BusinessMirror May 03, 2022

Poland-based firm looks beyond 2023 ‘Close borders,ICTSI cut Omicron exposure risk’

By Mike Policarpio| Envoys&Expats Editor

By Cai U. Ordinario with their loved ones, while for-

which, she said, the economy can no regions longer afford. usually want to relax in tropical “It is better that we do protective minal (BCT), which is operated by the Philippines’s LOSING the country’sContainer borders Terminal countries like theInc. Philippines. This preventive measures than get exInternational Services is one ofare thesparing most immediate year’s influx of OFWs is expected to posed again. We have a lot to lose,” (ICTSI), no effort in keeping its concession of action the of governOplas said. “We should do it now so tocourses serve this port city Poland. be heavier since many of them were ment must takeistothe prevent the lat-of BCT’s unable to comefor home that we can open just before ChristAt stake continuation concession an-for the holidays est Covid-19 variant, from December mas. If it gets contained, we can open other 30 years, Omicron, as two other entitiesinhave served 2020. tenders reaching Philippine shores, accord“My recommendation is to protect it again.” to take its place. The one currently in effect is set to exing topire local economists. the borders.

Do not allow people with Ateneo Center for Economic Reby May 31, 2023.

T he new var iant is a threat, a history of travel to countries with search and Development (ACERD) “Our situation here is a little bit tricky right now, e s p e because c i a l l y wwe it haret he hol id[toward] ay s positive toconenter,” Oplas said.

Associate Director Ser Percival heading the end cases of our coming up andadmitted more foreigners “We should beOfficer more restrictive. [We K. Peña-Reyes said closing the cession,” BCT Chief Commercial beingMichał a llowed to travel tointerview the have be] more protective in terms country’s borders would be effecKużajczyk in an withtoselect Filipino Philippines, De recently.

La Sa lle Univerof our measures.” tive but should still adhere to the journalists “There are two firms also applysit y economist ia Ella Oplas Oplasare saidactually that while this will be standards set by the World Health ing for the Mar tenders apart from us—they told BusinessMirror. a setback to some industries, this Organization (WHO). our competitors...Both are well-established here [in The holidays usually bring in is a fair measure considering that What is needed, Peña-Reyes told Poland],” he added.

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) this could help prevent placing the this newspaper, is for travel restricCHIEF Commercial Officer Michał Kużajczyk and CEO Wojciech Szymulewicz See “Poland-based,” A2 who are eager to spend Christmas country in another strict lockdown, tions to be put in place swiftly and

G C world FEaturEs »a9

MusliMs Mark Eid al-Fitr holiday with joy, worry

w w

@caiordinario officials of the eigners living in Tertemperate DYNIA—Top Baltic Container

n Tuesday, May 3,29,2022 17 17 No.No.52 205 Monday, November 2021Vol.Vol.

for government to be proactive in imposing them.

Previous instances when the country had the opportunity to impose travel restrictions did not prevent the spread of Covid-19. That was mainly because the decision was not made immediately, he said.

“Kung papatay patay [If we’re slow] and we get caught flat-footed, [that’s risky] We were too reactive instead of proactive before.

We should learn from that,” PeñaReyes said. “It’s a delicate balancing act. push testing and BCT isWe theneed largest to Filipino investment tracing properly in Poland,to withbe a current annualinformed cargoofhandling our decisions. capacity of 1Blanket/shotgun million 20-foot approaches could have equivalent units, or TEUs. It is dire one ofconsethe quences on the economy.” major terminals in the Baltic Region.

See “Omicron,” A2

NATL GOVT BORROWINGS DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS FOR MOS DIP TO P2.75T TAX 10 BILL SPLITS BSP, DOF n

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

T

P25.00 P25.00 nationwide nationwide || 22 sections sections 20 20 pages pages ||

risk ‘Lifting surfaceOmicron mining ban spurs revival could help PHLofovercome quarantine metals crunch rules challenge’ in PHL

@BNicolasBM

HE national government’s gross borrowings as of end-October shrank by almost 6 percent year-on-year to P2.75 trillion.

By Cai U. Ordinario

By Samuel P. Medenilla

IFTING the ban on surface mining in South Cotabato could create new economic opportunities for the Philippines amid the metals crunch, according to an economist.

The country is a major supplier of copper and nickel, and this would place it at an advantage compared to other countries, former University of the Philippines School of Economics Dean Ramon L. Clarete told BusinessMirror.

“On the positive side, it’s an opportunity for the Philippines because it is one of the world’s major suppliers of copper and nickel. This is now time for the ban on surface mining in South Cotabato to be lifted,” Clarete told this newspaper.

The war in Eastern Europe is affecting the production not only of food and fuel but also construction materials. This poses a threat to the country’s ability to undertake key programs as President infrastructure projects. Duterte is expected to sign the industryreOn Monday, BusinessMirror development plan in early 2022. ported that infrastructure projects Rosales said the PCA will not stop updating its list of coconut farmers and enjoined them to register in order to reap the benefits of the decades-long idled coconut levy fund. “We will not stop at 3.1 million. We hope that more individuals will register in our coconut farmers registry,” he said.

The updating of the coconut farmers registry is mandated by Republic Act (RA) 11524 or the Coconut Industry Trust Fund Act.

NTER NATIONA L concerns over the possible spread of the more infectious Omicron Covid-19 variant prompted the government to reimpose mandatory facility-based quarantine for all arriving passengers in the country.

Acting Presidential spokespersonanKarlo B. Nograles announced “It’s opportunity for the Philippines on Sunday Inter-Agency because it is onethat of thethe world’s major Task Force forandthe Management suppliers of copper nickel.

This is now of Emerging time for the ban onInfectious surface miningDiseases in South (IATF) suspended the implemenCotabato to be lifted.”—Former UP School tation of its No. 150of Economics DeanResolution Ramon L. Clarete A (s.2021), effectively imposing stricter protocols for alland inbound are facing cost increases delays travelers. due to the impending shortage of To note, IATF Resolution 150construction materials brought by A had allowed fully vaccinated the war in Eastern Europe, accordnon-visa travelers from Green List ing to local economists.

(Story areas to enter the country withhere: https://businessmirror. out the need for facility-based com.ph/2022/05/02/infra-facquarantine as long as they secure es-cost-hikes-delays-on-metalsnegative Reverse Transcriptioncrunch/) Polymerase Chain (RTFor mer Tar if f Reaction Commission PCR) test within 72 hours prior Chair person George Manzano to their out departure. pointed that Russia is the sec“Except countries classified ond biggestfor import source of the as ‘Red,’ the testing and quarantine Philippines for iron and steel. protocolsContinued for all inbound on A5 international travelers in all ports of entry shall comply with the testing and quarantine protocols for ‘Yellow’ list countries,” Nograles said, citing the provision of IATF Resolution No. 151-A. He noted Hong Kong, which has confirmed a case of the Omicron variant, will also fall under the Yellow list countries.

The suspension of the rules for “Green List” countries will be in effect from November 28, 2021 to December 15, 2021.

@sam_medenilla

@caiordinario

L

I

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the government’s gross borrowings during the 10-month period fell by 5.99 percent from P2.92 trillion a year ago.

With only two months left for this year, the latest figure is already equivalent to 89.6 percent of its P3.07-trillion borrowing program.

Broken down, gross domestic borrowings from January to October settled at P2.23 trillion, down by 5.08 percent from P2.35 trillion in 2020.

The bulk of the amount was PEOPLE walk past the mural of Gat Andres Bonifacio at Manila City Hall Underpass. sourced from Fixed Rate gathers Treasury THE Filipino Muslim community outside the Masjid AlThe country will celebrate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino revolutionary Bonds (P1.19 trillion), Dahab (or the Manila Golden followed Mosque andby Cultural Center) on hero Gat Andres Bonifacio on Tuesday, November 30. ROY DOMINGO short-term borrowings BangGlobo de Oro Street in Quiapo,from Manila, on Monday to celebrate ko Pilipinas orthat BSPmarks (P540 EidSentral al-Fitr, a ng religious holiday the end of the monthbillion), Retail Treasury Bonds/Prelong dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. NONIE REYES myo Bonds (P463.3 billion), Retail Onshore Dollar Bonds (P80.84 bilBy Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM lion). In the same period, there was

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas dating its registry following the them. This allows everyone to see also a net redemption of Treasury @jearcalas enactment of the Coconut Farmwho are listed in the registry and if Bills amounting to P43.94 billion. ers and Industry Trust Fund law. farmer doesn’t see his name then he Net debt redemption means ORE than 3 million Rosales explained that about shall coordinate with the PCA imthere were more debts repaid comcoconut farmers and 500,000 coconut farmers and mediately,” he explained at a recent pared to the amount borrowed durworkers are now regisworkers were added to the PCA’s dialogue with coconut farmers. ing the period. tered with the government’s reg2018 list had about million “Onsecond the other hand, if people Meanwhile, gross foreign borBythat Andrea E. San2.5 Juan out the booster inoculaistry, which serves as the basis coconut farmers and farm workers. would see names on the rowings in the same period also tion as the Food and Druglist Ad-and for the number of people to be The PCA’s next step is to conthey think they are not coconut contracted by 9.7 percent to P518.7 RADE Secretary Ramon ministration (FDA) approved covered by the utilization of the duct anLopez exclusion-inclusion profarmers or their details are incorbillion from last year’s P574.4 billion. is urging the Intersuch for the elderly, the immuP75-billion coconut levy fund. cedure Agency by making the updated rect, they can report to the PCA This was raised through global Task Force (IATF) nocompromised, and it frontline Philippine Coconut Authority farmers’ public, providfor immediate he added. bonds (P146.17 billion), program to allowregistry frontline workers in health workers,action,” belonging to (PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel ing everyone the senior opportunity to PCA A1 official notedre-that loans (P139.98 billion), euro-dehealth facilities, citizens A2, The A3, and categories M. Rosales said about 3.11 million check the veracity of the list, Rothe completion of the initial list nominated bonds (P121.97 billion), and those with comorbidities to spectively. coconut farmers and farm worksales added. ofThe coconut farmers would a project loan (P86.41 billion), and get their second booster shot to trade chief registry has always ers have been registered with the “The list will be posted in public be just in time for the expected yen-denominated samurai bonds sustain recovery. emphasized striking the balgovernment since it started upspaces where easily see rollout of coconut See “3-M farmers,” A2 (P24.19 billion).

“We arepeople also can pushing in ance between saving levy-funded lives and See “Borrowings,” A2 Continued on A2 the IATF that the 2nd booster livelihoods, especially amid the shot be allowed not just for pandemic, when people particimmunocompromised, those belonging to lower n US 50.4600 n JAPAN 0.4374 n UK 67.2329the n HK 6.4722 n CHINA 7.9013 n ularly SINGAPORE 36.8968 n AUSTRALIA 36.2807 n EU 56.5758 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4531 Source: BSP (November 26, 2021) but for all, or at least allow it socioeconomic status, had to In this, the BSP drew support ate Committee on Ways and Means, for those in A1, A2,A3 categorely on the government’s social from an alliance of financial techAtty. Bridget Rose Messina-Romero, ries so we can sustain recovamelioration program. nology firms, but the Department deputy director at the BSP’s Payment ery,” Lopez said at the grand In Aug ust 2021, L opez of Finance said such a scheme exSystem Oversight Department, exlaunch of Go Lokal! Inline said: “It is really a balancing empting VAT based on transaction pressed concern that the proposed store in Ayala Malls Manila act, if we keep that mindset, value would make it hard to impleimposition of VAT on digital transBay on Monday. we will be able to save also ment both for the public and the actions may reduce the income of Last April 13, the Departthe livelihood.” government. smaller businesses. ment of Health (DOH) carried Continued on A5 At Monday’s hearing of the SenSee “Digital transaction,” A2

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OVER 3-M FARMERS LISTED FOR P75-B COCO LEVY FUND

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) pushed to exempt small-value digital transactions pegged at around P500 from the imposition of value-added taxes (VAT) in a bid to shield smaller businesses and minimum wage earners from “additional tax burden” and to help hasten the public’s shift to digital payments.

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‘2ND BOOSTERS FOR FRONTLINE WORKERS VITAL TO RECOVERY’

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PESO EXCHANGE RATES

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.3350

n JAPAN 0.4029 n UK 65.8584 n HK 6.6698 n CHINA 7.8990 n SINGAPORE 37.8471 n AUSTRALIA 36.9851 n EU 55.2082 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9534

Source: BSP (May 2, 2022)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, May 3, 2022

DOH closely tracking 5 NCR areas with rising Covid cases

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By Claudeth S. Mocon-Ciriaco

@claudethmc3

HE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said they are closely monitoring five areas in the National Capital Region (NCR) with an increase in their oneweek and two-week growth rate.

In an online media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, brushed aside worries by saying that the noted increase is still not “significant” to cause alarm.

“We have five areas that from minimal risk classification, they are now considered as low-risk

classification [for Covid-19]....

Let me just contextualize...just what Dr. Edsel [Salvana] has mentioned, we need to see the baseline number of these areas. For example there was only one case last week then it increased to one more case—that’s 100-percent increase,” Vergeire said.

These areas are Las Piñas, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Muntinlupa, and Makati.

Vergeire also said that even if there are spikes in cases in these areas, “It doesn’t translate to increasing admission in hospitals.”

She likewise noted that the average daily reported cases have decreased to 196 from April 26 to May. This is 9 percent lower compared to the 215 cases last week.

She noted that prior to those cases recorded during the Omicron wave, the number of cases is much lower now.

Overall, the national positivity rate is still at a slow decline at 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent from last week, Vergeire said.

“This is also the lowest we have recorded within a week starting in

Digital transaction...

Continued from A1

“The additional tax burden at this time may pose some challenges and barriers to the swift recovery of these smaller enterprises and including also the gig workers who may rely on these digital channels in order to continue their means of livelihood so because we know that the additional tax burden may result in a lower income for them,” Messina-Romero told senators tackling

a measure seeking to impose VAT on digital transactions.

She pointed out that exempting small-value transactions from VAT will also work as an incentive for people to buy online since it would be cheaper compared to purchasing it from brick-and-mortar businesses.

“So by accepting small digital transactions from VAT, the minimum wage income earners shall

not bear the burden of the new tax measure. It should instead reduce the potential adverse impact of this new tax on the poor and marginalized sectors that shift to digital services during this transformation of the Philippine economy,” she explained.

Apart from this, the BSP also proposed exempting from VAT the service fees charged by payment service providers for the use

2021, lower by 23 percent compared to before we had an Omicron situation,” Vergeire said.

Minimal risk

DESPITE the slight increase in some regions, the Health official said, the country is still at minimal risk classification for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, she said that Region 4B, Region 5 and Region 8 had a positive growth rate in the recent two weeks while a one-week positive growth rate was seen in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Region 2 and Region 7.

The DOH logged 1,399 cases from April 25 to May 1,2022, an average of 200 cases per day.

This is much lower by 5 percent compared to the cases from April 18 to April 24. of digital payments so as not to hamper its adoption by individuals, businesses, and even government institutions.

On top of sustaining economic activities and citizens’ livelihood, digital payments are also used by the government to disburse social aid and other financial assistance, Messina-Romero said.

“We particularly recommend this because we have noted that the fees associated with the use of digital payments have been a concern among citizens and merchants in adopting digital payments,” she said.

FinTech agrees, DOF balks

FINTECH Alliance, a trade organization across financial technology digital players operating in the country, backed BSP’s recommendations on the VAT exemption on small value transactions and on service fees charged by digital service providers.

FinTech Alliance Chairman Angelito Villanueva said these proposals will encourage more Filipinos to pay through digital channels and help the government agencies, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, in disbursing social aid to marginalized individuals.

However, BSP’s proposal to set a VAT exemption threshold based on the value of the transactions did not sit well with the Department of Finance, saying this may be difficult to implement.

Finance Assistant Secretary Dakila Elteen M. Napao of the department’s Revenue Operations Group said it would be better to stick to the original proposal to exempt from VAT those digital service providers with less than P3 million in annual gross sales and receipts.

“I think it will create problems to monitor the P500 threshold.

Rather we are sticking to the proposed threshold of P3 million on an annual basis for the suppliers of digital services to be exempted from the VAT,” he said.

Napao explained that basing the VAT exemption on the value of transactions at around P500 may “erode the payments of right VAT on digital transactions” because there are services that are being offered by digital service providers that are within that threshold.

For its part, streaming platform Netflix Asia-Pacific Indirect Tax Manager Davy Chen supported DOF’s view that the proposed VAT exemption on a transaction value basis will make it hard for the government to administer and for the taxpayers to apply.

“I would support DOF’s view to introduce a registration threshold as it is under the legislation rather than a per transaction value,” Chen said. “In case, say, for Netflix, we have both transactions that are above and below.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Poland-based...

Continued from A1

“One of them is China’s Hutchison,” Kużajczyk shared. “But they’ve got a small business here; so, it’s not like something that they [consider as a major undertaking for them]. Maybe, there are some other strategic reasons that they want to take over the port. But we will not speculate on that.”

The BCT executive said that regulators have yet to make a decision on their situation. He surmised it will be announced in the next two to three months, “but we are fighting strong.”

He continued: “We don’t want to be removed from here, because we have been serving this area for more than 20 years already. The business was very fruitful, but through those two decades, we had more competitors around,” he explained. “Business conditions have dramatically changed. Still, we are the largest container terminal here in Gdynia.

And BCT has attracted major global shipping lines, such as the Mediterranean Shipping Comp.”

Requirements, regulations

CURRENTLY, the only explanation being offered on the process of submitting tenders is its being a requirement from the European Union, as there are investments by the bloc in some ports and container terminals.

CEO Wojciech Szymulewicz described the contract with the port as “closed, but with a clause on extension.” “According to the Polish government, a new public tender is a way to select a new operator through a public, transparent process. This, they say, is in line with the regulation, because there is an act which regulates these kinds of matters.”

The BCT plans to raise this issue, as it believes the extension of the port’s lease in its favor is legal and transparent, which will ultimately benefit “all parties, particularly our customers.”

He noted that European law allows for such an extension, which was seen previously in other ports.

“There exists a standard practice. If this is beneficial, there is a path of extension according to the regular circulation. This is not like it’s a regulated part, because it has to be very transparent; it has to pass this test of foreign investors,” he pointed out.

Still and all, the CEO sees their chances at higher than “50-50”— and for good reason: “We believe we’ve got some cause for our position, if we are treated as part of the political system, or ‘crossbows…’ whatever you call them. We [might also have] to be ready to use that kind of argument.”

He was referring to the BCT

being used as an “important, strategic” work for the Polish government, for that part of Europe, and performing a function for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

The BCT is the “only Polish container-port terminal with a direct contract with the United States Army within Nato,” he pointed out.

“The contract is for moving their equipment, and we have been performing that kind of activity for three years now,” the BCT head revealed.

Belief in POL govt

THE port terminal executive cited huge risks associated with changing an existing operator. “It’s not very easy to remove all container operations within a few months.

It’s almost impossible. It will be very difficult to explain to the customers. They might not even accept this kind of a solution. Obviously, they’re not treated as part of this.”

Should things turn out not as expected, BCT will be left with a huge array of equipment, such as newly purchased cranes that are yet to reach their supposed half-life; along with rail systems, ships, and everything above the surface of the entire area, which will be shipped to other ICTSI-led ports around the world in need of such. These items, Szymulewicz bared, are part of the total ICTSI investment spread for over two decades at $130 million.

He thinks a decision should have been made two or three years ago, as businesses like theirs need to undergo transitions before and after contracts expire.

“The BCT tried to know the decision, whether it’s gonna be for us, or against us. We are keeping our fingers crossed very hard to know the decision as soon as possible, then we could react appropriately. That way, we could prepare ourselves either for maybe another 30 years, or if we have to move somewhere else,” the BCT chief said.

They are in constant dialogue with the government of Poland and the Philippines’s deputation there. From what BCT sees, they are interested in the matter: “We believe in the Polish economy. And as the biggest investment of the Philippines here, we did a pretty good job promoting the country, along with its embassy. It will be a shame to waste all the amount of work put in for the past 20 years.”

From a commercial point of view, the executive maintains that BCT is still the best customer for the port authority, as it spends a huge amount of money monthly as lease of the area: “Nobody is in the position like we are.”

Dynasty rule...

Leni Robredo winning the elections by a hairline at 40.4, percent compared to former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at 39.6 percent. This, despite the huge margins consistently enjoyed by the latter in all major surveys. The latest Pulse Asia results disclosed on Monday had the former senator with a 54-percent voter preference versus Robredo’s 23.

In Virola’s view, “The biggest source of possible bias of the PA [Pulse Asia] survey in favor of Marcos is the underrepresentation of the young voters in the PA sample of respondents. And if this is corrected under certain assumptions, this alone will be sufficient to turn the tables around in favor of Leni [Robredo],” Virola added, “But this of course depends on the validity of the assumptions made.”

Virola added that the lead of Robredo over Marcos Jr. could widen if 60 percent of the vote count for those aged 18 to 41 years old would be in favor of Robredo.

The initial estimate, Virola said, only assumed that 55 percent of the votes among those aged 18 to 41 years old would be counted for

Continued from A12

Robredo.

“In addition to the weighting adjustment made because of the underrepresentation of young respondents in the PA sample, we are able to adjust also for the underrepresentation by educational attainment and by SEC [socioeconomic classification system] as well as adjust for the Don’t Know/Refused votes, without d ouble counting, of course Unfortunately, we cannot do this due to data availability constraints,” Virola explained.

Virola said regardless of who wins in the upcoming elections, it is important that organizations such as Pulse Asia institute reforms in their polling.

These reforms, Virola said, should include survey designs and the “entire business process” of undertaking surveys. These, he said, are important to ensure the integrity of polling in the future.

He also said it is also important for pollsters, media, politicians, and the general public to accept that “election polls had gone wrong, and could go wrong for valid, understandable reasons. And it is about time politicians learned to accept defeat graciously.”

The Nation BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Tuesday, May 3, 2022 A3

DepEd to teachers: Uphold neutrality, no electioneering

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By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

@claudethmc3

HE Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday issued a stern warning to all officials, teachers, and non-teaching personnel “to uphold neutrality” and not to engage in electioneering and conduct partisan political activities in relation to next week’s national and local elections.

“We call on our DepEd officials and personnel to uphold political neutrality in the government service and maintain professionalism in the discharge of their duties. Failure of any DepEd official or personnel to comply with the existing rules and regulations of DepEd, Comelec [Commission on Elections] and CSC [Civil Service Commissions] shall be subjected to the necessar y administrative actions pursuant to DepEd Order 49, Series 2006 [Revised Rules of Procedure of the Department

of Education in Administrative Cases], the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service, and the Omnibus Election Code,” the DepEd warned.

The lists of prohibited acts and excluded activities are emphasized in DepEd Order No. 48, series of 2018 (Prohibition on Electioneering and Partisan Political Activity) and its attached CSC Resolution.

Moreover, the Office of the Undersecretary for Field Operations has issued an office memorandum (OM- OURO -22- 030)

dated March 11, 2022, addressed to all field officials and personnel reiterating existing government and DepEd policies on electioneering and partisan political activities.

T h e E l e c t i o n Ta s k F o r c e (ETF), headed by Undersecretar y A lain Del Pascua, has been visiting regions and divisions across the countr y to conduct br iefings for DepEd teachers and personnel and warn them against electioneering and partisan politics.

T he DepEd ET F O perat ion

a nd Monitor ing Center sha l l be est abl ished at t he Bu lwaga n ng K a r u nu nga n st a r t ing 1 p.m. of May 8 u nt i l 5 p.m. of May 10.

The center will ensure close coordination and consultation between Comelec, DepEd, and its field offices. Legal, technical, and other assistance will be given to teachers on issues, concer ns, and problems that may arise before, during, and after the May 9 polls and coordination with other government agencies.

BBM maintains lead in Pulse Asia survey a week before elections

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

A

WEEK before the May 9 elections, presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has maintained his lead in the 2022 presidential race, according to the latest Pulse Asia Survey.

In a nationwide survey conducted from April 16 to 21, the Pulse Asia said Marcos is still favored by 56 percent of respondents. His rating was unchanged from March survey.

The survey said Marcos was preferred in the National Capital Region with 57 percent, Luzon with 54 percent, Visayas with 47 percent and Mindanao with 67 percent.

Vice President Leni Robredo, meanwhile, remained second with

23 percent, 1 percent lower than her 24 percent’s March rating.

Robredo’s spokesman Atty.

Barry Gutierrez said the latest survey confirms Robredo’s upward “trajectory and momentum.”

“Her numbers remain encouraging, even if the survey does not yet capture the series of massive rallies from mid April onwards, including the recordbreaking 400,000 Pasay rally on April 23,” he said.

“The remaining weeks of the campaign have seen intensified efforts at house-to-house, person-to-person campaigning by thousands of volunteers, which we believe will translate to support on election day,” Gutierrez added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Manny Pacquiao overtook Manila

Mayor Isko Moreno in the third place. Pacquiao placed third with 7 percent.

On the other hand, Moreno recorded a 4 percent score, lower than his 8 percent in March.

According to Pulse Asia, 2,400 respondents were asked: “Kung ang darating na eleksyon sa Mayo 2022 ay gaganapin ngayon, sino po ang inyong iboboto bilang President ng Pilipinas?” The margin of error is at ± 2 percent.

For the vice presidential race, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte maintained her lead with 55 percent, 1 percent lower than her March rating. Duterte continued her lead in all island groups.

Duterte got the highest support of 80 percent in Mindanao.

Following her lead, LakasChristian Muslim Democrats

(CMD) vice presidential candidate Duterte said she will bank on her tibay ng puso to deliver on the needs of Filipinos moving forward should she become victorious on May 9.

“I would not say na I will be the best vice president that our country will ever have, we will let history be the judge of that,” said the presidential daughter.

“I’m not the best, I’m not the brightest, I’m not the most brilliant candidate out there.

Pero kung may ipapagawa ka sa akin I will move mountains para ma-deliver ’yan sa iyo. So ’yan po yung nasa akin and of course nasa ating lahat mga Pilipino,” she added.

In the survey, Duterte was followed by Senate President Tito Sotto with 18 percent, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan with 16 percent and

Dr. Willie Ong with 3 percent.

Top senatorial picks

BROADCASTER Raffy Tulfo and three term senator Loren Legarda, meanwhile, are virtually tied for the top spot in the most recent Pulse Asia Senatorial Preference Survey.

Conducted from April 16 to 21, 2022, the Pulse Asia poll showed Tulfo with a 50.4 percent voter preference, closely followed by Legarda at 49.4 percent. With only a one percent (1 percent) difference, the two candidates are virtually tied at first and second places in the so-called “Magic 12.”

With only a week to go before the May 9 elections, Legarda and Tulfo are consistently ahead in the monthly senatorial survey preferences of different

polling outfits. Legarda had a strong showing in all three surveys conducted by Pulse Asia, OCTA Research and Pulso ng Pilipino.

Akbayan’s choice

AKBAYAN, a national political party comprised of 100,000 democratic socialists, progressives, reform advocates, and sectoral and mass movement leaders, reiterated its full support for the reelection of Sen. Risa Hontiveros.

The party also formally endorsed the senatorial bid of Senator Leila de Lima, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes, former Congressman Teddy Baguilat, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, trade union leader Sonny Matula, and Atty. Alex Lacson.

The Philippines and Revenge Tourism– Are We Ready?

May 4, 2022, Wednesday, 10 am

Bernadette Romulo Puyat, Tourism Secretary

Charles Bautista, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Marketing and Promotions, Tourism Promotions Board

Alex Aquino, Head of Marketing, Swissôtel Clark, Widus Hotel and Casino

Fe Abling-Yu, President, Philippine Tour Operators Association

Sue Geminiano, Marketing Manager, SOGO Hotel

Margarita Fuentes Munsayac, VP for Sales and Marketing, Bluewater Resorts

A4 Tuesday, May 3, 2022 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

DA circular spells out guidelines on cash assistance for farmers

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

F

ILIPINO rice farmers who have not received any financial assistance from the government will be prioritized in the next tranches of the cash aid, the Department of Agriculture (DA) assured on Monday.

The DA issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 30 that outlined the guidelines for the distribution of the rice farmers’ financial assistance (RFFA) for fiscal years 2022 until 2024.

In particular, the MC specified the rules for the prioritization of farmer-beneficiaries for cash assistance under the RFFA in accordance with Republic Act 11598 or the Cash Assistance For Filipino Farmers Act. “The criteria in the prioritization of farmer beneficiaries are presented by tier taking into consideration the following: receipt of cash assistance from DA, registration in RSBSA [Registry System for the Basic Sectors in Agriculture], and rice area cultivated,” the document read.

Rice farmers categorized under Tier 1 or those who have not yet received any cash assistance from the DA’s programs such as the RFFA 2019, Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers 2020 and Rice Competi-

tiveness Enhancement Fund-RFFA shall be prioritized.

This shall be followed by rice farmers under Tier 2 or those who received cash assistance once with rice farmers who have received cash assistance twice already being categorized in Tier 3, according to the document.

Regardless of tier, rice farmerbeneficiaries must be registered in the government’s RSBSA and must be farming rice areas of 2 hectares and below, the DA said.

The government, through the DA, has been providing financial cash assistance to rice farmers using the tariffs in excess of P10 billion collected from rice imports since 2019.

Under Republic Act 11203 or the rice trade liberalization law, rice tariffs collected in excess of P10 billion could be used for financial assistance, among other possible options.

But last year, Duterte signed RA 11598 that mandated that all rice tariffs in excess of P10 billion must be used solely for financial assistance to farmers tilling 2 hectares and below until 2024.

“The government recognizes the urgency to assist the farmers in view of the declining palay prices and the crippling effect of Covid-19 pandemic,” MC 30 read.

“As such, it shall provide monetary assistance to the hardest hit segments of the country’s small farmers in the form of giving cash to farmers,” MC 30 added.

Since the enactment of RA 11203, the government’s rice tariff collections have been steadily increasing.

In 2019, the Bureau of Customs (BOC), has certified an excess rice tariff collection of about P2.135 billion which grew to P5.5 billion in 2020. Last year, the BOC collected a total of P18.9 billion rice tariffs, which meant that P8.9 billion tariff collections would go to the financial assistance program for rice farmers.

The RA 11598 has streamlined the fund transfer of the RFFA as the BOC shall automatically transfer the excess rice tariff collections to the DA, doing away of the usual budgetary procedures such as the legislation of the General Appropriations Act. Earlier this year, the DA vowed to complete the distribution of the 2019-2020 financial assistance program for rice farmers before the end of January.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel V. de Mesa said nearly half of the 1.497 million target rice farmers have already received their P5,000 cash assistance from the RFFA program.

DOLE chief Bello EO brings back NIA under issues holiday pay Agri department’s control rules for Eid’l Fitr

W

ORKERS will enjoy additional pay for being on duty on Tuesday during the commemoration of Eid’l Fitr, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said holiday pay rules will take effect May 3, 2022, which was declared a regular holiday by President Duterte.

He said employees will be entitled to 200 percent of their wage during their first eight hours of work.

They could get another 30 percent of their hourly rate on the said day if they will work overtime during the regular holiday.

And if the holiday coincides with a concerned employee’s rest day, he or she will get 30 percent of their basic wage of 200 percent.

“If the employee did not work, he or she shall be paid 100 percent of his or her wage that day, subject to certain regulations under the implementing rules and regulations of the Labor Code,” Bello said. Samuel P. Medenilla

P

RESIDENT Duterte has issued an executive order returning the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) from the Office of the President to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The Palace released on Monday Executive Order 168 dated April 25, which cited the need to integrate relevant agencies in the agricultural sector in the fulfillment of their complementary governmental mandates.

In 2014, EO 165 was issued transferring the NIA from the DA to OP to enhance and coordinate the efforts of government agencies in the agricultural sector.

“Due to the effects of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, which significantly affected food security in the Philippines, there is a need to optimize the country’s water resources to adapt to these challenges, and pave way for the modernization and industrializa-

tion of the agricultural sector,” the President said in the EO. Republic Act 3601 created the NIA as a corporate body with the purpose of expanding irrigated farmlands to support crop production, increase the productivity of farmers, and ensure a stable supply of farm commodities.

In transferring the NIA, the President cited Section 17, Article VII of the Constitution, which provides that the President shall have control of all executive departments, bureaus and offices.

The President also ordered the Governance Commission for GOCCs (government-owned and -controlled corporations to study the reorganization of the NIA Board of Directors and submit to the Office of the President its recommendation.

He also designated the DA secretary as acting chairman of the NIA Board. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Privacy protection/digital services/press freedom

By Henry J. Schumacher

W

E are living in a “crazy” world. Just look at the three issues I am highlighting today:

Privacy and the CBPR System: The Path Forward

GIVEN the deep interest of the Philippine private sector, specifically the BPO industry, and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) in becoming an active and constructive player in the personal and sensitive data flow across international borders, it was exciting to participate in a multistakeholder workshop on the above subject in the US from 26 to 28 April last week.

We, who are seriously involved and global cooperation in data privacy protection and making full use of the Data Flows Regulation

CBPR System (Cross Border Privacy Rules), watched the proceedings with deep interest. It became obvious that the NPC has to do its homework regarding the APEC CBPR and the possible GLOBAL CBPR and needs to appoint local Accountability Agents (AAs), who—in turn, will have to join the global AA organizations.

in the EU. According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “It gives practical effect to the principle that what is illegal offline, should be illegal online. The greater the size, the greater the responsibilities of online platforms.”

Talk about not mincing words.

Big regulation

ON March 5, 1965, a letter from Paul Sethe read: “Freedom of the press is the freedom of 200 rich people to express their opinions. He who is rich is free.” The publicist, once co-editor of a German leading newspaper, was referring to German newspapers and their owners. Today, 57 years and a few waves of globalization later, one has to apply “free equals rich” to 200 billionaires in the Western world.

Their names are Rupert Murdoch, John Elkann and Bernard Arnault (from the old guard) or Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Tim Cook, Robin Li and Pony Ma (from the new guard).

And since earlier this week also Elon Musk, software genius, who makes headlines with Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, and his new acquisition of Twitter. Freedom of the press in 2022 means being your own spin doctor.

THE EU is sick and tired of the mysteries at the heart of Big Tech platforms. The Verge has a great rundown of a handful of things mandated in the new Digital Services Act: Goodbye targeted advertising based on religion, ethnicity, or gender… and don’t even think about targeting kids.

Say farewell to “dark patterns,” confusing user interfaces (UIs) that subconsciously direct a user toward something they wouldn’t typically click. For example, companies need to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to start one.

Recommender algorithms (News Feed on Facebook, For You on TikTok, Suggested Shows on Netflix) will need to be transparent to users.

And platforms will be required to have a plan in place for dealing with misinformation during a crisis—a late addition inspired by the war in Ukraine.

If companies don’t follow the provisions, they could face fines of up to 6 percent of annual revenue made

Freedom of the Press

I would appreciate your feedback regarding these three above issues that are affecting us as companies and individuals. Please contact me at hjschumacher59@gmail.com

Governor says Palawan ready to receive tourists with health-care system in place

A

MID the continuing threat of the dreaded Covid-19, outgoing Palawan Governor Jose Chaves Alvarez has assured the public that the province has an adequate health-care system in place both for local residents and tourists.

A known tourism destination in Luzon, Palawan is eyeing the influx of more tourists as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases revealed plans to put more areas in the country under a more relaxed community restriction.

Alvarez, chairman of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), a unit under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is serving his third and final term as governor. He is now gunning for a seat as a member of the House of Representatives representing the Second District of Palawan.

Alvarez has caused the construction of a total of 16 hospitals, not only

for Palaweños, but to make tourists feel safe and comfortable, and confident during their stay in the island paradise.

The hospitals include the Quezon Medicare Hospital in Quezon town, the Araceli-Dumaran District Hospital, Cuyo District Hospital, New Northern Palawan Provincial Hospital (NPPH) in Taytay and the Balabac District Hospital. In southern Palawan, the hospitals are the Aborlan Medicare Hospital, Narra Municipal Hospital, Dr. Jose Rizal District Hospital, Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital (SPPH) in Brooke’s Point, Bataraza District Hospital, Quezon Medicare Hospital, Sofronio Española District Hospital, and Balabac District Hospital.

The Northern hospitals include the Roxas Medicare Hospital, Coron District Hospital, San Vicente District Hospital,ElNidoCommunityHospital, Northern Palawan District Hospital in Taytay, Araceli-Dumaran District Hospital, and Cuyo District Hospital.

To make up for the lack of doctors in the province, the provincial government sponsored scholarships for its citizens’ medical education.

Every year the program produces 10 doctors. Each scholar who passed the licensure examination for physicians has to render services equivalent to the number of years the provincial government paid for their medical schooling.

The new doctor-scholars, meanwhile, are paid competitive salaries.

Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Maria Francia Laxamana, cited Palawan as a model for health-care response.

“We do not just see the beautiful ecology and environment of the province, but also Palawan’s fast improvements in its economy, health, education, its wonderful transformation in terms of human resource management, particularly its new doctors and health-care providers,” she said. Jonathan L. Mayuga

Coron, Palawan ARBOs receive modern farm machinery from DAR

T

HE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has recently distributed various farm ma-

chinery to three agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) in Coron, Palawan to modernize agriculture and increase productivity in the area.

“These farm machinery would make farming easier and faster for the farmer-members of the ARBOs. It will also greatly improve their

yield and increase their income,” DAR Secretary Bernie F. Cruz said in a news statement.

The three ARBOs from Palawan are the Calamian Farmers Agriculture Cooperative, Paceco Agrarian Reform Cooperative, and Parmelee Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative.

DAR Mimaropa Regional Director Atty. Marvin V. Bernal said the farm machinery worth P750,000.00

include 2 units of hand tractors with trailers, water pump unit, and a unit single pass rice mill.

“One of the major reasons for bringing about the farm machinery is to empower the ARBs and to bring about a classified sustainable farming system, thus, an assurance of improved living conditions for them,” Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Conrado S. Guevarra, for his part, said.

Parmelee Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative Chairman Jessamine May Catiil expressed his gratitude to the DAR for providing the single-pass rice mill to the cooperative.

“We are so grateful for the single pass rice mill. As beneficiaries, we will do our part to boost farm production and income not just for our members but for our community, as well,” Catiil said. Jonathan L. Mayuga

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PNP chief defends policemen in Abra checkpoint incident

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

N

ATIONAL Police chief General Dionardo Carlos has defended the policemen charged with murder by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), saying their official acts were in performance of their election duties mandated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Carlos said during a news briefing on Monday that the checkpoint put up by policemen in the town of Pilar in Abra was legitimate, and that the shootout was allegedly prompted by the disregard of security personnel of the town’s vice mayor.

The NBI earlier recommended the filing of murder charges against several policemen from Abra and from the Cordillera Administrative Region led by regional director Brig.

Gen. Ronald Lee after NBI claimed that there was no checkpoint in place during the time of the incident.

A former Marine personnel serving as one of the 12 bodyguards of Pilar Vice Mayor Jaja Josefina Disono died after he and his colleagues aboard a vehicle sped through a checkpoint put up by policemen in the town two weeks ago.

Upon pursuit, the bodyguards reportedly fired at the policemen as

shown by a bullet hole in one of the police cars. This reportedly prompted the policemen to fire back.

While not commenting on the charges lodged by the NBI, Carlos said Disono and her convoy of security personnel disregarded a legitimate police checkpoint in place, other than shooting at the policemen who pursued them.

“They disregarded the checkpoint,” the PNP chief stressed, noting the presence of armed men and firearms during the incident.

The security personnel drove straight and followed Disono into her residence, which prompted the policemen to surround and secure the residence for hours before the bodyguards gave up where firearms, which were seized by the policemen.

Disono and her bodyguards have been facing charges, including the employment of armed men as security personnel and detailing of firearms not covered by any authorizations from Comelec.

Carlos said video footages showed Disono and her convoy attempted to run over the policemen as they disregarded the checkpoint that the lawmen were manning. The checkpoint was prompted by intelligence reports about the presence of armed men in Pilar for days and weeks.

‘2nd boosters for frontline workers vital to recovery’ continued from a1

The trade chief stressed that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) continue to face challenges from the pandemic as their cash flow and working capital have been depleted amid slower business activities.

“Others also laid off [their] workers because the businesses can no longer afford to pay for salaries,” he added.

Now that businesses are finally recovering from the harsh effects of the pandemic, Go Lokal!, a freemarket access platform for Philippine micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opened its first inline store on May 2 at Ayala Malls Manila Bay. Since its launch in December 2016, the Go Lokal! program has partnered with 24 retailers, rolled out 156 stores nationwide, assisted 863 MSMEs, of which 412 were already mainstreamed and have become regular suppliers of partner retailers.

To date, the program has generated sales of over P466 million.

The Go Lokal! Inline store at Ayala Malls Manila Bay had its soft opening in January 2022. It is managed

by Common Room PH, a local retailer that houses over 200+ local crafters and brands.

There are currently 18 Go Lokal!

Suppliers in the inline store that offer food and wellness products, fashionable accessories, homeware, and toys.

Lopez noted that the Go Lokal! program, in partnership with the DTI, can be an avenue towards

patronizing local products and boosting the MSMEs industry simultaneously.

MSMEs get help in terms of product development, training and marketing their goods. “To be able to sell in stores, they must pay rent, but with a partnership like this, GoLokal! can carry their products,” he added.

Lopez explained that not all local products are guaranteed to be displayed, as the process involves curating or filtering the products that they display.

With this, he said, the SMEs “are challenged to come up with superior products so these can be displayed, since the products must be curated.

That’s why the products chosen are those that can compete with imported products.”

For her part, Common Room PH president and owner Roma Agsalud said they are heartened by the growing appreciation by the local market of the need to support local businesses.”

Some very conscious buyers deliberately purchase local products, she added.

Creative services

MEANWHILE, Lopez said the DTI also aims to export creative services, adding, “as you know the services themselves can be exported.”

He said creative services are a “strength of the Filipino and should be supported and organized, so it can be pushed, being included in the SIPP [strategic investment priority plan].”

‘Lifting surface mining ban could help PHL overcome metals crunch challenge’ continued from a1

As of 2020, Manzano told the BusinessMirror, the Philippines imported $448 million worth of iron and steel from Russia. The impact of the war in Eastern Europe, he said, has already affected oil prices.

“Well, just the spike in oil prices instigated by the conflict would have a cost push impact on goods in general, including construction ma-

terial. The higher cost of transport alone will impact the cost of imported construction input,” Manzano told this newspaper.

A report in Bloomberg stated that the energy crisis caused by the war in Eastern Europe has brought about a coal shortage. This is causing an energy crisis in India, threatening metal production in the South Asian country.

Tuesday, May 3, 2022 A5

NUJP and PTFoMS laud OSG petition to bring back ex-Palawan gov to trial

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

T

HE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Monday welcomed the move of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to have former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes re-arrested and face trial as principal suspect in the murder of anti-corruption crusader, staunch environmentalist and broadcaster Dr. Gerry Ortega in Puerto Princesa City in 2011.

Likewise, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security also expressed its support for the OSG’s petition filed before the Supreme Court seeking to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued enjoining the Puerto Princesa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) from implementing its arrest warrant against Reyes.

Aside from the lifting of the TRO, the OSG has also asked the Court to dismiss Reyes’ petition for review on certiorari, which seeks to reverse and set aside the November 28, 2019 amended decision of the Court of

Appeals’ Special Former Eleventh Division that ordered the Puerto Princesa City RTC, Branch 52, to reinstate the murder case against Reyes and issue a warrant of arrest against the former governor.

PTFoMS chief Undersecretary Joel M. Sy Egco expressed the belief that the evidence of guilt of former Palawan Governor Mario Joel Reyes is strong which may warrant his return to jail and prosecution.

“The Presidential Task Force shares the sentiments of the OSG in its motion to lift the TRO, which is preventing the re-arrest of the former governor. We believe that the evidence of guilt is strong in the criminal case filed against Reyes in connection with the slaying of Gerry Ortega,” PTFoMS chief Undersecretary Joel M. Sy Egco said, in a statement.

“I have full trust and confidence with the OSG, as a member agency of PTFoMS, in its commitment to attaining justice for this heinous act. The task force will not stand idly by until all those responsible for the killing of Ortega, including

the masterminds, are put behind bars,” he added.

Meanwhile, the NUJP noted that the OSG has argued that there are “essential requisites” for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and “these are not present in this case.”

“These are legal arguments, but we hold to a more basic reason for his arrest: A murder suspect who can evade arrest and go about his political business can influence the case and while Reyes may be within his rights to run for office, it is likely that he does not have the right to do it outside of government custody,” NUJP said.

On the other hand, international journalist group Safer World for the Truth said it welcomes the request from the OSG to the SC to “order the immediate re-arrest and detention” of the former Palawan governor.

“The recent TRO on the implementation of the arrest warrant, which was issued by Puerto Princesa City Regional Trial Court—has been characteristic of this evasion of justice. This evasion of prosecution by Joel T. Reyes constitutes

Ex-BuCor chief Ragos recants claims vs Leila, but DOJ doubts timing continued from a12

Another delivery of money contained in a plastic bag was made in December 2012 to De Lima and Dayan, he claimed.

In 2016, Ragos testified before the House Committee on Justice hearing on the NBP drug trade and reiterated his previous affidavits.

He also testified then that the kickbacks came from Peter Co and other drug lords, supposedly to support De Lima’s senatorial bid in 2013.

On June 7, 17, 28 and July 12, 2019, Ragos also testified at the Muntinlupa RTC and repeated his allegations against the senator.

“I now hereby declare and make known to the whole world that there is no truth whatsoever to any of these affidavits or House and court testimonies, or any other statement made in the media or other investigatory proceedings, including the Senate and the DOJ, on the delivery of monies to Secretary de Lima and Ronnie Dayan in whatever amount,” he said.

Ragos claimed that in September 2016 or a week before the House inquiry, he was ordered by Aguirre, through a certain Danny Yang, to attend a meeting in Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque with former NBI Intelligence Director Dante Gierran and a certain John Vries.

Also present were Ablen, Roland Argabioso, and lawyers from Public Attorney’s Office, lawyer Rigel Salvador and lawyer Demi Huerta.

Ragos claimed that in that meeting, Aguirre interrogated and coerced him to execute an affidavit implicating De Lima in the NBP drug trade.

“In order to be dropped from the information in Criminal Case No. 17-165 as a co-accused of Secretary de Lima and Ronnie Dayan, I was forced to cooperate with Sec retary Aguirre and the DOJ public prosecutors by agreeing to deliver all these false testimonies and sign false affidavits against Secretary de Lima and Ronnie Dayan. I was thus made a witness against Secretary de Lima and Ronnie Dayan and set free,” Ragos said.

Ragos named several other officials who pressured him.

“Fearing for my life and family, I had no choice but to follow everything that these people asked me to do. I also did not want to go to jail for fear of being the subject of acts of revenge by criminals I put in jail as an NBI official and

by inmates that I disciplined as BuCor OIC,” he said.

DOJ: Recantation suspicious

“THE affidavit of Ragos dated 30 April 2022, recanting his previous statements will not at this stage destroy the strength of evidence of the case against accused de Lima and Dayan. It is left to the appreciation of the court to consider his affidavit of recantation if it can completely destroy his previous affidavits and testimonies,” the DOJ said in a statement.

The DOJ noted that besides testifying at the Senate in 2016 and executing subsequent affidavits in 2017, Ragos even testified in court on June 7, 14 and 28, 2019 and was subjected to extensive cross examination by lawyers of de Lima.

After his testimony, the DOJ noted that he appeared before the Senate in September 2019 and reiterated his dealings with the accused.

“In all of the foregoing instances, there was no mention of coercion or intimidation. Thus, the glaring delay on the part of Ragos in recanting his previous statements is indeed questionable and casts doubt on its truthfulness.

His motive as well is highly suspicious,” the DOJ said.

The DOJ said the retraction of his claims about the senator’s ties to illegal drugs at NBP has a “minimal” effect, as the former BuCor official merely contradicted himself, but did not debunk the testimonies of the other witnesses presented before the trial of the case in the Muntinlupa court.

“The testimonies of the witnesses presented by the prosecution are enough to pin and prove the charges against accused Senator Leila M. de Lima and Ronnie Dayan,” the DOJ stressed.

It noted that as a rule, recantation is “viewed with disfavor” and that the testimony given in court is accorded more weight.

Ragos’s allegation that he was coerced and intimidated into executing the affidavits implicating de Lima in the drug trade may be referred to the Ombudsman for appropriate action since some of the names mentioned are officials of the DOJ. “We will endorse it to the Ombudsman when Ragos’ affidavit is actually submitted to the DOJ,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.

impunity, and also a threat to the family of Gerry Ortega, and all other journalists in the Philippines. It sends the message that murdering a journalists can go unpunished,” the group said.

“A Safer World for the Truth, which represents Free Press Unlimited, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, is deeply concerned with this and urges the SC of the Philippines to consider these risks and order the immediate arrest of Reyes. Thereafter, the Department of Justice should urge the Philippine National Police to prioritize the arrest of Joel T. Reyes,” it further said.

In a resolution issued last March 23, 2022, the SC issued a TRO against the implementation of the arrest warrant and from conducting further proceedings in the murder case pending the final resolution of his petition seeking to set aside the CA’s amended decision.

Reyes has been charged with murder along with his brother, former Coron town mayor Mario Reyes, and 8 others for the death of Ortega.

A6

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

No.

21TH CONSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION #28 Lot 12 Blk 94, R. Papa Ave. Cor. P. Garcia St. Phase 6, Afpovai, Western Bicutan, City Of Taguig

CHEN, PENG Asst. Quality Control

1.

Brief Job Description: At least an Associate’s degree in Business or a related field, must also be able to collaborate with other workers to develop solutions, so your quality assistant job description should emphasize effective communication and problem-solving skills

YANG, CHANG Asst. Quality Control

2.

Brief Job Description: At least an Associate’s degree in Business or a related field, must also be able to collaborate with other workers to develop solutions, so your quality assistant job description should emphasize effective communication and problem-solving skills

REN, PENGCHENG Senior Consultant 3.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for analyzing, demonstrate exceptional knowledge, assisting with drafting strategies, designing solutions using established processes and embrace a collaborative mindset

Basic Qualification: Associate are a college degree. Concrete Management or related field or minimum 3 years’ experience in construction industry, well-versed in Microsoft Office basics

TOIMIL LOPEZ, JESUS ANGEL Construction Manger

13.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Associate are a college degree. Concrete Management or related field or minimum 3 years experience in construction industry, well-versed in Microsoft Office basics Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Experience in a Consultant or Lead Sales role, excellent customer service and leadership skills, strong understanding of regulatory laws, financial and graphics software, ability to explain highlevel concepts

MA, LEIYU Technical Asst.

4.

Brief Job Description: Junior-level administrative employees who report directly to the company manager or team leader, provide both administrative and technical support

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

ROBINSON, STEPHEN Contracts Manager 14.

5.

Brief Job Description: Perform customer support via phone, chat and email both in English and their national language

JANG, KONGPIL Customer Service Specialist 6.

Brief Job Description: Perform customer support via phone, chat and email both in English and their national language

OH, SUNGMIN Customer Service Specialist 7.

Brief Job Description: Perform customer support via phone, chat and email both in English and their national language

PARK, YOUNGHO Customer Service Specialist 8.

9.

10.

Brief Job Description: Perform customer support via phone, chat and email both in English and their national language

CHO, GYUBO Human Resources Assistant Brief Job Description: Assist in hiring and recruiting foreign employees

JEON, EUN SUNG Human Resources Manager Brief Job Description: Hiring and recruiting foreign employees

JEON, EUNMIN Software Engineer 11.

Brief Job Description: Creating innovative solutions to meet our company’s foreign technical needs

JO, HEEJUN Software Engineer 12.

Brief Job Description: Creating innovative solutions to meet our company’s foreign technical needs

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

Brief Job Description: Oversees and help manager the project from start through to completion, including the defects period; Mitigate risks and make sure contracts and subcontracts, service contracts and supply contracts are executed properly

KORTENHOEVEN, LIESBETH Survey Specialist 15.

Brief Job Description: Self-reliant technical professional and is expected to initiate, carry out, and report on all survey works for projects

MOHAMMAD IRHAM HAFEDZ ASSEFY Survey Specialist 16.

777 KORPHIL HOLDINGS CORP. Unit 2604, 26th Floor Ibp Tower, Julia Vargas Ave. Cor. Jade Drive, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig CHO, KYUHO Customer Service Specialist

Brief Job Description: Oversee and direct construction projects from conception to completion. Review the project in-depth to schedule deliverables and estimate costs. Oversee all onsite and offsite constructions to monitor compliance with building and safety regulations.

Coordinate and direct construction workers and subcontractors. Select tools, materials and equipment and track inventory. Meet contractual conditions of performance. Review the work progress on daily basis. Prepare internal and external reports pertaining to job status. Plan ahead to prevent problems and resolve any emerging ones.

Brief Job Description: Self-reliant technical professional and is expected to initiate, carry out, and report on all survey works for projects

AI, YINGHONG Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative 17.

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

Brief Job Description: Will be in-charge of helping the customers with complaints and questions, give customers information about products and services, take orders, and process returns.

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

LIU, LIN Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative 18.

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

Brief Job Description: Will be in-charge of helping the customers with complaints and questions, give customers information about products and services, take orders, and process returns.

PEI, LISAI Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 19.

Brief Job Description: Will be in-charge of helping the customers with complaints and questions, give customers information about products and services, take orders, and process returns.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering. Languages/ level : High level of English And Spanish.

Experience: more than 10 years of experience in Construction with significant international projects and at least 5 years performing functions as construction Manage. Experience with singular construction methods for bridge erection ( special form work system, form travelers, mobile scaffold systems , launching girders).

No.

21.

PENG, SHUANGLIN Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor 22.

Basic Qualification: Extensive experience as Contracts Manager of at least 10 years in the international dredging, land development industry and construction

23.

Brief Job Description: The mandarin document controller will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long-term goals.

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 ZHANG, HAO Mandarin Quality Inspector 24.

Brief Job Description: The mandarin quality inspector will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long-term goals.

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

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months experience in the said field With good oral and communication skills, specifically English language Knowledgeable in basic computer applications and softwares

JAYAWICKREME, RUCHIKA AMRESH Senior Trader

25.

Brief Job Description: A senior level position responsible for overseeing a trading book and managing risk, in coordination with the Trading team/Hub. The overall objective of this role is to ensure book delivers on budgeted revenues, and to coordinate with key stakeholders to develop the trading franchise in Rates/Derivatives.

NGUYEN XUAN DAT Senior Process Executive Brief Job Description: Service Support Solution includes diagnosis, resolution and reporting of customer issues and questions relating YouTube paid content products.

Service is Tier 1 end user support with escalations to Google in Vietnamese language.

KAN LAI FUN General Manager Brief Job Description: Direct and coordinate the process of the CLA System and departments concerned with the pricing, production, sales, and distribution of CLA Product.

YOGARANI BATUMALAI International Business Executive

20.

Brief Job Description: Conduct market research & identify potential clients; strong relationships w/ new clients, while maintaining existing client relationship; able to manage multiple projects concurrently & meet deadlines;

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

Basic Qualification: 1. 6-12 years of relevant experience in Rates and Derivatives Trading; 2. Knowledge of Bloomberg, booking systems, trading protocol, closing technicalities; 3.

Advance analytical and numerical competency; and 4. Required licensing and registrations as applicable.

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

Basic Qualification: BA or BS Degree Holder; Minimum 2-year(s) customer service support experience (voice, e-mail, or chat), working with direct consumers preferably in a B2C environment; Native Viet Speaker.

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

CONTAINER LEDGER ACCOUNT PHILS., INC. 2/f Unit 203 Heritage Condo, 1851 Dr. A Vasquez St., 076, Barangay 696, Malate, City Of Manila

BRIGHT LUME IT SOLUTIONS INC. Unit 202 Erisha Condominium, 1142 P Ocampo Street, Sta Ana, 082, Barangay 757, Santa Ana, City Of Manila

HUYNH THUC KIM Mandarin Speaking Business Development Associate

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as mandarin quality inspector, familiarity, knowledge and awareness on machinery and heavy equipment use by company.

Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PHILIPPINES, INC. 2nd, 3rd, And 4th Floors, Science Hub Tower 4 Bldg., Mckinley Hill Cyberpark, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

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

Basic Qualification: Bachelors’ degree; w/ experience in business management, computers/ software, marketing/ sales, or related field fluent in both written and verbal mandarin and Cantonese language

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as mandarin document controller, familiarity, knowledge and awareness on machinery and heavy equipment use by company.

Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

CITIBANK N.A. 16th Floor, Citi Plaza, 34th St. Bgc, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

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

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months experience in the said field With good oral and communication skills, specifically English language Knowledgeable in basic computer applications and softwares

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as mandarin deputy project supervisor, familiarity, knowledge and awareness on machinery and heavy equipment use by company.

Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

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

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months experience in the said field With good oral and communication skills, specifically English language Knowledgeable in basic computer applications and softwares

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

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

27.

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

ACCIONA CONSTRUCTION PHILIPPINES INC. 23/f Tower 2, The Enterprise Center, 6766 Ayala Ave. Cor. Paseo De Roxas, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin deputy project supervisor will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

YAO, MEILIN Mandarin Document Controller

Basic Qualification: At least 3-10 years extensive relevant work experience in dredging and land development environment

Basic Qualification: At least 3-10 years extensive relevant work experience in dredging and land development environment

Basic Qualification: Bachelors’ degree; w/ experience in business management, computers/ software, marketing/ sales, or related field fluent in both written and verbal mandarin and Cantonese language

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

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

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

Brief Job Description: Manager master data, including creation, updates, & deletion; manager users and user roles; provide quality assurance of imported data, working w/ quality assurance analysts; process confidential data & information according to guidelines

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

CHINA HARBOUR ENGINEERING COMPANY 5/f Section E Ramon Magsaysay Center, 1680 Roxas Blvd., 076, Barangay 699, Malate, City Of Manila

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

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

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

HUYNH QUANG CAN Mandarin Speaking Data Analyst

26.

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

BOURAU ETHNIC CULTURE MARKETING INC. 9/f V. Corporate Centre, 125 L.p Leviste St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Any nationality who can speak and write Korean fluently

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

BOSKALIS PHILIPPINES INC. Unit 3701, 3801 The Orient Square, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proficiency with basic computer programs including MS Office and database systems.

Working knowledge of email systems and peripherals

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

www.businessmirror.com.ph

28.

Brief Job Description: Liaising with port Authority and Association to do knowledge transfer from Malaysia to Philippines.

Engagement with Shipping Line in Philippines to adopt and streamline deposit management process with regional office. Promote and create awareness about CLA, which patented technology operates on a SAAS (Software-as-a-service) model by presenting it to stakeholders in Philippines.

Basic Qualification: At least 5 years’ experience in managing business operation.

With knowledge in any shipping software.

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

Basic Qualification: At least 2-3 years’ experience as Admin officer. Can work with minimum supervision.

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

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

MA, MINGHUI Chinese Speaking Admin Associate 29.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

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

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

No.

SANBORN, BYRON LONGSING Chief Of Staff

40.

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

DE LA SALLE – COLLEGE OF SAINT BENILDE, INC. 2544 Taft Avenue, 079, Barangay 728, Malate, City Of Manila

LINES, CRAIG Consultant 30.

Brief Job Description: Entertainment and Multimedia Computing, Animation, Film Making and Photography

Basic Qualification: 10 years working experience as Director/ Writer in Digital Film, Animation, Multimedia for international audience, knowledgeable in Story-telling, drama and Narrative, and 2 years teaching experience.

41.

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

31.

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

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

EASTERN GOLD CORPORATION 503, Nueva St., Barangay 289, Binondo, City Of Manila

32.

Brief Job Description: Researches and develops various marketing strategies for products and services and implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas

Brief Job Description: Managers are dynamic, diverse leaders who are passionate about making a difference, possess exceptional analytical skills, and thrive in an entrepreneurial, developing country setting Managers oversee all aspects of client engagements in order to produce high-quality outputs, but more importantly, to drive each client to achieve its social impact goals. Managers are expected to develop a diverse skill set. This includes establishing trusted advisor relationships with clients, mentoring high-performing early professionals, and overseeing all project management aspects for their team members.

Managers may be expected to spend time in rural areas and potentially other countries, depending on project needs.

LUO, DI Assistant Project Supervisor 42.

GUO, HUI Marketing And Sales Agent

Brief Job Description: Communicating with stakeholders regarding project needs and goals. Contributing to the planning and development of projects, researching information as required

ONG CHEE KWANG Chief Financial Officer 43.

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

Brief Job Description: Develop financial wellbeing of the organization by providing financial projections and accounting services, preparing growth plans and directing staff

33.

Brief Job Description: Providing first level support for foreign clients (esp. French Natl.) and provides coordination & documentation

Basic Qualification: Knows how to speak and understand French

XIONG, WEI Chief Financial Officer 44.

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

Brief Job Description: Assist with high level decisions about policy and strategy. Oversee the company’s fiscal activity including budgeting reporting and auditing supervise financial reporting and budgeting team

EXLSERVICE PHILIPPINES, INC. 6th Floor, One E-com Center, Harbor Drive, Mall Of Asia Complex, Pasay City

PRADHAN, JAIDEEP ANIL Senior Vice President And Geography Head For Philippines & Colombia 34.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the Philippines operations with 7,000 plus headcounts. Responsible for new business and adding new clients for the company. conducting due diligence and strategy for the company’s new project site

Basic Qualification: With 20+years of professional experience in business management and project management, planning development, implementation, and maintenance of the company’s administrative and departments, supporting and promoting profitable goals and objectives.

Familiarity with company products, services, and policies. with exceptional interpersonal customer service, problem-solving, verbal and written communication, and conflict resolution skills Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

CHANG KHUNG SAU Structural Fitter Specialist 45.

35.

36.

37.

Brief Job Description: Customer Service

CHENG, DAWEI Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service

HONG, JINLIANG Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service

Basic Qualification: College graduate/Level and fluent in Mandarin/ basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

46.

Basic Qualification: College graduate/Level and fluent in Mandarin/ basic English

38.

Brief Job Description: Customer Service

47.

39.

Brief Job Description: Customer Service

CHANG, FANG - YI Chinese Marketing Specialist Brief Job Description: Marketing specialist

Brief Job Description: Customer support on their account statement and how to use our tools to better understand their accounts.

MIWA, YUSUKE Assistant General Manager 48.

Basic Qualification: 5-8 years relevant work experience, advanced degree

54.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 55.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English Language Both in Written and Verbal, Must Familiar in Expert Planning and Administrative Writing and Reporting Skills

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English Language Both in Written and Verbal, Must Familiar in Expert Planning and Administrative Writing and Reporting Skills

56.

57.

58.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English Language Both in Written and Verbal, Must Familiar in Expert Planning and Administrative Writing and Reporting Skills

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both written and oral

60.

LIANG, HAO Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer service

RENI ANGGRAINI Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

SUN, SHUANG Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer service

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

XIE, LIJIE Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer service

YANG, SHUANG Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

YU, LONGXIANG Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries WANG, YULIN Chinese Customer Service Representative

61.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries ZHANG, JIAJUN Chinese Customer Service Representative

62.

63.

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

64.

Basic Qualification: Actively follow up with payments and assist with the disputes handling process.

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

Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

LIU, CHE-WEN Chinese Customer Service Representative

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin and English Language Both in Written and Verbal. Must Familiar in Expert Planning and Administrative Writing and Reporting Skills

LI, YING Call Center Agent

WANG, FEI Call Center Agent

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

Brief Job Description: Lead and direct the Food, Agriculture and Chemicals Group of Marubeni Philippines Corporation

Basic Qualification: Confidential Employee

65.

Basic Qualification: College graduate/Level and fluent in Mandarin/ basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: College graduate/Level and fluent in Mandarin/ basic English

CHOONG KOK YUEN Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

FENG, ZHAO Call Center Agent Brief Job Description: Customer service

JIANG, ZHEN Call Center Agent

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 51.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

66.

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

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

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

IDINSIGHT PHILIPPINES INC. 3/f Molave Bldg., 2231 Chino Roces Ave., Bangkal, City Of Makati

53.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

BONG LEE SAN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

CHIA YUNG XIN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

CHONG JIA WEN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

MARUBENI PHILIPPINES CORPORATION L.v. Locsin Building, Ayala/makati Ave., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati

50.

HONG HUYNH PHUONG THAO Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Fits and assembles structural frameworks from materials such as angle iron i-beams and plate steel using handtools and welding equipment and following blueprint specifications

MEJIA CALLE, CAMILO Collector

49.

YANG, JUNJIE Call Center Agent

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

MAERSK GLOBAL SERVICE CENTRES (PHILIPPINES) LTD. Levels 6-8 North Wing, Estancia Offices, Capitol Commons, Meralco Ave., Oranbo, City Of Pasig

Basic Qualification: College graduate/Level and fluent in Mandarin/ basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

52.

LATTE MARKETING INC. 10/f Pacifica One Center, 2178 Chino Roces Ave., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati

FLYING DRAGON NETWORK PHILIPPINES INC. Ri Rance Ii Bldg., Block 2 Lot 3 Aseana City, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

CHEN, SONG Call Center Agent

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree, 0-5 years work experience, strong analytical and writing skills

No.

59.

ETEAM WORKFORCE PRIVATE CORPORATION 2/f First Global Bldg., 122 Gamboa St.,, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati N’GUESSAN, GRAHI BOHOUSSOU JULIEN French Language Specialist

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

JIANGSU DIBANG CONSTRUCTION PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Unit 2106-a West Tower, Psec Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

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

Basic Qualification: Can Contributes Information, Ideas, and Research to Help Develop Marketing Strategies; Can Help to Detail, Design, and Implement Marketing Plans for Each Product or Service Being Offered.

Brief Job Description: The Chief of Staff will implement strategic initiatives, optimize collaboration across Idinsight, support SEA leadership in developing partnerships and funder relationships across the region. This is a manager-level role with visibility into the core parts of how our organization functions and which will be the key in contribution to the growth and impact of the SEA team.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

WALKER, STEVEN JAMES Client-facing Manager

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

HUANG, QIBIAN Chinese Speaking Data Entry Clerk

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

67.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

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

68.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

69.

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

70.

CHONG KIAN SAM Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

CHUNG KAR HONG Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

FOONG KING TIM Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

LEE CHOON KIT Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

LIEW KAI HIUNG Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English 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: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

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: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

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

A7

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

A6 A8

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

71.

72.

73.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION SOW CHIN HAN Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

TSEN XIAO YING Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

YAP JINN HAW Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Customer Service.

HA THI QUYNH NHU Vietnamese Customer Service Representative 74.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries NGUYEN THI TRUNG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

75.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

No.

87.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

WANG, YUFENG Chief Manager

88.

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

76.

Brief Job Description: The operations manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Brief Job Description: Providing instructional leadership to executive manager developing and implementing the company’s strategic plans, reviewing administrative policy, developing and implementing budgets, preparing financial reports

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 SETO, TAKAYUKI Vice President For Mineral Resources

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

89.

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as operations manager, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

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

Brief Job Description: 1. Implement and oversee technical support for affiliate plants. 2. Conduct mineral resources and mineral reserves evaluation of ore sources. 3.

Identify all legal and regulatory requirements of the department and manage the same to meet the needs of the activities. 4. Guide the department to ensure that communications with affiliate plants and partner companies are achieved. 5.

Budget control, employee development, safety and environment management and corporate governance.

77.

Brief Job Description: Operation a micro-tunneling boring machine

78.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the overall direction, strategy, and performance of the Santen Asia business

Basic Qualification: Training in tunneling and micro system Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

WAKIMURA, TOSHIYUKI Executive Director/treasurer 90.

Basic Qualification: Minimum 20 years of leadership experience, successful experience in an executive position

79.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for the performance of the company, as dictated by the board’s overall strategy.

TECHMAVE SERVICES INC. 11/f Liberty Plaza Bldg., 102 H.v. Dela Costa St., Bel-air, City Of Makati LUONG THUY LIEU Mandarin Speaking Customer Relation Representative 91.

92.

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

80.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

NGUYEN DOAN TUAN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

81.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

NGUYEN THANH HIEU Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

82.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

NGUYEN TIEN DUNG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

83.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

NGUYEN VAN THAI Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

84.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

PHAN THI LIEN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

85.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

VO TRAN PHUONG THIEN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative 86.

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

93.

94.

95.

96.

97.

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

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

LI, JIN Mandarin System And Support Specialist 98.

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients and/or customers through Mandarin to English translation.

LI, JIAN Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients and/or customers through Mandarin to English translation.

JIA, CHENYANG Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation HU, GUANGXIA Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

DUAN, ANQI Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation DONG, LILEI Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation CHEN, YAOMING Mandarin System And Support Specialist

SOMI UNLIMITED SOLUTIONS, INC. 10/f Tower 2 Double Dragon Plaza Bldg., Edsa Corner Macapagal Ave. St. Zone 10, District 1, Barangay 76, Pasay City LE DUY DAT Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

102.

103.

105.

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

LI, YANGCHUN Mandarin System And Support Specialist 99.

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients and/or customers through Mandarin to English translation.

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

XIONG, LI Mandarin System And Support Specialist

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

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

ZHANG, JIAMIN Mandarin System And Support Specialist 109.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

XIE, MEIQI Mandarin System And Support Specialist

108.

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters

Basic Qualification: Through, extensive & fluency in Mandarin language and characters.

WEI, XIAODONG Mandarin System And Support Specialist

107.

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

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

WANG, ZHENHUA Mandarin System And Support Specialist

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients and/or customers through Mandarin to English translation.

WANG, XIAOLIANG Mandarin System And Support Specialist 104.

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters

Basic Qualification: Through, extensive & fluency in Mandarin language and characters.

SUN, JING Mandarin System And Support Specialist

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

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

Basic Qualification: More than 25 years of experience and fluent in Mandarin, English, and Cantonese.

Brief Job Description: Oversees, set strategies, provides advise, monitors risk exposures and determines the corresponding capital requirement of the bank in accordance with the base capital adequacy framework and internal capital

Basic Qualification: Has mora than 20 years of banking experience in treasury, has exposure to global treasury regulations, liquidity management, funding foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income etc. proficient in Japanese language (business level)

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

QIN, ZHIXUAN Mandarin System And Support Specialist

106.

SHISEIDO PHILIPPINES CORPORATION 16/f Three/neo 3rd Avenue Corner 30th Street,, E-square Crescent Park West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

GOH CHEE HUA Managing Director

101.

Basic Qualification: Master Degree, Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, 10 years’ experience work in energy area

Basic Qualification: 1. Degree in mining engineering, geology or similar relevant fields. 2. with effective management and leadership skills. 3. Good communication skills in oral and written form, English or Japanese.

4. Capable of multitasking, flexible and can work under minimum supervision. 5. must have at least 5 years of experience in a similar position at senior management level

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

PAN, YUEFU Mandarin System And Support Specialist

SUMITOMO MITSUI BANKING CORPORATION - MANILA BRANCH 21/f Tower One & Exchange Plaza, Ayala Ave., Cor. Paseo De Roxas, Bel-air, City Of Makati

SANTEN PHILIPPINES INC. Unit 2801 To 2802 28th Floor Sm Aura Tower, 26th Corner Mckinley Parkway, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

HABIJANIČ, JOŽICA Head Of Asia Business

100.

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

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

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION LUO, LIFENG Mandarin System And Support Specialist

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

PIPESOLUTION INC. #247, Apo St., Maharlika, Quezon City MOHD SUHAIMI BIN ABD RASID Micro-tunneling Boring Machine Operator

Basic Qualification: Fluent in vietnamese (verbal and written skills).

No.

SUMITOMO METAL MINING PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS CORPORATION 25/f, Nac Tower, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig

PHILIPPINE VISION GROUP (PVG) INC. 273 Katipunan Ave., 3, Loyola Heights, Quezon City GARNIE, FAAIZ AMEER Operations Manager

Brief Job Description: Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA (STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA PHILIPPINE OFFICE) Unit 2 Level 21 Ibp Tower, Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: College Graduate/Level and Fluent in Mandarin/ Basic English.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION VU TIEN HAI Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 ZHOU, CHUANYAN Mandarin System And Support Specialist Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters

110.

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients / customers through mandarin to English translation

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Through, extensive & fluency in Mandarin language and characters.

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

TOTAL CREST BUSINESS SUPPORT, INC. 26/f & 27/f Alphaland Corporate Tower, Ayala Ave. Extn. Cor. Malugay St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

111.

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Thorough, extensive & proficiency in mandarin language and characters Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

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

TOTAL GLOBAL SERVICES PHILIPPINES, INC. 9f World Plaza, Block 5, Lot 4, Crescent Park West, 5th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, City Of Taguig

Basic Qualification: Through, extensive & fluency in Mandarin language and characters.

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

Basic Qualification: Proficient in speaking, reading and writing in bilingual languages

LEONG KAR SIONG Bilingual Customer Service Officer

N’ GUESSAN EPSE KOUADIO, GRACE PAMELA Finance And Accounting Analyst-accounts Payable 112.

Brief Job Description: Perform 3-way matching in the ERP system or manual matching (non-PO reference AP documents)

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or related field with 3-5 years relevant Accounts Payable processing experience in a shared service environment of Oil, Gas, and energy Industry Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

*Date Generated: May 2, 2022 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.

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

World Features BusinessMirror

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

As Iran-Taliban tensions rise, Afghan migrants in tinderbox

By Mehdi Fattahi & Isabel Debre The Associated Press

T

EHRAN, Iran—The Taliban members who killed her activist husband offered Zahra Husseini a deal: Marry one of us, and you’ll be safe.

Husseini, 31, decided to flee. Through swaths of lawless flatlands she and her two small children trekked by foot, motorcycle and truck until reaching Iran.

As Afghanistan plunged into economic crisis after the United States withdrew troops and the Taliban seized power, the 960-kilometer (572-mile) long border with Iran became a lifeline for Afghans who piled into smugglers’ pickups in desperate search of money and work.

But in recent weeks the desert crossing, long a dangerous corner of the world, has become a growing source of tension as an estimated 5,000 Afghans traverse it each day and the neighbors—erstwhile enemies that trade fuel, share water and have a tortured history—navigate an increasingly charged relationship.

In past weeks, skirmishes erupted between Taliban and Iranian border guards.

Afghans in three cities rallied against Iran. Demonstrators hurled stones and set fires outside an Iranian Consulate. A fatal stabbing spree, allegedly by an Afghan migrant, at Iran’s holiest shrine sent shockwaves through the country.

Political analysts say even as both nations do not want an escalation, longsmoldering hostilities risk spiraling out of control.

“You have one of the world’s worst-simmering refugee crises just chugging along on a daily pace and historical enmity,” said Andrew Watkins, senior Afghanistan expert at the United States Institute of Peace. “Earthquakes will happen.”

The perils are personal for Afghans slipping across the border like Husseini.

Since the Taliban takeover, Iran has escalated its deportations of Afghan migrants, according to the UN migration agency, warning that its sanctions-hit economy cannot handle the influx.

In the first three months of this year, Iran’s deportations jumped 60 percent each month, said Ashley Carl, deputy chief of the agency’s Afghanistan mission. Many of the 251,000 returned from Iran this year bear the wounds and scars of the arduous trip, he said, surviving car accidents, gunshots and other travails.

Roshangol Hakimi, a 35-year-old who fled to Iran after the Taliban takeover, said smugglers held her and her 9-year-old daughter hostage over a week until her relatives paid ransom.

“They would feed us with polluted water and hard, stale bread,” she said. “We were dying.”

The lucky ones land in the jumble of Tehran, squeezing into dank and crowded alleyways. Iran estimates at least a million Afghans have sought refuge in the country over the last eight months.

Like many, Husseini lives in legal limbo, vulnerable to harassment and exploitation. Her boss at the tailor’s shop refuses to pay her salary. Her landlord threatens to kick her out. She can barely cobble together enough cash to feed her children.

“We have nothing and nowhere to go,” she said from a cramped room in southern Tehran, furnished with just a donated gas heater, chairs and a few velour blankets.

As more Afghans arrive, helping them gets harder. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh lamented last month that “waves of displaced Afghans cannot continue to Iran” because Iran’s “capacities are limited.” Iran’s youth unemployment hovers over 23 percent. Iran’s currency, the rial, has shriveled to less than 50 percent of its value since 2018.

“The biggest challenge is that Iran is not ready for the new situation of refugees,” Tehran-based political analyst Rea Ghobeishavi said of the increasing friction between Afghans and Iranians.

Iran has grown more anxious as a string of bloody attacks in Afghanistan targeting the country’s minority Hazara Shiites makes clear that extremist threats proliferate despite Taliban promises to provide security.

“There are reports that some extremists are entering Iran easily with refugees,” said Abbas Husseini, a prominent Afghan journalist in Tehran, describing mounting paranoia in Iran.

Last month, Iran’s most sacred Shiite shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad turned into a scene of carnage when an assailant stabbed three clerics, killing two—a rare act of violence at the compound. The attacker was identified in media as an Afghan national of Uzbek ethnicity.

In the following days, a surge of videos agitating against Afghan refugees flooded Iranian social media. Impossible to authenticate, the grainy clips—footage showing Iranians insulting and beating up Afghans—have been dismissed as misleading in Iran but in Afghanistan have dominated headlines, stoking public fury.

Demonstrators attacked the Iranian Consulate in the western city of Herat with stones and protested at Iran’s Embassy in Kabul. “Stop killing Afghans,” pleaded protesters in the Afghan capital. “Death to Iran,” chanted crowds in Herat and the southeastern Khost province. Iran suspended all of its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan for 10 days.

Even as the gate of its consulate smoldered, Iran’s special envoy for Afghanistan deflected. Hassan Kazemi Qomi blamed the escalating tensions on a vague “enemy” seeking to subvert the nations’ relations. Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi raised his concerns with the Iranian ambassador.

“The ill-treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran adversely affects relations between the two countries...allowing antagonists to conspire,” Muttaqi was quoted as saying.

His careful tone betrays a troubled history.

In 1998, Iran nearly went to war against the Taliban after 10 of its diplomats were killed when their consulate was stormed in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. But after the US-led invasion, Tehran’s Shiite leaders grew wary of the American military presence on their doorstep and took a more pragmatic stance toward the Sunni militant group.

Now, analysts say, with both nations severed from the global banking system and starved for cash, they have come to depend on each other. Neither wants to see tensions mount further.

“Through neighbors, Iran can sanctions-bust, exchange currency, barter and keep its economy alive,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

But the neighbors nearly came to blows last week when Taliban guards tried to pave a new road across the border. Iranian guards went on high alert. The vital crossing closed.

Aware of the stakes, the countries are vigorously pursuing diplomacy. Last week, Khatibzadeh promised Tehran would accredit Taliban diplomats for the first time to help process the mountains of consular cases. Taliban officials visited the capital to discuss Iran’s treatment of Afghan refugees.

Many of those refugees fleeing Afghanistan’s repression and destitution harbor humble dreams: of scraping by as construction laborers, factory workers and farmhands in Iran.

Others, like Hakimi’s 9-year-old daughter Yasmin, hope to continue on to Europe.

She fantasizes about Germany. Her father, a police officer killed by the Taliban in Logar province, instilled in her the importance of an education, she said.

“We don’t want to have a bad future,” Yasmin said from her dilapidated Tehran apartment. “We want to become literate people, like my father.”

DeBre reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

A9

Muslims mark Eid al-Fitr holiday with joy, worry

By Mariam Fam, Niniek Karmini & Kathy Gannon

C

The Associated Press

AIRO—For the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the smell of freshly baked orange biscuits and powdered sugar-dusted cookies typically fills the air in Mona Abubakr’s home. But due to higher prices, the Egyptian housewife this year made smaller quantities of the sweet treats, some of which she gives as gifts to relatives and neighbors.

The mother of three has also tweaked another tradition this Eid, which began Monday in Egypt and many Muslim-majority countries and marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. She bought fewer outfits for her sons to wear during the three-day feast.

“I told them we have to compromise on some things in order to be able to afford other things,” she said.

This year, Muslims around the world are observing Eid al-Fitr— typically marked with communal prayers, celebrator y gatherings around festive mea ls and new clothes—in the shadow of a surge in global food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Against that backdrop, many are still determined to enjoy the Eid amid easing of coronavirus restrictions in their countries while, for others, the festivities are dampened by conflict and economic hardship.

At the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of Muslims attended prayers Monday morning. The Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta was shuttered when Islam’s holiest period coincided with the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and was closed to communal prayers last year.

“Words can’t describe how happy I am today after two years we were separated by pandemic. Today we can do Eid prayer together again,” said Epi Tanjung after he and his wife worshipped at another Jakarta mosque. “Hopefully all of this will make us more faithful.”

The war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia have disrupted supplies of grain and fertilizer, driving up food prices at a time when inflation was already raging. A number of Muslimmajority countries are heavily reliant on Russia and Ukraine for much of their wheat imports, for instance.

Even before the Russian invasion, an unexpectedly strong global recovery from the 2020 coronavirus recession had created supply chain bottlenecks, causing shipping delays and pushing prices of food and other commodities higher.

In some countries, the fallout from the war in Ukraine is only adding to the woes of those already suffering from turmoil, displacement or poverty.

In Syria’s rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, Ramadan this year was more difficult than Ramadans past. Abed Yassin said he, his wife and three children now receive half the amounts of products—including chickpeas, lentils, rice and cooking oil—which last year they used to get from an aid group. It has made life more difficult.

Syria’s economy has been hammered by war, Western sanctions,

corruption and an economic meltdown in neighboring Lebanon where Syrians have billions of dollars stuck in Lebanese banks.

In the Gaza Strip, though streets and markets are bustling, many say they cannot afford much.

“The situation is difficult,” said Um Musab, a mother of five, as she toured a traditional market in Gaza City. “Employees barely make a living but the rest of the people are crushed.”

Mahmoud a l-Mad houn, who bought some date paste, flour and oil to make Eid cookies, said financial conditions were going from bad to worse. “However, we are determined to rejoice,” he added.

The Palestinian enclave, which relies heavily on imports, was already vulnerable before the Ukraine war as it had been under a tight Israeli-Egyptian blockade meant to isolate Hamas, its militant rulers.

Afghans are celebrating the first Eid since the Taliban takeover amid grim security and economic conditions. Many were cautious but poured into Kabul’s largest mosques for prayers on Sunday, when the holiday started there, amid tight security.

Frequent ex plosions mar red the period leading to Eid. These included fata l bombings, most claimed by the Islamic State affiliate known as IS in K horasan Province, targeting ethnic Haza r a s w ho a re mo s t l y S h i it e s , leaving many of them debating whether it was safe to attend Eid prayers at mosques.

“We want to show our resistance, that they cannot push us away,” said community leader Dr. Bakr Saeed before Eid. “We will go forward.”

Violence wasn’t the only cause for worry. Since the Taliban takeover in Aug ust, A fgha nista n’s economy has been in a freefall with food prices and inf lation soaring.

At a charity food distribution center in Kabul on Saturday, Din Mohammad, a father of 10, said he expected this Eid to be his worst.

“With poverty, no one can celebrate Eid like in the past,” he said.

“I wish we had jobs and work so we could buy something for ourselves, not have to wait for people to give us food.”

Muslims follow a lunar calendar, and methodologies, including moon sighting, can lead to different countries—or Muslim communities—declaring the start of Eid on different days.

In Iraq, fewer shoppers than usual appeared to have visited the capital’s clothing markets this year.

Security issues also plague celebrations, with security forces going on high alert from Sunday to Thursday to avert possible attacks after

Muslim men offer Eid al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Sunda Kelapa port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, May 2, 2022. AP/Tatan Syuflana

a suicide bombing in Baghdad last year ahead of another major Islamic holiday killed dozens.

In India, the country’s Muslim minority is reeling from vilification by hardline Hindu nationalists who have long espoused anti-Muslim stances, with some inciting against Muslims. Tensions boiled over into violence at Ramadan, including stone-throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups.

Muslim preachers cautioned the faithful to remain vigilant during Eid. Indian Muslims “are proactively preparing themselves to deal with the worst,” said Ovais Sultan Khan, a rights activist. “Nothing is as it used to be for Muslims in India, including the Eid.” Still, many Muslims elsewhere rejoiced in reviving rituals disrupted by pandemic restrictions.

Millions of Indonesians have crammed into trains, ferries and buses ahead of Eid as they poured out of major cities to celebrate with their families in villages in the world ’s most populous Muslimmajority country. The return of the tradition of homecoming caused great excitement after two years of subdued festivities due to pandemic restrictions.

“The longing for [the] Eid celebration in a normal way has finally been relieved today although the pandemic has not yet ended,” said Hadiyul Umam, a resident of Jakarta.

Many in the capital flocked to

shopping centers to buy clothes, shoes and sweets before the holiday despite pandemic warnings and food price surges.

Muslims in Malaysia were also in a celebratory mood after their country’s borders fully reopened and Covid-19 measures were further loosened. Ramadan bazaars and shopping malls have been filled with shoppers ahead of Eid and many travelled to their hometowns.

“It’s a blessing that we can now go back to celebrate,” said sales manager Fairuz Mohamad Talib, who works in Kuala Lumpur. His family will celebrate at his wife’s village after two years of being apart due to earlier travel curbs.

There, he said, they will visit neighbors after the Eid prayers, chanting praises of Prophet Muhammad, and shar ing food at each stop.

“It’s not about feasting but about getting together,” he said ahead of the holiday. With Covid-19 still on his mind, the family will take precautions such as wearing masks during visits. “There will be no handshakes, just fist bumps.”

Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia, and Gannon from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press journalists Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Wafaa Shurafa in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Samya Kullab in Baghdad; and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed reporting.

A10 Tuesday, May 3, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

WHO cites exploitative formula milk marketing

N

ature designed human milk as the ideal food for human babies. A mother’s milk contains antibodies that help protect against many common childhood illnesses. That’s why the World Health Organization (WHO) has been promoting breastfeeding for the longest time, because a mother’s own milk is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival.

Breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breastfeeding for up to two years, offers a powerful line of defense against all forms of child malnutrition. But globally, WHO said only 44 percent of babies less than six months old are exclusively breastfed.

Global breastfeeding rates have increased very little in the past two decades, while sales of formula milk have more than doubled in roughly the same time, the WHO said.

Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Mothers who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers. WHO said nearly two out of three infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months—a rate that has not improved in two decades. It said inappropriate marketing of mother’s milk substitutes continues to undermine efforts to improve breastfeeding rates and duration worldwide.

The WHO revealed last week what it called “the shocking extent of exploitative formula milk marketing around the world.” In a new report titled Scope and impact of digital marketing strategies for promoting breast-milk substitutes, WHO outlined the digital marketing techniques designed to influence the decisions new families make on how to feed their babies. Formula milk companies, the report said, are paying social media platforms and influencers to gain direct access to pregnant women and mothers at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives. The global formula milk industry, valued at some $55 billion, is targeting new mothers with personalized social media content that is often not recognizable as advertising, according to the report.

The WHO report summarized findings of new research that sampled and analyzed four million social media posts about infant feeding published between January and June 2021 using a commercial social listening platform.

These posts reached 2.47 billion people and generated more than 12 million likes, shares or comments.

Through tools like apps, virtual support groups or “baby-clubs”, paid social media influencers, promotions and competitions and advice forums or services, formula milk companies can buy or collect personal information and send personalized promotions to new pregnant women and mothers, the report said. It added that formula milk companies post content on their social media accounts around 90 times per day, reaching 229 million users; representing three times as many people as are reached by informational posts about breastfeeding from non-commercial accounts.

The report said this pervasive marketing has been increasing purchases of breast-milk substitutes and therefore dissuading mothers from breastfeeding exclusively as recommended by WHO. “The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety department. “The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped.”

The fact that these forms of digital marketing can evade scrutiny from national monitoring and health authorities means new approaches to Codeimplementing regulation and enforcement are required. Currently, national legislation may be evaded by marketing that originates beyond borders.

WHO has called on the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing, and urged governments to protect new children and families by enacting, monitoring and enforcing laws to end all advertising or other promotion of formula milk products.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

Adapting to new economic conditions Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur

I

F there is one lesson to learn from the pandemic, it is the willingness and resolve to adapt to the changes in the business environment. Businesses, both large and small, often meet market challenges. But adjusting to new economic conditions and shifting customer preferences will ensure business survival and growth.

We’ve seen many businesses closing down their operations during the pandemic period. The lockdowns and attending mobility restrictions had proved too much for many of our small entrepreneurs. Their usual customers vanished because of their inability to commute—public transportation was scarce and practically nobody was allowed to go out during the onset of Covid-19.

Bigger establishments were not spared from the market shock caused by lockdowns. Many gas stations had to close shop—at least momentarily—while several fast-food outlets and convenience stores had to operate on skeleton force—because very few people were traveling and leaving their homes.

Yet, amid those challenging times, some businesses survived and slowly

reopened as Covid infection rate eased. Several restaurants offered al fresco dining to draw customers and keep the business alive. Many fast-food outlets adjusted their operations and heeded the clamor of the market. Online food delivery services flourished as residents found a way to order their lunch or dinner without physically going to a restaurant. Ordering food by phone and through the apps found in the cell phones became a sign of the times.

The pandemic also gave rise to the so-called plantitas and plantitos. Cooped up in work-from-home arrangements and with no place to lounge around, many of our kababayans, bored and stressed by the pandemic, amused themselves by devoting their idle time to growing household plants from spider

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plants and monsteras to philodendrons and herbs. Many enterprising Filipinos back then saw the demand for indoor plants and catered to the “plantdemic.” A new set of entrepreneur has emerged in the time of Covid-19.

The pandemic is ebbing in the world today. But new challenges are emerging. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent global oil prices spiking and inflation is surging in Western nations, one of our major export markets. China’s zero-Covid policy has disrupted its industrial production and is slowly affecting countries with links to Shanghai’s hub.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the war in Europe could lead to stagflation in Asia—referring to an economy that is experiencing both increased inflation and the stagnation of economic production. IMF’s outlook is not far-fetched, although I still believe Asia, including the Philippines, is better off than the rest of the developed world, where inflation is more severe.

The United States, one of our major markets, is moving to check rising prices that surged 8.5 percent in March. The US Fed will likely opt for an aggressive interest rate hike to curb inflation further after raising it by 0.25 percent last month. The new impending rate hike, meanwhile, will come after the US reported a

R

unning one of those programs designed to catch plagiarism, I ran an analysis of my own writings over the last 25 years. One idea appears more frequently than I would have first thought.

It is embodied in a phrase I used in an editorial yesterday: “Just as you think you have it all figured out, everything changes.”

I am sure that it has something to do with age. You will get there someday if you are lucky as I am.

Behind your eyes you are still 22 years old. But in front is a world that has changed since you first saw it 72 years ago.

Two books with ideas that became global “religions” were Silent Spring in 1962 and The Population Bomb in 1968. The first said that all the birds and many humans were going to die because of the use of the pesticide DDT. The world banned DDT. The only remaining legal use of DDT is to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Malaria kills more than 800,000 people every year.

It was a necessary wake-up call on the unchallenged use of agricul-

tural chemicals. But it also created a cult-like hysteria that has nearly destroyed rational and objective discussion on a variety of topics.

The Population Bomb predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation. Being completely wrong about that, the authors have since shifted to saying that what they really meant was overconsumption and inequality were the real problem and that “too many rich people in the world is a major threat to the human future.”

Except that the greatest positive increase in all measures of human quality of existence—life expectancy, hunger and thirst, literacy and education, child mortality, gen-

eral health—paid for with wealth, happened in the poor countries, not the rich.

Everyone has stories—both good and bad—of what changed in their lives in the past two years. During the first lockdown, I taught my granddaughters how to bake a cake. Having been the same body weight for 50 years, I gained 25 pounds.

And the changes keep on coming.

On June 5, 1933, the US went off the gold standard in which currency was backed by the amount of gold/ silver the government held and at a universal fixed exchange rate to currency. President Richard Nixon ended dollar convertibility to gold in 1971. The Plaza Accord joint-agreement in 1985 artificially depreciated the US dollar.

All these actions and more, in over 50 years, changed currency— money—from gold and silver asset backed to a dollar-based global economy underwritten by financial assets, primarily government debt.

Government borrowings provided the security, stability, and value of the US dollar (and the yen, euro, etc.), which then provided the value for the minor currencies. That is until the minor currency governments screwed up their own political and economic stability.

The world now faces a change

1.4-percent contraction in the gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2022.

Against this backdrop of war and rising crude prices, Filipino entrepreneurs and businessmen may have to innovate again or adapt to the emerging global economic order to survive.

But let me be clear about this: ours is a rebounding economy that has plenty of room to grow. The Philippines, in addition, is in a dynamic region where Covid-19 has largely been tamed and where the population is growing.

We have yet to reach our pre-pandemic level of economic activities and have not fully reopened. Be that as it may, I believe we must prepare for the worst and consider all options in dealing with our market and customers.

For one, the pandemic has led to new lifestyles and customer preferences.

We may ask ourselves if the same market before the pandemic still holds true. Or should we tweak our business model in the light of an emerging new normal and the era of high oil prices? The most important thing in running a business is to accept the reality of change and acclimate to the new conditions. Change, as Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, is the only constant in life.

For comments, send e-mail to mbv_secretariat@vistaland.com.ph or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph

from currency “collateral” being purely financial in nature to becoming commodity based. “Useful” consumer commodities like foodstuffs, industrial minerals and metals, fuel sources, and even consumables like water will be the collateral that underwrites the whole currency/financial system.

And guess what? The US dollar and major Western currencies, not the ruble or the renminbi, will have the greatest difficulty dealing with the end of 50 years of economic “financialization.”

Honestly, I tend to view my own pesos in terms of conversion to a kilo of pork and certainly not in terms of conversion to US dollars. Sounds weird? Not at all. I bought new shoes for my son’s wedding thinking, “These cost me the equivalent of seven kilos of pigue (P400); these cost the same as 10 kilos.” I don’t “need” shoes. I do need food on the table.

With money changing to be valued by the amount of consumables it can buy and not the amount of US dollars it can be exchanged for, we may all soon be thinking of “pesos to pork” and “pesos to a barrel of oil.”

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Transacting business not The final stretch sole basis for imposing local business tax

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

Fulvio D. Dawilan

Tax Law for Business

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ocal government units are granted the power to create their own sources of revenues by no less than the Philippine Constitution. That power is further defined under the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC). And provided that there is a valid tax ordinance enacted by the respective local legislative body or the sanggunian, that power can be imposed on properties and business activities located or conducted within the jurisdiction of the concerned LGU. Like the national tax agency, LGUs had become so aggressive in their assessment and collection efforts. In fact, in many cases, two or more LGUs are trying to impose taxes on the same subject. This is not surprising, especially in the case of local business taxes, where the earning process may involve a series of activities conducted in different localities.

The premise is—where there is business activity, there should be tax.

Indeed, the rule is that local taxes are payable for every separate or distinct establishment or place where business subject to the tax is conducted. Hence, it is not unusual for a locality where part of the activities are transacted to claim its share of the business tax or even to impose tax on the whole revenue, on the pretext that the income earner is doing business within its jurisdiction. But local taxation is not as simple as that.

Transacting business in a locality, even if that activity constitutes doing business, is not necessarily covered by the taxing power of the concerned LGU. There are parameters defined in the LGC that provides when and where local taxes can be imposed.

Without dwelling on specific cases, let me discuss in general the extent of the power of LGUs to impose local taxes, especially when a taxpayer conducts business in different LGUs or when transactions cover more than one LGU. The rule on situs of local taxation is very clear. Businesses, maintaining or operating branch or sales outlet elsewhere, shall record the sale in the branch or sales outlet making the sale or transaction, and the tax accrues and should be paid to the LGU where such branch or sales outlet is located. If there is no branch or sales outlet in the locality where the sale or transaction is made, the sale shall be duly recorded in the principal office and the taxes accrue and shall be paid to that city or municipality. Specific allocation rule is provided when the business has factories, project offices, plants, and plantations in different localities. And this applies irrespective of whether or not sales are made in the locality where the factory, project office, plant, or plantation is located.

Local taxes are therefore imposable only by the LGUs where the principal offices, branches/sales outlet/ warehouse, factories, project offices, plants and plantations are located.

Cleary, insofar as local taxation is concerned, doing business or having part of the business transacted in an LGU does not make the business liable for taxes in that city/municipality. To be covered or not by the taxation power by the locality outside one’s principal place of business, it is not only the doing or not doing of

Perhaps, it is unfair for LGUs where businesses are partly transacted not to have its share of the tax revenues, when its community is disturbed with the presence of business activities in its area. Indeed, there should be more equitable distribution of local taxes. As one city treasurer puts it, regardless of the extent of business conducted in its area, the presence contributes to the woes of the city. business in the said locality that is considered. The presence or absence of a branch or the factories, project offices, plant or plantation matters.

The rules undoubtedly made clear that sales made in a locality where there is no branch shall be recorded in the principal office and the taxes due shall accrue to the city or municipality where the principal office is located. A branch is a fixed place in a locality, which conducts operations of the business as an extension of the principal office. An office where orders may be received is not a branch or sales office.

Perhaps, it is unfair for LGUs where businesses are partly transacted not to have its share of the tax revenues, when its community is disturbed with the presence of business activities in its area. Indeed, there should be more equitable distribution of local taxes. As one city treasurer puts it, regardless of the extent of business conducted in its area, the presence contributes to the woes of the city.

Nonetheless, the present local tax rules do not include these reasons as bases for imposing local taxes.

The present local tax system often leads to misunderstanding among LGUs and their taxpayers, as to which LGU has the authority to impose tax. The quarrel as to which LGU has the jurisdiction to impose tax often comes at the expense of the businesses. Perhaps, local taxation should be included in the tax reform program by the next administration, to spare both the LGUs and the taxpayers from the confusion and establish a fairer local tax system.

The author is the Managing Partner of DuBaladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member-firm of WTS Global.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at fulvio.dawilan@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 8403-2001 loc 310.

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overeignty resides in the people, and all government authority emanates from them.” In a democratic and republican state like the Philippines, the people are supreme. This is best exemplified when the Filipino people elect their president, the highest and most powerful official in government.

A single vote can decide who will reside in Malacañang for the next six years. Justice Jose P. Laurel declared that “an enfranchised citizen is a particle of popular sovereignty and is the source of established authority.” (Moya v. Del Fierro, 69 Phil.

199). As a member of a body politic, an individual fulfills the most critical function of his life when he or she casts his or her vote in a presidential election. No duty is more important and no role is more crucial than electing the next president of our country. The destiny of our nation and the future of our people depend on it. President Manuel L. Quezon gave us independence, President Ramon F. Magsaysay promoted social justice, and President Cory Aquino restored our democracy. Others have brought the Philippines to perdition. We had elected good and bad presidents who brought us fame or shame and hope or despair. The people chose them and so they have no one else to blame.

In other words, we deserve the president that we get. Thus, it behooves us to be wise in selecting our president.

In six days, the Filipinos will troop to their polling places to decide on who will be succeeding President Rodrigo R. Duterte. After a turbulent regime, we are praying

that the next Chief Executive will be able to unify our people, improve our economy, contain the spread of the pandemic, resolve the West Philippine Sea conflict, control inflation and the proliferation of illicit drugs, provide jobs to our people, and address the other major problems that confront us. Majority, if not most, of the enfranchised Filipinos share this prayer and ask for guidance and discernment to select the most deserving presidential candidate. However, this is easier said than done. With lies, deception and false news polluting our political atmosphere, it will be a big wonder how the voters can divine the truth and elect into office the rightful candidate who deserves the people’s trust. Misinformation and corruption fill the air and threaten our bedrock values and our sacred institutions upon which our integrity as a people and our moral moorings as a nation depend. Depraved office seekers employ dishonest practices to pervert facts and destroy their opponents to gain political mileage. Many candidates have no moral scruples and resort to every trick of the game to win an elective public position at all costs. They deploy paid hacks and

Tuesday, May 3, 2022 A11

trolls to spread massive disinformation to deceive the general public. They spin false narratives favorable to their sponsor but destructive to their enemies. Some even revise history to cast better lights on their benefactors. But as the former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan had said: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” Other unscrupulous politicians adopt the old ways of coercing voters to elect them. They enforce their will on the subdued people through “guns, goons, and gold” and, to add, gilded tales. More often, their nefarious ways succeed and demagoguery prevails. This corrodes our national ideals and sets back our political maturity. And elections, instead of promoting national unity and stability, endanger our democratic system of government. The constitutional provision that we, the people, are sovereign becomes a sham. We are mere puppets of rogue politicians whose priority is to serve their own interest. The people become unwitting tools of the devious schemes of political charlatans. This coming presidential election, let’s assert and reclaim our sovereign power.

Voters should be discerning enough to separate true public servants from the demagogues. The bogus ones make empty promises and have no track records of genuine public service to speak of. Now that they need our support, they come to us and offer every solution to our myriad problems. But where were they when destructive typhoons leveled our homes? Did they visit us when raging floods destroyed our crops? Did they come to our succor when we lost our jobs during the pandemic? Do they offer practical and concrete proposals to address the worsening drug problem? Do

they have a program to open up and improve our economy? How will they deal with China to resolve the West Philippine Sea dispute? Can they get tough with China and enforce the arbitral decision awarded in our favor? What about their personal qualifications, competence, honesty, and integrity? All the five serious presidential contenders—VP Leni Robredo, former Senator Bongbong Marcos, Mayor Isko Moreno, Senator Manny Pacquiao, and Senator Ping Lacson—are known political entities. They all have occupied elective public positions and their qualifications and records of public service are known, if not available for scrutiny. We can do our own research from unbiased sources instead of relying on partisan social media. Polluted sources are revisionists and will attempt to alter the dark past of their bets. This is material because the past records may provide us a gauge of a candidate’s future performance. Does he or she have a skeleton in his closet? Has he or she committed a monumental blunder in his or her career? Has the candidate betrayed the people’s trust? Can we entrust him or her with the presidency of our country? We need a skilled captain to navigate our ship of state in a perilous sea. An absentee captain with questionable training and who refuses to answer questions about his competence will not do the job.

Any apprentice for a work, particularly when it is the position of presidency, should be ready and willing to prove his or her worth. We cannot just send anyone to Malacañang and mess up the Office of the President.

One of my favorite idioms when electing a public official is: “It takes a jackass to kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.” Let’s remember that when we elect our next president on May 9.

Combat death puts spotlight on Americans fighting in Ukraine

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By Jay Reeves | The Associated Press

arrison Jozefowicz quit his job as a Chicago police officer and headed overseas soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. An Army veteran, he said he couldn’t help but join American volunteers seeking to help Ukrainians in their fight.

Jozefowicz now heads a group called Task Force Yankee, which he said has placed more than 190 volunteers in combat slots and other roles while delivering nearly 15,000 first aid kits, helping relocate more than 80 families and helping deliver dozens of pallets of food and medical supplies to the southern and eastern fronts of the war.

It’s difficult, dangerous work.

But Jozefowicz said he felt helpless watching from the United States last year during the US pullout from Afghanistan, particularly after a close friend, Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, died in a suicide bombing at Kabul.

“So, I’m just trying to do everything I can to make sure I can help others not go through what I went through,” he said Saturday during an interview conducted through a messaging platform.

A former US Marine who died last week was believed to be the first American citizen killed while fighting in Ukraine. Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, died Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN. An undetermined number of other Americans—many with military backgrounds—are thought to be in the country battling Russian

forces beside both Ukrainians and volunteers from other countries even though US forces aren’t directly involved in fighting aside from sending military materiel, humanitarian aid and money. The US government discourages Americans from fighting in Ukraine, which raises legal and national security issues.

Russia’s invasion has given Ukraine’s embassy in Washington the task of fielding inquiries from thousands of Americans who want to help in the fight, and Ukraine is using the Internet to recruit volunteers for a foreign force, the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine.

“Anyone who wants to join the defense of security in Europe and the world can come and stand side by side with the Ukrainians against the invaders of the 21st century,” President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a recruitment pitch.

Texan Anja Osmon, who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving in the US Army from 2009 through 2015, said she went to Ukraine on her own. A medic, she said she arrived in Ukraine on March 20 and lived in the woods with other members of the International Legion before a new commander sent her

away because he didn’t want female fighters.

Osmon, 30, said her mother wants her home before September. But for now she’s anxious to get out of the hotel where she is staying in Lviv and catch on with another fighting force nearer the action.

“I can’t turn away from injustice,” she said. “No one should be scared.”

US Marine veteran Eddy Etue said he quit his job in the gig economy, found a friend in Colorado to watch his cat and gave up his home four blocks from the beach in San Diego, California, to help out in Ukraine, where he’s been about two weeks.

He first worked with an aid organization but now is training with the International Legion.

Etue, 36, said he simply couldn’t stay home. “It’s just the right thing to do,” said Etue, who financed the journey through an online fundraising campaign.

Etue’s family history pulled him toward Ukraine. He said his grandparents left Hungary with nothing but their four children and clothes after the 1956 revolution, which was put down by Soviet forces that killed or wounded thousands.

“What’s happening here will affect not only the people who are experiencing it but their children and grandchildren as well,” he said.

“I know that from personal experience.”

Jozefowicz, the former Chicago cop, says there are thousands of American and other volunteers in Ukraine. Multiple organizations are operating in the country, and Jozefo-

wicz said his group alone has placed scores of volunteers in positions all over the country, with about 40 of those being combat jobs.

“We do not facilitate a civilian going into any direct-action role. We only guide and connect prior military volunteers,” he said.

But there’s plenty of other work to do. Groups of volunteers are getting medical and food supplies to people in the nation of 44 million people, he said, and others are working with refugees and others who’ve had to flee their homes.

“The closer I got into Ukraine and the more time I spent in Ukraine, the more voids I found that needed to be filled to maximize my group’s volunteer efforts,” he said.

Osmon, who said she’s been in contact with Jozefowicz’s group, said she supplied troops with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medications after days in the woods.

“Most everyone had air raid fever from hiding in the trenches in the snow and cold air,” she said. “Bronchitis was ravaging us.”

Etue said he got a feel for the country after making a 24-hour round trip with another volunteer to pick up a vehicle in Odessa. He said he’s been impressed with the quality of people serving in the International Legion since Ukrainians have done a good job of weeding out the inexperienced and “war tourists” who don’t have much to offer a military unit.

“I think they’re doing amazingly well given that they’re at war with one of the largest standing armies in the world,” he said.

Asian factories defy China slowdown as Euro area loses momentum

By Swati Pandey, Michelle Jamrisko & Alexander Weber Bloomberg Opinion

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sia’s factories did a better job in the past month than their European counterparts of weathering the impact on global supply chains of China’s lockdowns and the conflict in Ukraine.

Manufacturing hub South Korea’s Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 52.1 in April, according to S&P Global, recovering some ground lost in March.

The Philippines, Myanmar and Australia all advanced too, while only Taiwan proved an outlier. By contrast, the equivalent measure in the euro area was at a 15-month low.

“It will be important to see how growth momentum is sustained amid

ongoing supply-chain disruption and sharply rising costs,” said Maryam Baluch, an economist at S&P Global. China remains a significant risk as the latest surge in Covid cases and subsequent lockdowns threaten to choke off manufacturing logistics and restrain trade.

In the euro area, a measure of factory activity was revised up slightly to 55.5 but still confirmed to be slowing as shortages of components were aggravated

by the Chinese outbreak and the war in Ukraine. Rising prices and uncertainty about the economic outlook also weighed on demand in the currency bloc, with growth in new orders slowing sharply.

The region’s manufacturing sector “looks set for a difficult period of falling production and surging prices,” said S&P Global economist Chris Williamson.

Asia-Pacific economies, which include some of the world’s top exporters,

largely held up through April. The impact from weaker activity in China -- the top trading partner for much of the region -was offset by renewed demand in other key markets such as the US. The Philippines recorded its best performance since November 2017 as output and new orders surged. Only Taiwan fell—reflecting its deep economic links to China—with its lowest reading since July 2020.

In South Korea, meanwhile, price

and supply pressures were exacerbated

by Russia’s war on Ukraine and China’s expanding Covid restrictions.

The April PMI releases are scattered across several days given holidays across the region, including Eid al-Fitr in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, Indonesia.

Thailand’s PMI is set for release Tuesday, with Vietnam and Indonesia following on Wednesday and Malaysia’s due on Thursday.

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What change? Dynasts rule PHL politics, educator warns

By Cai U. Ordinario

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have increased, particularly in local government units. He said 80 percent of governors; 67 percent of Congressmen; and 53 percent of Mayors belong to fat dynasties by 2019.

In 2004, only 57 percent of governors belonged to fat dynasties; 48 percent of Congressmen; and 40 percent of Mayors.

@caiordinario

EAL change cannot be expected from voting dynasts into power, the dean of the Ateneo School of Government warned, ahead of the May 9 elections where expectations for gamechanging reforms are high. However, in a public social media post, Dean Ronald U. Mendoza said the data indicate that both the “fat” and “thin” political dynasties in the country have been thriving, and Monday’s elections may further entrench more of them.

According to Mendoza, voting for people with unknown or lesser known surnames could help bring the change that Filipinos have been waiting for for decades.

“Gusto natin ng pagbabago pero

Pollsters in focus

parami nang parami ang mga dynastiya sa gubyerno natin. Bakit kailangan ang Mayor at Congressman magkamag-anak? Bakit kailangan ng tig-dadalawang senador sa iisang pamilya? Humanap tayo ng bago para sa totoong pagbabago. #ibanaman,” Mendoza said in his post on Twitter and on Facebook.

[We want change but the dynasties in government service are increasing. Why should the mayor and congressman be relatives. Why should there be two senators in one family? Let’s look for new faces for

real change.]

In his post on Facebook, Mendoza laid down the difference between fat and thin dynasties. The post-Marcos era, he added, may have seen the rise of mini-dictatorships because of dynasties.

A thin dynasty is a political family seeing successive terms in office while a fat dynasty refers to several members of one family occupying various elective positions in the national and local political scene.

Based on election data, Mendoza estimated that fat dynasties

MEANWHILE, with election campaigns ending this week, pollsters, pundits, and politicians are at the homestretch of a long campaign. In the view of a former government statistician, young Filipino voters will be the deciding factor in this year’s elections.

In a public social media post, former National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary General Romulo A. Virola corrected what he deemed the underrepresentation of young voters in the Pulse Asia survey.

Virola said the data—when young voters are properly represented, given their numbers visà-vis the national demographic profile—could have Vice President See “Dynasty rule,” A2

Ex-BuCor chief Ragos recants claims vs Leila, but DOJ doubts timing

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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ORMER officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Rafael Ragos, another witness in the drug cases filed against Senator Leila de Lima, has executed an affidavit recanting his statements implicating the latter in the illegal-drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa when she was justice secretary.

Ragos’s recantation came several days after confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa walked back his sworn statements claiming De Lima benefited from illegal drug operations in the NBP. The Department of Justice (DOJ) found the timing of Ragos’s recantation suspicious, and said it will have little bearing on the pending drugrelated cases against the senator.

Ragos, who served as deputy director for intelligence of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), claimed he was forced to execute false affidavits and issue false testimonies before the House of Representatives and the court against De Lima and her bodyguard

Ronnie Dayan by several personalities, led by former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. He said his claims in his affidavits and House and court testimonies “are all fiction, false and fabricated.”

Ragos said in his four-page affidavit, “I was forced to execute the above affidavits and deliver the above House and court testimonies against Sec. De Lima and Ronnie Dayan due to threats of being detained myself for the crime of engaging in the illegal drug trade that I did not commit.”

The DOJ, however, noted the timing of Ragos’s recantation: five years after he revealed before the Senate about the illegal drug trade inside NBP and how De Lima allegedly benefitted from this illegal activity.

November 2012 affidavit

ON September 5, 2016, Ragos executed an affidavit claiming that in November 2012, as BuCor OIC, he and his aide Jovencio Ablen delivered a black bag containing P5 million to Dayan and De Lima at the latter’s residence.

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Companies

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

NGCP to procure ancillary services via public auction

By Lenie Lectura

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@llectura

he competitive auction for ancillary services (AS) is now a go, according to the bid invite of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

In a notice published on its website on Monday, the NGCP is inviting all interested gridconnected merchant plants and independent power producers to apply for eligibility and participate in the competitive bidding for the procurement of AS.

The deadline for the submission of expression of interest is on May 12. Eligible bidders will be announced on May 18. Thereafter, the bidders can already secure the bid documents.

The NGCP has schedule a prebid conference on May 23. The

deadline for submission of bids and the opening of bids are going to happen on June 14 for Luzon, June 15 for Visayas, and June 16 for Mindanao.

The company is expected to issue a notice of award to the winning bidders from July 4 to 8.

“NGCP needs qualified AS providers which can supply the grid requirements for Regulating Reserve, or 4 percent of the hourly system demand; Contingency Reserves, the most heavily loaded generating unit on-line and its scheduled reserve; Dispatchable Reserves, the second most heavily loaded generating unit on-line and its scheduled reserve; Reactive Power Support; and Black Start Service to commence in 2022 subject to the

approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission of AS Procurement Agreements,” the bid invite stated.

As system operator, the NGCP is responsible for determining, acquiring and dispatching the needed AS levels to maintain power quality and the reliability and security of the grid.

“The NGCP, through its Third Party Bids and Awards Committee (TPBAC), is inviting all interested grid-connected merchant plants and Independent Power Producers to apply for eligibility and participate in the competitive bidding for the procurement of AS,” it said in the bid invite.

Should there be less than two expressions of interest, the TPBAC shall declare a failed bid.

COL income hits record in 2021

By VG Cabuag @villygc

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tock broker COL Financial Group Inc. on Monday said its net income in 2021 rose 38 percent to a record P582 million from the previous year’s P424.31 million on increased activity in the country’s equities market.

Consolidated revenues rose P1.32 billion, 22 percent higher than the previous P1.08 billion, mainly as a result of the jump in commission revenues to a new record high of P1 billion.

COL said it benefited from the increase in market activity in the Philippine Stock Exchange, due to its strategy of focusing on its retail investor base. As a result, COL

‘Semirara has enough coal stocks’

ranked as the top stockbroker in the Philippines for the second year in a row, with a record market share of 8.6 percent.

“While ranking number one is not the benchmark that we measure our success on, we believe that this is the natural result of our strategy to focus on serving our customers,” COL President and CEO Conrado Bate said.

“By giving our self-directed investors the tools and knowledge that they need to invest wisely, this group of investors continues to become a bigger and more influential part of the country’s investing landscape.”

COL’s client base continued to grow, hitting almost half a million investors by the end of 2021.

Meanwhile, client assets reached a record high of P112 billion as the company saw P6.7 billion in net new flows, it said.

On the fund distribution side, the company started offering access to global funds through its platform. For the first time, COL clients were able to invest in a global multi-asset fund, resulting in a strong take-up from customers looking for investments outside of the local stock market.

COL said it intends to continue its expansion of global products by adding over 20 global, themebased equity funds in the first half this year.

The company also announced during its annual stockholders’ meeting that it would pay out

P0.085 per share in cash dividends to its shareholders.

These cash dividends are equivalent to 65 percent of the company’s profits last year, and are 30 percent higher than its cash dividends in the previous year.

COL said it will continue to adopt more efficient and scalable technologies this year, in addition to increasing its product offerings to address the different needs of its existing and prospective customers.

“While the current market conditions are more challenging than last year’s, we believe that we’ll be able to weather different market environments as long as we stick to our long-term strategy of putting our clients first at all times,” Bate said.

Cebu Pacific first local carrier to arrive at new Clark airport

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s coal demand and prices intensify, Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp.

(SMPC) said Monday it won’t run out of coal reserves even if its coal operating contract (COC) expires in 2027.

During the company’s stockholders’ meeting, SMPC President Cristina Gotianun said the company was able to supply coal to new local buyers in the power and cement plants, such as San Miguel’s power plants in Masinloc, Limay, Malita and Petron; AboitizPower Therma Luzon Inc. and Therma South Inc.; Northern Cement and Goodfound Cement. Also, SMPC was able to develop new export markets, namely Korea, Cambodia and Brunei.

“At an annual coal production rate of 13 to 16 million metric tons, the company has enough coal reserves until the expiration of its coal operating contract in 2027,” she said.

In 2021, SMPC’s net income stood at P16.2 billion, a 393-percent leap from P3.3 billion the previous year, mainly due to an 8-percent rise in coal production, 16-percent jump in coal shipments and 71-percent surge in average coal selling prices. “Our all-time topline and bottom line were mostly driven by the coal segment, which made a strong comeback in 2021,” Gotianun said.

It was a different story for SMPC’s power business as operational challenges persisted in 2021. The underperformance of its power segment was mainly attributable to Unit 2 of SemCalaca Power Corp. (SMPC). Lenie Lectura

Contributed photo

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

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UDGET airline Cebu Pacific said on Monday it was the first local carrier to land at the Clark International Airport Terminal 2, with a ranking official saying that the new terminal provides passengers with “enhanced customer journeys.”

Michael Ivan Shau, chief corporate affairs officer of the airline, said Cebu Pacific flight 5J 156 (CebuClark) received a water cannon salute upon arrival at 6:33 a.m.

“We are happy to be the first do-

mestic flight to operate in the newly opened terminal, another first for us since we conducted a simulation flight for the Clark-Cebu route in December 2021. The new terminal will further enhance customer journeys with its state-of-the-art contactless solutions, aligned with Cebu Pacific’s mission to provide safe and convenient travel for all,” he said.

Cebu Pacific has been operating the route since 2006. Before the pandemic, the carrier was operating flights out of Clark to seven domestic destinations: Cebu, Bacolod, Bohol, Boracay, Davao, Iloilo, and Puerto Princesa. It was also operat-

ing flights to Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Tokyo.

Currently, Cebu Pacific’s operations in Clark are limited to Cebu.

Shau said the company hopes to reopen its routes as demand recovers from the pandemic.

“As more borders open and leisure travel becomes available, we look forward to ramping up our network in this key hub to address the anticipated demand.”

The airline continues to implement a multi-layered approach to safety, while it operates with a 100 percent fully vaccinated crew, 90 percent of whom have been boosted.

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SMC unit needs ₧214B to finish capital projects

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MC GLOBAL Power Holdings Corp. (SMCGP) would need P214.8 billion to finish its capital expenditure (capex) projects, including capital-intensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants.

In a filing, the power arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said the amount authorized, but not yet disbursed for capital projects, is “approximately P24,795 million as of December 31, 2021.”

“The funds to be used for these projects will come from available cash and proceeds from outstanding long-term loan,” it said.

These projects involve the construction of power plants, mostly utilizing high efficiency low emission technologies, LNG and battery energy storage systems (BESS). SMCGP said these projects are “needed for normal operations of the business” and will be “carried forward to the next quarters” until completion.

“The group’s material commitments for capex projects have been approved in prior years and in the current year but these projects are ongoing and not yet completed as of December 31, 2021,” it added.

Just recently, SMCGP informed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that it will put up an LNG power plant in Cebu.

SMCGP is planning to construct a 600-MW LNG Combined Cycle Power Plant Project in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu. This will be located within the 26.16-hectare property leased from Keppel Cebu Shipyard Land Inc. and National Development Co. The company had also disclosed that it plans to construct a 1,300MW LNG combined cycle plant in Batangas City; a 600MW LNG combined cycle power plant in Leyte; 4x75-MW LNG Combined Cycle Power Plant in Negros Occidental.

For BESS, a total of 1,000MW BESS facilities nationwide will be operational this year.

SMCGP earlier earmarked $1 billion to build 31 BESS with a capacity of 1,000MW. These are all part of the power firm’s plans to boost its renewables portfolio reduce its carbon footprint while helping address the country’s need for reliable and affordable power, it said. Lenie Lectura

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Companies BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Megaworld to hike budget for Upper East township

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

egaworld Corp. on Monday said it is increasing its spending on its Bacolod township Upper East by P10 billion, as it ramps up construction activities inside the 34-hectare property.

The company said it is now spending a total of P45 billion for the development, up from the P35 billion

that it announced in 2015.

Megaworld is developing two townships in Negros Occidental, the

50-hectare Northill Gateway in the boundary of Talisay City and Bacolod City, and Upper East.

“We are adding P10 billion more to our investment for Upper East as we see great potential and opportunities for this new township, which is now fast rising to be Bacolod’s first modern central business district,” Jennifer Palmares-Fong, the company’s vice president for sales and marketing, said.

In Upper East, the company has already completed the construction of the 12-storey One Regis, its first residential condominium project, which is due for turnover within the year.

The company also recently topped off the second tower, the 14-storey Two Regis, and is set to be completed next year. Two more condominium towers are in the construction pipeline, the 14-storey One Manhattan and the recently-launched 12-storey Herald Parksuites. So far, the company also has around 1,000 units inventory in Upper East.

Megaworld formally opened the Upper East Avenue, its eight-lane main avenue inside The Upper East.

The Upper East Avenue is com-

posed of six road lanes and two onstreet parking lanes. It is open for both private and public vehicles, subject to the traffic rules and regulations of its own estate management group, which will deploy traffic marshals around the area.

The opening marks an important milestone for The Upper East as it showcases the kilometer-long stretch of the township with several areas having simultaneous construction activities.

“Our first BPO office tower development, No. 1 Upper East Avenue, has also started its construction.

Soon, we will also begin the construction of our commercial developments in this township. Indeed, exciting times are up ahead in The Upper East,” Fong said.

Secondary roads within Upper East, which will be at least 20-meters wide, are now being completed.

There will be an extensive network of bike lanes inside the township to help promote efficient and convenient mobility.

The development will have its own shopping mall, commercial parks, hotel, church and other institutional and recreational facilities.

mutual funds

May 2, 2022

NAV

One Year Three Year

Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

216.52

3.85%

-6.44%

-4.08%

-7.11%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.4652

15.78%

-3.05%

-0.28%

-11.96%

4.77%

-10.26%

-6.6%

-7.58%

-8.03% n.a.

-3.37%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6791 -0.06%

-8.13% n.a.

-11.91%

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

6.7%

-3.98%

-1.62%

-5.75%

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

0.7243

10.03%

-6.37%

-5.14% -7.53%

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.9923 Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.731 4.8847

0%

83.89

-12.7%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

44.3407

3.78%

-12.77% n.a.

-5.44%

-2.73%

-11.16% -7.87%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

464.53

3.6%

-5.28%

-2.81%

-7.22%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.3184

20.26%

-0.04%

0.68%

-2.79%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

34.2

6.69%

-4.23%

-1.36%

-6.54%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.8753

5.07%

-5.81% n.a.

-7.02%

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.5947

4.99%

-4.72%

-7.38%

-2.01%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

764.34

4.4%

-4.83%

-2.1%

-7.74%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.6908

4.56%

-9.65%

-4.9%

-8.21%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.4607

4.36%

-7.37%

-3.34%

-8.34%

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

0.8704

4.08%

-5.13%

-2.35% -7.85%

United Fund, Inc. -a

4.02%

-5.17%

-1.06%

-6.68%

3.2077

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

1.1263

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

932.52 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

9.68% n.a. n.a.

-3.13%

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

103.1469

5%

-4.55%

-1.66% -7.47%

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

$0.9536

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.5846

-25.67%

-2.72%

0.18%

-15.35%

-11.32%

6.73%

7.1%

-14.18%

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

1.5757

-3.37%

-3.03%

-2.13%

-6.87%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.1686

0.9%

-2.26%

-1.4%

-4.95%

3.54%

-0.75%

0.25%

-3.84%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.5877

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.2011

7.03% n.a. n.a. -3.78%

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

1.9338

1.96%

0.16%

0.58%

-4.11%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.5623

0.44%

-1.11%

-0.72%

-5.39%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

15.9674

0.41%

-1.39%

-0.76%

-5.21%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0312

2.02%

-1.81%

-0.88%

-4.25%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.4352 1.87%

-3.86%

-1.51%

-5.81%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

-3.03%

-1.05%

-5.86%

0.8983

7.75%

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

0.9303

-2.98%

-2.49% n.a.

-6.01%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a

0.8684

0.24%

-4.71% n.a.

-8.06%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a

0.8572

0.87%

-5.07% n.a.

-8.21%

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

$0.03406

-10.25%

-1.96%

-0.84%

-10.23%

$0.9569

-16.57%

-1.34%

0.2%

-10.33%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.2098 -10.97%

4.02%

4.77%

-12.33%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,2 $1.0665 -10.66%

0.41%

1.42%

-11.02%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

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

373.52

0.72%

2.39%

2.41%

-0.21%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.8872

-1.24%

0.03%

0.11%

0.13% -0.01%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2437

0.68%

2.4%

3.57%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2077

-2.25%

0.72%

1.11%

-1.95%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4168 -0.59%

2.27%

1.76%

-0.38%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.2749

-4.28%

1.93%

1.04%

-2.75%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3168

-0.17%

3.21%

2.8%

-0.17%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9241

-0.89%

2.8%

2.47%

-1.05%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0129

-1.22%

3.29%

1.84%

-1.49%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1586

-0.79%

3.03%

2.97%

-0.9%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-1.39%

2.29%

2.29%

-1.03%

1.7128

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

$482.35

-0.2%

1.99%

1.98%

-1.47%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є214.09

-2.57%

-0.31%

0.32%

-2.69%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.0793

-8.04%

-2.6%

-0.69%

-10.35%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0246 -5.02%

-0.93%

-0.24%

-5.38%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$0.916

-12.63%

-4.85%

-3.05%

-10.44%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.2611

-8.72%

-0.14%

0.49%

-9.76%

$0.0610015

-2.64%

1.55%

1.37%

-2.07%

-2%

-1.12%

-12.39%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $2.8003 -10.56%

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

131.69

1.32%

2.4%

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

1.0616

1.04%

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3223

1.52%

2.28%

2.53%

0.38%

1.69% n.a. 0.37% 2.5%

0.51%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities (shares) Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0627

0.59%

1.23% n.a.

0.2%

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

44.4498 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a 1.2516

0.79% n.a. n.a. -9.49%

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

$0.8783

-12.17% 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.

-9.45%

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

May 2, 2022

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK COMMERCE BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL IREMIT MEDCO HLDG NTL REINSURANCE SUN LIFE VANTAGE

39,375 165,515,277 919,952 82,272,336 493,800 2,915,069 233,422,694 830 68,000 2,482,208 2,292 6,053,455 2,384,234.50 17,280 156,440 3,980 29,500 3,570 50,250 3,120

-2,728,541 -61,180 -11,519,922.50 -1,758,763 -135,922,727 99,952 -1,178,854 413,120 3,680 -1,440 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 7.4 7.42 7.25 7.48 7.24 7.4 15,341,900 112,959,658 ALSONS CONS 0.91 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.9 0.99 1,070,000 996,140 ABOITIZ POWER 31.15 31.4 32 32.15 30.95 31.15 1,330,000 41,679,205 BASIC ENERGY 0.365 0.37 0.38 0.38 0.35 0.365 7,130,000 2,575,200 FIRST GEN 23.3 23.8 23.3 24.45 23.3 23.3 89,600 2,095,775 FIRST PHIL HLDG 69.9 69.95 69.95 69.95 69.95 69.95 5,780 404,311 MERALCO 346.2 350 352.2 354.8 346 350 41,000 14,332,720 18.02 18.1 18.5 18.5 17.8 18.1 1,869,700 33,595,026 MANILA WATER 3.23 3.24 3.2 3.25 3.2 3.23 277,000 891,000 PETRON 4.9 4.91 4.9 4.91 4.9 4.91 252,000 1,236,120 PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM 9.91 10.2 9.81 10.2 9.81 10.2 20,000 202,738 SYNERGY GRID 12.28 12.3 12.46 12.5 12.28 12.3 824,100 10,149,730 17.1 17.3 17.3 17.4 17.1 17.4 89,400 1,547,460 PILIPINAS SHELL SPC POWER 13.9 13.94 14 14 13.9 13.9 110,100 1,534,104 SOLAR PH 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.59 1.54 1.54 44,458,000 69,598,090 AGRINURTURE 4.69 4.84 4.59 4.87 4.58 4.84 1,498,000 6,872,090 AXELUM 2.55 2.63 2.63 2.63 2.51 2.63 64,000 166,370 CNTRL AZUCARERA 12 12.78 12 12 12 12 300 3,600 CENTURY FOOD 22 22.9 22.25 23 22.05 22.9 56,200 1,283,270 14.24 14.3 14.3 14.3 14.26 14.3 20,800 297,394 DEL MONTE 7.1 7.11 7.15 7.18 7.06 7.1 467,100 3,342,400 DNL INDUS 19.8 19.82 19.5 20.1 19.4 19.82 2,305,300 45,649,766 EMPERADOR 61 61.4 61.95 61.95 60.6 61 30,230 1,843,258.50 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.52 0.53 0.52 0.54 0.52 0.53 1,290,000 673,700 FIGARO COFFEE 0.58 0.59 0.57 0.58 0.56 0.58 273,000 155,620 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.04 1.05 1.07 1.08 1.03 1.05 762,000 802,330 GINEBRA 102.8 105 107 107.9 103 105 18,960 1,970,481 JOLLIBEE 218 220 215 222.6 214.2 220 468,060 101,360,268 KEEPERS HLDG 1.22 1.23 1.21 1.25 1.21 1.22 608,000 738,610 LIBERTY FLOUR 20.9 21.5 21.5 21.5 21.5 21.5 600 12,900 MACAY HLDG 3.98 6.25 5.55 5.55 5.55 5.55 300 1,665 6.02 6.22 6 6.25 6 6.23 13,900 86,668 MAXS GROUP MG HLDG 0.124 0.135 0.125 0.135 0.125 0.125 80,000 10,100 MONDE NISSIN 13.4 13.42 12.9 13.4 12.9 13.4 5,405,400 71,716,432 8 8.27 8 8.35 7.99 8.1 179,100 1,456,757 SHAKEYS PIZZA 0.495 0.5 0.53 0.53 0.495 0.5 591,000 294,690 ROXAS AND CO RFM CORP 4.21 4.4 4.21 4.39 4.2 4.39 99,000 416,690 UNIV ROBINA 104.8 105 103.4 105.7 103.2 104.8 1,225,710 128,471,165 VITARICH 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.58 0.55 0.57 2,351,000 1,335,630 VICTORIAS 2.71 2.92 2.75 3.05 2.7 2.92 47,000 128,730 CEMEX HLDG 0.8 0.81 0.8 0.83 0.8 0.8 850,000 691,070 EAGLE CEMENT 12.32 12.68 12.52 12.94 12.48 12.48 42,200 527,048 EEI CORP 4.29 4.3 4.37 4.37 4.25 4.3 248,000 1,069,430 5.49 5.6 5.55 5.65 5.5 5.5 132,100 732,848 HOLCIM MEGAWIDE 5.01 5.04 5 5.05 4.96 5.04 164,900 822,601 19.8 19.9 19.9 19.9 19.88 19.9 27,000 536,876 PHINMA VULCAN INDL 0.91 0.92 0.89 0.94 0.88 0.92 183,000 166,310 EUROMED 1.01 1.11 1.01 1.01 1.01 1.01 5,000 5,050 PRYCE CORP 5.63 5.64 5.63 5.64 5.63 5.64 42,300 238,474 GREENERGY 1.5 1.52 1.53 1.55 1.47 1.52 4,709,000 7,092,630 INTEGRATED MICR 6.98 6.99 7.04 7.05 6.98 6.98 199,200 1,397,512 IONICS 0.68 0.7 0.69 0.69 0.68 0.68 27,000 18,500 PANASONIC 6.23 6.32 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.3 10,000 63,000 SFA SEMICON 1.06 1.16 1.15 1.16 1.1 1.1 125,000 138,510 CIRTEK HLDG 2.94 2.95 2.95 2.95 2.91 2.95 323,000 946,450

221,437 19,000 2,673,465 -1,673,095 -3,576,314 -4,215,782 -51,480 326,328 0 -242,252 -40,810 68,320 3,600 8,465 5,720 -235,695 -5,254,442 -175,546.50 -42,400 42,190 13,767 -16,015,486 -66,750 -14,496,370 221,931 29,440 27,825,767 -254,130 -488,106 21,250 58,646 78,730 -272,574 103,400 -

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LT GROUP METRO PAC INV PRIME MEDIA SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP TOP FRONTIER

43.75 127.8 12.14 93.65 26.65 8.04 50.05 8.3 15.76 18.5 57 103.5 72.1 1.92 3.61 0.8 0.295 0.64 2,500 0.78

1.16 4.4 738 50.7 11.42 9.18 0.88 0.5 0.51 4.9 8.03 7 510 55.6 6.63 8.53 3.81 1.21 0.86 848.5 105.1 110.3

44.7 128 12.16 93.9 26.7 8.05 50.15 8.7 16.98 18.52 57.3 104.5 72.5 2.1 3.62 0.89 0.305 0.71 2,846 0.81

1.17 4.94 739 50.95 11.46 9.2 0.94 0.51 0.53 4.92 8.09 7.12 520 55.7 7.28 8.69 3.82 1.26 0.89 849 106.5 116

43.75 130 12.2 95 26.7 8.06 51.8 8.3 17 18.8 57.3 103 73.1 1.92 3.62 0.79 0.295 0.72 2,550 0.78

1.16 4.6 740 51 11.82 9 0.89 0.5 0.51 4.9 8.3 7 504 55.75 7.28 8.55 3.8 1.21 0.89 850 106.3 110.1

43.75 130 12.3 95 26.7 8.08 51.8 8.3 17 19 57.3 104.5 73.15 1.92 3.68 0.8 0.295 0.72 2,550 0.78

1.17 4.6 758 51.6 11.82 9.2 0.89 0.52 0.51 4.95 8.3 7 520 57.75 7.28 8.69 3.84 1.21 0.89 851.5 106.5 116

43.75 127.3 12.16 93.1 26.6 8.03 49.2 8.3 17 18.5 57.3 103 72.1 1.92 3.62 0.79 0.295 0.71 2,500 0.78

1.15 4.6 737 50.15 11.42 9 0.88 0.5 0.51 4.87 7.98 7 502 55.5 7.28 8.52 3.79 1.21 0.89 840 104 110.1

43.75 128 12.16 93.9 26.7 8.05 50.05 8.3 17 18.5 57.3 104.5 72.5 1.92 3.62 0.8 0.295 0.71 2,500 0.78

1.17 4.6 738 50.7 11.42 9.2 0.88 0.5 0.51 4.9 8.09 7 520 55.7 7.28 8.69 3.82 1.21 0.89 849 106.5 116

900 1,291,820 75,300 878,240 18,500 362,200 4,633,400 100 4,000 133,100 40 58,450 32,850 9,000 43,000 5,000 100,000 5,000 20 4,000

4,008,000 5,000 82,290 933,700 1,643,600 3,700 39,000 2,752,000 267,000 177,000 6,295,700 1,000 104,520 786,880 300 1,041,300 14,203,000 56,000 33,000 81,170 35,620 200

4,660,530 23,000 60,822,480 47,469,520.50 18,915,504 34,000 34,420 1,380,860 136,170 868,040 50,867,301 7,000 53,196,885 43,895,913 2,184 8,970,153 54,146,620 67,760 29,370 68,721,420 3,773,518 22,905

PROPERTY ANCHOR LAND 5 5.91 5 5 5 5 4,143,800 20,719,000 AYALA LAND 32.1 32.15 32.2 32.5 31.7 32.1 8,375,000 268,436,815 AYALA LAND LOG 4.28 4.29 4.35 4.37 4.26 4.29 573,000 2,476,590 ARANETA PROP 1.09 1.12 1.09 1.09 1.09 1.09 54,000 58,860 AREIT RT 39.5 39.75 39.65 40.4 39 39.75 891,100 35,192,095 A BROWN 0.82 0.84 0.84 0.84 0.84 0.84 30,000 25,200 CITYLAND DEVT 0.72 0.73 0.71 0.73 0.71 0.73 70,000 51,000 0.092 0.099 0.099 0.099 0.095 0.099 50,000 4,910 CROWN EQUITIES CEB LANDMASTERS 2.72 2.79 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.79 682,000 1,871,540 0.4 0.41 0.4 0.41 0.4 0.405 390,000 156,700 CENTURY PROP CITICORE RT 2.56 2.57 2.57 2.59 2.55 2.56 3,558,000 9,111,050 8.11 8.21 8.3 8.3 8.02 8.21 78,800 640,805 DOUBLEDRAGON 1.44 1.45 1.47 1.47 1.44 1.44 1,987,000 2,887,910 DDMP RT DM WENCESLAO 6.88 6.9 6.88 6.9 6.88 6.9 32,000 220,798 EMPIRE EAST 0.219 0.229 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 110,000 24,200 EVER GOTESCO 0.248 0.249 0.248 0.248 0.248 0.248 680,000 168,640 FILINVEST RT 7.34 7.35 7.31 7.36 7.31 7.35 715,900 5,251,572 FILINVEST LAND 1.04 1.05 1.05 1.07 1.05 1.05 6,241,000 6,627,390 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.88 0.91 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.88 336,000 295,680 13.38 13.76 13.76 13.82 13.38 13.76 115,200 1,585,378 8990 HLDG 634.5 675 675 675 675 675 20 13,500 GOLDEN MV PHIL INFRADEV 0.89 0.94 0.89 0.94 0.89 0.94 351,000 326,310 CITY AND LAND 0.82 0.83 0.83 0.86 0.82 0.82 270,000 224,830 2.79 2.8 2.85 2.85 2.78 2.79 9,088,000 25,461,840 MEGAWORLD 0.21 0.211 0.215 0.22 0.211 0.211 1,330,000 283,430 MRC ALLIED MREIT RT 17.5 17.58 17.48 17.58 17.42 17.5 1,514,600 26,551,530 OMICO CORP 0.35 0.36 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 760,000 266,000 PHIL ESTATES 0.4 0.41 0.405 0.405 0.405 0.405 20,000 8,100 PRIMEX CORP 2.69 2.7 2.7 2.73 2.58 2.73 1,392,000 3,747,320 RL COMM RT 7.23 7.24 7.25 7.3 7.2 7.23 762,800 5,530,842 ROBINSONS LAND 18.9 19.1 19.02 19.12 18.6 19.1 675,000 12,742,642 1.36 1.41 1.36 1.36 1.36 1.36 5,000 6,800 ROCKWELL 2.78 2.86 2.79 2.86 2.79 2.86 10,000 28,460 STA LUCIA LAND SM PRIME HLDG 34.7 35 35.3 35.4 34.35 35 4,028,100 140,467,215 2.4 2.43 2.64 2.64 2.3 2.4 7,327,000 18,308,210 VISTA LAND

SERVICES ABS CBN 12.54 12.7 12.78 12.78 12.5 12.54 87,700 1,109,606 GMA NETWORK 13.02 13.04 13.32 13.36 13 13.02 1,015,400 13,311,370 GLOBE TELECOM 2,270 2,274 2,298 2,316 2,238 2,274 44,165 100,426,650 PLDT 1,860 1,865 1,864 1,875 1,846 1,865 56,125 104,412,160 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.041 0.042 0.043 0.044 0.04 0.042 465,600,000 19,170,700 CONVERGE 27.3 27.55 28.35 28.5 27.3 27.3 4,265,200 118,315,360 DFNN INC 2.9 3.01 2.95 3.15 2.79 3 1,759,000 5,237,730 4.63 4.64 4.8 4.82 4.56 4.64 6,943,000 32,493,330 DITO CME HLDG 1.15 1.34 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.15 2,000 2,300 IMPERIAL NOW CORP 1.36 1.37 1.37 1.41 1.36 1.37 2,882,000 3,972,190 0.305 0.315 0.315 0.32 0.305 0.305 4,890,000 1,529,250 TRANSPACIFIC BR 7.28 7.38 7.24 7.38 7.24 7.38 20,400 149,017 2GO GROUP ASIAN TERMINALS 14.02 14.08 14.08 14.08 14.02 14.08 43,100 605,956 CHELSEA 1.45 1.47 1.47 1.47 1.45 1.45 390,000 566,900 CEBU AIR 43.7 43.75 44 44 43.25 43.75 118,600 5,180,640 INTL CONTAINER 212 215.6 215 223 210.2 215.6 259,110 55,513,054 LBC EXPRESS 22.25 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 700 15,890 MACROASIA 5.14 5.15 5.15 5.18 5.05 5.14 807,000 4,116,801 PAL HLDG 6.08 6.2 6.08 6.2 6.08 6.08 13,100 79,720 0.64 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.64 0.65 27,000 17,470 HARBOR STAR WATERFRONT 0.43 0.445 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 370,000 159,100 IPEOPLE 6.7 7.98 6.7 7.98 6.7 7.98 400 2,936 0.345 0.36 0.345 0.345 0.345 0.345 210,000 72,450 STI HLDG BELLE CORP 1.26 1.3 1.26 1.3 1.25 1.3 142,000 178,810 BLOOMBERRY 6.08 6.09 6.05 6.1 6.05 6.08 2,416,900 14,689,857 PACIFIC ONLINE 1.35 1.58 1.38 1.38 1.35 1.35 60,000 82,420 LEISURE AND RES 1.25 1.27 1.25 1.26 1.24 1.26 3,010,000 3,792,410 PH RESORTS GRP 0.92 0.97 0.98 0.98 0.9 0.97 912,000 852,190 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.47 0.475 0.485 0.485 0.47 0.475 9,600,000 4,587,150 PHILWEB 2.3 2.31 2.27 2.31 2.27 2.31 86,000 197,040 ALLDAY 0.435 0.44 0.435 0.445 0.425 0.435 10,020,000 4,325,250 8 8.02 7.91 8.02 7.71 8 96,100 764,495 ALLHOME 1.43 1.44 1.44 1.44 1.43 1.43 443,000 633,550 METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD 33 33.25 33 33.65 33 33 492,600 16,403,795 53.2 53.25 53.5 53.5 53 53.25 49,720 2,645,011 ROBINSONS RTL 62.1 65 65 65 62 65 470 30,430 PHIL SEVEN CORP 1.15 1.16 1.16 1.16 1.15 1.16 627,000 724,240 SSI GROUP WILCON DEPOT 27.1 27.5 27.8 28.1 27 27.1 302,400 8,251,225 APC GROUP 0.22 0.225 0.225 0.225 0.22 0.22 510,000 112,960 EASYCALL 4.01 4.36 4.01 4.01 4.01 4.01 2,000 8,020 IPM HLDG 6.7 6.8 6.6 6.7 6.6 6.7 5,000 33,300 MEDILINES 0.75 0.76 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 5,435,000 4,178,900 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.495 0.5 0.51 0.51 0.495 0.495 4,259,000 2,117,010

MINING & OIL ATOK 5.51 5.88 5.51 5.88 5.51 5.88 2,000 11,168 APEX MINING 1.48 1.49 1.51 1.54 1.49 1.49 3,890,000 5,880,790 ATLAS MINING 5.94 5.97 6 6.07 5.94 5.94 1,015,500 6,054,118 BENGUET A 7.15 7.25 6.9 7.28 6.6 7.25 61,300 423,315 BENGUET B 6.94 7.28 7.3 7.3 7.3 7.3 200 1,460 DIZON MINES 4.71 5.34 3.89 5.34 3.89 5.34 700 3,097 2.52 2.6 2.6 2.65 2.5 2.6 8,187,000 21,220,260 FERRONICKEL 0.177 0.198 0.178 0.178 0.178 0.178 310,000 55,180 GEOGRACE 0.137 0.146 0.137 0.137 0.137 0.137 410,000 56,170 LEPANTO B MANILA MINING A 0.0098 0.0099 0.0098 0.0098 0.0097 0.0097 9,800,000 95,470 MARCVENTURES 1.51 1.53 1.56 1.59 1.51 1.53 3,729,000 5,721,930 0.91 0.93 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.91 52,000 47,320 NIHAO NICKEL ASIA 7.65 7.67 7.5 7.77 7.5 7.67 2,774,000 21,066,499 PX MINING 4.9 4.92 5.08 5.08 4.87 4.92 709,000 3,476,050 SEMIRARA MINING 27.4 27.5 27.4 27.7 27 27.5 1,022,700 28,042,890 UNITED PARAGON 0.0061 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 0.0065 5,000,000 32,500 ACE ENEXOR 16.6 16.94 16.8 17.2 16.5 16.94 141,600 2,357,800 ORNTL PETROL A 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 4,400,000 48,500 0.0091 0.0093 0.0091 0.0091 0.0091 0.0091 2,000,000 18,200 PHILODRILL PXP ENERGY 4.5 4.59 4.66 4.67 4.45 4.59 332,000 1,501,670

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF B 98.3 100 98.1 98.1 98.1 98.1 120 11,772 HOUSE PREF A 100 101 100 101 100 101 10,010 1,001,010 ALCO PREF D 512 513 512 512 512 512 200 102,400 BRN PREF A 104 105.7 105 105.7 105 105.7 1,000 105,350 CEB PREF 43.6 45 45 45 45 45 4,400 198,000 CPG PREF A 101.5 102.4 101.5 102.4 101.5 102.4 100 10,195 DD PREF 99.7 99.8 99.8 99.8 99.8 99.8 600 59,880 102.8 105.9 102.8 105 102.8 105 510 53,528 FGEN PREF G GTCAP PREF A 1,010 1,020 1,010 1,010 1,010 1,010 2,020 2,040,200 GTCAP PREF B 971 1,010 1,010 1,010 1,010 1,010 300 303,000 JFC PREF A 970 980 970 980 970 980 160 155,300 MWIDE PREF 2B 92.05 100.2 100.2 100.2 100.2 100.2 230 23,046 MWIDE PREF 4 97.7 99.9 97.7 99.9 97.7 99.9 90 8,903 PNX PREF 3B 100.1 101 101 101 100 101 5,700 570,308 PCOR PREF 3A 1,056 1,070 1,070 1,070 1,070 1,070 120 128,400 SMC PREF 2F 76.3 77.9 76.5 77.9 76.3 77.9 36,620 2,813,959 SMC PREF 2H 75.1 75.6 75.6 75.6 75.1 75.1 3,200 241,520 SMC PREF 2I 78.1 79.45 79.4 79.5 79.4 79.5 10,000 794,847.50 TECH PREF B2C 52.7 52.95 52.75 52.75 52.75 52.75 4,000 211,000

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 12.2 12.4 12.24 12.24 12.24 12.24 237,100 2,902,104 GMA HLDG PDR 12.62 12.9 12.9 12.9 12.62 12.62 31,400 399,376

WARRANTS TECH WARRANT 0.55 0.56 0.59 0.59 0.55 0.56 3,867,000 2,231,510

4,132,350.00 -27,856,670 -10,447,495 127,078.00 1,800 313,410 546,380 -5,848,830 -12,497,062.50 -2,338,938 -10,999,590 -42,350 -9,649,575 -44,408 -20,719,000 -91,563,035 -223,120 54,500 -6,771,110 11,040 30,720 -24,487 -58,400 -7,350 -2,895,920 -148,046 59,500 -7,796,000 -8,715,532 -2,693,000 -949,769 1,246,144 -6,800 -71,374,220.00 -13,093,500 -14,321,510 12,791,425 504,600 -18,229,275 -3,033,000 -1,061,610 29,190.00 3,100 1,408 -1,179,050 -3,966,634 103,632 -1,340 2,210,217 -57,960.00 -154,200 124,200 152,250 615,199 748,320 -255,707.50 -27,950 527,550.00 1,716,390 -77,875 -238,530 -91,595 -1,460 14,688,440 10,680 -130,040 12,864,809 -80,520 -1,563,015 -178,526 67,500

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP CTS GLOBAL HAUS TALK ITALPINAS MAKATI FINANCE MERRYMART XURPAS

16.16 0.99 1.09 0.85 2.16 1.62 0.315

16.66 1.01 1.13 0.88 2.3 1.64 0.325

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

103

104.1

16.16 1 1.13 0.88 2.16 1.69 0.31

16.16 1.02 1.15 0.88 2.16 1.69 0.33

16.16 0.99 1.09 0.85 2.16 1.6 0.31

16.16 1 1.13 0.88 2.16 1.64 0.325

700 13,229,000 436,000 486,000 4,000 3,244,000 310,000

11,312 13,286,290 481,640 418,600 8,640 5,296,570 97,950

198,000 49,900 () () 3,870 27,310 -30,090 -

104 105 103 103 23,030 2,387,546 423,128

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Tuesday, May 3, 2022

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BTr partially awards bids for 364-day T-bills

T

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Bureau of the Treasury raised P12.6 billion out of its P15 billion offering of Treasury Bills (T-bills) as investors stubbornly stuck with higher bids in anticipation of policy changes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the US Federal Reserve.

Monday’s auction ended up with mixed results as the auction committee decided to fully award P5-billion worth of bids each for the 91-day

and 182-day T-bills and to partially award P2.6 billion out of its P5 billion offering for the 364-day T-bills.

Rates for the 91-day and 182-day

securities were higher than the secondary market benchmark rates and the previous auction results.

Meanwhile, the 364-day T-bills fetched an average rate above the secondary market benchmark rate.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon explained that bids were higher as the market is “immersed in both Fed and BSP aggressive tightening rhetoric.”

De Leon further said that US Fed Chair Jerome Powell is “open to frontloading rate hikes combined with balance sheet runoff to cool down overheating prices.”

“Onshore, inflation for April likewise seen to settle higher at 4.6 percent,” she added.

Inflation for April is seen by the BSP to settle between 4.2 percent and 5 percent on the back of

higher electricity rates, increased domestic petroleum prices and higher meat and fish prices. This is higher than the government’s inflation target band of 2 percent to 4 percent.

In March, inflation averaged 4 percent, higher than the 3 percent posted in February but slower than the 4.1 percent in March 2021. For the first quarter this year, inflation averaged 3.4 percent.

Last week, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno told Bloomberg TV that they may consider raising key interest rates in June.

The BSP has kept interest rates at a record-low of 2 percent since November 2020. Diokno has said last year that “keeping a steady hand on the BSP’s policy levers amid a manageable inflation outlook should allow

the economic recovery to gain more traction.”

Total bids for the tenors reached P23.7 billion, making the auction on Monday oversubscribed.

The 91-day T-bills average rate stood at 1.272 percent, jumping by 13.2 basis points from previous auction’s 1.14 percent. It is also 2.2 basis points higher than the Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL) Reference Rate of 1.25 percent.

For the 182-day tenor, the security capped at an average rate of 1.635 percent, up by 7.7 basis points from 1.558 percent previously. It is also above by 7.5 basis points from the BVAL rate of 1.56 percent.

Meanwhile, the 364-day T-bills had an average rate of 1.933 percent; the same level as the secondary benchmark rate.

Had the Treasury fully awarded the 364-day T-bills, the average rate would have reached 2.325 percent, soaring by 42.4 basis points from 1.901 percent in the previous auction.

For this month, the Treasury is targeting to raise P200 billion from the domestic debt market.

Last month, it sold P164.4 billion in government securities out of its P200 billion programmed offering.

This year, the government is set to borrow a total of P2.2 trillion, of which around 75 percent is expected to come from domestic sources.

As of end-February this year, the national government’s outstanding debt rose to another record-high level of P12.09 trillion due to currency fluctuations and net financing from both domestic and foreign sources.

Order to cut tariffs on e-vehicles issued soon–Lopez Duterte leads inspection of first medical facility T for OFWs on Labor Day

By Andrea San Juan

RADE Secretary Ramon M. Lopez expects that the executive order (EO) on reducing tariffs on electric vehicles to zero to be issued before Congress reconvenes.

The chief of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) told the BusinessMirror he believes the instruction is already with the Tariff Commission.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez noted that the EO needs to be released before Congress resumes session on May 23.

“Ongoing din yun pero yung na “We just have to check if the public hearing has been conducted.”

“So hinihintay lang natin. Obviously this month kelangan mapasa

na before May 23; before bumalik yung Senate and Congress,” Lopez said in an interview with BusinessMirror during the launch of DTI’s “Go Lokal” project. Last week, the DTI chief expressed hopes the EO will be signed before the end of President Duterte’s term on June 30.

During the launch of the free evehicles (EV) charging stations at selected shopping malls last week, Lopez said the Tariff Commission has already started conducting hearings regarding the lowering of tariffs on imported EVs from 30 percent to 0 percent.

In addition, the Trade Secretary emphasized the DTI has already crafted an EO that will allow rechanneling of funds for the third participant of the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS)

program to EV manufacturing.

Lopez noted during the launch that “there are supposed to be three participants [but there’s no third one]” He hopes the remaining budget for the supposed third participant can be converted to the development of the e-vehicles manufacturing sector instead.

Lopez added that “it’s still a draft EO that I like to present to the president and hopefully it can be passed… in his administration.” The CARS program is an initiative to boost local automotive production. However, since there is no third participant, the Trade chief has proposed to transfer the budget to the manufacturing of e-vehicles instead.

Under the program, the participants were originally given six years to manufacture at least 200,000

units and to produce body shells and other automotive parts. In return, each enrolled model will be provided a fiscal support of P9 billion. The program, signed in 2015, has a total allocation of P27 billion Last week, the first-ever in-mall free charging stations in the Philippines was launched as the government steers the power sector to renewable energy and sustainability initiatives.

The e-vehicle is being touted as an alternative to vehicles that run on internal combustion engines. As of 2020, there are 12,965 registered EVs in the Philippines. They are now expected to become more accessible to the public after Republic Act (An Act Providing for the Development of the Electric Vehicle Industry) 11697 finally lapsed into law in early April.

Manulife unit launches fund pool for investors

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio

M

ANULIFE Investment Management and Trust Corp. (Manulife IM PHL) has recently launched a “Global Thematic Opportunities Equity Feeder Fund,” a unit investment trust fund (UITF) that aims to achieve capital growth by investing in a collective investment scheme.

Manulife IM PHL President and CEO Macaria Trinidad F. Gaspar said the target fund will invest the client’s financial assets in equities and equity-related securities of companies

throughout the world. Gaspar noted it applies a sustainable strategy that aims to achieve a positive environmental and social impact by investing mainly in companies that benefit from global long-term themes resulting from secular changes in economic, social and environmental factors such as demographics, lifestyle or regulations.

She said the fund uses a “rigorous approach” to identify and prioritize 13 investable themes that occupy “intersections of multiple megatrends.”

These themes are: biotech; clean energy; digital; environment; health; living more fulfilling lives; nutrition;

premium brands; robotics; security; smart city; timber; and, water. “’Thematic investing’ is different from traditional investment styles because it harnesses the power of global megatrends set to structurally change the way we live, how society operates and how business gets done,” Gaspar said in a recent webinar.

She added that the firm’s equity feeder fund “provides investors access to companies that have a true competitive advantage within their segment of the market, which is benefiting from multiple megatrendbased tailwinds.”

Documents provided by the

wholly-owned subsidiary of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. Philippines Inc. said the feeder fund offers investors “broad diversification benefits given the target fund’s unconstrained and focused approach across a diverse range of sectors, companies and geographies, creating an investment universe, which has a low overlap with global equity indices.”

“Alongside this, the target fund employs a sustainable approach integrating environmental, social and governance factors and activities that drive a positive impact in the investment process.” Investors may avail of the fund for as low as P5,000 or $100.

rate. To do so, one can use the formula FV = PV (1+r)n with r as the education inflation rate and n as the number of years from present to the target first year of use of education fund.

Education inflation rate per May 2020 posting of Philippine Statistics Authority is around 6 percent. On the other hand, the exponent is actually a set of numbers usually from n, n+1, n+2, and n+3 indicating four future values corresponding to 4 years usually spent in college (5 for some degrees) which should be added to determine total

estimated tuition fee to cover child’s entire college education.

Knowing the total cost of education will allow an individual or a financial planner to create an investment program dedicated for education planning.

Of course, the investment program will be constrained to client risk profile and available resources and should be grounded on realistic returns of available asset classes.

Another thing often overlooked when it comes to education planning is that it should be integrated with insurance planning of the household to ensure that no matter what happens to the breadwinner, the child will be able to study. Having an investment program for education fund is, to a large extent, as good as the capability of the household in executing and sticking to the plan.

Imagine what will happen to the

University University of the Philippines Ateneo de Manila University De La Salle University University of Santo Tomas Mapua University University of San Carlos Mindanao State University

Average tuition* Php 45,000.00 Php 170,000.00 Php 215,000.00 Php 110,000.00 Php 160,000.00 Php 75,000.00 Php 18,000.00

plan if the breadwinner dies, becomes sick or disabled? A suggested way to integrate education planning to insurance planning is to determine the present value of the total education fund simulated earlier discounted by rate of return in which the insurance benefits intended for education planning will be invested into. Possible tools for integrating education planning to insurance planning could be either a renewable term insurance or VUL. It is important for a client to solicit advice from a reliable financial planner to come up with an appropriate integration strategy fit for the household’s financial situation.

As always, a household should not be earning salary only to settle insurance premiums – the insurance product to be considered should also take into account the available means of the household.

We need to remember that education is a right and each should be given the chance to study. It will be the parents’ responsibility to support their children’s education and financial advisors to provide parents appropriate means and fiduciary guidance in doing so.

Education planning

I

think as a parent, very few music themes will be more sentimental than the snippet of the graduation theme – hearing the music while your (future) child goes up the stage, getting the diploma, walking to the stage front then bowing, then slowly exiting to stage right.

It is just a few seconds but behind that few seconds, years of hard work and sacrifice finally came into fruition. It is a challenging journey not just for the child but for the parents as well – who will have to muster all available resources in order to send their children to best school possible, on top of supporting and guiding their children as they go through formal education process. Education planning is an important financial activity for a household with children.

This is to ensure that resources are available to support children’s education when needed and to minimize financial burden of parents through adequate preparation.

How does a household prepare for a child’s education? I suggest beginning with the current tuition fee rates (this article focuses on college education planning). Universities have various average annual tuition fees and the following table provides a snapshot of sample tuition rates for several universities: The next step is to simulate the future value of the tuition fees above using an appropriate time frame and inflation

John Hero Salvador

personal finance

John Hero Salvador is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. To learn more about investment planning, attend the 95th batch of RFP program this May 2022. To register, e-mail info@ rfp.ph or text at 0917-6248110.

This May 1, 2022 photo, shows the newly-constructed OFW Hospital in San Fernando, Pampanga, which is the country’s first state-of-the-art health facility dedicated for overseas Filipino workers and their dependents. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

S

AN FERNANDO, Pampanga— President Rodrigo Roa Duterte marked this year’s Labor Day celebration by inspecting the newlyconstructed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) Hospital, the country’s first state-of the-art medical facility dedicated for OFWs and their dependents.

Built on a 1.5-hectare land donated by the Provincial Government of Pampanga, the 100-bed capacity hospital came into fruition through the collaborative efforts of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) being its owner and manager; Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc. (BCFI), which shouldered the cost of construction; Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) which funded the procurement of medical equipment; and, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) for the initial operationalization of the hospital’s polyclinic.

BCFI, the foundation established

by Solaire Resort and Casino, donated P521.80 million for the project while Pagcor released a P200-million grant for the purchase of modern equipment for the health facility. In addition, the DOLE earmarked P250 million from its budget for the management of the hospital.

The OFW Hospital, whose construction commenced in January 2021, will start its operations on May 2, 2022 as a polyclinic to transition into becoming fully operational by the end of June this year.

Once fully operational, the OFW Hospital will provide comprehensive healthcare services to all migrant workers and their dependents from Region 3 and all other OFWs who will require its services. It would also conduct medical examinations to ensure physical and mental capability of would-be OFWS. It will also serve as a primary referral hospital for repatriated OFWs in need of medical services.

During his visit, the President lauded the efforts of the BCFI and all government agencies that have taken part in the project. “[To those who helped], your commitment to translate the blue-

print of this project into a tangible reality is truly noteworthy. Please know that this is the government’s way of thanking our OFWs for their valuable contributions to our country’s socio-economic progress and for their critical role in upholding the Filipino identity in the global community. This is why I express my full support to initiatives that promote the welfare and development of OFWs who are among our reliable partners in nation-building, especially during challenges, calamities and events such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” he stated.

In his speech, the President likewise underscored Pagcor’s recent commitment to provide a P100million monthly funding for the purchase of medicines for PGH. “Pumunta ‘yung mga doktor sa PGH sa opisina ko. Nanghingi ng tulong para sa medisina. Naaawa raw sila sa mga pasyente doon kaya ‘yung reseta galing sa doktor sila na mismo nagbibigay sa mga tao from their own pocket. So sabi ko sige maghanap ako ng pera at tinawagan ko si Chairperson Andrea Domingo… so ang PGH mayroong P100 million a month galing sa PAGCOR para sa medisina,” the president added. [The doctors at PGH went to my office and asked for help for medicine. They said they feel sorry for the patients there so they give the prescription from from their own pocket. So I called Chairperson Andrea [D.] Domingo.

So PGH has P100 million a month from Pagcor for medicine.]

Domingo, also Pagcor CEO, who also graced the event, said that the state-run gaming firm has been fully supportive of the government’s efforts to provide better healthcare programs for Filipinos.

“The generous contribution of BCFI is a testament to the gaming sector’s commitment to responsible gaming and nation-building,” she said. “Meanwhile, Pagcor’s supplementary funding of P200 million for necessary medical equipment and supplies will complete the services to treat our hardworking OFWs who strive hard abroad to ensure that their families back home are wellprovided.”

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Art

BusinessMirror

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Today’s Horoscope

A SCREENSHOT of Philippines GraphicBUSINESSMIRROR’S literary masterclass on April 30, titled “Aba, gusto mo pala magsulat!” Shown are T. Anthony C. Cabangon, publisher of the Philippines Graphic and BUSINESSMIRROR (top left, clockwise); Edna Faura-Agustin, School Division Superintendent, DepEd Division Biñan City, Laguna; hosts Kris Lanot Lacaba and Marra PL. Lanot, Philippines Graphic Reader editor; and speakers Charlson Ong and Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay.

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Christina Hendricks, 47; Kristin Lehman, 50; Amy Ryan, 53; Frankie Valli, 88.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Stop fidgeting; if you feel restless, make changes that challenge you to grow mentally and physically strengthen yourself. Take responsibility for your happiness and life. Stop dreaming and start manufacturing the life you want to live. Be smart, diverse and willing to go the distance to achieve what will boost your morale and encourage you to strive for perfection.

Your numbers are 7, 12, 17, 29, 35, 41, 48.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Follow the dots.

Put your energy to good use, and it will help you control your emotions. Refuse to let others get to you with remarks or gestures. Go about your business, and let your accomplishments be your response. HHH

‘Aba, gusto mo pala magsulat!’ literary masterclass:

Fiction’s truth-lie paradox, ‘throw away the thesaurus’ and other key takeaways

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MAGINATION transcends creating fantastic worlds and galaxies; it involves looking at small things from new perspectives as well. In terms of word selection, the simpler, the better.

These are some of the literary tips and trade secrets imparted by two decorated figures in Philippine literature in a webinar over the weekend, titled “Aba, gusto mo pala magsulat!”

Touted as a free masterclass in literature, the online workshop received more than a thousand registrations of attendees, comprised mostly of

students across the country. The event was presented by the Philippines Graphic Reader, the country’s first nationally circulated magazine on Philippine Literature in English, and BusinessMirror. “[This webinar] is our latest effort to promote Philippine literature in English,” says T. Anthony C. Cabangon, publisher of the Philippines Graphic and BusinessMirror. “We want to democratize access to the literature masterclass webinar, and, in doing so, help in popularizing our writers para lubos pang makilala sila ng madla, pati na ang kanilang obra.”

Hosted by Philippines Graphic Reader editor Marra PL. Lanot and her journalist son Kris Lanot Lacaba, the webinar featured multi-awarded speakers Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay and Charlson Ong. Dalisay was nominated for the National Artist Awards last year and is currently working on his third novel, while writing a history of Philippine accounting and editing a 12-volume history of the University of the Philippines Manila. Ong has published four collections of short fiction and won the National Book Award for both short fiction and novel.

Here are some of the biggest lessons from the

recent online workshop: n ‘THE ART OF LYING’: What makes fiction an engaging read is its “stronger emotional and intellectual impact” on the readers, Dalisay said. He points to the truths about human life being often better delivered through fiction—short stories and novels—than they would through an essay, an editorial, or even a news story.

The reason? “Fact is stranger than fiction.

Fiction, after all, has to make sense,” Dalisay said, paraphrasing American writer Mark Twain. “So, fiction is one way by which we make sense of the chaos and the confusion of human life.”

But in writing a short story, writers must understand that fiction writing is “the art of lying— and lying very well.... However,” he adds quickly, “it is paradoxically in the service of the truth. Because fiction makes us confront the truth more easily than if they’re told to us directly.” n CHARACTER-SETTING-PROBLEM: To start a short story, Dalisay advised beginning with a character.

Continued on B5

Czech Ambassador joins 1st Bikol Book Festival and Cultural Pilgrimage AMBASSADOR Šedivá delivered a message during the A Night for Peace and Freedom in Pili, Camarines Sur

CZECH Ambassador Jana Šedivá joined the Ateneo de Naga University, National Book Development Board (NBDB), and Savage Mind: Arts and Books, along with the local government units of Naga, Baao, Buhi and Pili for the weeklong celebration of the 1st Bikol Book Festival and Cultural Pilgrimage held from April 17 to 21, 2022.

The three-day visit from April 17 to 19 of the ambassador was filled with activities celebrating the literary culture of the Bicol region. Ambassador Šedivá honored and offered flowers to the graves of poets and novelists: Dr. Maria Lilia F. Realubit, Socorro Federis Tate, and Luis Dato.

The festival also re-launched the exhibit on Czech comics, titled “Meanwhile, Elsewhere: A Century of Czech Comics,” which was first displayed at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Gallery in Intramuros, Manila on 2018.

This was unveiled during the inauguration of Kamarin Art Gallery in Naga City, and revealed how comics was a vehicle

to discuss critical issues in the Czech Republic.

During the opening of the gallery, the guests were welcomed by a dramatic reading of the excerpt of RUR: Rossum Universal Robot, a play written by Czech playwright Karel Čapek. The performers were BUSINESSMIRROR columnist Tito Genova Valiente, Victor John Loquias, Tess Consulta and Delia Enverga Volante. Cecilia V. de Asis, Vice Mayor of Naga City, and Atty. Marion Eloisa Escueta Legacion, wife of the City Mayor, were present during the launch.

As part of the cultural pilgrimage, Ambassador Šedivá visited the Municipality of Buhi and met with Mayor Marivic Solano and their youth constituent who introduced the woven products, wood sculpture, and rich culture of Buhi. A dialogue with local writers from the Bicol region, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, and the NBDB to encourage writers and creatives to pursue their dreams of publication was also conducted in Buhi.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take your turn. Stand up for your rights. Make yourself heard. Take the initiative to put your plans in motion. Make decisions and act on them because you feel passionate about the contributions you make, not because you are angry or seek revenge. HHH

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Concentrate on what’s doable, and stop worrying about things you cannot alter. A positive attitude will help you achieve what you set out to do and get you the backup required to keep interference at a safe distance. HHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don’t scrimp when it comes to meaningful pursuits. Explore the possibilities and let your imagination run wild, but don’t let your emotions spin out of control if someone gets in your way or doesn’t come through for you. HHH

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Spend time with people who stimulate your mind and offer an enlightening perspective on life, love and happiness. What you share will change how you think and help you choose a path that suits your situation.

Self-improvement and personal growth are favored.

HHHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Absorb what others say, and it will help you understand the best way to gain approval, respect and the help required to get what you want. Consider what you can do or change that is conducive to achieving your long-term plans. HH

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Stop dreaming and start doing. How you perceive situations and handle money will make a difference to the outcome. Cut your costs by doing for yourself instead of hiring someone to do things for you. A financial gain will ease stress. HHHHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): An unexpected change will work in your favor.

Refuse to get overwhelmed by what you have no control over. Concentrate on the things and people who make you feel good about yourself. Try something new, and enjoy the moment. HHH

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A low profile and patience will help you navigate your way through the ups and downs you encounter. Put more thought into how you look, your health and how you live. A couple of updates will be revitalizing. HHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Take a walk down memory lane, attend a reunion or reach out to someone who brings out the best in you.

Look for alternative ways to make the most with what you have, and the results will change your attitude and lifestyle. HHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Say no to changes that don’t suit your needs, and do your own thing. Build a solid foundation for how you want to live your life and use your attributes to get ahead. Invest in your surroundings and future.

HHHHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Be observant, and it will help you make better. Don’t share secrets. Put your energy where it will do some good and make a difference in how things unfold for you financially. A change of heart will help clear up uncertainty and encourage you to do what’s best for you. HH BIRTHDAY BABY: You are intelligent, expressive and persistent.

You are productive and resourceful.

‘ahead of time’ BY TRENT H. EVANS The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Toot your own horn 5 Waffle brand 9 Sound of a perfect basketball shot 14 Put to sleep, perhaps 15 Queen consort of Jordan 16 Japanese bread crumbs 17 “You kids hush now!”

19 Muppet with a rubber duckie 20 Gambler’s wager 21 Genome molecule 22 Game of checkers?

23 Back talk 25 Ingredient in fries, informally 27 “Dropped” drug 30 Flying saucer’s purpose 34 Artist Yoko 35 Christmas lights might hang from one 36 Mad Men hat 37 Gear teeth 39 Psychic power, briefly 41 Knighted fellows 42 Impede 45 Part of B.A.

48 Army bed 49 When college students may hit the beach 51 Triage ctrs.

52 En pointe, in ballet 53 “Judge” of taste 55 It floats up the flue 57 He/him/___ 59 Big name in cubism?

63 Alumnae, e.g.

64 Complete 180 (Note: The title hints at what can follow both words of each starred clue’s answer) 66 Declares 67 Diagram type with circles 68 Cut loose 69 Unlike this clue, which is far too wordy and could have simply been just “curt” 70 CEO, CFO, COO or CTO 71 “I’ve ___ better” DOWN 1 Jul. 4 cookouts 2 Defeat soundly 3 Big song at the Met

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 18 24 26 27 28 29 31 32 33 38 40 43 44 46

Some speak fluent Klingon Finish “Talked your way out of that!”

Oscar night dress Lavishly decorated Titular org. in a 2015 Bond film “Extreme Sour” candies What only you can hear Goes down a snowy hill, say Tools to break up soil Taunt The aptly named business Face It, for one DOJ division Bodies of water that sound secure Be nosy One who makes a boxer look smart?

Labor activist Chavez Editor’s catch Isn’t just a fad Bad eggs or rotten eggs “To continue in English, ___” Like a strong feeling “The GOAT” hides it The Joy Luck Club author Amy

47 50 54 55 56 58 60 61 62 65

Hybrid activewear garment “Act nice!”

Polishes Sultan of ___ (Babe Ruth nickname) “You’re in my way!”

Goat with curved horns Naked Slushy treat Avid Tar Heels’ sch.

Solution to today’s puzzle:

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Show BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Tuesday, May 3, 2022

B5

‘Bad Guys’ repeats at No. 1, Liam Neeson’s latest misfires

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DINGDONG, MARIAN RIVERA COPRODUCE MILESTONE PROJECT WITH GMA, APT

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press

He DreamWorks animated heist movie The Bad Guys was the top film in Us and Canada theaters for the second straight weekend, according to studio estimates sunday, while the latest Liam Neeson thriller suggested the actor’s particular set of skills may be wearing thin with audiences.

The Bad Guys, distributed by Universal Pictures, made $16.1 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, holding well with only a 33 percent drop from last weekend. The film, adapted from Aaron Blabey’s kids’ graphic novel, has helped reignite family moviegoing.

April moviegoing was largely dominated by Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog 2—which stayed in second place with $11.4 million, bringing its cumulative total to $160.9 million—and The Bad Guys, with $44.4 million in two weeks.

The latest Neeson thriller, Memory, however, was mostly forgotten by moviegoers. The open roadBriarcliffe entertainment r-rated release launched with an estimated $3.1 million in 2,555 locations.

That’s much in line with the last few films staring Neeson. in the past two years, Blacklight (a $3.5 million debut), Honest Thief ($4.1 million) and The Marksman ($3.1 million) all opened similarly.

The last Neeson thriller to make a dent was 2019’s Cold Pursuit, which debuted with $11 million and ultimately grossed $62.6 million worldwide. But either due to oversaturation or lackluster reception (Memory has a 30 percent “fresh” rating on rotten Tomatoes), a once dependable box-office force has gone cold.

“Neeson’s prepandemic crime pics did well, including the successful Taken series, but audiences are showing little interest now,” David A. gross, who

SCOT WILLIAMS (left) and Liam Neeson in a scene from Memory, which finished at the tail-end of the box office in its opening weekend in North America. AP

runs the movie consultancy Franchisere, wrote in a newsletter. “Moviegoing activity is improving, but Memory, as well as Blacklight and The Marksman, are hitting a wall.”

The eighth-place Memory was the only new wide release on a quiet weekend in theaters ahead of the Friday release of Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Walt Disney Co. release will effectively kick off Hollywood’s summer season, one the industry is hoping will approach prepandemic levels. studios last week trumpeted their summer slates at the industry convention CinemaCon, raising expectations for big-budget films, like Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion.

The brightest spot in theaters currently continues to be Everything Everywhere all at Once, which dropped just 2 percent in its sixth week of release with $5.5

million. The film, an existential metaverse action comedy starring Michelle Yeoh, has had unusually long legs in theaters, and with $35.5 million in sales so far, ranks as one of indie studio A24’s biggest hits. estimated ticket sales for Friday through sunday at Us and Canadian theaters, according to comscore.

1. The Bad Guys, $16.1 million 2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2, $11.4 million 3. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, $8.3 million 4. The Northman, $6.3 million 5. Everything Everywhere all at Once, $5.5 million 6. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, $3.9 million 7. The Lost City, $3.9 million 8. Memory, $3.1 million 9. Father Stu, $2.2 million 10. Morbius, $1.5 million. n

The hopeful eyes of Enzo Williams in this season Progressive and insightful Filipino-American filmmaker enzo Williams is back in the country, observing the ongoing election season with a positive mind and hopeful eyes. “every election year presents new and more interesting discoveries for all of us, and i am not just referring to the roster of colorful candidates and personalities seeking public posts,” Williams shared recently. “every election year gives people in the creative industries to come up with new content, and new ways of churning out material.”

Williams is referring to the political ads that keep on getting more interesting, and more pleasing to the senses as the years go by. “Those who have the resources and the machinery definitely can hire the most expensive creatives and get the services of production companies that have the latest state-ofthe-art equipment. But i believe it is not just about budget. A good and sensible political ad should have a straightforward message and a brilliant concept. it has to be clear who its intended market is.”

He added, “if your client is targeting a national post, then the message should be able to affect voters from all walks of life, and easily understood and

grasped by the majority of the voters, and i mean the masses and the middle class included. Your ad should affect people for it to have recall. it should also have a high level of sincerity in order to be believable.” one particular political ad that we still remember is the one Williams created and directed for President rodrigo Duterte in 2015. Billed as “Your Last Merry Christmas,” the crisp and commanding video showing then presidential aspirant Duterte addressing the people who continue to sow lawlessness and crime in the country. it was praised around the world for its amazing concept, straightforwardness, simplicity and

effectivity.

“That one was fun to do, and the message was simple and clear. shooting the president was a breeze.

That ad will always have a special place in my heart as a content creator and director,” Williams said.

As for his filmography, Williams will always be known as the dreamy college boy from Los Angeles who won a best director award in film school and then flew to Manila to direct his first feature film about a local hero. Titled Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo, the film received 22 awards the following year from different awards-giving organizations, including three best film awards, and gave Williams two best director trophies.

Flexing his artistic muscles after that wonderful breakthrough directorial stint, Williams went on to direct the blockbuster movie The Escort and the military-themed film AWOL. After the elections, Williams hopes to start work on his next full feature film, and he gave us a hint that it might be another military-themed action drama. “it is something that i have been quietly working on the last few years, already a very clear movie in my mind that i hope to start shooting real soon.”

REEL- and real-life husband-and-wife team Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera are set to make their much-awaited TV comeback with the sitcom Jose & Maria’s Bonggang Villa.

On April 25, the two prized GMA stars attended the contract-signing together with GMA Network and APT Entertainment executives who showed their full support via video messages and their presence at Luxent Hotel.

Present at event were GMA Network Films president and programming consultant to the chairman and CEO Atty.

Annette Gozon-Valdes; first vice president for program management department Jose Mari R. Abacan; and assistant vice president for program management department Concie Agnes. In attendance from APT Entertainment were CEO and president Michael Tuviera, COO and CFO Jojo Oconer, and vice president for production operations Camille Montaño.

Dingdong expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the two entertainment powerhouses for this partnership: “Na-realize namin na naging tahanan namin ang GMA for the past two decades and forever grateful kami sa tiwala na binigay nila sa amin. It was because of GMA kung bakit ko nakilala ang aking mapapangasawa at dahil ’dun nagtayo kami ng sarili naming tahanan at doon nangyari ang idea na mag-shoot kami ng small videos sa bahay na ang title ay ‘Jose at Maria.’

Doon ko na-realize na ang sarap talaga ka-trabaho ni Marian na sobrang professional at sobrang galing at kahit sa minivideos ’yon ay ganun pa rin ang kanyang dedication. That’s why sabi namin, we want to bring this to the next level. That’s where APT comes in na nagtiwala sa amin at sa concept na puwede namin gawin together...which is Bonggang Villa.

Kaya maraming salamat APT for everything and, of course, sa GMA for trusting us with this one. Para sa amin hindi lang siya trabaho or task as an actor, this is also very personal to us dahil dream namin ito, na makasama ulit ang isa’t isa sa trabaho, na makabilang sa isang show that we are also part of through coproducing and creating.”

Marian agrees with Dingdong that this is a dream project for them: “Isa ito sa mga pinangarap namin, lalo na sa akin kasi ang tagal ko nang hindi lumabas sa prime time. Hindi ako makapaniwala na totoo na ito, na mangyayari na ito kasi pangarap ko talaga magkaroon ng sitcom kasama si Dong.

So ito na ang pangarap na ’yun kaya sabi ko sa mga taong nagmamahal at naghihintay, malapit n’yo nang mapanood sina Maria at Jose.”

GMA Network chairman and CEO Atty. Felipe L. Gozon reveals that fans of Dingdong and Marian are definitely looking forward to their comeback project: “Sina Dingdong at Marian ay dalawa sa mga homegrown talents ng GMA Network na naging pinaka-popular. Ang kanilang mga programa ay puro matataas ang rating. Kaya naman excited kami sa kanilang first sitcom dito sa GMA. Nakakasiguro kami na ang kanilang maraming fans dito sa Pilipinas at abroad will welcome them back in TV very soon.”

Executive vice president and CFO Felipe S. Yalong shares the fans’ excitement to finally meet Jose and Maria: “Congratulations, Dingdong and Marian. We are excited to meet Jose and Maria in this new sitcom and we are so proud of how much they have grown, as individual artists in their craft, and now as coproducers of GMA. We are looking forward to many more partnerships with them.”

Meanwhile, Tuviera, says that Dingdong and Marian inspired him with their dedication to their craft: “Sobra akong na-inspire because I’ve been wanting to work with them for the longest time. I think first time nila ulit to be together onscreen in more than 10 years. So, it’s such a big honor for APT to be partnering with GMA again of course, and to be working with Dingdong and Marian for the first time naman as coproducers and not just as our lead stars.”

Jose & Maria’s Bonggang Villa begins its prime-time run on May 14 on GMA. More information can be found at www. gmanetwork.com.

Fiction’s truth-lie paradox, ‘throw away the thesaurus’ and other key takeaways Continued from B4 Newbies may start by projecting their selves onto the story. Next, the character must be placed in a certain setting. What’s in the background? Then the character must be presented with a problem.

Dalisay provided an example—the life of Mike, a certain 17-year-old high-school student from Malaybalay, Bukidnon. Mike has big ambitions: to become a lawyer like his grandfather. But Mike can’t afford to pursue his dreams in Manila, nor can he leave behind his true love, susan. Mike is torn between his ambition and his love.

“That is, in sum, what every short story does,”

Dalisay said. n SHAPING LANGUAGE: ong reminded the attendees that the best stories aren’t written in one go. “remember that writing is an intellectual exercise,” he said. “Maybe your passions, your emotions, love stories might give you your first draft, but you have to go back and look at it.” ong added: “shape your story the way a sculptor shapes clay or a carpenter shapes wood. You are actually shaping language. Your material is your life.” n THROW AWAY THE THESAURUS: Dalisay was asked if a writer can create words. “of course,” he said. “You can make up words, you can make up anything, as

long as you have a good reason to.”

But since writers are touching on vocabulary, Dalisay reminded the attendees that words alone do not make the story, especially big and fancy words. “one of the first things i tell my students in fiction is to throw away the thesaurus,” he said. “it just encourages them to use long, complicated words, where simple words will do. For example, you do not have to say, ‘He perambulated.’ You just say, ‘He walked.’ You do not say, ‘she expostulated.’ You just say, ‘she said.’ simple words are often the most effective. The short story is not a medium for showing off in terms of your vocabulary.”

According to edna Faura-Agustin, school

Division superintendent, Deped Division Biñan City, Laguna, the webinar served as a good vehicle for teaching the english language and short story writing.

“As for our teachers, this webinar opens the minds of our learners, students, to appreciate literature and to write fiction stories,” said FauraAgustin, who handles 38 schools with more than 41,000 students.

The entire recording of the webinar can be viewed on Philippines Graphic’s Facebook page (www.facebook. com/philippinesgraphic). A second edition of “Aba, gusto mo pala magsulat!” is slated in June, in time for the anniversary of Philippines Graphic. n

FROM left: APT Entertainment CEO and president Michael Tuviera, GMA Network Films president and programming consultant to the chairman and CEO Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes, Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera, FVP for program management department Jose Mari R. Abacan, and APT entertainment COO and CFO Jojo Oconer.

B6 Tuesday, May 3, 2022

MR.DIY opens 18 new stores on Labor Day weekend

SM Foundation bags Silver Stevie Award

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M Foundation was named the winner of a Silver Stevie Award in the Innovation in Community Relations or Public Service Communications category in the ninth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

SMFI executive director Debbie Sy expressed her gratitude for this citation and vowed to further continue and bolster SMFI’s initiatives, which are all geared towards uplifting the lives of its stakeholders, especially in areas where SM operates.

With its winning entry dubbed as Spreading Social Good, Sy explained that SMFI brings social development opportunities to its host communities through its programs in education, health and wellness, sustainable agriculture, and disaster response.

“Through our programs, we intend to provide our beneficiaries with interventions that are inclusive and engaging – which in turn results to shared responsibility. And part of this strategy is ensuring that our communication efforts are also reaching our stakeholders. We believe that effective communications can initiate a wider dialogue and unite many institutions, corporations, and individuals on the same issue— thus, furthering the impacts of social good programs,” Sy said.

“We hope that through this recognition, we will be able to inspire others to join us in our social development cause and create more venues for collaboration and program innovations

for the benefit of grassroots communities,” Sy highlighted.

“This recognition given by the AsiaPacific Stevie Awards organizers does not only celebrate the work that we do, but more importantly, it inspires us to strive harder in spreading social good and make a positive impact on the lives of Filipinos,” Sy added.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only business awards program to recognize innovation in the workplace in all 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the

world’s premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in programs such as The International Business Awards® for 20 years.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for “crowned,” the winners will be celebrated during a virtual (online) awards ceremony on 29 June 2020.

SM Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of the SM group that intends to improve the quality of life of Filipinos through its various social good programs.

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somebody suggested that Enderun would put money in a fund to be used for students in financial need. Actually, I wasn’t aware that there was a scholarship fund until one of the graduates thanked me in her farewell speech,” says Robert “Robin” Boumphrey.

“It was a good use of the money and I’m glad Enderun decided to do it.”

Boumphrey graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honours) in Economics and Sociology at Durham University in England and later earned a degree in Master of Arts in Economics at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He began his career as an economist in London then moved to Canberra, where he worked for six years before coming to work at ADB in Manila. In the mid 1980s, he had consulting experience working for the World Bank in Pakistan.

The Robin Boumphrey Grant recipient must show a strong commitment to academic excellence and an enthusiastic attitude towards career development.

Boumphrey says, “I always want them (the students) to be far more inquisitive. They should be motivated to query what they read and what they hear. I’d like to see them be successful in their future careers.”

Enderun has conferred 920 million pesos worth of scholarships and financial aid to 728 students since its inception in 2006. Currently, 20 percent of the school population are recipients of academic scholarships, industry partner grants, and financial aid.

For inquiries, send an email to admissions@enderuncolleges.com or visit https://www.enderuncolleges.com/ contact-us.

Erehwon honors multi-awarded playwright Boy Noriega with ‘Bayan Bayanan: Texts from Home’

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HIS year will be the 70th birth anniversary of an eminent playwright, Bienvenido M. Noriega, Jr., as well as his 28th death anniversary.

Many will agree that Boy, as he was well known, was one of the best Filipino playwrights of his generation. Erehwon Center for the Arts will honor his memory by producing one of his best known plays,

and Market Tanauan, Batangas; Gaisano Country Mall, Cebu; SM Hypermarket Cainta; Citymall Tagbak, Iloilo City; Aliw Complex Meycauayan, Bulacan; Noveleta Cavite; APM Centrale Mall, Cebu City; Ayala Abreeza Mall, Davao City; Camiling Tarlac; SM Center Tuguegarao Downtown Cagayan; Oroquieta, Misamis Oriental; Molave, Zamboanga del Sur; and Tangub City, Misamis Occidental.

During the National Grand Opening Day at these new stores, shoppers who spend a minimum of Php 450 in a single receipt got the chance to have a MR.DIY Rainbow Umbrella or Water Bottle for free.

CSC upholds the dignity of gov't workers in the workplace

Robin Boumphrey Grant now accepts applicants

NDERUN Colleges is glad to welcome applications from highly deserving students for the Robin Boumphrey Grant for the academic year 2022-2023.

The Enderun Scholarship Committee makes the Robin Boumphrey Grant available to highly deserving students from the top 10 percentile of high school graduating batch of the top Philippine high school ranked by the Department of Education. It is awarded to two qualified incoming freshmen applying for Bachelor of Science in Economics with an amount of Php 50,000 off the tuition per year, renewable every year for up to four years of study at Enderun.

“I started teaching at Enderun in 2006. At that time, I was working at Asian Development Bank (ADB) and was not allowed to take paid employment. Then,

M

R.DIY, your one-stop shop for home improvement, conducted a National Grand Opening event this Labor Day weekend (April 29, 30 and May 1, 2022) to commemorate the launch of its 18 new stores across the Philippines.

MR.DIY currently has 226 branches nationwide, and shoppers will now have the chance to get more opportunities for great deals and value for their money when they buy home items and gifts at these 18 new stores: Colours Town Center, Las Pinas; Waltermart Makati; LCC Mall Naga; SM Hypermarket Handumanan, Bacolod City; San Pablo City Laguna; Victory Mall

“Bayan Bayanan: Texts from Home,” in partnership with the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Its premier will be on the evening of July 15, followed by a 7PM evening show on July 16 and a 3PM matinee on July 17, at Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo.

Boy’s close friend, Anton Juan, who is multi-awarded as well, will direct the play, and has given it a refreshing new treatment

as a musical! New songs have been composed by Anton Juan, himself, along with Cleofe Guangco-Casambre, who had composed for the play, “‘Rizal’s Sweet Stranger;” Russ Narcies Cabico, who is also a theater and television actor and singer; pianist-composer Andrew Bryan Sapigao; and composer-musical arranger Jonathan Cruz.

Creative treatments for set and lighting design have been conceptualized by international set designer Ohm David, with exciting young, theater lighting designer Meliton Roxas, Jr. It will be a fresh, modern staging of a classic play.

Prolific writer Jose “Butch” Dalisay, looks up to Boy and describes him as thus, “He understood and magnified the human condition onstage with uncommon empathy, and without the histrionics that passed for drama in lesser hands.” In 1995, Ateneo de Manila University posthumously conferred upon Noriega its prestigious Tanglaw ng Lahi Award, which noted: “The significance of Noriega’s achievement in Theater and Film will be impoverished unless it is put in place with his career in banking and government service. Here one does not find the simple case of competition between work and service or between two careers or even loves. Noriega was expert in his two occupations—as writer and technocrat…”

HE strength of our nation lies in its workforce, in the same way that the strength of the civil service lies in our 1.7 million civil servants.”

This was stressed by Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairperson Karlo Nograles on Labor Day, as he saluted government workers and emphasizes the value of protecting their interests.

“Today as we honor Filipino workers whose labors help lay the very foundation upon which our nation’s progress rests, let us not forget our public officials and employees who—day in and day out, in times of peace or in periods of crisis—keep the government machinery running in order to deliver the public’s much-needed programs and services,” the CSC Chair said on Labor Day. He said that continuous efforts must be made to uphold the dignity of government workers in the workplace “so they, too, can be

relied upon to respect the dignity, worth, and equality of others.”

The CSC chief pointed out “we should be doing more proactive programs to educate, equip, and empower civil servants and not just rely on punitive actions."

“When we talk about public service, I want people to think that it is a rewarding calling that goes beyond sacrificing the welfare of your family or your mental and physical health.”

The CSC Chair said that it is both an honor and an immense responsibility to lead the central human resource agency tasked with promoting the welfare of civil servants.

“I cannot promise to solve every single issue,” he said, “but my commitment to you is that my office shall be accessible. The Commission will continue to be consultative and inclusive in our decisions to serve you, our civil servants, better.”

MANILA COFFEE FESTIVAL 2022. The annual Manila Coffee Festival is back after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic. The 2022 Manila Coffee Festival was recently held at the historic Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila, from April 29 to May 1, 2022, gathering coffee aficionados, growers, and distributors in one place. Over 30 coffee exhibitors featuring coffee varieties from all over the Philippines, coffee talks, and live bands were featured during the 3-day event to the delight of Manila's coffee lovers. The ribbon cutting ceremony were attended by, from left: Rich Watanabe, Coffee Science Project; Atty. Guiller Asido, Administrator of Intramuros; Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat; and Charlie Dungo, OIC of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila, City of Manila.

Get a chance to win up to 30k with 'Laging Maasahan For Every Juan'

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Participants’ post must be set to public.

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

The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

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China’s Covid lockdowns damage economy, roil global supply chains

In this photo taken from video, civil evacuees accompanied by Red Cross personnel walk in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Bezimenne, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine on April 30, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that an evacuation is underway of civilians at a steel plant in the bombed-out city of Mariupol. Zelenskyy said on social media Sunday that a group of 100 people are on their way from Azovstal steelworks to Ukrainian-controlled territory. AP Photo

Evacuation of civilians sheltering inside Mariupol steel plant begins

By Cara Anna & Inna Varenytsia The Associated Press

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APORIZHZHIA, Ukraine—Ukrainian civilians holed up inside a steel plant in Mariupol under siege by Russian forces nearly two months began evacuating over the weekend and people sheltering elsewhere in the city were to leave Monday, local officials said.

Video posted online Sunday by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with small children climbing over a steep pile of rubble from the sprawling Azovstal steel plant and eventually boarding a bus.

More than 100 civilians were expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

“Today, for the first time in all the days of the war, this vitally needed [humanitarian] corridor has started working,” Zelenskyy said in a pre-recorded address published on his Telegram messaging channel.

There were worries about the evacuees’ safety. People fleeing Russian-occupied areas in the past have said their vehicles were fired on, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of shelling agreed-upon evacuation routes.

A Ukrainian defender of the steel plant urged groups like the UN and the Red Cross to ensure the safety of those being evacuated. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, told The Associated Press in an interview that there should be guarantees from “a third party—politicians, world leaders—who will cooperate to negotiate with Russians to extract us from here.”

Another of the plant’s defenders said Russian forces resumed shelling the plant Sunday as soon as the civilians were evacuated.

Denys Shlega, commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in a televised interview Sunday night that several hundred civilians are still trapped alongside nearly 500 wounded soldiers and “numerous” dead bodies.

“Several dozen small children are still in the bunkers underneath the plant,” Shlega said.

As many as 100,000 people may still be in Mariupol, including an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the sprawling, Soviet-era steel plant—the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians.

Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, has seen some of the worst suffering. A Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital in early weeks of the war, and hundreds of people were reported killed when a theater was bombed.

The city is a key target because of its strategic location near the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Palamar, the Ukrainian commander, told the AP on Sunday that reaching some of the wounded in the steel plant is difficult.

“There’s rubble. We have no special equipment. It’s hard for soldiers to pick up slabs weighing tons only with their arms,” he said. “We hear voices of people who are still alive” inside shattered buildings.

UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said civilians arriving in Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol, would get immediate support, including psychological services. A Doctors Without Borders team was waiting for the UN convoy at a reception center for displaced people in the city.

Palamar called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters as well as civilians.

“We don’t know why they are not taken away, and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed,” he said in a video posted Saturday on the regiment’s Telegram channel.

Along with his Azov regiment, Palamar said, marines, police officers, border guards, coast guard and are defending the plant. The bodies of dead Ukrainian fighters remain inside the plant, he said, “because we believe we will be able to move them to Ukrainian government-controlled territory. We have to do everything to bury heroes with honors.”

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other US lawmakers visited Zelenskyy on Saturday to show American support.

In his nightly address Sunday, Zelenskyy accused Moscow of waging “a war of extermination,” saying Russian shelling had hit food, grain and fertilizer warehouses, and residential neighborhoods in the Kharkiv, Donbas and other regions.

More than 350,000 people have been evacuated from combat zones thanks to humanitarian corridors pre-agreed with Moscow, he said, adding the “organization of humanitarian corridors is one of the elements of the negotiation process which is ongoing.”

In Zaporizhzhia, residents ignored air raid sirens to visit cemeteries on Sunday, the Orthodox Christian day of the dead.

“If our dead could rise and see this, they would say, ‘It’s not possible, they’re worse than the Germans,’” Hennadiy Bondarenko, 61, said while marking the day with his family at a picnic table among the graves. “All our dead would join the fighting, including the Cossacks.”

Russian forces embarked on a major military operation to seize parts of southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to capture the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian forces are fighting their offensive village-by-village while civilians flee airstrikes and artillery shelling.

Ukrainian intelligence officials accused Russian forces of seizing medical facilities to treat wounded Russian soldiers in several occupied towns, and of destroying medical infrastructure.

A full picture of battle unfolding in eastern Ukraine is hard to capture. The fighting makes it dangerous for reporters to move around, and both sides have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.

But Western military analysts have suggested Russia’s offensive is progressing more slowly than planned. So far, Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists appear to have made only minor gains since the eastern offensive began last month.

The British Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing Monday that it believes more than a quarter of all troops Russia has deployed in Ukraine are “combat ineffective.”

That phrase refers to a military’s ability to wage war, which is affected by losing soldiers to wounds and death and having equipment damaged or destroyed.

The Associated Press journalists Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

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hina’s stringent lockdowns to curb Covid-19 infections are taking a significant toll on the economy and roiling global supply chains, with President Xi Jinping under pressure to deliver on pledges to support growth.

The damage from shutdowns in April in major financial hub Shanghai, auto manufacturing center Changchun and elsewhere was laid bare by the first official data for the month released over the weekend.

Both manufacturing and services activity plunged to their worst levels since February 2020, when the nation imposed a range of restrictions amid its initial coronavirus outbreak centered in Wuhan, according to purchasing managers surveys. The offshore yuan weakened in the wake of the data.

The strain on global supply chains is also becoming apparent, with the PMI data showing suppliers face the longest delays in more than two years in delivering raw materials to their manufacturing customers. Inventories of finished goods climbed to the highest level in more than a decade, while indexes for exports and imports slumped.

The figures came a day after the Communist Party’s Politburo, led by Xi, promised to meet its economic targets while at the same time sticking with its Covid Zero policy to curb infections.

Economists see the two goals as

contradictory, with many cutting their growth projections to well below the government’s official target of around 5.5 percent.

“I expect GDP growth in the second quarter to turn negative, as lockdowns will likely be on and off,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “The key issue going forward is how the government will fine-tune its ‘zero tolerance’ policy to mitigate the economic damage.”

Nevertheless, the Politburo’s comments—which were timed during the trading day—fueled a rally in stocks and the currency, with technology shares surging on signs of a possible easing of a regulatory crackdown on internet platform companies. Investors were also encouraged by comments suggesting a loosening of property restrictions and a push to boost infrastructure investment.

Xi appeared to soften his stance toward the private sector, telling the Politburo meeting that the healthy development of private capital should be encouraged. At the same time, he said capital must be regulated and shouldn’t undermine the objectives of common prosperity.

The pledges by top leaders came as Omicron virus outbreaks continue to spread, with growing fears of a lockdown in Beijing. The capital city tightened Covid requirements over the weekend after more infections were reported following rounds of mass testing of its 22 million population.

Citizens are now required to provide negative nucleic acid test results within 48 hours in order to enter any public venue during the five-day Labor Day holiday.

Dining-in at restaurants is banned during the period, and indoor venues including theaters, Internet cafes and gyms will suspend operations. The Universal Studios theme park in Beijing also announced it would temporarily close from Sunday to comply with epidemic prevention measures.

I n S h a n g h a i , w he re l a r ge swaths of the population have been locked down for a month or more, the government announced on Sunday that six districts met the criteria for zero community spread of Covid-19 and can loosen restrictions. Zero community spread means reporting no local Covid infections for three consecutive days and if the new daily case counts are less than 0.001 percent of the area’s population for the same period.

As manufacturer to the world, the lockdowns in China mean possible shortages of goods and add another risk to global inflation. Despite repeated calls from the authorities to ensure smooth logistics, container goods were still left sitting at Shanghai’s port for weeks.

“There was plenty of evidence of worsening supply pressures,”

Japan’s prime minister in Thailand to talk about economics, Myanmar

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ANGKOK—Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to talk with his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chanocha about economic matters, upheaval in Myanmar and Russia’s war in Ukraine when they meet Monday in the middle of his fivenation overseas tour.

Kishida arrived in Thailand on Sunday after visits to Indonesia and Vietnam. He is scheduled to go to Italy and the United Kingdom after Thailand.

Japanese economic investments have been key to Thailand’s industrialization over the past six decades, especially in the automotive industry, which now seeks to expand in the electric vehicles sector.

A lso li kely to be on t heir agenda is the violent conflict in

Thailand’s neighbor, Myanmar, which some experts characterize as a civil war. Several governments have imposed sanctions against Myanmar’s military for the takeover last year, and other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Singapore have condemned its abuses.

Thailand and Japan share a softer approach and have been less critical of the ruling military. Thailand has significant economic interests in Myanmar and has its own past history of army rule. Japan has historically had friendly ties with the military governments that have ruled Myanmar most of the past six decades.

Japanese officials have said K ishida wou ld a lso d iscuss a possible Rec iproca l Access

Agreement with Thailand, aimed at deepening their defense cooperation. The agreement would allow for joint exercises, training and stationing of their militaries on each other’s territory.

K ishida discussed the war in U k ra ine w it h Viet na mese leaders on Su nd ay a nd s a id they agreed on the respect for international law and rejection of the use of force.

Japan has condemned Russia’s invasion and joined Western nations in imposing sanctions against Moscow. Vietnam, like most ot her Sout hea st A si a n nat ions, h a s avoided d irectly cr it ic i zing Russi a a nd has c a l led for rest ra i nt , t he re spect of t he U N c ha r ter a nd d i a log ue to se e k a pe acef u l solut ion to t he conf l ict. AP

New Zealand welcomes back tourists as virus rules eased

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ELLINGTON, New Zealand—New Zealand welcomed tourists from the US, Canada, Britain, Japan and more than 50 other countries for the first time in more than two years Monday after dropping most of its remaining pandemic border restrictions.

The country has long been renowned for its breathtaking scenery and adventure tourism offerings such as bungy jumping and skiing. Before the spread of Covid-19, more than 3 million tourists visited each year, accounting for 20 percent of New Zealand’s foreign income and more than 5 percent of the overall economy.

But international tourism stopped altogether in early 2020 after New Zealand imposed some of the world’s toughest border restrictions.

The border rules remained in place as the government at first pursued an elimination strategy and then tried to tightly control the spread of the virus.

The spread of omicron and vaccinations of more than 80 percent of New Zealand’s 5 million population prompted the gradual easing of restrictions.

New Zealand reopened to tourists from Australia three weeks ago and on Monday to about 60 visa-waiver countries, including much of Europe. Most tourists from India, China and other non-waiver countries are still not allowed to enter.

Tourists will need to be vaccinated and to test themselves for the virus before and after arriving.

“Today is a day to celebrate, and is a big moment in our reconnection with the

world,” said Tourism Minister Stuart Nash.

At Auckland Airport, flights bringing in tourists began landing from early in the morning, coming in direct from places including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.

The border reopening will help boost tourism ahead of New Zealand’s upcoming ski season. But the real test of how much the tourism industry rebounds will come in December, when the peak summer season begins in the Southern Hemisphere nation.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said more than 90,000 people had booked flights to New Zealand in the seven weeks since the reopening was announced and 21 international flights were scheduled to land Monday in Auckland. AP

Mitul Kotecha, head of emerging markets strategy at TD Securities, wrote in a note. “While there has been some gradual easing in some cities and provinces, manufacturing has struggled due to logistical and supply chain pressures.”

The economy is also losing the one strong pillar that had helped drive its recovery from the 2020 lockdowns. The PMI survey released Saturday showed the new export order sub-index plunged deeper into contraction to its worst level in nearly two years, while the import sub-index was the lowest since February 2020.

Activity is likely to remain depressed throughout the second quarter as virus restrictions are tightened in several places. The fear of widespread outbreaks has ruined the prospect of a bump in consumption during the five-day Labor Day break, which is usually one of the busiest seasons for domestic tourism.

A 7.9 percent contraction in gross domestic product in Jilin province in the first quarter is also a warning sign on the kind of damage other regions can expect. The northeastern province of Jilin, of which Changchun is the capital, was locked down in March, and restrictions are only now starting to be lifted.

“We remain deeply concerned about growth,” Nomura Holdings Inc. economists wrote in a note.

“Despite the raft of policy measures announced by the Politburo meeting, we still believe markets should remain focused on the development of the pandemic and the corresponding Zero Covid strategy. All other polices are of secondary importance.” Bloomberg News

Tourists, rejoice!

Italy, Greece relax restrictions

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OME—For travelers heading to Europe, summer vacations just got a whole lot easier.

Italy and Greece relaxed some Covid-19 restrictions on Sunday before Europe’s peak summer tourist season, in a sign that life was increasingly returning to normal.

Greece’s civil aviation authority announced that it was lifting all Covid-19 rules for international and domestic flights except for the wearing of face masks during flights and at airports. Previously, air travelers were required to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or a recent recovery from the disease.

As of Sunday, visitors to Italy no longer have to fill out the EU passenger locator form, a complicated online ordeal required at airport check-in.

Italy also did away with the health pass that had been required to enter restaurants, cinemas, gyms and other venues. The green pass, which showed proof of vaccination, recovery from the virus or a recent negative test, is still required to access hospitals and nursing homes.

Some indoor mask mandates in Italy also ended, including inside supermarkets, workplaces and stores.

Masks are still required on public transport, in cinemas and in all health care facilities and nursing homes.

“It was needed,” said Claudio Civitelli, a Rome resident having his morning coffee at a bar near the Trevi Fountain. Until Sunday, patrons had to wear a mask to enter bars and restaurants, though they could remove them to eat and drink. “We have waited more than two years.”

At a nearby table, Andrea Bichler, an Italian tourist from Trentino Alto-Adige, sat with friends, all without masks.

“It’s much better,” Bichler said. “Let’s say it’s a return to life, a free life.” AP

VARGAS NAMED PBA CHAIR ANEW

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HE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) board of governors unanimously named TNT Tropang Giga’s Ricky Vargas to a fifth term league chairman, according to PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial.

The governors elected Vargas during their annual planning session in Boracay over the weekend.

Marcial told BusinessMirror on Monday that the 70-year-old former Philippine Olympic Committee president was the unanimous choice to lead the board once more because of his expertise in solving crises.

Marcial said Vargas captained the PBA ship during a leadership crisis in 2017 and the Covid-19 pandemic and because of those qualities, he was the hands down choice to again lead the league.

“Everybody in the board is capable of being chairman, but Chairman Ricky [Vargas] has proven himself as the ‘problem solver’ and he’s known for providing great solutions in trying times since five years ago when he was elected as chairman,” Marcial said.

Bobby Rosales of Terrafirma also remained as vice chairman, while Phoenix Super LPG’s Raymond Zorrilla was voted treasurer, replacing Dicky Bachmann of disbanded Alaska.

Atty. Melvin Mendoza was named corporate secretary and legal counsel.

Vargas first became chairman in 2010 and was named to the post anew in 2017 when Chito Narvasa stepped down as commissioner, paving the way for Marcial to be the acting commissioner.

TNT Tropang Giga’s Ricky Vargas is again the unanimous choice as chairman.

“Chairman Ricky did everything to help the league during the pandemic like resuming the games in a bubble in the 2020 season in Clark,” Marcial said.

Vargas and the rest of the governors will address an online news conference on Wednesday to announce the league’s plans and programs for the coming 47th season.

The PBA is will open Season 47 in June with the Rookie Draft set on May 15. Josef Ramos

Malixi winds up joint 5th in Georgia

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IANNE MALIXI ended up joint fifth in the Rome Junior Classic, slowing down at the backside for a one-under 70 even as local bet Sarah Im held off Thai Thanana Kotchasanmanee to win by one with another bogey-free 69 at the Coosa Country Club in Georgia on Sunday.

The young Filipina star rebounded from an opening hole bogey with three birdies in the next eight holes but missed a couple of chances at the backside before dropping a stroke on the par-three 17th for a 34-36 card and a 54-hole total of 212.

She finished eight shots behind Im, who hit two birdies on each side for a 35-34 for a 10-under 203 output as Kotchasanmanee missed forcing a playoff with flubbed birdie opportunities before finally hitting one on the 18th for a 68 and 204.

Alice Zhao and Lydia Swan tied for third at 209 after a 68 and 71, respectively, while Reagan Southerland

matched par 71 to share fifth place with the ICTSI-backed Malixi.

The Vietnam 31st Southeast Asian Games-bound shotmaker forged a three-way tie for the first lead at 67 but shaky putting stymied her charge in the second round that saw her bogey three of her last four holes on lip-outs to bow out of the title chase with a 75.

She nailed her second American Junior Golf Association crown in the Thunderbird All Star in Phoenix, Arizona three weeks ago but blew a four-stroke lead in the final round and finished joint second in the PING Heather Classic the following week in Mesa, also in Arizona.

After the SEAG, the Se Ri Pak Desert Classic winner last year heads back to the US to vie in another AJGA event, the Under Armour/ Albane Valenzuela Girls Invitational on May 26-29 at the Longbow Golf Club where she will try to deal with an unfinished business.

Sports BusinessMirror

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ADRID—Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic criticized Wimbledon’s decision to exclude players from Russia and Belarus from taking part in this year’s tournament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The two tennis greats said Sunday that Wimbledon had acted unfairly.

“I think it’s very unfair of (on) my Russian tennis mates, my colleagues ... it’s not their fault what’s happening in this moment with the war,” Nadal, a 21-time Grand Slam winner, said in Spain where both he and Djokovic are preparing to play in the Madrid Open.

“I’m sorry for them,” Nadal said. “Wimbledon just took their decision...the government didn’t force them to do it.”

Nadal added: “Let’s see what happens in the next weeks, if the players will take some kind of decision in that regard.”

The Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association tours have both publicly criticized the All England Club’s decision which was announced April 20.

Wimbledon starts on June 27.

The prominent players affected by the ban include reigning U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who are

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HE Smart/MVP Sports Foundation National Poomsae Taekwondo Team captured five medals topped by Ernesto Guzman Jr.’s gold in the Individual Male -50 class in the recent World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Goyang, South Korea.

The pair of Justin Kobe Macario and Juvenile Faye Crisostomo finished second in Freestyle Mixed

Pair +17 while the tandem of Ian Matthew Corton and Maria Nicole Anne Labayne showed grit and grace in Recognized Mixed Pair -17 for the team’s second silver medal.

The Filipino jins proved to be a force in the competition that drew athletes from 64 countries including powerhouse Chinese Taipei, Germany, France, USA, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Thailand, Indonesia,

Not so ‘Winning Time’ I SAW a few episodes of the HBO series “Winning Time: Rise of the Laker Dynasty” and because I was a Lakers fan back in the day, the reviews, whether good or bad, doesn’t matter to me.

all from Russia. Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, which has aided Russian forces, would also be unable to play.

Djokovic compared the situation of the excluded players to what he went through in January when he was unable to play the Australian Open. He was deported from Australia for not being vaccinated against Covid-19.

“It’s not the same thing, but going through something similar earlier this year for myself, it’s frustrating knowing that you’re not able to play,” Djokovic said. “I still stand by my position that I don’t support the (Wimbledon) decision. I think it’s just not fair, it’s not right, but it is what it is.”

The All England Club had justified its action in a statement first posted on Twitter.

“In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships,” the statement said.

NOVAK ‘HEARTBROKEN’ ON BORIS

NOVAK DJOKOVIC said he is “heartbroken” for his former coach Boris Becker after the tennis great was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in Britain for illicitly transferring large amounts of money and hiding

assets after he was declared bankrupt.

The 54-year-old Becker coached Djokovic for three years starting in December 2013. “[I’m] just heartbroken, I mean, for him,” Djokovic said on Sunday in Spain ahead of the Madrid Open. “He’s a friend, a long-time friend, a coach for three, four years, someone I consider close in my life and has contributed a lot to my success in my career.”

Becker was handed his sentence on Friday following his conviction on April 8 on four charges under Britain’s Insolvency Act. The threetime Wimbledon champion was found to have transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds (dollars) after his June 2017 bankruptcy from his business account to other accounts.

Djokovic, a 20-time Grand Slam winner, said he would not comment on the details of Becker’s court case.

“I just hope he will go through this period that he has to be in jail and that when he comes out he’s, you know, being able to live his life as, I don’t know if we’ll use the word ‘normal,’ because the life is definitely changing,” Djokovic said. “I just pray for him. I hope things will be well in terms of his health, his mental health, because that’s going to be the most challenging part.”

Djokovic is seeking to return to full form in Madrid ahead of the French Open later this month. AP

Fighting Maroon Lucero: Tougher tasks ahead

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University of the Philippines over erstwhile undefeated in Season 84 men’s basketball action of the UAAP. The session,which starts at 10 a.m., is presented by San Miguel Corp., Milo, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Unilever, Amelie Hotel Manila and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The session is livestreamed via the PSA Facebook page fb.com/PhilippineSportswritersAssociation and aired on a delayed basis the same day at 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. over Radyo Pilipinas 2, which also shares the livestreaming over its Facebook page.

Jins capture 5 medals in worlds

| Tuesday, May 3, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

RAFA, DJOKO SLAM WIMBLEDON Japanese rule M Asian triathlon

PSA Forum tackles SEA Games, UAAP HE 31st Southeast Asian Games and a little bit of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) will be tackled in Tuesday’s virtual Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

Philippine Rowing Association president Patrick Gregorio joins Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) counterpart Ed Picson and secretary general Marcus Jarwin Manalo as special guests. They will talk about their campaign in the May 12 to 23 Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Gregorio will also discuss a bit of the upset pulled off last Sunday by

B8

ZAVIER LUCERO says his team’s win over Ateneo isn’t “just another game.”

Poland, Vietnam, Venezuela, Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, Qatar and host South Korea.

Darius Venerable and Rodolfo Reyes Jr. clinched bronze medals in the Freestyle Individual Male +17 and Recognized Individual Male -30, respectively.

The team is supported by the Philippine Taekwondo Association (and the Philippine Sports Commission.

There are two Lakers legends who won’t be following the series anytime soon—Magic Johnson, who, according to cinemablend.com said, “I’m not looking forward to it.

I›m going to leave it at that.” and the National Basketball Association (NBA) logo and the man known as “Mr. Clutch” when he played in tinseltown, Jerry West.

West is threatening to sue HBO and the producers of the series over what he thought the portrayal of him was, according to his lawyer, “as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic.”

Speaking of lawyers, we spoke to Atty. Mickey Ingles, of the Ingles, Laurel and Calderon firm, who specializes in sports law and I asked for his thoughts on West’s case.

“The challenge for Jerry West is the NY Times Standard when it comes to defamation. Usually, if public figures like Jerry West or popular athletes sue for defamation, they have to prove that the alleged defamer had actual malice or recklessly disregarded the truth when they produced the show or made the statements in question. So, Jerry West

By Josef Ramos

AVIER LUCERO would rather not call that University of the Philippines’ (UP) victory on Sunday night that snapped Ateneo’s winning streak crossing three seasons as “just another game.”

Instead, the 6-foot-7 power player out of California State University Maritime Academy preferred he and the Fighting Maroons look forward to the Final Four where the task gets tougher.

“That game was a little bit [more heavy] because of what it was, but I don’t want to downplay and say it’s just another game,” the International Business and Logistics graduate said.

“If we want to make the ultimate goal, we really need to beat them [Blue Eagles] two more times.”

The 22-year-old Lucero, who’s completing a Master’s degree in Human Movements at UP, finished with a quiet but effective nine points, four rebounds and two steals in the Fighting Maroons’ 84-83 win that prevented the Blue Eagles from sweeping the 14-game eliminations that could have catapulted them outright to the Finals.

The victory settled UP at No. 2 with a twice-to-beat advantage over No. 3 De La Salle in one of two Final Four matches set at 2 p.m. on Wednesday Mall of Asia Arena.

Ateneo takes on No. 4 Far Eastern University in the other semifinal at 6 p.m. with the Blue Eagles also needing to beat the Tamaraws only once to get a shot at a fifthstraight title.

Lucero said the victory against Ateneo boosted the team’s morale heading into the Final Four but stressed the Green Archers are a different animal that need a different strategy to contain.

“The Blue Eagles aren’t invincible but they are really a good team,” said Lucero, who chalked up impressive numbers of 13.4 points and 8.0 rebounds in the eliminations.

“Having a twiceto-beat advantage is good in one sense. But if we don’t play well and if they [Green Archers] win, anything can happen so we have to end it on Wednesday,” he said.

will have to show and prove that in court, which can be difficult.”

According to the Los Angeles Times web site, latimes. com, “The series made us all look like cartoon characters,” West told former Times sports editor Bill Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

The letter from attorney Skip Miller—addressed to HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery and executive producer Adam McKay—demands a retraction and an apology. It also mentions unspecified damages “for the harm you caused to [West’s] well-earned and stellar reputation.”

“You are liable for your false and mean-spirited misrepresentation,” Miller claimed. “You have committed the tort of false light invasion of privacy by creating a false impression about Mr. West that is highly offensive and injurious to his reputation.”

HBO replied a week later that it “has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and

races in Subic

R

ON SATO and Yuka Sato won with ease to again bring the titles back to Japan in the 29th NTT Asian Triathlon Confederation Subic Bay International Triathlon at Subic Bay Freeport Zone Sunday.

Ren Sato, Asia’s No. 3 and world No. 56, clocked one hour, 43 minutes and 11 seconds to rule the men’s division, while Yuka Sato, 15th in the Rio 2016 Olympics and ranked No. 10 in Asia and No. 90 in the world, topped the women’s race in 1:58:49.

If the Satos underscored their lofty reputations, so did the other favorites failed to live up to expectations in the 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-km bike and 10-km run race organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines in cooperation with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee.

Ryoya Tamazaki, ranked 14th in Asia and 201th in the world, made it a 1-2 Japanese finish in the men’s elite men race by checking in 26 seconds after Sato for his first podium finish in 13 starts.

Another 11 seconds behind at 1:43:48 was Australia’s Oscar Dart. In the women;s side of the race sanctioned by the World Triathlon and Asian Triathlon Confederation, Hong Kong’s Yan Yin Hilda Choi grabbed silver in 2:00:37 and Slovakia’s Margarita Bicanova settled for bronze in 2:01:02.

Rounding out the men’s top 10 were Hongkong’s Tsz To Wong (1:44:00), Japan’s Genta Uchida (1:44:16), Hongkong’s Jason Tai Long Ng (1:44:33), Japan’s Makoto Odakura JPN (1:44:56) Kanta Ando (1:45:21) and Koki Yamamoto (1:45:46) and Hongkong’s James Tan (1:45:52) Completing the top 10 finishers in the women’s race were Japan’s Yoshiko Eda (2:02:35), Hongkong’s Charlotte Hall (2:02:47), Chinese Taipei’s Chiachia Chang (2:03:03) and Chi Wen Chang (2:03:35), Japan’s Kotomi Anzai (2:04:21) and Hongkong’s Cade Wright (2:05:12).

The Philippines’ John Chicano (1:51:02) placed 22nd and Andrew Remolino (1:52:11) in the men’s race, while Raven Alcoseba was 13th in the women’s contest.

Gymnastics Champion

Jan Mckayla Cariquitan emerged as the individual all-around champion (Level 2, below 9 years old) in the recent Club Gymnastica Friendship Meet Gymnastics Competition at The City Club of Alphaland Suites in Makati City, winning gold medals in the floor, beam, vault and bars. She has trained under TMC Gymnastics coaches Bayani Gonzales and Liann Gonzales. events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes.

“Winning Time” is not a documentary and has not been presented as such. However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.”

If West pushes through with his threat, he’ll be waging a war on two fronts, the court of law and the court of public opinion, no pun intended.

What won’t help HBO and the producers’ case are former players like Michael Cooper and Jamaal Wilkes denouncing the series and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Lakers icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar calling the show, “deliberately dishonest.”

Maybe HBO and the series’ producers shouldn’t have just relied on a book to create a series on one of the winningest franchises in sports history because there are people’s names and reputations at stake.