BusinessMirror June 29, 2021 by BusinessMirror

PHL could exit FATF gray list before ’23 By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said on Monday the Philippines will likely be taken out from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) gray list “on or before 2023,” as the country works to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering safeguards. In a message to reporters on Monday, Diokno said the government has been “working relentlessly” to address the deficiencies identified in the 2018 Mutual Evaluation even amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “We remain strongly committed to swiftly resolve the remaining strategic deficiencies [18 from the original 70] within agreed timeframes.

In any case, there is no sanction for being a ‘jurisdiction under increased monitoring,’” Diokno said. Over the weekend, the FATF released its so-called gray list or the list of jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. The list comprised 22 jurisdictions, with four new entrants for this year including the Philippines, Haiti, Malta and South Sudan. The Philippines was placed under a 12-month observation period by the FATF in October 2019, following the country’s evaluation of money-laundering safeguards. This observation period has been extended until February 2021 due to the pandemic. However, the

Philippines failed to complete the required standards and was eventually gray-listed by the international organization. “The Philippines has largely addressed the action plans initially indicated in the Mutual Evaluation Report—from 70 down to 18. The National Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism Committee or NACC is also addressing the remaining ICRG action plans,” Diokno said. “The Philippines will report its progress to the FATF thrice a year —January, May and September; the first report will be this September. The Philippines will be delisted upon successful completion of all action plans—hopefully on or before January 2023,” Diokno added.

Implications on the ground

WHILE being on the gray list is expected to result in an additional layer of scrutiny from international regulators and financial institutions, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Michael Ricafort said the impact of the gray listing on the local economy as well as on investments would be “negligible.” Nevertheless, the country would save more time and also save on additional costs, a more desirable scenario if funds/transactions of the country with the rest of the world move with greater ease, if corrective measures/ active plans are adopted, based on global best practices, to help remove the country from the gray list,” he told the BusinessMirror. Continued on A2

PHL EYES RAISING $1B

n Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 258

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages |

IN GLOBAL BONDS OFFER

THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority on Monday (June 28, 2021) installed a trash trap on one of the tributaries of Estero de Tripa de Gallina near Tramo Bridge, Aurora Avenue, in Barangay 156 in Pasay City. The trash trap will help mitigate damage to the pumping stations caused by garbage. NONIE REYES

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Philippine government is eyeing to borrow at least $1 billion by offering benchmark-sized US dollar-denominated global bonds.

The Philippines is set to sell 10.5-year and 25-year dollar bonds in a bid to obtain more funds for the country’s budgetary support amid the prolonged pandemic. This marks the third time that

the government is tapping the offshore bond market this year after it sold euro-denominated bonds and Samurai bonds earlier this year. With the tenors at benchmarksize, the Philippines is targeting to

raise at least $500 million for each of the two tenors of dollar bonds. The dollar bonds, which have a settlement date of July 6, 2021, are set to mature on January 6, 2032 and July 6, 2046. The dual-tranche bond offering is expected to be rated Baa2 by Moody’s Investors Service, BBB+ by S&P Global Ratings and BBB by Fitch Ratings. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III earlier said the government was planning to sell dollar bonds “before rates skyrocket.” In March this year, the Philippine

government borrowed ¥55 billion ($500 million or about P24.2 billion) through its issuance of three-year zero-coupon Samurai bonds. The government also borrowed 2.1 billion euros ($2.53 billion or about P122.4 billion) when it sold its first-ever triple-tranche eurodenominated bonds in April this year. Last year, the government successfully returned to the dollar bond market twice, raising $2.35 billion in April and another $2.75 billion in December. Continued on A2

‘Rebels accessing funds brought on gray list’ By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

HE government is now aiming to further improve its anti-money laundering measures after being flagged by a Parisbased watchdog. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently included the Philippines on its “gray list” of 22 territories for policy deficiencies on money laundering.

O n Mond ay, P re s id e nt i a l spokesman Harry Roque said he agrees with the assessment of the FATF, especially since the Community Party of the PhilippinesNew People’s Army, which the government earlier declared as a terrorist group, is still able to access its funds. “They still have funds, which must be closed. So, this [graylisting] is also to the benefit of the republic [with the Financial

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.5700

Action Task Force assessment] and we agree that more efforts have to be exerted to remove f u nd i ng f rom t h at ter ror i st group,” Roque said. Roque said the government will try to address this by amending the Anti-Money Laundering and the Counter Terrorism Financing laws. Also part of the government action plan is the reinforcement of money laundering and terrorism

financing investigation and prosecution and campaigns to increase public awareness. Over the weekend, the AntiMoney Laundering Council (AMLC) issued a statement asking for the cooperation of concerned government agencies to implement the said action plan. It warned that failure to address the concerns of the FATF will lead to other countries imposing “countermeasures” against the Philippines.

‘NEXT KEY OUTSOURCING SECTOR IN PHL IS ONLINE CREATIVE FREELANCING’ By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

NLINE creative freelancing is seen as the next major outsourcing segment for the country given that about 1.5 million Filipinos are already participating in the gig economy. Creative Economy Council of the Philippines (CECP) President Paolo Mercado said in an event on Monday that 1.3 million to 1.5 million Filipinos are already on i nt e r n at ion a l on l i ne platforms for freelancing services, majority of which constitutes creative work. These include web design and multimedia content and editing, he enumerated. “We are already poised that this would become the next wave, in fact, of outsourcing

in the Philippines,” Mercado said. He said that digital creative services and digital contents were least affected segments in the creative sector last year amid the flexibility to work from home. Some of the digital creative services identified by Mercado are digital marketing, web and graphic design. “So especially those involved in digital creative services both for domestic and international clients, they were, at the beginning, some of them were adjusting from work-from-home setups...but overall by the second half of 2020, they were a lready recover ing whi le some of them were even enjoying growth,” Mercado explained. Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4384 n UK 67.4686 n HK 6.2577 n CHINA 7.5244 n SINGAPORE 36.1868 n AUSTRALIA 36.8355 n EU 57.9877 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9517

Source: BSP (June 28, 2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, June 29, 2021

House considers postponing first elections in BARMM

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie & Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

HE House of Representatives is now considering postponing the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a leader of the House of Representatives said on Monday.

House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, in an interview, said the bill postponing the BARMM election will be tackled immediately after the State of the Nation Address of the President or when session resumes on July 26. “We are now considering the initiative to postpone the BARMM election. We heard both sides, we will now have the House joint committees led by House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Juliet Marie De Leon Ferrer come out with their committee report or their recommendations, moving forward, so that we know what to do with the postponement measure in place,” he added. “There are some challenges also to actually holding the election for the lack of [an] Electoral Code. It might be quite challenging to conduct the election without a final

Electoral Code of the BARMM. But I don’t want to preempt the committees in the issuance of the report, [but] that will be handled as soon we resume session on July 26,” he added. Under the law, the BARMM elections are supposed to take place at the same time as national elections in May 2022, but several bills in the Senate and the House of Representatives have called for postponing the regional polls to 2025. Earlier, Ferrer explained that the ongoing pandemic warrants postponing the elections, but said that, “we remain optimistic as vaccines are on the way.” Also, Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Chairman Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao has said that in previous hearings on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, it was revealed that the Bangsam-

oro Transition Authority (BTA) “needs more time” due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. But Kusug Tausug Party-list Rep. Shernee Tan-Tambut had earlier said postponing the elections will only cover the BTA’s inadequate performance.

Duterte ‘neutral’

PRESIDENT Duterte will remain “neutral” over the proposal to extend the transition period for BARMM. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte made the decision after his two meetings with those who are for and against the extension. The first meeting was on June 16, 2021, while the latest was held just last Thursday. “The decision of the President after the two meetings with both parties is to remain neutral and leave it to Congress to decide if they will pass a law to extend the transition period for the Bangsamoro Transition Authority,” Roque said. Without the legislation, the three-year BARMM transition period will end next year with the election of its officials.

Stakeholder positions

SULU Governor Abdusakur Tan he is against the extension as it is against the existing law; he wants to ensure BARMM will finally be governed with elected leaders by

next year. “What we want is for the [BARMM] officials to have a mandate, because as I told the President, it will be very awkward for BARMM officials to be governing without a mandate,” Tan said. Bangsamoro Transition Authority Interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al-haj Murad” B. Ebrahim said he is backing the extension as he thinks a three-year transition period is not enough to restructure the Bangsamoro government, which will operate through a parliamentary system. He said the delayed release of the BARMM budget, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed back the completion of the transition phase. Murad noted that out of the 11 BARMM local officials at the second meeting with the President, only Tan was against it.

Plebiscite requirement?

ROQUE said the issue of the BARMM extended transition period also split the Cabinet, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) saying it no longer has to go through the plebiscite. However, Presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said otherwise: the process must still be approved through a plebiscite. “So within the Cabinet itself there were two different opinions [which] were expressed and I think that was also one reason why the President became neutral [on the issue],” Roque said.

Bayanihan 2… Continued from A12

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua told the 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. 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 a day. Quarantine restrictions led to an average annual income loss of P23,000 per worker. However, this average masks wide differences across sectors and jobs, and some workers are hit much harder, especially those who lost their jobs, Chua stressed. 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. Before it went on sine die adjournment, the House approved on second reading House Bill 9538, seeking to extend again the release, obligation and disbursement of funds of Republic Act 11494 or “Bayanihan 2” until the end of 2021.

‘Extend the Bayanihan’

FOR his part, Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is urging President Duterte to call Congress to a special session to extend Bayanihan 2. “We have to extend the effectivity of the law again so that the government can spend whatever remains of the millions of funds we have appropriated for pandemic response,” he said. “Unless we pass another extension bill, the unspent funds would no longer be available,” Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said a special session would also give Congress the opportunity to approve the proposed Bayanihan 3 round of financial assistance to the poor and other sectors suffering from the pandemic.

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‘NEXT KEY OUTSOURCING SECTOR IN PHL IS ONLINE CREATIVE FREELANCING’ Continued from A1

Overall, however, the CECP chief lamented that the local creative industries “suffered heavy losses” amid the lockdown protocols, which “affected the way people consume creative work.” For example, he noted that cinemas and theaters were closed to curb the spread of infection. Tourism activities, meanwhile, also slowed down, affecting the sales of related industries like handicrafts, he explained. Mercado noted that the cinemabased film sector; performing arts, concerts and live events; and heritage sites and museums, folk arts and crafts lost about 85 percent to 90 percent of their revenues last year. The television and radio sector incurred losses of over 50 percent while traditional advertising (TV, radio, print and outdoor) suffered 30 percent to 50 percent in lost income in 2020. Last year, software, animation and game development; and digital marketing, digital advertising, web and graphic design lost around 20 percent to 30 percent of their cash inflow.

Post-pandemic growth

TRADE Secretary Ramon Lopez described the creative industry as a key economic driver for the country in the post-pandemic future. “The creative industry sector can also very well be the next ser-

vice industry-winner, next to the BPO [business-process outsourcing],” he said, adding that the sector is also an “important source of trade and investment opportunities” for micro, small and medium enterprises. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Lopez said, is doing its part in supporting the creative sector by crafting development strategy. “This would lead to improved competitiveness, enhanced capability, increased productivity, export promotion and development, and compliance to global standards for greater market access,” he explained. In 2019, the CECP submitted to the DTI and Board of Investments the Creative Economy Roadmap, which sets five development sectors including advertising, film, animation, game development and design. The road map aims to make the Philippines the top creative economy in the Asean region by 2030 in terms of size and value of creative industries, as well as competitiveness of talent and content. The DTI chief said total creative exports reached $6.8 billion in 2019, which was 6 percent of the total exports. Industry investments in the same year amounted to P281 million based on the data from investment promotion agencies.

PHL EYES RAISING $1B IN GLOBAL BONDS OFFER Continued from A1

For this year, the national government has set a P3.03-trillion borrowing program. Eighty percent of the amount is programmed to be raised through domestic sources while the remaining 20 percent is expected to come from foreign sources. The national government’s total outstanding debt continued to swell to a fresh record-high of P10.991 trillion in April this year as the country resorts to more borrowings to finance its pandemic

response. This was up by 2 percent from P10.77 trillion reported at the end of the year’s first quarter and it was also a 27.8-percent jump from P8.6 trillion of end-April last year. Dominguez has also said they expect the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio this year to reach 58.7 percent. This is below the 60-percent international threshold but higher than the country’s 14-year-high debt-toGDP ratio last year at 54.6 percent.

PHL could exit FATF gray list before ’23 Continued from A1

BAP chief optimistic

BANKERS Association of the Philippines (BAP) President Wick Veloso also expressed optimism that the Philippines will be delisted from FATF’s gray list. “The Bankers Association of the Philippines will continue to work with the Government on these. We are optimistic that the Philippines will be taken off the gray list in due time,” Veloso told the BusinessMirror.

Lacson: Consistency needed

REACTING to Manila’s being graylisted, a senator said that consistency in fighting corruption should restore the trust of the FATF and other international financial institutions. Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that while legislation against money laundering—especially of ill-gotten wealth— and terrorism financing is important, the key is the consistent implementation of existing laws. “One of the reasons we were included in the FATF’s gray list in 2012 is that the FATF wanted us to address deficiencies in countering terrorist financing, among others. In response, Congress passed Republic Act 10168 or Terrorism

Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012. This was further enhanced by RA 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. This may, however, call for further measures such as amending our existing Bank Secrecy Act, to address a major source of corruption. What we need is to make it difficult, if not impossible, to hide or launder ill-gotten wealth. This would be a big deal in helping stop corruption,” he said. Lacson noted that since his first term as senator in 2001, he had repeatedly filed a bill seeking to amend the Bank Secrecy Act to remove privacy protection for government officials and employees. Lacson stressed the importance of consistency in implementing existing laws against money laundering and terrorist financing. “In past years, we have seen a ‘selective’ implementation of laws. There must be consistency to regain trust. Until the people and the international community see that even perceived political allies are sent to jail for wrongdoings, there will always be that perception that certain influential people are exempt from our justice system,” he said. With a report by Butch Fernandez

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, June 29, 2021 A3

Eleazar told: Reconsider proposal to arm civilians By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

& Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

HILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief General Guillermo Eleazar was asked to reconsider plans to arm civilians to boost the Duterte administration’s anti-crime drive, even as Sen. Risa Hontiveros shared concerns aired by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on the need for professional training in carrying deadly firearms.

In opposing the PNP Chief’s move arming anti-crime civilians, the senator called on Eleazar to “think twice” before implementing the plan, recalling that the previous Aquino administration did not require “so much police powers to maintain a low crime rate.” Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a former PNP chief himself, said, “I see no problem as long as they are properly supervised. It would be a big help to the [government] to have additional manpower to maintain peace and order at no additional cost

to the [government].” Senate President Vicente Sotto III, for his part, thinks an executive order is not necessary, since the law has long allowed civilians to bear arms subject to regulations. At Camp Crame, meanwhile, the PNP reiterated its assurance that anti-crime volunteers whose groups were formed with the support of the government would not be armed unless they acquire firearms on their own by going through the processes like ordinary civilians who wanted to possess and carry guns.

“We will not issue any firearms,” Eleazar said at a news briefing, explaining that like civilians and private individuals who are gun owners, the volunteers would have to buy their firearms and apply for necessary permits and clearances. Over the weekend, the PNP launched the Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Groups and Force Multipliers, whose aim was to build a strong collaborative partnership with the community in support to the government’s ongoing campaign against criminal-

PET asks Leni to comment on BBM’s appeal By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has directed Vice President Leni Robredo to answer the plea of vice presidential rival and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., seeking the reversal of the decision dismissing the election protest filed against her. SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said the order was issued by the Court en banc during its session last June 15 but was only made public on Monday. “I confirm that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal in its resolution of June 15, 2021 in PET Case No. 005 has required respondent VP Maria Leonor ‘Leni ’ Robredo to file her comment to the motion for reconsideration dated May 6, 2021 filed by protestee Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr., within a period of 10 days from receipt of notice,” Hosaka announced. In his motion for reconsideration, Marcos pleaded to the Court to continue looking into his election protest, in particular, the election results in three provinces in Mindanao. He also asked the Court to create a special committee that would conduct hearings, receive evidence and access the evidence for his third cause of action, which seeks to annul the election results in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan. Furthermore, the former se n ator urged the Court to direct the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) handwriting experts to condu c t t he technical examination of the voters’ signatures appearing on the Election Day Computer-

ized Voters List (EDCVL) as against the voters’ signatures appearing on the Voters Registration Records (VRRs) in the said three provinces. In its ruling issued last February, the PET described Marcos’s election protest as “bare, laden with generic and repetitious allegations, and lack information as to the time, place, and manner” of the alleged irregularities. In his election protest case, Marcos identified three pilot provinces as Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Robredo’s Camarines Sur home province.

But the PET said Marcos failed to prove that there was a massive election fraud among his designated pilot provinces. Thus, the PET said Marcos could not insist on the annulment of the election results in the three provinces in Mindanao. The PET said the rules direct the immediate dismissal of the election protest without further consideration of the other provinces. Nevertheless, the tribunal noted that for a full disposition of the

ity and terrorism. President Duterte later suggested that the government could civilian organizations who are partners of the police in its anti-criminality campaign, raising concerns from the CHR, other rights groups and even legislators. A kbaya n C ha ir Emer it us Etta Rosales said the proposal “is a virtual admission on the

election protest, it extensively scrutinized Marcos’s allegations and assessed the evidence he presented to support his claims under the third cause of action. The PET eventually decided not to give it due course due to loopholes in the affidavits of witnesses and absence of ad hoc rules. In his appeal, Marcos insisted that the existence or non-existence of procedural rules “should never be an obstacle in ascertaining who the voters chose to be their leaders.”

part of the PNP that it is failing to do its job.” “The police force can’t possibly address the abuses of an armed non-state actor by creating a similarly armed non-state actor through the arming of civilians in the cities. You don’t put a stop to NPA crimes by creating your own NPA. It is insane!” she said in a news statement.

A4 Tuesday, June 29, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

MSMEs urged to boost global trade amid Covid-19 pandemic By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

ICRO, small and medium enter pr ises (MSMEs) are encouraged to maximize the opportunities for international trade to further boost their economic contribution and strengthen inclusive growth in the country. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said at an event on Monday that MSMEs in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region have yet to fully realize the opportunities in the global trading market. He noted that the MSMEs in the APEC bloc account for only 35 percent or less of direct exports. “Therefore, we need to tap the potential that MSMEs hold and encourage their development to build their capacity to engage in international trade, whether as direct exporters or as part of regional and global value chains,” the trade chief said. World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi OkonjoIweala agreed that MSMEs—accounting for over 90 percent of the businesses and two-thirds of the labor force in APEC economies—will benefit from tapping the global trade and supply chains. Noting that trade is an “important tool for MSMEs,” she said in the same

event that 70 percent of the APEC exporters are MSMEs. “Where there are opportunities for MSMEs, there are opportunities for everyone. When MSMEs thrive and tap in to national, regional and global supply chains, growth and trade become more inclusive,” she said. Both officials said that MSMEs should be given assistance, especially in access to finance, to allow trade facilitation. “MSMEs face many challenges on lack of knowledge on foreign markets to difficulties accessing finance and navigating a complex and regulatory environment,” the WTO chief said. “Covid-19 has been especially hard on smaller firms, from reduced demand or trade disruptions to more limited financial resources to weather the crisis.” For the part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Lopez said they have been ensuring continued access to formal financing windows for the MSMEs. He cited the MSME Credit Guarantee Program and the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) Program under the Small Business Corp. The DTI reported previously that the CARES microfinancing program has processed and approved P4.5 billion worth of loans covering 30,408 applications as of June 9.

Youngsters don’t want the hottest job in tech. That’s a big problem for business

Lopez is expecting that the remaining funding under the MSME microfinancing facility will be maximized by the end of June. The DTI chief earlier said replenishing the allocation would help the economy recover amid the pandemic.

Adapting in pandemic

MEANWHILE, the trade chief said that MSMEs have adapted in pandemic, implementing business measures to stave off the impact of the pandemic in their operations. These include shift to digital platforms, cost reduction, diversification of products and services, use of non-cash payment options and work-from-home arrangements for employees, Lopez explained. “Some of these changes delivered greater efficiency for their business and more convenience for their customers,” Lopez said. “We expect that these MSMEs will endure well after the Covid-19 crisis has receded.” Lopez said that around 38 percent of the total registered business temporarily closed last year during the height of the lockdowns. With the economy slowly reopening since the second half of last year, the figure improved to 4 percent to 8 percent, which depends on the degree of community quarantine imposed.

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By Henry J. Schumacher

CANNOT believe this. With everybody running around w ith gadgets and spending plenty of time with online data, online games, new media etc., getting a job in data science should be a dream. But look at this information from the UK: The popularity of data science careers is plummeting amongst 16 to 21 year olds, yet demand for data scientists and engineers has never been higher. For businesses trying to innovate, that spells trouble. Employers could be facing future shortages of skilled digital professionals as the popularity of data science tumbles amongst young people. Less than half (49 percent) of 16 to 21 year olds in the UK consider data science as a career option, according to a survey by analytics

platform Exasol, despite young people possessing many skills that are ideal for careers in technology. The research suggests that businesses and educators are alienating young people from the data science field because they’re not doing a good enough job of communicating the importance and application of data in easy-to-understand terms. With demand for data scientists and engineers on the rise, organizations will find it increasingly difficult to innovate and stay competitive if they fail to encourage more people into these roles. Data-driven decision-making is increasinginpopularityandishaving a growing impact on profitability, lowering organizations’ operating costs and improving business resiliency, particularly as we begin to emerge from the pandemic. I am not sure that this situation also exists in the Philippines. It would be interesting to get feedback from the industries that need data scientists! Maybe we need an AI-powered planning solution that augments human intelligence, so that our employeescanspendlesstimemanually aggregating data, and more time on analysis and higher-value work. We all understand that if data science were to drop in popularity among young people, businesses will be in danger of missing out on new ways to solve their data challenges. Businesses today rely heavily on data to help them identify challenges,

capitalize on opportunities and make decisions that can impact their bottom line. As a result, demand for data scientists and data engineers has more than tripled since 2013. Researchers found that young people may be unaware that they possess many of the skills and attributes applicable to jobs in data analysis, or that the skills they want to feature in their careers feature heavily in technical roles. This includes communication, decisionmaking, problem-solving, finding information,askingquestions,telling stories and mathematics. May be more work needs to be done when it comes to “selling” data science careers to young people. We need to bring data to life to make it more appealing and “human.” T he UK repor t concludes that employers need to better understand the skills they require to meet their talent and operational needs. But, as I have mentioned in previous columns regarding dealing with millennials and centennials, managers also have to learn how to deal with the new generations entering our companies; they have to understand that they have to become mentors and partners in moving companies forward. In conclusion: This research was done outside the Philippines. Do we find the same phenomenon that students don’t want the hottest job in tech here? Your feedback is important. Contact me at hjschumacher59@ gmail.com

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News BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 A5

TPBA urges govt to increase biodiesel blend to 5 percent By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE Philippine Biodiesel Association (TPBA) eagerly awaits the increase in biofuel content in diesel to 5 percent, saying the approval would reduced the importation of refined fuel while helping farmers cope up with the pandemic. After Republic Act 9367 or the “Biofuels act of 2006” was signed into law, the blending of 1 percent coco methyl ester (CME) in diesel started. It was then increased to 2 percent in 2007. Under the Philippine Energy Plan, biodiesel should contain at least 5 percent CME blend by 2020. However, the Department of Energy (DOE) is concerned that this would result in higher pump prices. The agency, in the past, also raised concern on

available feedstock. But the Philippine coconut industry, according to TPBA, assured that there is more than enough feedstock supply and that increase the cocobiodiesel blend in automotive diesel to 5 percent from 2 percent would benefit the farmers. In a news statement, TPBA said it supports the local coconut farmers’ welfare. TPBA noted that “there is a 5 centavos per liter lien contributed by every CME producer to the Department of Labor and Employment’s Social Amelioration and Welfare Program, which provide funds for the livelihood and training programs for coconut farmers and biodiesel workers.” The required annual CME volume to support the shift to B5 blend is 632

million liters, representing 5 percent of diesel demand of 12.64 billion liters for full year 2021. Based on studies by the coconut industry, some 4.3 billion nuts are needed to supply the projected B5 demand. TPBA said production is estimated to reach 17 billion nuts for this year. By 2025, the projected feed stock supply is pegged at 20 billion nuts. The anticipated strong domestic demand created by the B5 program will stabilize the price and demand for copra, encouraging farmers to plant more, TPBA pointed out. “The gains on B5 had been cited many times in terms of cleaner air, increased mileage and savings for motorists, attaining public health through clean air and alleviating pov-

erty among coconut farmers,” said leading biodiesel advocate and consultant Engr. Rafael Diaz. “High levels of air pollutants and total suspended particulates [TSP] are causing spike in respiratory ailments that weaken the lungs and making it more prone to Covid transmission. “There is a sort of environmental ‘TSP immunization’ uniquely ready now in the Philippines. It is by simply blending 5 percent CME [B5] in diesel fuel which guarantees clean engine combustion. It eliminates emission of air pollutants ensuring public health wellness from respiratory ailments,” Diaz claimed. The shift to B5 would also translate to foreign exchange savings on fuel import amounting to nearly P13.6 billion per year, said TPBA.

Philexport head says 12% VAT should not be a burden for MSMEs and exporters

HE head of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) has issued an urgent call to the government to ensure that processes and requirements in implementing the 12-percent VAT on indirect exports do not become another onerous burden for exporters and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). In a letter to BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay dated June 22, 2021, Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. bared that exporters and MSMEs have “very serious concerns” about the impact of Revenue Regulations (RR) 9-2021 that need to be quickly addressed. RR 9-2021 implements the imposition of 12-percent VAT on exports and sale of services previously taxed 0-percent VAT as contained in Republic Act 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN)

Law. Dated June 9, 2021, it is set to take effect on June 27. One of these major concerns is the requirement to physically file for VAT refunds at the BIR’s VAT Credit Audit Division (VCAD) 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 pointed out. He 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. Another issue raised is the need to keep and duplicate voluminous documents, which companies regard as yet another unnecessary and additional

CEB airlifts new batch of 1M Covid-19 doses from China

process that transfers the burden of proof on their shoulders. Ortiz-Luis suggested that the BIR instead issue rules on the automatic assessment of VAT refunds where input VAT exceeds output VAT in the case of MSME exporters without further need for separate forms and supplementary evidence. “Exports account for some 30 percent of the country’s GDP and failures in this refund system will be a disincentive to exporters,” he said. Also being questioned is the linking of incentives to the Strategic Investments Priorities Plan (SIPP), as the trade leader said the priority investment sectors may change depending on leadership. Exporters/exports should be a permanent beneficiary under the SIPP, Ortiz-Luis stated. Furthermore, enterprises are pushing to have a provision included

Food advocacy group hails PNoy’s role in fight against illegal fishing By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

AIRPORT ground personnel unload on Monday a shipment of Covid-19 vaccines from China.

EBU Pacific (PSE: CEB), the Philippines’s leading carrier on Monday safely transported another 1 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from Beijing to Manila, via flight 5J 671. It was the second major shipment in less than a week after CEB successfully brought home 2 million doses from China on June 24. These consecutive vaccine arrivals indicate progress in the rollout of our country’s inoculation program. “We are grateful to Cebu Pacific and other carriers for assisting us in ensuring that these life-saving vaccines reach our country safely. We look forward to collaborating with the private sector as we anticipate the arrival of more vaccines in the coming months,” said vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief im-

plementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19. All these vaccines were preserved in temperature-specific refrigerated containers to maintain potency and efficacy up until arrival at the designated stations.  “We are glad to keep bringing these vaccines home and aid in the distribution across the country,” Alex Reyes, chief strategy officer at Cebu Pacific. “We will continue supporting our government in its efforts to fight Covid-19,” added Reyes. Over the week, more than 87,000 doses were airlifted to different provinces, namely, Dipolog, Legazpi, Masbate, Puerto Princesa, Tuguegarao, and Virac. Dipolog is the newest addition to CEB’s roster of now 16 Philippine provinces. Recto Mercene

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 policy was one of the major topics in the recent Philexport General Membership Meeting where memberexporters expressed frustration, anger and confusion on this new directive, noting that it seems to facilitate convenience for regulators in plugging issues such as smuggling, while leaving exporters and MSMEs to address the negative impacts on them. Philexport has opposed the imposition of VAT on exports during consultations on the TRAIN Act, which took effect in 2018. It pointed out that taking away the zero VAT rating for indirect exports would hurt the entire export community and the local industries the Department of Trade and Industry is trying to develop and strengthen.

UGON Kabuhayan has recognized late President Benigno S. Aquino III’s contributions in improving the country’s food security status, particularly the amendment of the Fisheries Code, which strengthened government efforts against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) in the country. The food advocacy group said it was during Aquino’s leadership that the government gave further importance to the country’s fisheries resource management through “the hiring, training and capacitating the Fisheries Regulatory and Enforcement Office, acquisition of patrol vessels and amendment of the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 [RA 8550].” In a Facebook post, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) remembered Aquino’s administration that enacted Republic Act 10654 or the amended Philippine Fisheries Code to further curtail IUUF in the country. “To this day, the implementation of RA 10654 continues to bolster the enforcement of fishery laws and regulations and curb Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing in our seas,” BFAR, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, said. “Together with the whole fishery sector, we are thankful for President Noynoy’s contribution and service to

the country,” it added. Tugon Kabuhayan noted that the goal of the RA 10654 is to “rehabilitate and protect the resource base in order to increase and ensure sustainable production and food security.” The group added that under the Aquino administration, the “Bangkang Pinoy Program” was implemented, which aimed to replace wooden municipal fishing boats with “safer, sturdier and more modern boats, made of fiberglass.” “The program was continued by the current administration as ‘FB Pagbabago’ and has since constructed and modernize over 30,000 fiberglass boats all over the country,” it added. Furthermore, the group said the Aquino administration was also aggressive in the construction of community fish landing centers, equipped with freezers and stainless-steel fish tables, in municipal fish landing sites. “These are intended to help fisherfolk ensure the safety and preserve the quality of their fish and fishery products. This enables them to sell their produce and catch at better prices,” it said. “Tugon Kabuhayan draws inspiration from the policies and programs initiated through the leadership of former President Noynoy Aquino, from resource management and protection to law enforcement that would help propel national food security,” the group added.

News BusinessMirror

A6 Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Celebrities, social-media influencers help DOT push domestic tourism By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

[and investing] in a mix of umbrella branding campaign and sustainability campaign.”

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) is ramping up its domestic tourism push by inviting various celebrities and influencers to visit destinations already open for local travelers. Just this month, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat brought Scarlet Snow Belo, the daughter of skin specialist Dr. Vicki Belo and Dr. Hayden Kho, to Bohol. The six-year-old child celebrity has 4.9 million followers on Instagram alone. On her Facebook page, where she posted photos of her trip with the Belos and Kho, the DOT chief said, “Point-to-Point travel from NCR Plus to areas under MGCQ [modified general community

It’s all about the followers

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat points out the tarsier to child celebrity Scarlet Snow Belo, when they visited the Philippine Tarsier Foundation in Bohol. Courtesy of BRP

quarantine] areas has been open for leisure travel since June 1. Now that there are no more age restrictions to traveling, subject to a negative RT-PCR test result, her parents @victoria_belo and @ dochayden took this opportunity

to show her more of the country, and Bohol proved to be the perfect province for a family getaway. This is why I had the best time doing my Tita duties with @scarletsnowbelo and taking her around Bohol.” The child celebrity and her parents also viewed the world-famous Chocolate Hills and visited the tarsiers at the Philippine Tarsier Foundation’s sanctuary, “where the budding earth warrior learned a lot about protecting this iconic species,” said Romulo Puyat. (See, “Try on that bathing suit, Lola, for vacation with favorite ‘apo,’” in the BusinessMirror, June 14, 2021.) Under the Reformulated National Tourism Development Plan (RNTDP) 2021-2022, the DOT is supposed to design and implement innovative marketing and promotions programs, which includes the “[implementation of] tactical promotions to complement branding by focusing on specific activity market segments that exhibits continuous and high growth i.e. farm tourism, diving, trekking/hiking, cultural events

According to DOT Assistant Secretary for Branding and Marketing Communications Howard Lance Uyking, using social-media influencers is part of the agency’s strategies to promote domestic tourism. “For Scarlet, specifically it’s to help promote of all ages, as recently approved by the [InterAgency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases],” he said. Previously, DOT also invited vloggers and video content creators like Jason Magbanua, Ella Cruz, Julian Trono, and Vern Enciso Lim, who have an extensive number of followers on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Magbanua, a popular wedding photographer, for instance, has 309,000 followers on YouTube alone, while Cruz has 5.7 million followers on Instagram. Romulo Puyat also brought on her recent trips out of town wellknown chefs like Sandy Daza (Ilocos region), who hosts two shows on the Metro Channel and has an Instagram following of 38,400; JP Anglo of Sarsa (Pangasinan) who has 202,000 followers on Instagram; as well as actors like Dimples Romana, with 3.1 million followers, who went to La Union. Under the RNTDP, the DOT has targeted domestic tourists to reach 75 million this year from the 43.1 million estimated for 2020, and 100 million in 2022. Both targets are under the upside or mild scenario. (See, “Domestic tourism’s recovery in 2022 at earliest, 2024 at worst,” in the BusinessMirror, June 18, 2021.)

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PHL eyes buying some of Canada’s excess jabs T HE government is now eyeing to purchase some of the 100 million excess Covid-19 vaccines of Canada. Likewise, it is also vying for a manufacturing deal for the production of a Canadian Covid-19 vaccine. In an online interview on Monday, Philippine Ambassador to Canada Rodolfo Robles disclosed he already had the country “listed” among those nations which are interested in buying the unused Covid-19 jabs from Canada. The Canadian government secured 180 million Covid-19 jabs despite only having a 40-million population, who will each need two doses. “So that means there will be an excess of 100 million jabs...and I am really watching with an eagle eye...the prospect of getting some excess directly from Canada,” Robles said. He said the government will know the number of doses that will be made avail-

able by the Canadian government once it completes its vaccination drive by the middle of the fourth quarter. In a related development, Robles said he trying to secure an agreement with Canadian pharmaceutical firm, Medicago, for the possibility of manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine in the Philippines. He revealed the matter is already in the hands of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as well as the InterAgency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). “We can start negotiating more formally after [having] that NDA [non-disclosure agreement]...approved by the Philippine government through DOST and I think IATF also,” Robles said. He said he offered the pharmaceutical ecozone in Bulacan to Medicago as well as the perks of starting their production there, such as tax-free trade perks and free capital importations and the like. Samuel P. Medenilla

‘FULL-BLOWN SUGAR LIB UNTIMELY AMID SEVERE MARKET DISTORTIONS’ Continued from A12

The increase in welfare is mainly due to lower prices of sugar and sugar-using products. This is, however, accompanied by as much as an 11-percent decline in prices and 6.8-percent contraction in domestic sugar industry production. The data also showed there will be a 7-percent decline in employment in sugar manufacturing while employment in sugarcane production will be cut by 16 percent. Meanwhile, the study said the benefit of sugar trade liberalization on the industry sector was small at only 0.08 percent by 2030. Food manufacturing industries including those using sugar could see output increase by 1 percent and employment 1.1 percent. They will also experience reduced prices of 0.24 percent to 0.41 percent and imports for these commodities will decline over time by just under 1 percent. “While industrial users of sugar would benefit, the impact on them appears relatively modest. It may be noted that the case for reducing prices for consumers at the expense of industry stakeholders is not as compelling as it has been for rice,” the study noted. “Thus, even as liberalization would lead to a net overall welfare gain for society, the net gains to be achieved may not be substantial enough to offset the downsides in terms of adverse distributional impacts and non-economic costs in the social and political realms,” it added. The research said that if the government chooses to pursue sugar trade liberalization at this time, this is best done by gradually easing control over the sugar trade. In order to do this, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Neda could determine the pace of decreasing the quantitative restrictions within a defined period of three, five, or more years. The three institutions can also set parameters for annual sugar import volumes that take into account global and local market conditions. This is with the aim of easing restrictions in order to lower local prices. They, the study noted, should also establish a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to allow the proper calibration of the phased liberalization process.

Full liberalization, the study noted, can only be done when “long-standing distortions in the world sugar market” are removed. This means the government should join the call for reforms in the global sugar industry at the World Trade Organization (WTO), G-77, Unctad and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This call supports the elimination of “distortive” state subsidies to domestic sugar industries in major exporting countries. “The Philippine government needs to make a forceful plea for international economic justice that is compromised by these persistent distortions in the world sugar market,” the study noted.

Neda’s pitch

In 2019, Neda said the liberalization of the sugar industry will help bring down the cost of sugar in the country. Liberalizing the sector may involve the removal of the licensing powers of the SRA and the cost involved in sugar importation. The SRA was created through Executive Order 18 of former President Corazon Aquino. It is tasked to issue permits and licenses, as well as collect fees and levies on the processing and manufacture of sugar and its by-products. EO 18 was strengthened by Republic Act 10659 or the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (Sida) of 2015. Under Section 9, the SRA is tasked to classify imported sugar to meet domestic sugar requirements. Under the Sida, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will also require importers or consignees to secure from the SRA the classification of the imported sugar prior to its release. Neda Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon explained that these processes make sugar more expensive. She added that importers are charged around P200 per 50-kilogram bag of sugar that they need to import to meet their requirements. This cost is termed as the certificate of reclassification rights which importers purchase to obtain an import volume allocation. This will allow them to obtain their shipments from the BOC. Edillon said that even if there were already adjustments made by the SRA to cut red tape and release documents needed after one day, the certificate of reclassification rights remains expensive.

PHL cold-chain group: Enough space to hold surge in pork imports Continued from A12

For one, Dizon raised concerns regarding the capability of both the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Philippine Ports Authority to process shipment arrivals “quickly” to “avoid port congestion.” “Will BOC have enough E-TRACC [Electronic Tracking of Containerized Cargo] devices to go around?” he said. E-TRACC is the BOC’s platform to prevent smuggling by diversion. Dizon also pointed out that if meat processors gain favorable access again to imported chicken MDM, then it may put a strain on the industry’s storage capacity. Dizon noted that they are closely monitoring developments on the country’s chicken MDM imports as local meat processors continue to scramble for sources for the raw material. “If the import shipments of both these commodities arrive at the same time,

there could be a potential capacity issue, considering how hungry the processors are for MDM,” he said. “If supply lines suddenly open up, it could translate to a problematic capacity situation for the cold chain industry,” he added. Europe, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s chicken MDM supply, remains technically closed to local meat processors as the government has not lifted temporary import bans slapped on European countries with ongoing bird flu outbreaks. The Netherlands, which meat processors could access for their much-needed raw materials, is having difficulties supplying the country’s chicken MDM requirement due to an import condition that bars them from sourcing chickens for MDM production from other countries. The Netherlands accounts for about 40 percent of the country’s annual chicken MDM supply.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

8 STONE BUSINESS OUTSOURCING OPC 5-10/f Tower 1 Pitx Kennedy Road Tambo Parañaque City

CHENG, YING Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 1.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

DING, NING Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 2.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

HAO, YULONG Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 3.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

HU, QIN Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 4.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

HUANG, ZHIWEI Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 5.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

LE THI HUONG Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 6.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

LI, XIAOBO Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 7.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

LIEU NGUYET BOI Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 8.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

MA, JIAQI Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 9.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

SU, ZICAI Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 10.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting custome information and analyzing customer needs.

TRAN THI GIA LINH Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 13.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

14.

15.

16.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

17.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

18.

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

KIKUDI, PATRICK LACORTE Bilingual Service Desk Analyst-French 19.

11.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

20.

TRAN DUC HOAN Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking 12.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

No.

Brief Job Description: Take appropriate action to identify and help minimize the risk posed by fraud patterns and trends.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION XU, CHUANFA Chinese Customer Specialist

26.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

LE HOAI BAO TRAM Seller Support Associate 21.

Brief Job Description: Will be responsible in addressing chronic system issues, provide process improvements, develop documentation and contribute to a team environment.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LUONG MINH PHUC Chinese Customer Specialist

23.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LUONG THIEN SANH Chinese Customer Specialist

24.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries SHI, PEIYU Chinese Customer Specialist

25.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: Can relate well speak & understand foreign language especially Korean national

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

27.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BEST RELIABLE RESOURCES CORP. Ub 111 Paseo De Roxas Bldg. Paseo De Roxas San Lorenzo Makati City

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

WON, KYUNG HYE General Manager

28.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree graduate, undergraduates are welcome to apply; Can communicate effectively in both oral and written English and French; With valid certification of TEF/ CEFR of at least B2.

29.

HUANG, XINQUAN Mandarin Customer Relations Officer Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling service support calls

KONG, CHEN Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 30.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

LUO, XIAOJUN Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 31.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services.

PENG, YABAO Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 32.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proactive documentation of operational procedures required to tackle known risk related; Ability to work independently make complex investigation decisions, and analyze problems logically including the ability to recognize non-obvious patterns.

Basic Qualification: Good customer service skills/experience.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services.

QIN, LEI Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 33.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

RONG, CHUANGFA Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 34.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services.

WANG, JINGYI Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 35.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

WENG, YULING Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 36.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

WU, SHUICHI Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 37.

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: degree in marketing or related Search engine optimization (SEO certified) 5 years exp Hebrew speaker English language Must be senior level telecom or ISP experience preferred strong background in marketing

BIG EMPEROR TECHNOLOGY CORP. 5f-13f, Jiaxing Tower Building Aseana Avenue, Aseana Business Park Tambo Parañaque City Eastfield Center Cbp1, Macapagal Blvd. Brgy. 076 Pasay City

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Establishment effective working relationships with sales and agency leadership to ensure that our products and services are implemented through sales enablement

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for strategy, structure, budgets, people financial outcomes

TZADOK, LIAD Senior Marketing Manager

ANOC99 CORPORATION 5/f To 10/f Ayala Malls Manila Bay Building D. Macapagal Blvd. Cor. Aseana Street Tambo Parañaque City LI, DINGFENG Chinese Customer Specialist

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

AQUAXI INC. L7 B28 Job St. Bf Homes Martinville Subd. Manuyo Dos Las Piñas City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Provide telephone voice/email/chat support to resolve customer’s concerns following per-defined support procedures and policies using support channels and tools provided by Rio Tinto with primary focus on achieving customer resolution and satisfaction.

BUI MINH TRI Investigation Specialist I- Vietnamese And English Accounts

22. TAY KAY KEAN Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

AMAZON OPERATION SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. B21 Three E-com Moa Complex Harbour Drive Cor. Bay Shore Brgy. 076 Pasay City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

ACCENTURE, INC. 7f Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1 Pioneer St Mandaluyong City

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

ZHANG, XIAOFEN Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

ZHANG, XIAOMING Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

ZHANG, XINDONG Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

YAN, DAYAN Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

Brief Job Description: Build sustainable relationship of trust through open and interactive communication in Mandarin Speaking.

WU, QING Customer Service Representative Mandarin Speaking

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 A7

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services.

XIONG, JIAZHI Mandarin Customer Relations Officer 38.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO Experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in Mandarin, with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in Mandarin, with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in Mandarin, with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO Experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO Experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in Mandarin, with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO Experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, June 29, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION XU, SHAOPENG Mandarin Customer Relations Officer

39.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services

CHEN, YEN-WEI Mandarin Customer Service 40.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

PANG, HONG Mandarin Customer Service 41.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients.

SUN, HAO Mandarin Customer Service 42.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

SOE YU YU KHAING Myanmari Customer Service 43.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

YAN CHE FAN Myanmari Customer Service 44.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

DINH THI LUU LUYEN Vietnamese Customer Service 45.

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

NGUYEN VAN LINH Vietnamese Customer Service 46.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

Brief Job Description: Offer full range of customer service to employer and clients

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in mandarin with related BPO

No.

YANG, TINGTING Intergraded Marketing Campaign Manager 55.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: At least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently in Mandarin language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: At least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently in Mandarin language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: at least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently Vietnamese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: at least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently Vietnamese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

56.

Basic Qualification: At least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently in Vietnamese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

AHMED, FAISAL Operations Manager 57.

47.

Brief Job Description: Management the Company

Basic Qualification: Graduate of a 4 year degree in business management

CHEN, KAO-CHUAN Heavy Equipment Maintenance Supervisor 48.

49.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for inspecting, testing, and adjusting equipment, as well as scheduling workers

LIN, CHIN-FA Senior Trackwork Specialist Brief Job Description: Review and check railway alignments and profiles

58.

50.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints. YORI Indonesian Customer Support Representative

51.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

59.

52.

Brief Job Description: Handle and supervise the finance and accounting division

Basic Qualification: college graduate; preferably 3 years trackwork experience; fluent in Mandarin/basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: college graduate; preferably 3 years trackwork experience; fluent in Mandarin/basic English

60.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in Indonesian and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

61.

Basic Qualification: have at least 20 years’ experience on accounting division

53.

Brief Job Description: Coordinate with sales region, monitor progress of various projects and act as key person to communicate with GTM Department

LI, LI E-commerce Manager 54.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the overall sales of e-commerce in the Philippines, Manage the e-commerce team to complete the company’s sales target

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language, Bachelor’s degree in business administration, 3 years’ experience on the same field Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

73.

Brief Job Description: Recommends potential products or services to Management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

74.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

OTTENHOFF, RACHEL DAPHNE ALEXANDRA Global Customer Service Manager Brief Job Description: Manager/Management

Basic Qualification: University Degree Holder, must have at least 5yrs of experience in customer service & airline industry, people & strategic management skills, fluent in Dutch, French & English

JUNE CANDRA Indonesian Customer Support Representative 62.

Brief Job Description: Supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in INDONESIAN and at least college level with related BPO experience.

75.

CAI, XIANGDONG Strategic And Facilitation Officer 63.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company GUO, LIANG Strategic And Facilitation Officer

64.

Brief Job Description: Help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company HE, XUANLI Strategic And Facilitation Officer

65.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company JIANG, DONGSHENG Strategic And Facilitation Officer

66.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company LAI, HONGZHEN Strategic And Facilitation Officer

67.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company LI, JIAWEN Strategic And Facilitation Officer

68.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company LIANG, DINGYUE Strategic And Facilitation Officer

69.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company LIU, KUN Strategic And Facilitation Officer

70.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company WANG, XU Strategic And Facilitation Officer

76.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company YU, WENJIE Strategic And Facilitation Officer

77.

Brief Job Description: Help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company ZHANG, LIANG Strategic And Facilitation Officer

78.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company ZHANG, LEIPENG Strategic And Facilitation Officer

79.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company ZHANG, HONGJIA Strategic And Facilitation Officer

80.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company ZHENG, XUEPING Strategic And Facilitation Officer

81.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company ZHOU, YURU Strategic And Facilitation Officer

82.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

JDB MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTANCY CORP. 107 T & D House Magallanes St. 069, Bgy. 655 Intramuros Manila

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company WANG, HAO Strategic And Facilitation Officer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven Working experience in digital marketing particularly within the industry and good communication skills.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company TANG, CHUNMIAO Strategic And Facilitation Officer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven Working experience in digital marketing particularly within the industry and good communication skills.

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company SHI, JI Strategic And Facilitation Officer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: proven working experience in digital marketing particular within the industry and good communications

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company MIAO, LIHONG Strategic And Facilitation Officer

72.

INVECH TREASURE PROCESSING CORPORATION Ground, 2nd, 3rd And 4th Floor Eight West Campus Mckinley West Fort Bonifacio Taguig City

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language, Bachelor’s degree in business administration, 3 years’ experience on the same field

71.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language, Bachelor’s degree in business administration, 3 years’ experience on the same field

Basic Qualification: knowledge and experience in organizational & operational management

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION MAO, YING Strategic And Facilitation Officer

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Able to speak and write in Indonesian and at least college level with related BPO experience. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English language, Bachelor’s degree in business administration, 3 years’ experience on the same field

No.

IASA, INC. 18/f Tower 2, Rcbc Plaza 6819 Ayala Ave. Bel-air Makati City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

EMERALD WIRELESS TECH INC. 28th/f Arthaland Century Pacific Tower E-square Information Technology Park 25th St. Cor 5th Ave. Fort Bonifacio Taguig City

ZHANG, XIAOYU Coo Assistant

Brief Job Description: Collecting Customer Information And Analyzing Customers’ Needs

ZHONG, YIJING Customer Service Representative - Mandarin Speaking

DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONING PHILIPPINES, INC. Exxa Tower Bridgetown C-5 Road Ugong Norte 3 Quezon City SHIONO, YASUFUMI General Manager - Finance And Accounting & Special Technical Adviser

HU, SONG Customer Service Representative - Mandarin Speaking

TAN, CHAO Customer Service Representative - Mandarin Speaking

CROWN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INC. 5th-7th Floor Alhi Corporate Center Aseana Avenue Tambo Parañaque City HENDRY WINANDO Indonesian Customer Support Representative

Brief Job Description: Oversee operational systems, processes, and infrastructure

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

CHAN CHUN CONSTRUCTION PHILIPPINES CORPORATION L2b B8 Belvedere St. Doña Manuela Subd Pamplona Tres Las Piñas City

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

GENX SPORTS & MEDIA PRODUCTION CORP. 11/f Aseana I Bldg. Bradco Ave. Aseana City Tambo Parañaque City 26th And 27th Flr. Eastwood Cyber One Bldg. Eastwood City Cyberpark No. 188 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave. Bagumbayan 3 Quezon City

BPI CENTURY TOKYO LEASE & FINANCE CORPORATION 15f Bpi Buendia Center 372 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. Belair Makati City KITAGAWA, MASAYUKI Japanese Head Of Strategy And Business Development

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the development and maintenance of regional customer relations, Assist customer with inventory management (sell-in and sell-out),

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

FATTAH COLLECTION PHILS. CORP. Unit No. U-f 14-15,baclaran Bagong Milenyo Bldg. F.b. Harrison St. Barangay 076 Pasay City

Basic Qualification: at least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently Vietnamese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Identify the team’s current problems, Figure out a way to solve the problem, Project follow-up, participate in planning and promote implementation

LIU, CHUANQING Regional Sales Manager

Basic Qualification: at least college level and able to speak, read write and type fluently Vietnamese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Brief Job Description: Your primary function is to help the company and its Chinese clients to generate more income for the company

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KATAHIRA & ENGINEERS INTERNATIONAL Unit 10-c 10/f Jmt Condo. Corporation Adb Ave., Ortigas Center San Antonio Pasig City Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

IWASHITA, AKIRA General Manager 83.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

AI, RONG Chinese It Specialist 84.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

Brief Job Description: This position requires the exercise of discretion in the application of the principles, practices and techniques related to planning and analysis; design; development and implementation; maintenance; support; and management of information technology functions.

WU, YONGYI Chinese Customer Service 85.

Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Manages incoming calls and inquiries, handling complaints, provide solutions, process customer accounts and file documents.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 XIANG, HENGJIU Chinese Customer Service 86.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese language (writing and speaking) Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

NEW ORIENTAL CLUB88 CORPORATION 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th/f Pearl Marina Building Pacific Drive Don Galo Parañaque City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

LAN TIAN ZI XUN INC. Rm. 2510 25/f Zen Tower 1111 N.lopez St., 071 Bgy. 659 Ermita Manila

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Must be fluent in Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Formulating overall strategy, managing people and establishing policies.

Basic Qualification: Well-educated and possess strong leadership and organizational skills.

Brief Job Description: Manage incoming calls and inquiries, handling complaints , provide solutions, process customer accounts and file documents

ZHAO, XUYI Chinese Customer Service 87.

Brief Job Description: Manages incoming calls and inquiries, handling complaints, provide solutions, process customer accounts and file documents.

Basic Qualification: College graduate, preferably 1 year experience in the similar field, speak and write fluently (Mandarin and English). Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College graduate , preferably 1 year Chinese customer service experience in the similar field, must be fluent in mandarin and English written and orally Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College graduate, preferably 1 year experience in the similar field, speak and write fluently (Mandarin and English). Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NOCMAKATI, INC. 8,9,10,11,12,14,15,16,17,18 & 19 Floors Century Diamond Center Kalayaan Ave. Cor. Salamanca St. Poblacion Makati City

News BusinessMirror

Eitor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Private sector drafts guidelines to loosen pandemic curbs amid Covid variant threat By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@TyronePiad

he private sector seeks to finalize within the next month a proposal for Covid-19 guidelines allowing further mobility and business activities considering the emergence of the Delta variant and the rollout of the vaccination program. Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria A. Concepcion said in a Senate hearing on Monday that it is important to come up with new protocols easing restrictions as more of the population get vaccinated, especially if the country is safeguarded from the Covid-19 Delta variant. “Hopefully, within the next one month, we would be able to come out with our own recommendations assuming no Delta variant, we achieved 50 percent population protection, we achieved herd immunity,” Concepcion said. “If we are able to achieve population protection by September, October, we can open up more. If we are able to achieve herd

immunity by the end of the year, which is a very big challenge, in NCR [National Capital Region] plus, then we can really open up much more,” he added. The proposal is seen to help certain sectors in the services area, Concepcion said, citing restaurants, gyms and retail. Their operations are dependent on the allowed operational capacity set by the government, which affects their businesses, he explained. In addition, the proposal will also tackle measures allowing the tourism sector to recover amid the pandemic, Concepcion pointed out. “We are asking greater mobility for those who are vaccinated and give them greater access,” he said. “We have to allow more mobility for us to spur economic activity.” Consultations with different industries are currently happening to finalize the list of requests to the Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force. At the moment, Concepcion said that both the government and the private sector are focused on ramping up the vacci-

nation rollout in the country. The presidential adviser, meanwhile, also advised to be proactive in addressing the Covid-19 Delta variant as this can throw a wrench to the already struggling economy. “We have to be careful in opening up, especially our borders in countries that have a very high level of Delta variant,” he explained. Based on the latest guidelines by the Trade department, indoor dine-in services for restaurants in NCR plus are allowed at 20 percent to 40 percent capacity. Outdoor dine-in capacity is set at 50-percent limit. Personal care services, including beauty salons and barbershops, are allowed to operate within 30 percent to 50 percent in NCR plus. Business establishments with Safety Seal Certifications are allowed to operate at an additional 10 percentage points on top of the prescribed on-site operational capacity. Securing a Safety Seal signifies that an establishment follows the health protocols and uses digital contact-tracing application.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

DOJ creates panel to conduct preliminary probe into Calbayog City mayor’s slay case By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Department of Justice (DOJ) has created a three-man panel to conduct a preliminary investigation into all criminal cases filed before department in connection with the killing of Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino and five others last March 8. In a department order issued on June 21, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra named Senior Assistant State Prosecutors Rodan Parrocha, Assistant State Prosecutor Benny Nicdao, and Prosecution Attorney Rafael Cruz as part of the panel. The panel will be tasked to determine whether there is probable cause to warrant the filing of criminal charges against the respondents before the trial court. Guevarra added that after conducting a preliminary investigation, the panel should file the corresponding information before the appropriate court, if warranted by evidence. “The panel shall likewise handle all cases between/among the same parties, which are all related/connected with, or which may have arisen or may arise as a consequence

of, any of the aforementioned criminal complaints, including any and all countercharges,” Guevarra said. The DOJ chief also directed the Prosecutor General and the Regional Prosecutors to forward all the records to the panel. “The Prosecutor General and/or the Regional Prosecutors are directed to notify all concerned provincial and city prosecution offices under their jurisdiction to transmit to the Panel the records of all the aforementioned criminal complaint/s and any and/or all subsequent/future criminal complaints which may hereafter be filed,” Guevarra said. Five cases were docketed before the DOJ in connection with Aquino’s killing. On the part of the NBI, it filed murder and frustrated murder charges against Lt. Col. Harry Sucayre, Maj. Shyrille Co Tan, Capt. Dino Goles, Lt. Julio Armeza Jr., Cpl. Julius Garcia and S/Sgts. Niel Cebu and Edsel Omega. Civilians Niño Salem, Julius Garcia, Randy Merelos, and several John and Jane Does were also included in the charge sheet. Aquino was killed during an alleged shootout with the suspect while traversing Laboyao Bridge, on his way to their family-owned resort to attend his son’s birthday party.

Galvante says LTO may need P2.5B to produce 18M new motorcycle plates Oil firms raise fuel pump prices for 5th week straight By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

he Land Transportation Office (LTO) said it would need P2.5 billion to produce 18 million new motorcycle plates by next year. In an online interview on Monday, LTO chief Edgar Galvante said they will use some of the amount to outsource the production of the said plates, particularly for units which were registered in 2017 and earlier. “If the necessary fund will be given,

we think the target could be met because it is not just the LTO plant, which will make the plates but also other suppliers. We estimate about 10 million plates will be outsourced,” Galvante said. The remaining 8 million plates, which include those registered in 2018 and later, will be produced by LTO’s own manufacturing plant. Galvante said they already included the P2.5 billion to their budget request. The LTO official attribute the large backlog of motorcycle plates to the delay in the installation of their robotic equip-

ment due to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. “Because of the pandemic, the engineers, who were supposed to come from Germany and the Netherlands were not able to arrive, which led to big delay [on the release] of motorcycle plates,” Galvante said. He noted the backlog in plate production for motorcycles would not affect those for four-wheel vehicles, except for those applying for “replacement plates.” “We [are] doing this [replacement plate production] with the motorcycle plates,” Galvante said.

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

or the fifth week in a row, petroleum prices will go up this week. Gasoline prices will increase by P1 per liter, diesel by P0.65 per liter and kerosene by P0.70 per liter. Seaoil, Caltex, PTT Philippines, Pilipinas Shell, Petron said Monday they will implement the price hike at 6 a.m. of Tuesday,

January 29. Cleanfuel, meanwhile, will adjust its prices at 4:01 p.m. Other oil firms are expected to adjust their prices. The oil companies adjust their pump prices weekly to reflect movement of international oil prices. This week’s price hike will result in yearto-date adjustments to stand at a total net increase of P11.75 per liter for gasoline, P9.90 per liter and P8.40 per liter for kerosene.

A10 Tuesday, June 29, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Strong telco sector: A Duterte legacy

he Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that access to the Internet and digital services can be a matter of life and death. Thanks to President Duterte, telco services got better after he threatened in his last State of the Nation Address to “close all telecommunication providers if services won’t improve by December.” The President said Filipinos are not getting their money’s worth given the slow broadband services. He wants to see improvements in Internet speed before the end of his term. “We heed the call of the President to improve our services,” Globe said in a statement. Despite the 500-percent increase in demand for broadband access at the beginning of the pandemic, the telcos successfully met the challenge. The President managed to strengthen the telco sector by allowing a third major player to compete with incumbents Globe and Smart; ordering the local government units (LGUs) to fast-track the release of permits related to the rollout of telco infrastructure; and allowing telcos to ride on government’s Right of Way to improve nationwide Internet connectivity. After the President’s order to speed up the issuance of LGU permits in July 2020, a “miracle” happened—permits that were hard to get before are now being issued in a jiffy. In 2019, according to the National Telecommunications Commission, a total of 1,636 permits were issued for Smart, Globe and DITO. After the President’s order, the total surged to 6,451 permits issued in 2020. The trend continued: From January to April 2021, permits issued to telcos reached 2,789. The increase in permits issued resulted in an increase in towers built. In 2019, the telcos built 1,746 towers. In 2020, the total surged to 4,337, a 148-percent increase year-on-year. In April 2021 alone, telcos built 1,672 towers. The country now has a total of 24,614 cellular towers: Globe has 10,941 towers; Smart has 10,433; and DITO has 3,240. Telcos continue to invest in fiber optic network to improve services. In 2019, a total of 384,341 cable-kilometers of fiber network was laid-out all over the country. In 2020, the network surged to 726,705 cable-kilometers, an 89-percent increase. The 846,323 cable-kilometers laid-out as of April 2021 represent a 16.5-percent increase from the 726,705 cable-kilometers completed in 2020. Smart currently has the widest network with 497,700 cable-kilometers of fiber optic built. Converge has laid out 260,030 cable-kilometers. Globe has 72,573 cable-kilometers, and DITO with 16,020 cable-kilometers. With these developments, Ookla (the global leader in Internet testing, data and analysis) said Philippine fixed broadband speed now ranks 65th out of 180 countries, and 77th in mobile speed out of 137 countries. That’s a far cry from the country’s average download speed for fixed broadband ranked 103rd in November 2020, when we were also ranked 110th for mobile globally. Out of 50 countries in Asia, our Internet speed is now ranked 17th for fixed broadband and 23rd for mobile. In Asia-Pacific, the Philippines ranked 14th for fixed broadband and 12th for mobile out of 46 countries. In Asean, the Philippines is in the middle of the pack, ranking 5th in both fixed broadband and mobile. Current telco infrastructure roll-out is expected to continue as more LGUs comply with the Joint Memorandum Circular signed by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Anti-Red Tape Authority, and other government agencies. The NTC, PLDT, Globe, Converge and DITO also welcomed the Department of Public Works and Highways’ initiative to allow telcos to ride on the government’s Right of Way, which will help improve Internet connectivity throughout the country. This will speed up implementation of telco infrastructure projects, especially along national roads. In a world where digitization is being fast-tracked to meet challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, some quarters see the vast improvements in the country’s telco and Internet services as a Duterte legacy. They cited Ookla’s report on the latest fixed broadband download speed, which represents an improvement of 642.50 percent since the Duterte administration began on June 30, 2016. The latest mobile speed, they added, represents an improvement of 330 percent during the same timeframe. The President may have used threat to make the telcos shape up, but he made sure that government also did its part to build a sturdy foundation for the telecommunications sector. Now they have the footing to compete and be at par with the elite group of Internet providers in the world, even after the President leaves Malacañang.

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LGU vaccine tactics working, but local execs can do more Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur

T is nice to see local government units competing against each other in the vaccination drive with positive results. Close to 9 million Filipinos so far have received at least one vaccine dose as of last week. But LGUs can do more and should sustain their aggressiveness to bring the Philippines nearer to its herd immunity objective. A more extensive vaccine coverage is the key to the full reopening of the Philippine economy. Many advanced nations are doing that now—reopening several sectors of their economy and allowing more people to participate in the recovery process after inoculating a substantial percentage of their population. The Philippines, per the World Health Organization data as of June 25, 2021, ranked 29th so far among the countries in terms of total doses (first and second jabs) given to the population with nearly 9 million. It is ahead of Thailand with 8.5 million and Malaysia with 6.3 million. It lags behind Bangladesh, 10.1 million; South Korea, 18.4 million; Japan, 35.8 million; and Indonesia, 37 million. China topped the list with 1.1 billion doses and the United States ranked second with 320 million jabs. The rate of full inoculation (two jabs) compared with the total popu-

lation of one nation, however, is entirely a different picture. France, for example, administered 49 million jabs, with full vaccination at 17.2 million against a total population of 65.4 million, or 25.7 percent. Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries in the early stage of the pandemic, inoculated 47.7 million and gave full vaccination to 16.6 million, or 27.6 percent of its 60.4 million population. Brazil, in contrast, has given 91.6 million jabs versus a full vaccination of 24.6 million or 11.7 percent of its total population of over 214 million. India has inoculated 293 million against 51.6 million who received full vaccination, or just 3.8 percent of its total population of 1.39 billion. The US has given full vaccination to 151 million people, or 45.9 percent of its total population of 332.9 million, while the Philippines has administered two jabs to 2.25 million, or just 2.1 percent of the total population.

There is unlimited pizza John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

party size pizza is placed in the middle of the table. Do you subscribe to the idea that for every piece someone else eats, that is one less slice for you? Or, do you believe that there is an unlimited amount of pizza to fill everyone’s desires? If you are in the first group of thinking, then you agree with the “limited good theory” that all goods are finite. You are in good company. This idea has motivated individuals and societies for thousands of years. The amount of land, money, food, everything available is held to be limited, so every time one person profits, another one loses. Because there is a limited amount of resources, every war was fought

to take from someone else to give to yourself. The ancient Roman Empire was therefore not for “evil conquest” but simply a survival mechanism to feed and provide for the Romans. It was also good if you did not kill all the people you conquered so they could continue to plow the fields and pay tribute. That is one reason why the Roman Empire lasted for over 1,000 years. However, societies that adhered to this concept were strongly equalitar-

The wider vaccine coverage in France, Italy and the US has given their respective governments the confidence to significantly reopen their economies. In the case of Italy, its government no longer requires the wearing of face mask as protection to Covid-19. Many states in the US have allowed the full reopening of their restaurants and let spectators to watch professional basketball games. France, as we have seen on television, accommodated thousands of spectators to watch the final tennis matches of the French Open. We may be months away yet from administering two jabs to at least one-fourth of our 111 million population. But I see encouraging signs from our LGUs and the resolve of the private sector to vaccinate their workers. The city of San Juan in Metro Manila may be close to becoming the first city or municipality to reach its herd immunity target. Per the report of San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora, his city has inoculated 64,276 individuals against Covid-19, or 75 percent of the 85,400 target population as of last week. The city has administered two doses to 18,873, or 15.5 percent of its total population of 122,000. San Juan may be the second-least populated in the capital region after Pateros, but inoculating 15 percent of its population at this stage is a significant accomplishment. Las Piñas, though, may be the fastest LGU in Metro Manila now

The impact of crab mentality on performance was quantified by a New Zealand study in 2015, which demonstrated an 18 percent average exam result improvement for students when their grades were reported in a way that prevented others from knowing their position in rankings. Everyone can get 100 percent correct on the test. You just have to believe it. ian among members. Granted, the more elite of the society got more than the lower classes. But within classes everyone was equally the same—eople are just about as “rich” or as “poor” as everybody else. The idea of “limited good” was first noted by George M. Foster in his 1965 article, “Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good.” Here is where it gets interesting. Among the Mexican peasants (in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán) that Fos-

in the vaccine rollout with 200,000 jabs administered to its residents as of last week. As I’ve written in this column before, we should encourage LGUs to race against each other to reach the ultimate goal of attaining herd immunity. The LGUs must also adapt to what’s happening on the ground and the availability of vaccine supply. I agree with Mayor Isko Moreno when he immediately withdrew his policy to refuse walk-in Covid-19 vaccine applicants after a low turnout. Any available vaccine must be delivered to the population with dispatch to avoid the next wave of infection. Over in Quezon City and other parts of Metro Manila, local executives are expanding the vaccine rollout to other centers like barangay halls, churches and homeowners’ associations. The so-called QC Bakuna Nights, which accommodate night inoculations for workers who have no time to go to their vaccination center during the daytime, is also an innovative scheme. LGUs as well as those in the provinces can draw up more creative ideas in the vaccination drive and do the job with more resolve. Every dose delivered from abroad must be dealt with immediately under the least cumbersome process. All Filipinos must be protected against the arrival of the next virus variant.

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

ter studied, he saw their lack of interest in new opportunities because of their perception of the world as a “competitive game” of one winner/ one loser. Their “limited goods” concept extended to other aspects of life. “When a happy, healthy two-yearold began to lose weight and become fussy, the women told me that it was because the mother was pregnant again.” The Mazatec thought the child was losing weight because the mother was sharing her limited supply of love with the unborn child she was carrying. “Someone’s advantage implies someone else’s disadvantage.” A farmer who developed a way to grow more crops was shunned as the village thought it would come at another farmer’s expense. The other’s crop production would decrease. The Industrial Revolution showed that pizza pie could be unlimited. Need more food? Make the recipe, bake the pie, and everyone eats their See “Mangun,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Strange values Filipinos look for in a president

PNoy without tears Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

Lyca Balita

Onwards

he 2022 elections are coming up, and rumors about potential presidential candidates are going around, especially these days considering the recent political climate. The names, predictably, are nothing new—most are the same names from Congress, families who treat politics as family businesses, and those who failed last elections and want to try again. I’ve heard perspectives from different kinds of people with various political preferences, and the bases for their bets are interesting, particularly because they have absolutely nothing to do with the office of the president. First, many want to vote for the philanthropists, particularly those who are able to donate loads of money for good causes. However, does “philanthropism” automatically equate to good governance? Generosity does not automatically mean possessing the skills, principles, and qualities of a good president. Maybe there are people who ought to stick to donating for good causes, something they are good at, instead of ruling an entire country. Personally, I’m more concerned that there are people who have so much money that they can give away so much yet still have an excess, enough to keep at least three more generations without financial problems. Of course, it’s nice to thank the generous, but it’s inevitable to question these colossal wealth gaps that leave some families with mansions, while many stay homeless. Nonetheless, the presidency requires a bigger set of values and principles anyway, not just generosity. Second, another strange mindset when it comes to the presidency is this: some think that after being a senator, the presidency is the next level , as if these positions do not have completely different nature. Thus, there is a common misconception that anyone from Congress is automatically fully qualified to become the president. However, we were taught in grade school that the legislative and executive branches have completely different powers and responsibilities. Put simply (and ideally), those in the legislative branch create the laws, while those in the executive branch execute the laws. They are different branches, which is precisely why there is a separation of powers—they have separate powers. It’s pretty straightforward, so it should follow that experience in writing the laws does not automatically translate to competence in executing those laws. Still, somehow, the mindset is prevalent. Lastly, it should go without saying that competence with regard to good governance is not genetic. Just because one had the potential or was actually a good president does not mean that his or her relatives share that quality. Surnames are just surnames; the people still differ. The presidency (just like the other high positions in government) is not a family business or something to be inherited. If the same names have been ruling the country, and nothing has improved, does that not indicate that political families just do not work?

Mangun. . .

Continued from A10

fill. Marxism and Communism start with the premise of limited goods that should be shared equally. Unfortunately, that does not increase production. “Crab mentality,” which some people think is unique to Filipinos (Hint: not even close), is based on the “limited goods” fallacy. We attribute it to greed. We say it is envy and jealousy that spawns this, such that “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” But it is the idea that “if you have it, there is none left for me” that creates this mindset. However, take away the thought that life requires one winner/one

Nonetheless, these issues indicate a systemic problem that allows questionable people to run for office, to take advantage of the people’s vulnerabilities, and to win. The science and history behind these problems can be complex and are best explained by political scientists and similar professionals, but it’s important to remember that the uneducated and vulnerable voters are not solely to blame. We blame the abusers, not the victims. Still, even if the flaw is in the system, not the voters, we cannot leave the country this way. We owe it to ourselves and to the next generations to elect better leaders in the coming elections. In the Philippines, voting is a right, but we shouldn’t forget that rights come with obligations. We cannot just show up on election day and pick anyone at random since “it’s just one vote.” When a million people have that mindset, a million votes are wasted, and the undeserving candidate wins. As cheesy as it may sound, every vote counts. The best thing we can do is to educate ourselves and the people around us not only to register to vote, but also to research prior to voting. Traditional advertisements are paid—the rich, whatever their source of income may be, manipulate that. We have to do our part objectively researching the candidates’ experience, skills, network, advocacies, and principles. Very importantly, we also have to understand the obligations that come with the positions these candidates are running for; different positions have different jobs, and higher offices come with greater responsibilities. What exactly does each official do? What qualities should they possess? Would I trust this person with my countrymen’s lives? These questions should guide us in casting our votes. Popularity, family, and generosity should not be the only considerations. Look where that brought us. According to the Comelec web site, as of today, there are a little over 90 days left before the last day of voter registration. Thus, let’s do our part and register for the coming elections, and educate others on the importance of each vote and the mindsets that each voter ought to have with regard to elections. What we do will determine the fate of our country for the next six years. Special thanks to Jasmin Montenegro for this piece. For feedback, send an e-mail to lyca.balita@ gmail.com

loser because money, love, success, and goods are limited, and outcomes change. Take the other guy out of your “limited goods” concept, and here is what happens. The impact of crab mentality on performance was quantified by a New Zealand study in 2015, which demonstrated an 18 percent average exam result improvement for students when their grades were reported in a way that prevented others from knowing their position in rankings. Everyone can get 100 percent correct on the test. You just have to believe it.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.

enigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (PNoy), the 15th President of the Philippines, died at 61 before his immediate successor has even completed his term of office. He predeceased his three predecessors in office—Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Erap Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who are all still enjoying their post-presidential years. But the male Aquinos starting from his grandfather, Benigno Sr., the former Resident Commissioner to the US during the Commonwealth years and Speaker of the National Assembly under the 2nd Philippine Republic, died of a heart attack at 53 while watching the world boxing title fight between the Mexican bantamweight champion, Manuel Ortiz, and the Filipino challenger, Tirso del Rosario, on December 20, 1949. Ninoy Aquino, our national hero, was felled by an assassin’s bullet and died on August 21, 1983 at the age of 50. They have all “accomplished their mission” at a relatively young age. PNoy was the last direct male heir of the four generations of Aquinos starting from General Servillano (Don Mianong) Aquino, followed by Speaker Benigno Aquino Sr., Ninoy Aquino Jr., and PNoy. PNoy was the last male bearer of the political torch held high by his famous forebears. He remained a bachelor all his life and did not beget his own child. He was the last prince of Camelot. We all know about his grandfather, Benigno Sr., and his father Ninoy, but very little about his great grandfather. Don Mianong, the progenitor of the Aquino clan, was the Captain Municipal of Murcia in Tarlac when the Philippine revolution broke out. He organized his own military brigade and at the age of 24, led a daring raid on the railroad station in Gerona, Tarlac. Armed only with short bolos, he and his four men entered the station pretending to be passengers and killed nine Spanish soldiers, and fled with their guns. Don Mianong was named as commandant of the army

in Tarlac and eventually promoted to general. An army camp is named after him in his province. PNoy gave me my first important job in government—as Acting Insurance Commissioner of the Philippines. He plucked me out from the private sector after working for more than 25 years in the insurance industry both here and abroad. I did not personally know PNoy and his Secretary of Finance, Secretary Cesar Purisima, to whom the Insurance Commissioner directly reports, the IC being an attached agency. Yet he appointed me as the regulator of the entire insurance industry, preneed and eventually HMO companies. When the 2013 Insurance Code (RA 10607) was passed, instead of accepting my resignation, PNoy named me as the first Insurance Commissioner under the new Insurance Code, with broader powers and responsibilities. His family owns an insurance company and worked there during his younger days. One day, while he was on his way to the

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 A11

airport, he noticed an outdoor advertisement of an insurer, which said that it could settle claims in one day. PNoy thought that it was a misrepresentation and called me about it. I immediately called the president of the insurance company and asked him if what he advertised was true and to immediately submit proof of such settlements. Before I left my office that day, the outdoor advertisement at the corner of Quirino and Osmeña Avenue in Paco, Manila was gone. In one of his provincial sorties, he was mobbed by planholders of one pre-need company that failed to settle claims. I was in the middle of my speech in a five-star hotel to talk about industry matters when my phone rang. It was the President and he wanted my explanation why the pre-need company concerned had failed on its obligation to pay due claims. I explained to him the situation and that the company had been placed under receivership and efforts were being done to recover assets of the company to settle its obligations. No doubt, PNoy seriously took his job and he wanted his subordinates to be equal to his trust. Now we know why PNoy abhorred “wangwang.” Vehicles using police sirens with blinking lights that escort government officials and influential motorists represent trappings of power and obscene display of authority. As the most persecuted family during the Martial Law years, he revolted against abuse of power in any form. But when he came to power, he did not become vicious and vindictive. Instead, he made it a policy under his administration for government officials not to abuse their position and privilege. Many of us thought that PNoy was uncaring and was hardly concerned with the victims of tragedies and calamities. Secretary Rene Almendras, who was his classmate and friend in Ateneo, said that

PNoy was always concerned of his friends who joined him after school since PNoy knew that he was on the watch-list of the authorities and he wanted them spared from any trouble. Almendras narrated how his own relatives had warned him about the risks of hanging out with PNoy, but he stuck out with him in good times and bad, until the very end. Many condemned PNoy for his alleged callous handling of the Mamasapano and the Typhoon Yolanda victims. Almendras explained that it was not in PNoy’s character to “put on a show” for the victims’ relatives or the press. He’d rather stay on the sidelines and allow the concerned authorities to do their jobs effectively undistracted by his presence. PNoy was truly simple, easy and unpretentious. Even as president, he was modest and did not want to draw attention to himself. After increasing the salaries of the officers and employees of the Insurance Commission in 2016, I went to see him and expressed my profound gratitude. He just nodded and said to me: “Commissioner, you and your people earned it. Thank Secretary Purisima and Secretary Abad.” Now, we see him in a better light. After many have spoken about his significant accomplishments while in office, and the data support them, we have realized that PNoy had fulfilled his social contract with the Filipino people. He delivered on his major election promises. He fought corruption in government, launched infrastructure developments through PPP, improved our economy and promoted inclusive growth, addressed poverty through the 4Ps Program and promoted qualit y education through the K-to-12 Program. I trust that the prism of history will cast him objectively for our people to truly appreciate his true worth and invaluable contributions to our country’s development.

Implementing the tax incentives provisions of CREATE Atty. Rodel C. Unciano

Tax Law for Business

URSUANT to Section 21 of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, the Secretary of Finance and the Secretary of Trade and Industry, after consultations with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the Board of Investments (BOI), and other Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs), have finally issued the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the tax incentives provisions of CREATE. The Fiscal Incentives Review Board or IPAs, under the delegated authority from the FIRB, shall grant tax incentives to qualified business enterprises only to the extent of their approved registered project or activity under the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP), which is prepared by the BOI, in coordination with the FIRB, IPAs and the private sector and which is approved by the President. The tax and duty incentives include: 1) Income Tax Holiday (ITH), 2) Special Corporate Income Tax (SCIT), 3) Enhanced Deductions (ED), 4) Customs duty exemption on importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, or accessories, and 5) value-added tax exemption on importation and VAT zero-rating on local purchases.

Income tax holiday

The ITH shall be limited to the income generated by a Registered Business Enterprise (RBE) from a registered project or activity. Export enterprises as well as qualified domestic market enterprises may be granted an ITH of four to seven years, depending on location and industry priorities.

Special corporate income tax

The SCIT is a tax equivalent to a tax

rate of 5 percent of gross income earned and is in lieu of all national and local taxes. For this purpose, GIE refers to gross sales or gross revenues derived from the registered project or activity, net of sales discounts, sales returns and allowances and minus costs of sales or direct costs but before any deduction is made for administrative expenses or incidental losses during a given taxable period. For the purpose of availing the 5 percent tax on GIE, local taxes, fees and charges for the regulation or inspection of a business or activity as defined under Section 131 (l) and (g) of the Local Government Code of 1991 are not included. The 5 percent SCIT may be granted for export enterprises for a period of 10 years. This is akin to the 5 percent gross income tax under the old regime but the 5 percent SCIT is not available to domestic market enterprises by virtue of the President’s veto.

Enhanced deductions

Registered business enterprises may be granted enhanced deductions in addition to the allowable ordinary and necessary deductions under Section 34 of the Tax Code. Export enterprises may, at their option, avail themselves of the enhanced deductions or the SCIT rate,

but the enhanced deductions shall not be granted simultaneously with the SCIT. The allowable enhanced deductions are as follows: a) Additional depreciation allowance for assets acquired for the production of goods and services, equivalent to 10 percent for buildings and 20 percent for machinery and equipment. b) Additional 50 percent deduction on labor expense incurred. This shall not include salaries, wages, benefits and other personnel costs incurred for managerial, administrative, indirect labor and support services. c) Additional deduction of 100 percent of expenses incurred for research and development that is directly related to the registered project or activity of the registered business entity. d) Additional deduction on training expense. e) Additional deduction on domestic input expense. f) Additional deduction on power expense. g) Deduction for reinvestment allowance for manufacturing industry. h) Enhanced Net Operating Loss Carry Over. Net operating loss incurred by a registered project or activity during the first three years from the start of commercial operations may be carried over as deduction from gross income within the next five consecutive taxable years following the year of such loss.

Duty exemption

The importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, and accessories made by RBEs shall be exempt from customs duties provided that the importation is 1) Directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity by the registered business enterprises, and 2) The capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, or accessories are directly and reasonably needed by

the RBE; will be used exclusively in and as part of the direct cost of the registered project or activity; and are not produced or manufactured domestically in sufficient quantity or of comparable quality and at reasonable prices.

VAT zero-rating and exemption

The VAT exemption on importation and VAT zero-rating on local purchases shall only apply to goods and services directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity of export enterprises. Transactions falling under Section 106(A)(2) (a)3,(4), and (5) and Section 108(B) (1) and (5) of the Tax Code shall be subject to the 12 percent VAT pursuant to Revenue Regulations 9-2021. The importation of Covid-19 vaccines by RBEs shall be exempt from import duties, taxes and other fees, subject to the approval or licenses issued by the Department of Health or the Food and Drug Administration. For the exemptions to apply, the Covid-19 vaccines must not be intended for resale or other commercial use and shall be distributed without any consideration from persons to be vaccinated. The tax incentives under CREATE are expected to provide relief to small businesses, attract new investments and create new employment opportunities especially in less developed areas resulting to countrywide development and a more inclusive economic growth. The author is a partner of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member-firm of WTS Global. The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at rodel.unciano@bdblaw.com.ph or call 84032001 local 140.

A12 Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Groups push for Bayanihan 2 extension; specl session dims

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie & Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

OUSE Majority Leader Martin Romualdez on Monday admitted that holding a special session for the passage of the bill extending the Bayanihan to Recover as One law or the Bayanihan 2, which expires on June 30, is now getting dimmer. As of Monday, Romualdez said there are still no instructions from Malacañang on the proposed extension of the Bayahinan 2. “Athough that was in the agenda last week in our visit to Malacañang, we were not able to take that up, such there is no clarity in moving forward. As we know Bayanihan 2 will expire on June 30 so it’s looking quite tight. The likelihood of an extension is becoming dimmer as this point,” said Romualdez. “We are also a bit short on time for special session because we, usually, [in] this instance would await for proclamation by Malacañang to call a special session. We need [a] declaration or certification of urgency and we have not had that yet,” he added. For her part, House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairman Sharon Garin said parts of the Bayanihan 2 have been included in the Bayanihan 3 or the proposed Bayanihan to Arise As One Act. “Technically, you can’t extend something that expired. But Congress has the power to legislate to that effect and we have ex-

tension of Bayanihan 2 in Bayanihan 3,” Garin added. As of May 31, about 9 billion in unobligated funds for critical pandemic response and recovery programs under the Bayanihan are about to expire on June 30.

Clamor from groups

HEALTH workers, economists and civil society groups on Monday pressed their call to extend the effectivity of Bayanihan 2 in order to sustain the pandemic response and allow the country to flatten the Covid-19 curve. Action for Economic Reforms (AER) Coordinator Filomeno Sta. Ana III expressed concern that Bayanihan 2’s impending expiration would leave a lot of pandemic-related programs without appropriate funding for the rest of the year. This includes some P6.6 billion appropriated for health human resource and laboratory tests. Other appropriations set to expire include contact tracing funds and support for digital education materials, programs for affected farmers and workers, and response and recovery interventions.

‘FULL-BLOWN SUGAR LIB UNTIMELY AMID SEVERE MARKET DISTORTIONS’

“This time, it is an imperative and an absolute necessity to spend big and ensure that the spending is responsive to flattening the pandemic. The 2021 budget is not a budget that meets the health objectives,” Sta. Ana said in a statement. “To be brutally frank, the 2021 GAA is a budget that kills people. Less spending for pandemic response and more spending on bullets. Exercise leadership and use political capital to have a pro-health, pro-relief, and pro-jobs budget for the remaining two years of his [Duterte’s] term,” he added. AER as well as the Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against Covid-19 (HPAAC) and the COVID19 Action Network (CAN) said the call for fiscal response has been amplified by the alarming increase of infections in the countryside. Dr. Katerina Abiertas, a municipal health worker from Samar and a member of HPAAC, and CAN coordinator Dr. Eddie Dorotan said in a recent briefing that Covid-19 cases are rising in areas outside Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR). Abiertas and Dorotan said the funds, especially the P6.6 billion, could go a long way to help health workers continue treating Covid-19 patients in the provinces.

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

STUDY commissioned by the government has advised against pursuing a full-blown sugar trade liberalization at this time given severe distortions in the world sugar market. The study titled, “An Assessment of Reform Directions for the Philippine Sugar Industry,” conducted by Brain Trust Inc. and commissioned by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), found that sugar liberalization will favor the rich more than the poor. Based on the findings, the full liberalization of the trade in sugar would lead to a 57-percent decline in the profits of planters and millers while consumers will see a gain in welfare of 65 percent. The net gain, the study found, is only 1.8 percent which is equivalent to P2 billion. “The case for sugar trade liberalization appears weak at this time. Should it be pursued nonetheless, it would best

Transmissions

EFFORTS to respond to the pandemic are crucial in order to prevent further spread of Covid-19, especially amid reports that the Delta variant has already reached Philippine shores. “High transmission, especially of a more dangerous variant, would still necessitate restrictions, which of course would constrain the economy,” Sta. Ana said.

be done gradually and only partially, especially in the face of severe distortions in the world sugar market,” the report stated. Data showed that the impact of sugar trade liberalization on the welfare of households who are consumers of the product would be uneven across income classes. The lowest income decile would gain P262 million while the richest decile stands to gain as much as P1.6 billion. The study noted that this reflected higher consumption levels of the affected products by richer households. “All told, liberalization would benefit consumers but would favor the rich more than the poor. All this would be at a clear cost to the sugar industry stakeholders,” the study noted.

Inter-industry effects

MEANWHILE, the study found that if inter-industry effects are accounted for, Philippine society will gain P7 billion to as much as P9 billion annually if sugar trade is fully liberalized. Continued on A6

See “Bayanihan 2,” A2

PHL cold-chain group: Enough space to hold surge in pork imports By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

HE Philippines’s cold-chain industry has abundant space to accommodate the anticipated surge in pork imports as the government implements the additional 200,000 metric ton (MT) pork minimum access volume (MAV) or MAV plus, the industry association said on Monday. According to Anthony S. Dizon, Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) president, the industry has an aggregate capacity of 350,000 MT that can be dedicated to meat products, which is 75 percent higher than the approved MAV plus. Dizon said the country’s lack of mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken supply freed up a lot of space in cold storages nationwide. “Receiving these supplies is not a problem. Our members are saying that they can greatly accommodate these volumes,” he said in an interview. “The shipments will be coming in batches anyway, so the depletion rate will also play a role in capacity utilization,” he added. Dizon urged the government to have an open database that would show the number of approved volume under pork MAV+ so that the cold-chain industry could closely monitor the import situation and make necessary adjustments to avert logistical bottlenecks. “It would really be helpful if the government could share information on the list of approved SPS-ICs [sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances] and quantities involved to enable the cold-chain industry to also make advance preparations for capacity distribution,” he explained.

Dar’s timeline

AGRICULTURE Secretary William D. Dar said it is “crucial” that 70 percent of the pork MAV+ to arrive and be distributed in

the next four months to temper the country’s inflation rate, which was pegged at 4.5 percent in May. The inflation rate of meat products in May was at 22.1 percent, based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data. “It is very crucial because meat still appears in the latest food inflation—both in April and May. And even in June, it still appears. So it is very crucial that we are able to pull down meat prices and food inflation,” Dar told reporters in an interview on Monday. Dar maintained that the government’s goal is to bring down pork retail prices to its pre-African Swine Fever level, which is below P300 per kilogram, through the Executive’s twin measure of reducing pork tariffs and hiking pork MAV. The BusinessMirror broke the story on Monday that the MAV Management Committee (MAV-MC) has finally approved the guidelines for the pork MAV+, more than a month after Duterte ordered the increase of the MAV. The BusinessMirror also reported that foreign meat suppliers are upbeat on their export outlook to the Philippines as they anticipate record-high pork shipments to the country this year. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2021/06/28/pork-shipments-tophl-could-hit-record-high-this-yearsuppliers/) Under the approved guidelines, about 70 percent or 140,000 MT of the total pork MAV+ must be distributed within July to October; while the remaining volume of 60,000 MT must be sold in Mega Manila-based wet markets, supermarkets and KADIWA centers from November to January 2022.

Logistical risks

HOWEVER, Dizon flagged some risks that could affect the distribution of the country’s much needed pork supply from abroad. Continued on A6

THE Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge, also known as Rockwell Bridge connecting the cities of Makati and Mandaluyong, is now 92-percent complete and will be opened in July, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar has announced. The 506-meter bridge, which features a threemeter wide sidewalk, is among the P3.39-billion infrastructure projects in the country which are funded by China. ROY DOMINGO

Gordon prods people to get jab as Covid variant spreads

HILE 10 million Filipinos are already vaccinated in the country as of Monday, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) urged the public to get vaccinated following the threat of new variants of concern (VOCs). PRC Chairman and CEO Senator Richard Gordon noted the health experts’ warning that vaccines are highly effective against the Delta variant. “Tuloy tuloy ang serbisyo ng PRC sa pagbabakuna. Sa ngayon ay mayroon na tayong pitong PRC bakuna centers upang mas mapabilis ang pagte-test sa ating kababayan [The PRC continues to serve in the vaccine rollout. As of now, we have seven PRC vaccination centers to help fast-track the testing of our countrymen],”Gordon said. On Monday, at least 10 million Filipinos were listed as already vaccinated, while 2.5

million of those vaccinated received the second dose. This is part of the 70 percent of the total adult population that needs to get vaccinated in the county.

Delta variant

THE PRC chairman, meanwhile, warned that the new version of the Delta variant is spreading rapidly in a number of countries including the United Kingdom, United States, and India. This new variant of concern, which has generated a significant amount of global media attention, Gordon added, is called B.1.617.2.1 or AY.1—Delta Plus for short and is a version of the Delta variant first detected in India in February. In an interview, Gordon emphasized the importance of wearing a face mask and regular testing.

“Always wear a face mask. PRC is ramping up our vaccination efforts and continues to test regularly, so that we can separate the asymptomatic spreaders from the healthy ones,” he added. PRC, the leading organization when it comes to Covid-19 testing, has conducted over 3.3 million tests, accounting for 23 percent of tests done in the country. Gordon, meanwhile, cited the four most important guidelines in Fareed Zakaria’s book, “Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World.” Quoting the book, Gordon said Filipinos should do social distancing, wear face masks, regularly hand wash, and regular be tested to slow the spread of the virus. These practices, he stressed, are most important as “the majority of our fellow Filipinos are not yet vaccinated.” Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Jollibee to bolster balance sheet via ₧12-B share sale

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

ollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) on Monday said it plans to issue up to P12 billion worth of perpetual preferred shares by September after securing the approval of its shareholders last week.

The preferred share sale, which the company said is the first in its corporate history and the first in the Philippine food service industry, would still need the go signal of the country’s regulators. Proceeds of the share sale will be used to buy back some $250 million of the $600 million in perpetual securities it issued in January 2020. The issuance of preferred shares and the buyback of its US dollar perpetual securities are part of an overall plan to strengthen the company’s balance sheet, JFC said. “Once all are executed by December 2021, JFC would have fewer debt obligations, more distributed financial maturities over the next few years, lower foreign exchange risks, and better leverage and debt servicing ratios,” the company said. These transactions will support the company in maintaining its capability to finance its profitable growth,

which is forecast to accelerate in the next months and years, as the group plans to open about 450 new stores in 2021 and at least 500 new stores per year in the next few years. Jollibee said it will file an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the shelf registration of up to 20 million peso-denominated, cumulative, non-voting, non-participating, nonconvertible, redeemable perpetual preferred shares to be issued during a shelf period of up to three years from the effective date of the registration statement. It will sell the said preferred shares at P1,000 apiece or a total of P20 billion. The company said it will initially offer P8 billion worth of preferred shares and an oversubscription option of up to P4 billion. “The initial issuance shall be issued in one or two series and may have step-up dividend rates if they

are not redeemed on the third or fifth anniversary of the issue date,” the company said. The said preferred shares will come from the reclassification of existing authorized and unissued common shares, and as such it will not increase the total number of authorized shares in the company’s equity base. The issuance of preferred shares will also not change the current cash dividend policy on the company’s common shares which is to declare as cash dividends 33 percent of its net income attributable to common equity holders of Jollibee. JFC said shareholders approved the amendment to the articles of incorporation which pertains to the company’s primary purpose to provide it with greater flexibility to restructure its legal entities to further improve its efficiency and effectiveness in pursuing its core business in food service. The amendment to the articles of incorporation clearly and expressly state, for the avoidance of doubt the authority of the company and its subsidiaries to invest in, acquire, own, use and dispose of real and personal properties, of every kind and description, when such activities are done in pursuit of its business objectives. The amendment will enable the company to avail of a broader choice of corporate structures, securities and financial instruments available in the financial and commercial mar-

kets which will enhance its economic productivity with respect to the use of real estate properties needed to pursue it primary business purpose. “As a point of clarification, JFC will not allocate more resources in real properties as the intention behind this amendment. On the contrary, one of the benefits that will arise from this amendment will be that through restructuring of its legal entities, the company will own lesser real properties in the future and will improve its cash flows,” it said. Jollibee said it has also allowed the election of two Singaporeans— Kevin Goh and Ee Rong Chong—to its board as part of its corporate governance measures. Goh is currently the chief executive for Lodging of CapitaLand Group, one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups, while Chong is an accomplished business leader and active board member, with extensive experience across corporate and non-profit organizations. Jollibee said it has built over the years significant economic interests based in Singapore, including Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL), a wholly owned unit based in the small Southeast Asian nation. The said company owns most of Jollibee’s businesses outside of the Philippines including those in China, Vietnam, Middle East and Europe. JWPL is also the issuer of the company’s dollar bonds worth $1.2 billion.

SBS to build more warehouses S

BS Philippines Corp., a chemical trader led by the Sytengco Group, on Monday said it will add new warehouse facilities to expand its inventory of food ingredient products. In its disclosure, the company said it will use part of the P588.77-million gain from the sale of its unit, Lence Holdings Corp., to develop additional warehouses for its growing food ingredient raw material product line and to meet increasing demand for Halal certified logistics and distribution facility. “This development is also aligned with the direction of SBS to improve operational efficiency by constructing the new facilities

in its head office located in Quezon City,” the company said. The first warehouse will feature a multi-level racking system with a capacity of up to 1,800 pallet location, SBS said. The said facility will be outfitted with semi-automated shuttle carts to improve operational efficiency by capitalizing on technology. SBS had disposed of its 65-percent stake in loss-making unit Lence Holdings, a company that has warehouse facilities in the southern part of Metro Manila. It sold the company to Royal Cargo Inc. for P585.03 million. “The sale of Lence shares will result in substantial cash flow to the company and sales proceeds will be

used for its investment in warehouse expansion within Metro Manila for improved operational efficiency, installation of solar energy source for its operation and reduction of outstanding debt,” SBS said in its previous disclosure. In 2017, SBS formed Lence, which was supposed to serve as the acquisition vehicle for the investment in warehouse facility complex. Lence, which has been reporting losses, is a holding company with investment assets consisting of buildings, improvements and machineries. It also owned subsidiary Benesale Land Inc., which has no operations other than owning a 4.7-hectare

parcel of land at Silangan Industrial Park on which the facility is located. “Management considered it to be appropriate time to divest and sell its shareholdings in Lence Holdings Corp. to unlock the share’s maximum value and realize a gain from the transaction. The divestment is aligned with company’s direction to improve operational efficiency through expansion of additional warehouses in its head office located in Quezon City, instead of developing Lence’s property,” SBS said. SBS reported a net loss of P20.8 million in the first quarter, a reversal of last year’s profit of P6.4 million. VG Cabuag

DOE asked to resolve row over Benguet hydro plants

ENATE Energy Committee Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to exercise its mandate to resolve the issues involving the impending shutdown of the three hydroelectric power plants in Benguet province. “At a time when there’s a threat of yellow and red alerts in the power supply, we have to make sure that all plants are up and running especially now that we’re in the middle of a global health crisis,” Gatchalian said. The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Cordillera has issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) last June 22 against Hedcor Inc., operator of Labay, Lonoy and F.L. Singit hydropower plants in Bakun town, Benguet. The order to stop operations stemmed from alleged issues in obtaining consent from indigenous tribes, particularly the Bakun Indigenous Tribes Organization (BITO). Under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), project developers can only acquire permits and licenses upon the issuance of the Certification Precondition (CP)

by the NCIP which proves consent from the indigenous community where the project will be situated. “While the issues confronting Hedcor Inc. and the indigenous communities are legal in nature, I implore the NCIP and DOE to work out a possible solution,” Gatchalian said. Hedcor maintained that it has been fully compliant with the memorandum of agreement (MOA) it signed with BITO. “We believe that we have been compliant with all the requirements during the course of the FPIC [Free Prior Informed Consent] application process, and have been waiting for the issuance of the CP since the FPIC-MOA was signed,” said Hedcor Vice President for Corporate Services Noreen Vicencio. The company would still continue to actively reach out to the community for a dialogue, with the guidance of NCIP. “The CDO will not just affect Hedcor, but also the customers and communities we serve. At this time of a red alert situation in the Luzon grid, the continued operation of our plants is very crucial,” said Vicencio. Lenie Lectura

Fortune Life celebrates 36th Annual Awards virtually

eading life insurer Fortune Life Insurance Co., Inc. vowed to continue strengthening its online facilities for the benefit of both its policyholders and salesforce members. During Fortune Life’s 36th Annual Awards last June 11, which was held virtually via Zoom and streamed on the company’s official Facebook page, D. Arnold A. Cabangon, Fortune Life president, expressed confidence that the company will be able to attain, and even exceed its sales goal for 2021 despite the challenges of the pandemic. “Among the priority projects for this year are online selling tools for the agents, web-based self-service customer support, and online payment facilities with partner banks, Dragonpay, and GCash, for the convenience of our clients. I assure you that the management will continue to support our salesforce to attain and even exceed our sales goal for 2021,” Cabangon said in his message. Commending the company’s Top Sales Achievers for the year, Cabangon shared how his father and Fortune Life founder, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, “would have been very proud of you, as each of you embodies his values of perseverance combined with hard work and discipline.” For her part, Emma M. Abad, executive vice president and general manager of Fortune Life, underscored the great strength shown by the company’s salesforce members in the face of a global health crisis. “Our salesforce, especially our top producers, not only showed resilience but also persistence in achieving their sales goals. The pandemic did not stop them from fulfilling their mission of offering life insurance protection to our fellow Filipinos,” she said in her message.

Fortune Life has a total of 37 awardees this year, which is more than the number of their top achievers in the previous year. Among them are Ritchie L. Garay, Insurance Specialist of the Year and SSI Specialist of the Year; Eunice Y. Hangad, Agency Manager of the Year; Ines H. Jabines, Field Manager of the Year and Agency Builder of the Year; and Arlene L. Allarey, Group Insurance Specialist of the Year and Group Field Manager of the Year. Also honored during the virtual event were husband and wife Francisco A. Taguines and Emily C. Taguines, Founder’s Circle Awardees for the fifth consecutive year. In his special message, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa expressed his appreciation to Fortune Life “for being one of the contributors to the overall success of the industry.” He thanked them for their hard work and encouraged them to continue working in harmony for a better future for the industry. “Many thanks to all of your hard work and support in upholding the growth and development of the insurance industry. Together, let us forge our path towards recovery and brighter days ahead,” he said. The Insurance Commissioner also took the opportunity to send a message of hope for all the diligent members of the insurance industry. “In this time of crisis I would like to embolden everyone to take heart and courage in facing the challenges hurled on us. Let us continue to play our part in providing comprehensive products and financial solutions that will help our countrymen achieve a better future, especially in these trying times we are in. I am counting on your cooperation in making our hopes for a better future a reality,” Funa said.

Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

mutual funds

NAV

June 28, 2021 One Year Three Year Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

223.46

11.17%

-3.27%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.3904

34.96%

-1.28%

1.67%

5.89%

12.83%

-7.59%

-5.76%

-1.69%

-3.38% n.a.

-2.85%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0801

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.781 12.24%

-3.59%

-1.65%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7447 11.68%

-2.51% n.a.

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

-1.02%

-1.83%

-0.68%

5.5%

-4.59%

-6.36%

-2.26% n.a.

-0.92%

4.9076

14.1%

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

0.7175

0.42%

-5.57% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

101

27.57%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

45.7527

13.35%

-1.26%

-2.39%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

480.6

11.45%

-1.46%

-2.75%

-1.71%

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

1.0866

22.19% n.a. n.a.

-0.98%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.1507

12.69%

-1.49%

-2.01%

-1.5%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

34.2504

13.87%

-0.9%

-1.35%

-1.49%

12.62% n.a. n.a.

-1.98%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.8949

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.6878

13.98%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

785.17

14.09%

-0.5%

-1.78%

-2.06%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7163

12.98%

-4.77%

-4.74%

-0.36%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.5479

11.48%

-0.6%

-1.68%

-2.34%

-2.16%

-3.22%

-3.21%

-2.09%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8967 13.46%

-0.87%

-1.93%

-2.29%

United Fund, Inc. -a

-1.42%

-1%

-1.67%

-0.28%

-1.2%

3.2637

12.26%

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

105.3904

14.06%

-2.01% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities $1.2672

30.84%

7.1%

9.33%

5.35%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.8008

ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

31.21%

12.2%

12.97%

7.65%

0.52%

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

1.6773

8.6%

1.07%

-1.57%

2.2543

9.61%

0.57%

-0.54%

-1.36%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.6136

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

8.43%

1.51%

-0.45%

-0.51%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1959

5.21% n.a. n.a.

-1.36% 0.54%

-0.11%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.7023

7.03%

1.92%

-0.59%

-2.26%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

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

16.6009

1.9618

7.37%

2.03%

-0.58%

-1.98%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0708

7.52%

0.73%

-0.42%

-1.11%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5305 7.45%

-0.32%

-1.55%

-1.2%

5.69% n.a. n.a.

-3.24%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9895 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.9125 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.9006 Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

0.8882

6.83%

2.69%

8.28% n.a. n.a.

-3.87%

9.55% n.a. n.a.

-3.48%

10.17%

-0.87%

-1.78%

0.06%

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

$0.03829

-0.42%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.1346

14.63%

3.11%

1.51%

-2.12%

3.11%

5.4%

-1.36%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.7415 22.89%

9.32%

9.23%

5.07%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.217 11.57%

5.37%

5.15%

1.24%

Bond Funds

Voyager raises fresh funds for expansion of PayMaya

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

oyager Innovations Inc. has raised $167 million or roughly P8.11 billion in fresh capital from its existing investors and a new one, which it will use to bankroll its financial inclusion initiatives for the Philippines.

Primarily invested in Peso securities 372.24

1.9%

1.9282

-0.59%

1.17%

0.19%

1.47%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.2287

1.33%

3.81%

4.32%

0.44%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2614

-0.71%

2.23%

1.37%

-1.51% -0.46%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4419 0.42%

3.23%

2.43%

0.32%

3.31%

1.71%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.4939

-1.02%

4.44%

1.44%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6

1.3246

2.85%

4.28%

2.8%

0.26%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.976

1.49%

4.48%

2.18%

-0.63%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0379

1.44%

4.75%

1.77%

-0.39%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.2138

1.78%

5.51%

2.63%

0.24%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

0.91%

4.77%

1.96%

-0.34%

1.7491

-3.04%

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

$486.18

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

2.67%

3.2%

2.33%

0.48%

Є220.1

2.15%

1.11%

1.16%

0.42%

$1.1912

-2.21%

2.35%

1.28%

-6.97%

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

1.85%

1.03%

-1.88%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.0563

-1.21%

1.51%

-0.61%

-3.33%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.5157

3.08%

5.54%

2.29%

-0.78%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0629821 4.03%

3.55%

2.23%

1.07%

0.25%

3.38%

1.11%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1838

-1.23%

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

2.53%

0.37%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0529 1.17% n.a. n.a.

0.46%

Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

130.29

0.66%

1.3052

1.76% 1.73%

3.05% 2.84%

2.56%

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

1.23%

1.66% n.a.

0.49%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.2673 n.a. n.a. n.a. 12.19% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2

8.7% n.a. n.a.

4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019. 6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund).

Existing investors that participated in the capital raise are telco titan PLDT Inc., global investment firm KKR, and Chinese tech giant Tencent. IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund, a fund managed by the IFC Asset Management Company (IFC AMC), participated as a new investor. The International Finance Corp. (IFC) is an existing investor in Voyager. This investment includes $121 million in fresh funding and $46 million from previously committed funds. Orlando B. Vea, the founder of Voyager, said the newly strengthened war chest will allow the group to further grow its digital payments arm Pay-

2.04%

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. 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

Maya Philippines Inc. “We have seen a quantum leap for digital payments adoption in the Philippines over the past year, and PayMaya has served as the nexus connecting consumers and enterprises with enriching digital finance experiences. This investment supports the unique value we bring and gives us a natural head start with the target market for

the digital banking service,” he said. This new investment is a boost to PayMaya’s bid to venture into digital banking, a license of which has been sought from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as of writing time. Once granted a digital bank license by the BSP, the new entity will provide mobile-first, low-cost, roundthe-clock, frictionless, branchless, ubiquitous, paperless, secure, and smart neo-banking services on the back of PayMaya’s proven technology platforms. “As we did with payments and remittances, we will enable the large masses of Filipinos to leapfrog into

a new stage of financial inclusion through integrated digital financial services. Our goal is to continue making lives better for millions of underserved people and small businesses, with cutting edge solutions that are affordable and relevant,” Shailesh Baidwan, Voyager and PayMaya President, said. PayMaya, together with remittance platform Smart Padala, has a total user base of 38 million, representing more than half of the adult population in the Philippines. It offers financial services such as mobile wallet, bills payment, insurance, and lending, among others.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance

Diokno named co-chair of Asian finance group

ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno will serve as co-chair of the Regional Consultative Group for Asia of the Financial Stability Board (FSB-RCGA) for two more years after being appointed for a second term for the position. The announcement was made last Monday by the central bank. Coming from his current term which expires at the end of June, this new two-year term is unprecedented under the current charter of the Regional Consultative Groups of the FSB. “I am thankful for the privilege and welcome the challenge to serve a second term as co-chair of the RCGA. I look forward to the opportunity to actively work with my colleagues in the RCGA, addressing the after-effects of the pandemic and re-establishing financial stability in the region,” the governor said. Diokno first took the helm of the RCGA in July 2019 and his second term will end in June 2023. The central bank chief said he aims to continue his initiatives amplify the voice of the emerging econo-

mies in the region in the discussion of systemic risks at the global stage. “The very point of the FSB in establishing the regional consultative groups is so that the discussions extend beyond the formal G20 membership. Global standards and best practices apply to all and we should leverage this opportunity to shape the discussion and its agreed outcomes,” he said. “We have to balance providing the interventions that address the needs today while remaining conscious of the possible longer-term effects of these interventions. As prudential authorities, we must balance the certainty provided by regulations against the need for flexibility so that we can respond to this once-ina-lifetime crisis,” he added. The FSB-RCGA members include financial authorities from 17 jurisdictions including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Bianca Cuaresma

Cryptocurrency is becoming known

OWADAYS, most of the people are engaged in cryptocurrency trading. There’s nothing wrong in investing as long as you know the risk it will take. As I wrote my introductory article, it is important to remember that before we start investing, we need to first know the basics of finance. Many of us skip this important step. Skipping the fundamental steps may affect your investment accounts. Basic foundation in finance is simply like building your house on a solid foundation so whatever storm may arrive you are still able to continue achieve your goals. We need to follow and undergo a process. Let’s define cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency obtains a digital or virtual currency that uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure electronic transactions, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. In today’s economic status, cryptocurrency is becoming known and becoming used to barter and exchange goods or services. Do you need to learn digital asset? Even if the most known person in the world recommended the use of a digital asset, you still better know what it is. When are we able to position ourselves to adapt change, even if we do not know if this digital currency will be actually our tool to exchange of products and services? Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a different network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally unissued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation. Before getting involved in this kind of investment, do your research. Remember any investment involves risk. Many financial gurus say, “invest only what is in excess of your financial need and saving or what you can afford to lose.” The first blockchain-based cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which remains the foremost well-liked. Today, there are nearly 10,000 alternative cryptocurrencies listed with various functions and specifications. Some cryptocurrencies are clones or forks of Bitcoin, while others are new currencies that were built from scratch. And, as far as I know, Filipinos wants to create their own cryptocurrency soon. Blockchains, which represent organizational methods for ensuring the integrity of transactional data, remain essential components of many cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies allow secure payments online, which are denominated in terms of virtual “tokens.”

Rodora Mendoza

personal finance These are represented by ledger entries internal to the system. Investors can make money with cryptocurrency by mining Bitcoin, or merely selling their Bitcoin at a profit. All cryptocurrency must be listed on the Coin Market Cap. All cryptocurrencies that possesses it’s owned blockchain called “coin,” examples of which are Bitcoin, Binance and ETH. A cryptocurrency that doesn’t own a blockchain and is just using the blockchain of an ETH Binance is called a “token.” I would like to share the steps that I made as a beginner in the crypto world. First, I make my own research about cryptocurrency. After understanding what cryptocurrency is, the second thing I did was I started a virtual account or trial account to trade cryptocurrency. I started the virtual/ trial account for three months before considering a real account. Before you start on something make sure you know the risk it will take, think seven times before proceeding. While you are in a practicing mode of trading, the third step I did was keep on learning how to trade and constantly be updated in the news. Once you are absolutely doing good in practice mode, the fourth is you may start trading little by little on your real account. But again, my strategy may not be applicable for you. I just want to share what I did at the beginning. In this world while we are living, we need to adapt to change. Adapting to change doesn’t mean you conform to the pattern of this world. You are positioning yourself for expanding the vessels to become a channel of blessings. You got through the first year of the pandemic crisis. It means you already adapted to the change for almost a year. Congratulations! Let me tell you this, as a registered financial planner, before doing investing make sure that you know the purpose of what you’re doing. Without the specific list of goals, it may lead you in the wrong direction. You must know and do the basics of finance. Once it is clears, always set a time frame for your goal to do financial planning. Rodora Mendoza is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. To learn more about personal-financial planning, attend the 90th RFP program this June 2021. To inquire, e-mail info@rfp.ph or text at 0917-6248110.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Investor appetite for T-bills adds ₧15B to govt coffers

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Bureau of the Treasury borrowed P15 billion from the local debt market as strong investor appetite for Treasury Bills (Tbills) pushed rates lower for all tenors.

Monday’s auction ended up nearly four-times oversubscribed with total submitted bids amounting to P53.6 billion. National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said they have observed lower rates and good volume turnout during the auction. “Full award for all tenors for Tbills as rates declined and strong volume tendered,” De Leon told reporters. Rates across the board were all lower than the previous auction and secondary market rates. Despite strong investor demand for debt papers, De Leon said they

SB Finance inks lending agreement with Lazada

B Finance Corp., Security Bank’s financing arm, announced that it has partnered with e-commerce giant Lazada for a multi-purpose loan program for local Lazada marketplace entrepreneurs. Under the partnership, Lazada micro-entrepreneurs and official sellers can avail of SB Finance’s multi-purpose loans with an introductory interest rate of 1.89 percent. Availments can reach up to P500,000. Sellers may avail of up to 12-month payment schemes and can expect funds to be credited to their accounts within three banking days. “When the pandemic hit the Philippines, many small businesses had to pivot, close their physical stores and move to e-commerce channels. With the shift of consumer behavior to online shopping, the demand for e-commerce business expanded,” SB Finance President and CEO Abigail Marie D. Casanova said. “Through our partnership with Lazada, we hope to help sellers gain more access to capital to grow their business and bounce back from the economic effects of the pandemic,” Casanova added. Lazada Philippines CEO Raymond N. Alimurung also welcomed the partnership, saying the loan program will help online sellers grow their businesses and scale up. SB Finance is a joint venture between Security Bank Corp. and Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri). Earlier this month, SB Finance also launched a new car title loan program that will allow vehicle owners access to cash in exchange for their car’s OR/CR (Official Receipt and Certificate of Registration). The program was initially a product in Thailand and was brought here in the Philippines through its joint venture with Krungsri. Bianca Cuaresma

opted not to open the tap facility for an additional offering. The 91-day T-bills capped at an average rate of 1.031 percent, slipping by 4.7 basis points from 1.078 percent in the previous auction. The tenor attracted total bids of P19.75 billion, nearly four times the P5billion offering. Meanwhile, the 182-day T-bills’ average rate posted a 1.6 basis-point drop to 1.332 percent from 1.348 percent in the previous auction. Bids for the debt paper hit P18.427 billion, more than thrice the P5-billion offer. The 364-day T-bills also registered a slightly lower average

rate of 1.562 percent compared to previous auction’s 1.563 percent. Tenders for the tenor reached P15.39 billion, thrice the P5billion offer. For July, the Treasury has set to borrow P235 billion from the local debt market, slightly bigger than the P215 billion it programmed in June. T h e Tr e a sur y is a iming to raise the amount through auctioning off P60 billion in TBills and P175 billion in Treasury Bonds (T-bonds). “We released July issuance program with higher volume and longer tenors following June auction performance,” De Leon said. For this year, the national government has programmed to borrow a total of P3.03 trillion. About 80 percent of the amount is programmed to be raised through

domestic sources while the remaining 20 percent is expected to come from foreign sources. The national government’s total outstanding debt continued to swell to a fresh record-high of P10.991 tr i l lion in April this year as the country resorts to more borrowings to finance its pandemic response. This was up by 2 percent from P10.77 trillion reported at the end of the year’s first quarter and it was also a 27.8 percent jump from P8.6 trillion of endApril last year. Finance officials expect the country’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio this year to reach 58.7 percent. This is below the 60 percent international threshold but higher than the country’s 14-yearhigh debt-to-GDP ratio last year at P54.6 percent.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Art

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

❷

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Camila Mendes, 27; Melora Hardin, 54; Kathleen Wilhoite, 57; Gary Busey, 77. Happy Birthday: Doors will open if you make a point to attend online meetings, groups and organizations of interest. Communication can become spirited but also help you resolve issues that have been pending for some time. Redistribute your time to suit your needs and to make an adjustment to the way you live and how you deal with others. Your numbers are 7, 13, 22, 27, 35, 39, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Putter around the house, make some decorative alterations that lift your spirit and stay out of trouble. Put your energy where it will do some good; arguing or pushing yourself to the point of self-destruction is discouraged. Aim for comfort and convenience. HHH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do what you can to help, but don’t let anyone take advantage of you. An opportunity to pick up information will positively direct you. Do your own thing. If you follow someone, you’ll be disappointed. HHHH

❶ ❶

Sa Kabila, 2021, oil on canvas, 48”x84”

❷ Suot, 2020, acrylic on paper, 31”x22”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Be cautious when dealing with others. Emotions will surface if someone misleads you. Show discipline and know when to say no. Focus on personal growth, learning all you can to help you get ahead. HH

Garibay examines the past 500 years

T was in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached Philippine shores under the banner of the Spanish Empire after pledging allegiance to King Charles I, following a fallout with Portugal’s King Manuel over rewards for his services. His arrival sparked more than three hundred years of Spanish rule and led to the establishment of a new religion in these parts. This year marks 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, which remains the only major predominantly Catholic nation in Asia. In line with the quincentenary, Art Cube Gallery presents the

latest solo exhibition of acclaimed Filipino visual artist Emmanuel “Manny” Garibay, titled Repaso. Despite its definition, Repaso is not so much a straight examination of Christianity in the Philippines for the past half-millennium as it is an extension of Garibay’s extensive critique of the dark colonialism from which it stems. The satirical storyteller once again presents rich visual narrations about faith and its complex truths veiled under convenient ignorance promoted over centuries. These stories—this struggle—after all, as Garibay suggests, remain pervasive precisely because they are cyclical. The son of a Methodist preacher, and an alumnus of the University of the Philippines Diliman who actively participated in the protest movement of the late 1980s, Garibay understands the Christian mission as well as the plagues of society. The scholar of theology and social realist has often woven the two over his prolific career as he explores the forces that shape the Filipino psyche. In Repaso, Garibay challenges the viewers yet again to keep their eyes peeled and see things for what they are, and not what they are presented to be. The artist utilizes three mediums and a range

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Someone will take advantage of you or steal your ideas. You’ll avoid being taken advantage of if you don’t share personal information. Be prepared to make a change if it means learning something new and exciting. HHHHH

of biblical and literary references to advance his discourse. He created artworks using oil on canvas, oil on wood and acrylic on paper to tell stories that depict the exile of Eva and Adan from the proverbial garden, allude to the rape of Maria Clara, and more. We see in the oil painting, titled Sa Kabila, three higher powers sharing a seat on a yellow couch, impervious to the small souls surrounding them. Suot, meanwhile, shows a man in the guise of the divine. Indeed, as the exhibition note reads, Garibay’s latest one-man show “highlights how celebrating the past five centuries successfully hides the extractive and violent colonization that made Christianity possible, as well as how the institutions that sustain Christianity also miss its underlying messages toward creating a more just and equal society.” Repaso opened over the weekend and is on view until July 17 at Art Cube Gallery on a by-appointmentonly basis. Art Cube is at Second Floor, Building B, Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue Extension in Makati City. More information is available via 8816-7758 or info@artcubephilippines.com. n

Masterclass in art literacy and applications in fully-online classes ART educators will learn how to heighten the creative educational experience of their students in a full online “Masterclass in Art Literacy and Applications,” offered by the School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, scheduled for Saturdays on July 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, and August 7 and 14, from 11 am to 7 pm. The module is curated to provide art mentors with an in-depth understanding of the discipline and its aesthetics, the sources and influences that shaped Philippine art, as well as the significance of art education in the country. The sessions will include discussions on the demystification of art, virtual museum visits, creating an on-site and post-visit guide for galleries, basic

cultural mapping and workshops, and presentations of online curatorial projects. Participants will be aided to articulate, analyze and critique various elements of art, develop their own portfolio in teaching Philippine art and build a comprehensive database for the learning process of their pupils. Powered by BigSky, the college’s official learning management system, the classes offer both synchronous teaching strategies and asynchronous activities for flexible opportunities. The sessions will be facilitated by experienced educators and Benilde School of Design and Arts faculty members Lara Angelica Rosario and Angelica Viceral.

Rosario’s experience includes planning and implementing national and international culture and, arts projects and events with the Department of Education, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the University of the Philippines. Viceral, who served as an art educator for tertiary and senior high levels for eight years, has presented her researches in various conferences both in the local and international scene. She is a recipient of the Asian Graduate Fellowship Award by the National University of Singapore Asian Research Institute in 2014. More information is available at benilde.edu.ph/space. html.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Look before you leap. Nothing will be as it appears. Ask questions, consider your budget, and make sure an offer is solid and the information you receive is sustainable. Be prepared to put in the time if you want to reap the rewards. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Focus more on what you can do yourself and less on what others say they can do for you. It’s up to you to find the best opportunity and to do whatever is in your power to achieve the success you want. HHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Concentrate on what will bring in the highest return mentally, emotionally and financially. An intelligent approach to learning, developing a plan and choosing who best to work alongside will pay off. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take the necessary steps to get out of a rut. Focus on lifestyle and how to turn your space into a place of peace and solitude. Build your vision instead of dreaming about how you want your life to unfold. HHHHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Put your heart and soul into self-improvement and making meaningful relationships a priority. Monitor your behavior and the people who influence you the most. Aim to prioritize what’s essential and to minimize bad habits. HH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The past will help you navigate your way forward. Learn from the experience you have, and you will make better decisions regarding friendships. Choose to take on tasks that make a difference. HHHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Finish what you start before you jump into something new. Make adjustments that are conducive to getting more done in a shorter period. Organization and preparation will make a difference between success and failure. Choose your battles wisely. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Make the appropriate changes at home to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Don’t let complications set in because you neglected to reveal vital information. Recognize that others count on you. Don’t let an unexpected expense or last-minute change cause discord. HHH Birthday Baby: You are outgoing, generous and curious. You are resilient and proactive.

‘going both ways’ by ori brian and david gold The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Black-and-white print 6 A few 10 La familia’s home 14 Chinese, perhaps 15 Chaka, the “Queen of Funk” 16 Microbrewery offerings 17 Kitchen pot products? (Theme hint: See letters 6 to 7 and 11 to 12 in this answer) 20 O, in a lover’s text 21 Brazilian carnival city, informally 22 Like many job interviews 23 Regularly 26 “Woof” relative 27 Sam Smith’s “I’m ___ the Only One” 28 “Out of the Blue” singer 32 To no ___ (useless) 33 Originally named 34 Suffix for “senior” 38 Grain grinder 39 They’re always true 41 It may be dominant 42 Spanish for “she” 43 Letters before a pseudonym 44 Letter before iota

5 Home of the Krusty Krab 4 49 “Gross!” 52 Fox’s hideout 53 Smell or taste 54 Zigzag through snow 56 Car-towing org. 57 Baseball stat 60 Moving collections of literature? 64 Keen 65 White House staffer 66 Like the Vietnamese language 67 Champ and Major, for the Bidens 68 Hue darker than cyan 69 Dance partly inspired by a fashion magazine DOWN 1 Braff of Scrubs 2 Biblical birthright seller 3 It shows a number to call 4 Went for a jog 5 De Armas of Knives Out 6 Racing down a snowy hill, say 7 Quite, quaintly 8 Astronaut Jemison 9 Backs publicly 10 Airport vehicles

1 Bold poker bet 1 12 Deal with 13 Liability’s opposite 18 Activist and filmmaker Newsome 19 Deets 24 Research area at Quantico 25 Up to, briefly 26 Drive the getaway car for, e.g. 28 Notre ___ 29 Sinister 30 Cuzco native 31 Times when hamsters are most active 35 Balancing unsteadily 36 Crushing on 37 Sewing line 39 Vegan bacon, for instance 40 Related (to) 44 Freight weight unit 46 Survivor immunity item 47 Author Allende 48 Queer subculture with a pawprint on its flag 49 Election season graphic 50 What’s kept on hand at the hospital? 51 Behavioral pattern

55 Cup covers 56 Musical with a pharaoh 58 Boyfriend 59 Minor key? 61 Violate a court oath 62 Off-road wheels, briefly 63 Aussie marsupial

Solution to Friday’s puzzle:

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Show BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Britney Spears’ public support may not mean much in court

By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—Britney Spears’ powerful plea to a judge to end the conservatorship that has controlled her life since 2008 brought sympathy and outrage from fans, famous supporters and even casual observers who say she deserves independence. Yet lawyers who deal in such matters say the speech itself may not have helped her in the legal process, which will be long and arduous. “When Britney spoke, I mean, the world listened. This was amazing,” family law attorney Peter Walzer said. “Now, whether the judge will buy it, whether the judge will let her out of her conservatorship, my bet is no.” Spears’s passionate, at times emotional address on Wednesday to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny was the first time in 13 years she has spoken in open court on the conservatorship, which she called “abusive” and “stupid.” The conservatorship was put in place as Spears, hounded by paparazzi and media scrutiny while a new mother, underwent a very public mental health crisis in 2008. Spears revisited the speech in an Instagram post on Thursday, apologizing “for pretending like I’ve been OK the past two years. “I did it because of my pride and I was embarrassed to share what happened to me,” she said, later adding, “Believe it or not, pretending that I’m ok has actually helped.” In court, Spears said she is forced to keep using an intrauterine device for birth control and take other medications, is prevented from getting married or having another child, and is not allowed to have her own money. She condemned her father and the others who control it. The speech was compelling for the same reasons it may be problematic to the court. She spoke very quickly, often profanely, and could seem out of control as she rattled off injustices and the emotional turmoil they have brought her. “It just seems to me that her presentation to her court didn’t do herself any favors,” said David Glass, a family law attorney with a doctorate in psychology. “The words came out like bullets. She shifted rapidly between thoughts and ideas. She also admitted to being depressed and crying all the time. I’m not her psychologist, but these are things that potentially point to being in the middle of mental illness.” Penny did not tip her hand or offer much reaction to the dramatic presentation, other than to say Spears’ speech was “courageous.” It’s unclear how much the

Britney Spears supporter Krista Robinson, of Los Angeles, waits to hear news outside a court hearing concerning the pop singer’s conservatorship at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on June 23 in Los Angeles. AP

judge has heard before, either during Spears’ previous addresses to the court in closed sessions or in the numerous sealed documents filed in the case. “The court didn’t say ‘I don’t agree with you,’ or ‘I’m concerned for you’ or ‘I’m disappointed these issues were not brought before me previously,’” Glass said. There is evidence that Penny considers Spears’ opinions in her decisions. She recently appointed estate-management firm the Bessemer Trust as coconservator of Spears’s finances, but kept her father James Spears as its coconservator against her wishes. And Penny has been keeping court hearings like Wednesday’s increasingly public and leaving more documents unsealed since Spears pushed for greater transparency in the case last year. Short of ending the conservatorship, Penny may alter it to make it more palatable to Spears, and could order an immediate investigation into some of the allegations. “I’m alarmed if I’m the judge,” said Sarah Wentz, an attorney who specializes in estates and conservatorships. “I’m going to find out ASAP if there

are things we need reviewed or corrected, for the court to see if there are not human rights violations.” There is plenty of room for Penny to make changes that don’t end the conservatorship entirely. “What they can do is try to put together a plan that meets her goals and wishes in every way possible, so she only has a few things that she needs to check in on,” Wentz said. “It doesn’t have to be an all-in kind of thing.” Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Samuel Ingham III, said that despite his client’s pleas to Penny to end the conservatorship, she has yet to even ask him to file a petition to do so. He said before the presentation on Wednesday that he made no attempt to “control, or filter, or edit” his client’s words. That most likely meant that while he felt compelled to pass along Spears’ request to speak, it doesn’t necessarily mean he agreed with her approach. “This is why lawyers don’t like their clients speaking a lot,” family law attorney Chris Melcher said. “We know what to say and how to say it. Sometimes what the client says can really come back and bite them and end up proving the other side’s case.”

Local actors continue to illuminate international festivals

JUST before the pandemic changed the whole world, respected actress Angelina Kanapi took a leap of faith and flew to Seattle, Washington, to marry the man of her dreams. Before she transferred to her new permanent residence and added “McCumber” to her surname, Kanapi was able to finish a short film, titled Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss by director Sonny Calvento. She is undoubtedly the lucky charm of this project because this short film is the only one from the Philippines selected to compete at the difficult-to-penetrate Sundance International Film Festival. And just recently, the film also got wonderful reception from the Shanghai International Film Festival, where it was shown at the International Panorama Short Films section. “I am just lucky to have made that film. It is very special because it was one of my last acting projects before I flew to America. I miss acting, but perhaps when the situation is back to normal and travel wouldn’t be as complicated as it is now, then maybe I’ll go back to do special projects. But right now, I’m happy where I am, with the person who makes me happy everyday,” she shared. Perry Dizon is one underutilized actor that filmmakers should take a second look at next time they start casting for their movies. Quietly, Dizon was able to snag a role in the Ryusuke Hamaguchi film Drive My Car, which is in the main competition category of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Dizon flew to Japan during the last

FROM left: Angelina Kanapi, Perry Dizon, Angeli Bayani and the late Eddie Garcia

quarter of 2020 to shoot the film in Hiroshima. “It was a liberating experience, and every phase—from auditions to quarantine, travel and the actual shoot— was an adventure.” Appearing mostly in independent films, Dizon’s filmography is impressive. Having worked with the likes of Arnel Mardoquio, Brillante Mendoza, Lav Diaz, Bradley Liew and many other respected filmmakers, Dizon has done the rounds of first-tier festivals. He is also an accomplished production designer, and a documentary filmmaker himself. His debut short film Of Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals and Sashimi has been invited to many festivals overseas. Another staple festival figure is Angeli Bayani, who is part of the movie Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, competing in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. “Had it not been for this pandemic, I would surely be in Cannes. I really enjoy attending festivals because of the many opportunities to learn, observe, immerse and improve as a creative artist. I am just blessed to be able to land roles in good films over the years,” she told us. Bayani had to give up another offer for a European production because she is preparing for a wonderful role in the local TV adaptation of the

popular Doctor Foster series. “It is sort of my comeback project for ABS-CBN, and I am really excited and looking forward to start work on this new series under Dreamscape Productions.” Ongoing at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, is the Eddie Garcia Retrospective Section in honor of the late iconic deceased actor for his invaluable contributions to the Philippine film industry. Billed as “Eddie Garcia: Life as a Film Epic,” the special tribute will showcase four feature films and one short film of the late, great actor-director. The restored version of Ishmael Bernal’s Pagdating sa Dulo and Jun Lana’s Bwakaw will both have their Italian premieres, online worldwide, and offline screenings. Also to be shown are Raymond Red’s Cannes Palm d’Or winning short Anino, Joel Lamangan’s Rainbow Sunset and the Garcia-directed classic Sinasamba Kita. At the main competition section, Antoinette Jadaone’s Fan Girl starring Paulo Avelino and newbie Charlie Dizon will try to give us some good news soon. While the film industry tries to rise from the effects brought about by these challenging times, our wonderful Filipino actors continue to illuminate the world with their brilliance and legacies.

Melcher said a different approach could have proven more effective. “I think she would be best served by a calm demeanor, acknowledgement of her past problems, and acceptance of the court’s previous decisions,” he said. That was the approach taken by Ingham in recent filings for Spears that attempted to get her father removed and assert more control. Those documents acknowledged that the conservatorship had done a lot of good in its early days while forcefully arguing for change and saying she reserved the right to end it eventually. One thing that will certainly not happen is the conservatorship being terminated, as Spears requested, without any further evaluation of her. A petition to terminate the conservatorship, which Ingham said he may file soon, would be only the beginning of a process that places the burden on Spears to show her competence. “It’s up to Britney or another interested person to convince the court that it needs to end,” Melcher said. “This is not a voluntary process where she can just walk out the door.” n

GMA reaffirms commitment on 71st anniversary

AS the country’s leading broadcast company celebrates its 71st anniversary, GMA reaffirms its vow of being “Buong Puso para sa Pilipino” with a message of love, light, and hope through a special video campaign. Launched on June 13 on All-Out Sundays, the 71st anniversary plug brings the spotlight on GMA employees and staff taking to heart the brand of “Serbisyong Totoo” and quality entertainment that the network is best known for. For the past 71 years, viewers here and abroad have had GMA as their constant companion and has helped shape Filipino culture. Despite the drastic changes and the continuing challenges from the past year due to the pandemic, the men and women of GMA wholeheartedly soldiered on in living up to the network’s promise to its viewers. “Habang tumitibok ang aming puso, patuloy naming ipadarama ang aming pagmamahal sa inyo, Kapuso”—so goes the commemoration of the colorful decades of being on air. Viewers and fans have expressed their appreciation for GMA and its anniversary plug in social media. Owen Luchavez writes in Facebook: “Ganda ng mensahe. Congratulations, GMA. Naabot na ninyo ang gustong paroonan, ang tagumpay na inaasam. Salamat sa paghahatid ng tuwa at ligaya, saya at balita sa bawat tahanang Pilipino saan man sa mundo. Happy 71st anniversary, GMA Network!” “Happy 71st anniversary, Kapuso. Maraming salamat sa walang sawa ninyong pagbibigay ng kasiyahan sa bawat Pilipino. Patuloy namin kayong susuportahan,” Brian de Vera writes, as well. YouTube user Blackinnocent also commended the network’s corporate tagline, “Buong Puso para sa Pilipino.” “Sa lahat ng slogan ng GMA, ito na ang pinakamaganda. Sana maging permanent na siya.” As part of GMA’s anniversary celebration and as a way to thank viewers, “Buong Puso Groufie Giveaway” will draw lucky winners of GMA Affordabox and GMA Now. More information is available at www.gmanetwork.com/buongpusogroufie.

MEL TIANGCO (left) and Mike Enriquez GMA’s top news anchors, mark the network’s latest milestone.

B6 Tuesday, June 29, 2021

RCBC named Best Cash Management Bank at GBAF 2021

Bellevue Bohol staff get vaccinated

GOVERNOR Art Yap together with the DOH and the tourism industry stakeholders participate in the ceremonial vaccine thermal box opening prior to actual vaccination.

O help boost the recovery of the tourism industry and highlight the importance of vaccination to fight against the on-going pandemic, the five-star resort in Bohol – The Bellevue Resort is stepping up its support for the government’s vaccination campaign by urging its employees and industry members to get vaccinated. On June 18, 2021, Bellevue hosted the country’s first vaccination drive for tourism frontline workers led by Governor Art Yap together with the Department of Health and the tourism industry stakeholders at the resort’s Pavilion, gearing for the province’s green zone concept for Panglao island to trailblaze gradual reopening of international tourism. Stringent safety procedures and sanitation protocols were installed in the Pavilion as vaccination site. The vaccines were allocated through the Department of Tourism under Sec. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and approved by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez and testing czar Vince Dizon. Managing Director Dustin Chan

expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the national and provincial government of Bohol for the momentous opportunity, encouraging tourism employees to get vaccinated, while remaining compliant to the government’s safety prevention protocols – primarily for their protection and assurance for a safe environment. “Vaccination marks our first steps to winning this war against COVID-19, not only for the island of Bohol but for the whole tourism industry in the Philippines; including the industries behind it,” he said during his virtual welcoming remarks. Setting an example that the vaccines are safe, Doer Escoto, Resort Manager and BAHRR Board Member was honored to be the first tourism frontliner inoculated with the Sputnik V vaccine. With the resort’s goal to attain herd immunity, 178 employees received their first dose of vaccine shots developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute. The second and final dose of the vaccine are scheduled on July 9 and 10, 2021.

The Bellevue Resort has been fully committed to heighten its safety measures by continuously implementing its regular COVID-19 testing and health monitoring for employees. The vaccination will add an extra layer of protection as part of its highest standards of hygiene protocols in place to ensure its employees and guests will have a secure and comfortable environment – creating a safe experience. The luxury resort is one of the recipients of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Safe Travels stamp in the country. The WTTC Safe Travels stamp is the world’s first-ever global safety and hygiene stamp that will allow travelers to recognize establishments around the world that have adopted health and hygiene globally-standardized protocols. Bohol province is now open for leisure tourists for all ages from NCR Plus bubble subject to IATF, Government of Bohol and Department of Tourism guidelines. For more information, visit www. thebellevuebohol.com or send an email to reservations@thebellevuebohol.com.

Xendit launches payment gateway services to individual business owners

HE ongoing pandemic has brought out the creative side of many Filipinos, who have found ways to supplement their incomes by selling various products or services on social media. Xendit is making it easier for individual business owners to settle payments with access to a world-class platform that makes billings simple, secure, and easy. When individual sellers integrate their business with Xendit, their customers can make direct payments via direct debit through Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and UnionBank of the Philippines (UBP), e-wallets such as GCash, GrabPay, and PayMaya, or Over-the-Counter via 7-Eleven and Cebuana Lhuillier. Meanwhile, sole proprietors, corporations, and partnerships can also process credit card payments. "We want to empower these rising contributors to the Philippine economy

with a platform that handles payments for them while they focus on their business,” says Alyzza Acacio, Philippine SME Task Force Lead of Xendit Philippines. Xendit’s mission is to make payments simple, so that even entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) unfamiliar who are not as technically savvy can integrate with the platform easily. Xendit is available in platforms such as Wix, Shopify, or WooCommerce. Those who rely solely on social media for business can generate payment links that customers can access. Sellers also have access to their transaction history on a centralized dashboard to monitor sales and payments. “We need to continue to support the Filipino micro-entrepreneurs and small business owners to embrace the digital age; they have experienced the ease that online selling and marketing and smartphones

have brought them closer to their customers. The next step is to help them grow their business by helping them manage day-to-day tasks in their enterprise and improve their financial literacy as they experience and use fintech products and platforms more and more,” says Ana Mijares, Senior Trainer for the Go Digital ASEAN initiative. To welcome SMEs, Xendit is offering up to P1.6 million worth of waived transaction fees for new sign-ups. The platform is also waiving P1 million in fees for individual sellers. Opening its platform to individual sellers is just one of Xendit’s many ways to empower SMEs using technology. Its Level Up accelerator program supports entrepreneurs through masterclasses and challenges that give them the tools and know-how to scale their businesses. The program also includes giving P3.5 million in free transactions for 1,000 startups for one year through its video challenge. Xendit is committed to building a solid payment infrastructure for the country and the rest of Southeast Asia. “We launched an SME task force at the beginning of the year to help create solutions for Filipino businesses that may have been affected by the pandemic. We hope to continue our support for Filipino MSMEs so they can grow their business and help the Philippine economy,” says Yang Yang Zhang, Managing Director of Xendit Philippines. For more information, p#visit xendit.co

HE Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has been cited as Best Cash Management Bank Philippines 2021 by the Global Banking and Finance Awards (GBAF) for its masterfully executing a digital pivot in corporate servicing amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Upon imposition of the lockdown in 2020, the Global Transaction Banking Group of RCBC led the initiative to migrate its corporate clients to digitized cash management services to enable them to continue their financial business transactions given the quarantine restrictions. The group initially switched clients to electronic funds transfer (EFT) platforms that utilize PESONet and InstaPay, which effectively eliminated difficulties in their disbursement activities. As a result, barely a month into the lockdown the bank saw a surge in payments transactions, with April EFT volumes 119% higher than the previous month. By year-end 2020, Corporate payments had expanded by 278% vs. 2019, of which 90% were now electronic vs. only 10% by check. Later in the year, the bank introduced CheckScan, a first-in-market check collections solution that efficiently and seamlessly allows corporate clients to deposit checks remotely by providing them with the equipment needed for the rapid scanning of checks and uploading of the resulting images to the bank for same day value credit to their operating accounts. A mobile version of the CheckScan was launched in May 2021 for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that may not require a high-capacity check processing solution. In March 2021, RCBC launched PayPortal, an add-on facility which enables corporate clients to receive payments from their customers electronically from almost

all available payment rails in the country. “With the recent launch of these digital cash management innovations and the very positive market response as indicated by our healthy customer pipeline, the RCBC Corporate Cash Management Team joins its multi-awarded colleagues on the Retail Digital Services side in reaching significant milestones towards its vision for a truly digital future for its customers,” RCBC’s Executive Vice President and Global Transaction Banking Group head Emmanuel Narciso said. The Global Banking and Finance Review (GBAF) awards recognize companies who have excelled in particular areas of expertise in the financial world. The awards honor innovation, achievement, strategy, progressive and inspirational changes taking place within the global financial sector.

Mimiyuuuh joins forces with Bea Alonzo in first beauty endorsement with Avon

“D

ATI tumitingin lang ako sa brochures, and now I am part of the Avon family!” exclaims viral sensation Mimiyuuuh, who has yet again proven that her star-power prevails. The New Generation’s Movie Queen, Bea Alonzo, says this is “One of my most favorite campaigns because of the message!” After becoming a hit with her Dalagang Pilipina video, the local vlogger hit it big in hosting, endorsements, and various local businesses. Years after breaking onto the scene, she continues to demonstrate longevity beyond expectations. Now, your girl is set to top off another first in her long list of achievements, as she bags her first beauty endorsement with Avon’s Power Stay Lightweight Matte Lipstick. Mimiyuuuh joins Avon Philippines’ premiere roster of ambassadors alongside Angel Locsin, Jennylyn Mercado, and Bea Alonzo. As an icon of Philippine entertainment, Bea has been in full bloom with the Avon family as the face of the Avon Floral Wonderland matte lipstick collection. She has also successfully launched her very own YouTube channel, which has 1.72 million subscribers and counting. Bea has shown beyond doubt that she is more than a sweet personality that fans may have known her to be. With Mimiyuuuh’s witty sense of humor joining the campaign, both personalities exhibit a different side of them that fans and netizens will be reluctant to see especially with the Avon Power Stay Lightweight Matte lipstick. Despite crediting

their rise from two different media, these two together have managed to bring a sense of amazement to, not just fans, but avid makeup users as well. WATCH VIDEO: https://youtu.be/3BYalIjDHY While the achievements of both Mimiyuuuh and Bea will always be attributed to their hardwork and appeal to the public, it is also a result of the never-ending advocacy of the women before them who fought for equal opportunities. Avon has consistently supported that advocacy for 135 years by supporting women’s causes, providing financial independence, and standing up for what matters to them. With the Avon Power Stay lipstick, each swipe tells a story of that long-running revolution. Boasting up to 10 hours of smudge-proof and lightweight boldness, every woman wearing it can be at the forefront and ready to take charge so they can continue what matters to them and for the next generations to come. Over the years, both Bea and Mimiyuuuh have maintained their positions in the limelight not just because of their talent, but also because of their drive to become a better version of themselves, and their commitment to their craft that makes fans and the rest of us admire them continuously. And just like the Avon Power Stay Lightweight Matte Lipstick, there’s no doubt these two will be on our lips for a long time. Visit www.avon.ph or like and check out Avon Philippines on Facebook to shop for your favorite products.

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Rescuers stay hopeful about finding more survivors in rubble

U R F S I DE , F l a .— R e s c u e workers digging feverishly for a fifth day Monday stressed that they could still find survivors in the rubble of a collapsed Florida condo building, a hope family members clung to even though no one has been pulled out alive since the first day the structure fell. The death toll rose by just four people Sunday, to a total of nine confirmed dead. But more than 150 people are still missing in Surfside. Families of the missing rode buses to a site nearby from which they could watch teams at work Sunday: firefighters, sniffer dogs and search experts employing radar and sonar devices. US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said at a Sunday evening news conference that she had met with some of the rescue workers and was able to “hear the hope that they have.” “We obviously have some realism that we’re dealing with. But... as long as the experts that we trust are telling me they have hope to find people who might have been able to survive, then we have to make sure that we hold on to that hope,” she said. Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, head of a humanitarian delegation from Israel that includes several searchand-rescue experts, said the professionals have told him of cases where survivors were found after 100 hours or more. “So don’t lose hope, that’s what I would say,” he said. Some families had hoped their visit to the site near the 12-story building would allow them to shout messages to loved ones possibly buried deep inside the pile. As they returned to a nearby hotel, several paused to embrace as they got off the bus. Others walked slowly with arms around each other back to the hotel entrance. “We are just waiting for answers. That’s what we want,” said Dianne Ohayon, whose parents, Myriam and Arnie Notkin, were in the building. “It’s hard to go through these long days and we haven’t gotten any answers yet.” Authorities on Sunday identified the additional four people that had been recovered as L eon Oliwkow icz, 80; Chr istina Beatriz Elvira, 74; Anna Ortiz, 46; and Luis Bermudez, 26. The number of people left unaccounted for was 152, said Mi a m i-Dade Mayor Da n ie l l a Levine Cava. The last live person rescued was on Thursday, just hours after the collapse. AP

TheWorld BusinessMirror

Australia races to stem Delta variant as new infections emerge nationwide

ustralian authorities are racing to contain outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta strain that have forced Sydney and Darwin into lockdown and put other major cities on high alert.

The outbreak in Sydney now numbers about 130 cases, with 18 more infections announced by New South Wales state on Monday. Contact tracers are battling to keep up with a growing list of exposure sites, including some domestic Virgin Australia flights after a cabin crewmember tested positive for the virus. Residents of Greater Sydney have been ordered to stay home except for exercise, essential shopping and medical treatment until July 9, while Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, is under a snap 48-hour lockdown. Queensland state on Sunday imposed additional restrictions, while Perth and Canberra have made mask-wearing mandatory in public for the first time since the pandemic began. T he clusters show the limits of Aust ra l i a’s so - ca l led “Covid-zero” st rateg y, wh ic h h a s

rel ied on c losed inter nat iona l borders and rigorous testing to e l i m i n ate com mu n it y t ra ns m ission of t he v i r u s. W h i le nat ions suc h as t he UK a nd US a re prepa r ing to open up t heir e conom ies a f te r w ides pre ad v acc i n at ion s, a slow rol lout in Aust ra l i a mea ns t he econo my, a nd pa r t ic u l a rly domest ic tou r ism, rema ins v u l nerable. The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.4 percent as of 10:47 a.m. as investors assessed the impact of the two-week lockdown in Sydney, with travel and tourism shares declining. “The threat that the Delta strain could meaningfully spread to other states as well means that there is significant downside risk to our forecast that the Australian economy is going to perform really strongly this year,” said Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in Sydney.

Staff prepare to take Covid-19 tests at a testing station in Nelson Bay, Australia on June 28. Australia was battling to contain several Covid-19 clusters around the country on Monday in what some experts have described as the nation’s most dangerous stage of the pandemic since the earliest days. AP/Mark Baker

“Until the vaccine really speeds up, the Australian economy is going to be really vulnerable to a f it a nd s t a r t re co v e r y mo d e a s w e cont i nue t o s e e t he s e lo c a l i z e d out b re a k s .” Doses administered so far in Australia are only enough to cover 14 percent of the population, compared with 50 percent in the US and 57 percent in the UK, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker. In response to t he c lusters e me r g i n g a rou nd A u s t r a l i a , st ates a nd ter r itor ies a re re -

Police: At least 7 dead in Bangladesh blast

HAK A, Bangladesh—At least seven people died and dozens were injured in an explosion Sunday in Bangladesh’s capital. But authorities could not determine the nature of the explosion that damaged vehicles and surrounding buildings, the police and fire department said. The explosion took place in the evening at a building in Dhaka’s Moghbazar area, and rescuers reached the scene, said Faisalur R ahman, a fire control room official. At least seven buildings were damaged because of the force of the explosion, Rahman said. Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam told reporters at least seven people died. The injured were taken to hospitals, he said.

“Certainly, this is a big explosion. Fire service and bomb disposal unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Unit have arrived at the scene. Their experts are working together. They are investigating the origin of the blast and the subsequent damages,” said Sajjad Hossain, a deputy police commissioner in Dhaka. Witnesses said it was a scene of destruction with glass shards and broken concrete on streets. Two passenger buses were heavily damaged outside the building where the explosion took place, witnesses said. “A fireball went over my head. Ever y thing became dark and smoky with the sound. Pieces of glass started to shower from above. If I didn’t use this [a folder bag] as a cover, I would’ve been under the glass pieces. A llah

saved me from them,” said Omar Sani, who was at the scene during the explosion. “Then the buses crashed into one another, and one got crumbled. One man got out from that damage. He was in very bad condition. We brought the other injured here. We found four people including one kid at one place.... The kid died from the impact. I brought the kid to hospital,” he said. Dhaka-based Ekattor TV stations said the condition of 10 of the injured were critical, among about 50 taken to hospitals. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but the main building where the explosion took place had a fast food shop. Reports said a faulty gas line or gas cylinders used by the food shop could be the reason behind the blast. AP

US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias test Raisi, nuclear talks he latest US airstrikes on Iranian-backed militia groups come at a delicate time for Washington and Tehran, with a conservative presidentelect in Iran and talks expected to restart shortly on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. President Joe Biden ordered strikes on “operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq” on Sunday evening Washington time to deter future attacks on US interests in Iraq, where the US is aiding government forces in efforts to defeat Islamic State, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. Kirby’s statement made clear that Iran was the common denominator in the targets but also that the US move was meant to be defensive in nature. “Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting US interests in Iraq, the president directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks,” Kirby said. “The United States took necessary, appropriate and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation—but also to send a clear and

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

unambiguous deterrent message.” The strikes could mark an early test for Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who takes office in August and has been seen as a harder-line leader than departing President Hassan Rouhani. Yet the fact that the US hit Iranian proxies outside the country could give both sides plausible deniability to avoid escalating tensions. Markets appeared to shrug off the latest military moves, with oil steady near a two-year high and traders more focused on a Thursday meeting of the Opec+ bloc. Futures in New York traded near $74 a barrel after closing up 1 percent Friday. Even before the military strikes, indirect talks in Vienna aimed at getting the US and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—were already dragging past initial timetables. The negotiations took a pause for Iran’s elections earlier this month and weren’t expected to re-start until early July. It wasn’t immediately clear if the airstrikes would force a postponement in those meetings, but it’s not the first time the Biden ad-

ministration has carried out such a move. His first military action as president in February involved airstrikes in eastern Syria on sites connected to Iranian-backed groups after a series of rocket attacks on facilities in Iraq used by the US, including one that killed a contractor working with the USled coalition in the country. Whatever Raisi’s calculus as president-elect, the latest US strikes and the ones in February are likely to be far less provocative than then-President Donald Trump’s move to kill a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, outside Baghdad’s airport in early 2020. That move sparked fears of a resurgence of Iranian-sponsored terrorist activities or even a broader war between Iran and the US. Now the bigger risk may be to the timetable for the nuclear talks. Even before the latest military tensions, Iran had missed a deadline to renew its temporary atomic-monitoring pact with international inspectors, raising the prospect that it could delete sensitive enrichment information and complicating the broader negotiations in Vienna.

Inspections

The government in Tehran has yet to inform monitors whether it will renew the agreement after earlier saying it would make a decision following the pact’s expiration at midnight on Thursday. Iran let a previous deadline lapse by 24 hours last month before agreeing to extend the pact, which preserves video and enrichment data captured at Iranian nuclear installations. Intrusive inspections by the Inter nationa l Atomic Energ y Agency were originally seen as the centerpiece of Iran’s landmark 2015 agreement with world powers, which verifiably rolled back its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Though he is weeks from officially taking power, Raisi last week demanded an end to US sanctions on his country and Washington’s fully compliant return to the 2015 nuclear accord. US officials say Iran, which has been enriching uranium beyond levels agreed to in the nuclear deal, should take the first step to return to compliance. Bloomberg News

imposing domest ic border re str ictions, while a quarantinef ree travel bubble bet ween A u s t r a l i a a nd Ne w Z e a l a nd has been suspended. Tourism operators are warning the localized lockdowns are playing havoc with their industry, while the Australian Retailers Association says the Sydney lockdown is expected to cause lost trade totaling about A$1 billion ($759 million) a week. T he Nor t he r n Te r r it or y ’s cluster is linked to a worker at a Newmont Corp. gold mine in the

Tanami Desert in central Australia, placing hundreds of employees in isolation and raising fears the virus could leak into the vulnerable indigenous population. The Sydney outbreak likely started with a driver who was infected while transporting international flight crews. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government is under pressure to ramp up vaccine delivery, a program that’s been complicated by community concern about blood clots from the AstraZeneca Plc shot. The government is recommending that vaccine only be given to people aged over 60. Along with the tardy vaccine rollout, Morrison has also been criticized by the main opposition Labor party for a policy of quarantining returned overseas travelers in city-center hotels. The virus has leaked into communities about 20 times via infected hotel security guards and cleaners, or travelers who caught the virus during quarantine, potentially due to poor room ventilation, and only tested positive after their release. A Newspoll published in the Australian Monday showed Morrison’s conser vative coalition slipping 2 percentage points to trail Labor, 49 percent to 51 percent. An election needs to be held by May. Bloomberg News

Japan PM: Govt on high alert as Tokyo cases rise

apanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government must be on high alert as virus cases begin to rise in the capital, about three weeks before Tokyo hosts the Olympics. “While there is a downward trend across the country as a whole, there is a slight upward trend in the capital region,” Suga told repor ters Monday. “ We must be on a high state of alert in dealing with the virus.” He added that he would be nimble in adjusting policies to deal with the situation. Case numbers in Tokyo have been creeping up over the past week, since Suga lifted a state of emergency imposed to rein in infections. Any sharp increase could mean the emergency is reintroduced, further restricting residents’ activities even while the games are taking place. The seven-day moving average of new virus infections recorded in Tokyo rose to 477 on Sunday, compared with 388 the previous week. Suga’s comments came as the capital’s government announced Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike would take a few more days away from public duties on the advice of a doctor, extending an already week-long absence. Koike had been expected to return to work Monday, after taking time off to recuperate from fatigue. She was taken to a hospital last Tuesday, Kyodo News reported, without saying whether she had received a specific diagnosis. Koike, 68, has led Tokyo’s response throughout the coronavirus crisis, often appearing to adopt a more cautious stance than Suga’s government. She has retained relatively strong public backing, with 57 percent of

respondents to a poll of Tokyo residents published by the Asahi newspaper on Monday saying they supported her. Koike said on June 7 she had received her first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. T he politica l veteran has stepped out of the spotlight at a critical time, just before local elections in Tokyo on July 4. Koike’s term as governor has three more years to run, but she must work closely with the victorious parties in the assembly, which may include Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party. Controversy continues to rage over the Oly mpics, which are set to open July 23. About 58 percent of respondents to a Mainichi newspaper survey published on Monday said they opposed the games. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency even weighed in, saying last week Emperor Naruhito may have concerns the Oly mpics could cause coronavirus infections to rise. About 55 percent of respondents to the Asahi survey said they approved of Koike’s handling of the virus, compared with 35 percent who said they didn’t. Asked about her handling of the Olympics, voters were evenly divided, with 42 percent saying they approved and the same percentage disapproving. Koike, a former TV news anchor, defense and environment minister, left her seat as a Liberal Democratic Party member of parliament in her successful bid to become the first female governor of Tokyo in 2016. Her party challenged then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP unsuccessfully in parliamentary elections the following year. Bloomberg News

Sports

OBIENA RIGHT ON TRACK

BusinessMirror

| Tuesday, June 29, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

New, modern SMC sports facility vaccination site for essential staff

AN MIGUEL Corp. (SMC) recently opened its new, state-of-the-art sports facility—a “dream come true” future home for the company’s professional basketball teams, who for years have had to pay other facilities for practice. Simply called the “SMC Sports Complex,” it was, however, opened not for games or practice, but for a more meaningful purpose: as a vaccination center for thousands of employees, essential workers and extended workforce across the San Miguel Group. “Vaccinating as many Filipinos as we can is important to reaching herd immunity and getting our economy back up,” SMC president Ramon S. Ang said. “That is why we have been helping our LGUS with their vaccination rollout, in whatever way we can.” “We have been hiring and deploying medical professionals to LGU vaccination sites. We’re also setting up vaccination sites both for the public and our A4 workers,” he said. “The sports facility is one of the sites for our essential workers.” Through the Pasig City local government, some 1,252 SMC front line and essential workers received their first doses of the Sinovac vaccine during a recent two-day vaccination event at the facility, located within the San Miguel Foods complex along C-5 road. “To help decongest the city’s vaccination venues and reduce the strain on health workers, we volunteered our new basketball facility and enlisted our own doctors and nurses to help Pasig City personnel in conducting vaccination here,” Ang said. “We are very grateful to the Pasig city government for enabling some

of our workers to already receive their vaccines.” The new sports facility was completed just last May, and has not been used yet by any of the SMC teams—San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok. It has three air-conditioned main basketball courts covering a total of 5,013 square meters. It features “Regupol” rubberized basketball court flooring. Areas can be separated with an electric curtain divider. The facility is also equipped with electric ceiling-mounted (forward folded) and fixed-wall mounted basketball systems and portable basketball systems. It also has a fitness gym with separate male and female lockers and shower rooms, as well as three viewing decks with toilets at the second floor. Under the company’s P1-billion “SMC Ligtas Lahat” vaccination program, the SMC Sports Complex will be a dedicated site for employees and can accommodate up to 800 individuals per day, the same capacity as its other vaccination site, the La Salle Green Hills campus in Mandaluyong, which will be fully operational by August. The company has also partnered with Mandaluyong City to co-manage the Jose Rizal University mega site that caters to A4 category workers and city residents. SMC is also looking at activating 13 other vaccination sites—Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Albay, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Isabela, Bataan, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro—once its own vaccines arrive next month.

TOKYO Olympics-bound boxers (front row, from left) Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno and coaches (standing, from left) Elmer Pamisa, Ronald Chavez, Don Abnett, Nolito Boy Velasco and Reynaldo Galido, pose for posterity in their Thailand training camp.

READY FOR TOKYO A By Josef Ramos

FTER logging at least 14 weeks of training since the national boxing team arrived in Thailand in March, winning gold in the Tokyo Olympics would boil down to three variables—draw, performance and luck. “These things play a crucial factor in the Olympics,” Don Abnett, the Australian national team consultant of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, said. “But all four are capable of winning gold in Tokyo.” World champion Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno hardly trained together as a team in pandemic 2020 but were flown to Thailand by the ABAP where they set up training camp alongside Thai Tokyo hopefuls in Muaklek Sarabori province. Eumir Felix Marcial, on the other hand, trained under professional tutelage for four months late 2020 at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym, winning

his four-round pro debut, but losing his return to the amateur ring in the Asian championships last month. Marcial, however, is back to amateur basics at the US Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. “He [Marcial] needs to be back to amateur training. He got amateur opponents there to hone his skills and tactics,” Abnett said. “He needs to know the opponents he’s going to face in Tokyo and apply his tactics.” Marcial was shocked atop the ring with a forgettable quarterfinal-round 0-5 loss to Uzbekistan’s Jafarov Saidjamshid in the Asian Elite Championships in Dubai. “It’s more on tactics and sprint in a shorter round for amateurs, while professional has longer rounds, but Eumir has a lot of international experiences behind him,” Abnett said. “He just needs to focus to be successful. He has a good chance to win the gold.” Abnett said Petecio, Magno and Paalam has sparred 24 quality rounds so far in training camp.

Serena won’t play in Olympics

W THE new San Miguel Corp. Sports Complex is a dedicated vaccination site for the company’s employees.

Jalasco elected WFP president

ORMER basketball association president Godofredo “Freddie” Jalasco was unanimously elected president by the 15-member board of trustees of the Wushu Federation Philippines (WFP). Jalasco was the federation vice president and executive director before his asencion to the presidency. He is the first non-Chinese speaking sportsman to head the 32-year-old governing body of the sport that evolved from Chinese martial arts dating back 2,000 years. Reelected to their respective positions were chairman Jimmy Tan, executive vice president Eddy Tanteko and secretary general Julian Camacho. Ice Skating Union secretary general Benito Lim was also elected vice chairmanship, along with Anna Gan as first vice president, Ronald Ong as second vice president and Bobby Hongliangyi as treasurer. Jimmy Ong, Samson Co, Tansuitong Candelaria, Lily Lim, Willy Wang, Ellen Ang and Richa Fernandez were elected to the board. Philippine Olympic Committee general manager Dinah Remolacio observed the virtual final phase of the WFP’s two-step elections.

UR-DE-BRETAGNE, France—What his grandfather failed to do in 14 editions of the Tour de France, Mathieu van der Poel achieved at his first attempt. The Tour debutant pointed a finger toward the sky in memory of his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, as he crossed the finish line of the second stage at cycling’s biggest race on Sunday to snatch the coveted yellow jersey. “It’s a shame he is not here, but what can I do,” the 26-year-old Van der Poel said about Poulidor, while holding back tears after his maiden Tour stage win following a blazing attack. Poulidor, who died in November 2019, took part in 14 Tours from 1962-1976, finishing in second place overall three times and third five times. Nicknamed “Poupou” and “The Eternal Runner-up,” Poulidor was adored by French fans but could never win the famed yellow tunic worn by the race leader after each stage. “I imagine how proud he would be,” said Van der Poel, whose father, Adri, was also a professional cyclist and wore the yellow jersey for one day in 1984. Van der Poel jumped out of the group of favorites in the 2-kilometer climb leading to Murde-Bretagne, where the finish was set. The Dutchman used his greater

IMBLEDON, England— Serena Williams said she will not go to the Tokyo Olympics, but did not want to say why during her pre-Wimbledon video conference with reporters Sunday. “I’m actually not on the Olympic list.... Not that I’m aware of. If so, then I shouldn’t be on it,” Williams said. The 39-year-old Williams has won four gold medals at past Summer Games for the United States: in both singles and doubles at the 2012

London Olympics—which held the tennis competition at the All England Club—and in doubles at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics. All of her doubles golds were won with her older sister, Venus, as her partner. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, Serena Williams lost in the third round of singles to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and the siblings were beaten in the first round of doubles. Before that,

The first four weeks in Thailand was devoted to 60 percent general training and 40 specific training set for twice a day. Wednesday mornings, Abnett said, are for recovery and massage while Sundays are active dedicated for whole-day recovery. Competition and conditioning sparring are also set Wednesdays and Saturdays. “The boxers have a good chance because they are preparing very well and are very dedicated in training,” Abnett said. “We just have to maintain good preparation and good planning heading toward the Olympics.” The Olympic boxing competitions are set at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan from July 24 to August 7. The draw will be on July 23 with Petecio climbing the ring first on July 24, followed by Magno on July 25 and Marcial and Paalam on July 26. “Paalam is doing extremely well in sparring and training, while Magno has improved very well,” Abnett said. “Petecio, on the other hand, has become stronger and faster.” they had been 15-0 as an Olympic doubles team. “There’s a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision,” Williams said the day before the start of main-draw action at Wimbledon, where she will try to collect her 24th Grand Slam singles title. “I don’t really want to—I don’t feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry.” US Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Sunday: “Ultimately, the decision to participate in the Games is an individual one, and as we emerge from the pandemic,

THIS IS FOR GRANDPA...

MATHIEU VAN DER POEL dedicates his stage victory to his late grandfather, 14-year Tour de France rider Raymond Poulidor, known as “The Eternal Runner-up.” AP

RNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA and Rio 2016 gold medalist Thiago Braz da Silva cleared identical 5.80 meters on Sunday to share the gold medal in the True Athletes Classics at the Stadion Manfort in Leverkusen, Germany. Bo Kanda Lita Baehre also cleared 5.80m in his third attempt and settled for the bronze medal. Obiena and Brazil’s Thiago tried to clear 5.90m but they failed thrice. Obiena excused himself from an interview but former pole vaulter Emerson Obiena said he was satisfied with his Tokyo Olympics-bound son. “I am happy with his consistency, but of course the goal is to jump higher,” the elder Obiena said. “I am focusing on his performance and not the gold.” Sharing the gold medal because of the identical performance could be the organizers’ decision, according to Emerson Obiena. “A tie in pole vault depends on the rules and the decision of the organizers,” he said. “But a continuous jump off is necessary if the organizers wants to have a lone gold medalist. Most of the time, it’s settled by a jump off.” “But that’s not allowed in the Olympics, maybe there will be a tie for the silver, but not for the gold,” he added. The younger Obiena will compete in two more tournaments in Poland on June 30 and Sweden on July 2 before flying to Tokyo on July 23 when father and son will meet. The pole vault competitions are set on August 3 at Tokyo’s National Stadium. Josef Ramos

SERENA WILLIAMS doesn’t say why she’s not going to Tokyo. AP

we recognize and respect the personal decisions made by our top athletes regarding participation in the Tokyo Games. Although we fully support the IOC and the (International Tennis Federation), and have encouraged our athletes to participate, we recognize the fact that in this unique time, some athletes may choose not to participate for personal reasons.” Other top tennis players such as Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem also have said they’ll skip the trip to Japan, where the Olympics open on July 23, a year after being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. AP power with 700 meters left to drop all the main contenders in the long stretch of road. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar was next across the line, six seconds back, and Primoz Roglic completed the stage podium. “I knew today was my last chance to take the jersey, it’s incredible to succeed,” Van der Poel said. A versatile rider, Van der Poel has won titles in many disciplines and plans to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in mountain bike. A quadruple cyclocross world champion, he also won the Strade Bianche earlier this year and the prestigious Tour of Flanders last year. The powerfully built Van der Poel, however, is not among the main contenders at the Tour due to the high mountain and timetrialing elements of the race. Sunday’s 183.5-kilometer route from Perros-Guirec did not feature a major difficulty until the finishing loop, including the iconic Mur-deBretagne ascent. Called the “Alpe d’Huez of Brittany” by the cyclingcrazed Bretons because of its steep gradient, the climb was tackled twice Sunday and the finish line was set up at the top. Van der Poel produced his first effort in the opening ascent to cross first at the summit and seize a time bonus of eight seconds that helped him claim the yellow jersey.