 103 F (39.4 C), in 2009.

Other cities and towns from eastern Washington state to Portland to southern Oregon were also ex pected to break records, with temperatures in many areas likely to top out 30 degrees or more above normal.

That’s dangerous for a region

accustomed to mild weather, and where many don't have air conditioning.

The extended “ heat dome” over the Pacific Northwest was a taste of the future as climate change reshapes weather patterns worldwide, said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington who studies global warming and its effects on public health. “ We k now f rom e v idence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves. We’re going to have to get used to this going forward,” she said.

James Bryant, a Seattle resident, picked up an air conditioner in anticipation of the extreme heat.

“My house is already hot, and so with the added heat over the next few days, I've got kids. I got to make sure they don’t get too hot as well,” Bryant said. “It seems to be a trend... So I’m not sure what’s driving it, but it's not fun, that’s for sure.”

Of f ic ia ls in Mu lt noma h County, Oregon, were asking for volunteers to help staff cooling centers as older people, homeless residents and others struggled with the heat. Cascades Street Outreach, an advocacy group for people experiencing home lessness, wa s goi ng to homeless camps in the region to encourage people to use the cooling centers.

Peter Tiso, who works with Multnomah County’s Joint office of Homeless Services, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that the Oregon Convention Center can hold about 300 people, but

no one will be turned away from the cooling shelter. The shelter also allows pets, he said.

“We don’t want anyone to be making the dangerous decision between leaving their pet behind or not,” he said.

Unusually hot weather was expected to extend into next week for much of the region.

The hot weather had berry farmers scrambling to pick crops before they rot on the vine. Columbia Basin fisheries managers are worried about how the heat wave will affect endangered Snake River sockeye and other species of protected salmon.

State, tribal and federal officials are trying to mitigate rising water temperatures in the lower Snake River, The Lewiston Tribune reported, in part by releasing 42 F (5.56 C) water from Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir.

They began releasing the water earlier this week, hoping to keep the water temperature at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River at or below 68 F (20 C). Officials fear a repeat of 2015, when water temperatures in Columbia and Snake River reservoirs reached lethal levels for sockeye salmon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee lifted Covid-19 capacity restrictions on publicly owned or operated and non-profit cooling centers in light of the heat. Capacity is currently limited to 50% until the state fully reopens next Wednesday. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown suspended capacity limits for movie theaters and shopping malls—places with airconditioning—as well as swimming pools ahead of a statewide reopening Wednesday. AP

A8

Monday, June 28, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Your move, Mr. Biden

I

N 1766, the Swedish parliament passed a legislation supporting the freedom of the press, now recognized as the world’s first. The Freedom of the Press Act abolished the Swedish government’s role as a censor of printed matter.

The English poet John Milton, in 1644, wrote his response to the British Parliament’s passage of a law requiring the government to approve all books prior to publication. Milton was against that law.

The framers of the US Constitution enshrined in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.”

While “Freedom of the Press” is the “cornerstone of democracies throughout the world,” there are countless laws limiting the press.

A newspaper must be cautious when calling a person a “corrupt and useless politician who deserves to burn in hell”, even if it might be true. To protect the state, it is against the law to write a call for the armed overthrow of the government. In the interest of “national security,” you can go to jail for exposing how the government is breaking the law. Ask Julian Assange about that.

However, each of these examples comes down to finding a balance between the “freedom” and the responsibility to exercise that freedom. We do not let a child have the freedom to cross the street alone until he learns all the responsibilities to do that safely.

Further, and perhaps because of the freedom-limiting laws, the press has often behaved in a manner of “it’s not a crime if you don’t get caught.”

Maybe because of that attitude, the press has lost almost all credibility with the people. The Digital News Report 2021 was prepared by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the University of Oxford. In the “bastion of the free press”—the US— amazingly, only 29 percent of the people “trust in news overall.”

From television network news through the major newspapers— New York Times and Washington Post—none of them have a trust rating of even 50 percent.

The founder of the Giordano clothing brand, Jimmy Lai, has been a thorn in Beijing’s neck since he started his tabloid newspaper—Apple Daily—in 1995. Under the new national security law, the government has forced the newspaper to close, and Lai is in jail.

While there has been a global outcry, will the Chinese government prove that “might makes right”?

Last week, “in a letter to President Biden, Sen. Pat Toomey (RPennsylvania), ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, (D-Maryland), a committee member, wrote that the recently passed Hong Kong Autonomy Act (June 2020 and signed by Donald Trump) requires the US Secretary of State to identify and take action against any foreign person or foreign businesses “materially contributing” to the “inability of the people of Hong Kong to enjoy the freedom of assembly, speech, press, or independent rule of law.” The law requires “mandatory sanctions” on those identified to Congress as suppressing these freedoms in Hong Kong. On June 24th, the White House said, “It is a sad day for media freedom in Hong Kong. The United States will not waver in our support of people in Hong Kong.”

The law is clear. Beijing’s actions are clearer. Let’s see if once again the US “support” is all talk and no action.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

A man of honor Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

P

ersonal stories and previously unpublished accounts of people who knew President Noynoy Aquino have been coming out since he died four days ago on June 24. Most of these are stories that show President Noynoy’s positive traits and virtues.

There are a few who try to downplay his achievements and insist on painting a damaging picture of the former president, but these are insignificant amid the tribute and praise. About five years after his presidential term ended, many of us are hearing these heartwarming stories only now. It makes us look back to the past with pride and appreciation for the many things he did for the country, which were not publicized and many people did not know about.

That is a breath of fresh air because we are used to propaganda among many of our politicians. We are used to politicians who bicker and fight with critics and use their influence and power to put “enemies” in their place. President Noynoy Aquino, the perfect gentleman that he was, did not resort to

Bike lanes work!

Thomas M. Orbos

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such cheap tactics. His presidency was dignified; his leadership was grounded on integrity. He was compassionate, practical, and respectable. He left his post with his head held high, satisfied about his accomplishments. More than anything, he knew that he did his best to serve rightly, and that was enough.

Y

esterday morning, I tried first-hand the bike lanes that have sprouted since the pandemic. From Bonifacio Global City, I took Edsa and biked all the way to SM North where I turned right on North Avenue towards Quezon Circle and to UP, then to Ateneo on my way back to BGC. My verdict—the bike lanes work!!

It was indeed a pleasant surprise using these bike lanes and seeing the ease of travelling via these lanes.

The decision of the government, in particular the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Works and Highways and the mayors of Metro Manila to promote the use of bikes through the building of bike lanes all over is a good one. And we have been told that there are more to come, in terms of infrastructure to accommodate and encourage bike mobility. This we all look forward to.

Going back to my ride, let me tell you that the width of the lane is just right even for two cyclists occupying the whole bike lane. There are divisions that vary as you go along. In some areas, the divisions are made of concrete, some are of hard plastic

and still others have no divisions but painted lanes. In intersections, lanes are cut but they continue on the other side. In total, I never did once felt stressed out given that I knew motorized vehicles were passing by.

From what I know, the government will build more bicycle lanes as well as make them more adherent to international standards. Bike lanes will also be built connecting Edsa to the CBDs with some elevated ones similar to pedestrian overpasses. This is something we look forward to.

I remember an interview with a transport specialist in a televised program just two weeks ago. The transport specialist lamented that the bike lanes on Edsa should not be there in the first place as this would cause congestion. I beg to disagree.

He gave us the service that we Filipinos deserved. It was a presidency that we will remember with fondness and gratitude for a very long time. The 15th president of the Philippines, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, will go down in history as a just and able leader. We can only be grateful to you, President Noynoy.

Farewell, dear sir. May your soul rest in God’s peace.

Dur ing his presidenc y, he strengthened the Philippines’s social service programs and led the country towards economic success.

He reformed the country’s education system by shifting to K-12 education; built classrooms, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure; defended the country against China; stood up against and pushed for the investigation of former leaders Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Juan Ponce Enrile; solved the country’s power crisis; and broke up monopolies in various industries,

We know we have the “Build, Build, Build” program in full swing and this will definitely benefit us even beyond this administration; but I do hope our government will not forget the metro-wide bike lanes they committed to build. Let us have another BBB—this time: Bike, Bike, Bike!

If there is one group that will have to be accommodated and prioritized, it should be the cyclists, the pedestrians and others with their own personal mobility devices. If there is one group that will have to adjust, then it has to be the ones with their motorized vehicles.

Road transport contributes to 70 percent of all emissions from all forms of transport in the Philippines.

And such transport emissions contribute to a third of all greenhousegas emissions in the country. And remember that respiratory illnesses make up a third of all causes of deaths. Shouldn’t we stop there or at least minimize our dependence on fossil fuel? Let us remember our commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Let us remember our participation in the 2015 Paris agreement.

More importantly, let us remember what we need to do for the future of our children and our grandchildren

including the telecommunications industry. To be sure, these are just some of the highlights of the former president’s great achievements. The list is very long.

President Noynoy started with a call to end corruption: Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. He put a stop to under-the-table deals and public officials’ use of wangwang, sending the message that public servants don’t get to enjoy privileges. To my mind, he did his best to protect the legacy of the Aquino family name and to become the leader that his famous parents Ninoy Aquino and former President Cory Aquino would be very proud of.

He gave us the service that we Filipinos deserved. It was a presidency that we will remember with fondness and gratitude for a very long time. The 15th president of the Philippines, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, will go down in history as a just and able leader. We can only be grateful to you, President Noynoy. Farewell, dear sir. May your soul rest in God’s peace.

—provide a better environment for them to live in.

I have some suggestions to my friends in government who are in charge of these bike lanes. First, lighting them up for evening use is not a bad idea. And it would not be that expensive. There are existing cat eye reflectors but not enough. Solar powered light posts can both light up the lanes as well as provide fair warning to motorists. Second, maybe have some of our enforcers on bikes, to monitor the safety of the cyclists and pedestrians. Third, some streets can be closed for vehicular traffic, even just on weekends. Fourth, more seminars please on cycling and road safety. This government can do many things with the many private and civic groups that are into low carbon transport. Lastly, we know we have the “Build, Build, Build” program in full swing and this will definitely benefit us even beyond this administration; but I do hope our government will not forget the metro-wide bike lanes they committed to build.

Let us have another BBB—this time: Bike, Bike, Bike!

I am sure this is not the first time to have cycling as the topic for my column. And this won’t be the last, definitely. Let’s push cycling mobility now and beyond the pandemic. We know the benefits. And we know also what will happen if we don’t.

The author may be reached via e-mail thom-

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Musings on the amendments of the accountancy law Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT Seventh of a series

I

N May 2017, the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA), with me as Chairman, was able to finally cause the approval by the Commission of Higher Education of four landmark Ched Memorandum Orders pertaining to the policies, standards and guidelines of four accountancy academic programs. I initiated discussions with the Ched Technical Working Committee in 2014 to come up with major changes and innovations of the accountancy education program. It had been over 10 years ago, in 2007, when the CMO 3 Series of 2017 first formally prescribed the PSGs for the Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA).

The past decade covering the interval between two batches of CMOs has been the period of the emergence of so many developments affecting the business environment, in general, and the accountancy profession, in particular. Major changes and innovations have arisen in the areas of technology, governance, business models, industry expectations, competencies, and globalization imperatives that impacted the accountancy profession. The promulgation of the four landmark measures were timely and much needed.

These CMOs (number 27 to 30) prescribe for the PSGs of a revised Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA), and three new accounting baccalaureate programs—BS in Internal Audit, BS in Management Accounting, and BS in Accounting Information System. These became effective in school year 2018-2019.

The schools and universities offering accounting courses had to do major decision-making and implementation activities. The administrators of the various schools needed to review their existing BSA program to ensure that it complies with CMO 27-17; ascertain whether they will offer any, if not all, of the three new program/s in the school; revise the BSA curriculum and other administrative and academic measures to incorporate the needed changes and revisions; and a host of other details.

On the part of the BOA then, the enactment of the new CMOs brought forth a number of policy, regulatory and administrative concerns and considerations. Foremost among these was the clamor of a number of accounting schools for the provision of detailed syllabi for the courses or subjects prescribed in the CMO curricula.

As intended, the four CMOs provided only the course titles and descriptions. I thought then that the schools would welcome the advantage of this general setup, which provides flexibility to each school to determine and define the details of their course offerings in syllabi that they will formulate.

It appears that a good number of schools prefer to be spoon fed with prescribed syllabi that they will just follow and implement. I understand that the National Association of CPAs in Education has

On the policy aspect, the Board, which I chaired, formulated an innovative approach for the professional licensure examination for the accountancy sector. In essence, this consists of providing all graduates of the four accounting programs the gateway to taking the licensure examinations and becoming professional accountants. a program of coming up with these course syllabi.

The CMO 27-17 increased the number of hours of internship training to at least 600 hours for all BSA students. This requirement will result in a substantial increased demand from accounting students of companies or organizations where they will render their internship service. The BOA should be ready to intervene if the number of companies offering internships fall short of the demand. The BOA should also be monitoring the quality and conduct of these internship programs.

On the policy aspect, the Board, which I chaired, formulated an innovative approach for the professional licensure examination for the accountancy sector. In essence, this consists of providing all graduates of the four accounting programs the gateway to taking the licensure examinations and becoming professional accountants. However, for this proposal to be put in place, it will require an amendment of the Accountancy Law. I will discuss the details of this proposal in the next issue. I hope that the ongoing discussions on the revisions of the Accountancy Law will take this into account.

To be continued.

Joel L. Tan-Torres is the Dean of the University of the Philippines Virata School of Business. Previously, he was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy and partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co. and the SyCip Gorres and Velayo & Co. He is a Certified Public Accountant who garnered No. 1 in the CPA Board Examination of May 1979.

This column accepts articles for publication from the business and academic community.

Articles not exceeding 600 words can be e-mailed to jltantorres@up.edu.ph.

Alabaster jar Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

I

N Biblical times, alabaster was both common and precious. It is a stone commonly found in Israel but was one of the precious stones used in King Solomon’s temple. Back then, an alabaster flask or jar would be filled with expensive perfume to keep them pure and unspoiled, then sealed with wax to preserve the scent. For the fragrance to be of use, the seal or neck must be broken. Once broken, the scent is “lost,” never to return. In the Bible, Matthew 27: 6-7 narrates the story of a woman who brought Jesus her expensive perfume: “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.” That perfume known as Spikenard symbolized the very best in ancient cultures the way that “Tiffany Diamond” does in modern times.

These alabaster elements of being common and precious at the same time represent the important role of a public servant. Many can be called to join public service. Yet, only a few are chosen and very few can come close to truly serve the country and the people. PNoy’s ascension to the highest position in the land, which was marked with sacrifice, service and love, reminds me about the nameless woman who poured an expensive perfume from an alabaster jar over the head of Jesus Christ. As the Scriptural verses proceed to tell us, some were indignant about the woman’s act as they considered such gesture as wasteful. They scolded her inasmuch as the expensive perfume, equivalent to a year’s wages of a laborer, could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor, instead of “wasting” it on Jesus!

Similar to this “alabaster” woman, PNoy offered something valuable from himself to the Filipino people —his heart! After his mother’s death, PNoy could have opted to “enjoy life,” like listening to music through his precious collection of vinyl records

or drive like the wind in the streets of Metro Manila as a private citizen knowing his love for cars. As a bachelor, he could have simply chosen an easier life, away from the public limelight to boot. Still, he chose to break the seal of his own alabaster jar and offered his compassionate heart to the Filipino people—so much like his parents, former Sen. Benigno Aquino and former President Corazon Aquino. So, when circumstances pushed him to dedicate his time to the country, he did it selflessly with much love and devotion to the Filipino. Severely criticized owing to his supposed lack of credentials and poor work ethic, PNoy, similar to this alabaster woman, cared less about what his bashers said and did. He was never apologetic for the things he did, during and after his administration, knowing that all of his actions were driven by his heart to serve the Filipino.

PNoy gave the Filipinos his all to the point of being heartbroken until death, as per his last few text exchanges with former Ateneo University President, Father Jose Ramon

Monday, June 28, 2021

Tizon Villarin. His heart was broken seeing how divided our country has become. But what I truly liked the most was how PNoy imbibed and practiced the mindset of true public servants—“Kayo ang boss ko!” PNoy served and did not wait to be served.

As eulogies have been poured out and memories recollected, I summon up my own thoughts about the kind of person this former President evoked.

One decisive occasion spoke (and still speaks) volumes about this man in the words of my then immediate superior, former Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima (LDL).

In June 2011, after rejecting the offer once from LDL, I accepted the offer to serve at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) but only for a year.

Coming back from the US as a corporate counsel, I was hesitant to join government as I heard quite a few negative stories, particularly from that agency. A year and a half thereafter, I gave LDL my handwritten resignation letter. She briefly read it, kept it in her desk, and responded to my letter with a story about PNoy. As we were mulling over the seeming desperation in our collective efforts to reform our respective offices, LDL remarked that she, too, contemplated on resigning from her post. In one thought-provoking moment, LDL was about to hand over her own resignation letter to PNoy in Malacañang. However, seeing PNoy in deep thought and reflection, LDL felt such a sense of compassion for the man who was trying his very best to run the country. LDL narrated to me that PNoy, out of his genuine desire to help the Filipino, can be edgy at every moment of letdown. LDL realized that PNoy needed every help he could get from those whose mindset is the same as his—“Kayo ang boss ko!” LDL never acted on my resignation letter in the same way she did not act on her own. On that fateful December afternoon, I entered her room, frustrated and exasperated but left the room, inspired

C

Bloomberg Opinion

ompanies are racing to public markets like never before, cashing in on record-high stock prices.

An all-time high of almost $350 billion has been raised in initial public offerings in the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, surpassing the previous peak of $282 billion from the second half of 2020 and enriching entrepreneurs and bankers alike.

When the rush for IPOs kicked off last year, stay-at-home technology dominated the scene, seizing on investor interest in anything digital, while special-purpose acquisition companies also flooded the market. This year, with stocks continuing to push skyward, the trend has broadened to include renewable-energy companies and online retailers.

Everyone from Swedish oat-milk company Oatly Group AB to bootmaker Dr. Martens Plc. sold shares in 2021. Still, tech accounts for a big chunk of the deals. Didi Global Inc. will rank among the biggest US

and motivated to help PNoy all the more. My personal mantra when I rejoined government service, which was to leave everything a little better than you found it, was reinforced by such encouraging story from LDL about PNoy whose weakness and shortcomings were in fact the source of his strength.

Paradoxically, for public servants to be strong, they must be weak in keeping to what Jesus tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” PNoy never retaliated against his harshest critics, especially from media, till the very end. In one of his last public speeches, PNoy’s voice cracked with much emotion, to which his critics interpreted as sheer cowardice. To me, it was his deepest expression of gratitude to the Filipino people, the recipient of the contents of his alabaster jar— his heart!

Remembered with obscurity, the efforts of the alabaster woman will be the same as with any true public servant—generally lambasted, shamed, if not ridiculed, and “wasted” in the eyes of many, but were selflessly given with much honor to the recipient.

A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Offices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a graduate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission.

For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

A global model to tackle violence against women

By António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations

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S the world grapples unevenly with the effects of Covid-19, a parallel and equally horrific pandemic has threatened half the world’s population. In the early months of the pandemic, the United Nations projected that quarantines and lockdowns could lead to a shocking 15 million additional cases of gender-based violence every three months. Sadly, those predictions appear to be coming true.

This week, world leaders and others will gather at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris and online in a massive push for gender equality. At that meeting, I will call on states, companies and individuals to join in a global initiative, with proven results, to end the fear and insecurity that threaten the health, rights, dignity and lives of so many women and girls. From domestic violence to sexual exploitation, trafficking, child marriage, female genital mutilation and online harassment, violent misogyny has thrived in the shadow of the pandemic.

Full data will take time to collect and assess, but the trends are clear. In 12 countries tracked by the United Nations, the number of cases of violence against women and

girls reported to various institutions increased 83 percent from 2019 to 2020, and cases reported to the police grew by 64 percent.

In the first months of the pandemic, calls to helplines increased by an average of 60 percent across the European Union. Calls to Peru’s sexual violence hotline almost doubled in 2020 compared to 2019. In Thailand, the number of clients visiting domestic violence crisis units in hospitals in April 2020 was more than double the number from the same time period of the previous year.

Such statistics and stories span the world, adding to an existing epidemic of violence against women and girls. Before the pandemic, the World Health Organization estimated that one in three women would experi-

ence male violence in their lifetime.

Just over a year ago, I raised the alarm. Echoing my call for a global ceasefire, I appealed for peace in the home—an end to all violence everywhere, from war zones to people’s homes—to allow us to face the pandemic, humankind’s common enemy, with solidarity and unity.

More than 140 countries expressed support. Some 800 measures have been adopted in 149 countries, the majority focused on shelter, legal assistance and other services and support. But, in many cases, these actions have been limited and short lived. Worse, other countries are retreating, rolling back legal protections and standing by as violence is used to target women, including human rights defenders protesting these reversals.

The pervasiveness of violence against women and girls has led to acquiescence that it is somehow inevitable or impossible to end. This is as outrageous and self-defeating as it is plain wrong. Despite the challenges of the past year, the United Nations, with significant funding from and partnership with the European Union, has demonstrated that change is possible.

The global IPO market has never been hotter than it is right now

By Swetha Gopinath & Myriam Balezou

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IPOs of the past decade if the Chinese ride-hailing giant carries through with plans to sell as much as $4 billion in stock.

“The markets from New York to Hong Kong were on fire in the first half of this year and have left even the late 90s dotcom boom era in the rearview mirror,” said Aaron Arth, head of the financing group at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Asia ex-Japan.

The boom has been fueled by a torrent of cash that central banks have pumped into the economy and the rise of individual investors, who are eager to buy a piece of their favorite companies.

It’s delivered a windfall for investment banks around the world, who reap the rewards from underwriting and advisory fees. Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are leading the global league tables for IPOs this year.

With so many companies rushing to market, the industry is starting to look saturated. Investors say they can afford to be picky and are increasingly reluctant to pay steep valuations demanded by the fastgrowing companies that populate the IPO market.

As a result, a number of highprofile stocks have stumbled in their

trading debuts this year and some companies are getting spooked.

Food-delivery startup Deliveroo Plc plunged 26 percent on its first day of trading in London, while Oscar Health Inc., the insurance startup co-founded by Josh Kushner, has fallen 40% since joining the New York market.

Russia’s Nord Gold Plc on Tuesday pulled its IPO, citing market uncertainty and swings in the gold price, while Genworth Financial Inc. last month postponed a US offering for its Enact Holdings Inc. mortgageinsurance unit. And Friday, Hong Kong-traded Geely Automobile Hold-

Over the course of 2020, the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls has delivered notable results in 25 countries.

Eighty-four laws and policies to protect women and girls were adopted or strengthened. Prosecution of perpetrators increased 22 percent.

Some 650,000 women and girls received services despite lockdowns and mobility restrictions. Close to 900,000 men and boys—including traditional leaders, heads of religious institutions, male taxi drivers and young gamers—were engaged to be allies in finding solutions. And across these countries, national budget allocations for preventing and responding to violence against women and girls increased by 32 percent, a clear indication of future sustainability.

By coming together, in Paris, around a proven model, we can begin to ensure that the next generation of girls will not be expected to live with fear simply because we didn’t act. In time, there will be many lessons learned about what the world got right and wrong in handling this pandemic. One of the first must be to ensure that this disgraceful hidden pandemic facing half our population ends now.

ings Ltd. withdrew its application for a listing in Shanghai.

“There has been a certain level of exhaustion among investors and increased selectivity,” said Saadi Soudavar, co-head of equity capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank AG. “It’s a record year after all, so they can have their pick among the multiple transactions coming their way.”

Investor appetite for one type of listing has already faded. SPACs accounted for almost half the proceeds raised in the IPO market in the first quarter, but their share shrunk to about 13 percent this quarter.

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RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES DOWN IN Q1 ON LOW DEMAND

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

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HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said residential property prices declined in the country in the first three months of the year, as demand dipped during the period.

Based on BSP’s Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI), residential real estate prices of various types of new housing units in the country contracted by 4.2 percent year-on-year (YoY). The Central Bank said this is largely due to “subdued demand for residential properties amid the pandemic”.

Slower demand for property purchases were indicated by lower real estate loans during the period. In the first three months of 2021, the number of residential property loans granted for all types of new housing units in the Philippines contracted by 14.7 percent compared to last year and 32 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

Broken down by type of housing unit, most of the residential property loans were used for the acquisition of condominium units at 52 percent, followed by single detached/attached houses at 38.6 percent and townhouses at 8.1 percent.

By area, the contraction in nationwide residential property

prices was driven mainly by the downtrend of property prices in the National Capital Region (NCR), which fell by 10 percent relative from the same period last year. This is the third consecutive quarter of decline for NCR property prices.

“This was due to the decrease in the prices of condominium units, which outweighed the increase in the prices of duplexes, single detached/attached houses, and townhouses,” the BSP said.

Meanwhile, property prices in areas outside NCR rose marginally by 0.8 percent from the same period last year as the growth in the prices of townhouses and condominium units more than offset the drop in the prices of duplexes and single detached/ attached houses.

The BSP’s RREPI was first published in 2016, it was developed in response to the scarcity of official data on the property sector of the Philippines.

Earlier this month, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno announced that it is set to release a commercial property price index by this year.

“Together, these two indicators may be used to monitor the developments in the Philippine property sector as a whole and their linkages with the other sectors in the economy,” Diokno told reporters earlier.

Coco Levy Asset Registry set up to safeguard funds

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE government has set up a Coco Levy Asset Registry to monitor the status of assets that have been acquired through the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund.

In a bid to ensure that the management of the estimated P75 billion Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund (CFITF) is “equipped with checks and balances,” the government introduced innovations, including the establishment of the Coco Levy Asset Registry.

The coconut levy fund was derived from fees collected under former President Ferdinand Marcos from coconut farmers. It was later declared as public funds by the Supreme Court.

The Asset Registry will contain separate records for both cash and non-cash coco levy assets while classifying them into those which were already declared with finality as belonging to the government and those which are still subject

to litigation.

The Asset Registry must be regularly updated and it shall also serve as the TFMC’s records of all information related to coco levy assets, which shall be based on the initial inventory submitted by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), which serves as the Trust Fund Management Committee (TFMC) Secretariat is required to establish the Coco Levy Asset Registry, based on the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Sections 9 to 11 of Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act or Republic Act No. 11524 published on June 10 in a newspaper of general circulation.

The IRR was drafted by TFMC, which was tasked under the law to oversee the utilization and management of the CFITF. Following the passage of RA 11524, the PCGG submitted an

initial inventory of Coco Levy Assets to the TFMC estimated to be worth P113.88 billion—consisting of cash, shares of stock, holding and trading companies, as well as their subsidiaries.

However, the TFMC Secretariat reported to TFMC the PCGG’s position that its initial inventory is “by no means complete” as some of the assets in the PCGG inventory are still under dispute in various courts such as the Sandiganbayan, Supreme Court, and the Regional Trial Courts. Based on this report, the TFMC called for continuous updating of the Registry.

Under the IRR, the PCGG is required to submit to the TFMC periodic reports containing updates on the status of the coco levy assets.

T he Commission on Aud it (COA) is also mandated under RA 11524 to audit the PCGG inventory, “to determine the completeness of the PCGG inventory, establish the reasonableness of asset valuation, trace the flow of the Coconut Levy Funds, and to determine compliance with pertinent laws, rules and regulations on the reconveyance of the Coconut Levy Assets.”

Within one year from the submission of the PCGG inventory, COA is required to submit its audit report to the TFMC. The BTr was also directed to ensure that all assets already declared with finality to belong to the govern-

ment are reconveyed to the Republic as required under the law.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice was tasked to review the status of assets currently under litigation.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who was elected as TFMC Chairman, said the Committee should ensure that it performs its functions with “transparency, accountability and prudence.”

“After many years of intense political debate, it was only during the Duterte administration that the Coco Levy Law was finally enacted. This marks a promise fulfilled by the President who, in his 2019 SONA (State of the Nation Address), vowed to return these funds taken arbitrarily from the pockets of Filipinos back to its true owner,” Dominguez said at the first TFMC meeting on June 17.

He added: “It is now the task of the Trust Fund Management Committee to properly manage the coconut levy trust fund, which is estimated at 75 billion pesos, so that it serves our strategic development goals.”

The TFMC also includes Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as members. Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko was also named as the CFITF Portfolio Manager, and National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon as head of the TFMC Secretariat during the meeting.

session Supply, distribution Special to extend issues to spell success Bayanihan 2 still in limbo of Covid vaxx rollout L

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

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Correspondent

F supply and distribution will not complicate the vaccination rollout, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos is confident that the target of at least 50 percent of Metro Manila’s 14-million population can be attained by September.

This was reiterated by Abalos during the Philippines Graphic webinar organized in partnership with the PHAPCares Foundation, the Department of Health and the BusinessMirror, entitled: “Vaccine Hesitancy: Epekto sa Buhay, Epekto sa Bayan”.

As of June 22, around 3.6 million of Metro Manila’s population of about 14 million have been vaccinated—2.8 million received the first dose while 877,958 received the second dose, said Abalos, citing data based on daily reports of National Capital Region (NCR) local government units. Metro Manila posts an average of 114,000 jabs a day at present.

“The numbers are encouraging; the pace of the vaccination is increasing. The National Government, through National Vaccination Operations Center and led

by Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., ensures the steady supply of Covid-19 vaccines in Metro Manila,” Abalos said.

Around 14 million jabs would be needed to achieve the 50-percent target, Abalos said, “and so far with the 3.6-million jabs done as of June 22, we would be looking at around 10.3 million jabs remaining. Given our daily average jabs, we will be having at least 3.4

million jabs per month. Therefore, the remaining 10.3 million jabs can be attained in three months or less.”

In his presentation, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III urged private-sector employers to be “creative” and look for “incentives” for people to be vaccinated in the workplace, following examples of some local governments here and abroad.

Bello reiterated DOLE policy that no worker who has not been vaccinated shall be discriminated against in terms of promotion or pay or benefits.

Bataan

DURING the webinar, Bataan Governor Albert Garcia said the province targets herd immunity by December 2021.

As of June 22, Bataan administered a total of 60,205 for the first dose and 15,371 for the second dose.

Pasay

PASAY City Mayor Emi Calixto Rubiano asked everyone to support the government’s vaccination program while also highlighting its significance.

Rubiano said that the start of people’s vaccination means, “we are fighting the virus head-on.”

As of June 24, a total of 116,439 vaccine doses were administered while 34,045 have been vaccinated with the second dose in the city.

Dagupan

MAYOR Brian Lim, meanwhile, encouraged his constituents in Dagupan City to get vaccinated.

“Vaccines do work regardless of the brands,” he stressed.

Continued on A2

AWMAKERS are cool to the call to convene a special session before their July 25 resumption, if only to authorize the extension of the Duterte administration’s Bayanihan 2 program and prevent billions of unspent funds for Covid-19 response from reverting to the Treasury after June 20.

Senator Imee Marcos indicated on Sunday Malacañang is empowered to remedy the situation on its own, wielding executive prerogative given time constraints.

“Ang lapit lapit na (mag-lapse) duda ko, hindi na aabot sa [The deadline is so close and I doubt there’s time for a] special session,” Sen. Marcos said in a radio interview, adding, “Ang alam ko hindi P18 billion lang, tinatawagan ko nga si Rep.Joey Salceda, talagang mukhang mas malaki dyan [I know that it’s more than P18 billion, and I’m calling Joey Salceda, because I think it’s much bigger].”

She recalled that when senators earlier convened as a Committee of the Whole to assess the status of the Bayanihan fund, senators were told P170 billion remain unspent.

“And then, of the disbursed funds of DBM there remained a balance of P159-billion. This is big. Why don’t they use it? Many people are crying for help and going hungry. They’re pitiful,” she said, partly in Filipino.

The senator said extending Bayanihan 2 “is not quite a big problem for lawmakers. The problem is the time, but President Duterte was very hesitant to call a special session. So, let us see what can be done,” Marcos added.

Asked what agencies were found as having unspent funds under Bayanihan 2, the senator said a list shown to them cited the Departments of Health, Agriculture and Social Welfare and Development topping the agencies with still-unspent funds.

She added that DTI was provided P10 billion for a loan window for SMEs, but only P3 billon was loaned out. “So, the balance of 70 percent is quite big.” Butch Fernandez

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, June 28, 2021

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Nlex Corp. sets aside ₧2B for QC expressway project

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

lex Corp. is spending P2 billion to develop a two-kilometer expressway section between Mindanao Avenue and Quirino Highway, a ranking official of the company said over the weekend.

Luigi L. Bautista, the company’s president, said the section, which will be started in the second half, will help reduce traffic congestion, particularly near the Mindanao Avenue Toll Plaza.

“The construction of this new P2-billion expressway section will be welcome news for Nlex commuters who currently face daily traffic gridlock in the congested portions of Mindanao Avenue,” he said.

Bautista noted that his will help contribute to the government’s economic st imu lus init iat ive aimed at generating more jobs and helping revive the economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Eventually, this section will be integrated into the future Nlex expansion to C5 /C.P. Garcia near Katipunan Avenue. We foresee an interconnected tollway network that will be accessible to the west,

east, north, and south sides of Metro Manila,” he said.

T he project is par t of the 11.5-kilometer Nlex-C5 Link between Mindanao Avenue, Quirino Highway, Regalado Avenue, Congressional Avenue and C.P. Garcia Avenue in Quezon City. Aside from regular commuters, the project will also cater to cargo trucks, haulers, and other commercial vehicles that ply routes between Manila and Navotas.

The entire Nlex-C5 Link project is expected to benefit 45,000 motorists daily and cut travel time between Mindanao Avenue to Commonwealth Avenue to 10 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes.

Last month, the company said construction along the first 5-kilometer section of the NLEX Connector, between Caloocan and España Interchanges, is in full swing and has reached Abad Santos Street and Blumentritt in Manila.

This latest Metro Manila elevated expressway section is being constructed inside the Philippine National Railways (PNR) tracks between Harbor Link-Caloocan Interchange along C3 Road/5th Ave. and España Blvd. in Sampaloc, Manila. This section will have on and off ramps in España Interchange and will make NLEX directly accessible to the heart of Manila.

Nlex, a subsidiary of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., is engaged in the development, design, construction, finance, operation and management of toll road projects.

It is the builder-concessionaire and operator of two major expressways that link Metro Manila to North and Central Luzon: NLEX and SCTEX. Stretching over 190 kilometers, the NLEX-SCTEX facilities operate 24/7 accommodating more than 200,000 motorists per day.

‘Good governance led to stock market boom’

This BusinessMirror file photo shows brokers working at the trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

A. Brown bullish on property sector T

By VG Cabuag @villygc

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isted holding firm A. Brown Co. Inc. said it is bullish on its real estate segment due to the changes in consumer behavior caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Robertino Pizarro, the company’s president and CEO, said changing market conditions led to its record real estate reservation sales of P1.58 billion last year. The figure is 50 percent higher than the previous year’s P1.05 billion.

“Our real estate offerings were well positioned to respond to the changing demands of the market especially for the middle-middle, upper middle and premium markets we are serving. Our projects which all highlight healthy, envi-

Tesla dealt ‘black eye’ in recall of cars sold in China

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esla Inc. w i l l ma ke a software fix to more than 285,000 cars in China, or most of the vehicles it delivered there in recent years, to address a safety issue identified by the country’s regulator.

In many cases the recall is expected to be done remotely with an online update to the cars’ active cruise control feature.

Tesla will upgrade the software for free.

“This is a black eye for Tesla in a key China region which will be a headwind in the near term to overcome,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

“It’s a lingering issue but clearly China put its foot down and Tesla needs to do a wide-scale recall.”

The State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on Saturday that the action would involve some 211,256 locally produced Model 3 vehicles and 35,665 imported ones, as well as 38,599 China-made Model Ys. The cars’ autopilot systems can be activated automatically, potentially leading to crashes from sudden acceleration, the Chinese agency said. Bloomberg News

ronment-friendly and low-density community concepts were a welcome response to the demands of the market,” Pizarro said.

He said the company will pursue expansion in new business segments, which include the development of a master-planned community in Tanay, Rizal. New phases for its existing properties are also in the pipeline, including those in West Highlands in Butuan City; Coral Resort Estates in Initao, Misamis Oriental; and, Teakwood Hills in Cagayan de Oro City.

“For the premium market, on the drawing board is a golf and retirement estate in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. The Uptown Metropolis located in the Xavier Estates area in Cagayan de Oro City shall feature the Shoppe Houses,

a Central Business District and residential spaces complementing existing establishments in the area,” Pizarro said.

“With our land bank in strategic areas in Mindanao and Rizal in place, we are looking to sustain our growth in real estate.”

In other segments, A. Brown said it will expand its power generation portfolio to include its unit’s Vires Energy Corp.’s combined-cycle floating LNG Power Plant in Simlong, Batangas. Another subsidiary Irradiation Solutions Inc. will put up the first e-beam commercial sterilization facility in Tanay, Rizal, with construction targeted to commence this year and be completed by the second half of 2023.

A. Brown is also looking at two markets for its AB Bulk Water Co.

subsidiary, mainly to supply water to the Opol and Laguindingan corridors as well as the expanding needs of Cagayan de Oro City.

“We expect projects in the Power Generation, Irradiation, and Bulk Water segments to be income contributors in the future as they progress in development,” Pizarro said.

During the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting last week, shareholders approved the reclassification of part of the company’s unissued capital to create 50 million preferred shares, to be offered to the public with expected proceeds of up to P1.5 billion.

PNB Capital and Investment Corp. has been designated as sole issue manager and lead underwriter for the public offering.

The global IPO market has never been hotter than it is right now

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ompanies are racing to public markets like never before, cashing in on record-high stock prices.

An all-time high of almost $350 billion has been raised in initial public offerings (IPO) in the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, surpassing the previous peak of $282 billion from the second half of 2020 and enriching entrepreneurs and bankers alike.

When the rush for IPOs kicked off last year, stay-at-home technology dominated the scene, seizing on investor interest in anything digital, while special-purpose acquisition companies also flooded the market.

This year, with stocks continuing to push skyward, the trend has broadened to include renewable-energy companies and online retailers.

Everyone from Swedish oat-milk company Oatly Group AB to bootmaker Dr. Martens Plc sold shares in 2021. Still, tech accounts for a big chunk of the deals. Didi Global Inc. will rank among the biggest United States IPOs of the past decade if the Chinese ride-hailing giant carries through with plans to sell as much as $4 billion in stock.

“The markets from New York to Hong Kong were on fire in the first half of this year and have left even the

late 90s dotcom boom era in the rearview mirror,” said Aaron Arth, head of the financing group at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Asia ex-Japan.

The boom has been fueled by a torrent of cash that central banks have pumped into the economy and the rise of individual investors, who are eager to buy a piece of their favorite companies.

It’s delivered a windfall for investment banks around the world, who reap the rewards from underwriting and advisory fees. Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are leading the global league tables for IPOs this year.

With so many companies rushing to market, the industry is starting to look saturated. Investors say they can afford to be picky and are increasingly reluctant to pay steep valuations demanded by the fastgrowing companies that populate the IPO market.

As a result, a number of highprofile stocks have stumbled in their trading debuts this year and some companies are getting spooked.

Food-delivery startup Deliveroo Plc plunged 26 percent on its first day of trading in London, while Oscar Health Inc., the insurance startup co-founded by Josh Kushner, has fallen 40 percent since joining the New York market.

Russia’s Nord Gold Plc on Tuesday pulled its IPO, citing market uncertainty and swings in the gold price, while Genworth Financial Inc. last month postponed a US offering for its Enact Holdings Inc. mortgageinsurance unit. And Friday, Hong Kong-traded Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. withdrew its application for a listing in Shanghai.

“There has been a certain level of exhaustion among investors and increased selectivity,” said Saadi Soudavar, co-head of equity capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank AG. “It’s a record year after all, so they can have their pick among the multiple transactions coming their way.”

Investor appetite for one type of listing has already faded. SPACs accounted for almost half the proceeds raised in the IPO market in the first quarter, but their share shrunk to about 13 percent this quarter.

An index that tracks SPAC listings has dropped 23 percent from a February high. The poor performance, along with tougher regulatory scrutiny has been a blow to market sentiment. US officials have cautioned individual investors against celebrity-endorsed cash shells and are scrutinizing accounting practices. Bloomberg News

he benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose to all-time intraday highs 131 times and climbed to all-time high at the close 119 times, with a maximum of seven consecutive days of breaching all-time high during the term of former President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III. “I fondly recall the time when I used to personally send stock market updates to President Aquino each time the market breached new milestones. We have to give credit to PNoy and his good governance drive which promoted political stability and transparency that translated well in market’s strong performance,” Jose T. Pardo, PSE chairman said.

According to PSE data, on July 1, 2010, the first trading day following President Benigno S. Aquino’s inauguration as the 15th President of the Philippines, the benchmark closed at 3,315.26 points mainly due to mere optimism on the assumption of the new government.

Barely three months into the Aquino administration, the PSEi broke past the 4,000 level. The main index tested the psychological level and reached an intraday high of

4,011.27 on September 14 and two days later closed at 4,005.46.

In the next few years, the 5,000 to 8,000 levels were also pierced.

The PSEi closed above these levels for the first time on March 2, 2012 at 5,016.30; January 7, 2013 at 6,044.91; April 22, 2013 at 7,120.48 and April 6, 2015 at 8,053.74.

Aside from the index level, the stock market’s performance also charted records under Aquino’s watch. The PSE started documenting foreign investor transactions in 1998. Since then, the highest net foreign buying recorded for the year was in 2012 at P109.98 billion.

The highest total value turnover and average daily value turnover posted since 1998, when the PSE started to have electronic records of this data, was logged in 2013 at P2.55 trillion and P10.52 billion, respectively.

The highest capital raising in PSE’s record happened in 2012.

Capital raised from initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings and private placements, excluding the sale of secondary shares, amounted to P219.07 billion. VG Cabuag

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Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, June 28, 2021

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

June 25, 2021

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

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

43.8 114.8 88.9 24.9 9.65 48.75 10.9 19.66 22.45 55.75 17.4 117.5 74.9 1.3 4.28 3 0.405 900.5 0.71 208.2 2,400

44.7 115 89 24.95 9.68 49.1 11.1 19.7 22.5 56 17.5 117.8 75.5 1.33 4.34 3.11 0.41 976 0.73 208.6 2,548

44.7 113.9 88.1 24.85 9.68 48.35 10.98 19.66 22.5 56 17.52 118.8 77 1.25 4.2 3.02 0.41 978 0.7 208 2,550

44.75 115 89 24.9 9.69 49.1 11.1 19.7 22.5 56 17.8 120.7 77 1.34 4.5 3.02 0.41 978 0.7 208.2 2,550

43.8 113.6 87.6 24.85 9.65 48.35 10.36 19.66 22.35 55.7 17.5 117.4 74.9 1.25 4.2 3 0.41 978 0.7 206.2 2,550

43.8 115 89 24.9 9.65 49.1 11.1 19.7 22.45 56 17.5 117.5 74.9 1.33 4.28 3 0.41 978 0.7 208.2 2,550

5,100 1,101,910 1,112,390 70,000 226,400 1,008,800 120,500 6,600 179,000 870 55,000 1,201,980 25,410 36,000 189,000 58,000 30,000 10 4,000 22,820 5

225,305 126,127,027 98,511,307.50 1,740,675 2,187,255 49,305,950 1,330,860 129,980 4,007,895 48,600 962,790 141,772,621 1,912,441 46,500 812,430 174,120 12,300 9,780 2,800 4,745,410 12,750

-13,320 25,995,866 19,216,366 -678,405 -1,273,342 24,152,080 -150,155 -64,960,452 628,098 -1,340 2,800 4,602,138 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 8.18 8.19 8.26 8.34 8.11 8.18 34,154,400 280,269,289 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.36 1.32 1.34 237,000 315,280 ALSONS CONS ABOITIZ POWER 24.35 24.45 24.5 24.65 24.35 24.35 1,966,800 48,113,980 BASIC ENERGY 0.79 0.8 0.8 0.81 0.79 0.79 15,364,000 12,238,660 30.8 31.3 30.8 31.3 30.6 31.3 587,100 18,253,995 FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG 78.75 78.8 77.2 79.3 77.2 78.8 109,870 8,644,725.50 MERALCO 275.4 276 276 277.8 275.4 275.4 178,810 49,288,596 18 18.02 18.34 18.34 18 18 1,486,300 27,009,640 MANILA WATER PETRON 3.32 3.37 3.34 3.34 3.3 3.32 1,109,000 3,685,640 PETROENERGY 4.03 4.13 4.01 4.13 4.01 4.13 6,000 24,420 12.7 13 12.66 13.08 12.66 13 14,800 191,960 PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL 20.55 20.6 20.55 20.6 20.45 20.55 248,900 5,109,390 SPC POWER 12.1 12.26 12.26 12.26 12 12.1 195,600 2,366,338 17.7 20.5 16 22 16 17.7 30,800 550,452 VIVANT AGRINURTURE 6.26 6.29 6.35 6.35 6.23 6.29 892,300 5,579,768 AXELUM 3 3.01 3.02 3.03 2.97 3 144,000 432,420 14 14.3 14.34 14.34 14 14.34 3,100 43,774 CNTRL AZUCARERA CENTURY FOOD 23 23.1 23.5 23.5 22.75 23 831,200 19,083,290 DEL MONTE 14.92 14.94 15 15.24 14.62 14.92 876,400 13,107,046 8.23 8.25 8.4 8.4 8.04 8.23 3,742,700 30,859,564 DNL INDUS EMPERADOR 11.38 11.4 11.5 11.62 11.3 11.38 2,642,800 30,050,314 SMC FOODANDBEV 75.8 76 73.3 77 73.3 76 748,710 56,359,239.50 0.63 0.64 0.62 0.63 0.61 0.63 382,000 238,730 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.4 1.42 1.41 1.42 1.39 1.42 3,226,000 4,558,750 GINEBRA 99 100 98.4 100 96 100 545,810 54,263,745 215 216 211.8 216 209.2 216 485,600 103,861,148 JOLLIBEE LIBERTY FLOUR 31 31.9 31 33 30.8 31 4,200 131,435 7.5 7.94 7.48 7.48 7.48 7.48 100 748 MACAY HLDG 6.97 6.98 6.98 6.99 6.93 6.97 585,100 4,075,230 MAXS GROUP MG HLDG 0.3 0.305 0.3 0.31 0.3 0.305 1,930,000 584,700 15.34 15.4 15.6 15.98 15.24 15.34 21,668,300 338,775,236 MONDE NISSIN 8.74 8.75 8.36 8.8 8.36 8.75 5,591,500 48,131,137 SHAKEYS PIZZA ROXAS AND CO 1.05 1.06 1.06 1.07 1.05 1.05 172,000 181,370 4.5 4.6 4.6 4.6 4.54 4.54 9,000 41,220 RFM CORP 0.156 0.158 0.161 0.165 0.154 0.156 66,460,000 10,545,650 SWIFT FOODS UNIV ROBINA 140 141 140.9 141 140 141 292,250 41,125,061 VITARICH 0.87 0.88 0.89 0.89 0.87 0.88 620,000 543,430 2.32 2.45 2.4 2.4 2.32 2.32 184,000 441,440 VICTORIAS CONCRETE A 52.1 56.4 52.1 56.7 52.1 56.7 40 2,130 59.9 62.8 59.85 60 59.85 60 300 17,985 CONCRETE B 1.36 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.35 1.37 3,734,000 5,104,040 CEMEX HLDG DAVINCI CAPITAL 3 3.04 3.03 3.09 2.94 3 3,988,000 11,973,020 EAGLE CEMENT 15.1 15.28 15 15.9 15 15.28 14,495,700 219,459,874 7.76 7.8 7.74 7.8 7.71 7.8 569,000 4,410,401 EEI CORP HOLCIM 6.52 6.55 6.36 6.6 6.36 6.55 1,289,700 8,436,115 MEGAWIDE 6.68 6.69 6.55 6.69 6.54 6.68 222,300 1,470,616 13.2 13.34 13.3 13.3 13.2 13.3 27,000 358,000 PHINMA TKC METALS 1.06 1.09 1.07 1.12 1.06 1.07 295,000 319,800 2.09 2.1 2.12 2.12 2.07 2.09 1,420,000 2,969,460 VULCAN INDL 1.76 1.77 1.77 1.77 1.76 1.76 209,000 368,850 CROWN ASIA EUROMED 1.89 1.93 1.9 1.93 1.9 1.93 36,000 69,270 4.32 4.34 4.3 4.32 4.3 4.32 20,000 86,200 LMG CORP 5.4 5.45 5.45 5.47 5.4 5.4 160,800 868,685 PRYCE CORP 21.4 21.9 21.95 21.95 21.35 21.9 12,300 263,475 CONCEPCION GREENERGY 4.34 4.35 4.25 4.37 4.24 4.35 18,934,000 81,471,900 9.88 9.89 10.08 10.26 9.89 9.89 1,557,600 15,522,718 INTEGRATED MICR 1.12 1.13 1.1 1.13 1.1 1.12 271,000 303,080 IONICS PANASONIC 5.81 5.84 5.75 5.84 5.75 5.81 11,100 64,268 1.35 1.38 1.36 1.38 1.36 1.38 11,000 14,980 SFA SEMICON 6.6 6.64 6.76 6.86 6.6 6.6 5,149,600 34,610,009 CIRTEK HLDG

-13,721,131 48,240 -21,988,740 -122,290 15,432,760 -1,951,210 -26,209,870 -1,599,586 -1,082,470 -26,120 -1,847,845 8,582 234,392 -119,677 -780,160 -351,268 735,098 211,904 -18,385,209 18,900 -141,000 -3,757,535.50 43,106,660 934,539 -83,124,152 8,451,419 56,400 -11,843,033 8,700 -58,960 229,770 -14,349,490 3,875,317 4,363,418 -82,821 53,500 38,940 213,500 -5,453,860 -1,835,992.00 -798,402

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.15 1.17 16,030,000 18,718,580 7.1 7.37 7.37 7.37 7.37 7.37 100 737 ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP 807 810 802 810 802 810 62,380 50,296,480 ABOITIZ EQUITY 42.3 43 42.1 43 42.1 43 369,800 15,735,340 10.2 10.26 10.1 10.26 10.1 10.26 602,800 6,152,976 ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG 3.85 3.86 3.98 3.99 3.85 3.85 3,460,000 13,422,440 ANSCOR 6.83 7.1 6.83 6.83 6.83 6.83 100 683 0.91 0.92 0.95 0.97 0.91 0.92 4,214,000 3,944,740 ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A 0.7 0.72 0.7 0.72 0.7 0.71 924,000 656,500 5.4 5.41 5.4 5.43 5.35 5.4 778,500 4,205,145 COSCO CAPITAL 6.2 6.25 6.19 6.29 6.18 6.25 2,512,400 15,656,856 DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV 8.05 8.09 8.06 8.19 8.05 8.09 80,700 652,203 FORUM PACIFIC 0.3 0.305 0.295 0.305 0.295 0.305 1,700,000 512,650 625.5 628.5 628 628.5 620 628.5 71,510 44,843,200 GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV 3.98 4 4.14 4.14 3.71 3.98 179,000 707,880 61 61.5 60.55 62.05 60.55 61.5 784,310 48,205,150 JG SUMMIT 5.74 5.86 5.95 5.95 5.67 5.72 4,100 23,617 JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR 0.96 0.98 1 1 0.96 0.98 1,476,000 1,435,190 LOPEZ HLDG 3.33 3.36 3.32 3.36 3.32 3.33 462,000 1,546,600 12.94 13 13 13 12.9 13 572,100 7,415,186 LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG 0.55 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.54 0.56 213,000 117,140 1.55 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 2,000 3,200 MJC INVESTMENTS 3.9 3.91 3.93 3.97 3.9 3.9 24,450,000 96,025,950 METRO PAC INV PACIFICA HLDG 3.7 3.78 3.78 3.78 3.78 3.78 12,000 45,360 2.97 3.01 3.05 3.11 2.96 3.01 1,311,000 3,956,550 PRIME MEDIA 2.79 2.91 2.86 2.87 2.86 2.87 6,000 17,190 REPUBLIC GLASS SOLID GROUP 1.27 1.29 1.27 1.27 1.27 1.27 34,000 43,180 995 996 988.5 997 988.5 995 72,140 71,747,185 SM INVESTMENTS 115.9 116 115.2 115.9 114.8 115.9 173,000 19,934,604 SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES 0.8 0.82 0.83 0.84 0.8 0.82 157,000 128,200 137 143 137 140 136 140 12,630 1,757,806 TOP FRONTIER 0.305 0.31 0.29 0.33 0.29 0.31 27,520,000 8,597,650 WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG 0.229 0.238 0.24 0.24 0.228 0.238 2,600,000 598,640

179,920 -16,952,830 -1,549,865 -650,486 209,480 -16,320 -2,089,611 4,044,576 -282,591.00 -2,674,125 -5,671,955.50 980 -553,770 -4,295,808 -37,737,440 -18,560 -24,387,075 -1,557,549 -276,000 -47,250 -

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.67 0.69 0.69 0.7 0.65 0.66 3,955,000 2,667,410 37 37.1 37.15 37.5 36.9 37 9,963,600 369,852,165 AYALA LAND AREIT RT 36.2 36.3 36.2 36.3 36.15 36.2 315,300 11,417,020 BELLE CORP 1.51 1.53 1.51 1.52 1.51 1.51 216,000 326,170 0.95 0.96 0.99 0.99 0.96 0.96 1,615,000 1,554,840 A BROWN CITYLAND DEVT 1.1 1.11 1.05 1.13 1.05 1.1 6,361,000 6,906,680 CROWN EQUITIES 0.14 0.141 0.137 0.142 0.135 0.141 14,640,000 2,036,160 4 4.08 4.05 4.08 3.95 4.08 2,304,000 9,315,790 CEB LANDMASTERS CENTURY PROP 0.56 0.57 0.53 0.58 0.53 0.56 88,793,000 48,798,650 DOUBLEDRAGON 11.98 12 12.06 12.06 11.92 12 151,000 1,810,298 1.99 2 2.01 2.02 1.98 1.99 13,704,000 27,357,700 DDMP RT DM WENCESLAO 6.99 7 7 7 6.98 7 40,600 284,194 EMPIRE EAST 0.315 0.325 0.305 0.33 0.305 0.325 6,820,000 2,193,300 0.465 0.47 0.51 0.52 0.47 0.47 102,228,000 50,110,140 EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.13 1.11 1.12 5,917,000 6,615,010 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.9 0.91 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 56,000 50,400 7.23 7.42 7.38 7.38 7.25 7.25 90,200 654,880 8990 HLDG PHIL INFRADEV 1.42 1.44 1.41 1.45 1.41 1.44 598,000 847,280 CITY AND LAND 1.98 2.01 2.1 2.13 1.96 1.98 4,553,000 9,211,490 3.23 3.24 3.15 3.24 3.15 3.24 28,834,000 92,719,350 MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED 0.425 0.43 0.4 0.435 0.4 0.43 90,400,000 38,156,100 PHIL ESTATES 0.76 0.77 0.76 0.88 0.73 0.77 322,759,000 261,292,390 3.64 3.65 3.68 3.68 3.6 3.65 810,000 2,951,950 PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND 17.72 17.74 17.64 17.72 17.6 17.72 1,890,600 33,478,264 PHIL REALTY 0.445 0.45 0.47 0.55 0.44 0.45 297,620,000 146,452,850 1.51 1.54 1.54 1.54 1.51 1.51 71,000 109,130 ROCKWELL SHANG PROP 2.64 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 3,000 8,100 3.08 3.1 3.35 3.55 3.03 3.1 3,462,000 11,427,020 STA LUCIA LAND 37.25 37.8 37.35 37.8 37 37.8 3,368,000 126,754,615 SM PRIME HLDG VISTAMALLS 3.76 3.85 3.84 3.85 3.84 3.85 104,000 400,350 SUNTRUST HOME 1.75 1.78 1.79 1.79 1.73 1.78 281,000 494,100 3.7 3.73 3.7 3.76 3.68 3.7 2,158,000 8,003,840 VISTA LAND

SERVICES ABS CBN 11.58 11.6 11.68 11.68 11.58 11.6 50,000 580,362 13.38 13.4 13.5 13.96 13.06 13.38 4,005,900 54,213,720 GMA NETWORK MLA BRDCASTING 9.83 10.48 10.3 10.5 10.3 10.5 7,000 73,400 1,850 1,853 1,831 1,853 1,831 1,853 35,875 66,099,200 GLOBE TELECOM 1,273 1,288 1,274 1,288 1,270 1,288 68,195 87,438,285 PLDT APOLLO GLOBAL 0.184 0.185 0.184 0.186 0.182 0.185 123,540,000 22,693,070 CONVERGE 21.7 21.9 22.5 22.5 21.7 21.7 5,250,500 115,431,165 4.15 4.17 4.03 4.19 4.01 4.15 976,000 4,031,480 DFNN INC DITO CME HLDG 9.16 9.2 9.13 9.25 9.02 9.2 4,827,500 44,151,467 IMPERIAL 1.63 1.75 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1,000 1,600 2.36 2.41 2.39 2.42 2.31 2.36 51,000 121,580 JACKSTONES TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.45 0.455 0.475 0.475 0.45 0.455 31,830,000 14,607,250 PHILWEB 2.44 2.45 2.45 2.45 2.43 2.45 460,000 1,124,690 8.44 8.5 8.54 8.54 8.44 8.44 14,500 123,080 2GO GROUP ASIAN TERMINALS 14.78 14.88 15.18 15.18 14.6 14.98 3,800 56,862 3.07 3.08 3.1 3.1 3.06 3.08 501,000 1,542,730 CHELSEA 52.95 53 52.8 53.05 52.7 53 314,810 16,664,742.50 CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER 164 164.1 161 164.8 160 164 1,886,790 308,828,650 LBC EXPRESS 18 18.36 18.36 18.36 18.36 18.36 900 16,524 1.01 1.08 1.07 1.08 1.07 1.08 50,000 53,700 LORENZO SHIPPNG MACROASIA 5.64 5.65 5.64 5.77 5.56 5.64 2,885,800 16,164,610 METROALLIANCE A 2.17 2.2 2.15 2.2 2.15 2.2 146,000 314,730 2.21 2.36 2.21 2.21 2.21 2.21 7,000 15,470 METROALLIANCE B HARBOR STAR 1.26 1.28 1.27 1.3 1.23 1.26 1,339,000 1,697,210 ACESITE HOTEL 1.92 1.95 1.85 1.99 1.82 1.95 652,000 1,247,820 0.132 0.133 0.13 0.134 0.127 0.132 259,200,000 33,875,770 BOULEVARD HLDG DISCOVERY WORLD 3.08 3.1 3.11 3.24 3.1 3.1 195,000 614,060 WATERFRONT 0.61 0.62 0.6 0.64 0.58 0.61 13,867,000 8,566,180 0.405 0.415 0.405 0.43 0.405 0.415 18,460,000 7,640,350 STI HLDG BERJAYA 5.59 5.6 5.21 5.7 5.21 5.6 7,506,100 39,150,655 6.57 6.58 6.6 6.7 6.57 6.58 3,257,500 21,493,315 BLOOMBERRY 2.06 2.1 2.08 2.11 2.08 2.11 37,000 78,040 PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES 1.59 1.62 1.66 1.66 1.59 1.59 234,000 378,850 PH RESORTS GRP 2.04 2.08 2.09 2.1 2.04 2.04 1,932,000 3,978,460 0.425 0.43 0.43 0.435 0.425 0.425 1,090,000 468,850 PREMIUM LEISURE ALLHOME 7.98 7.99 7.91 7.99 7.89 7.98 1,076,100 8,546,748 METRO RETAIL 1.43 1.44 1.48 1.49 1.42 1.44 1,244,000 1,791,730 40.5 40.7 40.5 40.7 40 40.7 2,068,600 83,955,020 PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL 53.1 53.2 53.5 53.65 52.7 53.2 943,150 50,139,132.50 PHIL SEVEN CORP 97.75 98 99.5 99.5 97.7 98 5,200 509,738 1.27 1.28 1.23 1.28 1.22 1.27 5,192,000 6,453,740 SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT 18.68 18.8 18.42 18.8 18.42 18.8 1,614,100 30,251,016 APC GROUP 0.38 0.395 0.38 0.395 0.375 0.395 2,670,000 1,031,700 6.02 6.15 6.3 6.59 6 6.15 211,100 1,306,376 EASYCALL GOLDEN MV 426 439.4 423.2 439.4 423.2 439.4 1,540 676,212 5.56 5.58 5.58 5.58 5.58 5.58 4,000 22,320 IPM HLDG 1.68 1.69 1.73 1.73 1.68 1.68 6,054,000 10,253,760 PRMIERE HORIZON SBS PHIL CORP 4.15 4.29 4.03 4.25 4.03 4.25 125,000 517,400

-8,280 -53,770,765 -3,580.00 4,800 -1,851,500 224,610 -1,539,270 -818,830 -63,918 315,800.00 -249,900 -188,700 38,310 -951,020 12,850 -30,890.00 -14,799,750 -105,800 -3,952,520 322,400 8,060,582 492,100 261,810 21,687,230 -304,150 -4,597,380 -11,844,575 -5,551,145 -52,220 -32,269,420 975,010 3,353,999 642,400 -44,090 4,282,879.50 117,699,559 174,015 -11,130 -934,390 3,150 579,950 -641,050 -2,682,327 130,600 132,920 -33,026 42,900 -14,608,305 -6,642,601 -185,220 -4,001,820 23,728,392 15,000 29,563 -1,068,790 -

MINING & OIL ATOK 8.45 8.61 8.79 8.8 8.4 8.61 371,900 3,154,545 55,497 APEX MINING 1.61 1.62 1.61 1.61 1.6 1.61 2,015,000 3,235,070 1,600 ATLAS MINING 6.23 6.25 6.32 6.35 6.23 6.23 783,400 4,913,668 -125,508 5.54 5.56 5.29 5.6 5.29 5.54 546,100 2,969,762 BENGUET A BENGUET B 5.46 5.47 5.28 5.48 5.1 5.46 207,000 1,095,264 -134,350 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.32 0.325 0.335 0.335 0.315 0.325 360,000 117,850 2.84 2.87 2.85 2.87 2.85 2.87 75,000 213,950 71,450 CENTURY PEAK DIZON MINES 6.88 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.88 6.9 13,200 90,820 -1,380 FERRONICKEL 2.51 2.54 2.48 2.54 2.47 2.51 5,636,000 14,162,360 -975,380 0.33 0.34 0.345 0.345 0.33 0.34 1,030,000 343,850 GEOGRACE LEPANTO A 0.155 0.156 0.154 0.156 0.154 0.155 23,510,000 3,644,840 0.157 0.16 0.155 0.159 0.155 0.159 1,200,000 187,400 LEPANTO B 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 27,300,000 300,300 MANILA MINING A MANILA MINING B 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 10,300,000 123,600 1.21 1.23 1.2 1.23 1.2 1.21 327,000 398,700 MARCVENTURES 1.49 1.52 1.54 1.54 1.49 1.49 163,000 245,490 -12,140 NIHAO NICKEL ASIA 5.29 5.3 5.16 5.31 5.14 5.29 7,664,100 40,407,595 3,539,794 OMICO CORP 0.415 0.425 0.43 0.43 0.41 0.415 190,000 79,950 1.01 1.02 0.98 1.02 0.97 1.01 924,000 918,140 -5,880 ORNTL PENINSULA PX MINING 6.36 6.38 6.35 6.45 6.34 6.36 540,800 3,450,963 -113,483 SEMIRARA MINING 14.28 14.36 14.44 14.44 14.2 14.28 705,400 10,100,052 -1,208,700 0.0091 0.0092 0.0092 0.0092 0.009 0.0091 52,000,000 471,100 UNITED PARAGON ACE ENEXOR 19.54 19.8 20.3 20.45 19.5 19.8 120,100 2,393,843 81,328 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 42,300,000 507,600 0.011 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 313,100,000 3,757,200 ORNTL PETROL B PHILODRILL 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 101,400,000 1,166,800 7.85 7.93 7.7 7.97 7.7 7.93 353,000 2,780,107 -141,730 PXP ENERGY

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF B 101.1 101.4 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 590 59,885 101.5 103 103 103 103 103 1,250 128,750 ALCO PREF B AC PREF B2R 523 526.5 526.5 526.5 526.5 526.5 20 10,530 51.55 51.7 51.45 51.7 51.45 51.7 30,540 1,573,248 -222,954 CEB PREF 102.5 104 104 104 103.5 103.5 3,030 314,270 CPG PREF A DD PREF 101.5 102 102.4 102.5 100.6 102 2,790 285,848 1,006 GLO PREF P 504 505 504 505 504 505 15,060 7,601,270 1,000 1,015 1,006 1,008 1,006 1,008 310 312,180 GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B 1,035 1,049 1,035 1,035 1,035 1,035 6,000 6,210,000 100.9 101 101 101 101 101 240 24,240 MWIDE PREF 101 101.8 101 101 101 101 500 50,500 MWIDE PREF 2B PNX PREF 3B 104 106.7 106.7 106.7 106.7 106.7 50 5,335 1,002 1,006 1,007 1,007 1,001 1,006 550 551,210 PNX PREF 4 1,027 1,054 1,027 1,030 1,027 1,030 365 375,035 PCOR PREF 2B PCOR PREF 3A 1,114 1,115 1,114 1,114 1,114 1,114 100 111,400 1,150 1,158 1,159 1,159 1,159 1,159 305 353,495 PCOR PREF 3B 78.9 79.5 79 79.7 79 79.5 3,610 285,880 SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2F 78.75 79.5 78.75 79 78.7 79 14,650 1,153,100 77.15 78 78 78 78 78 3,600 280,800 SMC PREF 2H 78.2 79.5 78.3 78.3 78.25 78.25 5,100 399,325 SMC PREF 2I SMC PREF 2J 76 78 78 78 78 78 150 11,700 75.75 76 76 76 75.65 75.65 1,500 113,650 - SMC PREF 2K

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 11.3 11.5 11.4 11.4 11.4 11.4 5,429,500 61,896,300 0 12.42 12.6 12.68 12.68 12.4 12.5 74,100 927,906 - GMA HLDG PDR

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 1.89 1.92 1.95 1.95 1.87 1.89 811,000 1,540,820 19,200

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 17.34 17.4 17.62 18 17.34 17.34 39,700 694,694 1,512 2.59 2.6 2.5 2.62 2.47 2.59 1,286,000 3,317,060 350 ITALPINAS MERRYMART 4.25 4.26 4.25 4.32 4.25 4.25 3,362,000 14,333,190 87,970

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 105.7 105.8 104.9 105.7 104.9 105.7 30,880 3,245,976 106,050

www.businessmirror.com.ph

8990 eyes ₧10.4-B sales from Cubao condo project

L

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ow-cost housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. said it is launching its Urban Deca Tower Cubao project in Quezon City in the second half of 2021.

The company is expecting to generate P10.4 billion in sales from this project. Located along EDSA southbound corner Mayor Ignacio Santos Diaz St. and a few steps away from the MRT3 Cubao station, the project targets end-users who want to buy their first home.

Urban Deca Tower Cubao will have 45 storeys and contains 4,961 studio units. The units are priced at an average of P1.9 million. The project will also host 2,859 square meters of commercial spaces.

The company already broke ground on Urban Deca Tower Cubao in February last year before the lockdowns started.

“This is definitely a positive sign that many Filipino families are still looking at a better future and this inspires us to continue building communities that offer quality living at highly affordable prices. The same holds true for our new Urban Deca Tower Cubao project,” company chairman Mariano Martinez Jr. said.

The company reported a 17-percent increase in its net income for the first quarter to P1.55 billion from the previous year’s P1.32 billion.

Revenues rose 29 percent to P4.47 billion from last year’s P3.46 billion.

Half of its revenues came from

its low-cost mass housing business at P2.32 billion, more than double than last year’s P1.02 billion. Some P535.71 million came from its medium-rise condominium projects, flat from last year; P1.6 billion from high-rise projects, down 12 percent from last year’s P1.82 billion; and P16.78 million from developed subdivision lots from zero last year.

The company had no rental income and hotel operations this year compared with P81.25 million in combined revenues last year.

The company said its number of units sold rose 3 percent, which it said is an indication that Filipino families remain driven to pursue their dream of having their own house despite the lingering impacts of the pandemic.

The company delivered a total of 2,634 new homes in the first quar-

mutual funds

June 25, 2021 NAV One Year Three Year Five Year

per share

Last week

Share prices gained last week, with the main index inching further towards the 7,000-point level on investor optimism following the US Federal Reserve’s assurance of its support to the low-interest rate regime in the next few years.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 99.13 points to close at 6,950.51 points.

The main index was up for three days during the week, but volume of trade was low as most investors stayed on the sidelines.

Value of trade for the week reached P5.3 billion. Foreign investors, who cornered 32 percent of all the trades, were net sellers at P2.44 billion.

All other subindices managed to post gains with the exception of the Holding Firms index that fell 5.04 points to close at 6,931.29 points. The All Shares index rose 62.88 to 4,229.58, the Financials index gained 8.97 to 1,500.37, the Industrial index rose 178.37 to 9,542.40, the Property index surged 122.31 to 3,415.61, the Services index was up 24.90 to 1,583.55 and the Mining and Oil index increased 11.35 to 9,322.39.

For the week, gainers led losers 140 to 85 and 22 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers for the week were Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp., Philippine Estates Corp., Century Properties Group Inc., Cityland Development Corp., Vivant Corp. and Wellex Industries Inc. Top losers were Ever-Gotesco Resources and Holdings Inc., Jolliville Holdings Corp., Philodrill Corp., Macay Holdings Inc., Manila Mining Corp.

A and B shares and Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc.

This week

Share prices may record gains this week as the main index is expected to pierce the 7,000-point mark on renewed investor optimism.

“After a strong rejection of the 7,000-level a fortnight ago, the PSEi looks to finally trounce this psychological resistance, this time with a better outlook for the second half of the year supporting the buying thesis,” broker 2TradeAsia said.

Many companies will also do their month- and quarter-end window dressing during the week, which could increase this week’s volume of trade.

The broker said many investors are also expecting a huge comeback for the income of many companies for the second quarter, though many may not still achieve their 2019 levels.

“Adjusted core earnings are expected to balloon as much as 230 percent, driven by base effect and dramatic margin changes,” it said.

Immediate support for the main index is seen at 6,800 and resistance at 7,000 to 7,050.

Stock picks

Broker Regina Capital Development Corp. advised to sell on rallies on the stock of Monde Nissin Corp., as the company’s share price started increasing since its initial public offering earlier this month.

“The stock effectively broke out of its previous resistance and an alltime high of P14.78, as it spiked as high as P15.60 intra-day. The sudden 4-percent uptick in prices might prompt some investors to cash in on gains. We can expect some pullback should this occur. However, the nearest support is at P14.76,” the broker said.

Monde shares closed Friday at P15.34 apiece.

Meanwhile, the broker advised to hold on to the shares of lender BDO Unibank Inc. as its share price has eased and consolidated after its twoday downturn some two weeks ago.

“There is still some leftover bullishness from the indicators that stemmed from the steady upward trajectory that began in late May. However, the momentum is already showing signs of possible tapering,” the broker said.

“It seems that BDO would be range-bound, as the buying pressure from the indicators continues to wane.”

BDO shares closed last week at P115 apiece. VG Cabuag

Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

221.5

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.3977

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0552

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK

ter, but housing production fell 50 percent due to the community restrictions imposed by the local government units due to the pandemic.

Luzon had the biggest revenue contribution at P2.6 billion, followed by Visayas at P958.5 million and Mindanao at P878.3 million.

The company sold 1,272 units in Luzon, 801 units in Visayas, and 561 units in Mindanao for the quarter.

Its net income margin declined to 34.67 percent for the quarter, lower than the 38.12 percent last year due to the Bayanihan 1 and 2 laws, which allowed homebuyers to suspend payments for a few months.

Its performing accounts ratio, or the number of its customers paying their amortization before it becomes due, fell to 85 percent from more than 90 percent in the previous quarters.

9.21%

-3.15%

-3.78%

34.76%

-1.3%

1.51%

6.45%

10.86%

-7.62%

-5.95%

-2.48%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7775 9.41%

-3.22% n.a.

-3.28%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7375 9.24%

-2.34% n.a.

-0.55%

First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.8696

12.15%

-0.87%

-2.04%

-1.45%

First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.7106

3.41%

-4.44%

-6.6% -6.48%

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

100.21

25.22%

-2.73% n.a.

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

45.3354

11.15%

-1.05%

-2.64%

-3.23%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

476.39

9.52%

-1.33%

-2.99%

-2.57%

Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5

1.0804

19.5% n.a. n.a.

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.1416

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

-1.7%

33.9547

-1.54%

10.73%

-1.36%

-2.19%

-2.28%

11.75%

-0.78%

-1.56%

-2.34%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.8862

10.46% n.a. n.a.

-2.94%

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.6454

11.73%

-0.38%

-1.88%

-3.04%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

777.95

11.87%

-0.28%

-1.99%

-2.96%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7108

11.13%

-4.81%

-4.97%

-1.13%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.5234

9.73%

-3.06%

-3.37%

-2.77%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8885 11.27%

-0.66%

-2.15%

-3.18%

United Fund, Inc. -a

-1.27%

-1.18%

-2.4%

-0.06%

-1.4% -2.91%

3.2393

10.45%

ALFM

-2.52%

Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 104.4234

11.84%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities $1.2576

28.62%

6.73%

8.66%

4.55%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.7913

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

28.72%

11.41%

12.06%

7.08%

0.31%

Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a

1.6738

7.12%

1.35%

-1.59%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.242

8.03%

0.5%

-0.63%

-1.9%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.5997

7.35%

1.53%

-0.59%

-1.04%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1948

3.67% n.a. n.a. -1.91%

NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

1.953

5.99%

2.76%

0.42%

-0.56%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.6826

5.96%

2.1%

-0.74%

-2.79%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.513

6.41%

2.16%

-0.72%

-2.5%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0596

6.44%

0.79%

-0.53%

-1.65%

6.4%

-0.21%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5145

-1.62%

-1.64%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9856

4.83% n.a. n.a.

-3.62%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.906

6.53% n.a. n.a.

-4.55%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8936

7.66% n.a. n.a.

-4.23%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

9.05%

-0.52%

0.8831

-0.93%

-1.9%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a

$0.03828

-0.49%

3.33%

1.49%

-2.15%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.1337

14.74%

3.6%

5.03%

-1.43%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.7194 21.34%

8.78%

8.69%

4.58%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.2138 10.88%

5.11%

4.74%

0.97%

Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

372.2

1.92%

3.23%

2.44%

0.3%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9278

-0.58%

1.29%

0.3%

1.45%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2285

1.35%

3.81%

4.33%

0.43%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2612

-0.76%

2.26%

1.4%

-1.52%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4416 0.51%

3.3%

1.76%

-0.47%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.4917

-1.05%

4.47%

1.45%

-3.08%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6

1.3233

2.72%

4.26%

2.78%

0.16%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9757

1.61%

4.56%

2.32%

-0.63%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

-0.42%

1.0376

1.48%

4.76%

1.75%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.2129

1.77%

5.48%

2.71%

0.22%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

0.92%

4.74%

2.06%

-0.36%

1.7486

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$486.09

2.63%

3.2%

2.34%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є220.09

2.14%

1.11%

1.16%

0.46% 0.42%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1912

-2.18%

2.35%

1.29%

-6.97%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0261 0.77%

1.85%

1.03%

-1.88%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.057

-1.1%

0.71%

-0.55%

-3.27%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.5141

3.06%

5.53%

2.32%

-0.85%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0629739 4.05%

3.55%

2.24%

1.05%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1807 0.32%

3.34%

1.09%

-1.33%

2.53%

0.37%

Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

130.29

1.77%

3.07%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0528 1.16% n.a. n.a.

0.45%

Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.3051

0.66%

1.73%

2.85%

2.56%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0576

1.23%

1.67% n.a.

0.49%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.2671 n.a. n.a. n.a. 12.17% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.99

6.45% n.a. n.a.

1.02%

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

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

PNB inks partnership with US-based property firm

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

T

HE Philippine National Bank (PNB) announced that it has signed an agreement with New Jersey-based Alexander Anderson Real Estate Group (AAREG) in an effort to step-up its marketing efforts in pushing local properties to Filipino-Americans in the United States.

PNB President and CEO Wick Veloso said he sees potential in the level of interest in Filipinos residing in the US to buy property in the country while they are still abroad.

“We see those in the New York metropolitan area remain interested in these investments despite the Covid-19 pandemic. PNB is making it easier for those living abroad to purchase a home in the Philippines through the Own a Philippines Home Loan [OPHL],” Veloso said.

Own a Philippine Home Loan or OPHL is a financing program of PNB where they allow Filipinos and non-Filipinos residing and working

abroad to obtain a bank financing of residential properties in the Philippines. AAREG is PNB’s first marketing partner of PNB for OPHL. “The reality of today’s business landscape is that collaboration and strategic partnerships are fundamental to improving business outcomes. Our team is excited to grow this relationship with PNB,” AAREG CEO Eric Anderson said.

OPHL is being offered through PNB’s overseas branches in Los Angeles, New York, Guam, Canada, Europe, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

“While many foreigners and Balikbayans can rent property, the OPHL may be a good way for them to acquire real estate as investment in the Philippines, especially if you’re retiring or planning to stay longer in the country,” Veloso said.

“For Filipinos and those with dual citizenship, they can purchase land and real estate property. Foreigners are prohibited from owning land in the Philippines, but they can legally own a condominium unit for their residence,” he added.

Perspectives The road to value: Challenges to AI success

R

EGARDLESS of how much value executives believe AI is adding to their organizations, their widespread concern that it may be overhyped suggests most don’t believe they are getting everything they could from the technology. Many factors play into this finding, clustered in four key areas: talent, technology, strategy, and risk management.

Talent

The large majority of business leaders—about 90 percent in more industries surveyed—say their organizations make an effort to keep employees current on AI trends, and that they are dedicated to upskilling employees in AI technology. That figure falls to about 80 percent for healthcare executives and slightly more than 70 percent from government executives. Perhaps as a result of all this training, most executives, ranging from 71 percent in government to 97 percent in industrial manufacturing, say their employees are at least somewhat prepare for AI adoption in terms of skillsets.

Forty-seven percent of retail executives believe their employees are very prepared, the highest of any industry, while those in the industrial manufacturing sector are least likely to say employees are very prepared (just 23 percent).

As with assessing AI’s value, executives in the C-suite are more optimistic about the skillsets of their talent than those at the manager level.

Despite the confidence executives report, we see many organizations struggling to attract and retain people with the right skillsets to drive their AI strategies, or indeed to develop those strategies.

In part, difficulties with attracting talent can be attributed to how quickly AI adoption has ramped up. Universities have not had time to train enough graduates in the field, especially when competing with technology companies for instructors, according to KPMG Head of Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Ellen Campana.

She also adds, “It will take some time to build up a workforce with this type of knowledge and experience. In the meantime,

it will be critical to bring together people with diverse perspectives and build in time for dialogue. Junior team members may be uniquely positioned to offer perspectives unhampered by constraints that could stifle innovation. On the other hand, experienced team members may be in a better position to impart the rigor necessary to deliver hardened software at scale. Respecting each person’s perspective, and taking time for that back-and-forth, will lead to better decisions.”

Technology Challenges around technology are expected to be concentrated in two areas: choosing the right tools, platforms, and technologies in line with an organization’s needs; and building the underlying infrastructure needed to support enterprisescale AI applications.

“Some of it is technology paralysis,” KPMG Head of Digital Solutions Architecture Swami Chandrasekaran says. “The market is moving so fast that a lot of organizations are hesitant to dive into something really deep and broad because they’re afraid a tool or platform or API will come out tomorrow that does it quicker, better, faster.”

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG Thought Leadership entitled Thriving in an AI World. © 2021 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG global organization of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee. All rights reserved.

KPMG in the Philippines is hosting an Innovation Summit on 5 to 8 July 2021 where industry tech leaders from Microsoft Asia, Archer IRM, Blue Prism Asean, NetGuardians and SAS, and KPMG experts from audit and assurance, tax, and advisory fields, will share their insights and demonstrate the latest technology trends to guide organizations and keep them ahead of the competition.

Register here for free: https://bit.ly/3vgia3b.

This event is spearheaded by KPMG in the Philippines’ Lighthouse Group. With over 12,500 professionals working across different regions, KPMG Lighthouse is a recognized Center for Excellence for data, analytics, cybersecurity, regulatory-driven transformation, intelligent automation and emerging technologies. Visit home.kpmg/ ph to know how KPMG can help organizations in successfully navigating through their transformation journeys.

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Monday, June 28, 2021

B3

With new tax rule, exporters want VAT refund in cash

T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@Tyronepiad

HE Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) has asked the government to include a provision allowing full cash refund of value-added tax (VAT) in a new tax regulation imposed on exports.

Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr., in a recent statement, made the proposal following the release of Revenue Regulations (RR) 9-2021 by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Based on RR 9-2021, a 12-percent value-added tax is set to be imposed on exports and sales of services by June 27. These items were not taxed previously as stated in Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law. The exporters are seeking full refund of the VAT in cash in lieu of taxcredit certificates, which indicate the amount allowed to be decreased in tax payment.

“Furthermore, enterprises are pushing to have a provision included in RR 9-2021 on the full VAT refund in cash—not in the problematic tax credit certificates—within the 90day timeframe for BIR to process

and grant claims for VAT refunds,” the exporters’ group said.

Ortiz-Luis explained that an “efficient refund system through cash will help lessen the burden of this new policy.”

The Philexport official said that a track-and-trace system should be in place to prevent previous VAT refund system anomalies from emerging again.

“Exports account for some 30 percent of the country’s GDP [gross domestic product] and failures in this refund system will be a disincentive to exporters,” he said.

With the exporters already reeling from the impact of the pandemic, the local industry also called on the government to prevent the new tax regulation from becoming an additional burden.

Ortiz-Luis said that both the exporters and micro, small and medium

enterprises (MSMEs) will potentially be affected by RR 9-2021.

He said the implementation procedures and requirements, particularly on filing for VAT refunds, worry the companies. He said that it could “consume more time and money, both of which they are short of.”

The exporters’ group is seeking “a favorable and urgent response on these issues” as it seeks to recoup losses and maintain operations amid the pandemic.

The Philexport official pointed out that one of the concerns raised by the exporters is the requirement to physically file for VAT refunds at the BIR’s VAT Credit Audit Division in Quezon City.

“This is the exporter/taxpayers’ money that they are refunding.

Imposing difficult processes is not fair, considering that there is cost of money and the negative impacts on their cash flows, particularly of MSMEs,” he said.

Ortiz-Luis “suggested that until an electronic system for filing is developed, the BIR should decentralize the processing of VAT refunds by setting up VCAD branch offices that can decide and act on VAT refund applications and even release the funds.”

Exporters also flagged the need to keep and duplicate numerous documents, which they see as an “unnecessary” burden on their part.

“Exporters also noted that the

pro-export and pro-MSME statements by the government leave much to be desired, since regulations such as this provide contradictory impacts on them,” the group added.

Investment priority

Meanwhile, Ortiz-Luis said exporters and exports should always be a permanent beneficiary under the Strategic Investments Priorities Plan (SIPP), which enumerates sectors and activities allowed to be granted incentives based on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act. The investment plan hopes to boost creation of high-skilled jobs, attract foreign investments, promote export diversification and ramp up developments in the countryside.

It will provide fiscal and non-fiscal support on certain industries to support said goals.

The SIPP, as stated in the recently issued implementing rules and regulations of CREATE, should be submitted for approval to the President not later than October 1 of the third year of its effectivity. The approved investment plan will have validity of three years from issuance.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the country’s total trade as of April 2021 reached $57.83 billion, which is 20.7 percent higher than $47.9 billion in the same period last year.

GSIS multipurpose loans hit ₧65B since Oct 2020

S

TATE-RUN Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has granted a total of P65 billion in multipurpose loans to its members since it started its program in October last year.

The GSIS Multipurpose Loan (MPL) consolidates all service loans and waives surcharges on all in-default loan accounts of its members.

The program has so far benefited 250,783 GSIS members.

“We encourage our other members, especially those who have reached their borrowing limit and have been unable to pay their GSIS loans, to avail of GSIS MPL’s affordable payment terms,” GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Ledesma Macasaet said in a statement.

Qualified member-borrowers may apply for up to 14 times their basic monthly salary but not exceed P3 million.

Those who will be accessing the MPL for the first time get to enjoy waived surcharges on their outstand-

ing loan balance.

Apart from preventing the ballooning of penalties incurred by members for their unpaid GSIS loans, MPL also offers a “low” interest rate of 7 to 8 percent depending on the members’ premium payments. It is payable in monthly installments from two to seven years depending on a member’s premium contribution and employment status.

Those with Home Emergency Loan Program (HELP) accounts that are consolidated under MPL are allowed to pay the loan up to 10 years.

Payments will be automatically deducted from the borrower’s salary.

Qualified to apply for MPL are active and special GSIS members who have paid at least three months of premiums; are not on leave of absence without pay; have no pending administrative or criminal case; have no arrears under the GSIS Financial Assistance Loan or GSIS housing loan; and are working in agencies with existing memorandum of agree-

ment with GSIS. Moreover, they must not be tagged as suspended by their respective agencies and they must have a net take-home pay not lower than the amount required under the General Appropriations Act after all monthly obligations have been deducted.

Their agency must not also be on suspended status.

The following GSIS service loans shall be consolidated under MPL in the following order: Salary Loan; Restructured Salary Loan; Enhanced Salary Loan; Emergency Loan Assistance; Summer One-Month Salary Loan; Conso-Loan Plus or Enhanced Conso-Loan Plus; Member’s Cash Advance, eCard Cash Advance, or eCard Plus Cash Advance; HELP; Education Assistance Loan I and II; Fly Pal, Pay Later; Study Now, Pay Later; and Stock Purchase Loan.

However, those that are excluded are GSIS’s housing loan, policy loans and emergency loan except for emergency loan accounts in arrear-

ages and in default, in which case the amount in arrears or in default will be deducted from the proceeds of the MPL. Members may apply for MPL via e-mail to the GSIS handling branch; Electronic GSIS Members Online (eGSISMO); GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System (GW@PS) kiosk for those in the GSIS Head Office; or over-the-counter or via drop box in all GSIS branches and extension offices nationwide.

MPL proceeds will be directly credited to the borrower’s GSIS electronic card (eCard) or unified multipurpose identification card.

For other details, interested parties may visit the GSIS web site, www. gsis.gov.ph; GSIS Facebook account, @gsis.ph; e-mail gsiscares@gsis.gov. ph; or call the GSIS Contact Center at 8847-4747 (if in Metro Manila), 1-800-8-847-4747 (for Globe and TM subscribers), and 1-800-10-8474747 (for Smart, Sun, and Talk ‘N Text subscribers). Bernadette D. Nicolas

Citi PH named Best BPI, Globe tie up on digital solutions for medical services International Bank

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

W

@lorenzmarasigan

ITH an increasing need for digital transformation in the health-care industry, Globe Telecom Inc. said it has partnered with the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) to offer digital solutions that will enable them to provide better and advanced medical services.

Through the partnership, Globe and BPI are offering hospitals that will be availing themselves of information communications technology (ICT) solutions of Globe through the GMB TechLoans Loan Program.

Globe Business offers a modular and digital system for hospitals that automates administrative, financial, and logistical processes through a secured platform.

“These digital solutions allow hospitals to manage their resources better, so hospital staff can focus on providing efficient and quality health-care to patients at a much lower cost,” Manelle Cousart-

Suyat, Industry Marketing Head for Healthcare of Globe Business, said.

With the partnership, health-care providers can enjoy demo-to-purchase programs at interest rates lower than industry average of 29 percent for new-tobank clients, no collateral requirements for loans up to P5 million, and more.

The loan program aims to help hospitals adapt to the changing times through quality infrastructure and flexible loan solutions so they can in turn deliver better health-care services.

Suyat added that Globe has partnered with HYBrain, Philippine Hospital Association, and Amazon Web Services to host a webinar called Own Progress Through Collaboration: Innovating Healthcare with Digital Technologies on June 26 at 1 pm.

The session intends to share the latest digitally-enhanced, data-driven health-care technologies and how it can help small and medium hospitals provide Filipinos a quality health-care experience, and ease administrative work for the staff.

H

ONG KONG-BASED financial publishing firm FinanceAsia recognized Citi Philippines as the Best International Bank for the 23rd straight year in 2021.

Citi Philippines CEO Aftab Ahmed said the recognition pushes them to continue to take measures to protect the well-being of employees, clients, and community in the face of the challenges brought by the pandemic.

As part of its Covid-19 response measures, Citi, through Citi Foundation, has extended P50 million worth of grants to various groups including the Philippine Business for Social Progress, the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Makesense Philippines, Philippine Business for Education, Microinsurance MBA Association of the Philippines, and Bayan Academy.

Citi credit cards also launched a Covid-19 relief campaign to enable cardholders to use their rewards points to donate to the relief efforts

of the Philippine Disaster Relief Foundation and World Vision.

Citi Philippines also raised over $20 billion from debt deals in the global capital markets for various clients and also led two successful equity trades for a Supranational’s holdings.

“Our global network and deep ties in the Philippines have enabled us to deliver on our strategy and exceed our clients’ expectations. We are honored to be recognized and we will continue in our efforts to provide the appropriate financial solutions for our clients and help them achieve their growth objectives,” said Ahmed.

Citi Philippines banks over 950 Multi-National Companies and over 100 top local corporations.

Citi Philippines also said they are the bank of choice of 90 percent of the top 20 companies in the country by listed market cap and is the sole settlement bank for the Philippines domestic dollar transfer system for the past 25 years. Bianca Cuaresma

HarvardManagementUpdate BusinessMirror BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph Monday, June 28, 2021 b4

Monday, July 13, 2020 B www.businessmirror.com.ph

Employees Are Lonelier Than Ever.

Here’s How Employers Can Help.

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By Constance Noonan Hadley

return to the office. To her surprise, she found that while team members were satisfied with their individual work products, they felt disconnected and disengaged as a team. Her team consists of brilliant scientists, whom she had incorrectly assumed were fine on their own. Galvanized by the prospect of losing one of these valued employees, this manager quickly devised structural changes in how the team operated, including creating more opportunities for her reports to develop work jointly.

As companies craft their return-to-work strategies, they should keep in mind that while increasing face-to-face interaction may be beneficial in some areas, it will not, by itself, create strong interpersonal bonds among colleagues. If it did, my research with Mark Mortensen wouldn’t have shown such high rates of employee loneliness in the period before the shift to social distancing and remote work.

Whatever form the return to the workplace takes, building high-quality connections will require a focused set of structures and practices built on a bedrock of psychological safety. Here are five important elements to consider:

n Look out for the invisible

enemy: Employees don’t advertise

their loneliness. Objective markers like team membership or someone’s degree of extroversion don’t reveal it either. Loneliness at work is an entirely subjective internal belief that few people truly know you or would support you in time of need.

Employees themselves may not even recognize that they’re lonely. For example, an executive recently came to me with what he thought was a motivation problem. “When I took my new job last

summer, I was excited about the pharmaceutical industry,” he told me. “But six months later, I’m really unmotivated. I guess I really don’t like this industry or job as much as I thought.” When we unpacked his dilemma, it became apparent that his waning motivation was related to the social context in which he performed it. Working on a small team embedded in a large department, he had plenty of professional ties, but didn’t feel genuinely connected to any of his colleagues. Upon reflection, he realized he lacked social fulfillment at work.

n Understand psychological safety: Psychological safety is

the perception that a given environment is conducive to interpersonal risk-taking. Employees are unlikely to speak up unless they know that they’ll receive positive reinforcement from leaders and colleagues for doing so. Similarly, people are unlikely to reach out to colleagues to connect interpersonally without a psychological safety net.

Going beyond superficial workplace relationships can be risky, because true intimacy involves some level of vulnerability — for example, the disclosure of something private or emotional to

PEXELS.COM | Andrea Piacquadio

ising rates of loneliness among employees during the pandemic have put worker well-being top of mind for most companies as they map out the future of the workplace.

They know that loneliness can bring health problems, reduced productivity, turnover and burnout.

someone else. My research and advisory work has shown that employees of all levels and backgrounds frequently cloak their inner worlds—not just their negative feelings and experiences but also their positive ones. As a health care executive said in one study, “I feel like our system is a little bit impaired in that way. It’s not a real safe place.…It’s just like, identify your supports and stick with those and otherwise keep it under wraps.” Such perceptions exemplify how essential psychological safety is to facilitating those first vulnerable moves toward bonding with someone else in the workplace.

n Orchestrate empathy: Orga-

nizations are increasingly turning to scripted social interactions to facilitate the creation of psychological safety. For example, some companies are holding empathy workshops designed to help team members articulate their emotional responses and establish

connections with other participants. Others are orchestrating social support and empathy in alternative ways. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Notre Dame, meanwhile, are studying the use of gratitude circles at a restaurant chain. Before the lunch shift, employees gather in a circle.

One member is randomly chosen to stand in the circle, while peers describe aspects of that person that they like and admire. Early results indicate that gratitude givers and receivers can emerge from this practice feeling more connected.

n Design for higher interdependence: Although workshops

and exercises can help kick-start high-quality connections, they will not solve loneliness in the long term. As we return to the office full time or adopt hybrid models, much of the advice about preparing teams still applies: Reestablish the team’s mission, set explicit interaction norms, consistently enforce them, create a shared team

identity, make processes transparent, stabilize membership and reduce cross-team switching costs.

These steps will promote a strong foundation for team effectiveness.

However, for deeper relationships within a team, additional structural changes may be necessary. As a financial firm leader remarked, “I have realized that just adding more social time to our team’s calendar this fall won’t create the depth of relationships we want. We really have to rethink how we approach the team’s day-to-day work.”

Key aspects of teamwork to consider when designing for relationship building are collaboration and social support. Working in parallel or merely passing the baton from one teammate to the next is unlikely to create as many opportunities for true connection as more integrated forms of collaboration. For example, I recently encouraged the manager of a health care organization to take a pulse-check of her team as she considered plans for the

n Reinforce telationship risktaking: Another element that needs to be reconfigured is the performance-management system. Companies need to increase the benefits, as well as reduce the risks, associated with reaching out to others at work. This means noticing and rewarding people for making the first move and for responding supportively to others’ outreach. For example, Microsoft found that companies that provide bonuses and promotions for internal relationship-building activities also had employees with higher levels of job satisfaction and happiness. These types of extrinsic rewards are crucial to reinforce the importance and legitimacy of company efforts in the eyes of employees.

Long before the pandemic led to the forced physical separation of employees, workplace loneliness was growing. Without a new approach to facilitating relationships at work, employee isolation and disconnection will continue to grow—regardless of whether people are back in the office. The post-pandemic transition provides the perfect opportunity to put the structures and rewards in place to facilitate a more connected work force.

Constance Noonan Hadley is an organizational psychologist.

The real value of middle managers T

BY Zahira Jaser

he idea of middle managers as unexceptional, mediocre supervisors has been around for decades—at least since a seminal 1977 article by Abraham Zaleznik in Harvard Business Review that made an explicit distinction between leaders as inspirational visionaries and manager as strategic administrators. These ideas are still dominant today.

Over the course of my career, however, I have developed great respect for middle managers.

They are the engine of the business, the cogs that make things work. And as remote and hybrid work arrangements take over, middle managers are more important than ever. The most effective ones are in possession of humane, sophisticated communications skills and the knack to mediate and find common grounds between actors at different levels in the organization.

This is why I believe that the division between leadership and management increasingly sounds anachronistic. It is time to reunite leadership and management in one concept, and recognize middle managers as connecting leaders.

Connecting leaders have the hard task of being both proactive leaders to direct reports and en-

gaged followers to the top management. Current ideas of leadership and training fail to capture this complex double act. For example, executive development programs focus on teaching leadership skills so managers can influence direct reports, largely ignoring the development of their upward influence skills. But it is directly through these double upward and downward influence activities that connecting leaders can shrink hierarchical distance and bring multiple levels of an organization together.

Based on years of research on this topic, I have identified four functions that are characteristics of successful connecting leaders:

n The connecting leader as janus: Essentially, this means engag-

ing with the concerns of both upward and downward partners in an organization. This ability to look simultaneously up and down the hierarchy allows connecting leaders to empathize with the burdens of both sides. The greatest risks for Janus leaders are burnout and emotional labor. Because connecting leaders consistently empathize with many different people at different levels of the organization, it is important they guard their energy. Organizations can mitigate the toll by offering coaching and psychological support for manag-

ers to discuss, become aware and overcome their cognitive and emotional burden.

n The connecting leader as broker: Because hierarchical lev-

els have often different agendas, goals and needs, connecting leaders can serve as interpreters of these needs, brokering interlevel dialogue between the people above and below them. The greatest risk for such leaders is encountering an uncooperative or unavailable executive, or one who is challenging to win over. It’s also possible that, in attempting to bridge different parts of the organizational hierarchy, misunderstandings might occur. To address this, an organization and top leadership can foster a culture of transparency and humility, where top leadership accepts open-door engagement with lower parts of the organization and embraces problems with a sense of understanding.

n The connecting leader as a conduit: Conduits courageously

amplify the voices of their direct reports upward. In many cases, these are constructive challenges to those in positions of power that can both trickle up in a mediated way or also be directly communicated from the bottom to the top.

We know from previous research

that in order to speak up, organizations need to foster a culture of psychological safety. This type of culture is vital for connecting leaders, who often have to speak up on behalf of others and encourage their employees to speak up themselves.

n The connecting leader as a tightrope walker: Finally, this last practice requires critically appraising and balancing dilemmas. The different, even opposite, needs and demands from upper and lower levels place the connecting leader in front of a myriad predicaments each day.

For example, imagine having to design redundancy schemes while simultaneously keeping the people on a team motivated. It's a constant balancing act, requiring connecting leaders to walk along a rope between hierarchical layers. Risks to this include cognitive overload, confusion and slow action. It is important these risks are mitigated by offering middle managers safe spaces for debate, where the pros and cons of certain decisions can be discussed with peers from other parts of the company.

In addition to the mitigators discussed above, there are three other measures organizations and executives need to take to cultivate connecting leaders. Without

them, leaders may feel as if doing and saying what’s necessary is just too perilous:

n Get company buy-in to support risk-taking: Executives' buy-

in is important because much of what connecting leaders do is risky. Speaking up for others requires exposing oneself to the top of the organization, as well as possibly disappointing the bottom.

Executives need to be prepared to aid connecting leaders by fostering an environment of psychological safety. The communications and human resources departments also need to work together to update companywide language—for example, on balanced score cards, hiring competencies lists and contracts—to reflect the importance of connecting behaviors.

n Create development programs: Development programs

should be dedicated to unpacking, explaining and training the abilities associated to each of the four practices. They should teach not just how to influence those lower in the hierarchy but also those higher in rank. You might design workshops that include managers from different levels sharing and reflecting on the difficulties of speaking up, of influencing from below and of linking hier-

archical levels. When I have run these types of sessions in organization, I have seen transformation in the room and a sense of pride in being skilled at upward influencing.

n Invest in better emotional support: Connecting leaders are often pulled in two directions, with emotional and cognitive costs. It is therefore important to offer this population extra support, like coaching and spaces for safe conversations and sharing.

This is crucial for their success.

As hierarchies within companies become more fluid and virtual, middle managers will increasingly become channels for relationships, influence and connection. For companies to be successful coming out of the pandemic, they need to recognize the complex and multifaceted roles of middle managers, who are not just visionary, inspirational leaders, but also courageous, engaged followers. Their ability to perform both upward and downward roles effectively requires them to develop very sophisticated, humane skills to bring together the layers of your organization.

Zahira Jaser is an assistant professor at the University of Sussex Business School.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Style

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Monday, June 28, 2021

B5

FROM left: Miss Earth Philippines Sugbongcogon, Misamis Oriental Katheryn Tan Guipetacio (gown by Boogie Musni Rivera; photographed by Phillip Vallespin; hair and makeup by Jaya Nacalaban; shoot director Dennis Almazan); Binibining Pilipinas Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental Cinderella Faye E. Obeñita (national costume by Odelon Simpao; photographed by Henri Lopez; art direction and editing by Artjae Neri; special thanks to Michael Solis Villamor of The House); Miss World Philippines Misamis Oriental Dannah Joy R. Tempra (gown by Juniel Doring; photographed by Philip Vallespin); Miss Universe Philippines aspirant Chella Grace Falconer (gown by Juniel Doring; photographed by Abel Matthew; makeup by Charmelle Rivera; hair by Chin Roa; shoot organizer Atty. Jeffrey Saclot).

The 2021 Misses of Misamis Oriental

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lmost 40 years ago, Maria Isabel Lopez was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe 1982. A University of the Philippines fine arts student, she represented Cagayan de Oro City, the capital of Misamis Oriental. A sex symbol after her reign, she remains the most controversial Binibini there ever was. Over the years, I have mistakenly claimed that some Misses Philippines hail from my hometown of CDO: Mary Ann Carmen Philips Corrales (1957), Rosario “Charina” Rosello Zaragoza (1968), Maria Caroline de Vera Mendoza (1981), Elizabeth Garcia Berroya (1992), and Karen Loren Medrano Agustin (2002). Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, meanwhile, proudly represented the city in her three attempts at snatching the national crown before winning Miss Universe 2015.

To date, Lilia Eloisa Marfori Andanar (now Yu),

Binibining Pilipinas International 1989, is the only local titlist who won a national crown.

“It’s an adventure I undertook on my own almost three years after I won as Miss Cagayan de Oro City.

Many of our candidates in recent years enjoy the advantages of having an entourage of supporters, and I’m happy they go on to the national pageant scene with a strong community of mentors who can guide them,” the broadcast journalist adds. “Even to this very day it still seems surreal how I had the privilege of carrying the title of Bb. Pilipinas International for one whole year. It took a lot of chutzpah to decide to join on my own that summer of 1989. I am grateful to my 17-year-old self for making that brave and fantastic decision.”

With the tremendous support of Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano, four ladies are following in Lia’s footsteps in different ongoing pageants.

“To our Misamis Oriental and CDO reps to national pageants this year, the best of luck and wishes for a most enjoyable pageant journey,” says Lia. “Wear your hometown sash with honor and wave that banner with pride knowing that, as I felt over three decades ago, your kababayans will be excitedly cheering for you.”

The four beautiful Misamisnons are determined, tenacious and strong-willed. And because our kababayans had this conceit that they were “immortals” amid the Covid-19 scare, I had to ask each girl: How will you help educate our kababayans to take

the pandemic seriously?

Miss Universe Philippines aspirant Chella Grace M. Falconer, 21 She is a fourth-year business administration student at Lourdes College. Chella was Mutya ng Pilipinas 2017 Top 10 Finalist, Binibining Medina 2018, Miss Kuyamis 2019, Miss Millennial Philippines 2019 Top 10 Finalist, and Miss Bikini Philippines 2020 1st Runner-up “In this pandemic, we are forced to see that the most essential part of life is to save our families. I will continue to impart awareness that Covid is real and has already taken many lives. This is the time to reflect and be selfless.”

intake because diabetes runs in the family and he has a fondness for sweets.

Aside from his coffee and desserts, Manzano also uses Sweet Via on his morning cereal.

“I just turned 40 this year and what I learned as we grow older is that we must always watch what we eat. I know a lot of people who got diabetes either genetically or because of their food choices. Me, I’m really into sweets and there’s always room for so much more desserts in my life. Because of Sweet Via, I now have a healthy alternative that enables me to satisfy my cravings without putting myself at risk of diabetes and minus the guilt as well,” said Manzano.

“Luis Manzano lives the lifestyle that perfectly represents Sweet Via as he is enjoying a balanced life that is both active and healthy. We are honored to officially welcome Luis to the Santé family, and we are looking forward to all the exciting projects that we will do in collaboration with him in the months to come,” said Santé International CEO Joey Marcelo.

A MASK FOR THE BUTT Buttitude is not your typical mask sheet because it’s not for the face but the butt. Each mask is packed with ingredients from Korea’s Jeju Island. These include citrus, lava seawater and volcanic ash unique to Jeju Island.

These active ingredients present in each Buttitude sheet help get rid of butt acne and other concerns.

Some of the most common butt skin problems are roughness, dryness and acne. These usually occur because of neglect or poor skin care. Sometimes it’s due to rough fabrics irritating the skin.

It also happens when the skin is exposed to sweat for too long.

There are three Buttitude variants you can choose from depending on your skin-care concerns: n Smoothing Butt Mask (orange). Formulated with juicy Jeju tangerines, the Soothing Butt Mask exfoliates skin while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Used regularly, the mask will help even skin texture, restore elasticity and brighten the bum cheeks. n Hydrating Butt Mask (blue). This hydrogel sheet mask is infused with moisturizing Jeju lava seawater that leaves the butt plump and shiny. Lava seawater helps maintain the skin’s moisture balance. n Purifying Butt Mask (green). Say goodbye to butt acne with this purifying sheet designed to clear clogged pores. The Purifying Butt Mask is formulated with Jeju volcanic ash, a well-known purifying ingredient.

Buttitude is available at Rustan’s Beauty Source.

Binibining Pilipinas Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental Cinderella Faye E. Obeñita, 25 A masscomm magna cum laude grad at Liceo de Cagayan University, Cindy works as a provincial tourism operations officer II. She was Miss Camiguin Tourism 2015 and Miss Cagayan de Oro 2019.

“The rising number of cases should convince us that Covid-19 is a painful reality, that it took lives and livelihood, that it is here to stay for as long as we do not fully cooperate with efforts to curb the disease.

This breaks my heart as much as it should every Kagay-anon. No one is immortal in the face of a deadly virus. To some, it canceled their future, killed their dreams or their reason to live.”

Miss World Philippines Misamis Oriental Dannah Joy R. Tempra, 19 A fresh senior high-school graduate, Dannah was Miss Jasaan 2019 and the reigning Miss Kuyamis 2021.

“The pandemic has disrupted our daily routine and rendered us powerless against an unseen enemy.

The best way to encourage people’s cooperation in stemming the transmission of the virus is a constant appeal for them to practice good hygiene, observe social distancing, and maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.”

Miss Earth Philippines Sugbongcogon, Misamis Oriental Katheryn Tan Guipetacio, 20 An accountancy student at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan), Katheryn manages the Furrevercats and Co. Pet Supplies Shop. She organizes stray feeding programs. Kat was Miss Xavier University Intramurals 2018, Miss Lapasan 2019, and the current Miss Kuyamis 2021 first runner-up.

“The 5Rs of environmentalism can be seen in our place. Rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, and respect.

The union of culture, nature and adventure is found in Sugbongcogon. The global plastic problem in oceans hasn’t been solved. And as an environmental advocate, I have realized the real problem is people.

We need to learn to stop using single-use plastics, every second matters. Our consumption is our choice, and we have to rethink now.” n

He likes his sugar Luis Manzano is honest enough to admit that he gained weight in quarantine. Despite his regular workouts and healthy eating habits, the TV host found himself weighing in heavier than he did before because of the general lack of physical activity while sheltering.

“The stylists who work with me pointed out that I had gained weight in the nicest possible ways,” said Manzano. For people who appear on TV, a five-pound weight gain can make them appear broader. It also makes it difficult for their stylists used to getting clothes in a certain size and who already have outfits stored in those sizes. “I believe that no matter how hard a person works out, you won’t lose weight unless you reduce your calorie intake,” said Manzano during the online event to announce his being named the new endorser of Sweet Via. Sweet Via from Santé International is a sweetener that contains stevia and inulin. A 1g sachet of Sweet Via provides a sweeter taste to any beverage and every food recipe minus the guilt and harmful effects of too much sugar. The sweetener is available in leading Mercury Drug stores, Watsons, The Generics Pharmacy, Puregold, Lawson, The Landmark, All Day Supermarket, and on Lazada and Shopee.

Manzano now drinks his morning coffee with a sachet of Sweet Via before he starts his morning workout. “When I started using Sweet Via, I noticed my weight dropping. I can now see my chin. I’m on my eighth pound and even the stylists have noticed the weight loss,” said Manzano.

He said he needs to be extra careful about his sugar

Luis Manzano with his wife Jessy Mendiola @LUCKYMANZANO ON INSTAGRAM

B6 Monday, June 28, 2021

PSC extends deadline for Zumbarangay Pilipinas Solo Exercise on Cam Challenge to June 30, 2021

PLDT and Smart unveil newest digital hub at Gaisano Mall-Ozamiz City

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HE Philippines’ largest, fully integrated telco PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) have unveiled their newest digital hub in Mindanao. Customers can now easily drop by the PLDT and Smart store which is now more strategically located at the ground floor of the Gaisano Capital Mall.

Ozamiz is a key city of the province of Misamis Occidental and is one of the major commercial hubs in Northern Mindanao. The new store makes it more convenient for families, businesses, and communities in the city and its neighboring areas to avail of PLDT and Smart services.

The newly renovated store features café-style aftersales counters and customer-friendly technologies. Store guests can make use of the Interactive Table to browse the internet, listen to music, watch videos, or log in to social media while waiting in queue.

The self-service InfoTouch machine also allows customers to view and print their bills, check their accounts, and request for repairs and other services. On the other hand, Broadband Visualizers also provide subscribers information on their data usage, helping them decide which broadband plan will fit their needs for their home or business.

The store will cater to aftersales transactions for Smart and PLDT, as well as payments for individual and corporate accounts. Customers can also apply for Smart Signature and PLDT Home Fibr plans.

“We are continuously expanding our presence through our digital lifestyle stores in Mindanao in order to serve our customers better,” said Alex Caeg, Senior Vice President and Head of the Consumer Sales Group at PLDT and Smart. “This first-ever digital store in Ozamiz City will showcase the seamless services that PLDT and Smart have to offer for its home fiber subscribers and mobile customers, powered by our

nationwidest network and innovative products,” he added.

To ensure the safety of customers and employees, the store is equipped with protection barriers, sanitation mats, thermal scanners, and alcohols to guard against the COVID-19 virus. Safety reminders are also displayed in areas easily seen by guests, and routine sanitation are conducted to keep the areas virus-free.

Customers are also encouraged to practice health and safety protocols in the store.

Best Experience in Northern Mindanao

SMART has fortified its lead in Northern Mindanao, winning in all categories in the latest Philippines Mobile Network Experience Awards by independent mobile analytics firm Opensignal.

The report, which covers the period Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2021, showed Smart beating the competition across all metrics in three essential aspects of service: Coverage (4G Coverage Experience, 4G Availability), Speed (Download and Upload Speed) and

Experience (Games, Video and Voice app).

Smart is the clear winner in Video Experience (57.8 pts), Download Speed Experience (13.1 Mbps), Games Experience (41.2 pts), Upload Speed Experience (3.8 Mbps), and Voice App Experience (71.5 pts), and scored a joint win in 4G Availability (80.5%).

Enabling these services is parent company PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, the most extensive in the country at over 478,000 kilometers as of end-March 2021.

The unveiling is part of the broader campaign of PLDT and Smart to continuously improve customer experience and cater to the technology needs of subscribers in Mindanao. This initiative also falls under PLDT's groupwide commitment to Awesome Customer Experience and Quality of Service, one of the seven pillars that comprise the company's sustainability framework. It is also aligned with PLDT's sustainability focus area of connecting everyone, everywhere through group-wide products and services.

(L-R) Dr. Michael Ngu and Milton Ngu of Steadfast; Atty. Roque Versoza, Assistant Regional Director of LTO NCR West; and Marinette Abarico, District Office Head of LTO Makati

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Women in Sports Celia H. Kiram cited research findings showing that even shortterm physical inactivity has long lasting repercussions. She asserted the need to infuse fun and music in exercising, further citing that music is always a therapy to reduce depressive moods, and to help improve daily functioning of the body. She further cites studies that music, sound frequencies and rhythm have therapeutic ability to treat physical and psychological issues.

The contest kicks off at the barangay level, and levels up to the city/municipal, provincial, regional and national level.

To join the contest, an interested participant will just have to follow these steps: 1) Fill up the Registration Form at www. riseupshapeup.com; 2) Save the Contestant Number that is sent to the email provided by the participant; 3) Download the Music Video Igalaw Galaw Ating Katawan; 4) Create and record an original solo video (minimum 1 minute); 5) Submit, post and share the entry video in the comment section of Rise Up Shape Up Facebook Page; 6) Indicate the Contestant Number (only) when posting/ sharing the video for proper identification.

PLDT and Smart unveil their latest store at the Gaisano Capital Mall in Ozamiz City, attended by, from left: Assistant Store Supervisor Irene Pactolin; City Councilor Lorlie Fuentes-Cipres; City Councilor Atty. Daniel C. Lao; Store Supervisor/Junior Manager Teisha Peroy; Retail Strategy and Development Office representative Luis R. De Guzman

Steadfast MVIC opens to provide motor vehicle inspection access to residents of Manila

TEADFAST MVIC officially opened on June 23, 2021 to serve everyone for their vehicle inspection needs. It was graced

by Atty. Roque Versoza, Assistant Regional Director of LTO NCR West and Ms. Marinette Abarico, District Office Head of LTO Makati. This newly opened Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (MVIC) is one of the accredited MVICs in the Philippines—both by Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr). This facility boasts of equipped employees and is committed to deliver valid and reputable vehicle assessment.

“It is our duty as responsible motorists to prioritize road safety at all times. To ensure that our vehicles pass the standard quality, it is imperative to have it thoroughly and regularly

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HE Philippine Sports Commission - Women in Sports will continue to accept entries of Zumbarangay Pilipinas until June 30. This is to give chance for more interested women, girls and LGBTQ to produce their solo dance video and be part of the fun in the midst of pandemic.

“Designed to drumbeat the need for regular exercising through dancing, the contest has attracted over a hundred participants so far from all over the Philippines,” said the PSC chairman, William I Ramirez.

The Zumbarangay Pilipinas solo exercise contest is a campaign to encourage women and girls to engage in physical activities such as solo dancing to ensure and maintain physical and psychological fitness.

The PSC Women in Sports believes that the lockdowns resulting to limited movements of our women and girls will affect their mental and physical health if there is no deliberate efforts to get them back into shape. Global studies find that women and girls gained weight during the lockdown, were less active, suffered from poor sleep, and experienced increased stress and anxiety.

PSC Commissioner Oversight for

inspected. Steadfast MVIC aims to make MVICs more accessible to our vehicle owners so it is easier for them to maintain the good condition of their automobiles,” says Michelle Cinco, Vice President.

Through MVICs, both private and public vehicles are inspected via automated machines to significantly reduce road accidents caused by faulty automotive components. These centers are in strict compliance with the Motor Vehicle Inspection System (MVIS), the standard method of inspection which is guaranteed systematic and reliable, as the process is carried out through computerization and with limited human intervention.

Steadfast MVIC offers visual inspection and exhaust emission tests that are mandatory for vehicles before

they can register at LTO. It also offers over 70 assessments for a hollistic examination, as well as to warrant your vehicle’s roadworthiness and overall safety condition.

Rates are affordabe—P600 for light vehicles (car, SUV, jeep, van) and trucks not more than 500 kilograms in weight, while P500 for motorcycles/tricycles/ big bikes. All rates are VAT exclusive and LTO registration is excluded from the services of Steadfast MVIC. Safety should always come first.

Drive cautiously and always enjoy relaxing trips. For your vehicle assessment requirements, visit Steadfast MVIC at 346 Sta. Clara St., Sta. Ana, Manila. For more information, you may also reach them at: Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/mvic.steadfast/

GBP EXTENDS HELP TO ILOILO CITY’S COVID-19 PANDEMIC RESPONSE. Global Business Power Corporation (GBP), through subsidiaries Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) and Panay Power Corporation (PPC), donated food to MECQ-affected residents of Iloilo City amid rising COVID-19 cases. In response to the local government’s appeal for support, GBP provided a total of 150 sacks of rice and more than 16,000 pieces of canned goods and instant food.

With stricter community quarantine in Iloilo City, businesses and communities were adversely affected due to limited movement. A member of the One Meralco Group, GBP unites in powering the good life of the Filipino by partnering with the government in its COVID-19 response. In photo during the turnover of the donated goods held at the Jaro Plaza Gymnasium are (from left) GBP community relations officer Michael S. Guanco, Iloilo City LGU representative Arjay L. Biñas, and GBP community relations associates Evone M. Pendon and Jenema Gabrielle D. Fernandez.

XUMCoin launches in the Philippines

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UMCOIN, the first cryptocurrency that dared to launch in the Philippines, with its tight regulatory environment, was presented before a huge audience of entrepreneurs at the Cove Area in Okada Manila last June 23, 2021.

The difference is that with XUMCoin, this cryptocurrency tries to limit itself to markets that have sufficient knowledge and understanding of blockchain and cryptographic tokens, smart contracts, storage mechanisms (like digital or token wallets), blockchain-based software systems and blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

Actress-beauty queen Ruffa Gutierrez and model-actor Xian Lim hosted the grand event with top ace guest performers Pop Superstar Angeline Quinto, singer-comedian Mitoy Yonting, actress-singer Cristina Paner, and multi awarded cost shadow group, El Gamma Penumbra.

Undoubtedly, the Philippines is one of the world’s fastest adopters of cryptocurrency.

It is borne of the fact that only a few of them are in circulation, hence those possessing them can sell or buy their coin stocks at the prices prevailing at the time of transaction, which are usually done online only.

Anyone who wants to patronize and support XUMCoin are advised to make their independent assessment on the merits, the benefits and risks involved before considering to acquire one and to bear the risks thereof, including loss of all amounts paid, their suitability for acquiring any XUMCoin and should consult their accounting, legal and tax representatives and advisers to evaluate the economic, legal and tax consequences of acquiring XUMCoin.

XUMCoin is a utility and service-oriented digital currency powered by its own blockchain.

XUMCoin will have a primary use as a gas fee or transaction fee for the whole eco-system of XUMChain. Given the speed and the volume of 200 transactions every 5 seconds per block and a cheaper gas fee of 50 XUMCoin (approx. $0.50 at its current value) to execute any transaction, or a premium fee for faster transfer and verification will surely make the demand higher.

The chairman of XUMChain Technologies LLC embarked on XUMCoin with perseverance, passion, dedication, and faith—the true mark of a great leader. He had a discipline of honesty that brought forth trust that bind his people to follow his directions.

His vision was to make the people’s life easier by creating a sustainable ecosystem that will help them elevate their lives, capture their dreams, and inspire one another like how the chairman of XUMChain Technologies LLC pursued his dream to help humanity.

His mission was to equip people with the right knowledge on how to take advantage of technology by exploring its usability for the future. To do this, he had to provide a series of digital, service-orientated platforms and infrastructure to empower local, regional and international communities to engage with, learn and benefit from blockchain technologies.

XUMCoin will be primarily used as the currency of the wider ecosystem. It will be used to pay the utility and services being offered in the platform.

With total pre-mined supply of 55 million XUMCoins, an initial of 10million XUMCoins will be circulated for the first year at a value of $0.01 (USD) that is expected to incrementally increase considering he initial limited supply, an expanding ecosystem, acceptability, and demand.

XUMCoin will only be available from all authorized XUM token affiliates and partners

and

AT XUMCoin launch, from left: Celebrity hosts Xian Lim and Ruffa Gutierrez, Chairman Jessie Royo and Mrs. Emma Royo, MMBC CEO Emery Jestine Royo-Alon, JESSEM Security Agency President Venz Francis P. Alon, HERO App’s CEO, Jelyza Chen P. Royo and Operational Manager, Ryan Nicko Morales.

Marketing BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, June 28, 2021 B7

The coronavirus chronicles: Great speeches, great speakers Part Two

I

By Millie F. Dizon

n Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” 1963

WWW.FREEPIK.COM

PR Matters

N last week ’s column, we talked about how now is the best time to build up on one’s speaking skills as in recent times everyone has become a speaker of sorts at least digitally through Zoom meetings, podcasts, or even simply posting online.

We got a little help from Katie Burke who shared with us 4 Public Speaking Tips Every Leader Needs to Hear from Inc.com. At the same time, we can also learn a lot from great speakers, whose works can inspire us with their mastery of language and timeless messages.

Steven John listed what may be considered The Top 10 Greatest Speeches that Stand the Test of time in The Manual. These are, he says, great speeches that “transcend time and place, offering wisdom that speaks to every era.”

There is much we can learn from them today as speakers and communicators.

Why it’s a great speech:

John considers the Reverend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech “one of the finest pieces of oratory in human history.” One of the defining moments of the US Civil Rights movement, “it blended masterful, rich language with the oratorical technique of repetition and it was utterly fearless.”

Unforgettable lines:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed ‘that all men are created equal’...

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” n Demosthenes’ Third Philippic, 341 BCE

Why it’s a great speech:

Demosthenes was a magisterial wordsmith and his Third Philippic, the third speech he gave persuading his fellow Athenians to take up arms against the approaching forces of Philip of Macedon, literally led men to war. At the end of his speech, John says that the “Athenian assembly moved at once against their rival.”

Unforgettable lines:

“You are in your present plight because you do not do any part of your duty, small or great . . . As it is, Philip has conquered your indolence and your indifference; but he has not conquered Athens.

You have not been vanquished, you have never even stirred.” n Queen Elizabeth I’s Spanish Armada Speech, 1588

Why it’s a great speech:

The mighty Spanish Armada, a flotilla of some 130 ships, sailed towards Britain with plans of invasion, prompting the queen to deliver a rousing address at Tilbury, Essex, England. As it turned out, a storm and some navigational errors took care of the Spanish warships instead. Still, John says “it was a bold speech that helped bolster a nation, also made famous

by Queen Elizabeth’s attire: she is

said to have worn armor in front of her troops.”

Unforgettable lines:

“I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst of the heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my god, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.” n George Washington’s Resignation Speech, 1783

Why it’s a great speech:

It reveals that despite his all power and accomplishments, George Washington was a staid and humble man. He was never hungry for power for himself; he just happened to be the best man for the job. It was all about America and not about himself.

“To grasp the true power of George Washington’s resignation as the commander in chief of the American military, you have to go beyond the words and appreciate the context,” says John. “General Washington was in no way obliged to resign his commission, but did so willingly and even gladly.”

Unforgettable lines:

“Happy in the confirmation of our Independence and Sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable Nation, I resign with the satisfaction the Appointment I accepted with diffidence. A diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task which however was superseded by a confidence on the rectitude of our cause, the support of the Supreme Power of the Union and the patronage of Heaven.” n Abraham Lincoln’s

Gettysburg Address, 1863 Why it’s a great speech:

Many people consider Lincoln’s Gettysburg address to be the best speech in American history, and John weighs in on it. “In just 275 words, President Abraham Lincoln managed to express that 1) Amer-

ica is both a place and a concept, for which both are worth fighting; 2) “Fighting is horrible, but losing is worse; and we have no intention of losing,” he says. With that, “the world will never forget his brief, shining address.”

Unforgettable lines:

people not to worry about one dying man, but instead to celebrate all life has to offer. He went on to list all the wonderful things in his life. In doing so, he brought solace to many and created a model of selflessness.”

Unforgettable lines:

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans . . .”

“So I close in saying I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

n Chief Joseph’s Surrender Speech, 1877

n Winston Churchill’s, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech, 1940

Why it’s a great speech:

Overtaken by the United States Army during a desperate multiweek retreat towards Canada, Chief Joseph sur rendered to General Howard with this bleak moving message. It’s a wrenching speech that many see as the final death knell of the way of life for the Native Americans.

Unforgettable lines:

“I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. The old men are all dead. He who led the young men are dead. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death.”

“I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can still find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” n Lou Gehrig’s Luckiest Man

Speech, 1939

Why it’s a great speech:

Baseball legend Lou Gehrig, who died at 37 after a brief battle with ALS, delivered one of the most touching speeches of the 20th century, in which he brought comfort to those mourning his illness even as his health fell apart.

In essence, John says, “he told

Why it’s a great speech:

British statesman Winston Churchill was an excellent wordsmith—he created the term “Iron Curtain” in a 1946 address to describe the boundary of Britain’s recent ally, the Soviet Union. Earlier in 1940, he praised the heroism of the British Royal Air Force with the line, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

John says that the “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech which he delivered to the British House of Commons in 1940 “were more than just words—these were a promise to his nation that they were all in the fight together.”

Unforgettable lines:

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961

n

Why it’s a great speech:

John describes the speech as “well written and meaningful . . . with one perfect phrase. Amidst an

address filled with both hope and dire warnings he issued a direct appeal to Americans everywhere to stand up for their country.”

Unforgettable lines:

“And so my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but together what we can do for the freedom of man.”

Barrack Obama’s Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, 2004

n

Why it’s a great speech:

Obama’s keynote address transformed him from an up-and-coming politician from Illinois into a national figure and paved the way for his historic journey to the White House.

John says that the 17-minute speech so moved the country partly because of its excellent writing which he himself handled, as well as the “message of the speech which spoke to the ‘abiding faith in the possibilities of the nation.’”

Unforgettable lines:

“There’s not a liberal America and conservative America; there’s the United States of America.

There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America...

“We are one people, all of us pledging alliance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that’s what this election is all about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?”

PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world.

Millie Dizon, the Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations.

Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.

Sports

PACQUIAO SUED

BusinessMirror

B8

| Monday, June 28, 2021

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

LOOK WHO’S COOKING

THAT’S world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo cooking.

By Josef Ramos

C

ARLOS YULO, perhaps the best bet to win the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, doesn’t spend his entire day training.

He cooks, too.

“He loves to cook, and most of the time, he cooks his own meals,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion-Norton told BusinessMirror on Friday as she and national rhythmic gymnast AJ Melgar sat at the holding area after getting their second dose of Sinovac vaccines at the Manila

Prince Hotel.

A typical day for Yulo, according to Carrion-Norton, is simply typical.

“He wakes up at six, eats breakfast—which is all Filipino, say like boneless bangus with rice and eggs, hard-boiled or fried,” she said. “Then he goes to school, face-to-face school.”

Yulo, 21, is taking up Management freshman at the Teikyo University.

“Then he goes home for lunch, which again is typically Filipino, before heading to the gym for his afternoon training,” Carrion-Norton said. “He stops training at 7 p.m. and with his typical day over,

Korda, Salas pull away; Ardina solo 6th, Saso shares 42nd place

J

OHNS CREEK, Georgia—Lizette Salas spent much of her time Saturday looking at Nelly Korda ahead of her in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

In the fairway, not on the leaderboard.

Korda blasted a drive on the opening hole at Atlanta Athletic Club and hit 9-iron to 4 feet. Salas hit 7-wood to the middle of the green and holed a 45-foot birdie putt to match her.

It was like that throughout the front nine, where Salas turned a one-shot deficit into a two-shot lead until Korda finally caught up to her on the back nine.

Salas had a third straight 5-under 67. Korda had a 68. They were tied for the lead at 15-under 201, five shots clear of anyone else.

The Dottie Ardina, meanwhile, was all alone at sixth place after a bogey-free 68, an improvement from her 70s in each of the first two rounds, while US Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso found herself tied for 42nd place after a third-round 75 for a three-day total of 218.

“Lizette was rolling in some nice ones today and I told myself, ‘I’ve got to hit it close to even keep up with her,’” Korda said. “When you get into that mindset of kind of egging each other on, it’s fun, but it’s also nerve-racking.”

Two very different games ulti-

mately led to the same score. The one commonality is both are chasing their first major championship Sunday.

At stake for Korda is a chance to reach No. 1 in the world.

Salas relied on precision and big putts to make up for a big power gap against Korda. She was close to flawless on the front nine with a 30 until her first bogey of the tournament on No. 10 slowed her momentum.

Korda, the 22-year-old coming off a victory last week on the LPGA Tour, played bogey-free but failed to use her length to capitalize on the par 5s on the back nine.

“Knowing that I’m not the longest hitter, I think I’m used to that,” Salas said. “I think I’m just so comfortable in saying, ‘You know what? I’m going to hit first,’ and knowing my game.... Let’s just play boring golf and let’s give ourselves good looks at birdie.”

They were five shots ahead of a trio that includes Patty Tavatanakit, the Thai star who won the first LPGA Tour major of the year at the ANA Inspiration. Tavatanakit ran off four straight birdies toward the end of her round for a 65.

Joining her five shots behind were Giulia Molinaro of Italy (66) and Celine Boutier of France, who had a 69 while playing in the final group with the co-leaders.

Litany of sorrowful miseries RICK OLIVARES | bleachersbrew@gmail.com

BLEACHERS’ BREW I’D like to say, “well, there’s always next year” but I don’t think I can.

Yes, the New York Islanders had a good season and only lost, 1-0, in Game Seven, of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning who are moving on to the Stanley Cup Finals where they get to defend their title.

I guess it isn’t so bad when you lose to the defending champions or is that me trying to project an image a façade of cool in the face of another teeth gnashing?

It has been a long drought for long-suffering Islanders fans like me who have last tasted victory in 1984 with the team not going to the Stanley Cup since 1984 when the Drive for Five was stopped by the Edmonton Oilers.

That isn’t all. When the Chicago Bulls jettisoned Jimmy Butler, I gave up my allegiances to the Chicago Bulls; a team I have supported since 1988. I have since went back to the original NBA club I supported the Philadelphia 76ers.

he gets the chance to cook.”

Yulo is also perhaps the only Filipino Tokyo Olympics qualifier—they are 15 at the moment— who has shunned media interviews with Carrion-Norton drawing criticism that she’s become over protective of the gymnast.

But Carrion-Norton said it’s Yulo himself who doesn’t want to be in the media limelight.

“Caloy’s shy, very shy. He doesn’t feel comfortable getting media interviews,” she said.

“That’s why he asked me to do the talking.”

Yulo’s shyness, however, is not the only reason why he’s close to being reclusive.

“He wants to focus on his training. The Olympics are less than a month away and he wants to fully concentrate on his goal,” she added.

Yulo’s goal?

“He’s good for the gold medal in floor exercise where he won the world championship [in 2019 in Stuttgart, Germany] and a silver

in vault,” Carrion-Norton said.

“We are also looking at Caloy making the finals of the parallel bars.”

Carrion-Norton admitted Yulo won’t be going after the allaround gold.

“Let his rivals go for that gold.

For Caloy, it’s all about focus,” she said.

Yulo expects stiff challenges from Nikita Nagornyy of Russia and Artem Dolgopyat of Israel.

Nagornyy was the all-around gold medalist in the 2019 worlds and Dolgopyat the floor exercise winner in last year’s European Championships.

“Caloy [Yulo] beat Artem [Dolgopyat], the No. 1 from Israeli, 15.300-15.200, in the world championships in Stuttgart to win the gold,” Carrion-Norton said. “But besides the Russian and Israeli, we also have China to contend with.”

Yulo has made Chofu in Tokyo his second home for the past two years straight and has been under

A

Pros gear up for Ladies PGT resumption

FTER a three-month break due to the spike of Covid-19 infections in NCR Plus, the ladies of the Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) brace for a twotournament swing next month with Sherwood Hills Golf Club and Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club, both in Cavite, hosting the second restart of the pro circuit.

The organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. (PGTI) staged the first resumption following a long eight-month hiatus due to the global health crisis at Riviera Golf and Country Club late last year and kicked off the LPGT’s ninth season last March at Eagle Ridge.

But the surge in coronavirus cases in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite, where most championship courses are situated, forced the PGTI to call off its next scheduled tournament at the Norman course, also at Eagle Ridge.

This after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management

PACQUIAO

of Emerging Infectious Diseases placed the said areas back to general community quarantine due to surge of Covid-19 cases from end of March to April and May. But things are looking up again for the women of the tour, all bracing for spirited chase in the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Sherwood Ladies Challenge from July 7 to 9 and in the ICTSI Eagle Ridge Ladies Classic from July 14 to 16.

Harmie Constantino upstaged multi-titled Princess Superal to capture the ICTSI Eagle Ridge crown at the Aoki layout last March but failed to make it twoin-row in her pro debut following the temporary suspension of the ICTSI-backed circuit.

Constantino and Superal are tipped to lead the title chase at the resumption with Chihiro Ikeda

the watchful eyes of Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya, his coach for more than eight years now.

Interestingly, Carrion-Norton said Kugimiya speaks and understands Tagalog more than English.

“The fact that coach and athlete have bonded together for so long, it’s just wonderful that coach Munehiro is more adept with our language than English,” she said with a laugh.

Yulo has been polishing to a golden luster his signature “triple back flip,” hoping to heighten his performance’s degree of difficulty that would be enticing for the judges to give him high scores.

Carrion-Norton said Yulo will skip the July 23 opening ceremony because the gymnastics competitions start the day after at the Ariake Gymnastics.

Carrion-Norton said Yulo will remain in Tokyo after the Olympics to prepare for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships set from October 18 to 24 in Kitakyushu, Japan.

and the likes of Daniella Uy, Marvi Monsalve and former three-time Order of Merit winner and LPGA Tour campaigner Cyna Rodriguez to spice up the cast, which is also expected to feature a number of amateurs gearing up for their respective competitions abroad.

Golf is enjoying some kind of a boom following Yuka Saso’s historic victory in the recent US Women’s Open in California where she nipped Japanese Nasa Hataoka in sudden death to snare the crown and become the first Filipino to win a major golf championship.

P

ARADIGM Sports Management (PSM) sued eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao for breach of contract after the sitting senator refused to fight former world champion Mikey Garcia.

The Southern Californiabased PSM of Audie Attar wants Pacquiao to return $3.3 million in advanced payment and sought to stop the scheduled August 21 welterweight showdown between Pacquiao and unified world champion Errol Spence Jr. at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

PSM’s New York-based lawyer Judd Burstein filed the suit in Orange County, California, who said that Pacquiao must also pay damages to Attar after the fight with Garcia didn’t materialize.

But Pacquiao’s lawyer in the US, Dale Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump LLP, said “PSM has no serious purpose or value to interfere with the fighting senator.”

“The complaint filed by Paradigm Sports in California state court on Friday is a frivolous effort to interfere with Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming mega fight, and it can and will fail for numerous reasons,” Kinsella said in a statement released by another Pacquiao lawyer, Tom Falgui.

“Moreover, had Manny Pacquiao known that Paradigm Sports appears to have had no intention of fulfilling its contractual obligations, he never would have entered into any relationship with them,” Kinsella’s statement added.

Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions announced the Pacquiao-Spence fight on its official social media account and

by MP Promotions President Sean Gibbons after Pacquiao signed the contract last May 21.

“Should this matter actually proceed beyond Friday’s filing in a court of law, Mr. Pacquiao will vigorously defend this action, assert his own claims against Paradigm Sports, and seek to recover his attorney’s fees as well,” Kinsella concluded.

Pacquiao didn’t comment on the law suit. Josef Ramos JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE avoids most of the carnage to win the opening stage with a punchy attack. AP

ALAPHILIPPE WINS CRASH-MARRED OPENING STAGE

L

ANDERNEAU, France—The mass return of Tour de France fans coincided with chaos and crashes while world champion Julian Alaphilippe avoided most of the carnage to win the opening stage with a punchy attack on Saturday.

The Frenchman was involved in the first pileup caused by a fan that took down a large part of the peloton but he remained on his bike. He surged ahead of the main pack in the final steep climb leading to the finish in Lander-

neau, crossing the line with an eight-second lead over Michael Matthews. Last year’s runner-up, Primoz Roglic, took third.

With France coming to life again and nearly all coronavirus restrictions lifted, the Tour got underway from the western port city of Brest in a festive atmosphere, returning to its traditional slot in the calendar after last year’s edition was pushed back to September because of the pandemic.

Throughout the day, enthusi-

astic fans took to the streets of picturesque villages and thousands of them lined the verdant roads of the Brittany countryside. But some were also careless.

The first big spill was caused by a fan who brandished a cardboard sign and leaned into the

Now you know it’s Philly, then you know that I too am once more grieving after a Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semi-finals of the National Basketball Association.

I have no time to point to Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons. All I know is the season is over for my team although I am still following with great interest this crazy season for the NBA where more and more it is looking like a Milwaukee Bucks-Phoenix Suns finals that sounds tantalizing.

My favorite football club, Liverpool, was tapped by many a pundit to defend their English Premier League title but they faltered owing to so many injuries and off-field controversies. It’s a wonder they still booked a Champions League slot in the final month of the season.

In this annus horribilis, they

have not only failed to defend the title, but they have seen their invincibility in Anfield breached and broken multiple times. Whatever harmony there was in the locker room is gone. And the fans have feuded with team ownership over the botched European Super League.

Whatever optimism I had built up due to the team’s success in the previous years…well…it’s still there except I’m not so high at the moment. Call it a result of being pragmatic or having guarded optimism. I’d love to see them first. But let me say that this terrible season has seen me upset in a way I have not felt since Steven Gerrard’s slip cost the team…ah, enough.

Is my litany of sorrowful miseries over?

Apparently not.

I wonder if this edition of my New York Yankees’ window is

gone. They should have won the World Series sometime in the last two years but no.

And this season, they aren’t exactly blowing people away and have a rather mediocre 40-36 record as we write this.

This year, they can’t seem to get past the Tampa Bay (well, there’s another team from Tampa bringing on the heartache) and ugh...the Boston Red Sox. Are we going to waste the best of Aaron Judge’s years? The same when we have a top second baseman in DJ LeMahieu and an ace in Gerrit Cole.

Even with my Ateneo Blue Eagles, I feel this uncertainty. I am afraid that the Covid-19 pandemic will do us in more than UP, La Salle, or UST. All this inactivity…whatever edge they had built up through the years as a unit…is it still there?

Had there been no Covid, I think

path of veteran rider Tony Martin, who fell off his bike and took many others down in his slipstream.

The Tour cautioned fans to “respect the safety of the riders” and “Don’t risk everything for a photo or to get on television!” AP the Ateneo faithful would have celebrated a fourth straight title once more (albeit in a more challenged manner because UP and La Salle have really recruited well).

But we still do not know when the UAAP games will begin.

So right now, my favorite sports teams aren’t doing well.

They go into the new pre-season or off-season with things to think about and ponder.

Yes, I know you can’t win all the time. But for Heaven’s sake, the Sixers and the Islanders have not won since 1983. The Yankees have not won in over 10 years.

Okay, Liverpool has ended a 30-year drought. But still…

I don’t want to think about this past season and what could have and should have happened because I might get an ulcer.

I’ll just think about it...next year.

INVESTING IN

LEARN TO SURVIVE, SURVIVE TO LEARN

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

Project Manager: Karinna “Bim” Mauricio

Monday, June 28, 2021 C1

Investing in Education amid the pandemic

L

By Leony R. Garcia

AST year, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Department of Education (DepEd) to rethink its plans for school year 20202021. Unknown to many, DepEd had already developed the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BELCP) which identifies the various learning delivery modalities that can be adapted during a pandemic.

Speaking at BusinessMirror’s Coffee Club virtual forum titled “Investing in Education: Learn to Survive, Survive to Learn,” Education Assistant Secretary Alma Rubio Torio said the plan identified the various learning delivery modalities that can be adopted which include modular distance learning, educational TV- and radio-based instruction and blended learning, a combination of two or more sub categories of distance learning.

“The DepEd has been implementing these distance learning delivery modalities through the alternative delivery mode even before the pandemic. But the just concluded school year is the first time that we employed these modalities on a massive scale,” she explained.

adversities are, DepEd is committed to delivering its mandate. We were able to hold classes through distant learning. It’s a work in progress.

Ang mahalaga nabukas po natin ang schools at hindi huminto ang pagaaral ng mga bata,” she said.

Psychologist Dr. Camille Garcia noted that the concept of online distant learning is not really new in the Philippine setting. Even before the pandemic, Dr. Garcia noted that there was homeschooling, open universities and online learning courses.

“Now that we are in this time of uncer taint y, we tr y to combine the lear ning v iews we have and definitely online lear ning is the better option” she said.

Not perfect

Dr. Garcia pointed out that while families had to she l l out l a rge su m s of mone y for gad get s a nd I nter net con nec t iv it y, d i st a nce lea r n i ng i s c heaper a nd s a fer i n t he long r u n .

Fa m i l ies save on t ra n s por t at ion

She admits that the plan is not perfect “as we also anticipate some operational implications along the way.”

“But the resilience of DepEd has proven that no matter what the

Cheaper and safer

e x pen ses, a l low a nces a nd e x per ience no t ra f f ic.

“Parents can easily monitor their children at home too. This kind of learning made us develop new skills technically and refined critical thinking as well,” she added.

For teacher Allan T. Flores of Santiago National High School of Metro Dadiangas, “it is better to learn something than nothing at all.”

“In achieving this, we should not compromise the lives of our future professionals, our future leaders, our nation builders and rebuilders,” he said.

For the children

WITH eight years of teaching experience, Flores is currently a class advisor and a subject teacher of five classes. He also works in the DepEd Division of General Santos City as a member of the technical working group which organized a series of readingrelated webinar workshops. He is also actively involved in module writing in English for radio- and TV-based instructional materials in the arts and in journalism.

“I am doing this for the students since our educational mantra is ‘Una sa lahat, bata.’ We teachers are in the forefront to make education possible in this pandemic. There are a lot of challenges and most teachers are parents themselves,” he said.

“For one, mahirap na yung pag guide sa sariling anak. Maraming distractions, hindi ma-reach ang mga bata per over yactive in social media.

Laging updated sa Facebook or TikTok but when you reach out to them regarding their output, hindi ma-seen or hindi kami mareplyan agad, or not at all, at times. Yung pag guide sa kanila mahirap especially kung 200250 students naka assign sa bawat

teacher in five classes of 30 to 50 students,” Flores said.

Extreme patience

NOW more than ever, Dr. Garcia said, is the time for teachers to exhibit extreme patience in handling their students remotely with all the distractions and interruptions combined. She added that teachers should be very creative and resourceful as they do their duty as educators every single day.

Teachers, she said, can be more observant and less judgmental of their students’ conduct. They should be given more time to understand their lessons as it is also quite difficult for parents who cannot understand the lesson to help out. She also suggested that teachers must be able to modify activities and modules when difficulty is observed among students.

“Finding solutions to help children with difficulty in online learning will be a big achievement on the part of our unsung heroes,” she said.

from home so parents we really have to ask for your assistance. We cannot afford education to stop. Yung mundo lang ang huminto but learning should never stop,” he said.

Unprecedented disruptions

PARENTS also play a crucial role at this time. Children definitely need their help. However, helping children means assisting and guiding them with their lessons and not answering the assignment to get good grades.

“At this point, parents getting involved with their children’s learning should be a model of honesty, patience and diligence,” Dr. Garcia said.

Flores also appealed to parents to extend a helping hand when it comes to the education of their children.

“I always invite students not to see me but to hear me as I represent the teachers in our country. To our students, we cannot help you if you do not help yourselves. Education starts

TORIO said she recognizes the challenges of teachers and Filipino families. She noted that most teachers “ have experienced unprecedented disruptions in their teaching as well as personal lives.”

“Some teachers spend most of their time printing and delivering modules. There is also the issue of connectivity and the availability of enough and on-time modules. Each of our teachers has responded in different ways to make education for our learners continue admidst these challenges,” she said.

She added that she personally supports the Commission on Higher Education’s proposal to adopt flexible learning as an opportunity to transition the call of the future.

“I personally believe that flexible learning may now for m par t of the new nor ma l in ensur ing continuit y of education even in the most complex and challenging circumstances,” she said. “Hindi natin inaalis ang face-to-face. It is still the most preferred type for education. But for now, We cannot afford education to stop so var ious moda lities for education shall continue.”

For her part, Dr. Garcia said that online learning is a better plan that no plan at all. The most important quality of any plan is the flexibility to change.

“Remember what Albert Einstein said. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. Having this flexible learning that we have now is a way for us to survive to learn,” she said.

Each year, over 4 million students worldwide use Eduniversal in their search for masters programs. The academic rankings are the centerpiece of a network of websites and services that the company provides.

With a strong focus on robustness and accuracy, the Eduniversal Evaluation System has developed a methodology to rank and evaluate the best masters and MBA programs worldwide — a point system

based on the reputation of the program, salary of the first employment, and student satisfaction, and decided by the Eduniversal International Scientific Committee.

DLSU has also been ranked among 400 schools in the Eduniversal three Palmes league latest release in 2020. An institution included in the three Palmes league is referred to as an “Excellent Business School with reinforcing international influence.”

Role of parents

DLSU RANKS AMONG BEST EDUNIVERSAL GRADUATE PROGRAMS

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DUNIVERSAL releases its 2021 Best Masters and MBA Ranking Worldwide this quarter, highlighting the results of its appraisal of nearly 4,000 educational institutions from 154 countries across 51 areas of study.

In the Far East Asia region, DLSU is the lone Philippine university ranked in the category Master of Science in Marketing, placing 18th.

Only two institutions in the country were ranked for their Master of Business Administration (MBA) program — DLSU and the Asian Institute of Management. DLSU takes the 28th spot.

Still in Far East Asia, DLSU is

the top-ranked Philippine private university in the categories of Human Resources Management and Economics. Its graduate programs in Industrial Relations Management and Applied Economics are ranked 9th and 22nd, respectively.

Three institutions were ranked for their Corporate Communication programs — DLSU, UP Diliman, and the University of Santo Tomas.

The DLSU Master of Marketing Communications Program ranked 18th.

In its website, Eduniversal claims its “Best Masters” to be the only international ranking system that evaluates MBA and Master programs and not institutions, using a sectorspecific approach which is based on the capacity of a particular program to provide students with added value in today’s job market.

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Dear Filipino students, Taiwan wants you

By Jeahan Virda De Barras

A

FTER obtaining a bachelor’s degree, an average Filipino student’s first instinct is to find a job. Some may start their own small company or take over an existing family business. Some travel abroad so that they can gain connections for a promising career.

Whatever the means, the goal is ultimately to earn money. After all, for an average student who has been fighting to get a degree for their entire life, what’s better than finally earning money for themselves?

Chances are pursuing post graduate studies is an option that’s more like a thought in passing rather than a concrete plan. Of course law school or medical school are popular destinations too. But grad (graduate) school? Unless you are on a scholarship, that’s impractical.

That’s shooting for the moon. It’s a plan that would have typical titas commenting, “better just to get married early, sweetie.”

At least that’s how grad school looked like to me about 10 years ago when I finished my bachelor’s degree. If I had Life Plans A to Z, Grad School sounded like the Life Plan that came, well, after Plan Z.

But here I am today on the vast East Coast of Taiwan, a summer and one semester away from finishing my thesis to officially earn my master’s degree.

Letting go

IN the process of getting here, I had to let go of a career that I loved and the life that I was so sure was meant for me. It’s been worth it, though.

It’s a detour I never thought I’d enjoy but I’m having the time of my life right now despite being buried under books, half becoming a permanent resident of our school library, and never having time for a social life.

What’s interesting to point out, too, is that most of my classmates here are almost half my age.

The Taiwanese educational structure dictates that Grad School is the standard after obtaining a bachelor’s degree. And I tell you, they take education and all that it entails really seriously.

Never mind the Asian stereotype but countries like Taiwan, for instance, have as many cram schools as they have students. We rarely have those in the Philippines. Although a private tutor is not unheard of, it’s mostly a luxury, not a necessity.

But why does society make us Filipinos feel as if we don’t like studying just as much as our neighboring countries, like we’re not good at studying?

I’ve learned the contrary during the past year I’ve been here in Taiwan, though – Filipino students are wanted and revered.

Wanted – Pinoy students

WHAT’S not to like about a Filipino student? They are hard-working, skilled, resourceful, creative, resilient, cheerful, and have excellent English language skills to boot.

This is exactly why Taiwan, a small, beautiful island nation that is located just a few miles north of the Philippines (it’s two hours away by plane from Metro Manila), is looking for more Filipino students to pursue their higher education there.

It was a surprisingly pleasant experience that I ended up here in Taiwan myself. Did I believe that I

Continued on C4

The Future of STEM is Feminine

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By Stephanie Joy Ching

CCORDING to statistics presented by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in 2019, only two in seven engineering students are female and only 41 percent of students taking ITrelated courses are women.

Moreover, women make up only 43 percent of STEM enrollments – and mostly in non-engineering or non-IT fields. This has been attributed to the fact that at a young age, girls have been conditioned to believe that they do not belong in STEM courses and that only men can do it.

Moreover, this gendered stereotype leads to a lack of female role models in the STEM field, which further reinforces the stereotype.

However, as humanity’s understanding of gender progresses and becomes less rigid, young girls are now more open to choosing a STEM course, and their talents must be nurtured.

This is where the advocacy, Girls for STEM, enters the picture. Created

by Nina Marie “Chin Chin” Bernabe, the advocacy aims to “cultivate potential in mathematically inclined girls into choosing a STEM course and career in the future.”

Personal experience

ACCORDING to Bernabe, a Year 11 student from the British School Manila, this advocacy stemmed from her personal experience as someone who witnessed the harmful effects of the stereotype first hand in her school.

“I particularly choose to focus on grade 5 to grade 6 students because in my personal experience, this is the stage where a girl discovers what she is passionate about and what she is strong at,” she said.

The advocacy aims to benefit mostly “financially challenged girls” who are interested in Maths and Science through three key steps, which are start them young, spot and support, and activate their skills. In order to do this, the advocacy aims to provide these young girls with a network of support from fellow STEM inclined girls, teachers, parents and other educators. This will be achieved by building an online platform that will allow people access to an online platform of likeminded individuals who will guide them on their journey and at the same time dismantle the gender stereotypes of the field.

Three types

ACCORDING to the Girls for Stem website, the network they are creating mainly consists of three types of people- the “Little Sisters”, the ‘Big Sisters” and “Spotter” or “Nurturer”.

These “little sisters” are the pre-teen girls who are considering taking STEM courses. As they are young and impressionable, it is vital that they are exposed to people who made it through STEM courses and are thriving in STEM based careers. They are at an age where they are becoming their own person, and as such need guidance and support from the people they care the most, such as parents and teachers.

Parents and teachers fulfill the “spotter” and “nurturer” roles, as they are the ones who typically first notice a girl’s interest in STEM courses. They are responsible for encouraging and fostering that interest and, if possible, guide the child as they figure out which specific STEM course they wish to take. They also encourage girls to “pay it forward” to their younger peers.

Older, usually high school aged girls in the advocacy are known as the ‘Big Sisters”. These are girls who have chosen and are currently taking STEM tracks. Their primary objective is to be a “relatable role model” towards these young girls and “inspire seeds of growth” in them. At the same time, they also form their own subcommunity that supports each other and sharpens their skills in STEM.

Success stories

THEY are success stories in the making that encourage the upcoming generations of girls to follow their dreams of being in a STEM course.

Moreover, they serve as mentors and examples to young girls that they can be feminine and be into STEM courses at the same time.

Though it may take some time, this advocacy and many others like it are working to break down gender bias in STEM courses and push more women into the engineering and technology spotlight.

As Chin Chin promptly puts it, “In a society infested with weeds of systemic prejudice, we will nip gender stereotypes in the bud and nurture a status quo where girls are at the forefront of STEM. We will foster an environment where girls can empower girls through mentorship & social learning, where instructional materials and activities that promote STEM are within girls' reach, and where STEM educators and experts can both inspire and advance the growth of girls.”

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C3

Accessible Education in the New Normal

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By Stephanie Joy Ching

OR many Filipinos, education is a tool to lift themselves out of poverty. However, with the rising cost of obtaining a tertiary education, students might find it difficult to get their foot into colleges and universities.

Enter Republic Act No. 10687, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. First signed into law in 2017, this is an act that “reconciles, improves, strengthens and expands government-funded modalities of Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs) for tertiary education in both public and private institutions.”

One of these programs is the Unified Student Financial Assistance for Tertiary Education or UNIfast. Under this law, students attending local and state universities and colleges are exempted from paying tuition and other school fees. According to UniFAST Secretariat Officer-in-Charge and Executive Director Atty. Ryan Estevez, this law is “one of the legacies of the

Duterte administration.”

“There never was in the history of the Philippine higher education that local universities and colleges were eligible to become beneficiaries of free higher education,” he said during an online webinar.

Financial assistance

FROM its implementation in 2018, Atty. Estevez shared that they have given an estimated P2.3 million to college students in terms of financial assistance who are enrolled in both public and private higher education institutions.

In addition to providing free tertiary education, UniFAST also covers other programs, such as a Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) and a Free Technology and Vo-

cational Education training. For these programs, Atty. Estevez shared that they worked closely with other government agencies to provide these benefits.

“We have a memorandum of agreement with DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) and TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), who basically implement the free tech vocation,” he said. ‘With DOLE, we have the memorandum of agreement for the Batang OFW.

This is in response to the call of the President to help our OFWs na pinauwi at namatay or nagkasakit at hindi nakapagtrabaho at nakabalik sa trabaho nila overseas.

So we’re giving P30,000 one time grant per children of OFW,”

Beneficiaries

ACCORDING to Atty. Estevez, UniFAST’s TES program has helped over 500,000 college students get through their college journey, with 60 percent of the students entering

private institutions. Each student is allowed around P100,000 to pay for school fees such as tuition, and are also given an allowance amounting to forty thousand for public schools. For students attending private universities, they are also given P100,000 for school fees, but they receive P60,000 for their allowance instead.

However, UniFAST also takes into consideration the needs of students who are persons with disabilities (PWD). For these students,

UniFAST provides an additional P30,000 in allowance.

During the same webinar, Atty Estevez also shared that UniFAST plans to implement a student loan program that will allow students to take in short term loans to help them with other miscellaneous school expenses. However, this program is still being renegotiated with the Development Bank of the Philippines.

“Maganda po itong student loan program because you can reloan every time and wala siyang interest,” he said.

These programs might be hard to implement now during the new normal. However, Atty. Estevez along with CHED chairman Prospero “Popoy” de Vera make sure that these programs are in place and are working. At the same time, these observations proved to them that despite the changes they have created, the Philippines still has a long way to go.

“We really realized that it is a necessity to invest in education.

And we are moving as CHED and UniFAST. It is clear that we are moving towards flexible learning modalities, so that is a combination of synchronous and asynchronous, online and modular. So all this is being supported by CHED and the government as a whole through the UniFAST,” he said.

INVESTING IN

LEARN TO SURVIVE, SURVIVE TO LEARN

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C4 Monday, June 28, 2021

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Dear Filipino students, Taiwan wants you Continued from C2 would really be here today? Honestly, no. It just felt too late for me. It entailed leaving my comfort zone and dropping everything that I’ve built thus far in my life. It meant starting all over again.

But that’s the thing about Taiwan. It welcomes anyone regardless of their story, or their age, race, and identity.

No wonder it garnered the reputation of being one of the most progressive countries in recent years. And now it’s welcoming Filipinos to experience everything that it offers, including its stunning mountains, diverse culture, innovative infrastructures, job opportunities, and competitive education system.

Tzu Chi University: A welcome respite in Taiwan’s East Coast

ALIGNED with the island nation’s vision to bring in deserving people from various backgrounds, Tzu Chi University is one of the schools that currently offer excellent graduate and doctorate programs for international students.

Tucked in Hualien County, a vast area in the East of Taiwan, the Tzu Chi University campus is like a work of art. Filled to the brim with floral landscapes, as well as a gorgeous mountain range at the backdrop, it’s easily considered as one of the most beautiful universities in all of Taiwan.

It’s also home to some of Taiwan’s best medical practitioners and students. It proudly banks on humanity-centered research that contributes significantly to Taiwan’s medical industry. Needless to say, it had a 100% passing rate in Taiwan’s 2020 Medical Doctor Na-

tional License Examination. Moreover, in the 2019 list released by the Times Higher Education, the university ranked 67th worldwide and the top among the other 12 Taiwanese institutes on the esteemed list.

The university was founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen, who, after dedicating her life to compassion relief work, she realized that sickness is the root of agony and the mother of poverty. She visualized education as a crucial part of nation-building and thus established a medical college that continues to level up Taiwan’s gold standard for healthcare.

The Tzu Chi University principle is also unique in that while students get to experience top tier education, they are also

grounded in activities with volunteerism and environmental awareness at the core.

Tzu Chi University has certainly become a sanctuary for a foreigner like me.

When I first set foot here, I was literally the only Filipino student registered among its 3,300 plus student population.

Maybe reading this is a sign for you to take the chance I did as well. Let go of whatever is holding you back; maybe your new chapter awaits. Take it from me--no matter which point you are in life, you’re welcome here.

For more information on how you can get qualified for the Full English Master’s Degree or PhD Scholarship Program from Tzu Chi University, e-mail tcuoia@gms.tcu. edu.tw or visit www.oia.tcu.edu.tw.

Over 640K customers experienced vastly improved services in March; Batangas, Pampanga and Laguna most improved with new builds, 4G LTE expansion

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HOWING that it cares and listens to the needs of its customers for better connectivity as the pandemic continues, Globe has ramped up its network builds and site upgrades in March this year.

The company’s installation of 104 new sites and 982 sites upgraded in March 2021 have resulted in a better mobile experience for at least 644,108 Globe Prepaid, TM and Globe Postpaid customers in different provinces all over the country. These customers have noted at least 50% speed improvement since the new sites and site expansion were completed

in various areas in March.

The improved services have translated to better mobile experience especially for those who are considered “data savvy” customers who use an average of 5GB or more Average Traffic Per User or ATPU. These customers account for more than 500,000 or 80% of customers who have experienced an improvement in their services.

“More than meeting our expansion targets this year, we want to give our customers a better and far reaching network that will improve their lives amid the various challenges of the pandemic.

Better connectivity, reliable, and accessible internet are the services that we are giving our customers,” said Ernest Cu, Globe President and CEO. Batangas, Pampanga and Laguna recorded the most customers with improved mobile experiences. This is expected because Globe’s LTE network was further upgraded and its coverage extended in these provinces.

NCR, Misamis Oriental, Cebu, Davao Del Sur, Cavite, Rizal and Maguindanao comprised the top 10 provinces where customers experience the benefits and advantages of Globe network

builds and expansion.

To enjoy these improved services, customers all over the country who are still using 3G SIM cards should upgrade to 4G/5G devices and 4G/5G SIMs now.

Globe assures customers, who will switch to the new standard of mobile data, will keep their old numbers when they do so.

If quarantine protocols in their respective areas allow, customers can go to the nearest Globe Store to change their SIM cards for FREE. For more information, please go to https://www.globe.com.ph/ help/mobile-internet/lte/faqs.html. They are also encouraged to update their hand-

“NO HEALTH WITHOUT MENTAL HEALTH”:

A lesson from Globe, DepEd TAYO Naman! Webinar

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HERE is no health without mental health.” This was underscored by Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA) member, Dr. Bernardino A. Vicente, at the fourth TAYO Naman! (Tulong, Alaga, Yakap at Oras para sa mga Tagapagtaguyod ng Edukasyon) session titled “Understanding and Managing Common Mental Disorders and other Psychological Concerns.” This webinar series is organized by Globe and the Department of Education (DepEd).

While people are busy taking care of their physical health to avoid contracting the virus, Dr. Vicente said that many Filipinos suffer from mental health problems, resulting in about a 25.7 percent surge in the country’s suicide incidence in 2020.

“Mental disorders are not uncommon. It’s like 'yung physical illness natin. COVID-19 does not only cause physical health concerns but also psychological disorders. The pandemic is really stressful to almost everyone and is actually the reason why there is an increase in depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders, including suicide,” he said.

Thus, he reiterated the World Health Organization (WHO)'s statement that mental health and physical health are two inseparable

things that one must care about for their own well-being.

Dr. Vicente likewise explained that positive mental health promotes a longer life, slows the aging process, and helps provide a better prognosis when illness strikes. Thus, productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, the ability to adapt to change, and cope with adversities are vital in keeping a healthy mind.

Stress from the current situation is also a challenge for educators, students, and their parents who have to

cope with online learning and new ways of doing things. Time management, physical activities, relaxation training, continued social support and communication, and proper diet and nutrition are some recommended methods to help ease stress. Having a list of activities or memories that make one happy, and seven to eight hours of sleep are also handy in managing stress and achieving good mental health.

“In stress management, you cannot manage something that you do not know. So 90 percent of stress

management relies on becoming aware of what stresses you. Generally, it may come from you, from your family, or from work. It is not the number of stressors you have, it is the way you carry them,” he added

Another key to prevent or solve mental disorders, aside from medical intervention and a healthy lifestyle, is to understand its concept. Dr. Vicente said to watch out for abnormal psychological and behavioral manifestations with associations of distress and dysfunction, that are recurrent or carried over a sustained period.

Dr. Vicente also underscored that, aside from medical intervention and a healthy lifestyle, an important key to prevent or manage mental disorders is to understand their nature and symptoms. He emphasized the need to watch out for red flags of psychological and behavioral manifestations associated with distress and dysfunction that are recurrent or carried over a sustained period to be able to diagnose if a person has a mental disorder.

The session also included panelists from DepEd Zamboanga del Norte Division, which was the week’s host.

They are Education Program Supervisor Arcelita Zamoras, Medical Officer III Dr. Cheryl Ocupe, and Project Development

set firmware to the latest available on the system for better mobile data experience.

Customers who wish to upgrade their mobile devices can also check all Globe stores to see the affordable and available 5G-ready 4G/LTE capable mobile devices.

Globe strongly supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) particularly UN SDG No. 9 that highlights the roles of infrastructure and innovation as crucial drivers of economic growth and development.

To know more about Globe, visit www.globe.com.ph.

Officer II Eunice Janolino.

TAYO Naman! is an online Mental Health and Psychosocial Support program designed to help teachers, non-teaching personnel, and parents learn about self-care, wellness, and resiliency.

The 14-part webinar series is led by the DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction Management Services (DepEd-DRRMS) and the Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational DevelopmentEmployee Welfare Division (BHRODEWD) in collaboration with Globe’s Global Filipino Teachers Series on Psychosocial Support Services, Philippine Mental Health Association and MAGIS Creative Spaces.

The fifth episode on June 18 will be about “Examining my inner struggles amid the pandemic” to be hosted by School Division Office of Negros Occidental.

The webinars are held every Friday until August 20, 2021, from 8:30 to 10:00 am and streamed live on DepED Philippines, Deped DRRMS, and Globe Bridgecom.

Globe strongly supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as UN SGD No. 3 on good health and well-being and UN SDG No. 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education for all. The company is also committed to helping realize the 10 United Nations Global Compact principles.

To learn more about how to create a #GlobeofGood, visit www.globe.com. ph/about-us/sustainability.html.