BusinessMirror March 11, 2022

‘PHL’s big informal sector poses fiscal challenge’

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

N

E A R LY a t hird of t he Philippine economy remained infor ma l—a trend shared with several Southeast Asian nations—resulting in a narrow tax base that makes building back better after the pandemic a big challenge, an economist from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

This could be one of the reasons that prevents the government from building back better after the pandemic, according to Aekapol Chongvilaivan, ADB Southeast A sia Department Senior

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Economist for Public Finance.

Wr it i ng a Pol ic y Br ief, Chongvilaivan said 28 percent of the economy is informal while other countries have larger informal sectors, such as Thailand with 43 percent of its GDP being part of the shadow economy and 35 percent in Cambodia.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Indonesia have smaller informal economies compared to the Philippines at 25 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

“One root cause of the generally narrow tax base in Southeast Asian countries is attributed to a relatively large informal sector —shadow economy,” Chongvilai-

“Improved tax compliance means an expanded tax base—more and more taxpaying individuals and firms entering a tax system— thereby enhancing total tax revenues.”

–ADB Senior Economist Aekapol Chongvilaivan

van said.

“Given the magnitude of the pa ndem ic- i nduced shoc k s, a further decline in tax revenues is most possibly substantial. In addition, the post-pandemic economic recovery is by and large uneven and uncertain due to mixed progress on vaccine rollouts and emergence of new Covid-19 variants,” he also said.

The mounting fiscal challenges in the region, Chongvilaivan said, should prompt government to improve tax compliance, particularly for micro, small, and mediumsized enterprises (MSMEs).

See “PHL,” A2

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Despite delay, DTI hopes RCEP will be ratified

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

F

@TyronePiad

OREIGN direct investment (FDI) net inflows reached an all-time high of $10.5 billion in 2021 as the country benefits from positive investor sentiment due to anticipated economic recovery from pandemic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Thursday.

O

VER two months since the world ’s biggest trade pact entered into force, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) remains hopeful that the Philippines will soon finish its ratification process to reap the benefits of the regional economic deal.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, at a virtual event on Thursday, said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Par tnership (RCEP) agreement “remains to be a top priority of the Philippine government as it is an important tool to sustain economic growth and attract investments in the country.”

“The DTI is working to complete the domestic ratification MEMBERS of Tigil Alyansa Mina mount a protest at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources office in Quezon City to demand accountability for “pro-mining” policies by the Duterte process for the RCEP Agreement administration as they marked the 27th anniversary of the enactment of the Mining Act of 1995 (RA 7942). Among the policies in question are the issuance of EO 130, which reversed the late DENR as soon as possible,” he said. chief Gina Lopez’s department order banning open pit mining, and declaring mining as an essential industry. NONOY LACZA “While there are some expected delays due to the upcoming national elections and the schedule of the Senate, the DTI is optimistic that the Philippines will be able to join RCEP soon,” he added.

RCEP is a free trade agreement A JOR IT Y of the local mieast Asian region. changing financial institutions for among Asean countries and their cro, small and medium enSome 56 percent of the local ena better lending experience. ter prises (MSMEs) fail to trepreneurs resorted to asking their The cloud banking platform said trading partners including Aussecure loans due to stringent lending friends and family for loans as a rethis scenario provides an opportutralia, China, Japan, New Zeameasures—and they end up asking sult; about 45 percent, meanwhile, nity for new entrants in the indusland and South Korea. This repfamily and friends for additional fidipped in their own pockets to start tr y, which can challenge the existresents 30 percent of the global nancing instead to keep their busitheir businesses. ing banks and financial technolog y gross domestic product (GDP) or nesses running, according to a study Nearly half of the MSMEs that firms. $26.2 trillion. by a cloud banking platform Mambu. were unable to find enough capital A lmost two-thirds of local MSMEs It entered into force on JanuThe “Small Business, Big Growth cash f low concerns, the study said better borrowing benefits and shows ofproducts, products,with withhosts hostsand and consumers become”more morehad discernary 1, of 2022. shows consumers become discernreport said 77 percent ofconnected, sur veyedwe noted.

About the same percentage i ncent ives a re pr i m a r y con sider guests providing moredetails details and ingand and connected, weare are seeing guests more and ing seeing Theproviding Trade department has been Filipino MSMEs incredible “ incredible have been unable happening were not able to launch new products ations in switching banks, especially giving testimonies, Zalora said. innovations happening giving testimonies, Zalora said. innovations lobbying for the ratification of to secure sufficient, or retail any, or ser vices and failed to upgrade or amid the rise of alternative lending alsohelp help brands inthe retailfunding sectorthat thatcompletely completely ItItwould brands inininthe sector RCEP aswould it is also seen to "help restore on at least one or reimagine more occasion facilities. Other reasons include betnovateon on flexiblesales sales promoreimagine theover shoppingimprove experi- technolog y as well. novate flexible the shopping experibusiness confidence and promoencourthe last five years.”

According to Mambu’s findings, ter financing options and customer tions, such giving discounts, ence,”Gunjan GunjanSoni, Soni,chief chiefexecutive executive tions, such asasgiving discounts, ence,” age more economic activities, parThis is higher compared toZalora the 67Group, 93 percent of t he Fi lipino MSME ser vice support. and offering easier and attracofficerofofthe the Zalora Group, told an and offering easier and attracofficer told an ticularly for MSMEs [micro, small percent average for the entire South-ofofits said they are open to tivepayment paymentoptions optionssuch suchasasthe the online presentation itsrespondents Trender tive online presentation Trender See “MSME,” A2 buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) opReport2021.

2021. buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) opReport See “Despite,” A2 tion,which, which,ititsaid, said,emerged emergedasas Shedescribed describedthe the“shoppers “shoppersofof tion, She themost mostpopular popularoption optionamong among tomorrow”asas“digital “digitaland anddiverse diverse the tomorrow” Asian shoppers. across Southeast Asia.”

Asian shoppers. across Southeast Asia.” n japan 0.4510 n UK 68.8667 n HK 6.6808 n CHINA 8.2689 n singapore 38.4732 n australia 38.2494 n EU 57.8704 n SAUDI arabia 13.9245 Source: BSP (March 10, 2022) Indonesia, for for example, example, “It’s a a digital digital diaspora,” diaspora,” she she InIn Indonesia, “It’s Google saw saw a a “10x “10x increase increase inin said,citing citingGoogle Googletrend trendmonitormonitorGoogle said, searchesfor fore-wallet e-walletservices servicesand and ingthat thatshows shows40 40million millionnew newInInsearches ing 15xrise riseininBNPL BNPLservices servicesininthe the ternetusers userscame cameonline onlineinin2021, 2021, 15x ternet lastfive fiveyears. years.Other Otherappealing appealing “bringingthe theinternet internetpenetration penetration last “bringing payment options options like like monthly monthly SoutheastAsia Asiatoto75 75percent.” percent.” payment ininSoutheast installments,toto00percent percentinterinter“Infact, fact,eight eightout outofof10 10InterInterinstallments, “In estfees feeson oncredit creditcards, cards,provide provide netusers usersininthe theregion regionare aredigidigiest net access toto quality quality products products and and talconsumers. consumers.Recognizing Recognizingthis this talsavviness savvinessand andtaste tastefor forluxury luxury Internetand andelectronic electroniccommunicommuniaccess tal tal Internet serviceswhile whilealso alsoimproving improvingfi-fishiftininadoption, adoption,brands brandsquickly quickly andsustainability. sustainability. cationgadgets gadgetsbybytheir theirside. side.Google Google services and shift cation nancialinclusion. inclusion. expandedtheir theironline onlinepresence presencetoto “Thereport reportisispositioned positionedasasa a trendshows showsMalaysian Malaysianshoppers shoppers nancial “The expanded trend Zalora,for forinstance, instance,offers offers21 21 reachthese thesenew newdigital digitalconsumconsumreferencepoint pointthat thathelps helpsZalora’s Zalora’s spendclose closetoto99hours hoursonline onlineon on Zalora, reference reach spend paymentmethods methodsacross acrossthe therereers,and andZalora Zalorareported reporteda a19-per19-per900brand brandpartners partnersnavigate navigatethe the average,“and “andare arethe themost mostlikely likelytoto payment 900 ers, average, gion, including including cash-on-delivery cash-on-delivery centincrease increaseininnew newbrands brandsthat that region’sdiversity diversityand andevolving evolvingrerevalue-driven.” gion, region’s cent bebevalue-driven.” andBNPL BNPLoptions optionsacross acrossthe themarmarjoinedthe theplatform platforminin2021,” 2021,”she she taillandscape,” landscape,”Zalora’s Zalora’sCEO CEOGunGunSingaporean shoppers shoppers are are and tail joined Singaporean kets.ItItlaunched launchedits itsfirst firstco-brandco-brandadded. janSoni Sonisaid. said. mostlikely likelytotoinvest investininluxury luxurypurpurkets. jan added. most creditcard cardininpartnership partnershipwith with Withmore moreSoutheast SoutheastAsians Asians Aside from from digital digital partners partners chases, with with Google Google search search data data ededcredit Aside With chases, RCBCand andMastercard Mastercardininthe thePhilPhilbrowsingnow nowand andgetting gettingthemthemlike Google, Google, Mastercard, Mastercard, H&M, H&M, showinga a21-percent 21-percentyear-on-year year-on-year RCBC like browsing showing ippines,the thefirst-ever first-everfashion fashionand and selves more more online, online, the the average average Lush,Paula’s Paula’sChoice, Choice,HABIB, HABIB,AtAtincreaseininSingaporeans’ Singaporeans’searches searches ippines, Lush, selves increase

‘DIGITAL DIASPORA’

In a statement, the Central Bank said FDI net inflows grew by 54.2 percent to $10.5 billion last year from $6.8 billion in 2020.

The latest figure surpassed the previous high of $10.3 billion in 2017.

“The growth in FDI reflected continued positive foreign investor sentiment on the country amid expectations of a rebound in domestic economic activity and declining Covid-19 reported cases, as well as the strengthening of the global economy,” BSP explained.

FDI are investments made by foreign players in the Philippines in the hopes of long-term return. As such, they are expected to generate job opportunities and have a multiplier effect on the economy.

The BSP attributed the better FDI net inf lows to higher non-residents’ net investments in debt instruments, which grew by 80.4 percent to $7.5 billion from $4.2 billion ByManuel ManuelT.T.Cayon Cayon year-on-year.

By This, as reinvestment of earnings rose by 34.7 percent to $1.3 billion in 2021 from $944 million in the previous year.

Non-residents’ net investments in equity capital, other than reinvestment earnings, were slightly up by 0.7 pecent to $1.7 billion.

MOST MSME TURN TO KIN, FRIENDS FOR FINANCING

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Govt-private sector’s cold-chain MOU to help farms, retail, logistics

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

T

@TyronePiad

he government and private sector recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to craft a cold chain integrated supply chain solution, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported on Thursday.

In a news statement, DTI said the Board of Investments (BOI), Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Insight Supply Chains Corp. are collaborating for the “Development of a Cold Chain Integrated Supply Chain Solution for Evidence-based Policy Making and Investment Programming” project.

PHL...

Continued from A1

He said this can be done by reducing the cost of paying taxes

The project seeks to establish a database that will identify existing cold chain service providers and project supply and demand for such services.

In addition, it will also generate data on present and future cold chain service gaps in various sectors as basis for policy formulation and investment promotion. These

and shortening the time for tax registration, filing, and payment, which often prevent small firms from complying with tax rules and regulations.

Digital transformation is needed, Chongvilaivan also said, to

sectors include agriculture, fishery, retail and logistics and delivery.

The trade department said the project is in partnership with the National Cold Chain Committee (NC3), which is led by the BOI, Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines Inc. (CCAP).

BOI Governor Marjorie RamosSamaniego said the project is a "crucial first step" in boosting investments for the cold chain industry.

She said this “can make the Philippines achieve food security and resiliency toward new normal.”

Earlier, CCAP President Anthony Dizon said it is a must to identify the locations needing cold chain facilities to attract investments.

By doing so, he said that products will be distributed in such areas, encouraging backward integration of production by companies.

He said the investment climate should be conducive for foreign

improve services to taxpayers and allow tax authorities access to data for monitoring of noncompliance risks. It can also cut transaction costs and enhance transparency.

“It is important for tax authorities to recognize that efforts to

investments to allow further technology transfer and market access, stressing the need to promote ease of doing business further.

As such, Dizon said, the government should address any deterrent for foreign investments. He proposed to relax the rules on land use and to ensure secure power supply.

The DTI said that the parties agreed to launch the pilot project in Luzon, including Benguet, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Quezon, and Camarines Sur. It will focus on priority commodities such as meat, fruits, vegetables, dairy and fisheries that are either fresh or processed.

lower costs of compliance may entail lower tax revenue flows from each taxpayer; however, improved tax compliance means an expanded tax base—more and more taxpaying individuals and firms entering a tax system—thereby enhancing total tax revenues,” Chongvilaivan said.

In the long term, the ADB economist said Southeast Asian governments should strive to develop and implement medium-term revenue strategies (MTRSs) to address the unpredictable and inconsistent tax reform efforts that often fail to deliver any benefits.

In the wake of Covid-19, Chongvilaivan said the government should rethink tax reform priorities and refine existing MTRSs to address development c h a l lenges

MSME...

“If lenders want to play a part in the success of Filipino MSMEs they need to modernize the lending experience, and embrace new technologies to make lending processes simpler, more personalized, and accessible,” Mambu Commercial Director William Dale said. “Better digital lending services will enable faster loan decision processing and onboarding, meaning funds get into the hands of the business owners when they’re really needed, and these MSMEs can get back to doing business.”

With this, Mambu urged financial institutions to do more to improve the loan application processes for borrowers.

The study noted that the loa n process durat ion is a key factor in choosing a lender. While over 90 percent of the Filipino MSMEs look at low interest rates, the majority also want a short application process and cashout options.

This finding is parallel with the claim of 91 percent of the local MSME respondents: loan decision processing must be done more quickly. Some 87 percent, meanwhile, seek more f le x ible bor row i ng terms.

According to Retail Economics Chief Executive Officer Richard Lim, “the pandemic has ushered in enor-

In addition, the MOU highlights the goals and object ives of t he Cold Chain Industry Roadmap as well as the national development prog rams in food security and integration of producers, manufacturers, traders and retailers.

United Nations Industrial Development Organization Country Representative Teddy Monroy said that the project also supports green industrial communit y initiatives, which can help in adjusting to the new normal. “ This collaboration builds synergy and promotes joint ef for ts t hrough ef f icient d ata management in the cold chain industry,” Monroy said.

such as income inequality, climate change and aging societies.

He said moves to introduce new levies on digital services providers in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand can be an effective way to tax multinational digital companies.

Chongvilaivan said effor t s to i mpose c a rbon taxation can also shore up domestic revenues not only to f ina nce development challenges but also climate change.

He sa id in Sout heast Asia, energy-related carbon emissions are expected to rise by 61 percent between 2014 and 2025. This presents an opportunity to facilitate energy transition and strengthen environmental tax regimes.

Continued from A1

mous changes in how we work, play and shop, accelerating the democratization of digital and with its repercussions still reverberating across society. But access to capital is an area where digitization has matured at a much slower pace.”

“All too often, businesses looking to scale quickly and seize opportunities are choked by exhausting application processes. Stifled by slow and inefficient practices, current lending practices are no longer fit-for-purpose in today’s fast-paced, digital world,” he added. “ These businesses [MSMEs] are essential to the Filipino economy, employing around 62 percent of the country’s work force—they reduce poverty and drive innovation, and yet access to adequate funding remains out of reach for many,” added Myles Bertrand, managing director for Asia Pacific at Mambu.

Across the globe, Mambu listed the common barriers to securing financing among MSMEs: insufficient starting capital, too much paperwork in the lending application and “not strong enough ” cash flow.

The study surveyed over 1,000 MSME owners globally who set up their company and applied for a loan in the last five years. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

FDI...

Continued from A1

The Central Bank noted that equity capital placements reached $2.1 billion while withdrawals amounted to $399 million for the year. Most of the equity capital placements came from Singapore, Japan, United States and Netherlands.

In December 2021 alone, FDI net inflows increased by 59 percent to $1.1 billion from $671 million in the same month the previous year.

The 60-percent improvement in non-residents’ net investments in debt instruments supported the FDI net inflows growth for the period.

Non-residents’ net investments in equity capital, other than reinvestment of earnings, rose by 59.6 percent to $336 million in December 2021 from $211 million year-on-year.

Reinvestment of earnings saw 50.3-percent growth at $96 million in December last year.

‘Strong positive signal’

RCBC Chief Economist Michael Ricafort said the new record high for FDI net inflows signals a “strong positive signal for the economy and defying the pandemic, in terms of creation of more jobs/employment and other business/economic opportunities in view of increased foreign investments into the country.”

“Thus, FDIs remain one of the bright spots and one of the major pillars of the economic recovery program from Covid-19 for the Philippine economy, in view of their continued double-digit growth rates in recent months,” he added.

Ricafort explained that the recent easing of quarantine measures—seen to result in more business activities and revenue generation—can bode well for the country in terms of attracting FDI. The further reopening of the economy can help offset the adverse impact of the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the economy, he said. The escalating tensions in the said countries have led to surging fuel prices that can pressure inflation.

Still, Ricafort cited the need to monitor developments in Eastern Europe as such will potentially further affect the supply chains.

“However, an offsetting risk factor for FDI is any increase in new Covid-19 cases locally and worldwide, and also amid lingering concerns over the Omicron variant that led to some restrictions on travel/f lights/ mobility, which could slow down economic recovery prospects and further growth in FDI,” the economist added.

Despite...

Continued from A1

and medium enterprises], investors, service providers, and professionals.”

This is a call backed by local and foreign business groups, as the trade pact is expected to help the economy recover from the pandemic.

“As business associations representing major industrialized economies, we are concerned the Philippines export industry that has been severely hit by the pandemic, will miss out unless this free trade agreement is approved by the Senate,” Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines President Julian Payne said earlier, warning that non-participation puts the country at a disadvantage compared with other RCEP signatories.

The local garment industry, through the Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines (Conwep) and its affiliate the Coalition of the Philippine Manufacturers of PPE (CPMP), also called for the Senate’s concurrence with RCEP to allow them to source raw materials such as yarn and fabric from foreign markets.

“Otherwise, we again lose these orders, as well as significant planned investments on apparel and textile from countries such as China, Taiwan, and others, to Vietnam which is expected to resume its operations in the next couple of months,” they added.

However, the agriculture sector has some reservations over RCEP’s ratification.

Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said last month the country’s participation to the RCEP should be decided by the next set of legislators in the hope of having an administration that is “more sympathetic” to the sector’s concerns.

“It will be only fair and proper to let the senators of the incoming 19th Congress study and deliberate on a critical matter like RCEP. Hopefully, the next administration—particularly the new leadership in the DA —will also be more sympathetic and receptive to the concerns of small farmers and the agriculture sector as a whole,” FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said previously. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

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A3

Living well, re-imagined: Alveo at 20

T

By Jeahan Virda De Barras

HE company continues to dedicate itself to providing thoughtfullydesigned, community-centric living environments that are unique to their clients and various stakeholders.

With the challenges of today’s continuously evolving lifestyles, there is always a relentless pursuit for the right home or work environment. People would aspire a place where they can enjoy a sense of security, luxury of space, a holistic lifestyle within a bright community, and essentially experience all the conveniences of modern living.

Redefining what it means to live well in the Philippines today– this is Alveo’s thrust as one of the top developers today.

A dynamic portfolio through the years

TWENTY years ago, Ayala Land created Alveo, a company designed to cater to the needs of a rapidly expanding market. From young professionals to urban achievers, property seekers, and starting families, they were all looking for living spaces and investments where people can essentially live well.

The company then took on an active and strategic role in revolutionizing modern living in the country. Its vibrant portfolio of real estate developments are designed to provide upscale living and working spaces within emerging growth centers all around the Philippines.

From its earlier beginnings as Community Innovations (CII) in 2002, the company become one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the country. Come 2004, Two Serendra, a suburban condo at the heart of Bonifacio Global City, was launched and still remains today as one of the company’s signature developments. In 2007, Treveia in Canlubang, Laguna was a pioneering developments in NUVALI, the country’s first large-scale development that introduced the use of sustainable design.

Through the years, Alveo Land continued to aggressively expand its portfolio with diversified offerings. In 2012, for example, the company launched high-end signature projects such as Escala Salcedo in Makati City and High Street South Corporate Plaza, its first office-for-sale, in BGC. Recent years have also seen the brand venture into high-profile commercial offerings such as Westborough, Broadfield, and Evo City in the South.

Twenty years of living well

ALVEO has since been fulfilling its vision to be one of the leading real estate developers in the country, as its well-designed communities and living spaces appeal to the changing needs of its upscale market. Alveo ensures that its properties are always built with intention, pro-

viding a quality, customer-centric way of life that is committed to make the most of what you have invested.

In addition, Alveo’s architectural designs, amenities, and services are always backed by its strong Ayala Land heritage. Its variety of exclusive residential properties and communities offer flexible, holistic experiences and distinct lifestyle options.

With over 64 projects in 14 strategic locations in the country, Alveo properties truly go beyond the boundaries of the ideal living experience. Such examples include those in Metro Manila, all the way to Cagayan de Oro. With Metro Manila as the hub of the country’s emerging markets, it has become a significant global business and investment destination where most of the top business districts are found, and is the prime spot for commercial and residential spaces in the Philippines.

Another strategic location is the emerging metropolitan center in the Northern Mindanao Region.

As a gateway for major transshipment hubs, Cagayan De Oro City offers a lot of possibilities for modern living. With emerging growth in industries such as agriculture and information technology and business process management (ITBPM), and a magnificent view of the city and its surrounding nature, CDO can provide an extraordinary living experience.

Located in these places of interest are Alveo Land’s The Lattice at Parklinks in C5-Pasig, Portico in Ortigas Center, and Bayview Heights in CDO.

PARKFORD SUITES LEGAZPI Makati

Parklinks Mall, which is designed to be a family-oriented establishment for dining, shopping, and entertainment. Parklinks also features a 3,500-square meter sports complex that has a basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts, as well as a dance studio and a fitness gym. Alveo’s The Lattice is situated right at the heart of this emerging estate, and is set to be a signature address in the area.

Without a doubt, Parklinks is proving to be a game changer when it comes to sustainable modern living

Portico in Ortigas Center

ON the other hand, Alveo Land’s first mixed-use lifestyle community in Ortigas is Portico. Inspired by the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art, it offers the serenity of having ample breathing room within a congested city.

The urban courtyard design of Portico features a hushed environment within a lifestyle community, as its classic and contemporary elements let its residents unwind in the quiet courtyards, lush green ways, and breezy open spaces. Aside from its scenic landscape, Portico has upscale shopping, dining, and entertainment retail options that

Parklinks at C5-Pasig

SITUATED along the C5 corridor that is highly accessible via C5, Amang Rodriguez Avenue, and Ortigas Avenue, Parklinks is a 35-hectare sustainable, greenest urban estate masterplan of Ayala and Eton Properties, interlacing elements of urban and natural environment to bring the comfort of urban living closer to nature.

A mixed-use project that will bring utmost connectivity and convenience between two major cities of growth–Quezon City and Pasig City–Parklinks is the definition of a “breath of fresh air”.

With its sustainable master plan, Parklinks incorporates an extensive park system which includes an eco center that will engage you in a serene and holistic lifestyle as interwoven with your natural environment. Parklinks features a “walkable” estate along its business hubs, mall, office, and living spaces which promotes an active and healthy lifestyle. There’s also the

VIENTO AT CERCA Las Piñas-Alabang

will let you experience modern living within old-world charms.

Bayview Heights in CDO

ALVEO Land also introduces a vibrant neighborhood in Mindanao, with a 34-hectare hillside development in Cagayan De Oro City. Offering a magnificent view of the city and a gateway to modern living, Bayview Heights is a reserved landscape within an exclusive community.

Recreational amenities include a clubhouse with a function room, board room, open lawn, and swimming pools with a view of the Macalajar Bay. Bayview Heights maximizes the natural environment surrounding the area, which maintains a stressfree living experience.

Modern living, reimagined

THESE are just some of the key developments within Alveo’s vast portfolio in recent years, all of which are designed to reimagine the standards for living and working well in the country. Now at twenty years and counting, Alveo knows these important considerations when making investments, and how they relate to the future potential value of prime Philippine real estate. To learn more, visit www.alveoland.com.ph.

TRYNE ENTERPRISE PLAZA Arca South Taguig

BAYVIEW HEIGHTS Cagayan de Oro

THE LATTICE AT PARKLINKS C5-Pasig

The Nation BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, March 11, 2022 Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

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Philippines ready to support US if it gets embroiled in war

T

HE Philippine president is ready to open the country’s “facilities” to American forces under a 1951 mutual defense treaty if Russia’s war against Ukraine turns for the worse and embroils the United States in the fighting, Manila’s ambassador to Washington said Thursday.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said President Rodrigo Duterte made the remarks in a recent meeting in Manila where the president also expressed concern over the global economic impact of the unfolding crisis.

The Philippines has condemned the invasion and voted yes on a UN General Assembly resolution that demanded an immediate halt to Moscow’s attack and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine.

Duterte, whose stormy six-year term ends in June, has nurtured closer

ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping while often criticizing US security policies in the first years of his presidency. But Romualdez said Duterte told him that that the Russian invasion was wrong.

“He says if they’re asking for the support of the Philippines, it’s very clear that, of course, if push comes to shove, the Philippines will be ready to be part of the effort, especially if this Ukrainian crisis spills over to the Asian region,” Romualdez said in an online briefing with Manilabased journalists.

“Give them the assurance that if ever needed, the Philippines is ready to offer whatever facilities or whatever things that the United States will need being a major—our number one ally.”

Duterte did not specify in his remarks which Philippine facili-

Manila, Tokyo pledge stronger cooperation vs climate change

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

T

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Ministry of the Environment Japan (MOEJ) pledged stronger cooperation towards a decarbonized and sustainable society at the recent Philippines-Japan Bilateral Environmental Policy Dialogue.

DENR Acting Secretary Jim O. Sampulna said the Bilateral Environmental Policy Dialogue held on March 2, which was part of the 1st Philippines-Japan Environmental Week, served as an avenue for further collaboration between the DENR and MOEJ to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and protection against the impact of climate change.

“The Philippines as an archipelagic country is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Our country has faced several typhoons in the past. Partnering with Japan in terms of technology and know-how on measures to mitigate climate change is indeed vital at this time,” Sampulna said in a news statement.

During the said event, DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs Jonas R. Leones said the agency is looking forward to more

fruitful cooperation between the governments of the Philippines and Japan.

“This dialogue is such a fitting example of our strategy to reach out to development partners to work on improving environmental conservation and protection in the country,” Leones said.

For his part, MOEJ Vice Minister Tokutaro Nakai said the agency is deepening its cooperation with the DENR based on existing cooperation programs through strategies such as Initiative on Fluorocarbons Life Cycle Management, Joint Crediting Mechanism, transparency reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, cityto-city collaboration, and knowledge and tools sharing on climate adaptation projects, and waste management technology support.

“In the area of climate change, we were able to confirm that there are some [possible] areas of cooperation such as the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions [NDCs] as well as the development of the long-term strategies and we will make efforts to work for that and we also hope to cooperate with you in the future attempts too,” Nakai said.

Through a joint statement, the DENR and the MOEJ agreed to take actions to tackle climate change.

ties American forces would gain access to, but Romualdez said these could include the sprawling Clark and Subic Bay Freeports northwest of Manila that used to be among the largest American air and naval bases outside the US mainland until US forces withdrew from them in the early 1990s.

There was no immediate comment from Duterte or his office.

The 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty commits the United States and the Philippines to come to the aid of the other in case of an attack. American officials have repeatedly assured their Philippine counterparts in recent years that they would honor their treaty obligations if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under attack in the disputed South China Sea, including by China.

US national security officials

have scheduled a meeting at the White House with ambassadors of the Asean nations this week to discuss the widening sanctions imposed by the US on Russia, including President Joe Biden’s ban on Russian oil imports, Romualdez said.

Romualdez also said he learned that Ukraine has appealed to many nations, including the Philippines, “to stop doing business with Russia” but said he was unaware if the request has been officially conveyed to Manila.

Another topic at the meeting with US officials this week is Biden’s invitation to Asean heads of state to take part in a special US summit on March 28.

The 76-year-old Duterte may skip the event because it falls on his birthday and also because it will occur during the busy Philippine elections season, Romualdez said. AP

Davao City to return some schools used as Covid-19 isolation facilities to DepEd

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

AVAO CITY—The city government is returning some schools it had used as isolation and holding facilities for Covid-19 patients.

The move came amid preparations for the gradual resumption of face-toface (F-to-F) classes.

City Covid-19 Task Force spokesman, Dr. Michelle Schlosser, said only the schools used as Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facility (TTMF) would be vacated “to pave way for the school authorities to prepare for the face-to-face classes.”

Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte has expressed her support to the resumption of F-to-F classes. On March 2, she signed Executive Order (EO) 9, Series of 2022 “An Order Declaring No Objection to all applications for face-to-face classes in private and public schools from kindergarten to post-graduate studies” after the city was placed under Alert Level 1 status.

The EO cited that the continuous decrease of the number of cases in the city as well as the high vaccination bolsters the reopening of schools for F-to-F classes to ensure continuity of

academic instruction.

Schlosser said the vaccination cluster of the Covid-19 Task Force was already discussing with the Department of Education to allow the schools as vaccination sites for their students.

The mayor has emphasized the strict implementation of the Minimum Public Health Standards (MPHS) that must still be observed in schools such as wearing of face masks as well as the guidelines that may be issued by the Department of Education.

Other TTMF facilities would remain open though.

“Our positivity rate is less than 2 percent. So we have to close TTMFs, especially schools because they have been preparing for the face-to-face classes. We will give the facility back to schools. We will first close the schools but we will still open some TTMFs,” she said.

Aside from schools, motels and inns have been volunteered by owners for isolation and holding facilities for Covid-19 patients, as accommodation facilities were forced to stop operation anyway due to travel and movement restriction.

These facilities provided 2,674 beds during the last two years.

AWARDS FOR ARTICLE ON NEW LEARNING LANDSCAPED IN THE PANDEMIC

Three BusinessMirror writers recognized in Lasallian Scholarum

T

HREE BusinessMirror writers won one of the major awards given out by the De La Salle University (DLSU) to celebrate outstanding professional and student media coverage of youth and education stories.

The 2022 Lasallian Scholarum Awards (LSA), held on March 9 via livestreaming, centered on the theme, “Kabanata ng Kabataan,” in view of the challenge to the Filipino youth to shape the new normal, as the country continues to combat the pandemic while preparing for the May national and local elections.

Among this year’s winners, “‘Oldschool’ ways a thing of the past as pandemic paves new learning landscapes,” a special report written by Rizal Raoul Reyes, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco and Mike Policarpio of the BusinessMirror was adjudged Outstanding Published Feature Article on Youth and Education in a Nationally Circulated Publication.

Other winners are: “Lasallian heroes against Martial Law honored on International Day of Peace” by Aurora Quadra-Balibay of Good News Pilipinas for Outstanding Feature Story

MOCON-CIRIACO

on De La Salle University; “Munting Bisig” by GMA Network’s The Atom Araullo Specials for Outstanding Video Feature Story on Youth Education; “Digital Sex Crimes in Asia: The Filipino Mothers Selling their Children for Online Sexual Abuse” by Neil Jayson Servallos of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and OneNews.PH for Outstanding Online Feature on Youth and Education; and “Seeking justice: The uphill battle for safer spaces in academic institutions” by Alexandra Simone Enriquez and Criscela Ysabelle Racelis of DLSU’s The LaSallian for Outstanding Published Feature Story on Youth

POLICARPIO

and Education in a School Organ.

Special commendation honors were also given to “Pandemic Teachers” by Kara David of GMA’s I-Witness for the Outstanding Video Feature Story on Youth and Education and “DLSU researchers use machine learning for a deeper meaning of data from international assessments”

by Noel Pabalate of Manila Bulletin for Outstanding Feature Story on De La Salle University.

This year’s board of judges included PHINMA Corporation Vice President, Chief Risk Officer & Director for Strategy Danielle del Rosario, Asia Foundation Chief of Party, Youth Leadership

REYES

for Development Nathalie Christine Jorge, Signum Fidei Association National Brother Adviser and DLSU Senior High School faculty member Br. Richie Yap FSC, Independent executive producer and writer Lolita Lachica, and multi-awarded Lasallian student leader Emmanuel Mirus Ponon.

Winners in the professional categories each received a sculpture especially designed and crafted by renowned sculptor Toym De Leon Imao.

Now in its 17th year, the Lasallian Scholarum Awards contracted an independent media-monitoring agency for the screening of youth and education news and feature stories.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Economy BusinessMirror

Friday, March 11, 2022 A5 Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

DBM releases ₧3-billion funds for transportation, agri sectors

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T

HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it has already released a total of P3 billion for the transport sector’s fuel subsidy and the agriculture producers' fuel discounts to cushion the impact of skyrocketing oil prices.

DBM Officer in Charge Tina Rose Canda confirmed on Thursday that they have already disbursed the P2.5 billion for the Department of Transportation's (DOTr) fuel subsidy program and the P500 million under the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget to provide fuel discounts to farmers and fisherfolk.

“WereleasedboththeDOTr2.5Band the Agri Sector P500 million, a.couple of minutes ago lang,” Canda said in a message to the BusinessMirror.

And, on Thursday evening, CNN

Philippines said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) confirmed receiving the funds for downloading to the beneficiaries.

Canda said they released the amount appropriated under the 2022 national budget for the fuel subsidy program after the signing of the joint memorandum circular together with the DOTr and the Department of Energy.

“Yes, [it was signed]. Yesterday, we received it and so we released the amount since compliant na in accordance with SP [special provision] requirement,” she added, referring to the special provision under the 2022 national budget which said the appropriated funds shall only be used if the Dubai crude oil price based on Mean of Platts Singapore reaches or exceeds $80 per barrel for three months.

To expedite the release of funds and still comply with the special

provision, the budget official earlier said they made an “adjustment” following DOEs decision to consider the Dubai crude oil price for the months of December, January, and February instead of January to March.

Oil prices have been skyrocketing amid Russias invasion of Ukraine.

As of March 3, Dubai crude oil prices have increased to $116.19, according to Director Rino Abad of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau.

As for the P500 million for fuel discounts for the agriculture sector that was released under DA’s budget, Canda said the release of funds only requires the agency to prepare their own guidelines in coordination with DBM. Economic managers also earlier recommended to President Duterte increasing the budget for the fuel subsidy program, to P5 billion from

P2.5 billion previously. On top of these, they also proposed to raise the budget for fuel vouchers for agricultural producers from P500 million to P1.1 billion. The release of the funds for fuel subsidy for the transport sector and the fuel vouchers for the agriculture sector are both recommended to be done in two tranches—the first one in March and the second one in April.

Budget and finance officials have earlier said additional funds needed for the economic team’s proposals may be sourced from excess revenues.

Status of Covid-19 releases

MEANWHILE, the DBM on Thursday also reported that there were P58.678 billion in funds that were left unobligated under the Covid-19 releases as of end-2021, of which P26.3 billion came from Bayanihan laws which have already expired last year.

DTI sees more business loans from tourism sector

S

MALL Business Corp. (SB Corp.) expects to receive more loan applications from the tourism sector following the easing of quarantine measure that allowed more mobility for travel.

In a statement on Thursday, the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said demand for additional financing from the tourism industry is expected to rise as more business activities have resumed.

“We expect an increase in loan applications from the Travel and Tourism sector as the country removed last March 1 the restrictions in most interzonal domestic travel and the quarantine requirements for vaccinated international travelers,” SB Corp. President and CEO Luna

Cacanando said.

In addition, the loan facility for the tourism sector now includes enterprises that are not accredited by the Department of Tourism. These include tourism support services and facilities.

“Lastly, the destruction brought about by Typhoon ‘Odette’ in major tourism areas in the country has increased the demand for CARES [Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises] for Tourism and Travel loans,” she added.

SB Corp. disclosed that it has approved P278 million worth of loans for the tourism sector. As much as P524 million are currently undergoing processing.

As of end-2021, meanwhile, SB Corp. said the lending funds for the

Solon outlines ‘best way’ for economic recovery amid Covid, inflation threats

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

P

LACING the entire country under the most relaxed quarantine Alert Level 1 is the “best way” to prop up the domestic economy amid deepening fallout from the RussiaUkraine conflict, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, in a news statement, agreed with the prevailing prognosis of analysts and the President’s economic team that the current metrics point to an economy on the mend, but he cautioned that the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, particularly the threat of rising inflation—with the cost of petroleum possibly soaring to as high as $200 per barrel—could crush prospects for a return to prepandemic growth within the year.

“Hence, the full reopening alone of the economy by placing the entire country under Alert Level 1 status will guarantee greater economic activity, revive shuttered businesses and restore or create jobs at this point when our country is already on the road to recovery on the back of declining Covid-19 infections, a faster coronavirus vaccine rollout and improving economic indicators like bigger FDI [foreign direct investment] inflows, higher remittances from overseas Filipinos, a stronger manufacturing sector and rising employment,” Villafuerte said.

The Philippines logged 580 new Covid-19 infections last March 9, the lowest recorded in the country this year and since December 28 last year, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

He said that greater economic activity will also mean higher revenues

for the government, which will enable it to spend more on Covid response and on other priority programs, particularly those that would hasten and bolster recovery such as infrastructure and agriculture.

Moreover, he said overseas investors are likely to expand or start businesses in the country with President Duterte’s enactment into law or pending approval of various Congress-approved measures meant to lift or relax constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of certain enterprises.

The entry of more investments and consequent generation of more jobs as a result of the President’s and Congress’ investor-friendly initiatives would further strengthen the domestic economy and boost its growth momentum following the two-year global slump, he said.

Villafuerte was referring to the newly signed amendatory laws on the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA) and the Foreign Investments Act (FIA), plus the amended Public Service Act (PSA) that Congress can hopefully finalize after its threemonth break for ratification and submission to Malacañang.

“However, minus the full reopening of the economy, its quick return to pre-pandemic growth could be waylaid by the economic shockwaves from Russia’s war on Ukraine,” Villafuerte said.

He noted that Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi himself has raised the possibility of oil prices hitting the perbarrel level of $200 amid the current Russia-Ukraine war.

With Alert Level 1 status, though, all businesses and establishments along with public transportation are allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity.

multi-sectoral micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently struggling because of the pandemic were fully utilized already.

“Of the P7.93-billion loan funds granted by the Bayanihan 2 Act to SB Corp. for MSMEs, P4 billion was set aside for travel- and tourism-related loans, and the rest or P3.93 billion were used for lending to multi-sectoral MSMEs or businesses in trading, manufacturing, services, agriculture and other sectors,” Cacanando said.

The lender said it has approved P5.9-billion loan to said MSMEs, which is more than the allotted P3.93 billion. The additional funding, Cacanando explained, came from internal sources of the SB Corp.

“In fact, SB Corp. has lent more to these MSMEs than what was pro-

vided for by the Bayanihan 2 Act and downloaded by DBM [Department of Budget and Management],” the SB Corp. official said.

SB Corp. said that only P8.08 billion of the P10-billion allocation by the Bayanihan 2 was released by the DBM. “The travel and tourism sector has lagged behind the multi-sectoral MSMEs in availing of loan assistance from the government due to the effects of the prolonged lockdown in the tourism sector.

The uptake of loans from tourism establishments has been very slow due to the series of lockdowns and the general uncertainty that had governed the sector the past two years,” Cacanando said.

Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

Companies tapped more FCY bonds to raise funds

C

OR POR AT IONS i ssued fewer local currency (LCY) bonds last year compared to 2019 and 2020 as they tapped more foreig n c u r renc y (FC Y ) bonds to raise funding, documents from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed.

Local currency corporate bonds last year stood at P1.42 trillion, down by 11.8 percent from P1.6 trillion a year ago. Notably, this is also lower by 5.5 percent compared to the pre-pandemic level of P1.5 trillion in 2019.

On the other hand, FCY bonds surged by 56.85 percent to P22.9 billion from both P14.6 billion recorded in 2020 and in 2019.

“LCY Philippine bonds totaled more than P1.4 trillion by the end of 2021. This is P190.8 billion less than the outstanding amount in 2020 and P83.4 billion less than its pre-pandemic level as corporations [including financia l institutions] tapped more FCY bonds for their financing requirements,” Finance Chief Economist and former Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said in his economic bulletin.

As a share of the country’s economy, local currency bonds last year accounted for 7.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), shrinking from 9 percent in 2020 and 7.7 percent in 2019.

Meanwhile, the share of foreign currency bonds to the country’s GDP grew to 6 percent in 2021, rising from 4 percent in 2020 and 3.9 percent in 2019.

Last year, local currency bonds issued by corporations accounted for 14.5 percent of the P9.787 trillion total outstanding Philippine local

currency bonds.

Government local currency bonds amounting to P8.105 trillion cornered the bulk or P82.8 percent of the total last year, while the remaining 2.7 percent or P260 billion in local currency bonds came from the central bank.

Beltran said government bonds used to dominate the country’s local currency bond market, at 99.7 percent in 2001 but he pointed out that the share of corporate bonds gradually expanded as market liquidity improved and government addressed the fiscal distress in the early 2000s.

“Whereas corporations relied more on FCY bonds for additional financing requirements until the first few years of the new millennium, the country’s strengthened macroeconomic f und amenta ls thereafter enhanced the business environment for issuing LCY bonds,” he said.

“Using government securities as benchmark, t he LC Y bond market expanded, enabling corporations to issue similar bonds, thus reducing reliance on FCY bond s a nd d iversi f y i ng t hei r risks.”

Moving forward, Beltran said higher sustainable growth levels and faster economic recovery translate to greater financing needs, noting that the passage of the Amended Public Service Act together with the recent enactment of economic liberalization bills as well as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act and the implementation of the “Build, Build, Build” program will help the economy bounce back.

Bernadette D. Nicolas

A6

BusinessMirror

Friday, March 11, 2022

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

ACCENTURE, INC. 7f, Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1, Pioneer St, City Of Mandaluyong SERRAO, FLAVIA Business Excellence Advisory Sr. Manager 1.

Brief Job Description: Develop organizational effectiveness in collaboration with extended teams to provide process, tools, methods, operational excellence practices and training across the organization.

DIXIT, AMITABH Client Service Delivery Assoc Director

2.

Brief Job Description: assign all work assignments, commit teams to work, mange the quality of their work, manage the team’s financials and mix to targets, and drive the overall people management within the team

THUMATI SEKAR, KAMESH BABU Operations Service Delivery Director 3.

Brief Job Description: Manage all aspects of Service Delivery Operations for all client for all clients deals and delivery capabilities across multiple SDOs or for a complex offering at scale

Basic Qualification: Requires identifying and assessing complex problems for area(s) of responsibility

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 Basic Qualification: Complexity and Risk complexity of client/ market needs - e.g, (geographic, language, culture, infrastructure, client relationship, market maturity etc., Limited - typically single country Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

AMAZON OPERATION SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. B21 Three E-com Moa Complex, Harbour Drive Cor. Bay Shore, Brgy. 076, Pasay City BUI THI MAI NGOC ESPR Account Manager - VN 4.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for handling escalated matters that originate with the selling partners

Basic Qualification: Fluency in Vietnamese language Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

HUANG, LINGYUN Investigation Specialist I

5.

Brief Job Description: 1. Communicates effectively via email and/or telephone in both Mandarin and English language, with our customer base - buyers, merchants and internal customers.

2. Takes appropriate action to identify and help minimize the risk posed by fraud patterns and trend. 3. Consistently achieves/exceeds weekly productivity and quality standards.

CAI, TIANBAO Chinese Speaking Technical Consultant 13.

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 Basic Qualification: requires development and execution of strategy to achieve key business objectives in area of responsibility

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

QU, JING Chinese Speaking Technical Consultant 14.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

JAFARI, FAHIMEH ALSADAT General Manager 15.

Brief Job Description: Overseeing daily business operations & implementing growth strategies.

JAFARI, SEYEDHAMIDREZA Sales Manager

16.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for meeting the sales target through effective planning.

HUANG, XIAOXUAN Accounts Payable Manager 17.

Brief Job Description: Manages all accounts payable activities for company, ensures timely payments of vendor invoices and expenses vouchers, and maintains accurate records and reports

CHAW CHOY LING General Affairs Specialist 18.

Brief Job Description: Ensure overall security of the company’s properties, employees, and interests

6.

Brief Job Description: Charged with maximizing revenue of the company and its affiliates through key strategic, crossfunctional initiatives and by driving the strategic development, operational planning, roll-out and ongoing tracking of revenue & strategy projects in partnership with other leaders.

LI, BINGGAO Hub Support Supervisor Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree

7.

ALBERT TIGOR GULTOM Bahasa Indonesian Language-officer Fund Management Brief Job Description: Must ensure their funds reporting are met

8.

MELYSA Bahasa Indonesian Language-officer Fund Management Brief Job Description: Must ensure their funds reporting are met

9.

KHUU VI HAO Vietnamese Language-officer Fund Management Brief Job Description: Must ensure their funds reporting are met

19.

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

BIGCAT SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 18/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Avenue Cor. Rufino Street, Salcedo Vill., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance management or any business course

20.

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

Brief Job Description: Oversees all activities in the community emergency hub to make sure the objectives are being met and ensure the hub runs safely, smoothly and efficiently

ZHAO, SHUO Procurement Officer 21.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance management or any business course

Brief Job Description: Oversees all activities in the community emergency hub to make sure the objectives are being met and ensure the hub runs safely, smoothly and efficiently LI, HUIJIE Hub Support Supervisor

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance management or any business course Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Analyze and reconcile specifications offer by suppliers with those in the purchase requisitions

XIAO, QIANG Talent Acquisition Specialist 22.

Brief Job Description: Sourcing, attracting, interviewing, hiring and on boarding employees.

10.

Brief Job Description: Writing and proofreading creative copy.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate; Fluent in English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CRONYX INC. No. 4th-10th Flr. Yinhope Bldg., Dela Rama Cor. Zoili Hilario St., Seascape Village, Ccp Complex Subd. Zone 10, Barangay 76, Pasay City TEH JUN XIAN Chinese Speaking Program Designer 11.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

CHEN, YICHENG Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 12.

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give customer information about product and services

EVERSON VISA CONSULTANCY INC. 37/f Lkg Tower, 6801 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

ZHANG, JIAN Director For Network Project 23.

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience / Good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: 1. Responsible for business expansion and project construction for the company. 2. Responsible for achieving the overall operating indicators of the Account department.

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6months customer service experience/Good in Oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

AN, IKSANG Intellectual Property Rights Specialist

24.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Fluent in Korean and English

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

LEISURE & RESORTS WORLD CORPORATION 26/f West Tower, Pse Ctr., Exchange Rd., Ortigas Ctr., San Antonio, City Of Pasig

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Graduate of any 4 year course & have experience as general manager.

26.

Basic Qualification: Knowledge of work, efficiency, cooperation, quality of work, educability, professionalism, attitude towards work the public, the company, its officer, co-employee and colleagues

MAGKING SERVICES CORPORATION Unit 5d Rose Industries Bldg., #11, Pioneer Street, Kapitolyo, City Of Pasig KIM, HYUNGSOO Customer Support Representative 27.

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

Brief Job Description: Customer service representative to manage customer queries and complaints.

PARK, JUNIL IT Support Specialist

28.

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Brief Job Description: Dependability, trustworthiness, initiatives, judgment, punctuality, articulateness, client response.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

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

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: At least senior high graduate and have experience as sales manager.

Brief Job Description: Working with Korean clients to protect their intellectual property in the Philippines

LIU, ZHEHUI AVP Of Admin

Brief Job Description: IT support specialists provide organizations with information technology support to optimize operational efficiency.

JANG, MINSU Operations Manager (Korean)

29.

Brief Job Description: Operations manager in performing their duties, ensure proper staffing at all store

Basic Qualification: Customer service representative to manage customer queries and complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Customer service representative to manage customer queries and complaints.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Customer service representative to manage customer queries and complaints.

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

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower, C4 Rd. Edsa Ext., Barangay 76, Pasay City

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

30.

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual

ANDERSON KURNIAWAN Chinese Customer Service

31.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/ managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

KOREA TRADE CENTER MANILA Unit 1, 14f Ore Center Building, 31st St. Corner 9th Ave., Bgc, City Of Taguig

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries BUI THI DIEU HOA Chinese Customer Service

32.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires CHEN, WENZHONG Chinese Customer Service

33.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries CHONG JIA JUN Chinese Customer Service

34.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries DO THI HONG HANH Chinese Customer Service

35.

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

Basic Qualification: 1. With at least 3 years up level managerial experience responsible for the peration of business projects, department management and team building.

2. with leadership skills in driving the organizational mission through motivation and engagement of team members. 3. With Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering. 4. Highly proficient in Chinese and English language.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries AUNG MIN OO Chinese Customer Service

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires FENG, JUN Chinese Customer Service

36.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires HENDRY CHANDRA Chinese Customer Service

37.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires HUANG, HAO Chinese Customer Service

38.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires HUANG, RUNRONG Chinese Customer Service

39.

INFOVINE INC. 9/f Y Tower, Moa Complex, Coral Way Drive Cor. Macapagal, Barangay 76, Pasay City MA, JINGJUN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

25.

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

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

DYNAMIC STUDIO TECHNOLOGY INC. 5th To 10th/f Platinum Tower Building, Aseana Ave. Cor. Fuentes Street, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

No.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES PHILS. INC. U-5302, 53/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Cor., V.a. Rufino St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

CHADNI FASHION WORLD CORP. Unit No. U-2 Flr. No. 3/f Baclaran Bagong Milenyo Plaza Bldg., F.b. Harrison St., Barangay 76, Pasay City MIA, MD SHARIF Marketing Executive

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

FLASH EXPRESS SOFTWARE (PH) CO., LTD. INC. 11/f Cybersigma, Lawton Ave., Mckinley West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

BEANLAB, INC. 11/f, South Tower Rockwell, Highway Hills, City Of Mandaluyong VAVILALA, SRIHARSHA Senior Advisor - Revenue & Strategy

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

FJ JAPAN EQUIPMENT CO. 274, Mc Arthur Hi-way, Dalandanan, City Of Valenzuela

Basic Qualification: fluency in Mandarin Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires HUYNH XUONG NHU Chinese Customer Service

40.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires KHIM, SOKNY Chinese Customer Service

41.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION LAM MUN LOONG Chinese Customer Service

42.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LE HONG DAI Chinese Customer Service

43.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LI, SHUN Chinese Customer Service

44.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries LIU, YUQIANG Chinese Customer Service

45.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries MAW SHAY Chinese Customer Service

46.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries NAY MYO KHANT Chinese Customer Service

47.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN DINH MINH Chinese Customer Service

48.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN HONG QUAN Chinese Customer Service

49.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN KHANH CU Chinese Customer Service

50.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN THI DUYEN Chinese Customer Service

51.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN THI HIEP Chinese Customer Service

52.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN THI QUYNH HOA Chinese Customer Service

53.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN TIEN HUNG Chinese Customer Service

54.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN TRUONG GIANG Chinese Customer Service

55.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN VAN HOAN Chinese Customer Service

56.

Brief Job Description: Managing Incoming calls and customer service inquiries PAN EI PHYU Chinese Customer Service

57.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries PHAM THE MANH Chinese Customer Service

58.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries PHUNG THI DINH Chinese Customer Service

59.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries PHWE SAN Chinese Customer Service

60.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries SATRIA EKA PUTRA Chinese Customer Service

61.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries SU, LI Chinese Customer Service

62.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries SULEMAN Chinese Customer Service

63.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries THET MAUNG MAUNG Chinese Customer Service

64.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries THI THI MOE Chinese Customer Service

65.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write chinese language

No.

THIDA MYINT Chinese Customer Service 66.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write chinese language

67.

68.

69.

70.

71.

72.

73.

74.

75.

76.

77.

78.

HUANG, QIANG Chinese Speaking Business Analyst 79.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

80.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

81.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

SUGIANTO Bahasa Indonesian Language - Supervisor Trade Specialist Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate KEI STANLEY Bahasa Indonesian Language - Trade Specialist

82.

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

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Ensure that all price changes and delivery of events are timely and accurate

SHIKAMI, YOSHIHIDE Project Manager 83.

Brief Job Description: Monitor progress of construction and review shop drawing

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

84.

Brief Job Description: Develop, create, and modify general computer applications software or specialized utility programs.

86.

Brief Job Description: Provide information and services to Korea customers and clients

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

PEREZ PAGOLA, DAVID JOSUE Customer Care Specialist I, Bilingual Spanish 87.

Brief Job Description: Respond professionally, accurately and in a timely manner to customer contacts

PINTO ANDRADE, DIEGO ANDRES Customer Care Specialist I, Bilingual Spanish 88.

Brief Job Description: Respond professionally, accurately and in a timely manner to customer contacts

SONG, CHAO Purchase Order Office Leader 89.

Brief Job Description: be able to independently complete the survey and implementation, manage internal control, to complete business enablement, provide solutions, arrange and send various relevant business reports, familiar with team management and be able to develop business baselines

90.

91.

92.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write chinese language

93.

94.

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

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

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in business marketing and other relevant courses

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

Basic Qualification: To provide consulting, technical and advisory services Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: With Knowledge in Computer Application

Brief Job Description: Customer Support For Mandarin Speaking Client

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

JIANG, PENG Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: With knowledge in computer application Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With knowledge in computer application

Brief Job Description: Support and provide superior service via phones, emails and faxes are receiver and caller

OUYANG, MENGFENG Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Support and Provide Superior service via phones, emails and faxes as a receiver and caller

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

YANG, MAO Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: With Knowledge in Computer Application

Brief Job Description: Customer Support for Mandarin Speaking Client

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

Basic Qualification: Proficient in Speaking , Reading and Writing in Bilingual Languages

VO VAN TRINH Bilingual Technical Support 95.

Brief Job Description: Deals with Hardware and Application Support Queries and Issues Reported to the

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

YKK PHILIPPINES, INC. 17&18 Flr. Richville Corporate Tower, Mbp, Alabang, City Of Muntinlupa

TAKAHASHI, TSUTOMU Vice President For Production 96.

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Japanese and English language, College level

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

XUSHENG TECHNOLOGY CORP. Flr. No. 1-5 Bldg., No. 0050 F.b. Harrison St. Cor. Williams And Roberts St. Zone 4, District 1, Barangay 13, Pasay City

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in business marketing and other relevant courses

Basic Qualification: At least 2 years experience in a call center and proficient in the language

BAI, NIAN Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative

LIU, ZHUOYANG Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree, excellent communication skills, experience in leading a test team

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

W.E.W RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, INC. 50/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6months customer service experience/Good in Oral communication and written

Basic Qualification: At least 2 years experience in a call center and proficient in the language

VOLENDAY INC. U1406 14/f Pacific Star Bldg., Sen. Gil Puyat Cor. Makati Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Brief Job Description: Support and provide superior service via phones, emails and faxes are receiver and caller

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

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing Korean and English

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

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

Basic Qualification: Candidate should have a minimum 5 yrs. Solid experience in the same field. Proficient in speaking, reading & writing

TENERITY PHILIPPINES CORP. 12th Floor, W Fifth Building, 32nd St. Cor. 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Manage the design, construction and stakeholders for integrated resorts and casino projects

LIM (SPOUSE OF GWAK), JINYOUNG Helpdesk Support

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

SYNCGLO COMMUNICATION SERVICES INC. R-7 Goldland Millenia Tower, J.m. Escriva Drive, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

SUPREME CHENGHAO MANAGEMENT OPC Level 26-a Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

JENIE CHONG SOUK LEN Software Development Specialist

85.

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

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

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

FISHER, MITCHELL JOHN Project Director

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

SUMISETSU PHILIPPINES, INC. 8/f Gc Corporate Plaza, 150 Legaspi St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: responsible for developing test strategy and test plan for assigned project

No.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

SHANG SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. 11/f Pbcom Tower, Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Bel-air, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Assist/Help Customers, Give customer information about product and services

ANU NEHA Test Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

NOKIA SOLUTIONS AND NETWORKS PHILIPPINES, INC. 18/f The Curve Bldg., 32nd St. Cor. 3rd Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

A7

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NEO INCORPORATED North Tower Centrum Bldg., Aseana Avenue, Entertainment City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires THEIN WIN HLAING Chinese Customer Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires ZAW THANT Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires XU, JINQIN Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires WAIYAN OO Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires VU THI UT Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires VU QUANG HIEU Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires VO THI HANH HOA Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires TRAN THI MINH HUE Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries TRAN QUANG CHINH Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires TIN HUE NHAN Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write chinese language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires THINN KAING Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write chinese language

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries THIN THIN YU Chinese Customer Service

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write chinese language

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Friday, March 11, 2022

Brief Job Description: Will implement manufacturing operations strategy aligned with company plans ; maximize capacity and ensure teamwork and high morale among manufacturing staff

Basic Qualification: At least 10 years related experience, Strong leadership, extensive knowledge in principles and best practice procedures, excellent organizational, problem solving and analytical skills, with proficient computers skills Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

ZTE PHILIPPINES INC. Unit 1201 & 1202 12th Floor Fort Legend Towers, 3rd Ave. Corner 31st St., Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

97.

Basic Qualification: Graduate of four year course

ZHANG, CONG Product Manager Brief Job Description: Analyzes technical development

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

Basic Qualification: At least two (2) years of working experience in the related field; fluent in mandarin/Chinese language

Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE National Capital Region located at DOLE-NCR Building, 967 Maligaya St., Malate Manila, within 30 days after this publication.

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

Please inform DOLE National Capital Region if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

SURESTE PROPERTIES INC. The Executive Offices, Solaire Resort & Casino, 1 Asean Avenue, Entertainment City, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

*Date Generated: Mar 10, 2022

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

News

BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, March 11, 2022

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL may see lowest sugar output in a decade

T

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

HE Philippines’s raw sugar output in crop year 2021-2022 could plunge to 1.98 million metric tons (MMT), its lowest level in more than a decade, as the industry grappled with lower yield due to frequent rains.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) final sugar crop estimate for the current crop year stood at 1.982 MMT, 7.48 percent lower than the 2.143 MMT actual output

recorded in the previous crop year 2020-2021, based on data obtained by the BusinessMirror.

The final sugar crop estimate for the current crop year was also lower

than the pre-final estimate made by SRA, at 2.072 MMT. The SRA’s initial raw sugar production forecast for crop year 2021-2022 was at 2.099 MMT. Historical SRA data showed that should the output projection for the current crop year materialize, then it would be the lowest production level since the 1.97 MMT output recorded in crop year 2009-2010.

Historical SRA data also showed that this could be the first time in 12 crop years that the country’s raw sugar production fell below the 2-MMT level.

“We are projecting a decrease in the yield in terms of tons cane per hectare (TC/HA) as compared to last year because of the weaker La Niña for

CY 2021-2022 vs CY 2020-2021, based on the projection of DOST PAG-ASA,” SRA Administrator Hermenegildo R. Serafica told the BusinessMirror.

Serafica explained that the rains would be detrimental to the growth of sugarcane, but would be “favorable” in terms of the sugar yield as measured by 50-kilogram bags per ton cane (LKg/TC).

Based on SRA’s latest projections, total sugarcane tonnage would decline by 10.72 percent to 22.567 MMT from 25.276 MMT, while sugar recovery would increase by 2.92 percent yearon-year to 1.78 LKg/TC. The SRA also projected that TC/HA could decline by 10.5 percent to 56.77 from 63.43.

However, Serafica pointed out that the projected increase in sugar recovery cannot compensate for the doubledigit decline rate in terms of total cane milled for the current crop year.

“Overall (at a national perspective), the roughly 3-percent increase in sugar recovery (from 1.70 to 1.78 LKG/TC) did not compensate for the decrease in TC/HA which is 10 percent lower when compared to CY 2020-2021,” he said.

“Thus, our sugar projection is at 1.982 million metric tons of sugar which is 7 percent lower than CY 2020-2021 actual sugar production,” he added.

Across the board

SRA data obtained by the Business-

Mirror showed that sugarcane tonnage and raw sugar output in the country’s five mill districts are projected to decline year-on-year at the end of the current crop year.

Sugarcane output in Negros, which accounts for about 62 percent of total tonnage, is projected to decline by 12.37 percent year-on-year to 14.069 MMT while its raw sugar output could fall by 7.24 percent year-on-year to 1.251 MMT, based on SRA data.

Luzon sugarcane production is projected to decline by 12.55 percent to 1.728 MMT from 1.976 MMT while its raw sugar output may decline by 7.08 percent to 143,630.89 MT from 154,579 MT, SRA data showed.

Total sugarcane hectares nationwide in the current crop year may shrink slightly to 397,523.9 hectares, the lowest level in 11 years, from 398,477.98 hectares last year, based on SRA data.

In consultations it conducted with sugar producers last March 7, SRA presented its final crop estimates for the current crop year.

Serafica said he issued memorandum circular (MC) 7 requesting the country’s beverage companies and food manufacturers to submit to the SRA their actual sugar requirements from November 2021 to February 2022, as well as their projected volume requirement from March until end of the year.

Under MC 7, industrial users have until March 15 to submit the pertinent data and information to the SRA, to be signed by their respective Chief Purchasing Officer of CEO. “All this will be taken into account by SRA so as to balance the supply and demand situation,” Serafica said.

United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) Manuel Lamata urged the SRA to conduct a nationwide survey of sugar stock in all sugar mills by a private independent surveyor to determine how much sugar stocks the country has at present.

Lamata said he believed that the actual full-year sugar output in the current crop year would be higher than the 2.143 MMT recorded output in the previous crop year.

Sugar industr y sources told the BusinessMirror that certain groups will also conduct their respective raw sugar production estimates to determine if there is really a huge drop in output this year compared to last year.

The SRA has already approved a sugar import program with a volume of 200,000 MT to plug the shortfall in the domestic refined sugar supply.

However, the import program has been temporarily halted due to legal challenges made by certain sugar industry quarters.

neighbors, Govt may consider Asean African states to get donated ‘Alert Level 0’ in jabs from PHL low-risk Covid areas M W

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

ITH the continuous decline in Covid-19 cases nationwide, the government is now considering declaring “Alert Level 0” in some parts of the country, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said the Technical Advisory Group of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) will discuss guidelines in the proposed classification in the government’s Alert Level System (ALS).

“There are questions for the Alert Level Zero. Will removing [face] masks be allowed? Can people no longer comply with hand hygiene? Are the current ventilations sufficient?

So there are many questions which need to be answered,” Duque said in a televised interview on Thursday.

The health official said Alert Level Zero may become feasible once the daily Covid-19 cases go down below 500.

Under the ALS, areas in the country are classified based on several factors, such as the number of Covid-19 cases, health-care utilization

and vaccination rate.

Areas are classified from 1 to 5, with 5 having the highest level of restriction and risk for Covid-19 infection, and 1 having the most relaxed restriction.

National Task Force Against Covid-19 Adviser Teodoro J. Herbosa said the IATF is now considering downgrading the Alert Level in more areas as daily Covid-19 cases continue a downward trend.

This, he said, even after the National Capital Region (NCR) and 38 other areas were placed under Alert Level 1 and national candidates started their sorties last month. The current list of Alert Levels is set to be reviewed by the IATF before March 15, 2022.

As of March 7, 2022, the daily average Covid-19 cases is now at 899.

“So the IATF will review—I think they have a meeting now—to review the areas under Alert Level 2 if they can be placed to Alert Level 1 like what was recommended last Monday,” Herbosa said.

Last Monday, the Economic Development Cluster recommended placing the entire country Alert Level 1 to boost the country’s resilience from the economic impact of the UkraineRussia crisis.

YANMAR, Cambodia and African countries are among the expected beneficiaries from the government’s plan to donate Covid-19 vaccine jabs, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

In a televised interview on Thursday, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III disclosed they selected the countries, which have a high number of infections and limited supply of Covid-19 jabs.

Currently, he said the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) is still finalizing the total number of Covid-19 vaccines, which could be made available for the said countries.

Only vaccines which are about to expire will be covered by the planned donation.

“We are still trying to find out the exact number [of jabs to be donated], which will depend on our application to extend [shelf life] of the donated vaccines like AstraZeneca,” Duque said.

“If it will be extended, it will remain in the country,” he added.

He noted the country still needs to retain a sufficient supply of Covid-19 jabs amid its ongoing vaccination drive.

As of March 1, 2022, the government’s National Covid-19 Vaccination dashboard showed 63.99 million Filipinos have already been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Samuel P. Medenilla

Comelec may rule out permits for onsite campaigns in AL 1 areas

T

HE Commission on Elections is now considering scrapping the Comelec Campaign Committee (CCC) permit requirement for onsite campaign activities in areas under Alert Level 1.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said he made the proposal during the Comelec en banc meeting to “recalibrate” the guidelines for physical election activities in areas with low risk from Covid-19 infection.

Under his recommendation, candidates will be exempted from getting permit from the CCC to hold onsite caucuses, meetings, conventions, rallies and meeting de avance in Alert Level 1 areas.

Instead, candidates will just be mandated to get a “city permit” in the said areas, since it is mandated by law, Garcia said.

The CCC permit requirement will be retained in areas under Alert Level 2 and 3.

“That was my proposal and they (Comelec en banc members) agreed to it yesterday. Let us just wait for the

amendments in a resolution,” Garcia said in a phone interview.

He said the guidelines, which he hopes to come out by next week, may include additional details for the removal of illegally placed or oversized printed election materials.

Unfair requirement

GARCIA said the permit requirement is “unfair” for candidates, who are usually faced with unanticipated campaign opportunities.

“Sometimes, you will suddenly get an invitation, which is important and you need to grab it.

But how will you apply within 72 hours which is the time requirement? That is usually the ground for denial [of permit applications],” Garcia explained.

“If you pass through two regions, you will need [permit] from 2 CCCs,” he added.

He said such rule should be “relaxed” amid the country’s fewer Covid-19 cases.

Inhibit

ON another matter, Garcia said he opted to voluntarily inhibit himself from handling the around 300 cases, which he handled before or those involving his previous clients.

“I’m going to inhibit all cases that I handle. Although I don’t handle any presently, I have previous relationships with parties,” Garcia said.

The move, he said, is to avoid suspicion on how the said cases will be resolved by the Comelec en banc members.

“If they will have deliberations, they could freely have discussions since I am not there and I will not be able to hear how they will be able to arrive at a particular decision,” Garcia said.

He made the decision as some election watchdogs raised concern on how his appointment as commissioner could favor some candidates facing cases before the Comelec.

Samuel P. Medenilla

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

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, March 11, 2022

A9

Attack on Ukraine hospital kills 3, wounds 17, officials say M

ARIUPOL, Ukraine—An airstrike on a hospital in the port of Mariupol killed three people, including a child, the city council said Thursday, and Russian forces intensified their siege of Ukrainian cities, even as the top diplomats from both sides met for the first time since the war began.

The attack a day earlier in the besieged southern city wounded 17 people, including women waiting to give birth, doctors and children buried in the rubble.

Bombs also fell on two hospitals in another city west of the capital, Kyiv.

The World Health Organization said it has confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago.

As the war entered its third week, Western officials said Russian forces have made little progress on the ground in recent days, but they have intensified the bombardment of Mariupol and other cities, trapping hundreds of thousands of people, with food and water running short. Temporary cease-fires to allow evacuations have often faltered, with Ukraine accusing Russia of continuing their bombardments. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 35,000 people managed to get out on Wednesday from several besieged towns.

The Mariupol city council posted a video Thursday showing buses driving down a highway, with a note saying that a convoy bringing food and medicine was on the way despite several days of thwarted efforts to reach the city.

Images from the city, where hundreds have died and some victims have been buried in a mass grave, have drawn condemnation from around the world.

Britain called the attack on a children’s hospital a war crime. Two other hospitals were also hit in Zhytomyr, a city west of Kyiv, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. He said there were no injuries.

“Everyone is working to get help to the people of Mariupol. And it will come,” said Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko.

On the western edge of Kyiv, artillery fire could be heard Thursday, Deputy Interior Minister Vadym Denysenko said. He told Ukrainian TV channel Rada that residents had a “rather difficult” night on the outskirts of the capital in which Russian forces started by targeting military sites but then hit residential areas.

Meanwhile, the sides held their highest-level talks so far Thursday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a Turkish Mediterranean resort “will open the door to a permanent cease-fire.”

Kuleba said the two sides discussed a 24-hour cease-fire but did not make progress. He said Russia was still seeking “a surrender from Ukraine.”

“This is not what they are going to get,” he said, adding that he was willing to continue the dialogue.

The ground shook more than a mile away when the series of blasts hit a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol. Explosions blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building. Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying a bleeding woman with a swollen belly on a stretcher past burning and mangled cars.

Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, a blast crater extended at least two stories deep.

“Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins. “It is a war crime without any justification.”

President Zelenskyy said the Mariupol strike trapped children and others under debris.

“A children’s hospital. A maternity hospital,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, switching to Russian to express horror at the strike. “What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?”

Sharing video that showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal, Zelenskyy urged the West to impose even tougher sanctions than the ones that have already plunged its

economy into severe isolation, so Russia “no longer has any possibility to continue this genocide.”

Britain’s Armed Forces minister, James Heappey, said that whether hitting the hospital was “indiscriminate” fire into a built-up area or a deliberate targeting, “it is a war crime.”

On Thursday, Britain added more oligarchs to its sanctions list, including Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Premier League soccer club Chelsea. The government said Abramovich’s assets were frozen, he was banned from visiting the UK and barred from transactions with UK individuals and businesses.

Russia’s military is struggling more than expected, but Putin’s invading force of more than 150,000 troops retains possibly insurmountable advantages in firepower as it bears down on key cities.

Despite often heavy shelling on populated areas, American military officials reported little change on the ground over the previous 24 hours, other than Russian progress against the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, in heavy fighting. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to assess the military situation.

Authorities announced new ceasefires to allow thousands of civilians to escape bombarded towns. Zelenskyy said three humanitarian corridors operated on Wednesday, from Sumy in the northeast near the Russian border, from suburbs of Kyiv and from Enerhodar, the southern town where Russian forces took over a large nuclear plant.

In all, he said, about 35,000 people got out. More evacuations were planned for Thursday from towns and cities under bombardment in eastern and southern Ukraine—including Mariupol—as well as the Kyiv suburbs.

People streamed out of Kyiv’s suburbs a day earlier, many headed for the city center, as explosions were heard in the capital and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly. From there, the evacuees planned to board trains bound for western Ukrainian regions not under attack.

Civilians leaving the Kyiv suburb of Irpin were forced to make their way across the slippery wooden planks of a makeshift bridge, because the Ukrainians blew up the concrete span leading to Kyiv days ago to slow the Russian advance.

With sporadic gunfire echoing behind them, firefighters dragged an elderly man to safety in a wheelbarrow, a child gripped the hand of a helping soldier, and a woman inched her way along, cradling a fluffy cat inside her winter coat. They trudged past a crashed van with the words “Our Ukraine” written in the dust coating its windows.

Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors over the past few days largely failed because of what the Ukrainians said were Russian attacks.

But Putin, in a telephone call with Germany’s chancellor, accused militant Ukrainian nationalists of hampering the evacuations.

International Red Cross spokesman Jason Straziuso said safe passage corridors were welcome but have to be well planned, with details agreed on by all sides including the right to bring in food, clean water, medical supplies and other necessities.

Such guarantees are vital for places like Mariupol, a city of 430,000 on the Sea of Azov, where Zelenskyy’s office said about 1,200 people have died during the nine-day siege.

Local authorities hurried to bury the dead from the past two weeks of fighting in a mass grave in the city. Workers dug a trench some 25 meters (yards) long at one of the city’s old cemeteries and made the sign of the cross as they pushed in bodies wrapped in carpets or bags.

Nationwide, thousands are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, since Putin’s forces invaded.

The U.N. estimates more than 2 million people have fled the country, the biggest exodus of refugees in Europe since the end of World War II. The fighting knocked out power to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant on Wednesday, raising fears about

the spent radioactive fuel stored there that must be kept cool. But the UN nuclear watchdog agency said it saw “no critical impact on safety” from the loss of power.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk pleaded Thursday with the Russian military to allow access for repair crews to restore

electricity to the plant, and to fix a damaged gas pipeline in the south that has left Mariupol and other towns without heat for days.

The crisis is deteriorating as Moscow’s forces intensify their bombardment of cities in response to what appears to be stronger Ukrainian resistance

and heavier Russian losses than anticipated.

The Biden administration warned Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine and rejected Russian claims of illegal chemical weapons development there.

This week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria

Zakharova—without evidence— accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological weapons labs with U.S. support. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the claim “preposterous” and said Russia might be trying to lay the groundwork for its own use of such weapons against Ukraine. AP

A10 Friday, March 11, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

PHL food security: Key to prosperity

M

egan Konar is a scientist and assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on the intersection of food, water, and trade. In a recent interview with the Illinois Newsroom, Konar discussed the connection between war and global food security. “Food security is pretty much always exacerbated in times of war.

A lot of times we don’t realize that as many people died, for example, in World War II as died in actual conflict. About 20 million people died in conflict in World War II and 20 million people around the world died from hunger, starvation and famine. So war and food security are very tightly related to one another,” she said.

Konar explained to the Illinois Newsroom writer that the current situation in Ukraine is particularly troubling because war has come to a major breadbasket for the world. She said: “Grain production shocks will ripple through the global economy. And this will likely exacerbate food security concerns in nations that are already facing food security challenges, nations that are heavily reliant on Ukrainian and Russian wheat.”

Russia’s invasion on Ukraine could lead to a global food crisis amid the pandemic by disrupting already unstable supply chains. Russia and Ukraine are major food exporters. The two countries produce over 50 percent of the cereal needs for North Africa and the Middle East, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Ukraine accounts for 16 percent of global corn exports and 12 percent of wheat exports, according to the US Department of Agriculture. As a key corn supplier for Europe and China, Ukraine produced 42 million tons in 2021. Currently, the war in Ukraine has closed Kiev’s ports and led to a ban on commercial vessels in the Azov Sea, which connects to the Black Sea—one of the world’s most important regions for trade.

From Bloomberg: “Governments around the world are taking steps to safeguard domestic food supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled trade and sent prices of key staples soaring. Hungary is banning grain exports, its agriculture minister told television channel RTL on Friday.

Argentina and Turkey also made moves this week to increase their control over local products. And Moldova, albeit a small shipper, temporarily halted exports of wheat, corn and sugar from this month.”

Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of edible oils, announced Wednesday it will tighten its palm oil exports in a sign of growing protectionism around the world as countries grapple with soaring food prices. Indonesia’s move comes as vegetable oil prices keep soaring due to a supply crunch, with palm, soybean oil and canola repeatedly hitting new highs. The Ukraine crisis worsened the situation as the conflict locked out exports from the two countries that ship about 80 percent of sunflower oil and more than 25 percent of global wheat supplies.

In a report titled “The Hunger Virus Multiplies,” anti-poverty organization Oxfam says 11 people die of hunger each minute and that the number of people facing famine-like conditions around the globe has increased six times over the first year of the pandemic in 2020. The death toll from famine outpaces that of Covid-19, which kills around seven people per minute, Oxfam said.

We don’t want the Philippines to be labeled as a “still” country—still impecunious, still helpless, still corrupt, still destitute, still nowhere. We want to see a prosperous Philippines with efficient government and socially progressive environment. We want to see a booming Philippine economy where every Filipino has the opportunity to benefit from it. And the country’s path to prosperity starts with food security.

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Sonny M. Angara

Better Days

R

ecently, the country loosened many of its Covid-related restrictions on account of two factors—infection numbers have been declining in the past few weeks, and that we are inching closer to vaccinating 70 percent of all Filipinos. The National Task Force against Covid-19 (NTF) reported that some 63.6 million individuals have been fully vaccinated or about 83 percent of the 77-million target population for the first quarter of this year as of March 7, 2022. The National Capital Region (NCR), Regions 1, 2, 3, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) are among those with more than 80 percent of their population with completed shots.

Furthermore, the ongoing vaccination drive appears to be on its home stretch as a December 2021 Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showed that vaccine hesitancy is at an all-time low with only 8 percent of adult Filipinos rejecting the vaccine from the previous 18 percent in September 2021.

Despite these positive developments, asymmetrical rollout persists. While several regions with high vaccination rates are already focusing on administering boosters, some are still working through their primary series coverage particularly in Bicol, CARAGA, MIMAROPA, SOCCKSARGEN, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

It should be noted that BARMM has the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated persons at only 28 percent as of February 22, 2022, according

to the NTF. Supply no longer appears to be the major hurdle. According to Director Bill Moss of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, it is possible for countries to have strong demand and sufficient supply, yet still have setbacks in delivering doses due to logistical constraints. This was observed by a Rappler investigation, which found that limited storage space for vaccines in certain provinces hampered the full implementation of the nationwide vaccination program.

Meanwhile, there are challenges related to “human infrastructure” or the skilled manpower available to administer these shots, which Dr. Sheela Shenoi of Yale University noted was a key factor to the success of any vaccine rollout. Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation Chief

Using shark repellent

Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug

Senior Editors

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Vaccinating into the new normal

Harald Eustachius A. Tomintz

EAGLE WATCH

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ergers and acquisitions are peculiar things. They come into being with the idea of creating more value, ideally in the pursuit of synergy, but they sometimes destroy value instead, even before they manage to seal the deal.

Regardless of whether anything worthwhile comes out of an emerging entity in the end or not, one important thing for all parties entering such an arrangement for a merger or acquisition, as with any market transaction, is consent of those involved. There are ways by which companies—typically smaller ones —could prevent themselves from being bullied into a hostile takeover.

Such measures are known as “shark repellent”.

Large companies on the hunt for

lucrative ventures may be tempted to throw their weight around and force a nonconsensual takeover of a smaller company. Because of this, otherwise efficient firms may be viewed as targets for procurement after having their business operations weakened, which could be caused by, for instance, lockdowns during these hard times.

What are known as forms of “vertical and horizontal integration” can involve acquisitions done when a target company is vulnerable to the

Then there is the issue of vaccinating our children. The government must follow through on the successes of its pediatric vaccination drive when the actual number of inoculated children went well beyond the target. Moreover, it was reported that the week-long National Vaccination Day drive was indeed a worthwhile effort as it added 10 million vaccinated Filipinos, which was enough for the Philippines to be comparable to the United States, India, and China in terms of the fastest vaccination rates attained.

While the national vaccination drive has already achieved significant success, there is still a few ways to go before we achieve our highest target—full population protection.

The government should be exhaustive in its efforts, and continue seeking out unvaccinated senior citizens, those with co-morbidities, and other groups. Perhaps door-todoor activities could be ramped up to ensure that they have completed the doses. On the other hand, the logistical concerns, particularly the lack of proper storage, must also be ironed out so that our regions would have the capacity to stockpile more jabs. It is crucial to further these vaccination efforts while infection cases are still low so that all Filipinos would be better protected in the new normal.

Resilience Officer Bill Luz pointed out in an interview that vaccination teams—usually consisting of six individuals—are not only the most exposed to infection, but are also greatly fatigued being the frontliners of the inoculation drive.

Then there are specific issues affecting the vaccination of priority groups. In February this year, the IATF estimated that some three million senior citizens in the country remain unvaccinated. A study by Dr. John Wong of the EpiMetrics group found that long waiting times, the lack of companions, the difficulty in securing appointments, and the far distance of vaccination centers are the top reasons why seniors find it inconvenient to receive a Covid-19 shot. This is why I have been prodding health authorities and local government units across the country to intensify their efforts to inoculate more senior citizens, convince those who still refuse the vaccine, and even find ways to make delivering these doses more convenient.

In a February 2021 article in The New England Journal of Medicine on “last-mile” logistics of Covid vaccinations, Drs. Thomas H. Lee and Alice H. Chen highlighted the importance of close coordination between authorities and other institutions like private healthcare providers to bridge the gaps in the public health system that prevent the speedy vaccination of the masses. It is with this in mind that we laud the Resbakuna sa Botika initiative that enhances access to the government’s vaccination program with the help of drugstores and local pharmacies.

Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 17 years. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.

E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara

point of closing—a sad reality seen during this pandemic.

Whatever the reason for initiating a takeover, whether it is for an increased market share, a desire to manage the other business better, or even to be rid of competition, sharks abound. Reasons for deflecting shark attacks could be equally tactical, such as holding out to get a better deal, judging that the company will perform better on its own, or even if the current management of the target just wishes to still entrench itself in the company. So, what can a business do about it?

To keep predators away, two traditional methods are to hire a “shark watcher” and to have a “white knight” waiting. A “shark watcher” is a company or specialist that deals in the early detection of potential takeover threats, and can find out, for example, if shares from a vulnerable firm are being bought out by a single notorious predator. A “white knight” is a friendly company that buys out a weakened firm before a hostile company does, which may be preferable

to an unwanted takeover.

However, businesses do not always have those two readily available. What then?

There is quite a long list of other things that enterprises can do to make them appear less lucrative to a big firm trying to buy them out. Such methods include the restructuring of the target company and the reorganization of financial claims and assets.

Other enterprises might consider selling off their “crown jewels” to get rid of their most desirable capital and avoid an unwelcome acquirer.

Downsizing, downscoping, and leveraged buyouts are restructuring strategies that may be pursued.

Divestitures, which include selloffs, spin-offs, and liquidation, could be done. Other financial defensive measures, such as increasing debt and dividends, creating loan covenants to force repayment in case of a takeover, decreasing excess cash, or liquidating securities in the target portfolio, are also viable defenses that may gain traction under the See “Eagle Watch,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, March 11, 2022 A11

Russia: A victim of unprovoked Falling for the fair hope of father/motherland and unjustified war Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

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ussia has not always been the aggressor of the war it has gotten involved in. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. This military offensive was code-named “Operation Barbarossa” and was executed with the typical blitzkrieg fashion by the German military forces. And this offensive was launched despite the existence of a nonaggression treaty entered into by the two countries shortly before the outbreak of the global hostilities.

On August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact to prevent war between the two countries. Germany’s ambition to expand their turf to the other Eastern European countries had caused grave security concerns to Russia. With Germany’s growing military might, Russia’s failure to reach a security agreement with the other leading powers of Europe, Great Britain and France, left it with no alternative but to enter into an agreement with Germany to avoid war. The aborted Tripartite Agreement among the three countries could have deterred Germany from pursuing its military expansion in Europe. Joseph Stalin, head of the USSR, ordered his new Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, to meet and negotiate for peace with his German counterpart, Joachim Von Ribbentrop, in mid 1939. Molotov was the guy who produced the bottles of inflammable and explosive liquid now known as “molotov cocktails.’’ Ribbentrop was responsible for the “Pact of Steel ‘’ between Germany and Italy, which united the two fascist countries during the war. At the end of the war, Ribbentrop was convicted at the Nuremberg trial, and hanged.

Western Europe’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler and a peace pact with the Soviet Union virtually left Germany to invade Poland without any major resistance. The US government was still neutral and had no intention yet to meddle in the brewing war across the Atlantic. Moreover, Hitler’s proposed military expansion on the west that would bring the country to war with France, Belgium, Britain and other allied countries in Europe would be undistracted by avoiding a two-front war against the Soviet Union on the east. Engaging in simultaneous battles on both its western and eastern fronts proved disastrous to Germany during WWI and Hitler did not want to repeat the same mistake. The German-Soviet Union agreement had divided Eastern Europe into two spheres of influence between Germany and the Soviet Union. The eastern part of Poland, the Baltic countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, including Finland, belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence. The rest of Eastern Europe such as Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, etc. formed part of Germany’s sphere of influence. Barely nine days after the military alliance and cooperation was signed by Hitler and Stalin, Germany invaded Poland from the west on September 1, 1939. This officially started the Second World War. The Soviet Union followed it up when it invaded and occupied Eastern Poland on September 21. With the benefit of hindsight, the Soviet Union committed a colossal mistake in cutting a deal with Germany. It emboldened Germany to attack Poland and then Belgium and France. Casting its lot with Germany and its dreaded Wehrmacht was a costly move that resulted in the tragic loss of millions of Russian lives and the destruction of its cities and industries although in the end Russia emerged victorious. In World War I, Russia’s allies, among others, were France and Britain and they faced Germany as their common enemy. Strange that Russia trusted her enemy more than her friends. For less than two years after the conclusion of the nonaggression pact, the Soviet Union had peace with Germany and enjoyed an illusion of security. But this would not last.

After invading most of Central and Western Europe, Germany, without any provocation or justification and in breach of its nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union, attacked the latter. The Soviet Union was completely caught by surprise that it was still delivering raw materials and food products to Germany as agreed upon hours after the invasion. This dastardly act ranks as one of the most traitorous events in the history of warfare. It was a stab by the Fuhrer on the back of Stalin who had preferred a fascist country over his former democratic allies. The Soviet Union faced the full military might of Germany and some of its Axis allies, isolated from the rest of Europe.

Operation Barbarossa aimed to conquer the skilled Russians and deploy them as forced labor. The Germans were also lusting for the massive oil reserves, industrial and agricultural resources of the Soviets. The vast territory of the Soviet Union would provide more Lebensraum (living area) for growing Germany. USSR’s geography was its best defense and the long and harsh winter proved too much for the invaders. Like what we are seeing now in the ongoing war in Ukraine, the target territories were subjected to heavy bombardments and artillery attacks. Its civilian population suffered the most severe atrocities. Their dwellings were hit, water and power services were cut and the people were starved due to acute food shortage. Millions fled to safer grounds leaving behind their homes, business, husbands and sons who opted to stay and fight. Ukraine, which lies on the pathway of the rampaging massive German forces to the capital of Moscow, was the hardest hit, which the conquering Germans almost captured. The site of fiercest fighting occurred around Kiev (now Kyiv), Ukraine’s capital, where the Soviet forces were pummeled by overwhelming tanks, artillery and aerial assaults where over a million casualties from both sides were recorded. The invading German army channeled its attention to the capture of Moscow, just as the Russian troops now concentrated on occupying Kyiv. Germany then believed, as Russia upholds now, that the surrender of the country’s capital would mean victory in the war. But Stalin’s Red Army had driven back the Germans after its winter counter offensive, which signaled the failure of Operation Barbarossa.

Now, the aggressor’s shoe is in the Russian foot. It had ruthlessly and shamelessly invaded its former fellow member of the Soviet Republic without warning, without provocation and without justification. Its indomitable courage in the face of the formidable and superior German Wehrmacht gained the plaudits of the freedom-loving people of the world during WWII. Russia is now the villain by adopting entirely Nazi Germany’s playbook on stealthily attacking and annihilating a neighboring country by means of superior force. It may yet succeed in its devious design since NATO does not want to be drawn into a headto-head military conflict with its ideological foe. Russia had its own harrowed experience at the hands of Nazi Germany. A member of the civilized world should not visit upon Ukraine, its former republic with many ethnic Russians among its 44 million population, the same horrors and atrocities it suffered at the hands of sinister invaders. Russia must stop the war!

Juventud Filipina…

Bella esperanza de la Patria Mia! (Filipino Youth/Fair Hope of my Fatherland)

T

heir bodies never lose the vigor. You sense it as they navigate the streets and alleys of a barangay. One time, the noisy group in recognizable pink color accompanies the daughter of a presidential candidate. She appears tireless, too, as she is led, sometimes, and as she led, sometimes, this rowdy band with infectious laugher undiminished under the heat of the sun. With a rhythm only they could understand, they stop for a “selfie.” The pause blocks a car and the driver blows his horn. From their gadgets you could hear them say, “sorry po,” in that lilt that lessens the inconvenience.

Then they continue with their walk.

I see them in front of makeshift stages waiting for hours. Do they ever get bored in the waiting? There is nothing existential in that wait as they entertain themselves with their phones and gadgets or, as in synch with whatever they have been rehearsing, erupt into dance moves.

A voice rises from the crowd and they are singing out names of their favored candidates.

Weeks before the campaigning for the national position was opened, these young people led by artists and cultural workers from their places were putting up posters and lifting onto beams and posts tarpaulins with every imagined design and quotes. Facing blank walls, they began painting murals on them.

Weeks after they had finished their works and posted them online, the government declared those posters, tarps, and murals illegal. They were there on site to protest and preserve their creations. To no avail. While the adults lamented such move, and waged word wars, the young ones had moved on to other matters, unshaken the way they move on fast from a love breakup. Perhaps.

Am I being judgmental about all this? Are these stories of mine anecdotal? Am I being romantic?

No study has been made yet about

the youth participation in this election. There are impressions. There are also questions. There are observations. One thing we can be sure of: the young are out there in the field, on the ground working on an electoral process.

No one has seen this day, when the youth of the land begin to validate w ithout selfconsciousness their value in society. With due respect to the adults—those in their 30s, 40s, and 50s— that are devoting their time at the expense of their profession and business, the phenomenon of persons in their late teens and early 20s moving solidly behind a candidate demands a reckoning.

My generation, and the generations before me, have been used to seeing campaigns led by professionals or other self-proclaimed makers of kings and queens. On stage, the regular mode is to ask political lead-

ers whose tactics are as ancient as vote-buying to rally the crowd. Or, employ announcers whose sincerity is borne by an affected accent or by an artificially mellowed voice. The young do not have time for this programming. Thus on stage, you can witness very young individuals of various genders and social persuasions taking over the task of a ring master or a cheerleader. The spontaneity is warm, contagious.

Am I witnessing a phenomenon?

What brought about this transition in appraising an age that has long been condemned by the adult society as irresponsible?

The questions during election are always questions about change.

In this year’s exercise of democracy, the fear of the generations tasked with running the society is all about how our country will once more be electing the same people with the same misplaced rotten values. In this rumination, we neglect to consider how we long have been part of this stasis. In this comfort zone we have lived where our choices of leaders do not bode radical shifts but rather maintain for us our own notions of

status quo.

Our generation, the generations that still live before us and the generation right at the cusp of taking over us are all inside this box. Even as the thinkers among us can articulate about thinking out of the box, we need to admit to the conviction that only one box can support human existence as we know it.

Here is where the youth come in with the technologies they are born into: the Internet and the vast universe of Information Technology.

Here is where the youth are at ease with: the borderless communication, the brisk exchange of ideas not in trifling debates but in the rapid shooting of images with images, the bombardment of tweets versus other tweets, accommodating viewpoints thru TikTok and other mobile videos they are conversant with. Seconds after an event, we see them online into our phones, tablets and laptops. In a “nation” connected not by a dominant ethnicity, the phone speedily links up ideas and ideologies.

The media ran by adults are bothered by surveys at this moment. The youth do not care about surveys but they can politicize these old forms of data-gathering. They call themselves “those who were not surveyed.”

The question therefore at this moment is not how long will this go on but when will the society of grown-ups recognize that they are responsible for this political mess we ourselves and the young are in. But no worries. The young are ta k ing over, they who we have regularly harassed into following our thoughts.

And yet they have their own mind. We can feel sentimental about the world that is changing. Or feel good that we are seeing these changes. Let us then find comfort in the last lines of the poem, “Birthday,” by the Russian (appropriately so) poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Open up his windows,/let in the twittering in the leafy branches,/kiss his eyes open./ Give him his notebook and his ink bottle,/give him a drink of milk and watch him go.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

Pariahs no more? US reaches out to oil states as prices rise

By Ellen Knickmeyer & Cathy Bussewitz The Associated Press

W

A SHINGTON—T hre e checkered oil regimes that President Joe Biden and past US leaders have spectacularly snubbed—Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran—are now targets of US outreach as global fuel prices reach jarring levels during the Ukraine crisis.

But it’s not clear any US diplomacy could get more crude oil on the market fast enough to help the current supply crunch, or tear once-shunned oil states away from what—for Saudi Arabia in particular—are profitable alliances with Russia.

For the Biden administration, the US overtures to three problematic oil giants at best could lead to stabilizing rising oil and gas prices and draw those governments closer to the West and away from Russia and China. At worst, Biden risks humiliating rebuffs and condemnation for outreach to governments accused of rights abuses and violence.

“We have an interest globally in maintaining a...steady supply of en-

Eagle Watch. . . continued from A10

right situation.

Corporate policies can be adjusted to provide further protection. Antitakeover amendments in an enterprise charter could allow for new conditions if control is transferred, including supermajority amendments to increase voting power in case of change of control, or fair-price amendments to get the highest price in the market from a past period.

ergy, including through diplomatic effort,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday on the moves toward countries that have been out of US or Biden administration favor, and in the case of Iran an armed threat. “We have a multiplicity of interests, and use diplomacy to try to advance them.”

The phrasing, as Russia’s war raises the stakes in many areas, was a change from Biden’s pointing, at the outset of his presidency, to democratic values as “America’s abiding advantage” in diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia has profited richly in recent years from teaming with fellow top petroleum producer Russia to keep global oil and natural gas supply modest and prices high.

And Biden came to office vowing to isolate the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the rest of the Saudi royal family over abuses that include the 2018 killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden and the young crown prince are not known to have ever talked.

“I don’t know whether he’s up to eating that much crow,” Saudi Arabia analyst David Ottaway said of

attempts now by Biden to improve his administration’s relations with Prince Mohammed and Saudi Arabia, the country that could most easily end the global supply crunch. “He was gonna make a pariah of this guy.”

As for Iran and Venezuela, the US would welcome positive diplomatic outcomes that bring back oil from those nations, but “the problem is that in that situation, their negotiation power increases dramatically,” said Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.

“So Iran will make a lot of very steep requests in order to rejoin the deal and so would Venezuela,” the energy analyst said. Plus, it could take time to ramp up their production.

Russia’s devastating military invasion of Ukraine, and resulting market disruptions and sanctions hitting Russia’s petroleum exports, helped drive the US average gasoline price to $4.25 on Wednesday.

Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports the day before, compounding high prices from the Oprc production cap engineered

by Saudi Arabia and non-Opec mem-

ber Russia. The Biden administration is making cautious overtures to all three oil giants, Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In the case of Iran, administration officials are not publicly linking their diplomacy to oil, although they are pursuing a deal on Iran’s nuclear program that could see international sanctions on that country lifted and Iran’s oil quickly back on the market legally.

For Biden, failure in the high-profile oil diplomacy risks humiliating treatment from unfriendly rulers abroad, potentially re-election-damaging condemnation at home.

And success? Potentially, likewise.

“Our response to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war shouldn’t be to strengthen our relationship with the Saudis,” tweeted Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, citing Saudi Arabia’s years-long war in neighboring Yemen.

Others in Biden’s Democratic Party have made clear their objections to any abrupt US embrace of Saudi Arabia and its crown prince for the sake of oil.

Even retirement packages and adjusted salary terms can be used defensively via “golden parachutes” provided as compensation to protect against unemployment. This could mean “silver” and “tin” parachutes to compensate not only managers and executives but also middle management down to all salaried employees in the event of layoffs. Wary predators might not want to incur such extra costs.

In essence, every measure that makes a target appear more expensive, or less worth it, to an acquirer

helps add another layer of economic security—and may help drive sharks away!

Not every business at risk can afford to employ a “shark watcher” or have a “white knight” to look out for them, but there are many ways to repel bigger firms preying on economic weaknesses during difficult times. Though not all of them are directly applicable in every context, it is good to be aware of available options when engaging in self-defense against aggressive business negotiations.

In the end, a healthy settlement is one where the parties involved in a merger or an acquisition can truly and mutually agree upon terms that suit them, rather than engage in scorched-earth actions that result in the wasteful destruction of value.

For less-than-ideal situations that require a bit of maneuvering, there is still plenty of “shark repellent” to go around.

Mr. Harald Eustachius A. Tomintz teaches at the Department of Economics of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Friday, March 11, 2022

Food, fuel units allow SMC to double income in 2021

C

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

onglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) on Thursday said its income last year more than doubled to P48.15 billion, from the previous year’s P21.87 billion.

The company said its 2021 income already nears the P48.57 billion it recorded in 2019. Revenues for 2021 grew 30 percent to P941.19 billion from the previous year’s P725.79 billion, driven by higher sales across major businesses.

Its revenues, however, were still 8 percent lower than the P1.02 trillion in 2019.

Its food and liquor businesses both delivered strong recoveries while its fuels business registered a profit turnaround.

“Despite the pandemic chal-

lenges in 2021, we were able to execute well on our strategies to continue and strengthen our recovery. As we work to overcome the continuing difficulties of the current business environment, we remain committed to investing our resources and capabilities to help further boost economic recovery, improve the lives of more Filipinos, and build back better from this crisis,” SMC President and COO Ramon S. Ang said.

“We are confident we can accelerate growth while equally responding

to the needs of the environment and the communities we serve.”

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. delivered off take volumes of 27,221 gigawatt hour last year, a 4-percent improvement over 2020. Better average spot prices and average bilateral rates, together with increased nominations from customers, brought total revenues to P133.7 billion, up 16 percent from the previous year’s P115.02 billion.

It posted a net income of P16 billion, already an 11 percent improvement over 2019, but was still 15 lower percent compared with the previous year’s P18.9 billion. The company said there was a one-off gain in the form of a contractor compensation for unfulfilled obligations for the year. Excluding this one-off gain in 2020, its net income grew 5 percent.

Petron posted a turnaround in 2021 as it recorded a net income of P6.1 billion last year, a reversal of the P11.4-billion loss it incurred in 2020.

SMC Infrastructure generated revenues of P19.7 billion, a 35 per-

cent increase from the previous P14.56 billion as traffic volume at its toll roads gradually recovered. Operating income more than doubled to P6.78 billion from the previous P2.57 billion as costs and expenses were contained.

San Miguel’s banking arm, Bank of Commerce, has secured approval from the Philippine Stock Exchange to become a public company. The bank will offer up to 280.60 million shares at an indicative price of up to P12.50 per share or proceeds of about P3.5 billion.

The final offer price will be determined on March 11, after the bank conducts its book building process.

Proceeds from the share sale will be used by the bank to fund its lending activities, acquire investment securities and finance its capital expenditure requirements.

Bank of Commerce, which will be using the ticker symbol BNCOM, targets to conduct its initial public offering from March 16 to 22, while its tentative listing date is on March 31.

Fewer vehicles sold in February

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

T

he local automobile manufacturers saw their sales dip by 7.3 percent in February after selling fewer passenger cars (PC), according to a joint report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).

The Campi-TMA report on Thursday noted that industry sales fell to 24,304 units in February from 26,230 units last year.

On a monthly basis, however, the figures in February rose by 17

Cirtek units secure ISO certifications

L

aguna-based Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. on Thursday said its units were able to secure its respective ISO certifications on environmental and management standards, which will allow the company to attract more European and Japanese customers.

In its disclosure, the company said its units Cirtek Electronics Corp. and Cirtek Advanced Technology Solutions Inc. passed their ISO 14000 audits with zero non-conformance.

“Considering the stringent requirements of an ISO 14000 certificate, the company considers this a victorious achievement,” the company said. “Passing and securing an ISO 14000 standard provides assurance that a company has effectively established and maintains adequate environmental standards as well as management systems.” “This guarantees that organizations holding an ISO 140001 certificate adhere to the international environmental laws and regulations, run its operations with the aim of preventing pollution and continuously strive to improve its environmental performance, sustainability and green standards.”

Cirtek said being ISO 14000 certified opens its doors to the European customer demographics that are highly particular and selective with engaging partners who are environmental compliant and have a green advocacy. VG Cabuag

percent from the 20,765 units sold in January.

“The February 2022 sales have regained a double-digit growth amid the improved consumer confidence as the country has shifted to ‘lowrisk’ for Covid-19 classification, according to the government report – a welcome development for the industry,” Campi President Rommel Gutierrez said.

“The industry is anticipating to see a continued recovery this month as the economy further reopens, downgrading to the least restrictive alert level 1 in major areas including the National Capital Region starting this month.”

In February, the PC segment saw its sales drop by 25.1 percent to 5,914 units from 7,899 units a year ago.

Commercial vehicle (CV) sales, meanwhile, were nearly flat. This segment sold 18,390 units for the month, slightly higher than the 18,331 units sold a year ago.

In the first two months of the year, Philippine car manufacturers sold 45,069 units, 9.2 percent lower than the previous year’s 49,610 units.

PC sales in the first two months of the year slid 23 percent to 11,698 units. In the same period, CV sales were down 3 percent to 33,371 units.

Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. maintained the top spot as

it accounts for nearly half of the market share. Its sales as of endFebruary declined by 7.4 percent to 22,120 units from 23,894 units year-on-year.

Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. and Nissan Philippines Inc. followed with sales of 6,458 units and 3,538 units, respectively.

“As the economy reopens, the safety and health of the public is paramount to prevent another wave of virus infections and cause disruption anew to the recovery of the industry, which targets to sell 336,000 units this year – a 17-percent increase from the actual volume last year,” Gutierrez said.

Manila Water: Taps won’t run dry

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

M

anila Water, Metro Manila’s East Zone concessionaire, on Thursday assured its customers that contingency and augmentation plans are in place to ensure a stable and reliable water supply throughout the summer period.

The effects of the hot dry season are now being felt, with the water level at Angat Dam falling about 17 meters lower than the normal high operating level of 212 meters. The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) said this will continue to go down in the next few weeks.

It is during the hot dry season that water consumption increases, especially in Metro Manila. This is also the time of year when the operations of private resorts peak.

Manila Water said it will coordinate closely with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the NWRB to help ensure continuous water supply even during peak demand periods.

These contingencies include the maximization of the 100 million-liter-per-day (MLD) capacity of the Cardona Water Treatment Plant, which draws water from Laguna Lake; operation of deep wells which can provide an additional 115 MLD; and operation of the 20-MLD Marikina Portable Water Treatment Plant, which can treat

water from the Marikina River.

Apart from these, operational adjustments are also being implemented, such as backwash recovery or re-treating the wastewater byproduct of the water treatment process, and water pressure management across the East Zone when needed. Additional inflows to the La Mesa Reservoir may also be harnessed from the nearby Alat Dam. With these supply augmentation measures in place, Manila Water continues to advocate responsible use of water with its government partners, MWSS and NWRB. While the government and the concessionaires work together to provide the needed water supply, the public is encouraged to use water wisely and responsibly to minimize water wastage.

Sevillo David, Executive Director of the NWRB said the current level at Angat which is 194 meters above sea level is manageable. He said both Maynilad and Manila Water will continue to receive normal raw water supply from Angat.

“The minimum operating level of Angat is 180 (m asl). This means

we are still up by 14 m. It is a matter of managing our supply,” David told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

David said by next month, if the water level continues to fall and hits below the normal operating level, the plan to implement cloud seeding will be executed to create artificial rain.

He said other potential sources of raw water like deep wells are on standby, to ensure that Metro Manila and other service areas of the two major private water companies sourcing raw water from Angat will continue to enjoy sufficient supply.

“We are, of course, appealing to the public to conserve water to make sure that our supply will last until the onset of the rainy season earlier than expected, hopefully by May or June.”

B1

JoyRide unveils car-hailing service

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

J

oyRide, a ride-hailing platform, launched on Thursday its car-hailing service, promising to become a “formidable competition” to market leader Grab.

“Finally, commuters will now have another choice for safe, comfortable, and affordable car rides to their destination despite the ongoing pandemic and rising fuel prices,” JoyRide Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs Noli Eala said. “JoyRide Car seeks not just to be another player in the market but a viable and highly competitive option in the car-hailing landscape.”

JoyRide received its certificate of accreditation to operate as a transport network company (TNC) from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on February 24.

He added that the group aims to capture a portion of the expected surge in commuter traffic thanks to the downgrading of the Covid-19 alert to Level 1.

“With the expected surge of commuters under the new normal, JoyRide Car is committed to offer a comfortable, convenient, and affordable ride with our experienced driver-partners, and reliable assis-

tance for both drivers and customers,” Eala said.

The JoyRide car service is expected to be rolled out in the app by the end of March and will cover Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, and Metro Cebu.

JoyRide was first launched as a motorcycle-taxi firm in December 2019 as an answer to the call of Filipino commuters for a more reliable and affordable transport alternative. It has since served millions of rides in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.

It started its operations in December 2019 solely as a motorcycle taxi hailing platform. It has since diversified its transport options to include express deliveries, shopping as a service, and tricycle ride hailing.

It also offers delivery services for enterprises, an online marketplace, and Covid-19 home testing.

To date, JoyRide has about 20,000 driver partners, operating in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Baguio, and Metro Cebu.

“We continue to grow faster than ever, because, for us, this is just the beginning of our endless pursuit of providing quality service, innovation, and empowerment to help the millions of Filipinos achieve digital inclusion and make living their lives a lot easier.”

Manila Harbor Center expands capacity

I

nternational Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said on Thursday the Manila Harbor Center (MHC) expanded its capacity with the completion of its eco friendly bulk cargo bays (BCBs) and the dredging of the berths, allowing the port to accommodate larger vessels.

MHC Safety Head Jennifer OlaerSalazar said the development brings MHC’s BCBs to five from two, increasing the bulk storage capacity of terminal to 55,000 metric tons from 24,000 metric tons.

“Compared to open storage that requires use of laminated sacks, BCBs require less cover as they minimize the surface area of the cargo exposed to weather elements. BCBs prevent cargo erosion with the help of drainage and roadways, resulting in minimal spills and a cleaner port environment,” she said.

These cover a combined area of 6,650 square meters, enclosing cargo inside seven-meter walls that help to

mitigate the environmental impact of bulk cargo operations by minimizing the spread of dust.

“We continue to keep the area surrounding the BCBs clean through road sprinkling, sweeping and tire baths to ensure that ambient air quality is below the acceptable limits,” Olaer-Salazar said.

Aside from the BCBs, MHC tapped Prime Metro BMD to deepen the 855-meter berth in Terminals 1 and 2, and the 240-meter berth in Terminal 3.

Once dredging is completed, Terminals 1 and 2 will have a design draft of 10.5 meters and Terminal 3 will have 8.7 meters.

“We are gearing up MHC to handle more trade as the country continues to recover from the pandemic and prepares to fully open the economy. The deepening of the berths will allow us to facilitate larger vessels and additional cargo,” Geraldine Santos, MHC commercial head, said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

PROFESSORIAL CHAIR

The Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) conferred a Professorial Chair in Business and Management award to Dr. Sergio Ortiz Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), and honorary chair and treasurer of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country's largest business organization. Photo shows Ortiz Luis Jr. (4th from left) sealing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) on the award with PUP President, Dr. Manuel M. Muhi (4th from right), witnessed by PUP officers Dr. Cindy Soliman, assoc. dean, college of business; Prof. Pascualito Gatan, VP for branches and satellite campuses; Adam Ramilo, VP for administration; Engr. Florinda Oquindo, asst. VP for student affairs and services; and asst. prof. Ann Clarisse De Leon, head executive asst.

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, March 11, 2022

Meralco rates up in March on higher generation cost

E

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

lectricity rates this month will go up slightly by P0.0625 to P9.6467 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last month’s P9.5842 per kWh mainly due to higher generation charge recorded in the February supply month, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Thursday.

The March rate adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around P13 in the total bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh. Generation charge, which makes up bulk of an electric bill, went up by P0.2780 to P5.4737 this month from the P5.1957 per kWh registered the previous month, mainly due to higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

WESM prices shot up in February and the secondary price cap was imposed 5.63 percent of the time.

With the increase in demand and the scheduled maintenance outage of Quezon Power and First Gas-San Lorenzo plants, Meralco sourced additional supply from the WESM last month. As a result, WESM charges increased by P13.4211 per kWh. Charges from independent power producers (IPPs) also rose by P0.1625 per kWh mainly due to the lower dispatch of Quezon Power and First Gas-San Lorenzo. Quezon Power is on scheduled maintenance outage since February 5, while First GasSan Lorenzo Modules 60 and 50 are on maintenance outage since January 20 and February 14, respectively.

These maintenance shutdowns were performed to ensure the availability of their supply during the hot dry season and the election period.

Peso depreciation against the US dollar also contributed to the increase in IPP costs, since around 97 percent of these costs are dollardenominated.

Charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) were higher by P0.1510

per kWh, as the dispatch of First NatGas-San Gabriel plant continued to be affected by Malampaya facility’s inability to supply sufficient natural gas. Lower excess energy deliveries, which are priced at a discount, also contributed to the increase in PSA costs. During the supply month, WESM, IPPs and PSAs accounted for 13.9 percent, 32.7 percent, and 53.4 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s energy requirement.

Meralco said this month’s generation charge increase would have been significantly higher if not for the implementation of an additional Distribution Rate True-Up refund.

To recall, Meralco’s proposal to refund around P13.9 billion distribution-related charges was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in early 2021. This is equivalent to a rate refund of P0.2761 per kWh for residential customers, implemented beginning March 2021.

Then on March 7, Meralco received an ERC order dated February 23, 2022 expanding the coverage of the refund to include the December 2020 to December 2021 period—amounting to an additional P4.8 billion. For residential customers, the refund is equivalent to another P0.1923 per kWh that will be implemented over a period of 12 months.

Residential customers will see a total of P0.4684 per kWh refund under line item called “Dist True-Up” in their bills this month.

Aside from the refund, some Meralco suppliers deferred the collection of portions of their generation

costs. These deferred charges will subsequently be billed on a staggered basis over the next three months as directed by the ERC. Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez said the total deferred amount is P500 million. This is equivalent to P0.18 per kWh which will be collected in three installments starting next month.

“The deferred P500 million will be recovered over three months for six centavos per kWh for the months of April, May and June,” said Fernandez.

The refund and deferred collection kept Meralco rates “somewhat manageable,” said Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga. “While there was a slight upward adjustment of six centavos, these two factors somehow mitigated overall rate increase,” which could have been a total adjustment of around 44 centavos per kWh for this month.

Feed-in Tariff Allowance are remitted to the government.

Distribution, supply, and metering charges, which are the only costs that go to Meralco, have remained unchanged since its reduction in July 2015. In the succeeding months, Meralco expects that the continuing increase on global fuel prices would have a significant impact on power rates, particularly on the generation charge, and urges its customers to be extra efficient when using electricity.

Meralco warned that the increase in global fuel prices would have a significant impact on power rates, particularly on the generation charge, in the succeeding months. It did not say how much since it has yet to receive actual billing from its power suppliers. It strongly urged its customers to be “extra efficient” when using electricity.

The company advises its customers to know how much their gadgets and appliances consume through the Appliance Calculator in the Meralco Mobile App as this will help them manage their monthly budget better.

Customers can also save on energy consumption when energy efficiency practices are done right. Keep the airconditioning unit (ACU) on when leaving the house for a quick one-hour errand. This is 17 percent more costefficient because by turning it off, the ACU compressor works harder to cool the room again leading to an increase in consumption.

Other charges

Meanwhile, transmission charge, taxes, and other charges for residential customers registered a net decrease by P0.0232 per kWh. The collection of the Universal ChargeEnvironmental Charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh remains suspended, as directed by the ERC. Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges from generation and transmission, as payments go to the power suppliers and the system operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and

mutual funds

March 10, 2022

NAV

One Year Three Year

Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

224.44

3.89%

-5.13%

-2.44%

-3.71%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.4966

19.4%

-2.15%

1.24%

-10.07%

5.51%

-8.8%

-5.01%

-3.56%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.1226

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7457 -1.41%

-7.3% n.a.

-1.43%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6951 3.78%

-6.89% n.a.

-9.83%

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

5.0475

7.6%

-2.8%

-0.31%

-2.61%

9.02%

-4.99%

-3.91%

-9.97% n.a.

-3.06%

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

0.7484

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

91.54

-8.29%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

45.7709

3.03%

-4.04%

-1.11%

-4.9% -3.76%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

481.84

3.69%

-3.89%

-1.36%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.3596

22.13%

1.3%

2.09%

0.24%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

35.406

6.95%

-2.81%

0.22%

-3.25%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.9141

6.07%

-3.84% n.a.

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.743

4.32%

-3.25%

-0.36%

-4.39%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

788.29

3.63%

-3.39%

-0.47%

-4.85%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.7245

5.87%

-7.28%

-3.22%

-3.73%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.6137

-2.9%

4.98%

-5.66%

-1.65%

-4.29%

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

0.898

3.21%

-3.7%

-0.72%

United Fund, Inc. -a

5.41%

-3.03%

0.62%

-2.62%

3.3471

-4.46%

-4.92%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a

1.1756

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

965.14 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

13.45% n.a. n.a.

1.11%

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

106.2904

4.11%

-3.12%

0.01%

-4.65%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9957

-20.36%

-0.48%

1.94%

-11.61%

-5.36%

7.83%

7.49%

-15.21%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.5655

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

1.6498

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2274

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.6413

0.77%

-1.22%

-0.76%

-2.49%

1.23%

-1.06%

-0.43%

-2.37%

4.32%

0.11%

1.18%

-1.85%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.2075

9.04% n.a. n.a.

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

1.02%

1.38%

-2.53% -3.05%

1.9656

1.93%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.6501

0.45%

0.12%

0.22%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.3729

0.48%

-0.15%

0.19%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0713

-2.81%

1.71%

-1.04%

0.07%

-2.36%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5418 2.38%

-2.57%

-0.36%

-2.89%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

-1.56%

0.04%

-2.94%

0.9261

8.42%

-0.72%

Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a

0.954

-1.72%

-1.23% n.a.

-3.62%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a

0.8987

0.51%

-3.05% n.a.

-4.85%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a

0.8875

0.84%

-3.41% n.a.

-4.97%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03543 PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9971

-5.6%

-0.25%

0.18%

-6.62%

-11.16%

0.47%

1.64%

-6.56%

-5.2%

5.43%

5.5%

-11.66%

2.12%

2.34%

-8.56%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.2424

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,2 $1.096 -5.39%

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

374

0.94%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.8851

-1.06%

0.35%

0.02%

0.02%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2421

0.78%

2.66%

2.63%

3.69%

2.47%

-0.08% -0.06%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2257

-1.15%

1.14%

1.27%

-1.15% -0.28%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4191 -0.4%

2.68%

1.79%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.3287

-3.45%

3.14%

1.34%

-1.52%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3148

-0.27%

3.4%

2.75%

-0.33% -0.75%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9361

-0.69%

3.1%

2.58%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0189

-0.22%

3.81%

1.95%

-0.9%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1623

-0.34%

3.6%

3.1%

-0.79%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.13%

2.73%

2.4%

-1.05%

1.7124

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

$485.74

1.03%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є216.24

-1.32%

0.21%

0.62%

-1.71%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b

$1.1238

-4.04%

-0.91%

0.23%

-6.65%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.025 -2.34%

2.43%

2.24%

-0.78%

0.%

0.08%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$0.9636

-7.75%

-2.85%

-1.85%

-5.79%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.3462

-3.73%

1.84%

1.53%

-6.37%

$0.0611836

-1.91%

2.02%

1.49%

-1.78%

-4.1%

0.04%

0.17%

-8.19%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $2.9345

-3.85%

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

131.52

1.25%

2.54%

2.55%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a

1.0599

1.03%

1.83% n.a.

1.51%

2.43%

2.51%

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1

1.3194

0.25% 0.21%

0.29%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0618

0.68%

1.33% n.a.

0.11%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

45.5054 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a 1.2415

6.32% n.a. n.a.

-10.22%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (units) ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a

$0.9012

-8.04% n.a. n.a.

a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago.

c - Listed in the PSE.

-7.09%

d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last July 8, 2021 (formerly, Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc.).

2 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last November 25, 2021.

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

March 10, 2022

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL MANULIFE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

129,910 221,943,083 197,350,671.50 1,141,495 2,788,124 293,335,585.50 1,765,270 5,103 29,540 170,809,128 13,950,538.50 253,910 269,850 9,945 84,030 3,869,060

4,320 81,053,337 -27,219,504 -1,212,282.00 -64,645,105.50 -51,068 0 10,806,574 1,667,839 -96,000 3,856,120

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 8.13 8.14 7.9 8.15 7.9 8.14 18,394,600 148,767,971 1.02 1.07 1.06 1.06 1.01 1.06 281,000 289,820 ALSONS CONS 35 35.05 34.65 35.2 34.65 35 1,755,400 61,430,375 ABOITIZ POWER 0.475 0.48 0.495 0.495 0.47 0.475 17,600,000 8,411,850 BASIC ENERGY 26.5 26.6 26.7 26.9 26.1 26.6 510,400 13,414,170 FIRST GEN 70.1 70.2 70.05 70.25 70.05 70.15 4,990 350,235.50 FIRST PHIL HLDG 370.2 374.6 374 375.2 362 374.6 263,110 98,118,396 MERALCO 19.6 19.7 19.32 19.78 19.32 19.7 2,410,800 47,203,472 MANILA WATER PETRON 3.56 3.57 3.7 3.71 3.52 3.56 10,872,000 39,497,580 PETROENERGY 4.67 4.8 4.9 4.9 4.8 4.8 83,000 403,540 10.42 10.68 10.68 10.68 10.6 10.68 3,000 32,032 PHX PETROLEUM 12.12 12.2 12.1 12.2 12.02 12.2 705,600 8,565,722 SYNERGY GRID PILIPINAS SHELL 19.12 19.2 19.62 19.62 18.6 19.2 423,500 8,137,918 SPC POWER 14.32 14.4 14.3 14.4 14.08 14.4 58,800 838,990 1.85 1.86 1.91 1.92 1.85 1.85 35,541,000 66,359,020 SOLAR PH AGRINURTURE 5.47 5.5 5.56 5.6 5.33 5.5 1,349,600 7,442,295 2.55 2.62 2.52 2.62 2.52 2.62 105,000 274,600 AXELUM 21 21.05 20.6 21.6 20.6 21.05 7,903,600 166,843,430 CENTURY FOOD 15.82 15.84 15.22 15.84 15.22 15.84 71,900 1,119,982 DEL MONTE 7.41 7.45 7.4 7.5 7.32 7.45 1,676,800 12,451,270 DNL INDUS 14.24 14.3 15 15.06 13.42 14.24 6,765,400 95,790,894 EMPERADOR 64.35 64.65 65.8 65.9 64.2 64.65 388,070 25,136,494 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.63 0.58 0.6 20,157,000 12,248,820 FIGARO COFFEE ALLIANCE SELECT 0.58 0.61 0.58 0.61 0.58 0.58 425,000 247,050 FRUITAS HLDG 1.12 1.14 1.14 1.17 1.12 1.16 13,940,000 15,796,610 GINEBRA 113.3 113.5 109.3 113.5 109.3 113.3 40,880 4,512,544 JOLLIBEE 239.4 239.8 236 240 233 239.8 719,250 171,118,010 KEEPERS HLDG 1.2 1.21 1.22 1.22 1.2 1.21 2,552,000 3,090,740 MAXS GROUP 6.15 6.23 6.13 6.25 6.13 6.15 64,800 400,062 MONDE NISSIN 14.3 14.5 14.16 14.66 13.76 14.3 9,884,000 140,270,798 SHAKEYS PIZZA 8.21 8.55 8.43 8.7 7.95 8.55 227,400 1,843,072 0.69 0.71 0.69 0.73 0.66 0.71 3,210,000 2,216,450 ROXAS AND CO 1.32 1.43 1.31 1.43 1.31 1.43 69,000 96,960 ROXAS HLDG 0.105 0.109 0.105 0.105 0.105 0.105 20,000 2,100 SWIFT FOODS 110.8 110.9 112.1 114 110.7 110.9 2,730,860 304,967,000 UNIV ROBINA 0.64 0.65 0.66 0.66 0.63 0.64 186,000 119,270 VITARICH 2.45 2.5 2.49 2.5 2.49 2.5 12,000 29,940 VICTORIAS 45.35 47.95 47.5 47.5 47.5 47.5 2,400 114,000 CONCRETE A CONCRETE B 46.05 57.75 52.5 57.9 45.9 45.95 100,700 5,825,985 0.95 0.96 0.94 0.96 0.94 0.96 1,517,000 1,437,890 CEMEX HLDG EAGLE CEMENT 12.92 13.46 12.98 13.48 12.98 13.48 93,200 1,219,108 5.55 5.6 5.7 5.7 5.6 5.6 1,278,600 7,173,515 EEI CORP HOLCIM 5.5 5.6 5.69 5.69 5.5 5.5 20,300 112,053 MEGAWIDE 5.1 5.18 5.02 5.24 5.02 5.18 1,431,500 7,210,678 PHINMA 19.02 19.98 19.82 20 19 19.98 30,500 587,956 0.84 0.85 0.91 0.91 0.83 0.83 169,000 143,430 TKC METALS 1.15 1.16 1.1 1.2 1.09 1.16 11,625,000 13,160,210 VULCAN INDL 1.73 1.76 1.76 1.77 1.7 1.76 451,000 789,350 CROWN ASIA 1.26 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.25 1.26 77,000 98,380 EUROMED 5.5 5.73 5.61 5.75 5.5 5.5 18,899,800 103,951,669 PRYCE CORP 20.55 20.6 20.6 20.6 20.5 20.6 46,400 955,200 CONCEPCION 1.77 1.79 1.78 1.8 1.76 1.79 5,089,000 9,081,830 GREENERGY 8.3 8.41 8.3 8.6 8.3 8.3 93,800 786,211 INTEGRATED MICR 0.71 0.76 0.7 0.71 0.7 0.71 319,000 223,920 IONICS PANASONIC 6.06 6.2 6.1 6.2 6.01 6.2 10,700 64,714 1.11 1.13 1.08 1.14 1.07 1.13 110,000 120,060 SFA SEMICON 3.39 3.42 3.3 3.4 3.3 3.4 1,051,000 3,544,900 CIRTEK HLDG

29,090,502 -10,557,440 76,000 1,065,490 35,075 2,817,604 8,180,464 -4,101,810 43,652 -1,548,394 -538,980 -895,500 -209,600 40,051,075 329,749 -19,471,610 9,812,978.50 -2,070,890 23,200 12,440.00 3,821,845 83,369,582 721,860 193,898 38,666,220 1,492,986 965,600 28,454,775 29,940 23,900 -7,026,373 21,062 -6,194,304.00 1,720 186,080 8,700 -51,616,400 -793,100 -107,840 -407,053 -101,900

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA REPUBLIC GLASS SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

1,265,780 -90,640 5,555,890 10,149,081.50 3,915,884 1,352,700 -2,255,730 293,844.00 4,827,862 -6,476,810 32,663,129 -285,400 13,930,860 101,471,175 -2,295,935 -

HOLDING & FRIMS

43.2 126.6 94.95 26.3 8.58 55.05 19.76 55.55 21 108.8 93.15 1.95 4 915 209 2,588

0.83 4.7 827 58.7 12.8 8.3 0.95 0.72 0.72 5.1 9.1 533 56.1 6.55 0.56 2.95 9.27 0.325 3.69 1.3 3.05 900 101.4 0.295 0.168

44.25 126.9 95 26.45 8.6 55.1 19.78 56.5 21.65 108.9 94.4 2.04 4.05 994.5 217.8 2,650

0.84 5.4 830 59.45 12.84 9.1 0.97 0.73 0.73 5.18 9.12 535 56.9 7 0.59 2.97 9.36 0.37 3.7 1.33 3.39 908 101.8 0.31 0.175

43.9 127.1 94.1 26.4 8.74 54.6 19.58 56.7 20.6 108.8 94.15 2.05 4 994.5 210 2,588

0.83 5.02 822 58.5 12.96 9.07 0.97 0.76 0.75 5.15 9 540 56.5 7 0.57 2.95 9.19 0.34 3.72 1.43 3.05 889 102.1 0.3 0.17

43.9 128 95.95 26.45 8.75 55.6 19.8 56.7 21.8 109.5 96.5 2.05 4.05 994.5 218.8 2,588

0.85 5.02 830 59.45 12.98 9.1 0.97 0.79 0.77 5.18 9.23 540 56.9 7 0.59 2.96 9.4 0.34 3.76 1.43 3.05 908 103 0.3 0.17

43.1 126 93.45 26.4 8.6 54.6 19.58 56.7 20.6 107 92.1 1.95 4 994.5 209 2,588

0.82 4.7 815 58.2 12.56 9 0.94 0.71 0.71 5.1 8.86 529 55.65 7 0.56 2.95 9.19 0.34 3.67 1.3 3.05 880 101 0.295 0.168

43.2 126.9 95 26.45 8.6 55.05 19.78 56.7 21.7 108.9 93.15 2.04 4.05 994.5 209 2,588

0.84 4.7 830 59.45 12.8 9.1 0.95 0.72 0.72 5.18 9.12 535 56.9 7 0.59 2.96 9.36 0.34 3.7 1.3 3.05 908 101.8 0.295 0.168

3,000 1,747,620 2,078,020 43,200 322,800 5,329,090 89,900 90 1,400 1,579,270 148,440 130,000 67,000 10 390 1,495

3,543,000 23,900 180,100 929,680 2,183,500 204,600 533,000 66,431,000 9,231,000 91,100 7,686,800 162,540 1,856,540 11,100 291,000 369,000 718,000 20,000 21,095,000 479,000 1,000 371,630 173,570 410,000 480,000

2,974,370 119,400 148,836,880 54,978,225.50 27,783,498 1,842,516 502,870 49,577,810 6,892,730 469,765 69,821,706 86,828,725 104,856,968.50 77,700 163,940 1,089,050 6,693,051 6,800 78,111,150 652,370 3,050 331,724,430 17,682,567 122,950 81,340

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.54 0.56 0.54 0.55 0.54 0.55 225,000 121,650 36.7 36.95 37.8 37.85 36.55 36.7 9,312,400 344,740,030 AYALA LAND 4.55 4.59 4.55 4.72 4.55 4.55 866,000 4,024,890 AYALA LAND LOG 1.02 1.04 1 1.04 1 1.04 19,000 19,160 ARANETA PROP 49.4 49.5 48.75 49.5 48.75 49.4 825,600 40,787,900 AREIT RT 0.9 0.94 0.94 0.94 0.92 0.94 1,234,000 1,151,590 A BROWN 0.7 0.73 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 19,000 13,300 CITYLAND DEVT 0.094 0.097 0.096 0.098 0.096 0.098 170,000 16,350 CROWN EQUITIES CEB LANDMASTERS 2.83 2.85 2.8 2.88 2.8 2.86 272,000 777,420 CENTURY PROP 0.38 0.39 0.385 0.395 0.38 0.38 2,920,000 1,117,750 2.68 2.69 2.67 2.73 2.66 2.68 7,298,000 19,648,760 CITICORE RT DOUBLEDRAGON 10.16 10.2 10.48 10.76 10.2 10.2 437,300 4,550,870 DDMP RT 1.73 1.74 1.74 1.75 1.7 1.73 3,084,000 5,335,490 DM WENCESLAO 6.99 7 6.99 7 6.99 7 29,600 207,139 0.242 0.245 0.242 0.242 0.242 0.242 150,000 36,300 EMPIRE EAST 0.265 0.27 0.27 0.28 0.255 0.27 4,230,000 1,127,400 EVER GOTESCO 7.34 7.35 7.15 7.44 7.15 7.35 1,181,400 8,656,294 FILINVEST RT 1.08 1.09 1.09 1.09 1.08 1.09 880,000 956,220 FILINVEST LAND 0.88 0.93 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 42,000 36,960 GLOBAL ESTATE 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.68 13.3 13.3 104,000 1,385,342 8990 HLDG 0.96 0.97 1 1 0.97 0.97 110,000 108,690 PHIL INFRADEV 0.81 0.83 0.81 0.81 0.81 0.81 8,000 6,480 CITY AND LAND 3.12 3.13 3.12 3.16 3.08 3.12 10,446,000 32,492,950 MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED 0.275 0.28 0.255 0.295 0.25 0.28 29,880,000 8,229,950 MREIT RT 19.28 19.3 18.7 19.5 18.7 19.3 1,435,600 27,740,424 PHIL ESTATES 0.41 0.415 0.415 0.42 0.41 0.41 2,040,000 847,100 PRIMEX CORP 2.27 2.29 2.24 2.37 2.17 2.29 1,588,000 3,633,410 RL COMM RT 7.5 7.51 7.4 7.74 7.39 7.51 6,628,200 49,545,996 ROBINSONS LAND 19.7 19.72 19.66 19.78 19.5 19.7 5,813,200 114,535,898 PHIL REALTY 0.219 0.22 0.223 0.223 0.216 0.22 2,330,000 510,060 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.4 151,000 211,500 ROCKWELL 2.56 2.61 2.61 2.61 2.61 2.61 35,000 91,350 SHANG PROP 2.72 2.79 2.79 2.79 2.79 2.79 3,000 8,370 STA LUCIA LAND 37.5 37.55 37.85 38 37.3 37.5 11,782,600 441,860,485 SM PRIME HLDG 3.45 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.45 5,000 17,200 VISTAMALLS 1 1.03 1.05 1.05 1.01 1.03 69,000 70,380 SUNTRUST HOME 3.04 3.05 3.04 3.05 3.04 3.05 617,000 1,881,590 VISTA LAND

SERVICES ABS CBN 12.32 12.48 12.12 12.76 12.02 12.74 53,900 658,008 15.74 15.78 15.3 15.8 15.14 15.78 3,078,000 47,871,992 GMA NETWORK 9.37 9.99 9.37 9.37 9.37 9.37 2,000 18,740 MLA BRDCASTING 2,570 2,572 2,520 2,578 2,504 2,572 58,825 150,933,730 GLOBE TELECOM 1,845 1,850 1,855 1,860 1,836 1,845 90,600 167,249,405 PLDT 0.051 0.052 0.057 0.057 0.047 0.051 2,322,910,000 118,986,290 APOLLO GLOBAL 24 24.05 24.25 25 24 24 7,537,100 183,820,645 CONVERGE 5.24 5.25 5.31 5.41 5.23 5.25 6,373,700 33,699,139 DITO CME HLDG NOW CORP 1.18 1.19 1.17 1.2 1.17 1.19 487,000 572,070 0.33 0.345 0.35 0.35 0.33 0.33 5,760,000 1,940,350 TRANSPACIFIC BR 7.29 7.3 7.29 7.29 7.29 7.29 4,100 29,889 2GO GROUP 14.02 14.2 14.2 14.2 14.2 14.2 3,500 49,700 ASIAN TERMINALS 1.55 1.57 1.59 1.59 1.53 1.55 261,000 404,940 CHELSEA 43.85 43.9 43 44.2 42.8 43.85 527,800 23,116,475 CEBU AIR INTL CONTAINER 230.6 233 225.6 234.8 220 233 2,694,730 619,834,840 MACROASIA 5.27 5.28 5.37 5.48 5.27 5.28 1,284,200 6,878,997 1 1.03 0.99 1 0.99 1 140,000 138,890 METROALLIANCE A 0.79 0.8 0.79 0.79 0.79 0.79 260,000 205,400 HARBOR STAR 1.37 1.45 1.52 1.52 1.45 1.45 21,000 31,080 ACESITE HOTEL 1.47 1.65 1.6 1.65 1.53 1.65 16,000 25,150 DISCOVERY WORLD 0.45 0.47 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 10,000 4,500 WATERFRONT 530.5 536 530 530.5 530 530.5 170 90,125 FAR EASTERN U 0.35 0.355 0.36 0.36 0.355 0.355 320,000 113,700 STI HLDG BELLE CORP 1.26 1.31 1.31 1.32 1.26 1.26 253,000 330,800 BLOOMBERRY 7 7.08 7.37 7.37 7 7 3,969,400 28,122,074 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.73 1.78 1.78 1.78 1.78 1.78 3,000 5,340 1.32 1.35 1.35 1.38 1.32 1.35 270,000 363,710 LEISURE AND RES 1.13 1.15 1.18 1.21 1.1 1.15 3,568,000 4,075,220 PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE 0.44 0.445 0.435 0.445 0.435 0.44 1,340,000 587,100 2.2 2.22 2.18 2.24 2.18 2.22 97,000 213,400 PHILWEB ALLDAY 0.475 0.48 0.455 0.48 0.455 0.48 33,890,000 15,967,450 8.9 8.97 9 9 8.8 8.97 332,500 2,962,693 ALLHOME 1.42 1.43 1.4 1.43 1.4 1.43 664,000 942,040 METRO RETAIL 33.6 33.65 33.85 34.05 33.6 33.65 664,600 22,417,755 PUREGOLD 56.1 57 54.95 57 54.95 57 327,430 18,392,056 ROBINSONS RTL 67 67.05 69 69 67 67.05 2,470 167,662.50 PHIL SEVEN CORP 1.06 1.07 1.06 1.07 1.06 1.07 444,000 472,700 SSI GROUP 26.9 27.35 26.95 27.75 26.8 26.9 2,494,900 67,110,900 WILCON DEPOT APC GROUP 0.243 0.255 0.255 0.255 0.242 0.255 650,000 158,230 4.1 4.47 4.11 4.11 4.1 4.1 2,000 8,210 EASYCALL 0.94 0.95 0.96 0.96 0.92 0.95 1,351,000 1,261,450 MEDILINES PRMIERE HORIZON 0.6 0.61 0.62 0.64 0.6 0.6 5,307,000 3,246,910 SBS PHIL CORP 3.7 3.9 3.86 3.9 3.86 3.9 23,000 89,480

MINING & OIL ATOK 5.8 6 6.08 6.08 6 6 6,300 37,896 1.82 1.83 1.8 1.83 1.74 1.83 16,911,000 30,330,520 APEX MINING 7.38 7.4 7.5 7.7 7.1 7.4 2,233,100 16,548,178 ATLAS MINING 6.01 6.02 5.41 6.02 5.41 6.01 26,300 153,905 BENGUET A 6 6.19 5.01 6.19 5.01 6.19 23,800 137,326 BENGUET B 0.265 0.275 0.28 0.28 0.26 0.27 780,000 205,850 COAL ASIA HLDG 5 5.47 5.5 5.5 4.8 5.47 11,100 54,838 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 3.15 3.17 2.95 3.17 2.77 3.17 29,501,000 87,180,510 GEOGRACE 0.195 0.22 0.205 0.205 0.19 0.194 280,000 54,810 0.168 0.169 0.171 0.171 0.166 0.168 33,130,000 5,569,740 LEPANTO A 0.169 0.17 0.179 0.179 0.17 0.17 4,630,000 793,120 LEPANTO B MANILA MINING A 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 71,600,000 716,400 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.01 44,500,000 466,700 MANILA MINING B 2.05 2.06 1.94 2.1 1.8 2.06 30,699,000 61,891,570 MARCVENTURES NIHAO 1.07 1.11 1.18 1.18 1 1.11 2,089,000 2,208,220 8.42 8.43 7.97 8.54 7.62 8.43 40,364,200 325,564,428 NICKEL ASIA 1.22 1.23 1.1 1.25 1.04 1.23 9,635,000 10,791,780 ORNTL PENINSULA 6.01 6.1 5.81 6.11 5.8 6.1 7,048,700 41,685,217 PX MINING 32.35 32.4 31.2 32.8 30.5 32.4 5,634,500 178,851,400 SEMIRARA MINING 0.0072 0.0073 0.0075 0.0075 0.0072 0.0073 48,000,000 350,600 UNITED PARAGON 25.9 26.1 26.5 27.2 25.2 26.1 306,800 7,949,545 ACE ENEXOR 0.011 0.012 0.013 0.013 0.012 0.012 65,800,000 799,900 ORNTL PETROL A ORNTL PETROL B 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 300,000 3,600 0.0098 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.0095 0.01 62,100,000 618,080 PHILODRILL 6.31 6.38 6.53 6.6 6.13 6.38 997,700 6,363,895 PXP ENERGY

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 99 100 100 100 99 99 580 57,800 504 510 505 505 505 505 50 25,250 AC PREF B2R 43 44.5 44.4 44.5 43 43 5,800 253,800 CEB PREF 102 103 102.9 103 102.9 103 4,800 494,211 CPG PREF A 100.3 101 100.5 100.5 100.3 100.3 6,700 672,014 DD PREF 106.5 110 109.9 110 109.9 110 2,000 219,868 EEI PREF B 993 1,010 1,010 1,010 1,010 1,010 20 20,200 GTCAP PREF A 1,020 1,040 1,020 1,020 1,020 1,020 890 907,800 GTCAP PREF B JFC PREF B 1,000 1,009 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 55 55,000 98.5 101.1 100 100 100 100 29,900 2,990,000 MWIDE PREF 2A 100 101.9 100 100.5 100 100 500 50,025 MWIDE PREF 2B 100 100.3 100.2 100.2 100 100 10,340 1,034,020 MWIDE PREF 4 103 103.1 103 103 103 103 800 82,400 PNX PREF 3B 977 985 980 980 980 980 1,020 999,600 PNX PREF 4 PCOR PREF 3A 1,050 1,084 1,050 1,050 1,050 1,050 5,200 5,460,000 1,080 1,085 1,089 1,089 1,080 1,080 2,030 2,192,720 PCOR PREF 3B 76.9 78 78.8 78.8 77 77 17,700 1,377,200 SMC PREF 2F 76.75 77 77 77 76.75 76.75 25,180 1,934,091.50 SMC PREF 2H 77.6 78 78.75 78.75 77.5 77.5 78,700 6,131,750 SMC PREF 2I 76.5 77.5 77.25 77.5 77.25 77.5 960 74,382.50 SMC PREF 2J 76.05 76.95 76.05 76.05 76.05 76.05 1,000 76,050 SMC PREF 2K 50.35 52.55 52.5 52.5 52.5 52.5 100 5,250 TECH PREF B2C 54 54.95 54.95 54.95 54.95 54.95 150 8,242.50 TECH PREF B2D

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS GMA HLDG PDR 14.7 14.98 14.3 14.9 14.1 14.7 271,400 3,944,504

WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 0.66 0.7 0.7 0.73 0.66 0.7 588,000 409,200

540 -49,656,235 128,810 26,669,330 2,800 1,584,360 -78,144 -1,787,750 3,009,634 178,750 -25,878 -12,610 4,860 15,433,590 -69,800 -3,605,612 -8,300 -784,210 7,621,914 51,631,028 80,910 57,552,075 94,620 480,940 -14,745,795 3,062,700 -42,637,620 -1,140,745 15,154,820 105,997,620 317,275 3,250 7,200 12,600 -5,739,158 90,880 65,400 6,643,950 1,123,435 -1,380,520 10,041,683.50 -2,911.50 -12,730 -8,043,840 -400,290 497,000 -37,896 1,399,050 794,068 5,543,330 -3,400 310,680 282,300 -12,636,187 -166,050 4,885,189.00 -4,125,830 -323,760 20,361 219,868 49,000 -17,640 50,310

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ALTUS PROP HAUS TALK ITALPINAS MERRYMART XURPAS

16 0.95 0.97 1.94 0.38

16.98 0.96 0.99 1.95 0.395

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF

108.3

108.4

16 0.97 0.96 1.95 0.38

17.02 0.97 1.02 2.04 0.39

16 0.95 0.96 1.95 0.37

16.98 0.96 0.99 1.95 0.38

2,800 1,781,000 272,000 5,343,000 1,520,000

47,150 1,702,460 263,250 10,674,200 575,200

-5,100 11,400 38,800 -143,680 45,000

109 109.3 108 108.4 11,830 1,284,698 414,212

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance

Act on fuel-tax suspension proposal, solon asks DBCC

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

A

deputy speaker last Thursday urged the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) to convene and firm up recommendation on the pending proposal in Congress suspending the excise tax on imported crude and fuel amid surging global oil prices.

Deputy Speaker Bernadette HerreraDy of Bagong Henerasyon Party-list made a statement as Congress is now on standby for a special session to suspend or reduce the excise taxes on fuel.

Only the President has the power to convene the legislature during its recess.

Congress is on a 3-month break for the campaign period for the May 9 elections.

The 1987 Constitution bestows the power upon the President to call a special session at any time.

“I am asking the DBCC to convene in the next several days so they can firm up their recommendation to President Duterte,” Herrera said. “Suspending the excise tax on imported crude and fuel is the call of the DBCC. This is their mandate under the last part of Section 43 of Republic Act 10963.”

The Palace said last Wednesday there is current discussion between President Duterte, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea and the Department of Finance on the proposed suspension of excise tax on fuel.

According to Herrera, Section 82 of RA 10963 (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law) contains various re-

sponse measures to high fuel prices, saying fuel vouchers are but one of several solutions targeted to bring temporary relief to the poor.

“Suspension is the only action the DBCC is authorized to exercise in Section 43; but it is not their only option under other parts of the Train Law. Neither does Section 43 limit for how the suspension can be. It would be one month or several months. The DBCC can set parameters and metrics on its implementation,” Herrera said.

“Fare discounts at 10 perce nt, 10-percent discount on NFA rice and other social benefits to be developed and implemented by the national government,” she added.

Herrera said funding for these benefits would come from the incremental revenues from the Train Law in the first five years of the effectivity of that law.

The first year of it was 2018. It is now 2022, the fifth year of Train.

Other lawmakers are proposing a “Katas ng Train” (Train extract) package, similar to the Arroyo administration’s “Katas ng VAT” (VAT extract) program.

Solons said there an estimated P75.2 billion in revenue from VAT and oil excise, from which, P68.8 billion will be used to subsidize electricity, fertilizer, small fishermen and social pension for this year.

The government had announced it is preparing to release P2.5 billion for subsidy program providing fuel vouchers to qualified members of the public transport sector, on top of the P500 million in fuel discounts for farmers and fishermen.

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Friday, March 11, 2022

PHL gets $15M from US for 5-yr climate project

S

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

IX climate-vulnerable cities in the country are expected to benefit from the $15-million 5-year climate action project awarded by the US government to the Philippines.

According to documents from the Department of Finance (DOF), the fund—about P783 million at Thursday’s exchange rates—would be used to fund assistance to the local government units (LGUs) in the cities of Batangas, Legazpi, Iloilo, Borongan, Cotabato and Zamboanga. Under the Climate Resilient Cities project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), these LGUs will be assisted in using climate information for planning and decision-making, improving their capacity to access and manage climate finance and increasing their climate resil-

ience through “natural climate solutions.”

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III expressed gratitude to Washington for awarding the country with a climate-action project “designed to support localized initiatives on adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.”

“This timely initiative will help arm our local communities with the necessary knowledge to enable them to formulate climate adaptation and mitigation projects on the ground,” Dominguez said during the project launch held at the US Embassy in Manila last Thursday.

Despite only accounting for 0.3 percent of global carbon emissions, the Philippines is among highly-vulnerable countries that bear the brunt of the consequences of global warming.

Commitments

THE Philippines committed to a projected g reen hou se ga s emissions and avoidance of 75 percent from 2020 to 2030 for the sectors of agriculture, wastes, industry, transport and energy, as its National Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement.

Of the 75 percent, 72.29 percent is “conditional” or contingent upon the support of climate finance, technologies and capacity development, which shall be provided by developed countries, as prescribed by the Paris Agreement, while the remaining 2.71 percent is “unconditional” or shall

B3

be implemented mainly through domestic resources.

In his speech, Dominguez also said the country is “determined to move ahead” with its climate mitigation measures—on its own if necessary—without waiting for the annual $100-billion climate financing pledged 12 years ago by industrialized nations to developing economies, which are the most vulnerable to the impact of planet warming.

Likewise, t he f i n a nc e chief also urged other developing countries to prepare to undertake mitigation measures on their own, noting that “it seems that that global climate fund will not be available and accessible anytime soon.”

“The Philippines cannot wait for the industrial nations to recognize the urgency of the situation,” Dominguez said. “We are determined to move ahead on our own if necessary. We will take action now.”

B4

Friday, March 11, 2022 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Relationships BusinessMirror

Why debate?

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Anthony Davis, 29; Thora Birch, 40; Johnny Knoxville, 51; Terrence Howard, 53.

PHOTO BY MIGUEL HENRIQUES ON UNSPLASH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Formulate your thoughts and create a plan that will help you structure what you want to accomplish this year. Abide by rules to avoid setbacks. Timing will require impeccable execution to get satisfactory results. Be innovative, think big, and present and promote with vision, but recognize what is and isn’t doable. Home improvements will make your life easier. Your numbers are 4, 16, 20, 23, 34, 38, 47.

G

ROWING up as a student in St. Theresa’s, I was not such a fan of debates. It felt like a lot of work and preparation—and I was never really a serious studious student. Nor was I articulate.

By articulate, I mean being able to organize one’s thoughts in rapid-fire fashion to be able to spew out the required facts and figures to defend one’s position and convince the teacher-judge that you are in the right.

But of course, I did participate in a few—one couldn’t escape the debate as a school requirement.

And I did put in the work needed. (I apologize to my classmates if my participation didn’t make our group win. Hahaha.) If I had a choice, I would rather have joined a spelling bee or some school contest on correct grammar. I guess I am exactly where I am meant to be, instead of, say, being a lawyer.

As these elections heat up, everyone and anyone who’s a fan of politics have been talking about the debates among the presidential, vice presidential, and senatorial candidates. There have been a handful of standouts because of their eloquence and apparent brilliance; and, of course, some were not so impressive, due to their lack of knowledge and grasp of the topics discussed.

But I agree with most people: these debates are an opportunity for the millions of Filipino voters to know more about the people gunning for the most powerful offices in the land.

Like, some candidates are just bluster and hot air, even making up facts as they try to assault a rival candidate’s character. (Of course, when later confronted by the untruth espoused by one such candidate in a media interview, he accused the network that they were probably paid off not to report the supposed item. Well, he certainly got his 15 minutes of fame after the TV host slammed him right back for the bribery accusation. Bravo, I guess?)

For other unknown candidates, the debate becomes a revelation working in their favor. Labor lawyer Luke Espiritu is probably the “discovery of the year,” so to speak, because of a recent debate in which he participated. Like most people, I’d never heard of Espiritu, and obviously didn’t know he was even a senatorial candidate.

But after shutting up one senatorial hopeful with facts on the human-rights abuses and extrajudicial

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Self-assertive action will impress someone who can help speed up whatever you pursue. Get involved in projects that are meaningful to you, and focus on better health, relationships and overall success. Take care of contractional matters quickly to curb stress and uncertainty. HH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Express your desires, and follow through with your plans.

Don’t let what others do influence you to make decisions that are not right for you. Take a secretive approach in order to dodge interference. HHHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Speak to whoever is in charge, and you’ll bypass the nonsense that goes along with lineups and jumping through hoops. Getting the lowdown before you begin something new will allow you to act quickly and secure your position. HHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Educate yourself before you take on something foreign to you.

Go directly to the source, ask questions, take notes and head in the direction that offers hope and promise. Share your thoughts, and someone will clear up any uncertainty you harbor. HHH

killings under the Marcos regime, and calling out another for his reversal on his stand against the Marcoses, Espiritu got the brightest spotlight in the show. And so, many who have never heard of him before are suddenly putting him on their senatorial list for May 9.

For those who still haven’t done their research, Espiritu is running under presidential candidate Ka Leody de Guzman’s Partido Lakas ng Masa.

His educational background reads like an Human Resource Department’s dream employee’s CV: La Salle Bacolod and Greenhills for elementary; then Ateneo de Manila for high school, college, and law school. The guy could have made huge bucks working for any of the country’s well-established law firms, but instead he chose to represent laborers.

I don’t necessarily agree with some of his views on the economy, but I do like that he doesn’t stop warning us of a possible return to a corrupt time in our history when a certain candidate is elected President, as well as his respect for women’s rights—giving us the power of choice over our bodies—along with his position on LGBTQI rights. I will have to do further research on him before finally deciding if he makes the cut in my ballot.

And then there are a few candidates who are probably campante about winning in May so they

refuse to participate in most of the debates. But is it really sheer arrogance, or just a way of avoiding possible embarrassment? Like I said, debates entail a lot of preparation and study. One cannot simply “wing it.” We can only look at the debates in the previous elections to show how tremendously taxing these events are on the candidates.

After all, they have only a few minutes per topic to hit the audience with nuggets of knowledge on a topic, be able summarize their platform of government, shoot rockets of facts and figures to tear down their rivals’ position on an issue, and appeal to voters why they are the right man/woman for the job at hand.

But like my school debates, it’s important to show up in these grown-up ones. Debates are a vital part of any discussion on a candidate’s capacity to lead the country. They give us a look-see into his/her views on issues and how his/her mind works. They show a candidate’s experience [or the lack thereof] in service or governance. And they also show how the candidate will be able to address an issue, or give us voters an idea what kind of thinking goes into his/her approach to solving problems.

Of course, it is to the candidate’s comfort, whether or not he or she will choose to participate in these televised political discourses. Brats will always be brats. So, good luck with that. n

DEREK RAMSEY (right) is joined by Lexus Golf Drive host Daniel Peters (center) and Gerry Santos, founder and CEO of Mr. Freeze Tube Ice Inc., for a round of golf at Summit Point Golf & Country Club in Batangas.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Discuss money matters, contracts and health issues with someone who can shed light on situations that baffle you. Don’t feel you have to initiate a sudden change because someone else does. Test your strength and courage, and do your own thing. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Hang out with people who have something to contribute.

Gather knowledge and experience, and be open to suggestions and doing things differently. You will make worthwhile connections with people who inspire you to expand your talents, skills and aspirations.

HHHH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Keep emotions in check when dealing with professional matters and discussions that can influence your reputation and goals. If you want to get ahead, discipline and hard work are the paths to your success.

Love and romance are in the stars. HH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take care of personal matters, finances, home and family.

Listen to complaints and offer solutions.

Build a place of comfort and convenience that friends and family find welcoming. Express concerns and share, and happiness will follow. HHHHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Document what’s being said, and get what you want in writing. Someone will try to mislead you if given a chance. Talk is cheap; actions speak louder than words. Live up to your promises, and expect others to fulfill their obligations. HHH

Derek learns life lessons on the golf course IT’S no secret Derek Ramsay has always eyed a career in golf. In fact, he almost became a full-time professional golfer several years ago but showbiz commitments made him put that dream on hold. While that has yet to be a reality, he still continues to take time out to play the sport he loves, and was even able to show his skills when he filmed No Other Woman in 2011.

“You get to meet new people in the golf course,” says the actor. “You get to network and see someone’s true colors. If you’re going to do business with them, it’s a good sign if you get along with them in the golf course.” He also said every time he plays golf, it’s a test of your patience, stress and anger management.

Derek recently starred in the latest episode of Golf Driven, a series on YouTube presented by Lexus which gives new and

seasoned golfers and sport enthusiasts an online show they can watch and learn from the country’s best athletes playing on the course.

Joining him in the Lexus Par 3 Challenge episode at Summit Point Golf and Country Club in Batangas are host Daniel Peters and Gerry Santos, founder and CEO of Mr. Freeze Tube Ice Inc. In 2017, Derek and fellow actor John Estrada represented the Philippines when they won the Jack Nicklaus International Invitational in Ohio, USA, when they beat other players from around the world. It was also a memorable moment for Derek who was awarded personally by golf icon Jack Nicklaus himself.

The latest Golf Driven episode can be found on the Lexus Philippines YouTube Page (bit.ly/3I9su3D).

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Consider what you do for a living and the way you earn and spend your money. You are overdue for a change, and updating your skills and qualifications will help you explore new possibilities. A challenge will boost your confidence and enthusiasm. HHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Do something creative. Turn something you love to do into a profitable pastime. Don’t deny yourself the chance to grow personally, financially and emotionally.

Take the initiative to build the life that makes you feel good. Romance is featured. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Concentrate on home, family and building a life of comfort and convenience. Take responsibility for your happiness, and bring about the changes necessary to help you excel. Be secretive about your plans until you have everything in place. HHHHH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are benevolent, sincere and generous.

You are creative and entertaining.

‘drop by drop’ BY GARY LARSON The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Closest bud 4 Hardware chain 7 Impulsive 11 Hatcher of Desperate Housewives 12 Rotten 13 Justice Sotomayor 14 Flock sounds 15 Barely get (by) 16 Gentle strokes in golf 17 Backpacker’s accommodation (Hint: Look down at letter 5) 19 Number in a dating profile 20 Insect not found in Antarctica...or is it?

21 That dude’s 22 Keeps back (...at letter 4) 26 Auto remote 28 Energy 29 Whacks weeds 30 Dawson of Hollywood 32 Lead-in to “sesame” or “secret” 33 Star ___: Discovery 35 Head to Vegas?

36 Took legal action 37 Like a wafer cookie

38 Classic sayings 40 Bench, in Paris (hidden in “urban center”) 41 Free ad 42 Click ___ (noisy insect) 46 Snooty attitude (...at letter 4) 48 Chicken-king connector 49 Salmon eggs 50 Not just “a” 51 Cascade, and a feature of 17-, 22and 46-Across?

54 Garment that may say “Life is what you bake it” 56 Pen tip 57 Flowerpot filler 58 Woo 59 Thurman of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues 60 Compost holders 61 Future twentysomething 62 “Gangnam Style” singer 63 Desired answer to a proposal DOWN 1 Skin-deep attribute 2 College party site 3 Marlins’ catcher

4 Assists in crime 5 Angel food or devil’s food dessert 6 The Sound of Music song named for a white flower 7 Get rowdy 8 Home on the Range critter 9 Plop down 10 Suffers from 11 Steakchoice 13 Fight about the dishwasher, say 17 Cow’s shaggy relative 18 Twins, e.g., briefly 23 Nasdaq debut 24 Monopoly card 25 Sensitive ID 27 Coiled brass instrument 28 The devil wore it on the big screen 31 Like an assured victory 33 Tom yum’s cuisine 34 Sound about right 36 Believes strongly in 37 “Truthfully,” in textspeak 38 Special ones are covert 39 Willing partner?

43 Some have many cars 44 Takes it easy

45 47 48 52 53 54 55

Fish that may be electric Storage unit expense Unable to retreat Objectives ___ gras Pretense Writer who inspired the Baltimore Ravens’ name

Solution to today’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Friday, March 11, 2022

Revisiting ‘The Night of the Iguana’

I

WAS on the verge—not breakdown for that is the fate of our lead, the Rev. Lawrence Shannon—of titling this column piece “A Lizard, of all things, as metaphor,” but I can imagine how our readers may find repulsive the image that immediately greets them. Besides, Tennessee Williams has the reputation for the acutely unforgettable titles of his works. Think of A Streetcar Named Desire.

The title credits of the Night of the Iguana do begin with a lizard occupying screen prominence that one is urged to find the meaning behind the reptile. Here begins my problem. How do I make of it? Who is the iguana? Who are the iguanas?

But let us begin where the iguanas are not yet discovered: inside the Episcopal Church. The unblemished exterior of the sacred place towers over the landscape. The camera enters the church. Inside, the faithful are all gathered. They are singing the hymn for that part of the service. A young priest is revealed on the altar: Richard Burton at his prettiest/ handsomest before grief from his consuming love for Liz Taylor gave him gravitas. With the confidence of one who knows when the hymn is ending, he slowly walks up to the pulpit. For the generation who know the actor with his voice that is pure velvet with just the right amount of metallic edge to cause the listener to tremble, the first words spoken are unalloyed metal. This actor can act by just opening his lips and letting the syllables tumble down to mortals blessed with less vowels and even lesser consonants. He fumbles and soon loses it. He shouts and rants and the people lose their fidelity as they hurry out into the rain. The priest hurls condemnation. Thunder and lightning! Thus begins the film about the nights of lizards. There is one requisite: the energy of Burton has to be matched by all the other actors, or he will appear as if he has wandered from the Hamlet set onto another where characters speak a different language.

This does not happen.

The next scene finds us in poor, poor Mexico.

This was in the 1940s or around that era. The pastor has become a tour guide for a busload of spinsters led by a “butch” vocal teacher, the only concession to defining this character as lesbian. She is the guardian of a very young girl, played by Sue Lyon.

Blonde or even platinum blonde (it is hard to tell in this black-and-white film), she continues the long procession of blonde sex symbols (Jean Harlow, Jane Mansfield, and, of course, Marilyn Monroe). This nubile woman is a nymphet as they were called then.

She is always coming on to the Episcopalian priest in a dumb way, for that is how Lyon’s acting also comes across.

They all end up in a resort on the hill managed by a woman, Maxine, who is recently widowed. She is played by the impossibly beautiful Ava Gardner. Up in her cluster of villas, guests are welcomed by these two shirtless young Mexican muscle men forever playing the maracas. To this human menagerie is added a middle-aged woman and her very old grandfather, the oldest living practicing poet. The woman paints for a

living and the old man can read his poems to anyone willing to listen. He is finishing a poem that would be his last.

Rehash these personas in your mind. They are almost the same denizens of the Williams mad universe, the same citizens populating the states of mind of the writer.

In John Lahr’s biography of Tennessee Williams, the playwright would describe the theme of the play [and the film] as having something to do with “how to live beyond despair and still live.”

Watching the film now with all these extracinematic dimensions, I can only imagine the power of the play onstage even as I look askance at what I feel are missing in the film version. For all the critical acclaim it has received as being one of the most intellectual of Williams’s plays, I—and I expect the

audience as well—cannot feel the spiritual direness in the character of the defrocked priest in Burton.

His voice and body—and those eyes—when they are agitated to perform for the camera take over the screen. Gardner comes close to a presence but in this film the great beauty is merely that—a great beauty.

The heavier role is given to Deborah Kerr as Hannah whose character is found in the directorial notes of the play: “Ethereal, almost ghostly. She suggests a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint but animated.”

Kerr, noted for her ultra-romantic style (in films like An Affair to Remember), is not manic enough to play one of the heroines of Williams.

There is a scant material on the film version of The Night of the Iguana in the autobiography of the playwright but there is a rich trove of insights and diatribes in the staging of the piece as a play. The

book states how the role of Hannah was, according to Williams, created for Katharine Hepburn. In the original version on Broadway, Maxine went to Bette Davis. Imagine these two onscreen. No film, I believe, could carry the weight of the celebrity, ego and eccentricities of these two legends.

The Night of the Iguana, directed by John Huston, is part of a boxed collection of Williams’s plays that include A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Baby Doll, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, plus a bonus disc on Tennessee Williams’s South.

The films, together with more titles, are part of a donation from Luis Cabalquinto, a New York-based Bicolano poet. They will be used as resource when Kamarin, an art space and cinema bar adjacent to Savage Mind bookstore, opens in Naga City this March. n

‘Rice and Shine’ with ‘Unang Hirit’ gang FOR audiences all over the Philippines, watching the longestrunning morning show in the country, Unang Hirit, just got a lot more fun and exciting.

On February 21, GMA’s popular morning show started giving lucky viewers the chance to win a one-year rice supply just by tuning in to the program.

And the good news is that Unang Hirit’s “Rice and Shine” promo will continue to give a year’s supply of rice to a lucky viewer daily until March 18. Many loyal viewers— particularly from Sorsogon, Bulacan, Mindoro, Cavite, and Metro Manila—have already won a year’s rice supply just by watching Unang Hirit.

“Natupad na po ’yung wish ko. Masayang-masaya po ako para sa aking mga anak, hindi na po magugutom,” says Elena Arciga, a mother from Los Baños, Laguna, who won a year’s supply of rice on February 25.

“Tuwang-tuwa ako. Biruin mo one year hindi ka bibili ng

bigas?” says Melinda Pangan, a teacher from Bulacan when she received her first month supply of rice.

Unang Hirit is hosted by Arnold Clavio, Susan Enriquez, Connie Sison, Mariz Umali, Ivan Mayrina, Nathaniel “Mang

Tani” Cruz, Suzi Entrata-Abrera, Lyn Ching-Pascual, and Love Añover. It airs weekdays at 5:30 am.

More information can be found at www.gmanetwork. com or www.gtv.ph.

Making that connection

I’VE been a fan of Internet sensation Davao Conyo for almost two years. I’ve been following all his social-media accounts because I find his content very funny. My most favorite was one of his early works, when he dubbed the film Taken. His bit on Tupperware that had to be treated with extreme care and caution, and must be returned in pristine condition still cracks me up.

Phillip Te Hernandez in real life, Davao Conyo has other videos that are very humorous posted on his accounts. He’s got dubbed videos from Four Sisters and a Wedding, Wildflower and even an MTRCB ad. It may seem nonsense, slapstick even, but when you analyze his punchlines, he usually touches on things that may seem unnoticed but are actually relatable like diets that cannot be sustained or having cement tiles

connote being rich (“ganda ng bahay—madaming tiles,” he exclaims in one of his videos).

Phillip says his sense of humor comes from being eagerly observant even as a young child. He would notice specific things and take note of them but add his humor which he claims he’s had even when he was young. Around late 2017, he posted a funny “conyo” Bisaya dub of the popular Filipino movie, Four Sisters and a Wedding, on a whim. After gaining thousands of views, he started to understand what people wanted to watch and continued experimenting with his videos. “I started with dubs because I was too shy to show my face. But as I received overwhelming support from people watching my videos, I continued creating more and eventually began making skits as well,” Phillip shared in a virtual event.

Now, Phillip has almost 4 million followers on Facebook and Twitter combined. He is definitely an Internet sensation but says that he doesn’t even understand this fame or even feels it. “Gumagawa lang ako ng content kasi ako ito. Hindi ako gumagawa para sumikat,” he said.

In fact, Phillip is more concerned of his Internet connection than virality, which is why he had to look for an Internet plan that suited his lifestyle as connection is vital to his career and daily life. It’s no surprise then that when SKY Fiber tapped him, along with fellow social-media celebrity Yumi (Tiktok’s

famous bird mom), to be brand ambassadors of their Super Speed Plans, he readily said yes.

“I switched to SKY Fiber a few months ago and I haven’t had regrets ever since. Kasi swak na Internet, swak sa budget. After all, I’m a very budget-conscious person and I pay for my own Internet subscription plan,” he said. Phillip recalled when he was frustrated with their family’s old Internet connection at home because it didn’t reach his room on the second floor, where he works. This prompted him to switch to SKY Fiber because it ticked all his requirements for speed, seamless connectivity and, most especially, affordable price.

SKY Fiber recently launched Super Speed Plans that cater to an everyday Internet user’s need for plans with the right mix of affordability, ample speed, and seamless connectivity. Subscribers will no longer have to choose between expensive high-speed plans and unreliable low-cost plans as SKY Fiber Super Speed Plans can satisfy their Internet needs.

James Dumlao, SKY’s head of Consumer Product, Programming and Airtime Group, said during the launch, “The Internet has weaved itself into our daily lives. Thus, a good quality Internet connection has become a necessity. ‘Internet is life’ as many would say. Because of this, we at SKY Fiber have committed to continuously deliver better products and services for the markets that we serve.”

PHILLIP TE HERNANDEZ

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B6 Friday, March 11, 2022

The Rundown 2022: Youth at the forefront of change

GBP supports DepEd Iloilo’s BuligBasa Project with reading modules

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ITH Filipinos aged 18 to 40 accounting for more than half of the country’s registered voters for 2022, The Rundown: A Youth-Oriented Senate Elections Forum commits to delivering an impartial and informative elections forum for the youth, by the youth. This year, The Rundown 2022 champions Youth at the Forefront of Change: Transforming Conversations into Collective Action.

The Rundown’s organizing body believes that youth involvement in the 2022 National Elections does not end with engaging in conversations within social media. Young Filipinos are capable of enacting meaningful change on the national scale, and that begins with casting informed and carefully considered votes.

Since 2013, young voters have been given the chance to engage with senatorial candidates in a series of panel discussions, rapid fire questions, and open forums as they tackle the most pressing issues of

our time. This 2022, The Rundown has officially partnered with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). In its previous editions, the elections forum has been endorsed by government agencies such as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

For the first time, the forum will be livestreamed on The Rundown: A YouthOriented Senate Elections Forum on Facebook on March 12, 2022, from 3:00 to 6:30 p.m. The forum will likewise be later aired on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) on March 19, 2022, Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and posted on ANC’s YouTube channel on March 21, 2022 at 12pm.

For more information, you may check @TheRundownForumPH on Facebook, @TheRundownPH on Twitter, and @therundownforum on Instagram.

Interested parties may contact partner. rundown@gmail.com.

CCP goes live with the performances by the PPO ATTENDING THE SIMPLE CEREMONIAL TURNOVER OF THE PRINTED MODULES ARE, FROM LEFT: Roel F. Bermejo, PhD, CESO V-Schools Division Superintendent for Division of Iloilo; Eugenio L. Mallorca, PhD, Public School District Supervisor (PSDS), Division English Coordinator and Project Leader; Lilibeth E. Larupay, Education Program Supervisor in charge of Learning Resource Management System; and Michael S. Guanco, GBP Community Relations Officer.

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LOBAl Business Power Corporation (GBP), through its subsidiaries Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) and Panay Power Corporation (PPC), provided assistance to the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division of (SDO) Iloilo’s literacy drive dubbed as the ‘Bulig-Basa project’.

GBP sponsored the printing of over 100 modules needed for the implementation of the program, aimed to upskill and reskill teachers and facilitate learning for students amidst the ongoing pandemic.

‘Bulig-Basa’, which correspondingly translates to ‘help’ and ‘read’ in Ilonggo, is a COVID-19 response initiative developed

by SDO-Iloilo to enable learners to read with understanding and appreciation. To do this, teachers will be provided with ‘Reading Links’ – a self-learning module specifically created by education experts to train for the enforcement of beginning and remediation reading during this period of remote and distance schooling.

“The pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges for our schools that warrant new and innovative solutions, especially for those that are in the far-flung areas”, said Petronilo R. Madrid, FVP for GBP Panay Operations.

“We hope that through this collaboration of GBP, via PEDC and PPC, and DepEd

SDO-Iloilo in producing the required modules, both teachers and students will be assisted on the conduct of reading remediation”, he added.

The Bulig-Basa project is the regional contextualized version of the nationwide Brigada Pagbasa movement, an after-school reading program that is part of DepEd’s Brigada Eskwela, bringing together education partners and experts to help learners read and become functionally literate. The SDOIloilo endeavor pleads for a collective effort of every stakeholder to aid the Ilonggo youth in achieving all levels of reading and many more.

Making history: SLMC conducts first-ever successful intra-arterial chemotherapy to eye cancer patient

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AST February 16, 2022—St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) made history as the first-ever hospital in the Philippines to successfully conduct and complete intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) to a 3-year old patient suffering from late-stage retinoblastoma.

“Retinoblastoma is a deadly disease if not treated immediately. While survival rates are high (90%) in developed countries, it is less than 50% in the Philippines. This is due to late detection and the limited number of specialists who have experience in treating this disease,” said Dr. Andrei Martin, the attending physician of the patient, and one of only a handful of ocular oncologists in the Philippines.

The 3-year old male patient is already in Group E of bilateral retinoblastoma.

Grouped as ABCDE, stage E is the most severe stage of the disease. Due to the severity of the disease, the child’s other eye has been removed to prevent it from worsening.

“His parents have been consulting with us for the past one and a half years to treat the child. We recommended removing the affected eye. However, the child’s parents were against it, and understandably so, since this is now his only remaining eye.” Dr. Martin added.

Running out of options, Dr. Martin reached out to several SLMC doctors to form a team to administer intra-arterial chemotherapy or IAC. IAC is a form of chemotherapy delivered via intravascular microcatheter that administers medicine directly to the patient’s eye through the ophthalmic artery.

The IAC procedure can take anywhere between 45 minutes to three hours, depending on the time spent locating the ophthalmic artery. For this patient, the ophthalmic artery was not in its usual position, adding another challenge in the treatment.

ATTENDING physician Dr. Andrei Martin (right) together with Dr. Dennis Villanueva (left) who led the Interventional Radiology Team’s successful completion of the IAC procedure.

Post-treatment, the pediatric patient is recovering well. According to Dr. Martin, the patient’s mother said that her child was behaving as if nothing happened, noting the child’s high energy and playfulness.

However, due to the child’s late-stage retinoblastoma, there is still work to be done.

“The next step for us will be to monitor the child, such as checking for signs of excessive bleeding in the incision area where the catheter was inserted and to monitor the response of the tumor to the intra-arterial chemotherapy. Research also shows that the success rate of IAC is maximized after three sessions, so he would need to undergo two more sessions of IAC,” Dr. Martin said.

Dr. Benjamin S.A. Campomanes, Jr., SLMC’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer, attributes this historical success to SLMC’s cast of highlytrained doctors who made diagnosis and treatment possible.

“The IAC procedure was made possible due to the valuable expertise of Dr. Andrei Martin as our ocular oncologist and the Interventional Radiology Team led by Dr. Dennis Villanueva and Dr. Angelito Tingcungco,” said Dr. Campomanes, Jr. “To complete the team, the procedure

also involved the expertise of Dr. Allan Gamo (Anesthesiology-Pediatric Anesthesia) and Dr. Luz Del Rosario (Pediatric HematologyOncology),” Dr. Campomanes, Jr. added.

With the first successful IAC procedure done, Dr. Martin and his team hopes to encourage more parents to consider IAC treatment at St. Luke’s for children with retinoblastoma.

“We aim for the Eye Institute of SLMC to become a referral center for patients with eye cancer. To achieve this, it is important for us to raise awareness about eye cancer to parents, especially the importance of early detection of the tumor,” said Dr. Martin.

“There may be cases wherein a child will complain of poor eyesight or parents may notice misalignment of the eyes or a white discoloration of the pupil. While this may look benign at first, there is a risk that these are signs of a severe eye disease such as retinoblastoma,” he said.

“We advise all parents to have their child regularly checked by their pediatrician. If your child has any eye problems, it is always recommended to have it examined right away. The best time to treat a disease is now, and not later,” Dr. Martin concluded.

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S the whole country transitions into more relaxed health and safety protocols, the Cultural Center of the Philippines is proud to announce the return to live performances. And for its initial performance, CCP goes all out with a grand musical feast to be led by the world-renowned Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Herminigildo Ranera on March 11, 2022 at 6pm at the CCP Grounds. It will be held simultaneously live via the Cultural Center of the Philippines, CCP Office of the President and PPO Facebook page.

The PPO will be performing timeless orchestral classics, Broadway favorites, and Filipino works. This also marks the first live performance of the PPO for 2022. The concert is free and open to the public.

“We are very pleased to once again open the doors of the Cultural Center of the Philippines to our beloved audiences,” says

CCP President Arsenio ‘Nick’ Lizaso, “but as we transition into doing live performances, the health and safety of everyone is still our priority so protocols will be strictly observed,” he added.

For updates and more information, follow the CCP Office of the President, CCP and PPO Facebook Pages.

CSC welcomes appointment of new chief

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HE Civil Service Commission (CSC) welcomed the ad interim appointment of former Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles as its new chairperson.

“Chairperson Nograles’ sterling public sector experience is a welcome addition to CSC. I am sure his leadership stint at the executive and legislative branches, and his experience bringing together the different agencies of government as CabSec especially during a time of global crisis, would be helpful in the CSC’s mission to professionalize a 1.7-million strong civil service. We are excited to hear about his plans and work with him,” Commissioner Aileen Lourdes A. Lizada said.

In a letter signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte dated 4 March 2022, Nograles was appointed as “ad interim chairman, Civil Service Commission, for a term expiring on 02 February 2029, vice Alicia Dela RosaBala” who ended her term last 2 February.

This latest appointment completes the CSC’s three-member Commission en banc, composed of a chairperson and two commissioners, presently occupied by Commissioners Lizada and Ryan Alvin R. Acosta who joined the CSC in December 2018 and February 2022, respectively.

Nograles served three terms as representative of the 1st District of Davao City from 2010 to 2018, during which

CSC Chairperson Karlo Alexei B. Nograles

he chaired the Committees on Labor and Employment (16th Congress) and Appropriations (17th Congress), after which he was appointed as Cabinet Secretary by President Duterte in November 2018. Under the president’s administration, he also served as presidential spokesperson and cochair and spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

In his acceptance statement, Nograles expressed gratefulness to President Duterte “for the opportunity to have served under his administration, a productive chapter in my life that allowed me to work to make a difference in the lives of our people.”

“I am likewise blessed to be allowed to continue to serve our kababayan as the Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission.

Maraming salamat po, Mr. President,” he stressed.

“As I transition to my new role at the helm of one of the country’s three independent constitutional commissions, I pledge to work with my fellow commissioners, colleagues, and employees in the CSC in order for it to faithfully fulfill its mandate as the central human resource agency of the Government that will develop and adopt measures “to promote morale, efficiency, integrity, responsiveness, progressiveness, and courtesy in the civil service,” the new CSC chief said.

Sports BusinessMirror

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

TIGER WOODS’S LEGACY EMBEDDED IN HISTORY

TIGER WOODS becomes emotional during his enshrinement into the World Golf Hall of Fame. AP

F2 volleybelles kick off PVL bid vs Army gals

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OWERHOUSE F2 Logistics gears up for its much-awaited Premier Volleyball League (PVL) debut against Army while Chery Tiggo kicks off its titleretention drive against Cignal HD in a pair of explosive matches marking the start of the pro league’s Open Conference on Monday at the Paco Arena Events and Sports Center in Manila.

F2 Logistics is bringing its champion squad that ruled the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Champions League via sweep late last year with Majoy Baron, Kianna Dy and Aby Maraño raring to lead the Cargo Movers to a big start against the veteran-laden Black Mamba Army Lady Troopers bannered by Jovelyn Gonzaga, Honey Rose Tubino and Jem Gutierrez.

The game is set at 3 p.m.

Chery Tiggo will also be coming into its 6 p.m. clash with Cignal brimming with confidence despite the absence of Jaja Santiago—who is still playing in Japan—with a solid roster led by Dindin Santiago and Mylene Paat and beefed up by former University of Santo Tomas top hitter EJ Laure and role players May Luna, Necelle Gual and Julia Angeles.

Cignal, meanwhile, shored up its lineup with five new recruits, including Ces Molina, Jerrili Malabanan and Ria Meneses.

The Pro Crossovers stunned the fancied Creamline Cool Smashers to win the inaugural pro staging of the league under bubble setup in Ilocos Norte last year but failed to complete their breakthrough season with a loss to the Cargo Movers in the PNVF finals.

But what makes the second serving of the Open Conference, which drew nine teams, doubly interesting is that it will be held under a compact schedule with the champion to emerge just after four weeks, rendering all matches important and crucial.

Originally set over three months, the shortened calendar is to make way for the training of the national team building up for the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi in May. Completing the cast are Creamline, Choco Mucho, BaliPure, Petro Gazz and PLDT. For the first time in the league’s storied staging, which dates back to 2004, a pool play setup will be employed with Chery Tiggo, F2 Logistics, Choco Mucho, Cignal and Army making up Group A and Group B made up of Creamline, Petro Gazz, PLDT and BaliPure.

League and organizing Sports Vision president Ricky Palou said the upcoming tournament will still be held in a semi-bubble system with no spectators allowed in line with the government’s health and safety measures. Besides, the Paco Arena could only accommodate around 300 fans.

Friday, March 11, 2022 B7

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ONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida—The greatest of his generation, Tiger Woods took his place among the best of all time Wednesday night when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and shared a life story of a passion to play and a work ethic that made him feel like he earned it.

Woods didn’t touch on any of his 82 victories on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour or his 15 majors, or the eight surgeries he endured along the way.

He spoke of his parents taking out a second mortgage that allowed him to play the junior circuit in California, choking up when he mentioned his late father who told him he would have to earn everything he wanted.

“If you don’t go out there and put in the work, you don’t go out and put in the effort, one, you’re not going to get

the results,” Woods said. “But two, and more importantly, you don’t deserve it.

You need to earn it. So that defined my upbringing. That defined my career.”

He was introduced by Sam, his 14-year-old daughter who said her father preaches to her and 13-yearold brother Charlie the same message he learned from his late father.

“Train hard, fight easy.”

Woods was the headliner in an induction class that included retired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, three-time US Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning and the late Marion Hollins, a visionary who became the first woman to develop prominent golf courses.

The show was so geared around Woods that it featured three short video presentations that were titled “GOAT,” the popular acronym for “greatest of all time.”

There was little doubt Woods

belonged in the Hall of Fame.

He was on a slate of candidates two years ago, all of them introduced one at a time with a list of their accomplishment—except for Woods.

There was no need to bring up what he achieved, who he influenced and the enormous impact he had on his sport in attracting new fans, spiking television ratings and increasing prize money.

The Players Championship prize fund this week is $20 million, and that’s not lost on the players in the field. The entire purse was $3.5 million in 1997 when Woods made his debut. The winner this week gets $3.6 million.

“I think every pro out here owes a debt of gratitude to Tiger because this sport wouldn’t be where it is today without his impact,” Patrick Cantlay, who won the $15 million prize last year as FedEx Cup champion, said earlier this week.

Woods, the first player of Black and Asian heritage to win a major at the 1997 Masters when he was 21, also spoke of the discrimination he felt as a youth. He told one story about going to a country club to play a tournament, and he wasn’t allowed in the clubhouse like the other juniors because of the color of his skin.

“So I was denied access into the clubhouses. That’s fine. Put my shoes on here in the parking lot,” he said. “I asked two questions only, that was it.

Where was the first tee, and what was the course record? Not complicated.”

The room at PGA Tour headquarters, which only held about 500 people, burst into applause.

The ceremony was moved from the World Golf Village, which held

previous ceremonies in Florida, to the new PGA Tour headquarters located about a mile away from where Woods first rose to fame.

Sure, there was the appearance on the Mike Douglas Show when he was a two-year-old prodigy, and the three straight US Junior Amateur titles. It was on the island green on the parthree 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass in the 1994 US Amateur when Woods first delivered the uppercut that would define his celebration.

That was the first of an unprecedented three straight US Amateur titles, and it only got better.

Much better.

His record is so strong that Woods had three Hall of Fame careers in one. After four full years as a pro, he already had the career Grand Slam and 24 victories on the PGA Tour.

The first major was the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12, one of 20 records.

When he was 30, he already had 46 wins on tour and 10 majors, including a sweep of the majors, a feat no one had ever accomplished.

Woods now has a record-tying 82 wins on the PGA Tour, along with 15 majors, three behind the gold standard set by Jack Nicklaus.

More than his wins was his influence.

Woods never wanted to be looked upon as a golfer but rather an athlete.

He wasn’t the first to find the gym, but his devotion to strength and fitness created a template for others to follow.

“Tiger changed people’s perception of golf from a game to a sport,” Padraig Harrington said.

Woods’s popularity, his showmanship, was so great that Finchem was able to turn that into television contracts that sent purses soaring.

Finchem also created the World Golf Championships events, and a Presidents Cup to give the burgeoning group of international players from outside Europe a chance to compete in team matches. And he kept the PGA Tour strong with sponsors during the recession of 2008.

Maxwell Berning won only 11 times on the Ladies PGA Tour, but she played in an era when juggling family and golf led to short careers.

She won the US Women’s Open three times—only five others have won at least three—in a six-year span. She also won the Women’s Western Open, a major in her era. She noted she earned a total of $16,000 from her three Women’s Open titles.

“I was wondering if you’d like to swap checks,” Berning said to Woods.

Hollins financed and developed a golf course for women in New York and was the brains behind two fabled golf courses in California—Cypress Point and Pasatiempo. Hollins, who died in 1944 at age 51, was a visionary in golf course architecture, a confidante of Alister Mackenzie and a US Women’s Amateur champion.

Renee Powell was honored with the inaugural Charlie Sifford Award for her spirit in advancing diversity in golf, while the Lifetime Achievement recognition went to Peter Ueberroth and the late Richard Ferris, both part of the ownership group at Pebble Beach.

The induction brought the Hall of Fame to 164 members. AP

Ronda flags off with grueling time trial stages in Day One

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By Josef Ramos

ORSOGON City—Two raceagainst-the-clock stages will kick off the 11th Ronda Pilipinas which marks the return of local multi-stage road cycling competitions that were shuttered for two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A short 12.30-kilometer individual time trial (ITT) Stage 1 will usher in the 10-stage, 10-day (one rest day) race starting at 8 a.m. from the diversion road fronting the Sorsogon Provincial Capitol with the finish line set at Rompeolas Boulevard in downtown Sorsogon.

The 104 cyclists representing 13 teams led by reigning general and team classification champion Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance (PNSI)

then return to the start gantry for the 58.50-km team time trial that will also have the same finish as the ITT. It’s a unique start—two time trial stages on opening day—for a multistage race with the best ITT rider wearing the red jersey symbolic of the general classification lead in the TTT. The time trial stages serve as a fitting warmup for the riders when they plunge into the point-to-point stages starting with Stage 3’s 163-km ride from here to Legazpi City characterized by a mild climb around Mount Bulusan on Saturday.

But excitement in this edition, according to PNSI coach Reinhard Gorantes, could come in the final three stages that feature blistering climbs over Sierra Madre’s north-

ern tip in Cagayan Valley and the Cordilleras’ bite in Benguet.

“It’s anybody’s race even up until the seventh stage,” Gorantes said. “The field this year looks even because the other teams leveled up by securing passionate sponsors.”

“But the mountains in the last three stages will be the determining factors,” said Gorantes, who will be having his own rivalry on the side with fellow national road team coach Ednalyn Hualda of Go For Gold.

The Ronda winds up with the 174.4-km Baler-Echague Stage Eight and 193.2-km Santiago-Baguio City Stage Nine and the Stage 10 criterium in Baguio City.

Interestingly, defending individual champion George Oconer won’t be flagged off last as road cycling regulations would have specified. Instead, a house rule allowed the teams to pick their best bets in the time trial as the last to leave the start ramp.

Oconer will be flagged off at No. 78 and his teammate and also a former Ronda champion Ronald Oranza will be the last to take off. Go For Gold’s Marc Lago, a SEA Games time trialist, will be second to last.

The Ronda’s 10th edition barely escaped the strict implementation of strict health and safety protocols in March 2020. Except for the National Road Trials in Clark last July, no other PhilCycling races were staged in the country for two years.

NorthPort, Phoenix fight for survival in Govs’ Cup

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F they say a cat has nine lives, the NorthPort Batang Pier want a sixth life of their own on Friday night when they face the TNT Tropang Giga at the close of eliminations of the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“For us, it’s going to be a do-or-die game—our sixth do-or-die—so we will do whatever it takes to win and stay alive,” NorthPort coach Pido Jarencio told BusinessMirror on Thursday.

NorthPort went 0-5 to start the conference and was expected to be one of the first teams to crash out of the playoffs race. But they emphatically won five straight after that and starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, they’re going for their sixth victory The last day of eliminations has both simplicity and complexity depending on the outcome of the games.

New GAB commish

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Phoenix Super LPG, like NorthPort, is fighting to stay alive with its 5-5 card when it battles Meralco, which, like TNT, sports a 6-4 record.

Victories by TNT and Meralco will simplify matters with both teams advancing to the final eight. If both teams lose, complications set in with all four—TNT, Meralco, NorthPort and Phoenix—winding up with 6-5 slates.

If that happens, the quotient will determine who gets the Nos. 6 and 7 spots in the quarterfinals and the other two with inferior numbers disputing the last berth in a playoff.

Magnolia (9-2), NLEX (8-3) and San Miguel Beer (7-4) are safely perched in the quarterfinals with a grip on the twice-to-beat advantage each.

Already out of the running are Rain or Shine (3-8), Terrarfirma (2-9) and Blackwater, which on Wednesday night

RESIDENT Duterte appointed former Lian (Batangas) Vice Mayor Raul Lagrisola as a new commissioner of the Games and Amusements Board (GAB).

Lagrisola replaced former commissioner Mar Masanguid, who resigned October last year to run for a

IN sports, it’s not about winning or losing, it’s how you play the game and how you exert effort to achieve goals as seen in this happy moment among team governor Rene Pardo of Magnolia and team owner Dioceldo Sy of Blackwater and their players Jayvee Casio and Mark Barroca, who were teammates in the original Gilas Pilipinas, on Wednesday night when the Bossing finally ended their losing streak.

finally squeezed out of a 29-game losing streak with a 101-100 victory over Magnolia made possible by Rey Suerte’s block of Jackson Corpuz’s potential game-tying layup at the buzzer.

Before that, JVee Casio fed Barkley

local position in Davao Oriental.

Lagrisola was personally welcomed

by GAB Chairman Baham Mitra, Commissioner Eduard Trinidad and employees at the GAB’s offices in Makati last Wednesday.

He is tasked to handle GAB’s administrative and finance departments.

Eboña with 10.5 seconds left to give Blackwater the lead—and eventually the close win, one they achieved after their 98-88 triumph over NLEX 509 days ago in the Philippine Cup at the Clark bubble in late 2020. Josef Ramos “With the exemplary experience of Commissioner Raul both in his public and private careers, I am sure that he will bring valuable contributions to the agency,” Mitra said.

Mitra added that with most professional sports back in action and fan attendance back to full capacity, they expect more work to do at GAB.

DIAZ

‘GRIT AND GLORY’ AWARD FOR DIAZ

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LYMPIC gold medal winner Hidilyn Diaz will be doubly treated in Monday’s San Miguel Corp.-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Annual Awards Night at the Diamond Hotel.

The 31-year-old history maker from Zamboanga City will be the first-ever recipient of the Milo Champion of Grit and Glory award for winning the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal.

The trophy accompanies the prestigious Athlete of the Year award to be bestowed on the Filipina weightlifter in the two-hour affair presented by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and Cignal TV. “Milo Philippines presents the award to Hidilyn Diaz in recognition of her historic Olympic triumph, borne of her unwavering spirit, dedication, and grit that serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for the nation,” Milo said in a statement elaborating on its choice of Diaz as the deserving recipient of the special award.

As part of the package, Diaz will receive a year’s supply of Milo products.

Milo officials led by Veronica Cruz, Senior Vice President, Business Executive Officer; and Lester Castillo, Assistant Vice President, Head of Sports of Milo Philippine, will award the trophy to Diaz.

Diaz leads the compact list of 38 awardees to be feted by the country’s oldest media organization in the traditional gala night backed by Milo (official chocolate milk), 1Pacman, Philippine Basketball Association, Philippine Racing Commission, Rain or Shine, ICTSI, Chooks To Go, Smart and MVP Sports Foundation.

It’s Diaz’s third Athlete of the Year trophy after 2016 when she clinched silver at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and 2018 when she won gold at the Jakarta Asian Games.

B8 Friday, March 11, 2022

Motoring BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Chasing sunrise with the Ford Territory

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Story & photo by Randy S. Peregrino

T was during the height of the early pandemic lockdowns when the blue oval brand ushered in the all-new Ford Territory.

For that reason, many of us in the motoring media never got the chance to see it in the metal—just as we should. Fast forward to late 2021, when restrictions started easing and at the same time government vaccination program ramped up, Ford Philippines decided it was the right time for us to experience it finally.

However, unlike the usual setup, the hosted drive event was regulated with fewer attendees to ensure adherence to necessary health safety protocols.

The Titanium+ variant sporting a Moonstone Blue shade was assigned to us, which was delivered prior. Finally, seeing the vehicle up close, its seemingly indicative design resemblance to a known English-made crossover was apparent, particularly the rear end. According to Ford, the all-new Territory represents the brand’s known and tested DNA in its design, engineering, and capability to meet the highest global quality standards. The vehicle is also a product of a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Jiangling Motors Corp.

The Territory’s overall contemporary appearance stemmed from its significant influence through its Ford Design Studio in Melbourne, Australia. The Territory boasts an urban-ready design highlighted by standard LED headlamps, daytime running lamps, tail lamps, front and rear fog lamps. More so, it has a rear spoiler, roof rails, front/rear bottom metal garnishes, and twin polished faux exhaust tips. Exclusive to the Titanium+ variant is the the18-inch alloy wheels, front grille’s gloss black with chrome inserts.

Meanwhile, the interior offers a premium and refined element with seats wrapped in perforated leather material, integrated with cooling/ heating functions. We like the layout, particularly the higher center console with clustered control buttons. Then there is Smart Keyless Entry with Push Button Start, tilt and telescopic steering wheel-embedded controls, seven cup and bottle holders, rear air-con vents, USB ports, plus a 12-volt power outlet, to name a few. However, the main highlights inside are the 10-inch fully-digital display instrument cluster with three themes (Normal, Sport, and Fashion), and the standard 10-inch touchscreen infotainment with an adjustable quad view, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto functions.

Aside from wireless charging, even the ambient lighting has seven color options to complement every mood.

The breathtaking view of sunrise compliments the Ford Territory

The convoy making it just in time for sunrise.

Ford Philippines

Uphill drive

Another exciting change was the objective to reach the destination at first light. Our staging point was in Thunderbird Resort Rizal in Binangonan, where the entire group converged the previous day. Two hours before sunrise, the convoy flagged off, and the destination was Viewscape Nature’s Park in Tanay. En route to our destination, the convoy had to navigate the winding uphill stretch of Marilaque highway.

One of the Territory’s strong points is its 1.5-liter EcoBoost engine generating 141 hp and 225 N-m of maximum torque mated to a CVT transmission with Sport mode. Since driving uphill with curves is all about torque and sporting a turbocharged

The entire media group at the camp site.

Ford Philippines

engine is an advantage. True enough, as soon as the ascents surfaced, all we had to do was step on it while the potent motor did its job. While the CVT demonstrated seamless cogs, the manual mode was a plus. We got to play around gears to remain within the optimum rpm range, and the torque delivery was unrelenting.

The sweet spot is anywhere above the low-end range. On every turn, the manual mode became a plus whenever there was a need to do engine braking. Nevertheless, what surprised us was the vehicle’s ability to handle constant and tight curves.

For a compact SUV with a higher center of gravity, the Territory engaged like a nimble car. As for

the steering, the responsiveness made every turn easier and calculated. Overall, the entire drive became relatively relaxed and manageable, not to mention the conducive cabin layout with a comfy driving position.

We finally reached our destination just in time for the first light.

Considering how long it has been since we had driven like these, the breathtaking scenery of the sunrise was more than a reward for getting up early and driving through the dark, ascending, and winding highway.

There, we settled in the campsite set up by Ford. It was hours before noontime by the time we left, and the empty highways we navigated earlier became crowded with slower cars. It was when the Territory’s 1.5-loter EcoBoost engine retook control. The torque registration was consistent on manual mode

and surpassed slow cars like a walk in the park. The downhill drive also necessitated more engine braking making the manual mode a plus. We cannot get enough with the vehicle’s impressive handling and control on turns. Just like that, we made it back to the resort.

The Territory Titanium+ we tested comes with the Ford Co-Pilot360 driver-assist tech. It includes Active Park Assist with parallel-parking, perpendicular parking (segmentfirst), 360 Degree Around View Monitor, Adaptive Cruise Control with Forward Collision Warning, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Information System, and Lane Departure Warning. As for advanced safety features, both variants have Electronic Stability Control, and even Tire Pressure Monitoring System (with individual

Toyota Japan hit by cyber attack

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OYOTA Motor in Tokyo indicated last week it will halt operations of all its plants in Japan due to a recent cyber attack to one of its major suppliers, Nikkei has reported.

“The decision to suspend 28 lines at 14 plants came after the supplier was hit by the attack, bringing a parts supply management system to a halt,” said Nikkei.

The shutdown of all domestic plants will affect around 10,000 vehicles, or about 5 percent of Toyota’s monthly output in Japan.

But Toyota operations in the Philippines will remain unaffected. In fact, Toyota Motor Philippines launched this week the AllNew Avanza in a move designed to ramp up the MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) segment further.

Atsuhiro Okamoto welcomed Toyota’s friends from the media and other allies in a warm luncheon-reception at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Monday at the BGC in Taguig.

Here’s his speech:

Here’s Nikkei’s report:

“I am very, very happy to see you here with us once again! It’s been a while since I’ve all seen you face-to-face, and seeing you today is truly an exciting event. And to our online attendees, while we are still at a limited capacity today, we are seeing better days ahead, so we look forward to having you here soon!

We are well on our way to going back to the live celebrations that TMP is well known for!

“We promised that 2022 is going to be an exciting year for the industry and Toyota. We are just in our third month of the year, and here we are again with another exciting addition to our vehicle lineup!

“Toyota subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor will also halt some operations at plants in Japan on Tuesday (March 1).

“A big Toyota supplier, Kojima Industries, which manufactures plastic parts, appears to have been hit by the cyber attack.

“An official close to Kojima Industries told Nikkei: ‘It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyber attack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota's production system as soon as possible.’"

No one is safe anymore against cyber evils?

“Hello, media friends!”

tire pressure display), among others.

8,000 ways to celebrate

Meanwhile, just 15 months since its launch, the Ford Territory recently achieved its 8,000th sales milestone in the Philippines last November. It only proves its continued popularity among Filipino SUV buyers.

“From the 5,000th customer milestone last July to achieving the 8,000th customer milestone shortly after, this is truly an outstanding feat and would not be possible without the immense support from our customers, dealers, partners, and employees,” said Michael Breen, managing director, Ford Philippines. “The Territory has become a familiar sight on Philippine roads, and we are very excited to see more Filipino customers enjoy driving a smart, safe, stylish, and feature-packed SUV.”

“The Philippines loves commercial vehicles, maybe because of its image of toughness to withstand any kind of road and usage. Through the years, Multi-PurposeVehicles or MPVs have served as a practical choice for the day-to-day needs of Filipino families.

“And we at TMP love giving our customers choices! That is why, we are reintroducing our reliable, tried-and-tested Avanza model in the compact MPV segment. With our new global architecture, I am sure the full model change of this well-loved family car will bring more happiness to all.

“Today, we are proud to officially launch the practical and versatile compact MPV Avanza for your next roadtrip with your friends or family, or as the cool kids would say, FAM. Join us in welcoming the new and improved ride that is a definite fit for the FAM, the All-New Avanza!

“With our goal of mobility for all, we make sure that every car we introduce, comes the joys of driving and creating memories with loved ones. And you can definitely expect that in the All-New Avanza.

“From your Toyota FAM, Maraming Salamat Po!” My son’s Avanza still going strong nearly 10 years after he bought it.

PEE STOP

With gasoline prices crazily rising almost weekly, better start planning your trips seriously. Why not do a minimum of three destinations in one trip? Like, going to the grocery, bank and laundry in succession?

That way, you save on gas.