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APRIL BOP GROWS 57%, SIGNALS BIG REBOUND www.businessmirror.com.ph

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Thursday, May 27, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 225

P.  |     | 7 DAYS A WEEK

WORKERS at a store in Santa Cruz, Manila, which has been making flags for more than 50 years, unfurl the national flag they created in time for National Flag Day on May 28. President Diosdado Macapagal signed Proclamation 374 on March 6, 1965, declaring the 28th day of May of each year as Flag Day. On May 24, 1994, President Fidel V. Ramos signed Executive Order 179 extending the period of celebrating National Flag Day from May 28 to June 12. ROY DOMINGO

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B B C

@BcuaresmaBM

HE country’s bond issuances pushed its Balance of Payments (BoP) past the $2-billion surplus mark in April alone and reversed the deficit seen in the previous month.

DTI LOOKS TO EXPAND OPERATING CAPACITY OF ESTABLISHMENTS B T J C. P @Tyronepiad

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Wednesday that the country’s BoP surplus hit $2.61 billion in April, a 57-percent growth from the $1.67 billion surplus in April 2020.

This is also the first month that the country’s BoP entered surplus territory for this year.

The BoP is usually considered an important economic indicator in an economy as it shows the level of earnings or expenses of the Philippines with its transactions with the world. A surplus means that the country had more dollar earnC  A

THE BROADER LOOK »A8-A9

AMID PANDEMIC, PINAYS PREVAIL, POUND PHL’S PAVEMENT FOR PROGRESS

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 48.0790

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HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is looking forward to expanding the operating capacity of establishments next month as fewer businesses have remained closed amid easing of lockdown protocols.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said at a virtual event on Wednesday that the National Capital Region (NCR)—along with Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal and Cavite—is likely to remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) even after May 31.

“We can continue with the GCQ starting June,” he said, noting that the number of Covid-19 cases has slowed down.

Official announcements have yet to be made.

“Inaasahan din natin na... dadagdagan ang mga operating capacity moving forward dahil sa magandang numero [We are also expecting that operating capacity will be expanded moving forward because of the good numbers],” Lopez said.

He said transitioning to

GCQ allowed the economy to allow more business activities while implementing the safety protocols. This is why nonessential activities are still discouraged to avoid Covid-19 surge anew, Lopez said.

The trade chief explained that fewer establishments have remained closed in the pandemic with the easing of the mobility restrictions.

Currently, about 8 percent are not operating, Lopez said.

This is lower compared to when 16 percent halted business activities around March and April during the enhanced community quarantine, he added.

“Marami pa uling makakapagbukas na negosyo [More businesses will reopen] moving forward to June,” the DTI official said.

To reopen the economy, Lopez encouraged the economic frontliners to get vaccinated.

He said the DTI is “trying to expand also the definition of A4” in the priority list for vaccination. It covers frontline personnel in essential sectors,

BTr raises June borrowing program by 26% to P215B B B D. N

T

@BNicolasBM

HE Bureau of the Treasury hiked its domestic borrowing program for the month of June to a whopping P215 billion, up by 26 percent from only P170 billion it programmed for May. The bulk of the programmed domestic borrowings for June, or

P140 billion, will now be raised through Treasury Bonds (T-bonds) with longer tenors, double the programmed P70 billion for the same government security this month.

The rest of the amount is planned to be raised by auctioning off P75 billion in Treasury bills (Tbills).

Sought for comment on why it C  A

S “DTI,” A

■ JAPAN 0.4421 ■ UK 68.0366 ■ HK 6.1937 ■ CHINA 7.4983 ■ SINGAPORE 36.2642 ■ AUSTRALIA 37.2660 ■ EU 58.9016 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.8221

Source: BSP (May 26, 2021)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 27, 2021

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Duterte OKs release of P5-B new funding for repatriation

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B S P. M

@sam_medenilla

RESIDENT Duterte finally approved on Wednesday the release of the additional P5.2 billion for the repatriation expenses of overseas Filipino workers (OFW), according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

In an online press briefing, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said he was informed by the Office

of the President of the approval.

He noted the release came out at an opportune time since they

were not immediately able to settle the payment of the some bills in the hotel accommodations of OFWs. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) had earlier requested for an additional P9.8 billion to help pay for its growing expenses for hotel accommodations for OFWs after the government extended the quarantine period of inbound travelers.

The prolonged stay of OFWs in hotel accommodations quickly drained OWWA’s P11-billion budget for it. Bello said they may still request for an additional budget for quarantine accommodation in case more OFWs still request for

SMC VOWS HOTDOGS, MEAT PRODUCTS WON’T BE IN SHORT SUPPLY C  A

Own facility

SMFBI has its own manufacturing facility that produces chicken MDM for its internal use. SMFBI officials earlier said the cost of producing chicken MDM locally is “about double” the price of imported MDM. However, SMFBI noted that it is committed to hike its chicken MDM production of chicken MDM since it can manage the costs if the raw material is used internally. Chicken MDM is one of the primary raw materials used by processors to produce hotdogs, siomai, luncheon meat, beef loaf, meat loaf, among others.

The BM published a series of stories this week explaining the problems confronting the domestic meat processing industry from depleting stockpiles of chicken MDM to persisting global shipping problems.

On Wednesday, the BM reported that prices of local processed meat products may increase by as much as 20 percent—on a staggered ba-

sis over the next eight months— as processors start to use more expensive raw materials. (Relat-

ed story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2021/05/26/processedmeat-products-prices-may-rise20-for-rest-of-the-year/)

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) said the industry has “used up” all of its lower-priced chicken MDM supply and has started to use the ones bought at $1.2 per kilogram to $1.4 per kilogram price tag since mid-May. “We can no longer absorb the impact to our cost. By June onwards, [chicken MDM] arrivals will be at $1.50 [per kilogram] to $1.60 [per kilogram],” Pampi Vice President and CDO Foodsphere Inc. President Jerome D. Ong told the BM.

“Processors will have to increase prices by 15 [percent] to 20 [percent] to stay afloat,” Ong added.

Ong explained that the increase in their prices would not happen overnight but stretched in increments of 3 percent to 5 percent in the course of the next six to eight months.

The staggered increase in prices would provide sufficient elbow room for both meat processors and the government to work out solutions to ease chicken MDM supplies.

The prices of chicken MDM, particularly those from Brazil and North America—the ones currently available to the Philippines—have skyrocketed to $1.6 per kilogram, more than thrice its $0.5 per kilogram price last year.

At present, Ong estimates that the industry’s chicken MDM inventory ranges from 30 days to 45 days.

The BM broke the story this week that meat processing companies, whether small or big players, have started to limit their product distribution in the market given the lack of raw material supply.

Industry sources told the BM certain brands of hotdogs and canned meat products are now absent from supermarket shelves while other companies are not anymore selling in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

repatriation in coming months.

As of May 26, 2021, he said the government was able to repatriate 556,000 OFWs since the onset of the pandemic last year.

To help minimize the accommodation expenses for OFWs, the Department of Tourism (DOT) proposed that government reduce to less than seven days the quarantine period of travelers who are already vaccinated.

Bello said he fully supports the DOT recommendation, which could help reduce their accommodation expenses. He hopes it will be approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

SAUDI’S VAXX PREFERENCE RULE EXEMPTS OFWs—BELLO

O

VERSEAS Filipino workers (OFW) are exempted from the reported Covid-19 vaccine brands preference in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Citing the report from Labor Attache Fidel Macalayug, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the policy does not cover OFWs, who remain in demand in KSA. “The new policy of Saudi only covers foreign travelers, excluding OFWs,” Bello said in an online press briefing on Wednesday. He said the Saudi government may have implemented the policy in consideration of the still limited number of available Covid-19 vaccines in the country.

DOLE issued the clarification after it was reported that KSA and European member countries will not allow entry for travelers who got Covid-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical firms such as Sinovac-BioNTech.

Currently, Bello said they have yet to get any report of countries that restricted the entry of OFWs simply because the Covid-19 vaccines they got were not “preferred” in the host country.

During the last Labor Day, DOLE encouraged economic frontliners including OFWs to use the available brands of vaccines secured by the government.

Among the vaccine brands being used by the government are those from Sinovac-BioNtech, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Samuel P. Medenilla

RAMON LOPEZ

DTI...

C  A

including uniformed personnel.

The trade chief wants to include those employees who use public transportation going to their workplace, as they have high exposure to Covid-19.

He said there should also be a focus on NCR Plus when it comes to vaccination because of the big population and contribution in terms of economic activities.

Based on the DTI Memorandum Circular 21-19, restaurants in NCR Plus under GCQ will be allowed to have 20-percent capacity for indoor dine-in services and 50-percent capacity for outdoor dining.

Personal care services, including beauty salons, barbershops, medical aesthetic clinics, nail spa and other similar establishments, may accommodate up to 30 percent of their capacity.

At 10-percent seating capacity, limited social events at accredited establishments of the Department of Tourism (DOT) will be allowed under GCQ. These events should be “only ceremonial proceedings consistent with the rules on religious gatherings shall be conducted, subject to the applicable DOT/ DTI guidelines,” the circular reads.

With strict adherence to minimum health protocols, outdoor tourist attractions may also operate at 30 percent.

Meanwhile, the order still prohibits venues for meetings, incentives, conference and exhibition (MICE), indoor sports venues and indoor tourist attractions under GCQ.

BTr raises June borrowing program by 26% to P215B C  A

had to ramp up its domestic borrowing program for June, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said: “Previous auctions saw good reception on long tenors as investors hunt for better yields.”

Unlike the previous setup of holding T-bond auctions fortnightly, the Treasury will also now be selling P35 billion in Tbonds on each of the first four Tuesdays of June.

It will be offering 20-year Tbonds on June 1; 7-year T-bonds on June 8; 10-year T-bonds on June 15; and 5-year T-bonds on June 22.

Apart from this, the Treasury is also set to offer P15 billion in 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day Tbills starting May 31 and on all four Mondays of June.

For this year, the national government has set a P3.03-trillion gross borrowing program, roughly the same amount it borrowed in 2020.

Eighty percent of the amount is programmed to be raised through domestic sources while the remaining 20 percent is expected to come from foreign sources.

The government borrows to finance its spending requirements as well as to cover its budget deficit. Budget deficits occur when ex-

penditures exceed revenues.

Projections changed

THE Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) last week raised its projection for the country’s budget deficit-to-GDP ratio this year to 9.4 percent or P1.86 trillion from 8.9 percent or P1.78 trillion previously.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III earlier expressed concern on the projected rise in the country’s fiscal deficit, adding that any additional stimulus program has to be revenue-neutral.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury released on Tuesday

showed the government’s cumulative budget deficit as of end-April reached P365.9 billion, inching up by 1.63 percent from last year’s budget gap of P360 billion.

The country’s outstanding debt has also reached a new record-high of P10.77 trillion as of end-March this year, up by 27.1 percent from P8.48 trillion a year ago.

Dominguez had also said they still expect the country’s debt-toGDP ratio this year to still be below the 60-percent threshold.

The DBCC also recently slashed its growth projection for the Philippine economy this year to 6 to 7 percent from its previous forecast range of 6.5 to 7.5 percent due to

the emergence of new Covid-19 variants and the reimposition of stricter lockdown measures in the National Capital Region Plus during the second quarter of this year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier reported that the country’s GDP contracted 4.2 percent in the first quarter of the year, marking the economy’s fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua has said the economy needs to grow an average of 10 percent in the next three quarters to achieve the low-end of the government’s target.

April BoP grows 57%, signals big rebound C  A

ings than its expenses during the period.

The Philippines’s BoP was in deficit in the first three months of 2021, the largest of which is the $2.02-billion deficit the country incurred in February.

“The BOP surplus in April 2021 was attributed to inflows arising mainly from the proceeds of the national government ROP Global and Samurai bond issuances, which were deposited to the BSP,”

the Central Bank said in a statement.

In-end March this year, the Philippine government was able to raise P24.2 billion in its sale of 3-year zero-coupon Samurai bonds, marking its successful return to the said market after more than a year of hiatus. Following this, in mid-April, the government also raised P122.4 billion from its first triple-tranche euro-denominated bond offering.

The strong BoP surplus of the country in April almost closed the

gap for the first four months of the year.

The Philippines posted a deficit of $231 million in January to April this year, recovering from the $2.84-billion deficit in January to March this year. However, the deficit is still a reversal of the $1.6-billion surplus in January to April in 2020.

The BSP blamed the fourmonth deficit on the country’s merchandise trade deficit and net outflows of foreign portfolio investments.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

House opens committee hearing on Leonen’s impeach raps today

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HE House Committee on Justice will start on today (Thursday) the hearing on the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario Victor F. Leonen for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.

House Committee on Justice Vice Chairman Juan Fidel Nograles said the hearing on Thursday marks the initial stage of a long impeachment process.

“We are still in the initial stage to determine the complaint’s sufficiency in form and substance and then the respondent, Justice Leonen, will be required to submit a written answer,” he said.

Last March 25, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco transmitted the impeachment complaint filed by Mr. Edwin M. Cordevilla and endorsed

by Ilocos Sur Second District Rep. Angelo Marcos Barba to the Committee on Rules.

The committee, chaired by House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, had already endorsed the impeachment complaint to the justice committee.

According to the rules, the Speaker should have an impeachment complaint included in the order of business, or agenda of the House session, 10 days from receipt. It shall then be referred to the House Committee on Justice within three session days.

Velasco, meanwhile, assured the public that there would be a fair resolution of the impeachment complaint.

Earlier, Atty. Larry Gadon, lawyer of the complainant, who was also behind the filing of an impeachment complaint against former SC Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, said he believes that their complaint is “very strong

enough” to impeach Leonen.

The magistrate has been accused for alleged failure to file statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 15 years during his tenure at the University of the Philippines.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the President, the Vice President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment.

It also provides that the House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.

A verified complaint for impeachment may be filed by any Member of the House of Representatives or by any citizen upon a resolution or endorsement by any member thereof, which shall be included in the Order of Business within 10 session days, and referred to the proper committee within three session days thereafter.

Also, a vote of at least one-third of all the members of the House shall be necessary either to affirm a favorable resolution with the Articles of Impeachment of the Committee, or override its contrary resolution. The vote of each member shall be recorded.

In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

PCG eyeing El Nido in Palawan as next operations hub in WPS

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

& Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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HE Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is eyeing El Nido in Palawan as its principal hub for its operations in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) as it step up its presence in the territory that is being disputed primarily by China.

The plan to convert El Nido into an operational hub that could pave way for the development of a PCG base was disclosed by Commodore Armand Balilo following the visit to Kalayaan, Palawan of PCG Commandant George Ursabia Jr. on Tuesday.

“Will also make EL Nido the hub of PCG operations in WPS. We are looking to establish a Coast Guard base in the near future,” said Balilo, who is also the Coast Guard spokesman.

Aside from using El Nido as its staging point and building a base there for its maritime patrol operations in the WPS, Balilo said the PCG also plans to improve its current station in Pagasa Island.

“There is a plan to further improve the PCG station in Pagasa for monitoring purposes, especially on maritime safety and search and rescue. This is for the fishermen,” he said.

Ursabia visited Pagasa Island and checked on the status of the PCG station there and its personnel, where according to Balilo, the commandant’s party was not challenged by Chinese vessels.

2022 poll candidates may only be allowed one ‘chaperone’ in filing of COC at Comelec offices

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

F

EWER people may be allowed to witness the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC)

by October under the new proposed stricter measure of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In an online forum on Wednesday, Comelec Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. said they are considering further reducing the number of people, who may be allowed to accompany potential candidates during the event, to just one person.

“We can probably have limit to

candidate and lawyer or family member to join the actual filing inside the office,” Kho said.

Kho issued the statement after prominent election lawyer Romulo Macalintal suggested reducing the number of people who may be allowed inside Comelec offices during the COC filing.

The filing of COCs in Comelec’s offices is usually marked with large crowds of family members and supporters who accompany election hopefuls.

The poll body is now considering several measures to limit the number of people in its offices at any given time due to the pandemic.

Among these is scheduling the days in the COC filing period for certain elective positions.

There is also a proposal for a virtual filing of COC, but Kho said the measure it unlikely to be approved due to legality issues.

“Under the Election Code, the COC must be personally filed by the candidate or authorized representative,” Kho said.

He said a new law may have to be passed by Congress first before online COC filing could be allowed.

The COC filing for the 2022 National and Local Elections will be held from October 1 to 8, 2021.

Guevarra assures CHR role in EJK cases review

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

J

USTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday assured that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) would not be left out in the ongoing efforts of the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to end extrajudicial killings and other human-rights abuses reportedly being committed by rogue law enforcers in the implementation of the government’s anti-illegal drugs war.

However, Guevarra is non-committal on suggestions that the CHR should also be given access to the 61 cases that the DOJ-led inter-agency review panel would soon look into.

“This matter will be for further discussion, the DOJ has its own separate agreement with the CHR. Besides, the CHR’s involvement may be in some other form, such as in locating and assisting witnesses. This was one of the things that I discussed with CHR today as I intend to honor the DOJ’s commitment to engage the CHR in this endeavor,” Guevarra told reporters.

Guevarra’s statement came af-

ter PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar agreed to give the DOJ Panel access to review its records involving anti-illegal drugs operations where deaths occurred.

Eleazar’s cooperation, according to Guevarra, was prompted by the former’s desire to discipline wrongdoers among the ranks of the policy and uplift the image of the PNP as protectors of the people.

The DOJ said it would focus on 61 cases involving hundreds of PNP personnel nationwide where the PNP-Internal Affairs Service had already found either administrative or criminal liability on the part of law-enforcement officers.

However, Eleazer said in an interview with ANC that he is willing to give the DOJ access to records of all its investigations against policemen in its drug war campaign since 2016.

In response, Guevarra said: “The 61 cases where liability was established by the PNP IAS came from the more than 6,000 cases reviewed by the IAS. We thus presume that the rest were dismissed. If the PNP chief has said that the review panel may also review these other cases, we will

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, May 27, 2021 A3

be very happy to do so, as this is what we have wanted in the first place.”

Meanwhile, DOJ Undersecretary Adrian Ferdinand Sugay said that they are now finalizing the terms in the memorandum of agreement with the PNP with regard to the review of cases where alleged EJKs happened.

“We are currently working on the memorandum of agreement as per the instructions of DOJ Secretary Guevarra. We hope to finalize this document in the next few days,” Sugay said.

On June 30 last year, Guevarra informed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of the existence of a panel reviewing 5,655 anti-illegal drugs operations where there had been reported casualties.

The panel’s task was to re-evaluate these anti-illegal drugs operations and, if necessary, file appropriate charges against erring lawenforcement officers.

They also intended to discuss with the affected families and provide them with legal options and assistance on the criminal prosecution of law enforcers who may have overstepped legal boundaries in their operations.

“His visit is to ensure that every PCG personnel even at our most remote territories are in high spirit and doing their respective roles right to echo the resolve of the President to ensure the safety and well-being of our fishermen and the coastal communities in all parts of the country, including the WPS,” Balilo said.

While in Pagasa, Ursabia honored PCG personnel who have been deployed to “uphold maritime law enforcement, maritime security, maritime safety, maritime search and rescue, and marine environmental protection.”

Ursabia bestowed the “Award of Distinguished Coast Guard Cross and Ribbon” in sincere appreciation to the efforts and sacrifices of station commander of LTJG (lieutenant junior grade) Elwin Madridano and the 16 personnel of PCG station in Kalayaan.

“We recognize your heroism in the face of great danger above and beyond the call of duty, most especially in conducting maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea. On behalf of your Coast Guard family and the entire Filipino nation, we thank you for your humble and compassionate public service,” Ursabia said.

At the same time, the commandant challenged all the members of the PCG to step up their presence in the WPS and “fly the national flag with a sense of pride.”

Ursabia recognized the PCG and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels that maintain maritime security and safety in the WPS, including the BRP Malapascua, BRP Capones, BRP Francisco Dagohoy,

MCS-3001, MCS-3002, MCS-3004, MCS-3005, and BRP Habagat.

“These are the two main objectives that we need to accomplish: stepping up our presence and flying the Philippine flag with a sense of pride because the West Philippine Sea is ours! But then, we should not forget that it is also a contested area,” Ursabia said.

“There are others claiming that it is also theirs. But of course, we will not surrender the territory. It is ours!

Hence, we have to do our part in a peaceful and rules-based manner,” he stressed.

Navy FOBs

THE chairman of the House Strategic Intelligence Committee has called for the establishment of naval “forward operating bases [FOBs]” in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, in a news statement, urged the Philippine Nav y to secure the area amid persistent Chinese incursions.

“We want the Philippine Navy positioned to prevent China from asserting administrative control over any reefs, rocks or lagoons within our 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone,” he said.

According to Pimentel, the Navy should put up new FOBs in Palawan —one in the Municipality of Balabac and one in the Municipality of Busuanga—as part of its strategic basing plan, plus a third FOB in Subic Bay, which is only 123 nautical miles west of Bajo de Masinloc.

“We should avoid a repeat of the 2012 incident where China was able

to occupy Bajo de Masinloc,” Pimentel stressed.

In military parlance, an FOB is a secured outpost that can serve as a springboard for sustained remote operations.

“We expect the Navy’s two lead warships to be posted in the FOBs and to routinely operate in the West Philippine Sea,” Pimentel said, referring to the multi-role guided missile frigates BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Antonio Luna.

Pimentel also said he is counting on the Philippine Coast Guard to constantly deploy its lead ship— the French-made 84-meter offshore patrol vessel BRP Gabriela Silang—in the waters threatened by unwanted Chinese forays.

“Both the Coast Guard and the Navy should marshal their best defensive fighting assets in the waters where we are most vulnerable,” Pimentel said.

In the 2012 standoff, the lawmaker said, Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels blocked access to Bajo de Masinloc. They thwarted the BRP Gregorio del Pilar from accosting Chinese boats caught illegally fishing in the area.

As part of a deal brokered by the United States government, he said both China and the Philippines were supposed to withdraw their ships from Bajo de Masinloc.

“However, after the Philippines had pulled out, China reneged and kept occupying the chain of coral reefs and rocks that forms part of the Municipality of Masinloc in Zambales province,” Pimentel added.

Suspect allegedly behind ‘vaccine for sale’ scam yields to MMDA

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

A

SUSPECT in the alleged online selling of governmentprocured Covid-19 vaccines in Mandaluyong City voluntarily surrendered to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. and Mandaluyong City Mayor Carmelita “Menchie” Abalos on Tuesday night.

The suspect, identified as Kyle Bonifacio, 22, who is a son of a barangay official in the city, was turned over to Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for further investigation.

Abalos also presented Bonifacio to the media on Wednesday before turning him over to the NBI. The MMDA chief said that Bonifacio was accompanied by his parents when he voluntarily surrendered to them.

Abalos said Bonifacio’s father, a barangay kagawad, called her up on Tuesday night and volunteered to surrender his son. “ Ky le ’s p a re nt s we re s u r prised when authorities went to their house and started to investigate on their son. The father decided to surrender his son to us,” said Abalos.

Abalos said they consider the case solved and will leave the full investigation to the PNP and NBI for the appropriate filing of charges.

“We will see to it that justice is served,” Abalos vowed, warning the public that selling and buying of Covid- 19 vaccines is illegal.

He also urged the public to report incidents of selling of vaccine slots to authorities.

“Individuals who offer vaccine slots for a fee and those who will buy the vaccine slots may be charged,” he warned.

MANDALUYONG City Mayor Carmelita “Menchie” Abalos and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. present to the media the suspect behind the “Bakuna for Sale” scheme Kyle Bonifacio on Wednesday before turning him over to the National Bureau of Investigation.

Running short of vaccines?

THE government may be facing a possible shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses next month once it starts the vaccination of economic frontliners, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

In an online news briefing on Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said around 13 million people from the National Capital Region (NCR), Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal will be prioritized with the roll out of Covid-19 jabs for those in the A4 priority group (economic frontliners).

But she noted their anticipated vaccine inventory during that period would only be 10 million doses.

“So if the 13 million [doses] will not be enough for our estimated A4 [beneficiaries], the LGU [local government units] will decide who among A4 will be vaccinated first,” Cabotaje explained.

“We will leave it to the LGU to

strategize on who are at the most risk, most vulnerable among the A4 depending on their locality,” she added.

The government is expected to start next month with the vaccination of those in the A4, as well as A5 (indigent) priority groups.

Citing data from the National Economic and Development Authority, Cabotaje said there are an estimated 22.4 million economic frontliners and 8.5 million indigents, who will finally be given vaccines next month.

On May 1, 2021, the government held a symbolic vaccination for 10,695 economic frontliners to mark the celebration of Labor Day. As of Tuesday, Cabotaje said the government already administered Covid-19 vaccines to 3.47 million people nationwide. Of which, 1,029,061 already got their second dose. Samuel P. Medenilla

A4 Thursday, May 27, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

Foreign chambers: Senate bill on retail trade liberalization ‘still protectionist’

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

W

@TyronePiad

HILE the Senate approved lower capital requirements for foreign retailers, the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) said this showed a “still-protectionist” stance as opposed to the country’s neighbors in Southeast Asia.

The foreign chambers, in a news statement issued on Wednesday, said that the Senate’s version of retail trade liberalization may prevent new foreign direct investments in the local retail sector as the capital requirements, albeit lower, remain high in the region.

Last week, the senators approved on third and final reading the Senate Bill 1840. This lowers the required capitalization to $1 million or P50 million from the current $2.5 million. Earlier, the proposed amount for the measure was $300,000.

“This [$1 million] still-protectionist level is far higher than in Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and others, who also have large numbers of MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] like the Philippines,” the JFC said.

With this, the JFC said they sent a letter to the House and Senate expressing support for the version pegging the capital requirement to $200,000 for foreign companies, which is covered in the approved House Bill 59.

The signatories of the letter are American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, AustralianNew Zealand Commerce of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines, Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. Still, the JFC threw its support be-

hind the Senate version on removal of requirements for inward remittance and pre-qualification; and the revision on documentation proving paid-in capital and promotion of locally made products.

“We encourage legislators to look beyond the current crisis and consider the major impact this amendment can contribute to make the Philippine economy quickly recover post-pandemic,” the business groups said.

“Little has changed in foreign ownership in the Philippine retail sector since over 20 years ago when the Retail Trade Liberalization Act [RA 8762] was passed in 2000 to amend the Retail Trade Act of 1954, which for 46 years absolutely prohibited foreign nationals from participating in domestic retail trade,” they added.

The foreign chambers said that RA 8762, which sets minimum capitalization for foreign retailers at $2.5 million, has been tagged as “highly restrictive” by the World Bank and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Since 2000, JFC noted that only an average of two foreign retailers invested in the country annually.

More foreign retailers investing in the Philippines will mean job creations not only for the said sector but for the support industries as well, the business groups said.

These include advertising, agriculture, construction, design, logistics, media, telecommunications and wholesale retail.

In addition, the foreign chambers said that additional foreign retail players would create more competition in the local industry.

This is beneficial for the Filipino consumers, they said, noting that the fast-growing middle class can buy higher quality and more variety of goods at lower cost.

“Foreign retailers can introduce better technologies for their logistics, inventory management, sales, accounting and other business operations,” the JFC added.

Previously, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Alegria Limjoco expressed some concerns over the amendments to retail trade law. Lowering the capital requirements for foreign firms will hurt the local micro and small businesses, Limjoco said, pointing to competition.

“I want to Filipino micro and small retailers to thrive and grow,” Limjoco, who is also the vice chairman for Philippine Franchise Association and Philippine Retailers Association, told the BusinessMirror earlier.

The amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, along with Public Service Act and Foreign Investments Act, were certified as urgent in April.

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DOF chief says PHL economy, banking sector need to hasten digital switch to remain viable

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

F

INANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on Wednesday said the old brick-and-mortar strategy of doing business, especially in the banking sector, may not be enough to meet clients’ needs in the post-pandemic era.

Dominguez said the Philippine economy need to quickly switch to digitalization for it to remain viable, adding that nowhere is the impact of digital technology more pronounced than in the field of finance.

“Our banking sector understands that the old brick-and-mortar industry can no longer suffice. We need to move quickly online, engage our clients through their smartphones, and improve on our internal processes to meet new standards of efficiency. Those that cannot swim in the digital tide will drown in its wake,” said Dominguez in his pre-recorded message during the virtual groundbreaking ceremonies of the Innovation Campus of the Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank).

Envisioned as a futuristic hub that will help develop talent to fuel UnionBank’s digital innovation strategies, the Innovation Campus based in San Pedro Laguna will also serve as the bank’s business continuity facility to ensure unhampered service in times of disasters and other unforeseen events.

Since the Innovation Campus

will serve as a business continuity facility that will function as a back up of UnionBank’s operations, Dominguez also advised the bank’s officials to continue strengthening cyber-security safeguards of their digital systems to protect these from potential threats and risks.

The country’s finance chief also recognized UnionBank ’s “welldeserved reputation for cuttingedge innovation” as it has been a reliable partner of the Social Security System and the Bureau of the Treasury in enabling Filipinos across the globe to participate in the government’s bond offerings online amid the pandemic through the Bonds.PH mobile app.

“The bank has been instrumental in helping us achieve President Duterte’s goal of financial inclusion and a comfortable life for all Filipinos,” Dominguez said.

UnionBank’s 5-story Innovation Campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities such as the Operational and IT Command Centers, security monitoring rooms, modern learning spaces, collaboration areas, cafeteria, dormitories, and health and wellness facilities.

Its business continuity facility situated inside the campus will serve to assure UnionBank’s clients of uninterrupted service in case of disasters and crises affecting the main office, similar to its seamless transition to a work-from-home set-up since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

News BusinessMirror

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Thursday, May 27, 2021 A5

Peza proposes 21 new ecozone developments

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

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HE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has recently identified 21 potential economic zones in the countryside as it seeks to establish more pharmaceutical parks amid the demand for manufacturing of vaccines and medicines, among others.

The regulator of ecozones said that the proposed ecozones were a result of its collaboration with the Mindanao Development Authority, the Southern Philippine Development Authority, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, other Cabinet members and executives from Mindanao.

Peza said such a move supports Administrative Order 18, which bans new ecozone developments in Metro Manila and encourages investments in the regions.

“In line with the AO 18, we hope to scatter and spread more ecozones nationwide, especially in the countryside so that we can attract different

types of industries,” Peza Director General Charito Plaza said in a news statement issued on Wednesday.

Plaza hopes to establish more pharma ecozones after a recent investment in the said industry.

“Another ecozone developer has put up a Pharma Park to attract investors into manufacture of vaccines, medicines and vitamin supplements, hospital equipment for Covid-19 and other medical purposes,” she said.

This, after Peza brought in an Israeli investor to produce Covid-19 oral vaccines in a facility in Angeles, Pampanga, Plaza said.

Peza noted that Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez expressed his support for local production of vaccines.

“It’s in getting the vaccination rollout that is critical as well as the discoveries of new medicines. Manufacturing of vaccines in the country and its rollout will help us sustain the reopening of the economy,” he said.

Apart from pharma parks, Peza hopes to put up more Knowledge, Innovation, Science and Technology (KIST) parks; aqua-marine and renewable-energy parks; mineral

processing ecozones; halal hubs and production; and defense industrial complexes.

In a recent interview with the BusinessMirror, Plaza proposed the inclusion of the defense industry in Strategic Investment Priorities Plan (SIPP) under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law.

SIPP is the list of investment sectors that may ap ply for fiscal incentives under CREATE.

Decentralizing Peza

MEANWHILE, Plaza also told the BusinessMirror previously t he y a re setting up

BSP governor reports rise in QR code patronage amid pandemic With digital finance infrastructures and digital governance and standards as its two other pillars, this road map is expected to build an environment that is conducive to the digital transformation of the country’s payments system.

BM

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

B

ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno reported on Wednesday that more Filipinos are using Quick Response (QR) codes for person-toperson transactions.

In a recent speaking engagement, Diokno said QR PH person-toperson (P2P) payments increased by 22 percent in terms of volume in February this year, compared to its level in the previous month. By value, QR PH transactions increased by 26 percent.

The first use case of QR PH in the country is the QR PH P2P facility, which was launched in November 2019, to enable digital fund transfers between peers or individual end-users.

As of end-March 2021, there are 20 InstaPay participants that offer QR PH P2P payment services to their clients.

Last month, the BSP and the payment services industry expanded on this and launched the QR PH Person-toMerchant, or QR PH P2M. This is a digital payment stream, which is expected to bring benefits to both consumers and businesses.

“QR PH is among the identified payment use cases under the digital payments streams, one of the pillars of the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap or DPTR,” Diokno said.

“With digital finance infrastructures and digital governance and standards as its two other pillars, this road map is expected to build an environment that is conducive to the digital transformation of the country’s payments system,” he added.

Diokno said the growth in QR code usage is parallel to the strong digital growth in the banking industry as brought about by the pandemic.

“Although the pandemic has seriously affected the country’s economy, we were able to fast-track our digital transformation… We have been able to move forward because we chose to innovate and embrace digitalization,” Diokno said.

The BSP has earlier reported that combined transactions by electronic fund transfer facilities PESONet and InstaPay grew by 348 percent in volume and 170 percent in value in February 2021 respectively, compared to figures recorded during the same month in 2020.

DOH logs 5,310 new infections; total cases now at 1,193,976

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

T

HE total number of Covid-19 cases in the country jumped to 1,193,976 after 5,310 additional infections were logged on Wednesday.

There were also 7,408 recoveries and 150 deaths recorded by the Department of Health (DOH).

Of the total number of cases, 3.9 percent (46,037) are active, 94.5 percent (1,127,770) have recovered, and 1.69 percent (20,169) died.

Moreover, 86 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

All laboratories were operational on

May 24, 2021, but 4 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

Based on data in the last 14 days, the four non-reporting labs contribute, on average, 1.1 percent of samples tested and 1.7 percent of positive individuals.

As of May 24, the DOH also recorded 18,533 health-care workers positive for Covid-19.

Of these, 18,324 (98.9 percent) have recovered, 94 (0.5 percent) have died and 115 (0.6 percent) were active cases.

Of these active cases, 62 (53.9 percent) were mild cases, 18 (15.7 percent) were asymptomatic, 19 (16.5 percent) in severe condition, 9 (7.8 percent) in critical condition and 7 (6.1 percent) in moderate condition.

more regional offices as more special economic zones are expected to be created in the countryside. These are intended to be operational by January next year.

“We will come up with a new structure of Peza where we are going to decentralize and regionalize our service, anticipating that more economic zones will be created in the countryside,” she explained.

She said that many local government units and private landowners are now aiming to put up economic zones.

Currently, Peza is working with its consultants in determining the personnel, technical expertise, rate of salary and employee benefits granted in each regional office.

“We are envisioning that our economic zones will become the

economic driver so that we can convert towns to become smart towns, digital cities. Hopefully, with the economic zones in the regions, we can create…new metropolitan [areas] in every region,” she said.

Peza is currently regulating around 410 economic zones across the country, majority or 290 of which are information-technology parks and centers.

News

BusinessMirror

A6 Thursday, May 27, 2021

DOT eyes shorter quarantine period for vaxxed tourists

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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looks at our neighbors in Southeast Asia for guidance on best practices. “In Thailand, for fully vaccinated [tourists], they still have to quarantine though for seven days. In Hong Kong, the quarantine is also for seven days, but the tourists come from lowrisk countries like New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. So we brought it up to the IATF to look at it, and maybe we could benchmark against Thailand that the quarantine is only seven days.”

She noted a 10-day quarantine only increases the expenses of

balikbayans, who also bring home presents for their friends and relatives, or give them money.

“But our real goal, since we have already started our vaccination, is ‘no quarantine’ at all. But that can only happen if we have more vaccinated people. In Thailand, they plan to vaccinate Phuket by 70 percent, so their target is by July, they can already accept tourists without quarantine,” said Romulo Puyat.

In a news statement, the DOT chief said she was optimistic about the prospect of setting up the “Green Lane” that will facilitate the entry of foreign visitors who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as part of the national government’s effort to reopen the economy.

“The Green Lane will pave the way for the reopening of our tourist destinations to leisure travelers who are now fully vaccinated. It will give the jobs back to many of our tourism workers and gradually revive the tourism industry under

safe conditions,” said Romulo Puyat.

The IATF has tasked the DOT and several other agencies of the government to evaluate the possibility of implementing this inbound tourism strategy and formulate protocols for its implementation. The small working group co-chaired with the Department of Foreign Affairs, will also include the Bureau of Quarantine, the Bureau of Immigration, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of Transportation, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the Department of Trade and Industry.

“We must keep pace with our neighbors and the rest of the world in slowly reopening our tourist destinations. We must be ready for the visitors when the whole world is ready to safely travel again,” she stressed.

Governance” and 16.38 out of 40 in “Responsibilities of the Board.”

In 2019, insurers and MBAs also earned an additional 1.48 points in “Bonus and Penalties,” by which assessment area points are added for company practices beyond minimum standards and points are subtracted for poor corporate governance practices.

The ACGS is a tool used to evaluate companies’ corporate governance practices. It was developed based on international benchmarks and industry-leading corporate governance practices of the Asean and the world. It relies primarily on publicly available and easily accessible information, such as, but not limited to, companies’ annual

reports, information posted in company websites, announcements, circulars, articles of association, minutes of annual shareholders’ meetings or excerpts thereof, corporate governance policies, codes of conduct, and sustainability reports.

The ICD was accredited by the IC to conduct the yearly assessment of the covered companies.

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) has proposed a shorter quarantine period for vaccinated tourists coming to the Philippines, as part of its “Green Lane” strategy.

“We are looking at shortening the quarantine from 10 days to seven days, especially for those vaccinated,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in a radio interview.

“I keep receiving texts everyday, especially from balikbayans [homecoming Filipinos], asking if they could come home since they’re already vaccinated. They’re eager to visit their relatives, but currently the quarantine is 10 days, which is a waste of your vacation,” she said in Filipino.

She added, the DOT constantly

PHL…

Continued from A16

For the other areas, insurers and MBAs scored 5.53 out of 10 in “Rights of Shareholders,” 9.92 out of 15 in “Equitable Treatment of Shareholders,” 3.97 out of 10 in “Role of Shareholders in Corporate

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Sotto: Bayanihan 3 priority despite exclusion by Ledac Continued from A16

The P401-billion bill is divided into 3 phases. Phase 1 amounts to P165.9 billion; Phase 2, P186 bi l l ion ; a nd Ph a se 3, P4 8 .6 billion. Funding for Phases 2 and 3 will remain as standby funds, which would depend on the certification of availability of funds to be issued by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

Late Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved on second reading the proposed P401-billion measure, set to provide financial assistance to all Filipinos impacted by the pandemic, promote capacity-building programs, and revive gravely-affected sectors like agriculture and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It is lower than the technical working group earlierapproved P405.5 billion.

Voting through viva voce, lawmakers approved House Bill 9411.

It is expected to be approved on final reading before sine die adjournment on June 2, according to Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the House ways and means panel head.

House Committee on Economic Affairs chief Garin underscored the three key economic interventions inscribed in the bill, namely kalinga (support), kabuhayan (livelihood), and kalusugan (health).

The bill inlcudes a P2,000 ayuda for all Filipinos, to be disbursed in two tranches.

The bill provides the Depart-

ment of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) a total of P30 billion to carry out Emergency Assistance to Affected Households (AICS) with P24 billion to be disbursed in the next two phases.

To protect MSMEs, a total of P20 billion shall be earmarked for small business wage subsidies (SBWS) and disbursed in three phases.

The bill also strengthens Republic Act 11037 or the Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act of 2017, and Republic Act 11148 or Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng MagNanay Act P5 billion.

Standby funds of P30 billion shall also be earmarked to help the agri-fishery sector, to be disbursed in two phases. Further, medical assistance to indigents and free swab tests for seafarers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are incorporated in the bill.

The bill supports basic education through the procurement of laptops for teachers, mobile and Internet allowance for Department of Education (DepEd) personnel, distance learning modalities (online and broadcast platforms), radio-based instruction infrastructure (Last Mile Schools), and the provision of N95 masks for DepEd employees and teachers.

For revenue sources, the bill allows provisional advances by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to the national government not exceeding 10 percent of the average income of the National Government for FYs 2018 to 2020.

News BusinessMirror

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Thursday, May 27, 2021 A7

IP filings jump 21% from January to April–IPOPHL

T

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

@TyronePiad

HE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is seeing early signs of recovery for intellectual property (IP) rights protection after booking 21-percent growth in filings during the first four months.

In a news statement issued on Wednesday, the IP agency reported that IP filings grew to 15,028 from January to April from 12,409 in the comparable period last year.

IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said the improvement in IP applications could mean “a more positive outlook among businesses and innovation players on the country’s pace of recovery from the pandemic.”

“It could also signify that businesses are rebuilding stronger by integrating IP protection in their innovation and branding strategies,” he added.

Utility model (UM) filings drove the growth in IP filings, rising by 33 percent to 420 from 315 yearon-year. Resident filers submitted 401 applications, which showed 38 percent improvement.

Most of the UM filings were from the food chemistry field, followed by basic materials chemistry, other special machines, handling and information technology methods for management.

Trademark applications increased by 26 percent to 13,041 from 10,354

in the previous year. Resident filings contributed 8,089, which marked 48-percent year-on-year growth.

The top sectors for trademark applications came from pharmaceuticals, health, cosmetics (3,939); agricultural products and services (3,546); scientific research, information and communication technology (2,848); management, communications, real estate and financial services (2,419); and textiles, clothing and accessories (1,914).

Patent filings fell by 6 percent to 1,235 from 1,320 as non-resident filings dipped by 31 percent. Most patents filed during period were from the fields of pharmaceuticals (543); organic fine chemistry (311); biotechnology (154); basic materials chemistry (115); and food chemistry (63).

With fewer resident and non-resident applications, filings for industrial designs dropped by 21 percent to 332 from 420. These were usually filed for furnishing (16); articles of adornment (8); other machines (7); fluid distribution equipment, sanitary, heating, ventilation and

air-conditioning equipment, solid fuel (6); other household goods (6); and packages and containers for the transport or hand l i n g of goods (6).

Copyright deposits improved by 91 percent to 444 from 233 year-onyear, IPOPHL added.

IPOPHL aims to return to the pre-pandemic level of IP applications this year, banking on filings from micro, small and medium enterprises.

L a s t y e a r, I P applications went d o w n , which Barba attributed to prolonged locked d o w n measures

Boracay logs more deaths from suicide than from Covid-19

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

T

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

HE case for allocating vaccines in tourism destinations strengthened with the disclosure of the rising number of suicides in Boracay Island, the so-called “crown jewel” of Philippine tourism.

Retired Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, Deputy Chief Implementer for Visayas of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) said in an online tourism briefing on Monday: “I agree that tourist destinations will be given priority also [in] the vaccination program of the national government....

Last year, Boracay had more suicide deaths than Covid deaths. There were actually 40 suicide deaths compared to one Covid death in Boracay,” as tourism arrivals fell due to the pandemic.

Even after the island was reopened to tourism last September, arrivals plunged again when the National Capital Region was put under enhanced community quarantine in March. In Filipino, Feliciano narrated that in one instance, “A person buying coconuts asked the vendor why there were no more fruits on the coconut trees. And the vendor said, ‘Because the people are hungry, there’s no more food to eat. They only have coconuts to eat.’”

Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap, who hosted the briefer on his province’s “Tourism Prospects in the Context of Current Realities in the War against Tourism,” also appealed to national government officials to send vaccines to Panglao and Dauis, two of Bohol’s key destinations, especially if there is vaccine hesitancy in Metro Manila. “In Bohol, we do not see resistance to vaccination. We have one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, or in the Visayas. Those who don’t want to be vaccinated, why don’t you send the vaccines to Panglao?”

Yap earlier requested ���������������� Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat������������ for a minimum of 70,000 workers to be vaccinated, or 140,000 doses.

‘No infections from tourists’

FOR her part, Romulo Puyat appealed to IATF’s Feliciano to help Boracay in implementing better procedures to contain Covid outbreaks, “because their cases are not coming from tourism. They have to solve it also.”

She seemingly expressed her frustration at how the local government units (LGU) of Aklan and Malay were handling the fight versus Covid-19. In Filipino, she wished “all governors are like Gov. Yap, who is strict. Sometimes they just rely everything on us on, it’s like I’m already the Mayor of Malay. Everybody should be helping out—governors, LGUs, the private sector. That’s why I’m happy with Crimson Resort/Filinvest—they donated 5,000 vaccines for Boracay. They earlier donated RT-PCR [test kits].”

She added, she already bought “contacttracing czar” Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong to Boracay in December, who in turn, sent his people “to put up a command center.

It would be good to find out what happened to that. Addressing Feliciano, she said, “We, the DOT, even paid for that.”

In a recent letter to Romulo Puyat, Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores, and acting Malay Mayor Frolibar Bautista, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and IndustryBoracay urged government to vaccinate the 40,000 residents on the island, to help it reopen safely to tourism. (See, “Boracay biz group eyes island-wide measures to protect locals, tourists,” in the BusinessMirror, May 17, 2021.)

As of May 22, the municipality of Malay reported only one new confirmed Covid case, with 23 active cases. There were two deaths due to Covid-19 of the total 352 confirmed cases.

As per Malay LGU data, vision arrivals were down to 1,311 in May 1-23, from 11,898 visitors in January 2021, which was already 80-percent lower from the 60,213 domestic tourists in January 2020. There had been a series of surgical lockdowns implemented in some zones and barangays in Boracay due to spots of outbreaks, one of which the municipal health office claimed, was due to an infected tourist from Manila.

not only in Metro Manila but in other major areas as well. Trademark applications fell by 10 percent

to 35,724 while patents shrunk by 9 percent to 3,648. Utility models filings plunged by 45 percent

to 1,235; industrial design, 23 percent, 1,259; copyright, 44 percent, 940.

TheBroaderLook

A8 Thursday, May 27, 2021• www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

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Amid pandemic, Pinays prevail, pound PHL’s pavement for progress

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@caiordinario

HEY saw Maria Clara.

And a marketing agency said she’s no longer the woman Jose Rizal embodied in his opus “Noli Me Tangere.”

Owing to those whose blood drenched the road to freedom, today’s women now have a choice: go to school or not; vote or boycott; bear children or not; and, run for office or against officials.

“Maria Clara used to simply accept her fate. Today, the Filipina’s actions are driven by her own motivations. She takes charge of her life and she feels proud to be herself, a study by the local operations of Wunderman Thompson LLC said in a recent study published on “The Modern Filipina.”

Generally, according to the study, the Modern Pinay shares the same goal as her male counterparts: financial independence.

Pandemic, priority

BASED on the study’s findings, financial independence is among the top priorities of 24 percent of women aged between 16 and 24 years old or members of the Gen Z generation; 34 percent, 25 to 44 years old or the Millennials; 35 percent, 45 to 54 years old or Gen X; and 40 percent, over 54 years old or the Boomers.

While this is the priority, women admitted that saving money is among the most challenging for them along with managing expectations and their own stress. This has been observed specifically during the pandemic when the whole world was forced to stay at home.

Nonetheless, the resolve of the modern Filipina is strong. Her confidence in herself and abilities is stronger as 94 percent of the respondents showed they are certain that they will be able to achieve their goals. The data showed 84 percent of respondents believed that Filipinas are more capable than what is expected from their gender.

“As she continues to struggle against challenges both old and new, she evolves to thrive despite the rapid changes in our time while holding fast to the values and beliefs that define her as a Filipina, Wunderman Thompson Philippines’s study said.

“Filipinas believe that their gender gives them power to succeed in whatever they set out to do as mothers, daughters, citizens and career women, it added.

Other findings THE study by Wunderman Thompson Philippines showed that while there are similarities between Maria Clara and the Modern Filipina, the differences are significant.

For one, the majority of Filipinas today, about 90 percent of respondents, said they strongly believed that education is a necessity in today’s world. Some 84 percent believe that their parents prioritized their education even as children.

These are supported by official government statistics. Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), functional literacy is higher among females at 92.9 percent versus the 90.2 percent

recorded in the 2019 “Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey” or Flemms. The same is true for basic literacy where 97.1 percent of women have basic literacy compared to only 95.9 percent among males.

While there are more males than females whose highest educational attainment are elementary undergraduates and graduates as well as junior high undergraduates and graduates, by the time they reach Senior high and higher levels of learning, there are more females. There are more females who graduated from college at 13.7 percent compared to only 9.8 percent of male students, the Flemm survey revealed.

The courses chosen by Filipinas also support their desire to be financially independent.

Based on data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for School Year 2019 to 2020, the most common field of study of those enrolled in College is Business Administration.

Women’s education

BASED on CHED data for School Year 2018 and 2019, other popular courses among females are: Education Science and teacher training; engineering and technology; IT-related disciplines; and, medical and allied courses.

Choosing these courses, Wunderman Thompson Philippines’s data showed, was not influenced by their parents.

Some 52 percent of respondents chose their course because they were interested in the topic.

A third (33 percent) said they felt the course would help them get a suitable job while 29 percent of respondents said they chose their course because they know it will help them make money; while another 29 percent said their course would lead them to a specific job or career.

“More Filipinas choose their college courses considering their own interests as well as the future career it may lead to, over their parents preferences,” Wunderman Thompson Philippines’s study revealed. “Majority of the Filipinas surveyed want to see more women studying Stem (85 percent) seeing that there is a real need for more people in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).”

For Rizal ’s sheltered Maria Clara, going to work was inconceivable; even taboo.

But today’s Filipina is bold and committed to carving out a niche for her talents and skills. She is determined to be a career woman not out of arrogance but to provide herself agency and support a future family.

Engaging in occupation

BEING able to work and support themselves allows more Filipinas to have a say in the family’s finances and are now more confident in their financial know-how,

the Wunderman Thompson study noted. Having their own money also gives them the freedom and affords them “guiltless” joy to reap the “fruits of their hard work.”

Based on PSA data, despite the desire of Filipinas to work, the labor force participation of females in the country was 53.1 percent in March 2021 compared to the 76.8 percent of males during the period. Around 7.8 percent are unemployed and another 13.4 percent are underemployed. Some 92.2 percent of women in the labor force are employed.

However, Filipinas seem to carry an entrepreneurial spirit. As of December 2020, PSA data showed more women registered their own businesses compared to men. Over half a million or 520,629 new business registrations were owned by women. In terms of business name renewal, some 39,919 are womenowned, also higher than their male counterparts.

Women are also doing better than men in the Philippines, particularly when poverty is considered.

Based on the 2018 poverty statistics, the poverty incidence among women is slightly lower at 16.6 percent compared to men at 16.8 percent. This may be due to the occupation held by women who are working in the service and sales sector while men are engaged in elementary occupations that receive lower pay.

Responsibility, career

GOVERNMENT statisticians said that the Filipina in 2021 has more agency to decide on what she will do with her life— both in the pursuit of a fulfilling career or the creation of her family.

“She owns her spirituality, her body and her finances. She also sees it as her responsibility to help other Filipinas do the same.”

This may be the reason many Filipino women prefer to delay marriage and having children.

Wunderman Thompson Philippines data showed more women (27 percent) are deciding to marry and have children later compared to the 23 percent recorded in 2017.

Further, the data showed “there is now a little more openness to pursue a childfree life.”

Based on the results, some 12 percent of respondents do not have plans to have kids, higher compared to the 8 percent recorded in 2017. The data also showed that 24 percent are not sure if they will have children or might have kids when they are older while 28 percent said they don’t want to have children so they can focus on their careers.

Data also showed 22 percent said they would rather spend their time doing things like traveling while 11 percent said they do not personally want to have children.

Despite this, Filipinas believe they have not lost their family-oriented natures. Around 79 percent of respondents believe this makes them unique.

Taking care of family

SUCCESS for Gen Z Filipinas means having a career related t heir pa ssions a nd interests and taking care of their family.

For Millennials, these are: good health; happiness; and, taking care of their families.

For Filipinas considered members of the “Gen X,” success means financial independence, raising healthy and happy children and

taking care of their families; for Boomers, maintaining strong connections with family and friends.

The government’s data showed that in 2019, about one in every three married between the ages or 25 and 29 years old, in which men and women comprise 36.5 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively, of the total number of recorded marriages. Over 20 percent of women aged 20 and 24 also married in 2019.

Less than 20 percent of women married between 30 and 34 years old while less than 10 percent married between 35 and 39 years old and 40 and 44 years old. Less than five percent of women married between 45 and 49 years old; 50 and 54 years old; 55 and 59 years old; and 60 and over.

“But despite this openness t o d e l ay m a r r i a ge or b e i n g childfree, Filipinas still believe that taking care and being with their families are indicative of a life well-lived,” Wunderman Thompson Philippines noted.

Official data

DESPITE the importance afforded by women and their families to their education and welfare, the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) believes it is the lack of education and poverty that causes thousands of teenagers to become pregnant and significantly reduce their chances for a good life.

“Social determinants like poverty, poor education status of mothers (of the teens), cultural beliefs (intergenerational), geography (poor communities in urban areas have difficult access to health centers which are fixed), all lead to poor health-seeking behavior and choices made by mothers,” Undersecretar y for Popu lation and Development Juan Antonio A. Perez III told the BusinessMirror.

O f f ic i a l go ve r n me nt d at a showed babies born to adolescent mothers—those younger t h a n 20 ye a r s old — re ac he d 180,916 and this was more than three times the number of babies sired by adolescent fathers at 52,734, based on the 2019 births statistics that was only released in January 2021.

The PSA data also showed that “high-risk” age of pregnancy covering the age group 17 years old and younger accounted for 3.7 percent of births and, notably, 35 years old and over accounting for 15.8 percent. Childbearing in these age groups, PSA said, is more likely to have complications during pregnancy and labor that may result in higher morbidity and mortality to both mother and child.

Three regions

ABOUT 10.7 percent of the births in 2019 were to mothers aged 15 to 19 years old, while around 16 percent were to mothers 35 years old and over. Moreover, the adolescent birth rate, or the number of births to women ages 15 to 19 per 1,000 women in that age group, was 34 per 1,000 women in 2019.

The career and financial stability goals of women become more complicated with the birth of a child, especially when a child is born out of wedlock. Nearly a million or 917,242 births, representing 54.8 percent of all births in 2019, included children who were illegitimate.

The PSA said the three regions

that recorded the highest number of illegitimate children based on usual residence of the mother were the top three economic regions of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) accounting for 16 percent; NCR (National Capital Region), 15.8 percent; and, Central Luzon, 11.3 percent.

The data also showed that in terms of the age group of mothers, the highest proportion of illegitimate births wase to adolescent mothers aged under 15. Of the total number of babies born to adolescent mothers, 95.9 percent were illegitimate.

This was followed by births to adolescent mothers aged 15 to 19 years old and mothers aged 20 years old to 24 years old, with 89.4 percent and 71.6 percent, respectively, of births being illegitimate.

Health rights

ON the other hand, the least proportion of illegitimate babies at 25.6 percent was to mothers aged 45 years old and over.

“Comprehensive sexuality education from grade five was part of the RPRH (Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health) law in 2012 but only implemented

by DepEd (Department of Education) in three regions in October 2020 under difficult pandemic situations. Cordillera and Region 3 (Central Luzon) are reporting increased teen pregnancy in 2020,” Perez also said.

“Furthermore, before the RPRH law was passed in 2012, teen mothers and pregnant minors had no problem accessing family planning services. However, the Supreme Court closed that access because there was no compelling reason for the government to intervene (no declaration of emergency),” he added.

Perez earlier said in a forum that one of the worrying trends is that births among these teen mothers were sired by older fathers.

“Births among minor mothers are generally sired by older fathers (20 and above) at 64 percent, with only 36 percent of fathers aged 10-19 who were reported or who have acknowledged the births,” Perez said.

Even hospitals

OF the 62,341 births from mothers aged 10 to 17, some 26,971 were sired by fathers aged 20 to 29 years old. This includes the birth of a child born of a 10-year old and 11-year old mother.

Based on the data shared by Perez, another 11-year-old gave birth to a child sired by a 52-year-old; a 14-year-old mother gave birth to a child sired by a 61-year-old; two 15 year olds giving birth to children sired by a 62-year-old and 76-year-old; and two 16-year- olds giving birth to children sired by a 73-year-old and another one by a man over 80 years old.

The PSA data also showed that of the 62,341 births, some 16,694 were sired by fathers who are between 15 and 19 years old while another 16,371 births did not state the age of the father.

“Many of them are probably cases of abuse; most likely,” Perez told the BusinessMirror. “Once you see someone 10, 11, 12 years old giving birth, there’s abuse there; that’s statutory rape. So we should be doing more. Even the hospitals should be reporting. It should be a signal. People are just not conscious about it.”

Protection, support

THE Popcom earlier disclosed that the Philippines, as a country currently under community quarantines, has witnessed the hea lth cr isis g reat ly bear ing down on young people’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

The 2020 study of the University of the Philippines and the United Nations Population Fund revealed a 42-percent increase in unintended pregnancies and a 67-percent hike in unmet need for family planning among Filipino women. From these numbers, Popcom said more than 1 out of 10 are still in their teens.

Perez said the experiences of the country’s young citizens aspiring to have access to information and services on SRH as a fulfillment of their constitutional rights. Currently, this provision is withheld from Republic Act 10354 (RPRH Law of 2012).

He noted that the isolation and physical-distancing measures stemming from the pandemic’s safety protocols may be limiting the capacity of the youth to exercise their rights, which may eventually lead to their discrimination and exclusion from decision-making processes.

“These adolescents have no decision-making power, economic independence, autonomy, and are considered by many countries as powerless; they face greater risks of repeat pregnancies, and are vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV) as well as intergenerational poverty during, and as a result, of their early childbearing,” Perez said. “Young people need to have access to safe, trusted and reliable information integrated into services ensuring health, protection and psychosocial support.”

ECQ impact

LAST month, the United Nations (UN) Population Fund of the Philippines, along with partners CARE, Oxfam Pilipinas, PLAN International, UNHCR, UN Women, Unicef and 18 other partners in Civil Society, and the Commission on Human Rights, launched the “Silayan Report: A Gender and Inclusion Assessment of the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

The UNFPA and its partners conducted the qualitative study at the height of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) period, with nearly 1,000 remote interviews with respondents from the most marginalized communities: indigent elders, indigenous peoples, internally displaced persons, rural and urban poor, people with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, 4P beneficiaries, overseas migrant workers and local community health workers.

Results from the interviews show that the circumstances of women respondents were worse off than before the pandemic. Data showed there was higher domestic care work where the median time spent on chores among the respondents increased to 4 hours to 5 hours per day from 3 hours to 4 hours.

The report also stated that 35 percent of respondents mentioned that Covid-19 interventions had a negative impact on their livelihood/employment and 49 percent of women respondents mentioned that the received government assistance was not adequate to meet their daily needs.

The Silayan report noted that internally displaced women in

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

TheBroaderLook

evacuation centers, women with disabilities, and the urban poor usually had worse experiences during the pandemic. They suffered from worsening mental health issues, some reporting suicidal ideation, the pressure to engage in prostitution, and initiating the first-ever mendicancy.

Owned, led

AMONG the respondents in the study, women with disabilities are 2.5 times more likely to report that they experience anxiety or depression during the pandemic than women without disabilities.

“The Covid-19 pandemic continues to isolate individuals, separate families and devastate communities the world over, leaving no member of our human family unaffected,” the UN Women said in a statement for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. “It has laid bare deep-rooted inequalities across societies and amplified structural and historical injustice.”

“It has exposed both new and existing degrees of discrimination, especially against those already marginalized who are undergoing the concurrent and compounding crises of health

BusinessMirror

and economic injustices and environmental degradation,” the statement added.

Apar t from the abuse and problems w ith access, women business ow ners were a lso left w ith the shor t end of the stick dur ing the pandemic. In a session at the 54th A DB A nnua l Meeting of Gover nors, ex perts such as Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative ( We-Fi) Secretariat Head Wendy Teleki said the lockdow ns and the need to ta ke care of family members at home has forced many women to g ive up t hei r bu si nesses.

Many institutions a lso cou ld not help as suppor t for women entrepreneurs remained low.

Teleki said 252 million women were engaged in entrepreneurship and a third of all formal small and medium enterprises are owned and led by women worldwide. However, women-owned firms average about half the size of male lead firms. These firms face significant financing constraints with an estimated $1.7 trillion financing gap.

Possible reduction

SHE also said Covid-19 “made a bad situation worse” because many women-led firms have seen sharper drops in revenue compared to male-led businesses.

She explained this was because women-led businesses were largely informal and concentrated in service industries.

Apart from women entrepreneurs, International Labor Organization (ILO) Senior Specialist in Gender Joni Simpson said women workers also suffered significantly during the pandemic.

Simpson said women were “overrepresented” in industries that were significantly affected by the pandemic such as tourism, manufacturing, and trade. Areas where supply chains were significantly disrupted also affected more women.

She said globally women’s employment declined by 5 percent compared to only 3.9 percent for men. Majority of women whose employment suffered under the weight of the pandemic were forced to leave the labor force.

ADB Deputy Chief Economist Joseph E. Zveglich Jr. said many women dropped out of the labor force because of the need to take care of children who are now homeschooling and sick family members.

“A survey by UN women reported increased hours spent in unpaid care and domestic work at home, women were starting at a much higher level the burden

of child children’s education and care of sick family members will complicate women’s return to the workforce possibly reducing their already low labor force participation rate, Zveglich said.

Labor Force

ALLOWING women to have what they need and want in life, Perez said, would require a holistic approach in terms of policy. This is especially the case when it comes to the future of the Philippine economy, of which women are a crucial part.

Perez said the employment of women and young people is one of the issues that the government needs to prioritize. He said while 64 percent of the population of working age Filipinos are in the labor force, less than 50 percent of women are women. Unfortunately, Perez said, the trend is declining when it comes to women’s participation in the workforce.

He added that there is also little progress on employment opportunities for young people under 25 who have the highest unemployment. This includes young Filipinas who are looking for opportunities to help their families.

Further, ensuring that women also have control over their bodies means making family plan-

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Thursday, May 27, 2021

ning methods available. This will prevent not only teenage pregnancies but also unintended pregnancies that lead to more children to support.

This is part of the country’s efforts to reap the demographic dividend. The demographic dividend is reaped when the working age population is growing faster than the number of dependents; having a skilled workforce; and decent employment opportunities through a steady stream of local and foreign investments.

Reaping the demographic dividend can take as long as 20 years to even 50 years, depending on the country. Countries in East Asia like Thailand, which entered the demographic transition in the mid-1990s, are still reaping the demographic dividend.

Economic growth

THE demographic dividend is also responsible for explaining at least a third of the economic growth achieved by these countries in the past few decades.

“The large workforce will still be there beyond 2030. It is not merely the tyranny of numbers but how we deal with social determinants to make the numbers work in our favor,” Perez said.

However, slowing down the

A9

fertility rate of the country to the replacement rate should not be the end goal and some balance should be sought. Perez said the population growth is expected to stabilize at 1.06 percent by 2025.

The Agence France Presse earlier reported that Italy already had the lowest birth rate in Europe and this is one of the concerns given that fewer children will lead to a lower tax base in the future. A lower tax base may have implications on the economy of Italy which presently has the slowest growth among the Group of 7 (G7) nations.

“That is why the population policy of this country should be responsive to our needs. That is why even now we are studying the situation of older people and why we are drafting a new policy on population beyond 2025 today, looking at the demographic scenario,” Perez said.

“We should work for optimal childbearing during the most ideal period physiologically (early 20s to early 30s) and avoid too early and too late childbearing.

Young people can then be fully product ive economica l ly and manage their fertility. Family planning thus will be more geared to family development rather than fertility reduction (should be optimization),” he added.

The World BusinessMirror

A10 Thursday, May 27, 2021

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Blinken heads to Egypt and Jordan to shore up Gaza cease-fire efforts

J

ERUSALEM—Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday as he presses ahead with a diplomatic mission aimed at shoring up a cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

Blinken was wrapping up talks in Israel early Wednesday before departing to Cairo. He has vowed to “rally international support” to rebuild the destruction in hard-hit Gaza, while also promising to make sure that none of the aid destined for the territory reaches Hamas.

Ahead of his departure, Blinken extended US President Joe Biden's invitation to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to visit the United States in the coming weeks. Rivlin accepted, according to a statement from his office.

Blinken described Egypt and Jordan as central players in trying to bring calm to the region. Both countries are key US allies that have peace agreements with Israel and frequently serve as mediators between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Egypt played a critical role in helping to broker the cease-fire and Jordan has long been a voice for peace and stability in the region," he told reporters late Tuesday.

In Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza, he was scheduled

to meet with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and other top officials.

Biden spoke with el-Sissi during the war to help broker the cease-fire.

Blinken has set modest goals for the trip, his first official visit to the Middle East as secretary of state. During talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday, he made clear that the US has no immediate plans to pursue peace talks between the sides, perhaps because previous efforts by past administrations have all failed. Instead, he expressed hope for creating a “better environment” that might lead to peace talks.

T hat cou ld beg in w it h t he Gaza reconstruction effort. The 11-day war killed more than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, and caused heavy destruction in the impoverished coastal territory.

Preliminary estimates have put the damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

One of the US goals is to ensure that any assistance be kept out of the hands of Hamas, which

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with reporters during a news conference at his hotel on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Jerusalem. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

opposes Israel’s right to exist and which Israel and the US consider a terrorist group.

Instead, it is trying to bolster the rival government of President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority now administers autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Abbas. He has been largely sidelined by recent events, is deeply unpopular at home and has little influence in Gaza.

Abbas hopes to establish an independent state in all of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem— areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

In a gesture to the Palestinians, Blinken on Tuesday announced plans to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem—an office that historically handled diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians.

President Donald Trump downgraded the consulate and placed its

operations under his ambassador to Israel when he moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in 2018. The Jerusalem move infuriated the Palestinians, who claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, and prompted them to sever most ties with the US. Blinken also announced nearly $40 million in additional aid to the Palestinians. In all, the Biden administration has pledged some $360 million to the Palestinians, restoring badly needed aid that the Trump administration had cut off.

At a meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken made clear on Tuesday that Biden will pursue a more even-handed approach than Trump, who sided overwhelmingly with Israel in its dealings with the Palestinians.

Blinken said the US was committed to “rebuilding the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, a relationship built on mutual respect and

also a shared conviction that Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of security, freedom opportunity and dignity.”

The truce that ended the Gaza war on Friday has so far held, but it did not address any of the deeper issues plaguing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something Blinken acknowledged after meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We know that to prevent a return to violence, we have to use the space created to address a larger set of underlying issues and challenges,” he said.

Those challenges include a hawkish Israeli leadership that seems unwilling to make major concessions, Palestinian divisions, years of mistrust and deeply rooted tensions surrounding Jerusalem and its holy sites.

The war was triggered by weeks of clashes in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims that has seen several outbreaks of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years. The protests were directed at Israel's policing of the area during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.

The truce remains tenuous since tensions are still high in Jerusalem and the fate of the Palestinian families is not yet resolved.

In his remarks after his meeting

with Blinken, Netanyahu hardly mentioned the Palestinians, warning of a “very powerful” response if Hamas breaks the cease-fire.

Netanyahu spoke of "building economic growth" in the occupied West Bank but said there will be no peace until the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” The Palestinians have long objected to that demand, saying it undermines the rights of Israel's own Palestinian minority.

Blinken repeatedly affirmed what he said was Israel's right to defend itself and said the US would assist Israel in replenishing its Iron Dome rocket-interception system.

But he also called on leaders of all sides to chart a “better course” in hopes of laying the groundwork for peace talks aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Biden administration, like most of the international community, believes the “two-state solution” is the only way to resolve the conflict.

Blinken expressed hope that a successful international approach in Gaza would be an important first step and could “undermine” Hamas’ grip on power.

“Hamas thrives, unfortunately, on despair, on misery, on desperation, on a lack of opportunity,” he said. If there is successful cooperation in Gaza between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community, he said, “then Hamas’ foothold in Gaza will slip. And we know that. And I think that Hamas knows that.” AP

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Thursday, May 27, 2021 A11

Vaccine inequality in India sends many people falling through gaps

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EW DELHI—As the coronavirus tears through India, night watchman Sagar Kumar thinks constantly about getting vaccines for himself and his family of five amid critical shortages of shots in the country. But even if he knew

how to get one, it wouldn’t be easy.

The main way is to register through a government web site.

But it is in English—a language the 25-year-old Kumar and nearly 90% of Indians can't speak, read or write— and his family has a single smart-

phone, with spotty Internet service.

And even though his state of Uttar Pradesh gives free shots to those under 45, there is no vaccination site in his village, with the nearest hospital an hour away.

“All I can do now is hope for the

best,” Kumar said.

The pandemic's disparities already were stark in India, where access to health care is as stratified and unequal as many other parts of society. Now wealth and technology is further widening those chasms, and

millions are falling through the gaps.

That worries health experts, who say vaccine inequality could hamper India’s already difficult fight against a virus that has been killing more than 4,000 people a day in recent weeks.

“Inequitable vaccination risks

prolonging the pandemic in India,” said Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University in North Carolina. “Reducing barriers for the most vulnerable populations should be a priority.” AP

A12 Thursday, May 27, 2021

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

Myanmar’s junta uses bodies as tools of terror in crackdown

T

wo black pickups speed down an empty city street in Myanmar before coming to a sudden stop. Security forces standing in the back of the trucks begin firing at an oncoming motorbike carrying three young men.

The bike swerves, crashing into a gate. More shots are fired as two of the passengers run away, while the third, Kyaw Min Latt, remains on the ground. Moans are heard as officers grab the wounded 17-yearold from the pavement, throwing his limp body into a truck bed before driving off.

The incident lasted just over a minute and was captured on a CCTV camera. It is part of a growing trove of photos and videos shared on social media that’s helping expose a brutal crackdown carried out by the junta since the military’s Feb. 1 takeover of the Southeast Asian nation.

An analysis by The Associated Press and the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at cases where bodies of those targeted indiscriminately by police and the military are being used as tools of terror. The findings are based on more than 2,000 tweets and online images, in addition to interviews with family members, witness accounts, and local media reports.

The AP and HRC Lab identified more than 130 instances where security forces appeared to be using corpses and the bodies of the wounded to create anxiety, uncertainty, and strike fear in the civilian population.

Over two-thirds of those cases analyzed were confirmed or categorized as having moderate or high credibility, and often involved tracking down the original source of the content or interviewing observers.

Since the military takeover, more than 825 people have been killed— well over two times the government tally—according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog organization that monitors arrests and deaths. The junta did not respond to written questions submitted by AP. The HRC Lab examined hours of footage posted online over a twomonth period showing dead bodies being snatched off the streets and dragged like sacks of rice before being thrown into vehicles and driven to unknown destinations. Some people have been disappeared or arrested

In this March 4, file photo, a crowd gathers as a hearse carrying the body of 19-year-old Kyal Sin, also known as Angel, arrives at a cemetery in Mandalay, Myanmar. Kyal Sin was shot in the head during an anti-military takeover rally she was attending the previous day. Authorities released a death certificate saying the bullet that killed her didn’t match the caliber used by police, that it came from the wrong direction for security forces to be responsible, and blamed protesters for her death. However, local news reports and social media accounts said security forces were firing live rounds. AP

one day and returned dead the next, their corpses mutilated with signs of torture, witnesses confirmed to AP. Autopsies have been carried out without the permission of families.

And some death certificates blame heart attacks or falls after violent attacks, contradicting witness accounts and images captured by protesters, journalists, or residents, including some who have been stealthily recording incidents with mobile phones through windows or from rooftops.

Cremations and exhumations of the deceased have been secretly conducted in the middle of the night by authorities. Other times, grieving families have been forced to pay military hospitals to release their loved ones’ remains, relatives and

eyewitnesses told the AP. Though the incidents may seem random and unprovoked—including kids being shot while playing outside their homes—they are actually deliberate and systematic with the goal of demobilizing people and wearing them down, said Nick Cheesman, a researcher at Australian National University, who specializes in the politics of law and policing in Myanmar.

“That,” he said, “is exactly the characteristic of state terror.”

Taking a page from the army’s historical playbook, experts say the violence also appears aimed at keeping the death toll artificially low and concealing evidence. But unlike past violence, the attacks are being

captured on smartphones and surveillance cameras in real-time and could one day be used against the regime before international criminal courts, as has happened elsewhere in the world.

“It has always been the military’s strategy to hide the mass crackdown there, the mass killing of the protesters,” said Van Tran, a Cornell University researcher who studied the bloody 1988 and 2007 uprisings in Myanmar.

“There are always large-scale operations in order to either cremate the bodies of people that were shot down or...bulldoze and bury those bodies. So a lot of the time, families do not know where their children went.”

Almost a quarter of the recent cases with known locations analyzed by the HRC Lab involved injured people or dead bod ies snatched by security forces in the countr y’s big gest city, Yangon, followed by Mandalay and Bago.

The largest number of those incidents, documented through posts on social media, was reported on March 27. Celebrated annually as Armed Forces Day, it commemorates the start of the military’s resistance to Japanese occupation during World War II after more than a century of British colonial rule.

This year protesters dubbed it “Anti-Fascist-Resistance Day,” and came out in large numbers in a stand against the military takeover.

It was on that day that motorbike rider Kyaw Min Latt was shot, though his family told AP the young carpenter had not been to a demonstration but was instead heading home from the job site to grab an early lunch with two friends.

Using satellite visuals, reverse

image searches, and a sun-shadow calculator, the HRC Lab was able to verify that the shooting took place at 10:38 a.m. in front of a high school on Azarni Road in the southern town of Dawei. In the footage, two shots are heard and Kyaw Min Latt, who was sitting between the driver and a fellow passenger, is seen grabbing his head and falling sideways. Officers chased after the two other riders with guns raised. Another bang is then heard.

Sixteen minutes later, a passerby posted a picture on Facebook of blood-soaked concrete and flip flops near the white motorbike that security forces had carefully propped back up before taking Kyaw Min Latt’s body.

Within two hours, the CCTV footage was also being shared widely across social media platforms.

That’s how the teen’s father received the news. He told AP he later learned his son had been taken to a military hospital. He rushed there to see him that afternoon and said the teen was still alive, but unconscious.

“He was badly wounded,” Soe Soe Latt said. “He opened his eyes when we were at the hospital, but could not say any words.”

The boy died soon after, and his father said army doctors wanted to perform an autopsy. The family fought against it but said the hospital would only release the body if they signed a paper saying their son died of head injuries from falling off the motorbike.

A photo published online before Kyaw Min Latt’s funeral by Dawei Watch, a local news outlet, told a different story: There was a gaping wound in the teen’s neck. AP

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Thursday, May 27, 2021 A13

Face to face: June summit set for Biden, Putin as tensions rise

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ASHINGTON—President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to meet next month in Geneva, a face-to-face encounter the White House hopes will help bring some predictability to a fraught relationship that’s only worsened in the first months of the Democratic administration.

The June 16 summit is being tacked on to the end of Biden’s first international trip as president: He’ll also visit Britain for a meeting of Group of Seven world leaders and attend a NATO summit in Brussels.

The agenda is expected to include discussion of Russian action in neighboring Ukraine, this week’s forced diversion of a Lithuania-bound flight

by Russian-ally Belarus, efforts by both nations to stem the coronavirus pandemic and more. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said no preconditions were set for the meeting.

The White House is setting low expectations for the meeting. It isn’t expected to lead to any major breakthroughs—let alone the sort of reset of US-Russian relations pursued by Biden’s old boss, Barack Obama, or the curious bonhomie of the Donald Trump-Putin relationship.

Instead, officials say Biden—who as a candidate and early in his presidency has warned that he expects the relationship to remain complicated —- is looking to find some common ground with his adversary on the path forward.

The Kremlin, for its part, said the presidents will discuss “the current state and prospects of Russian-US

relations, strategic stability issues and the acute problems on the international agenda, including interaction in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and settlement of regional conflicts.”

Biden first proposed the summit in a call with Putin in April as his administration prepared to levy a second round of sanctions against Russian officials during his young presidency. And the US levied more sanctions last week on Russian companies and ships for their work on a European natural gas pipeline called Nord Stream 2. US officials say the pipeline threatens European energy security, heightens Russia’s influence and poses risks to Ukraine and Poland in bypassing both countries.

The White House has repeatedly said it is seeking a “stable and predictable” relationship with the Russians. At the same time, it has called out Putin on allegations that the Russians interfered in last year’s US presidential election and that the Kremlin was behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign in which Russian hackers infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine US agencies.

India evacuates 2 million as storm slams east coast

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ndia shifted more than 2 million people to safer places as a powerful cyclone hit the east coast at a time when the nation is battling the world’s worst outbreak of Covid-19.

The eastern state of West Bengal has evacuated about 1.5 million people from low-lying areas, according to Mamata Banerjee, the state’s chief minister. Neighboring Odisha has moved more than 500,000 people to various relief centers. Local authorities have asked people to maintain social distancing at cyclone shelters to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Yaas, the second severe storm to batter India in 10 days, poses several challenges for already stressed authorities in the country that are battling a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The infections have strained India’s health system and overwhelmed crematoriums and hospitals. They have also spread to rural areas, where about 70 percent of the nation’s 1.3 billion people live.

Federa l Home Minister A mit Sh a h a sked t he st ate gover nments to ensure adequate power backup for hospita ls, laborato r ies, cold stores for vaccines and other med ica l faci lities.

The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone’s landfall process started on Wednesday morning, with wind speeds seen rising as high as 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour.

Sea levels may increase three meters above regular tides and inundate lowlying areas, it said in a statement.

India regularly witnesses severe storms. A super cyclone in Odisha in 1999 killed about 10,000 people.

Yaas follows a category 3 cyclone that reached the opposite coast last week—the worst in over two decades in the western state of Gujarat—killing dozens after a barge sank in the sea. The eastern region was also hit by a severe cyclone in May 2020, whi le

another one in 2019 prompted author ities to evacuate mi l lions of people.

In neighboring Bangladesh, river transport has been suspended.

Low-lying areas of southern and southwestern districts face a threat of flooding. As a precautionary measure, the country has readied 15,000 storm shelters that could accommodate as many as 2.5 million people.

Airports shut

The storm has impacted several flights in the affected states as airports in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Durgapur will remain shut on Wednesday.

Ports, refineries and plants were on alert. Indian Oil Corp., the biggest refiner, has stopped unloading crude oil at Paradip in Odisha, according to a spokesman.

Ongoing construction activities by oil and gas companies in the region have been temporarily suspended, according to Indian Oil. All ships carrying crude oil and other related products have been asked to keep a safe distance from the cyclone’s path, it said in a statement, adding that efforts are underway to ensure smooth supply of liquid medical oxygen from the eastern parts to the rest of the country.

More than 20 relief columns of the Indian Army have been deployed and another nine are on standby. Heavy and medium transport aircraft of the Air Force have flown in over 200 personnel and equipment for the National Disaster Response Force.

Tata Power Co. has mobilized nearly 10,000 people, including engineers and contract workers, to take up restoration work in the affected region, said Praveer Sinha, chief executive officer of the company, which manages power distribution operations in Odisha. Bloomberg News

The Biden administration has also criticized Russia for the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and publicly acknowledged that it has low to moderate confidence that Russian agents were offering bounties to the Taliban to attack US troops in Afghanistan.

Geneva with its bucolic vistas of the Mont Blanc peak—the highest in Western Europe—and a reputation as both a hub for international institutions and an icon of Switzerland’s much ballyhooed neutrality offers an intriguing backdrop for the summit.

The city last hosted American and Russian leaders in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev—a summit considered short on substance but critical in fostering what would become mostly friendly relations between the two men through their tenures.

The Biden administration announced sanctions in March against several mid-level and senior Russian officials, along with more than a dozen businesses and other entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent

attack on Navalny in August 2020 and his subsequent jailing. Navalny returned to Russia days before Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration and was quickly arrested.

Last month, the administration announced it was expelling 10 Russian diplomats and sanctioning dozens of Russia companies and individuals in response to the SolarWinds and election interference allegations.

But even as Biden moved forward with the latest round of sanctions, he acknowledged that he held back on taking tougher action—an attempt to send the message to Putin that he still held hope that the US and Russia could come to an understanding for the rules of the game in their adversarial relationship.

Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebrask a R e publ ic a n, c r it ic i z ed Biden’s decision to meet w ith Putin as “weak.” He raised concerns about Russia’s treatment of Nava lny and tepid response to Belarusian President A lex ander Lu k ashenko, a Putin a l ly whose countr y this week ordered the d iversion

of a Greece-to-Lithuania commercia l f light in order to ar rest a d issident jour na list.

The senator also criticized Biden for sparing ally Germany sanctions over Nord Stream 2, adamantly opposed by US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“We’re rewarding Putin with a summit?” Sasse said. “Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit.”

Biden in a brief exchange with reporters Tuesday afternoon defended the decision to waive sanctions against Germany for the pipeline. He noted that it is nearly complete and that punishing an ally would have been “counterproductive.”

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed news of the summit. “Diplomacy only has a chance if you talk to each other,” Merkel said.

During his campaign for the W hite House, Biden descr ibed Russia as the “biggest threat” to

US security and alliances, and he disparaged Trump for his cozy relationship with Putin.

Trump avoided direct confrontation with Putin and often sought to play down the Russian leader’s malign actions. Their sole summit, held in July 2018 in Helsinki, was marked

by Trump’s refusal to side with US intelligence agencies over Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Weeks into his presidency, Biden said in an address before State Department employees that he told Putin in their first call “that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions...are over.”

In March, Biden in an ABC News interview responded affirmatively when asked by interviewer George Stephanopoulos whether he thought Putin was “a killer.”

K rem lin spokesman Dmitr y Peskov said that Biden’s comment demonstrated he “definitely does not want to improve relations” with Russia. AP

A14 Thursday, May 27, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Making PHL education system competitive

T

he Philippine educational system is currently facing a number of issues: Quality of education, not enough budget for the Department of Education, lack of facilities and teacher shortage in public schools, an alarming drop-out rate, affordability of higher education, and mismatch between educational training and actual jobs. These ailments are preventable, but they became worse through the years because of negligence and lack of commitment among our leaders to improve a failing education system.

Education Secretary Leonor “Liling” Mirasol Magtolis-Briones has been trying her best to improve our education system and make it globally competitive. In line with her vision of providing academic success for all students, she decided in 2018 that it’s time for the Philippines to participate in the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA. It was the first time that the country participated since PISA was first administered in 2000.

Many of us already know that the Philippines fared poorly in the 2018 round of the PISA, a triennial international assessment administered to 15-yearold learners, an age group near the end of their compulsory basic education.

PISA assessments cover the three foundational domains of Reading Literacy, Mathematical Literacy, and Scientific Literacy. The DepEd provided an initial report on the country’s performance in PISA when the results were released in December 2019. This is accessible in the agency’s web site: https://www.deped. gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/PISA-2018-Philippine-National-Report.pdf.

Brickbats from all corners greeted our poor PISA showing. Some columnists described the “plummeting education standards as a national emergency.”

This prompted Undersecretary Nepomuceno A. Malaluan to pen an article —The Challenge of Education Quality Is Being Addressed—in defense of DepEd. Malaluan pointed out that PISA participation was not imposed on us. “It was the deliberate decision of Secretary Briones to join PISA to signal DepEd’s determination to confront the challenge of quality in basic education, to find out how we measure against global standards, and to take advantage of an independent assessment designed and constantly updated by education experts.

Most importantly, participation in PISA provides us with further evidence to support interventions to address education quality.”

Pounding on our PISA showing, critics also said that “education standards are plummeting due to the government’s lack of urgency and lackadaisical attitude towards uplifting our education standards, and that education was never high on the Duterte administration’s list of priorities.”

Malaluan’s response: From a focus standpoint, Secretary Briones flagged quality as a key challenge for the education sector from the beginning of her term, based on the historically poor results in the National Achievement Test going further back than the previous administration. The first section of her vision and agenda document, “Quality, Accessible, Relevant, and Liberating Basic Education for All” published in November 2016, is titled “Our foremost task: Raise the quality of education.”

He added: “From a budget standpoint, in 2017 the DepEd budget increased to P568.4 billion from P433.4 billion in 2016. This 31.1-percent increase was higher than at any other year from the previous administration. The budget dip in 2019 to P531.6 billion, but this was because basic education had to contribute to the free tertiary education law. In other words, what was taken from the DepEd budget stayed within the education sector.”

Malaluan said during the Covid-19 period, all government agencies had to contribute finances to the Bayanihan initiatives. While DepEd contributed some P8.2 billion to Bayanihan 1, the Executive protected the education budget in Bayanihan 2 when DepEd became a net recipient of P4.3 billion. Thus, “the DepEd, under the leadership of Secretary Briones, has secured the lion’s share of the national budget amounting to more than P600 billion per year.”

Malaluan said the disruption of in-school learning delivery at a large scale has necessitated that we reach out to households and communities to be active partners in the learning process. We need to acknowledge that aside from teachers, our neighbors, community members, the media, scientists, and our leaders all have an effect on learning. There are no quick fixes to quality.

Meeting the challenge will take time. It will require that we work together in a manner that is informed, deliberative, and responsible. As Secretary Briones keeps stressing, “the importance of education is not only the concern of educators but of the entire country.”

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John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I

F you studied history, humanity has always been on the brink of “doomsday.” Maybe there is something in the human psyche, like the fear of being eaten by a saber-tooth tiger, which keeps us on edge.

Maybe reinforcing potential doom is a survival mechanism that keeps us on guard. Other mammals have developed acute senses like hearing or sight that automatically kick in to recognize and react against danger.

Maybe, like the stubborn child, we must be constantly reminded not to touch the hot stove.

Animals are not as “smart” as humans. But a dog can distinguish friend or foe at a relatively long distance. The dog has no problem going on “attack mode” if what is first perceived as friend turns out to be an enemy.

We are so convinced of our superior intelligence that once on a particular path, we have trouble changing course even when evidence tells us we are wrong. John Kenneth

Galbraith: “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”

But don’t assume Galbraith was immune to getting busy on the proof. During World War II, the US Strategic Bombing Survey assessed aerial bombing on Germany. Galbraith concluded that factory production increased after the bombings began. He held that position even after there was proof that the reason production increased was because it was not until late in the war that German factories went on war footing. Until then, factories had been on a single shift and were not operating at full capacity.

Thomas Malthus has shaped

global thinking for 200 years with incorrect “Malthusianism” that population growth is exponential while the growth of the food supply is linear, eventually reducing living standards to the point of a population die off.

Paul R. Ehrlich in his 1968 The Population Bomb wrote: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate.” That statement was deleted in later editions, but he still receives accolades for his brilliant analysis.

The truth is, we live in a time of incredible abundance. The Earth was 570 percent more abundant in 2019 than it was in 1980. The Simon Abundance Index uses the time price of 50 basic commodities (from aluminum to zinc and bananas to tea) and change in global population to estimate global resource abundance. “Time-price” measures the cost of resources in terms of the amount of time that a person must work to earn enough to buy something. In terms of global average hourly income, commodity prices fell by 64 percent between 1980 and 2017.

“Between 1980 and 2019, the world’s population increased by 73 percent. The time price of commodities fell by 74 percent. The same length of time needed to work to buy one unit in our basket of 50 commodities in 1980, could buy 3.87 units in 2019.”

Note that if real prices are declining over time, then supply must be stable at worst, and increasing at best.

The doomsday predictors always discount human ingenuity. Fresh water supplies are declining. But with new technology, Israel now gets 55 percent of its domestic water from desalination, and at 48 percent cheaper than water consumed by the people of Los Angeles.

Supply is not the abundance problem. It is distribution. How do you get abundance to Yemen in the middle of a Sunni/Sharia war?

Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front are fighting. Insurgencies rage across most of the poorest nations.

As a planet we have never been wealthier. But “wise” has yet to catch up to “wealthy.”

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.

GOP senators ready $1 trillion infrastructure counteroffer to Biden

By LISA MASCARO and JONATHAN LEMIRE | Associated Press

W

ASHINGTON—Senate Republicans revived negotiations over President Joe Biden’s sweeping investment plan, preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that would be funded with Covid-19 relief money as a counteroffer to the White House ahead of a Memorial Day deadline toward a bipartisan deal.

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Senior Editors

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Incredible abundance

The Republicans said earlier they would disclose details of the new offer by Thursday, sounding upbeat after both sides had panned other offers.

At the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki declined to address the new plan but said: “We expect this week to be a week of progress.”

Talks over the infrastructure investment are at a crossroads as Biden reaches for a top legislative priority. The White House is assessing whether the president can strike a bipartisan deal with Republicans on his American Jobs Plan or whether he will try to go it alone with Democrats if no progress is made in the days ahead.

Yet the administration and the GOP senators remain far apart over the size and scope of the investment needed to reboot the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband—but also, as Biden sees it, the child care centers and green energy investments needed for a 21st-century economy. They also can’t agree on how to pay for it.

Biden had dropped his $2.3 trillion opening bid to $1.7 tril-

lion, and Republicans had nudged their initial $568 billion offer up by about $50 billion late last week, but talks teetered as both sides complained the movement was insufficient.

The Republicans have uniformly rejected Biden’s plan to pay for the investments by raising the corporate tax rate, from 21 percent to 28 percent. Instead, the GOP senators want to shift unspent Covid-19 relief funds to infrastructure, which may be a nonstarter for Democrats.

Republicans also want to rely on gas taxes, tolls and other fees charged to drivers to pay for the highways and other infrastructure.

The Republicans said their new proposal would be aligned with what they discussed with Biden in their first Oval Office meeting almost two weeks ago.

“We are anxious to have a bipartisan agreement,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is leading the group of GOP negotiators.

A GOP aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks said the price tag would be

$1 trillion over eight years, paid for by tapping funds that have been allocated as part of Covid-19 relief but not yet spent. The aide said about $700 billion remains in unspent virus aid.

Psaki declined to comment on the forthcoming GOP proposal, but Democrats on Capitol Hill were quick to rebuff dipping into coronavirus relief funds, particularly money that had been sent to the states and local governments that now seems less urgent as some jurisdictions reported better-than-expected balance sheets.

The White House is expecting the Republican counteroffer by Thursday and doesn’t want to prejudge what’s in there. But a GOP plan to tap into rescue funds, aides believe, doesn’t work because much of that money has already been exhausted, and it could also diminish the Covid-19 response.

“My view is that we gave that to the cities and states and counties with the understanding that it may take a little time for them to spend it,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a longtime congressional budget expert. “I think it’d be a big mistake to try to claw that back.”

As talks hit a stalemate late last week, it’s unclear if this latest GOP offer will be enough to put negotiations back on track.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who tapped Capito to

lead the GOP effort, gave a nod to the latest offer, saying the idea of repurposing the Covid-19 funds was “good advice” from Larry Summers, a Harvard professor and Clintonera treasury secretary. Summers suggested as much in a recent oped as some economists warn of rising inflation with the government spending.

But Republicans and the White House are eyeing each other warily in a high-stakes negotiation with far-reaching political ramifications whether they succeed or fail. “We are now very far apart,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a member of GOP leadership.

The Republican senators and aides have made no secret of their displeasure with the White House staff in this and other negotiations.

Publicly and privately, the Republicans say that while Biden appears willing to negotiate with the senators, his staff often changes course. They point to a similar dynamic during coronavirus aid talks when Biden seemed to agree with a group of GOP senators, only to have staff behind him shaking their heads no.

The Republicans are eager to publicly disclose Biden’s comments to them as they make the case for their new offer ahead of the Memorial Day deadline.

Among Democrats, it’s not lost See “GOP,” A15

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Factory boss defiant as sanctions bite in China’s Xinjiang

By Ken Moritsugu And Dake Kang | Associated Press

A

KSU, China—A backlash against reports of forced labor and other abuses of the largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang is taking a toll on China’s cotton industry, but it’s unclear if the pressure will compel the government or companies to change their ways.

Li Qiang, general manager of the Huafu Fashion yarn factory in Xinjiang, told reporters that even though the company lost money in 2020 for the first time in its 27-year history, it bounced back by shifting to domestic orders.

“This is now in the past,” Li said.

“We’ve turned things around in the first quarter of this year.”

Li blamed a sharp fall in foreign orders, as customers including Adidas and H&M cut ties, on “fake news” in a 2019 Wall Street Journal story that said brand name apparel makers and food companies were entangled in China’s campaign to forcibly assimilate its Muslim population.

Huafu also cited US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.

In a crackdown since 2017 after a series of militant attacks, the Chinese government has detained a million or more people in Xinjiang, a major cotton-producing region in China’s northwest that is home to the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups.

Critics also accuse it of torture, forced sterilization and cultural and religious suppression.

Apart from cotton, much of the world’s polysilicon for photovoltaic cells comes from Xinjiang. The US is now weighing sanctions over the alleged use of forced labor in the production of solar panels.

Xinjiang officials deny the charges and brush off Western criticism.

They recently took about a dozen foreign journalists to the sprawling Huafu complex in Aksu city, where 780,000 spindles churn out 100,000 tons of colored yarn annually for sportswear and other items.

The company said in a preliminary estimate last month that it earned 120 million-150 million yuan (about $20 million) in the first three months of this year, after a 405 million yuan ($63 million) loss in 2020 as sales fell 10 percent. Evidence of forced labor comes from people who have left China and government documents, but it is difficult to prove definitively at specific factories since human rights experts and others are unable to investigate freely. Diplomats and journalists traveling independently to Xinjiang are followed, and most residents, wary of getting in trouble, are unwilling to talk critically.

“The government doesn’t want information flowing out of the region and they’ve done a good job of making that difficult,” said Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium in Washington.

An ethnic Kazakh woman from Xinjiang who fled to Kazakhstan said she was forced to work for a week sewing uniforms in a factory in 2018 after spending almost a year in detention. Dina Nurdybai ran a clothing business with 30 employees before she was detained. She said the factory work was not voluntary. She was released after authorities realized she was not on a list of long-term detainees. “If they say they are taking you to a factory, you say ‘yes,’ “ she said. “If you don’t go, they’ll say you have problematic thoughts and persecute you.”

Others also have said they or their relatives were coerced to work in factories.

The government says such testimonies are fabrications. One worker, Paziliya Tursan, said above the hum of spindles at Huafu that reports of forced labor are nonsense. As officials listened in, she said people at the factory stick together like pomegranate seeds, echoing a metaphor used

by President Xi Jinping to describe ethnic unity in China.

The US decided last year that the evidence was strong enough to ban

imports of clothing, cotton, hair products and computer parts from about a half dozen companies. In January, it expanded the ban to all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang, which produces processed foods such as tomato paste and about one-fifth of the world’s cotton.

US customs denied a request this month from Japanese retailer Uniqlo to release a shipment of men’s shirts that had been stopped at a southern California port under the sanctions.

Guixiang, a Communist Party spokesperson in Xinjiang, said companies may lose customers in the short run but eventually become stronger as they and their employees work harder and find new markets. “In some sense, the stress can be transformed into a driving force for the companies,” he said.

China has a huge domestic market and demand is growing in Southeast Asia, the Mideast, Africa and Eastern Europe, said Peng Bo, a senior vice president at Founder CIFCO Futures, a financial derivatives firm in Beijing. Chinese manufacturers also have gained market share as the pandemic hobbled competitors in other countries. “Though the international market is important to domestic brands, it is not irreplaceable, particularly the European and American markets,” he said.

On top of import bans, the US Commerce Department has blocked the sale of US technology and parts to more than two dozen companies linked to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including Huafu. That adds to pressure to stop dealing with the company. Technology companies have also been targeted. Commerce added Nanchang O-Film Tech, whose customers have included Apple and Lenovo, to the blacklist last July.

The company has employed Uyghur workers brought to Nanchang from Xinjiang, some 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) away, under restrictive conditions.

Its parent OFILM Group said it lost 1.9 billion yuan ($300 million) last year because overseas customers dropped contracts. It did not say which customers.

The forced labor allegations extended to cotton picking late last year with a BBC story and a report

by US-based researcher Adrian Zenz.

His study, based largely on publiclyavailable Chinese government documents, found “strong indications” of coercion and concluded that “it must be assumed that any cotton from Xinjiang may involve coercive labor, with the likelihood of coercion being very high.”

China accused Zenz and the British public broadcaster of anti-China bias. Foreign journalists were taken to a 40-hectare (100-acre) cotton field that was being planted by machine, and officials said mechanization has eliminated the need for most workers.

Picking cotton is more difficult than planting it, though, and where it is mechanized in Xinjiang, it often depends on American technology in the form of John Deere machines.

Deere said in a statement that US sanctions have affected its business but declined to provide specifics.

The government says 70% of harvesting is mechanized, but that varies from place to place. Use of machine picking is more common in the north. In southern Xinjiang plots tend to be smaller and more scattered, with 53 percent of total acreage harvested by machine in 2020, up from 35 percent in 2019, according to the government. It acknowledged that farmers still plant and harvest by hand in many places.

Thursday, May 27, 2021 A15

Car-free San Francisco streets: Residents debate reopening

By Janie Har | Associated Press

S

AN FRANCISCO—For Vanessa Gregson, the four-lane highway that borders the beach along San Francisco’s Pacific Ocean is now an automobile-free sanctuary where she can blissfully ride her bicycle and enjoy the quiet.

“You hear the beach. You hear the waves,” said Gregson. “You feel like you’re in nature, and you’re in San Francisco.”

Like cities from Paris to New York that shut roads to motorists when the coronavirus hit, environmentally friendly San Francisco closed miles of streets to automobiles so people could exercise and socialize safely.

Now, pedestrian advocates want to keep some of San Francisco’s most prominent streets off-limits, like the main road into Golden Gate Park.

Others are pushing back, saying they need to drive to work, drop off kids and get around.

The debate has been marked by dueling rallies and strident arguments over safety and climate change in the densely packed city. On social media, customers threatened to boycott a bakery whose owner expressed support for reopening the main oceanside thoroughfare known as the Great Highway to cars; others came to her defense.

Shamann Walton, president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, was mocked for likening the closure of John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to the Jim Crow South, including by fellow African Americans who call his accusations of segregation silly. Walton says he worries that closing the street and its free parking will affect low-income families that can’t easily bike or take transit to the park.

For Tim Boyle, who lives near the four-lane beachside highway, life has been anything but peaceful. Unable to use the main road, massive delivery trucks, gangs of motorbikes and impatient drivers now hurtle through his once-sleepy neighborhood.

Boyle, whose son has cerebral palsy, says taking out their wheelchair-equipped van has become a nightmare. “Essentially I’m stopping traffic on any given day, four to 10 cars backed up on each side just so I can pull my own car into my driveway,” he said.

San Francisco officials started turning streets into pedestrianfriendly promenades in April 2020 after the mayor declared an emergency. Officials closed more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) of neighborhood corridors and are studying which ones could be permanent.

They also sealed off a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) portion of JFK Drive, the main thoroughfare through Golden Gate Park, which sees more than 24 million visitors a year, and a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) stretch of the Great Highway—now renamed by some as the Great Walkway — that carried more than 18,000 vehicles a day before the pandemic.

San Francisco’s streets are scheduled to reopen 120 days after Mayor London Breed lifts the Covid-19 emergency declaration, which could come next month. Various agencies are navigating the public debate before deciding whether to fully reopen the Great Highway and JFK Drive, open them in part or keep them closed to vehicles. The Board of Supervisors will have the final say, said Tamara Aparton, a city parks spokeswoman.

Seattle and New York are also among US cities looking to make temporary auto-free streets permanent. In Europe, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to ban most vehicular through-traffic in the city’s center, with exceptions for public transit, delivery trucks

San Francisco is no stranger to shedding auto infrastructure for green spaces. Leaders chose not to replace the Embarcadero freeway after it was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, replacing it with a boulevard that now doubles as a popular tourist destination. Despite the testy debate, most people are probably in the silent middle, wanting both open space and clear transportation routes, said Connie Chan, a supervisor whose district is affected by the closures along the beach and in Golden Gate Park. and residents. Pedestrian advocates say there are options to ensure that people who can’t easily bike or walk can still visit Golden Gate Park, including designated drop-off sites and programs for low-income families.

They also want more so-called street calming measures to slow traffic and improve safety on affected neighborhood roads.

San Francisco is no stranger to shedding auto infrastructure for green spaces. Leaders chose not to replace the Embarcadero freeway after it was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, replacing it with a boulevard that now doubles as a popular tourist destination.

Despite the testy debate, most people are probably in the silent middle, wanting both open space and clear transportation routes, said Connie Chan, a supervisor whose district is affected by the closures along the beach and in Golden Gate Park. “They just want to be able to go where they need to go, and not be stuck in traffic,” she said.

Katharine Lusk, co-director of the Boston University Initiative on Cities, said more than 90% of 130 US mayors in 38 states surveyed last summer reported they created more space for outdoor dining by using parking spots or closing streets.

Nearly half closed some streets to through-traffic; a smaller portion shut streets entirely to autos. While only 6% said they plan to make those changes permanent, Lusk wonders if that might change with rising demand.

On a recent sunny weekday, a few dozen people organized by Walk San Francisco toasted the one-year anniversary of the street closure in Golden Gate Park. Charles Oppenheimer said his daughter Olivia, 11, once feared riding through the third most-visited city park in the United States.

“There’s cars double-parked and rage drivers through the park, honking at kids, and now that it’s shut down, it’s so much better,” he said.

Near the west end of Golden Gate Park, more than 100 people gathered before blockades on the highway earlier this month, waving signs calling to reopen the road. Passing drivers honked in support as a musician blew tunes on a bright pink sousaphone.

The highway runs two lanes each way, with sandy beach and the Pacific Ocean on one side and a protected pedestrian path edged by succulents on the other. A parallel two-lane street has homes on one side, many with placards pleading to “Open the Great Highway.”

Since the neighboring streets began absorbing displaced traffic, Judi Gorski has documented numerous crashes. The car fumes, speeding, noise and near-wrecks make her feel trapped in her home of four decades, where she says “the traffic goes on all night long.”

For photographer Steve Rhodes, who walked one recent day along the nearly empty Great Highway after visiting the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, it is liberating to have the space to move around.

“The intersections with the cars are just a nightmare,” he said. “There should be more streets closed and it’s going to have to happen, because people are going to have to rely less on cars.”

How smartphones make health care accessible

By Stavros Athanasiou

I

N today’s times, it seems almost inconceivable to imagine a day without a smartphone. Through countless features, functions, and applications across a wide range of capabilities, smartphones bring unparalleled connectivity and convenience to the lives of people across the globe.

As technologies continue to improve, smartphones have become more and more accessible. In the Philippines—home to over 100 million people—statistics show that as of 2020, almost 80 million Filipinos are smartphone users. With these numbers on the rise since 2015, wide scale smartphone access in the country has certainly changed the ways people interact, consume media, and share information. If current trends keep up, projections show that over 90 million Filipinos will be using smartphones by 2025.

The improvement of access to smartphone technology coincides with the ongoing digitalization of many industries across the globe.

Spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the adoption of digital technology is on the rise in the country. Many Filipinos have taken to digital payments, e-commerce, and online education to help cope with social distancing mea-

GOP. . .

continued from A14

on them that McConnell has said repeatedly that “100% of my focus” is on stopping Biden’s agenda.

Adding to the mix, a bipartisan group that includes Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is quietly working on other proposals, as a “backup,” he said.

sures, ensure business continuity, and deliver public services.

Health-care services in the country have also steadily adapted to the advent of digitalization and smartphone proliferation. As the pandemic intensified the importance of public health, telemedicine services have emerged as a viable means to provide more Filipinos access to quality health care.

In the early months of strict community restrictions last year, we at Medgate saw a 170 percent uptick in demand for teleconsultations. We were also approached by the Department of Health (DOH) to deliver teleconsultation services and help mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Throughout these efforts, we maintained an 80 percent case resolution rate—which means that 80 percent of the cases we handled were treated completely through telemedicine. This was made possible by several factors including our statistically based clinical guidelines, our doctors who are highly trained in telemedicine, as well as employing a medical co-management approach, where doctors with multiple specializations consult with a single case to arrive at the best possible treatment methods and strategies.

As the pandemic continues to play out, telemedicine has become more

As technologies continue to improve, smartphones have become more and more accessible.

In the Philippines—home to over 100 million people—statistics show that as of 2020, almost 80 million Filipinos are smartphone users. With these numbers on the rise since 2015, wide scale smartphone access in the country has certainly changed the ways people interact, consume media, and share information. If current trends keep up, projections show that over 90 million Filipinos will be using smartphones by 2025.

“This is going to feel like a tightrope walk all the way until it gets to Biden’s desk,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president of Third Way, a centrist think tank.

The administration is signaling that it’s important not just whether Biden can push his infrastructure and other proposals into law, but also how he does it. By this reasoning, voters—and some moderate Democratic lawmakers—are more

likely to be on board if Biden at least tries for bipartisanship.

The West Wing believes its bargaining position is strong. Aides point to Biden’s high poll numbers and the popularity of his proposals, all while believing that they have the option of muscling the infrastructure plan to passage under special budget reconciliation rules that require only a party-line vote.

But there is a growing sense of

of a mainstream option for Filipinos seeking medical care and treatment.

With Internet connectivity becoming more and more accessible across the nation, geographical issues are becoming less of a barrier in the delivery of health-care services across the Philippines.

Of course, optimizing health-care solutions in the country is still an ongoing process, and further improvements and innovations must happen alongside the continued development of mobile infrastructure and support for digitalization. As most Filipinos use smartphones as their

primary device to connect to the Internet, it’s important for healthcare institutions to conveniently reach patients to provide care that comforts—wherever they may be.

Despite significant developments made over the past year, we believe there is more that telemedicine can do to deliver reliable healthcare solutions nationwide. By continuing to understand the evolving digital landscape, it’s possible for doctors to provide patient care solutions through smartphones and other digital mediums at the same level of efficiency and correspondence as a face-to-face consultation.

While severe cases or emergencies must always be addressed with hospital care, by placing equal focus on prevention and monitoring any conditions before they escalate, telemedicine works alongside existing health-care systems to deliver proper care at multiple stages of treatment.

As technology continues to develop, and as the pandemic continues to change the ways we live and do business, public and private organizations must continue to advance innovations in telemedicine and work together to ensure that access to quality health care is in the palm of every Filipino’s hand.

The author is the president of Medgate Philippines.

urgency within the White House and among Democrats. After a burst of legislative accomplishments, including the Covid-19 relief bill, the pace has slowed dramatically. And the future may hinge on a few select senators.

Psaki insisted no decisions had been made on whether the administration will go it alone as it awaits a counteroffer from Republicans.

“We’re not quite there yet,” she said.

A16 Thursday, May 27, 2021

Sotto: Bayanihan 3 priority despite exclusion by Ledac

S

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

ENATE President Vicente Sotto III gave assurances on Wednesday the P401-billion Bayanihan to Arise as One Act (Bayanihan 3) is on the Senate priority agenda even as lawmakers are poised to adjourn regular sessions next week when Congress goes on its scheduled recess from June 5 to July 25.

This, even if the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) excluded it from its list of priority measures earlier.

“Bayanihan 3 will be a priority,” the Senate leader affirmed after the House of Representatives approved on second reading its version of the Bayanihan 3 bill Tuesday night.

The funding measure, the third package under government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, aims to grant anew government assistance to workers who lost their jobs as well as small businesses that

closed shop, in a bid to revive the economy.

In separate interviews, Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros and Juan Edgardo Angara, however, earlier signalled their determination to scrutinize and use up the remaining Bayanihan2 fund and the “extended” 2020 national budget before Congress enacts a new Bayanihan law.

It was reported earlier that three more new versions of Bayanihan 3 bills were filed by Senate President Sotto, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao. These were referred to the Committee on Finance for public hearings before these are endorsed for plenary deliberations and approval. Then, the final version adopted by the Senate and the House is submitted to Malacañang for signing into law.

Despite its urgency, the Ledac has excluded Bayanihan 3 on its list of priority measures, a House leader said.

In Ugnayan Sa Batasan news forum, House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairman Sharon Garin admitted that the Bayanihan, which the lower chamber approved on second reading Tuesday night, is not part of the Ledac priorities.

“The Bayanihan 3 is not their priority but it’s priority of the House.

It’s part of the legislative so we are pushing for it. Hopefully, we get the consensus [with the Senate and Executive],” said Garin.

“We have been meeting with the Executive consistently about Bayanihan 3. I don’t think it’s not that they don’t want it, it’s just that we have to arrive with the right programs that we want implemented,” she pointed out.

But Garin said Congress and the

SMC VOWS HOTDOGS, MEAT PRODUCTS WON’T BE IN SHORT SUPPLY

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Executive are still in talks on where the total funding for third Bayanihan law will come from.

“It was the first time to present the Bayanihan 3 to the Ledac. But they were listening on the logic behind why [we need it],” she added.

According to Garin, the measure’s being coauthored by 298 lawmakers is a “huge” signal from the House that it desires passage of the Bayanihan 3.

“This is the first time I’ve seen that one bill has two pages of authors, I think 297 or 298. That’s 99 percent of the members of the House,” Garin said.

“We can fix it more in the Senate, in the bicameral and through [further] consultation and that it’s something I think we all agree on,” she said.

Garin said the House is eyeing third and final reading approval of the measures next week.

In a separate news conference, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said Bayanihan 3 is what the country needs to help the economy avert losses and sustain long-term growth.

“We are confident that this measure will help overcome the ongoing crises by allocating government resources to those who need it the most,” Quimbo said, one of the principal authors of the Bayanihan 3.

Continued on A6

AN Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. (SMFBI), the food unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), assured Filipino consumers on Wednesday that its processed meat products, including Tender Juicy hot dogs, would remain available in the domestic market amid industry concerns over tightening raw material supply.

In a statement on Wednesday, SMC said SMFBI’s refrigerated meat products and canned goods “will remain available in supermarket shelves and other retail outlets, despite global challenges that affect the cost and availability of raw materials.”

“Since the start of the pandemic, our Food business has strived to make our supply chains more agile and resilient. As a result, we have expanded our raw material supply sources, and have also increased our flexibility in terms of production,” SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said.

Nonetheless, SMC admitted that SMFBI is affected by the tightness in supply of mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken, global price increases and import restrictions, given that it is one of the major importers of raw materials in the country.

SMC said SMFBI uses close to

100,000 metric tons (MT) of raw materials every year.

However, SMC maintained that it is “confident that with keener anticipation of global trends and its ability to make quick adjustments in production, it can sustain and assure availability of its products.”

Ang said, “When you have enough meat and packaging materials, along with ample manufacturing capacity, you can ensure continuous supply.

“As we have done throughout the period of this pandemic, we can continue to provide for the needs of our consumers despite the present challenges.”

Ang said it has been SMC’s strategy “to build around its integrated value chain,” enabling the company to “utilize more of its internal raw material sources for its value-added meats production needs.”

“Food security is always one of our top priorities,” he said.

“With our consumers’ needs always top of mind, we want to assure everyone that they can continue to enjoy their all-time favorite Purefoods Tender Juicy hotdogs, luncheon meat, chicken nuggets, bacon, and corned beef,” he added.

Continued on A2

Empty chairs are seen at the departure area of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 in Pasay City. The Department of Tourism is studying easing the travel requirements for individuals who want to travel domestically. NONIE REYES

PHL insurers, MBAs score higher in Asean, but IC flags ‘to-do’ list

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

I

@BNicolasBM

NSURERS and mutual benefit associations (MBAs) scored higher in the Asean Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) for the year 2019 but the Insurance Commission said there is still room for improvement, especially in terms of disclosure and transparency.

The insurance industry and MBAs collectively registered an average ACGS score of 45.9 in 2019, up by 3.36 points from 42.54 in the previous year. The 2019 assessment conducted by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) covered a total of 119 entities regulated by the IC, of which 56 are non-life insurers, 32 are life insurers, and 31 are MBAs. The IC attributed the increase in the total average score to the

Commission’s issuance of Circular Letter No. 2021-26 that mandated the creation and maintenance of company websites.

However, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa noted that the ICD report for 2019 also revealed the area of Disclosure and Transparency or the disclosure of corporate governance-related documents is of “special concern.”

“The IC highly commends the efforts of our insurers and MBAs to improve their corporate governance practices, which contributed to the improvement of said industries’ overall performance, as evidenced by the 3.36-point increase in the ACGS total average score of said entities for the year 2019. Nevertheless, there is a great opportunity to enhance the ACGS performance of said insurers and MBAs, especially in the areas of disclosure and transparency. The

IC strongly encourages said regulated entities to take advantage of such opportunity,” Funa said in a statement.

In the area of disclosure and transparency, the IC said regulated entities only scored an average of 8.59 points out of a maximum of 25, as many insurers and MBAs failed to disclose their Annual Reports, Notices and Minutes of Annual General Meetings and Board Charters in their respective websites.

“Some companies were even found to have websites that were either not working or under construction on the date of assessment and review. It should be stressed that disclosure and transparency are two major demands of good corporate governance that deter corporate fraud and malpractice,” he added.

See “PHL,” A6

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 27, 2021

B1

Monde Nissin maiden offer generates strong interest

M

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

onde Nissin Corp. on Wednesday said it has completed the offer period for its initial public offering (IPO), which the company said was oversubscribed.

The company, which manufactures Lucky Me! noodles and now fully owns the biscuit brand SkyFlakes, said it received “overwhelming interest” from global institutional investors and long-only funds, as well as strong demand from domestic investors.

“The extraordinary level of interest that we received from a broad range of international and domestic investors is a testament to the world-class company that we have built and the significant growth opportunities that lie ahead,” Henry Soesanto, the company’s CEO, said.

“Our Quorn and Asia-Pacific

Branded Food and Beverage businesses are a powerful combination to advance our mission of food safety and food security. Quorn is a leading player in the fast-growing global meat alternatives segment with a loyal customer following and a defining set of healthy sustainable products.”

Soesanto also said the company’s Asia-Pacific Branded Food and Beverage business is widely recognized for its leadership positions across each of its core segments. “We intend to stay ahead of consumer demands through innovation and investment in technology to provide healthier and more delicious food.”

The company said it raised some P48.6 billion from its primary offering of 3.6 billion shares at P13.50 apiece. It also has an overallotment option of 540 million common shares, which is mainly owned by Soesanto.

In total the company is expected to raise some P55.9 billion in proceeds.

The company also said it secured 11 cornerstone investors for its IPO including AIA Investment Management Private Limited, Stichting Depositary APG Emerging Markets Equity Pool, Avanda Investment Management Pte. Ltd., The Capital Group Funds, Eastspring Investments (Singapore) Ltd., FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd, GIC Private Ltd, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., M and G Investment Management Ltd., NS Partners Ltd and RWC Asset Advisors (US) LLC. The IPO is the largest ever on the Philippine Stock Exchange and the largest food and beverage IPO in Southeast Asia.

Monde Nissin expects to com-

SC upholds ruling favoring MORE

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

T

he Supreme Court (SC) has paved the way for the Enrique Razon-led More Electric and Power Corp.’s (MORE) unhampered expropriation of the power distribution system in Iloilo City.

In an-18 resolution released on Tuesday, the Court, voting 9-6, affirmed with finality its September 20, 2020 decision which settled the dispute between MORE and Panay Electric Co. (PECO) over the control of power distribution business in Iloilo City.

The Court upheld the constitutionality of Sections 10 and 17 of Republic Act (RA) 11212 (MORE’s franchise).

The said provisions give MORE the powers of eminent domain and to expropriate any asset, including existing distribution assets in the city.

“Clearly, in granting MORE the right to exercise eminent domain, the primordial concern of the Congress is the welfare of the residents of Iloilo City who rely on the distribution system of PECO. There is no question that PECO’s franchise was not renewed, thus, it can no longer operate the distribution system in Iloilo City,” the SC ruled.

“More as the new franchisee, is mandated under Section 2 of

RA 11212 to operate and maintain the distribution system in the best manner possible. To be able to do so, its right to expropriate the distribution system in Iloilo City to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity should not be hampered by unfounded allegations of undue benefit and corporate takeover,” it added.

The Court did not give weight to the arguments raised by PECO in its motion for reconsideration saying that these “have been squarely and extensively” discussed in its September 15 ruling.

In opposing PECO’s appeal, MORE argued that its rival has no absolute discretion on how and when to dispose its distribution assets since these are regulated assets established for the sole purpose of supplying electricity to end-users in Iloilo City.

MORE said PECO lost its right to occupy public streets and skyline when its franchise expired, thus, had the obligation to uproot, dismantle and remove its posts, wires, transformers and electric meters.

It added that to require it to build a new distribution system is “anticonsumer” and would deny the consumers of Iloilo City their right to continued service.

In siding with MORE, the SC said the authority granted to MORE

under its franchise to expropriate the existing distribution system of PECO is a valid delegation of power.

“The power of eminent domain is exercised by the legislature. However, it may be delegated by Congress to the President, administrative bodies, local government units and even to private enterprise performing public services,” the Court said.

The SC also stressed that the expropriation of the power distribution assets is necessary to ensure uninterrupted electricity in Iloilo City.

“In sum, expropriation by MORE of the distribution system of PECO under Section 10 and 17 of RA 11212 serves both the general public interest of conveying power and electricity in Iloilo City and the peculiar public interest and security of ensuring the uninterrupted supply of electricity,” the Court pointed out.

The High Tribunal did not give credence to the claim of PECO that it was singled out and that MORE was given undue benefit which should invalidate the grant of franchise to the latter.

The Court noted that there is only one franchise holder in Iloilo City prior to the enactment of RA 11212, thus, it is only natural for PECO being the lone previous franchise holder, to oppose all subsequent franchise holder exercising the right to eminent domain.

‘Dito working to fix phone compatibility issue’

D

ito Telecommunity Corp. clarified on Wednesday it made a “strategic decision” to only limit the compatible phones on its network given the limited frequencies it received from its bid for the third telco license.

Adel Tamano, the company’s chief administrative officer, said the limited number of compatible phones on Dito’s network is due to its decision to focus on 4G and 5G, as the radio frequencies that were awarded to the company were not meant for older connectivity technologies.

“While we do understand the excitement and desire of our countrymen to avail of our services, certain older phone models would really not be able to maximize the full potential of the next gen technology Dito has to offer—like providing highdefinition voice calls,” he said.

According to Dito’s web page, there are 115 phones compatible on Dito’s network. These phones, which are capable of handling voice over LTE (VoLTE), are from manufacturers namely: Cherry Mobile, Huawei, Samsung, Infinix, Myphone, Oppo, Realme, TCL, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Dito’s network is still not optimized for iPhone use.

“We are continuously working with handset manufacturers to certify and test more Dito-ready phones with 4G VoLTE and 5G technology, so that more Filipinos can experience fast, affordable, and reliable connectivity with Dito,” Tamano said.

He noted that Dito is also optimizing its network to provide consumers with its mandated minimum average speed of 27 Mbps.

“We at Dito wish to inform the

Filipino public that network optimization continues to happen in Ditocovered areas, as well as continuous expansion in other areas to bolster our coverage and capacity, and ultimately ensure that signal and speed live up to the expectation and demand,” he said.

Currently, Dito’s network covers over 37 percent of the Philippine population, in keeping with its commitment to the government.

“We are very happy to see the results of the hard work the entire Dito team has put in, as we have gone beyond the network coverage mandated by the government in our first year. However, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that there is still a long journey ahead of us. We cannot guarantee service in areas which are not yet officially covered by Dito.” Lorenz S. Marasigan

mence trading on the PSE under the ticker symbol “MONDE” on June 1.

Some 57 percent of the proceeds will be used to fund the company’s capital expenditures, 29 percent will be used to redeem convertible notes it gave to Arran Investment and the rest will be used for the repayment of loans.

UBS AG Singapore Branch, Citigroup Global Markets Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc served as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the offering.

BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. were the local lead underwriters and joint bookrunners. Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited served as the joint international bookrunner. Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited and Jefferies Singapore Limited served as the international co-bookrunners.

China Bank Capital Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. were the domestic co-lead underwriters.

SEC receives good governance award T he Sec u r it ies a nd E xchange Commission bagged this year’s Global Good Governance Advocacy and Commitment to Corporate Governance Award for its effort to champion best practices in the country’s corporate sector.

The award was given by London-based Cambridge International Financial Advisory during the 6th 3G Annual Awards Ceremony held virtually on Tuesday.

“This recognition affirms the SEC Philippines’s resolve not only in creating a good corporate governance climate in the country but also in promoting sustainable business practices and stakeholder centricity among its corporate constituencies. We have been and shall remain to be a champion and purveyor of good corporate governance and sustainability,” SEC Chairman Emilio B. Aquino said.

The country’s corporate regulator advanced corporate governance reforms through the adoption of cor porate governance codes, sustainability reporting guidelines and similar rules. It also conducts forums and dialogues with stakeholders to discuss corporate governance issues

within and outside the country.

Fou nded i n 2016, t he 3G Awards recognizes individuals and institutions that treat governance and sustainability as a strategic priority. It has since presented over 150 awards to various individuals and institutions in more than 25 countries.

Winners are determined based on 5 pillars—transparency, social responsibility, sustainability, impact, and innovation. These are chosen from 3 major categories—government and politics, corporate sector, social sector and philanthropy.

The SEC also participates in global development initiatives as a member of international organizations such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions, Asean Capital Markets Forum, the Global Financial Innovation Network, and the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators, among others.

Prior to the 3G Awards, the SEC also received the ISAR Honours from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2019 for instituting sustainability reporting in the corporate sector. VG Cabuag

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Companies BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 27, 2021

AirAsia: ‘Green lane’ to help revive PHL tourism sector

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan & Recto L. Mercene @rectomercene

UDGET carrier AirAsia said the creation of a so-called “green lane” for fully-vaccinated air passengers may help rekindle the demand for air travel and potentially boost tourism revenues again.

AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson Steve Dailisan said the group is backing the proposal of the Department of Tourism (DOT) for the creation of “green lanes” that will facilitate the entry of foreign travelers in the Philippines.

The proposed policy aims to reduce the number of quarantine days for foreign travelers to the Philippines. Currently, international passengers are required to undergo mandatory 10-day quarantine in an accredited hotel or facility.

“A irA sia bel ieves t hat t he ‘green lane’ will encourage leisure travelers who have previously

expressed concerns on varying requirements per destination.

This will be further reinforced by the implementation of uniform travel requirements through a digital travel pass. If the execution becomes effective for domestic travel, then we can slowly welcome foreign tourists again,” Dailisan said.

The policy is currently being implemented in some airports around the world, including the ones in Spain, France, Nepal, and Thailand.

He added that the budget carrier is looking at providing incentives for fully vaccinated individuals not only to stir the

demand for safe air travel, but also to encourage everyone to take the vaccine shot.

“W hile we strongly believe that easing of restrictions among fully vaccinated individuals is key to rebooting tourism, there must be no room for complacency.

Industry partners and all stakeholders must proactively monitor and observe established health and safety protocols,” Dailisan noted.

A side f rom A irA sia, ot her groups and stakeholders have expressed their support for the said policy, including Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion and the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Standardization in health protocols will be the best key in winning back tourism. When people feel safe, they will travel,” said Concepcion.

First Gen borrows $308M from 4 banks

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

F

irst Gen Corp. (First Gen) has sealed a $308-million loan from four banks to refinance its debts and partly fund its expansion projects.

The lenders are Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO Unibank, Inc., Philippine National Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Singapore Branch.

“The proceeds from the initial drawdown on the loans will be primarily used to repay the amounts due on FGP Corp. existing debt of approximately $164 million. FGP intends to draw on the balance of the facilities in the next 12 months to pre-fund First Gen’s upcoming projects,” First Gen said.

FGP, a subsidiary of First Gen Corp., owns and operates the 500 MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant.

Francis Giles Puno, President and COO of First Gen, said the combined debt facilities totaling $308 million is a testimony to the strong support and continuing confidence of the lenders in the company’s natural-gas business.

“First Gen pioneered this business about 24 years ago and it has since reached even greater heights. The natural gas platform now stands at 2,017 MW and we

The Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry said there is a need to allow foreign travelers to enter the Philippines because the country’s tourism industry will not survive on local tourists alone. The group said, however, that fully vaccinated tourists must still be subjected to RTPCR test.

Tourism is a key driver of the Philippine economy. Should the government successfully implement measures to reduce the adverse effects of Covid-19, Euromonitor International believes that inbound arrivals to the Philippines could reach 9.9 million by 2023.

AirAsia itself believes that it will fully recover the losses it incurred due to the pandemic by the same year. It is currently implementing recovery initiatives, including the resumption of some of its international flights.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, AirAsia has implemented a robust multi-layered approach to passenger safety from checkin to inflight. Numerous digital and contactless solutions have also been put in place to ensure a safe, affordable and comfortable guest experience,” Dailisan said.

mutual funds

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May 26, 2021 NAV

One Year Three Year Five Year

per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

SMC power unit to plant 1.1M trees in 8 provinces

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Stock Funds

are working hard to deliver the country’s first Interim Offshore LNG Terminal Project, as well as additional natural gas-fired power plants. Today, we are honored and grateful that our lenders continue to be supportive of our endeavors to deliver clean and cost-efficient power to Filipinos,” said Puno in a statement.

The company has 3,495MW of installed capacity in its portfolio, which accounts for 19 percent of the country’s gross generation.

The company said it is setting aside about $530 million in capital expenditures (capex) this year to mostly fund geothermal, gas and hydro projects.

First Gen Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Singson said $280 million will be utilized by Energy Development Corp., $120 million for its liquefied natural gas terminal and $60 million for its 100MW pumped-storage project.

MC Global Power Holdings Corp., the power unit of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is set to plant 1.1 ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.7483 12.03% -12.95% -7.43% -12.28% million seedlings this year as part of its 7-year Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7114 12.16% -8.09% n.a.

-11.51% upland and mangrove forest rehabilitation initiative.

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6814 3.04% -6.97% n.a.

-8.12% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.4348 10.58% -6.12% -3.68% -10.25% Dubbed “Project 747” the program spearheaded First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6292 1.91% -10.4% -8.56% -17.19% by SMC’s power unit was launched in 2019.

MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 93.82 26.75% -6.24% n.a.

-7.97% It so far planted a total 1,994,988 seedlings and PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 40.8749 11.87% -6.79% -4.02% -12.75% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 431.1 9.37% -6.63% -4.35% -11.84% propagules over 620 hectares of land as of DecemPhilequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.9919 18.92% n.a. n.a.

-9.61% ber 2020.

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0668 13.38% -5.61% -3% -8.68% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 30.9017 12.12% -6.06% -2.85% -11.12% The program brings together employee volunteers Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7967 10.16% n.a. n.a. -12.74% and partner farmer and fisherfolk associations, who Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.1908 12.59% -6.28% -3.26% -12.53% work together to plant and take care of the forests.

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 700.7 12.61% -6.22% -3.4% -12.59% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.6392 11.92% -10.11% -6.54% -11.09% “With close to two million trees planted in two Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.198 9.46% -8.28% -4.65% -11.75% years, this shows the dedication and commitment Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7998 12.05% -6.59% -3.57% -12.85% of our SMC Global Power’s employee volunteers, our United Fund, Inc. -a 2.9583 10.7% -6.13% -2.15% -10.87% Exchange Traded Fund partner organizations, and our government agenFirst Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 94.0023 12.66% -6.05% -2.78% -12.6% cies, in rehabilitating forests and growing new ones Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$1.2467 39.16% 4.35% 9.17% 3.64% in both upland and coastal areas,” SMC President 10.38% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.7386 34.4% 11.61% 3.93% Ramon S. Ang said in a statement.

Balanced Funds Ang said last year, due to the pandemic restric Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.6108 7.78% -2% -1.98% -3.46% tions, only 900,000 trees and mangroves were ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.1057 8.15% -3.05% -1.54% -7.86% planted.

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.455 5.76% -1.77% -1.74% -6.55% “This year, we intend to make up for it by plantFirst Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1839 1.49% n.a. n.a. -7.4% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8601 4.55% -0.06% -0.18% -5.29% ing 1.1 million trees, when the rainy season starts,” PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4702 5.19% -1.53% -1.46% -8.39% said Ang. Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.5563 5.5% -1.39% -1.5% -8.15% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 1.9435 6.35% -2.47% -1.28% -7.19% The environmental program serves as a carbon Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2957 6.06% -3.83% -2.55% -7.77% sequestration mechanism to help mitigate climate Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9414 5.51% n.a. n.a.

-7.94% change. Essentially, forests capture carbon dioxide Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8364 7.18% n.a. n.a. -11.88% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8172 8.14% n.a. n.a. -12.42% (CO2) from large point sources such as power faciliSun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.8085 5.7% -5.12% -3.24% -8.92% ties, which trees and plants then convert into oxy Primarily invested in foreign currency securities gen through the natural process of photosynthesis.

Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03795 -0.86% 2.98% 1.25% -2.99% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.1264 19.49% 2.58% 5.51% -2.07% It involves the rehabilitation of 2,800 hectares Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.627 25.37% 8.09% 8.41% 2.53% of upland forests and 1,204 hectares of mangrove Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.2006 13.39% 4.62% 4.71% -0.12% Bond Funds forests in Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Bulacan, Primarily invested in Peso securities Quezon, Albay, Negros Occidental, and Davao OcALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 371.29 2.13% 3.13% 2.48% 0.06% cidental.

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9154 -0.95% 0.8% 0.24% 0.79% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.2249 1.52% 3.87% 4.38% 0.32% Ang underscored the role played by local farmer Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2584 -0.88% 2.23% 1.48% -1.64% groups and fisherfolk organizations that help idenFirst Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4346 0.31% 3.15% 1.73% -0.76% tify the indigenous tree varieties to be planted in Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.4776 -1.09% 4.13% 1.63% -3.39% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3225 3.06% 4.26% 2.76% 0.1% their respective areas. They are also crucial in the im3.9763 1.85% 4.42% 2.53% -0.62% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a plementation of planting and livelihood initiatives, Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0264 0.43% 4.09% 1.71% -1.5% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.1967 1.89% 5.28% 2.86% -0.29% and ensuring the high survival rates of young trees.

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7434 0.7% 4.58% 2.14% -0.66% “Our partner farmer and fishermen know their Primarily invested in foreign currency securities areas very well since they’ve been living and working ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $484.59 2.91% 3.14% 2.35% 0.15% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є219.63 2.34% 1.1% 1.21% 0.21% there all their lives. So with the help of the DepartATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1773 -2.94% 1.94% 1.11% -8.05% ment of Environment and Natural Resources [DENR], First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 0% 1.59% 0.95% -2.63% we tap into their local knowledge on what plant spePAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0494 -1.18% 0.59% -0.59% -3.96% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4894 3.11% 5.14% 2.23% -1.82% cies are endemic in their areas, and enlist their help Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0628041 4.76% 3.52% 2.22% 0.78% in nurturing these trees to adulthood,” Ang said.

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1469 -0.78% 2.98% 1.05% -2.38% Money Market Funds Survival rates of planted seedlings and mangrove Primarily invested in Peso securities propagules are at an average of 89 and 91 percent, ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 130.12 1.92% 3.08% 2.52% 0.24% respectively, he noted.

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0517 1.24% n.a. n.a.

0.34% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.3039 1.88% 2.89% 2.57% 0.56% Tree varieties in the upland plantation are Nar Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ra, Molave, White Lauan, Palosapis, Agoho, Batino, Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.057 1.39% 1.7% n.a.

0.44% Igang, and Malabayabas while mangrove varieties Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities planted include Bakawan Babae, Bakawan Lalaki, Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.2405 n.a. n.a. n.a. 9.82% Bungalon, and Api-Api. Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $1 9.89% n.a. n.a.

2.04% The tree planting component is only one part of the program. It also aims to address the social and economic a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019. needs of SMC’s community partners and leverage on 4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019. their capacity for livelihood development and environ6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020.

"While we endeavor to keep the information accurate, the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and its members make no warranties as to mental stewardship, Ang said. Jonathan L. Mayuga pifa.

ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

200.43

9.53%

-8.55%

-5.04%

-11.79%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.2366

33.23%

-6.62%

-0.16%

-5.82%

the correctness of the

newspaper’s publication and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions. You may visit http://www.

com.ph to see the latest NAVPS/NAVPU."

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Thursday, May 27, 2021 B3

‘National program to expand PHL cacao output’

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

A

MEMBER of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food is pushing for the establishment of a national program for the cacao industry following the launch of Tangerine chocolate products made by marginalized farmers in Quezon.

Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan noted that the Philippines can further expand its cacao output given the suitability of the country’s climate and topography for the cultivation of the prized crop.

“The very rich and fertile soil of the country is very well suited in the production of cacao. Ironically, the country still imports a large amount annually. As of 2008, the country only has 1.5 million cacao trees producing around 6,000 metric tons annually,” Tan said in a statement.

“This places the country as 18th in the world among cacao-producing nations. Southern Mindanao is the country’s largest cacaoproducing region, particularly Davao Oriental with nearly 4,000 hectares planted to cacao trees, followed by Calabarzon region,

particulary Quezon and Cavite.”

Tan is seeking the establishment of a national program for the cacao industry via her House Bill 1495, which is pending before the House Committee on Agriculture and Food.

The lawmaker said her bill envisions the creation of a national program to gather government agencies together with the DA as lead agency to do education and training of all stakeholders in cacao industry, collecting relevant researches, scientific studies, and market strategies, extending technologies and creating international linkages for development, promotion and be a competitor in the world cacao market.

To promote and strengthen the cacao industry in Region 4A or Calabarzon, especially in Quezon province, Tan said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is showcasing cacao-based products in its annual “Kalakal Quezon” from May 25 to 31.

The Kalakal Quezon is an annual event organized by the DTI-Quezon to promote the products of micro, small, and medium enterprises by showcasing the province’s products under the theme “Support Lokal,

DRIED cocoa beans PHOTOGRAPHER: JANE HAHN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Shop at Kalakal.”

The lawmaker said one of the products showcased is the recently

launched range of chocolate products of Tangerine of the Four K Kakao Farm, an emerging powerhouse for

cacao production in the country.

Tangerine is dark chocolate made by cacao farmers in Quezon and

members of the Kakao Integrated Development for Livelihood and Transformation or Kidlat, an organization of marginalized farmers.

Tan said the development of cacao farming in Quezon Province was piloted in the 9 towns in the 4th District of the province: Atimonan, Plaridel, Lopez, Gumaca, Perez, Calauag, Tagkawayan, Guinayangan, and Quezon.

In its 2016-2022 Philippine cacao road map, the Department of Agriculture (DA) noted that the world demand for cacao has nearly tripled since 1970 growing at an annual rate of 3 percent with China and India growing at 7.9 percent.

“One of the primary drivers of this increase is the growing middle class, increasing discretionary household income in developing countries, new and innovative uses of cocoa in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and the positioning of cacao as health food,” the DA said.

The agency also said aging cacao trees, lack of good agricultural practices, and scarcity of high-yielding planting materials are among the factors affecting the yield and production volume of the industry.

House panels greenlight Thai food giant, govt ink MOA on credit program for hog sector measure granting cash aid to rice farmers

T

WO committees of the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill authorizing the Department of Agriculture (DA) to use excess rice tariff collections as direct cash assistance to farmers.

In a hearing, House Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman Mark Enverga of Quezon said his committee together with the House Committee on Appropriations approved House Bill 8964 or the proposed Cash Assistance for Filipino Farmers Act. Authored by Appropriations Committee Chariman Eric Go Yap, Enverga said the bill seeks to provide assistance to farmers tilling 2 hectares of rice land until 2024.

In the same hearing, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan said the agency is supporting the passage of the bill. The measure seeks to benefit 1.5 million farmers in the country.

Under the bill, the measure will apply only to farmers tilling 2 hectares or less of rice land.

The DA shall establish actual beneficiaries of the proposal on the basis of its registry system for basic sectors in agriculture for rice.

The bill also directs the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to directly remit to the DA the said excess funds.

“Any money in excess of P10 billion in annual tariff revenues in any given year in the life of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund [RCEF],

shall automatically be given as cash assistance to farmers, unless otherwise amended by law,” the bill stated.

The bill also directs the BOC and the DA to submit separate reports to Congress at the end of a calendar year, through the Committee on Agriculture, on the remittance of funds and the actual disbursement for the year, respectively.

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, tariffs collected from rice imports are used to fund the 6-year P10-billion annual RCEF to bankroll programs that provide farmers with highquality seeds, machinery, easier credit access, and relevant training. This is meant to improve their productivity and become competitive.

Should annual tariff revenues from rice imports exceed P10 billion, the law mandates earmarking the fund

by Congress—and included in the national budget of the following year—for financial assistance to palay farmers, titling of agricultural lands, an expanded crop insurance program for rice, and crop diversification.

Last year, the government collected P15.47 billion in rice tariffs from 2.38 million metric tons (MMT) of imports.

In 2019, the Bureau of Customs collected P12.3 billion in rice tariffs from 2.03 MMT of rice imports from March to December following the passage of the law.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

We assure and commit to you our continuous support in investing in the Philippines,” Cheewakoset added.

Dar said he hopes that CPFPC will expand its operations in regions near the National Capital Region, the country’s main pork market.

“When we rolled out the Integrated National Swine Production

A FARMWORKER pours feed into a pen at a pig farm in Batangas City, Philippines, on March 14, 2021.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas sistance to eligible public and private @jearcalas

T

HAILAND-BASED Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippines Corp.

(CPFPC) is the latest firm to join the government’s efforts to revitalize the embattled domestic hog industry as it partnered with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for its bio-secured farm credit project.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said CPFPC entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DA and the DBP for the implementation of the “Swine Rehabilitation, Repopulation and Recovery Credit” or Swine R3 program.

The R3 program seeks to finance biosecured hog farm projects as a support to the national government’s efforts of reviving the local swine industry that has been devastated by African swine fever (ASF), the DA added.

“This is a welcome development for us at the DA as we pursue joint efforts to control ASF and repopulate ASF-free areas,” said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, who witnessed the MOA signing last May 20.

“With CPFPC’s technological expertise in modern bio-secured farms and DBP’s support in providing credit as-

institutions, we will be able to level up our efforts in reviving the industry.”

DBP President and CEO Emmanuel Herbosa said the partnership will “elevate and expedite” the government’s hog repopulation program and rehabilitation initiatives.

“Through this program, we hope to assist in the recovery of our hog industry and eventually contribute to the country’s food security,” Herbosa said.

The Swine R3 program is a credit program that provides loans for the construction of bio-secured swine farms, and acquisition of farm machinery and equipment. The eligible projects under the credit program include swine breeder farms, swine wean-to-finish farms, and consolidated swine facility projects, according to the DA. “Through this partnership, we will be able to share our knowledge in helping boost a sustainable business climate not only for our company, but also for our Filipino farmer-partners,” CPFPC Vice Chairman Khun Sakol Cheewakoset said.

“Our state-of-the-art bio-secured farms enable us to be resilient from ASF, thus making our business a success.

Moving forward, this will also open export opportunities for the Philippines.

Cargill PHL goes digital to reach more consumers

A

S the pandemic restrictions in thecountrycontinuetoaffectthe mobility of consumers and food accessibility, Cargill said it is embracing digital transformation to make its products available to more consumers.

Cargill said its journey to digitalization and modernization in the Philippines is under way with efforts to introduce software that enables farms and feed mills to minimize their inputs and maximize outputs through its Digital Nutrition and Farm Management solution.

To continue the momentum, Cargill Philippines’s joint venture C-Joy, in the midst of Covid pandemic, has developed a new supply chain model by engaging in direct selling, leveraging on digital platforms to improve efficiency and flexibility of value chains to ensure consistent food supply and through the launch of the consumer brand Tip-Top Premium Chicken.

“The launch of our first consumer brand in the Philippines is one of the many steps we are undertaking to make this a complete realization. By

leveraging social media and digital platforms, we can engage with the consumers better and allow them to buy our products in just a few simple clicks,” Anthony Wu, country director of C-Joy, said in a statement.

With the setbacks that came from the Covid-19, Cargill jump-started its consumer-focused digital commercial road map at the height of the pandemic to respond to the changing market conditions, to move forward with “new innovations and optimism.”

C-Joy is also diversifying into other

channels by selling Tip-Top products through Metro Retail supermarkets, Zagana, an e-commerce partner platform and selected distributors and community retailers serving Calabarzon and Metro Manila.

Cargill said it has recognized that innovation in all its forms provides the means to address some of the greatest challenges facing the global food system whether it’s delivering consumer preferences or helping farmers prosper. The company believes technology can unlock solutions.

Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion or INSPIRE program, we emphasized the whole-of-nation approach. We galvanized support from the private sector, financing institutions and local government units and committed to strongly implement the hog repopulation program. We are glad that this is slowly coming into fruition.”

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

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Thursday, May 27, 2021

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL, China convene to ease tensions, explore cooperation

A

FTER a long postponement, the sixth meeting of the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/ WPS) was convened between the Philippines and China on May 21, with the former as host.

The BCM is a two-way forum established by President Duterte and President Xi Jinping during their 2016 meeting. It was envisioned as a platform for dialogue on the expanding mutual relationship between their two countries, serving as a confidence-building process for both sides to manage and address differences, to promote practical maritime cooperation and environmental protection, as well as enhance mutual trust and confidence.

Foreign Affairs Acting Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and Asean Affairs Elizabeth P. Buensuceso and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao led their

respective delegations. The Philippines was represented by officials from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Security Council, Department of National Defense, Philippine Coast Guard, Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as other key agencies.

The two sides had friendly and candid exchanges on the general situation and specific issues of concern in the SCS/WPS. There was mutual recognition of the importance of dialogue in easing tensions and understanding each country’s position and intentions in the area.

Both sides acknowledged the im-

ACTING Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Elizabeth P. Buensuceso and Assistant Minister Wu Jianghao DFA-OUBRAA

portance of addressing differences in an atmosphere of openness and cordiality to pave the way for practical cooperation and initiatives. The Philippines reiterated its long-standing call for full respect and adherence to international law—including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, as well as its authoritative interpretation and application: the final and binding 2016 SCS/WPS Arbitral Award.

The Philippines highlighted the progress made in the settlement of the allision issue involving a Filipino fishing boat and a Chinese vessel. The DOJ will take the lead in seeking just compensation for the victims in next month’s negotiations.

Encouraged by the positive momentum in the bilateral relations of the two countries, the BCM’s three working groups: political-security,

fisheries cooperation, and marine environmental protection/marine scientific research, tackled common issues and possible areas of cooperation.

Buensuceso emphasized the importance of other complementary bilateral and multilateral platforms in maintaining regional peace and stability, such as the Asean-China Dialogue Relations, the Asean Regional Forum, and the East Asia Summit.

Both sides reiterated the importance of the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the SCS/ WPS, and their commitment to the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the contested body of water.

The Philippines currently serves as country coordinator of the AseanChina dialogue mechanism. DFA

PCOO chief, Manila administrator join PHL-Australia Day with tree planting A

MBASSADOR Steven J. Robinson AO of Australia joined Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin M. Andanar and Manila City Administrator Felix D. Espiritu for a tree-planting activity at the Arroceros Forest Park to mark Philippines-Australia Friendship Day on May 22.

The Friendship Tree caravan is an initiative of the Australia Global Alumni network to plant 750 trees across the country, in celebration of 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“I am very pleased to be back here at Arroceros Forest Park with [Secretary Andanar—who is our] outstanding Australia Global Alumni—and with…Administrator Espiritu,” said Robinson. “I visited this park with…Mayor [Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso] in 2019 to hear about the city’s plans for its maintenance and the development of the adjacent area.“ He added, ”Australia offers our support to the mayor and his plans for the sustainable use and conservation of the forest park.”

The envoy commented that, much like the Arroceros Forest Park that has seen changes since the 16th Century, the Philippine-Australian relationship has also evolved and grown over time: “Our friendship with the Philippines stands tall and firm—deeply rooted in history and on our shared values. Just like the trees here in what is now a permanent forest park, I am certain…the Philippine-Australian relationship will further flourish and mature.”

“It is fitting we hold our friendship day activity…in Manila. The embassy’s ties to the city are rooted in history: the first Australian

PCOO Secretary Martin M. Andanar (from left), Australia Alumni Association's President Ret. Col. Ariel Querubin (Ret.), Alelee Andanar, Ambassador Steven J. Robinson AO, and Manila City Administrator Felix Espiritu

Consulate-General was opened at the Manila Hotel on May 22, 1946—75 years ago...” Robinson relayed. “[Its] chancery was…in Binondo for 20 years: First at the Plaza Cervantes, then later at the iconic El Hogar Filipino Building, and Ayala Building on Juan Luna Street.”

The 2.2-hectare Arroceros Forest Park was declared a permanent forest park in March 2020 by the City of Manila. It is home to about 3,000 species of trees, plants and birds.

Embassy officials, alongside prominent Australia-educated Filipinos, including Col. Ariel Querubin (Ret.) and Education Department Superintendent Dr. Magdalena Lim, planted 100 endemic seedlings at the park.

Get updates on the anniversary by visiting mateshipandbayanihan.com and following @AusAmbPH on Twitter, as well as the Australian Embassy in the Philippines on Facebook and Instagram.

USAID activates projects boosting local devt solutions

T

HE United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently launched four new projects worth P280 million (around $5.7 million) to promote local-development solutions in the Philippines.

USAID Philippines's Deputy Mission Director Patrick Wesner inaugurated the said projects with other government, civil-society, private sector and academia partners in a virtual event on May 7.

“As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of US-Philippines diplomatic relations, we look forward to fur-

thering our productive collaboration with Philippine civil-society organizations (CSOs), as we continue to pursue inclusive and resilient growth for Filipinos,” said Wesner.

The four projects will empower local organizations to try new and unique approaches addressing development challenges in their communities: n The “Coalescing Organizations toward Locally Led Actions to Boost Development” project will employ data and evidence to advance development in 10 sites in Sorsogon, Leyte, Eastern Samar, Misamis Ori-

PHL, Hungary hold breakthrough online biz, matchmaking forum

ental and Sultan Kudarat over a period of two-and-a-half years. n The two-year (2021 to 2023) “Facilitating Local Access to Water” project will help local partners in Tublay, Benguet achieve reliable access to safe drinking water. n “Assets, Agency and Trust,” a two-year action-research project, will use consultations and networking activities to mobilize local resources and drive development activities across the country. n The three-year (2021 to 2024) “Capacitating Strategic Organizations to Strengthen the Civil-Society

Organization Sector” project will empower CSOs to effectively deliver services and sustain development results initially in Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro City.

These four projects join the Generating Rural Opportunities by Working with Cooperatives program, launched last year to expand rural livelihood opportunities and increase food security, as part of Local Works, USAID’s flagship locally led development effort, which utilizes the creativity and resourcefulness of local communities, enabling them to drive their own development.

LINK cochairs

F

OLLOWING the success and ambition of Trade and Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó’s October 2020 visit, as well as the successful second session of the Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation (JCEC) last December, the Embassy of Hungary staged “LINK”—the first HungaryPhilippines Online Business Forum and Matchmaking event from May 18 and 20.

The event served as a gateway for business opportunities between Hungary and the Philippines. LINK featured a business forum with highlevel panelists and many well curated business-to-business meeting opportunities.

According to Ambassador Dr. Titanilla Tóth, “We are now turning words into action, finding and pairing the partners who will make these connections bear fruit.”

The embassy aims to be the onestop shop for Hungarian and Philippine businesses looking for trade and

investment opportunities.

The business forum featured senior official speakers from the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), and co-chairs of the JCEC. Several firms will share their first-hand accounts in both countries’ markets to assist in the entry of newcomers.

The forum was followed by an online match making event organized jointly by the embassy, the PITC, Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, the Department of Trade and Industry, and Board of Investments. They will bring together enterprises from both countries to directly discuss their respective fields of interest.

According to Tóth, the embassy “is confident...the interest already demonstrated by Philippine and Hungarian companies will translate into a vibrant and successful event that will create [some sort of] a tradition for years to come.”

PHL, Netherlands boost ties anew in maritime transport

T

HE Philippines and the Netherlands strengthened their ties of understanding, cooperation, international exchange and trade—especially in the field of maritime transport—during the 21st Joint Committee on Maritime Affairs (JCMA) virtual meeting on April 29.

MARINA Administrator Robert A. Empedrad led the Philippine delegation, while his counterpart Paul van Gurp from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (MinlenW) headed the Dutch contingent.

The 21st JCMA served as an avenue for both countries to convene on the state of maritime affairs in both nations, as well as specific practices adopted in view of circumstances caused by the pandemic.

With MARINA, the Philippine side was composed of officials from the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Palompon Institute of Technology, as well as other government and private-sector representatives. For the Netherlands, aside MinIenW, present were officials from the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, the Scheepvaart en Transport College, and the kingdom’s embassy.

Ensuring employment

TRANSPORTATION Assistant Secretary for Maritime Narciso A. Vingson prompted the discussion of the measures taken for crew change and the vaccination of Filipino seafarers—central components in ensuring continued employment of seafarers and unhindered flow of essential goods.

“As a major supplier of maritime workforce to the international fleet, the Philippines, through the DOTr, recognized its role in ensuring crew change amid the pandemic, so as to facilitate the continuous trade flow,” Vingson emphasized during his presentation. “Most important [is] the delivery of essential goods, such as medical supplies and equipment.

Taking also into consideration how competence is superseded by health requirements, the preferred vaccination of Filipino seafarers shall guarantee their employment in international vessels, as well as the safe transport of vaccines, medical supplies, and other important goods.” “[Due to the] good cooperation between the Philippines and the Netherlands in taking care of seafarers working onboard of our ships, an estimated 22,000 seafarers from the Philippines will get vaccinated,” Van Gurp shared.

“It is of utmost importance to make sure seafarers are vaccinated timely, since otherwise they could encounter travel restrictions again, when...vaccination is required when traveling.”

Mutual matters

MEANWHILE, both countries tackled areas of mutual interest in the maritime industry. MARINA officials were tasked to discuss matters, including updates on the European Maritime Safety Agency’s findings, as well as the state of maritime training and education amid the restrictions caused by the ongoing health crisis.

As head of the Philippine delegation, Empedrad expressed his appreciation for the active roles both nations played in tackling pressing issues in the maritime industry over the course of more than two decades: “I hope...all of us will share the same passion in working [for the continued development of maritime study, as well as the] advancement of the competitiveness and welfare of our seafarers.”

Meanwhile, Van Gurp expressed that “to take care of seafarers working onboard our ships, and to minimize the impact of [the pandemic on Filipino] seafarers, the importance of extensive cooperation...became increasingly clear again. We...hope that our excellent cooperation with the Philippines continues. Moving forward together and upholding this special bilateral relationship will contribute to the wealth and interests of the shipping sector and our two countries.”

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Thursday, May 27, 2021

‘Dance of the 41’: Homophobia historicized

AN untold part of Mexico’s history is told in Dance of the 41, now streaming on Netflix.

the choices they bravely or secretly opted for.

Historical backgrounds would show that the 1901 scandal was not the first time that men danced with men. Tales abound in Mexico of men who dressed up in women’s clothing, but these happened in parties that were disguised as costume parties, with the purpose of the celebration veiling the transvestites trying to find their own spaces.

While activities of this kind were kept under wraps, the case of the 41 dancers was much too exciting to be ignored and for those men to be forgiven. Those who breached the good manners and right conduct were all members of the high society, the class that the society of that period was deemed responsible for protecting and projecting the image of the Good Person or the Ideal Man. The event became the favorite subject of cartoonists and satirists. The group then called “41 maricones” or homosexuals was oftentimes rendered as “comic” figures, perhaps to lessen the affront that their conduct had wrought upon the Mexican society.

For all the noise of the arrest and the ensuing shame and scandal, the 1901 event never became part of the popular history of Mexico. It was turned into one of the great unsaid in their societies. The breach was so great that the collective consciousness pushed it further to the unconscious. In the absence of that “history,” the film ceases to be a retelling but a new way of telling us junctures in the sexual politics of societies.

Consider the artistic license and consider as well how our present-day societies are now ready to face this kind of story. Consider also the fact that, for all

BORED AND LONELY

THE actress has been very busy with lockedin tapings for one project to another but somehow, despite all this, she decided she was bored and lonely. So what did the actress do? She partied with friends. What came next? In a pandemic, it’s quite obvious. The actress was infected with Covid-19. She was lucky that her symptoms were moderate but the question is, how many people did she infect before she realized she had Covid-19.

The actress is normally sober in terms of making decisions but perhaps working so hard in a pandemic has changed her perspective on things. It was also during this pandemic that she allegedly had a fling with a married man and this caused the break-up of his marriage.

POOR RATINGS

SO this new show is not doing well despite the stars, especially the leading lady, being quite popular. The network didn’t expect the ratings that the said show is getting. It’s gotten to the point that they are paying for ads on social media. So why aren’t people watching the show? There is some speculation about the leading man having an affair with an actor whose political leanings aren’t popular with many people. So what’s happening is kind of a silent boycott of the leading man and his

Harvey Weinstein

Weinstein extradition to California faces another delay

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T seems, whenever persecutions happen to marginalized individuals, including those seen as homosexuals or gays, judgment always happens at the site of a Catholic Church or around its patio. Thus, when 41 (?) men belonging to a secret society—actually a brotherhood of men into men and/or men into women’s clothes—are arrested by government one night, they have to be hauled out in public, brought to a plaza where moral guardians can ask God to look at them. This is strange and anomalous knowing how it has been proven that what this institution has declared as “perversion” is prevalent within its communities.

All this is at the core of the film Dance of the 41 (El Baile de los cuarenta y uno). The title refers to a ball involving men who belong to the most prominent families in Mexico, or at least hold prominent positions in the government.

The scandal takes place during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz, which brings no less than the character of the president within the crisis and controversies of that period. The president does not only provide a historical point in the depiction of the event; the president himself is related to one of the lead personas who figures in the cause célèbre of 1901 Mexico.

The film begins with Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, a young politician being groomed for a bright political future. He marries Amada Díaz, the president’s daughter. Ignacio is, however, gay and unable to fulfil his sexual duties on the night of the marriage. Ignacio is also an active member of that secret brotherhood and, even outside it, has started an intense relationship with another young man in the city.

At this point, the narrative, described to be a fictional account of that 1901 fiasco, becomes dense.

Amada Díaz, the wife, is tormented. She is also revealed as half-Indian, an ethnicity that appears to be the justification for her power and virulence. Like her husband, she is shunned subtly by the high society that reminds her always of the color of her skin.

Amada keeps Ignacio away from his lover, who is sentenced to do harsh public works in Yucatan.

Troubled, she is without emotion as she tells Ignacio at the breakfast table what happened to that lover.

The punishment for the 41 individuals is harsh. At the church patio, they are paraded in broad daylight, some of them still dressed in gowns, their mustaches not erased but rather exotic counterpoints to the glamor of their costumes. They are pelted with stones and objects, derided, spit at, mocked.

Ignacio comes home also in gown. Amada looks at him and we fear for his life.

Images of the belle epoch clash with the tenderness and manners of that period. Much as we now look back at the 1900s with unbridled nostalgia, we forget how the rigidity of the mores of those years were the reason for the men and women being ostracized over

the silencing, the truth of that era squeezes out of the pores of the Mexican society a new discourse. The lies are there in what cannot be uttered.

According to Francisco Luis Urquizo, Mexican writer and historian, in Mexico, “the number 41 has no validity and is offensive....” Illustrating this attitude brought about by morals and histories, the said number was ignored. Houses skipped number “41”. Even hospitals or hotels avoided the use the “41”.

Entering the Mexican popular culture, the number “41” became a code for homosexuals.

Has this remained so?

Interestingly, the film claims the number should be “42”. That there is another person who manages to evade arrest or is taken out of the location so that policemen would not record his presence is as much the message as well as the immoral lesson of The Dance of the 41. This man is Ignacio, the presidential son-inlaw.

The movie Dance of the 41 is directed by David Pablos, written by Monika Revilla, produced by Pablo Cruz. It stars Alfonso Herrera as Ignacio de la Torre y Mier. The luscious cinematography is by Carolina Costa, one of the top women cinematographers at present.

Produced by Canana Films, El Studio, and Bananeira Filmes, the film premiered on Netflix worldwide on May 12. n

SHE WANTS TO BE SURE

projects. It’s sad because he used to be very popular online and all of his other projects did well in the past.

REFORMAT COMING SOON

SO there’s a rumor that a long-running show will be revamped because of poor ratings. Of course it’s understandable that the current situation calls for certain restrictions but what’s happening is that the viewers aren’t just indifferent, they are also very critical of the show and its hosts. Some are even calling for the ouster of most of the show’s hosts because they are no longer effective, funny nor engaging. Their ire is particularly focused on one of the show’s mainstays, who is said to be there only because he is well connected. Will a reformat happen? There are talks that management will respond to complaints and feedbacks with a longdelayed revamp.

THE actress just got a big role in a muchawaited project and she is happy with her love life but she’s also worried about something. In the past, the actress was in a relationship with this minor celebrity and she sent him some nudes as he also sent her some of his. The actress wants to make sure all the photos are deleted but she doesn’t want her possessive boyfriend to know about it. Because of this, she can’t even get in touch with her ex since they all move in the same circles. The lesson that can be gleaned from this is that when you end a relationship, make sure to make it a clean break.

IT’S OVER

WHAT is this we heard that an actresspolitician and her politician-husband have split after she caught him having an affair with another woman? Luckily, the actress has custody of their kids. This is actually her second marriage and the husband’s as well, and everyone thought that they had already found true love with each other. They did have some happy years together and even built a mini political dynasty but it wasn’t meant to be. The actress and her husband are at least cordial with each other for the sake of the kids and their political careers.

B5

BUFFALO, New York—Harvey Weinstein’s extradition from New York to California to face rape and sexual assault charges faces further delays over paperwork issues raised by his lawyer, the attorney confirmed on Monday.

Norman Effman said a hearing has been scheduled for June 15 on a newly filed challenge.

Weinstein had been scheduled to be transferred as early as next week from the Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, where the Hollywood producer has been locked up since last spring after being convicted in New York City of a criminal sex act and third-degree rape.

Los Angeles prosecutors want to bring him to California to be tried on charges of assaulting five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013.

Weinstein maintains his innocence and contends that any sexual activity was consensual.

“This is a challenge to California’s request for temporary custody, based on our allegation that the paperwork filed by Los Angeles County does not comply with the mandates of the interstate agreement on detainers,” Effman said by phone.

Los Angeles prosecutors referred a request for comment to the Erie County District Attorney’s office, which confirmed that a hearing had been set but did not respond to the claim itself.

Weinstein last appeared in Erie County court, virtually, on April 30. At the request of prosecutors, Judge Kenneth Case started a 30-day clock on Weinstein’s transfer that could be stopped only by a challenge from Weinstein or an objection from the governor.

Effman said at the time he would file an objection.

An earlier request for a “humanitarian” delay of Weinstein’s already pandemic-delayed extradition to attend to his multiple medical issues was denied.

A jury found Weinstein guilty of raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting a production assistant at his apartment in 2006.

He is appealing the 2020 conviction. AP

B6 Thursday, May 27, 2021

PCSO GM Garma rallies Region 8 officials for support

Araneta City teams up with GCash to make cashless palengke possible

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RANETA City has teamed up with GCash, the undisputed #1 e-wallet in the Philippines, to implement cashless and contactless transactions between vendors and customers of Farmers Market in Quezon City.

Under this partnership, GCash enables vendors at Farmers Market to accept digital payments through the Scan to Pay (STP) feature via its QR technology.

“We are pleased to partner with Araneta City in carrying out our very first cashless and contactless payment scheme in a public market. This is

our way of helping create a safer and convenient retail environment both for our small entrepreneurs and the public consumers,” according to Ana Bautista, Lead for Conglomerate Accounts of GCash Enterprise.

Once fully implemented, customers with GCash need only to scan the unique QR code of a particular Farmers Market stall to pay for the goods purchased.

“GCash commends the active participation of Araneta City in helping lessen the risk of spreading COVID-19.

This is a major step as we adjust and move forward to the new normal in

doing business,” Bautista said.

The collaboration between Araneta City and GCash supports the government's call for the private sector to implement cashless transactions and electronic payment schemes, and help mitigate the rate of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila.

“As an essential establishment, Farmers Market has remained open to the public regardless of the quarantine classification imposed by the government. We have always maintained that all market personnel, vendors, and shoppers will observe compliance with health and safety protocols. We value the cashless payment platform provided by GCash as a welcome addition to our strict anti-COVID measures,” according to John Castelo, Araneta City’s Senior Vice President for Business Development.

Farmers Market is Araneta City's multi-awarded one-stop-shop market that was named 'Cleanest Market' Hall of Famer by the Quezon City government. It is an undisputed benchmark and source for fresh seafood, best cooking ingredients, and food choices in the metro.

“Even before the pandemic, the City of Firsts has been introducing digital solutions to provide convenience to our patrons. We will continue to innovate our digital offerings and partner with institutions that would help us achieve this goal,” Castelo stated.

May Pera sa Basura: Mondelez Philippines supports recycling and reusing plastic packaging material

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HE phrase “May pera sa basura” has long been heard in the Philippines. Newspaper drives and glass bottle collection initiatives are common measures to recycle.

The same process can apply to plastic packaging. The concept of the ‘circular economy of plastics’ means that plastic is viewed as a material that can be reused, to avoid depleting natural resources.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the ‘circular economy of plastics’ means “…A system in which materials are designed to be used, not used up.” The foundation works at promoting and developing this economic model. Think about it, our economy today continuously churns packaging material using irreplaceable natural resources like fuel, with the intent of making them single use. But they don’t have to be used just once.

Plastic packaging can and should be recycled to avoid them becoming waste or polluting marine life. In fact, using plastic as a resource that can be recycled continuously is giving rise to industries that make a profit while preventing waste.

Making profit, not pollution

ONE such organization is Plastics

by Manila Automat, a collaborative design and production studio aimed at renewing the value of recycled plastic waste by encouraging people to become modern-day recyclers. The group collects plastic waste – from bottles to sachets, and turns them into practical, useable, and creative materials for consumers to purchase.

Theirs is a business that literally runs on waste.

“We started our Company based on a belief that plastic should be reused and is a valuable material,” shares Mica Agregado, Head of Designs. “Since 2019 we have sold 436 pieces of our home and fashion pieces and in the process, recycled 327 kg of plastic packaging.”

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HILIPPINE Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Vice Chairperson and General Manager Royina M. Garma urged Region 8 Mayors to combine forces with the PCSO in confronting the ill effects of illegal gambling in the region.

The PCSO GM reminded the local officials that the funds donated by the agency to the Local Government Units nationwide are the fruits of PCSO’s ticket sales derived from its “Mga Larong may Puso”.

Every Lotto, Digit game, Small Town Lottery (STL) and Scratch It tickets purchased, raises funds for PCSO’s charity

projects which include, Patient Transport Vehicle (PTV) Donation Program, Medical Access Program (MAP) and the agency’s funding support for the Universal Health Care among others. “We don’t want to make things complicated. We want it to be simple so that you can access (PCSO services),” were GM Garma’s words in encouraging the officials to support the state run STL. “Every centavo that goes to illegal gambling is a centavo taken away from charity,” GM Garma added in emphasizing the importance of supporting the PCSO games.

(Erik Imson)

Filipino Heritage Festival Inc. and Security Bank celebrate National Heritage Month this May

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ECURITY Bank Corporation, in partnership with the Filipino Heritage Festival Inc. (FHFI), celebrates the National Heritage Month with the theme “Victory and Humanity: Upholding Filipino Heritage and Identity.”

This year’s theme commemorates the 500th anniversary of two important events in Philippine history: the victory at Mactan and the first circumnavigation of the world.

The celebration highlights the Filipinos’ bravery in their quest for freedom, and their humanity towards others.

“Cultural heritage is steeped in a country’s history and identity. By celebrating National Heritage Month, Filipinos can uphold and promote its rich culture, especially to the younger generation,” said Security Bank President and CEO Sanjiv Vohra.

“By remembering milestones in Philippine history and encouraging the youth to participate in cultural activities, we hope that more Filipinos have a newfound appreciation of their roots and take pride in their identity,” he added.

This year’s national heritage festival features online competitions, virtual presentations, webinars and performances to be hosted by various institutions. For its part, Security Bank is co-sponsoring a youth essay-writing contest and co-sponsoring an online trivia game that will run until May 31.

“As leaders and role models, we all must strive to utilize every opportunity available to us to reinforce the values and beliefs that we hold dear. Traditions are important for they remind us that we are part of a history that defines our past, and shapes who we are today. We hope that the line-up of Filipino Heritage Festival online activities prepared this May inspire us all to give more value to our culture and to have a great sense of pride for being a Filipino especially in this time of pandemic,” says Armita Rufino, President of the Filipino Heritage Festival.

A virtual tour presented by the Ayala Museum on their YouTube channel is available to the public until August 31, 2021.

To know more about the National Heritage Month and Security Bank’s initiatives on education, you may visit www.facebook. com/Securitybank or www.securitybank.com/ sustainability

CCP-OP and Percussive Arts Society Philippines present a festival of percussion and drum instruments Another organization that uses waste as a resource is Green Antz Builders, an innovative product and technology development company that creates Ecobricks and construction materials made with recycled plastic. The company builds and runs Green Antz Eco-Hubs which are like modern Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in communities. These Eco-Hubs function as plastic collection points, recycling facilities, and manufacturing hubs with a socially-inclusive model.

Green Antz collaborates with surrounding communities and partner organizations in collecting plastic and running educational workshops or seminars in the communities on proper waste segregation at source. The Eco-Bricks, Eco-Casts, and Eco-Pavers produced in these facilities, coming from the plastic waste collected, are tangible outputs that the circular economy works and creates shared value across its stakeholders.

“Our Eco Products not only divert tons of plastic waste away from oceans and landfills, and repurposing them into green materials used in the construction industry, they are also uniquely designed and engineered stronger than regular hollow blocks and use less water to build into structures,” shares Rommel B. Benig, Founder and CEO. “Green Antz has created a trailblazing platform for Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) initiatives. We have built our entire business on the idea that plastic waste is a resource as valuable as paper or

glass, and can be reused.” In 2020 alone, Green Antz collected and diverted close to 100,000 kgs of plastics away from landfills or oceans.

Mondelez supports the Circular Economy of Plastics

AS a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, Mondelez Philippines globally supports the New Plastics Economy Initiative.

“We want to contribute to a circular economy where packaging material is recycled or reused, while minimizing food waste and the overall environmental impact of packaging, including on climate change,” explains Atty. Joseph Fabul, Country Manager for Corporate and Government Affairs of Mondelez Philippines. “To help achieve this, we are working to find solutions to the shared problem of packaging waste – fixing broken processes, policies and perception. These include making all our packaging recycle-ready and labelled with recycling information for consumers by 2025. We also committed to invest in waste management projects where we are present and ensure that by 2025, 5% of our plastic packaging is from recycled content.”

“The next time you hear the phrase “May pera sa basura,” think of the circular economy of plastics and how recycling can indeed change a problem into an opportunity,” ends Atty. Fabul.

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EADING percussionists and drummers from all over the world will gather for a one-of-a-kind festival that highlights the incredible sounds of percussion and drum instruments. The Cultural Center of the Philippines, through its Office of the President, and the Percussive Arts Society Philippines (PAS PH) bring you PINTIG, A Percussion Festival, a three (3)-day virtual festival on May 28 – 30, 7:30PM, at the CCP Office of the President Facebook Page. (http:// facebook.com/ccp.officeofthepresident).

Delight in the performances of over THIRTY (30) of the most recognizable names in drumming and percussion. The performers are Alexis Constantino (Percussionist, ABS CBN Philharmonic Orchestra), Aaron Awitan Reyes (FEU Drumline), Andrea Tanlapco (Temple Hill International School), Arthur Lipner (World-renowned Keyboard Percussionist), Arvin Olete (UP College of Music), Benedict Marcelino (UP College of Music), Chico Macorol (UP College of Music), Cyd and Ruth Tumpalan (Filipino artists based in USA), Daniel Bartolome (Awardwinning Music Director), Eisen Soler (Citizen’s Brigade Band of Dasma City), Ernie Severino (Side A), Gian Vergel (UST Conservatory of Music), Jacques and Jose Dufourt (UP College of Music/ Pinikpikan/ Salsamba), John Paul Villahermosa (UP College of Music/ OFY/ Banda 46, Carmona Cavite), Dr. John Wooton (World-renowned Percussionist and Rudimental Drummer), Otep Concepcion (South Border), Julia Tabije (UP College of Music), Junjun Regalado (Bamboo), Jun Regalado (Asia’s Best Drummer), Karmi Santiago (Ebe Dancel/ Baihana/ Richard Poon), Kent Bryan Capistrano (PWU/ OFY/, Banda 5, Cardona, Rizal), Kevin Castelo (Jacobs School of Music Indiana University), Lexter Deo D. Santos (OFY/ CEU/ PWU), Mar Dizon (First Zildjian Philippines Ambassador),

Mariella Evhavez (Classic Youth Orchestra, Cebu City), Maria Elora C. Aquino (Temple Hill International School), Rhonnel Ibañez (OFY/ CEU / Banda Dos Kabataan, Angono Rizal), Ryan Peralta (Drumstart Drum Circles Philippines), Satur Tiamson (Filipino Artist based in Hong Kong/ Angono Wind Ensemble and President of PAS Philippines), Tusa Montes (UP College of Music), Abby Clutario (UP College of Music), Vinnie Aguas (Filipino based in USA), Zara Lachica (UST Conservatory of Music and Secretary and Treasurer of PAS Philippines), Jayson Rivera (Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra), Batukada De Negros Percussion Group, Digos City Tribal Beatz, UST Percussion Ensemble: Mark Eduard Hipona, Gabriel Zagala, Roby Calderon, Allan Abdulla, Isaac Belostrino, Emmanuel John Mahipus, Franco Tantay, Isaac De Alva, Koreen Trinidad, Nicolette Zamora, KKK: Kundiman, Kwentuhan at Katuwaan musicians, Nobel Queano (Guitarist and Arranger- HK Based), Lorraine Lisen (Soprano) and Zscharmaine Princess Baretto (Soprano), Orchestra of the Filipino Youth Percussion Ensemble, and Patrick Jarod Paz (OFY).

A series of workshops will also be offered exclusively to Percussive Arts Society members. Register here: https://www.pas. org/membership/individual-group or contact Mr. Satur Tiamson on Facebook and email at saturnino_tiamson@yahoo.com

Editor: Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

Health&Fitness

Do not neglect thyroid disorders, DOH warns

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

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hyroid disorders still affect a significant segment of Philippine society. A butterfly-shaped gland in the neck, thyroid is just above the collarbone. Thyroid hormones control the body’s metabolism. These include how fast you burn calories and how fast your heart beats.

Thyroid diseases include goiter, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, thyroid cancer and thyroid nodules. These are highly prevalent but neglected diseases in the Philippines.

The Department of Health (DOH) said that non-communicable diseases are not only limited to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, but also include neglected diseases like thyroid disorders relative to iodine deficiency.

“Thyroid disorders are preventable but can lead to the development of diseases like goiter, heart diseases, infertility, and congenital hyperthyroidism if left untreated,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III explained.

Women are more affected

These thyroid diseases affect women disproportionately, with women affected three times as much as men.

According to the 2018 National Nutrition Survey, iodine deficiency still exists among the elderly, lactating mothers and pregnant women.

Likewise, according to the 2012 Philippine Thyroid Diseases Study (PhilTiDes-1), the prevalence of thyroid function abnormalities in the Philippines is prevalent in 8.53 percent among the adult population. The study revealed that almost 1 out of 10 Filipinos is affected by goiter.

People with goiter often have an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland which can lead to the appearance of a mass or swelling in the neck.

The signs and symptoms of goiter can be varied and may include tiredness, a decrease or increase in weight, low or increased appetite, depression, dryness of skin and hair, sleepiness, diarrhea or constipation and menstrual irregularities (for women).

The DOH said that people who experience these symptoms should immediately see a doctor.

Since iodine deficiency is the most common cause of goiter in the Philippines, people are advised to use iodized salts in their meals and to eat food rich in iodine such as dairy products, seafood (shellfish and seaweeds), meats, bread and eggs.

Special attention should be extended to pregnant women because iodine deficiency during this critical period can cause premature birth, miscarriage or delivery of a baby with low intellect.

Data from the same study also showed that almost 1 out of 10 Filipinos is affected by goiter. Thyroid function abnormalities affect around 8 percent of the population, with an estimated 3 percent affected by some form of hypothyroidism, and about 6 percent affected by some form of hyperthyroidism.

Awareness

With this, the DOH joins the rest of the world in observing the International Thyroid Awareness Week (ITAW) and World Thyroid Day (WTD) 2021, with the theme “Mother-Baby-Iodine: The Importance of Iodine on the Woman and her Baby.”

The DOH said that the celebration aims to raise awareness on Iodine Deficiency Disorders in women of reproductive age, especially pregnant and lactating mothers, and on children during their first 1,000 days of life from conception.

According to the DOH, the extent and consequences of iodine deficiency disorders on women of reproductive age, especially pregnant and lactating mothers, are known to affect children during their first 1,000 days of life from conception.

ITAW is observed every 4th week of May of every year, while WTD is observed every May 25th, as declared by the 11th European Congress of Endocrinology in April 2009.

BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 27, 2021 B7

Avoid this silent killer with safe sex practices

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By Rory Visco Contributor

any are familiar with HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, which attacks cells that help the body fight infection.

If untreated, it may result to the more dangerous AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, a condition that leads to the breakdown of the entire system.

And make no mistake about it, once one acquires HIV, a patient has it for life.

However, there is another type of sexually transmitted infection (STI) that is not as popular—or infamous—as HIV, but should likewise be a cause of concern for many people around the world—HPV or human papillomavirus.

Unlike HIV, the human papillomavirus continues to be recognized as the most common sexually transmitted virus globally. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said about 85 percent of people get infected by HPV at one point in their lives.

However, the reason why HPV is not in the radar of many people or is largely unknown, is that HPV in-

fections may go unnoticed because symptoms may appear only after many years. Sadly, even without symptoms, HPV carriers can still spread the virus to others.

A common burden

HPV is a virus that may lead to different diseases including genital warts and cancer. A 2019 study published in the online journal Infectious Disease and Cancer says that genital warts have an overall prevalence of almost 3 percent for Filipino men and women, with a higher prevalence among men.

HPV-related cancers, such as cervical cancer, have also made its way into the population. According to a 2019 study by the HPV Information Center, about 7,190 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in the Philippines.

The same study also revealed that the disease has also taken almost 4,088 lives annually.

And HPV is not just a concern for women but for men as well.

They should also be part of the discussion, according to Dr. Jovanni Templonuevo, Family Medicine and Genito-Urinary Medicine (Venereology) Specialist. He said that in 2018, there were about 43 million HPV infections, mostly among people in their late teens and early 20s.

Most men with HPV may not have any symptoms of infection and unknowingly, they are transferring the virus to their partners. Men can also get genital warts, including penile and anal cancers due to persistent infections.

The most effective solution remains to be practicing safe sex through correct and consistent usage of condoms. “It helps lower the chances of getting and spreading HPV infections, protects your partner and yourself, and give you a healthy and stress-free life,” Dr. Templonuevo said.

Better yet, people should know that HPV is preventable and it cannot harm you and steal your dreams. “All we have to do is to educate ourselves and get vaccinated with the available HPV vaccines that are already available,” he said.

Better than cure

Perhaps the reason why HPV is not as well-known compared to HIV is because of the lack of aware-

ness about the virus, and the lack of education on how to deal with it.

This is why MSD in the Philippines continues to raise awareness about the most common sexually transmitted virus, the HPV, as part of its core advocacy, Guard Against HPV, which advocates taking action as a crucial step in combating HPV in the community.

“The discussion about HPV is often tied to cervical cancer. We have to remember that HPV infections are sexually transmitted,” said Dr. Mary Ann Escalona, Country Medical Lead of MSD in the Philippines.

“By putting HPV back to the conversation on overall health, we can make better decisions that can help protect us and our loved ones from HPV-related diseases.”

“We all have a role to play in the fight against HPV,” Dr. Escalona continued. “As parents, we need to guide our children properly so they know how to be responsible for their health. As spouses and partners, we need to keep ourselves armed with the right information on how we can keep ourselves at the peak of our health, how to avoid infections, and how to prevent spreading diseases. This way, we give each other a chance to thrive without worrying about disease.”

Pap Smear

The Department of Health recommends that women must also

undergo a Pap Smear three years after their first vaginal intercourse, then followed by another Pap Smear test every year for the next three years. If results are negative, the test can be done every two to three years.

HPV vaccination is also available to help provide protection against infections, especially for children starting at nine years old before they become exposed to the virus in later life. Parents can consult their pediatrician to learn more about HPV vaccination for their children.

To reach a wider audience, Guard Against HPV also went digital through several social media and other online platforms and introduced a hand gesture to help raise awareness about HPV. The movement is simple and lets people trace the shape of an awareness ribbon in the air.

“Wearing a ribbon has been traditionally used to show support for a cause. However, with the current situation, we have been limited to the use of digital channels to get in touch with our friends and family—but this won’t mean we can’t continue with our advocacy,” Dr. Escalona explains. “The aim of the ribbon gesture is to reach a wide audience, including the youth so they can know about HPV and understand how they can guard themselves and their loved ones against the disease.”

A new way of washing and cleaning our hands t

here was a time when our childhood days meant playing with our friends and neighbors, either inside the apartment complex or within the community. Those were the days, especially during school breaks, when playing with friends and neighbors meant going out of the house and getting down and dirty (well, most of the time), playing popular Filipino games that did not involve computer or smartphone screens, gadgets that were still a figment of the imagination.

Playing street games back then automatically meant dirtying certain parts of the body, the clothes we wear but primarily, our extremities, our hands, usually. After playing, our moms would often bark at us to clean up, or at the very least, wash our hands after playing for a little semblance of “clean.”

Fast forward to today, specifically March 2020. As soon as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, it changed, or eliminated most, of the things we normally do, how we lived our lives. It changed the perspective of many when it came to “clean,” for the fighting mantra against Covid-19 was cleanliness,

particularly our hands, which may bring the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Covid-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2) to our system. The government reiterated that we should always have clean hands, to wash them if we came into contact with items deemed infected by the virus.

use a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol to clean hands before and after touching our eyes, nose or mouth, touching our face mask, entering and leaving a place, or touching an item/s frequently touched by other people like door knobs or handles, shopping carts, elevator buttons, among others.

How do we clean our hands?

What do we clean our hands with?

Or to be more precise, how and when do we wash our hands? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US continuously reminded the public as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe that “keeping the hands clean is especially important to help prevent the virus from spreading.” Handwashing, the agency says, is one of the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting sick.

There are many key times that were identified as the most likely incidents to acquire or spread germs so better to keep the hands clean through washing. More importantly during the pandemic, the US CDC said preventing germs from spreading meant washing our hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, or

Of course, the default choice would be soap, again by washing our hands, or hand sanitizer or alcohol, which some avoid because they believe using alcohol too frequently will result in dry skin, which is a no-no to those who go to great extent to protect their skin.

But what if there is a handwashing agent that will not only clean our hands but will also give it a “naturally nourishing” feel after using?

Local company Consumer Care Products, Inc. introduced recently Dr. Coco, a brand new and locally made hand soap that hopes to change the way we clean our hands.

According to Consumer Care Products, Inc. General Manager for Food and Personal Care, Star Estacio, they wanted to create a hand soap designed for this “new

normal.” “We believe consumers deserve a hand soap that will not only effectively cleanse but also nourish hands using natural ingredients. We have made handwashing better than ever by creating a soap with multiple benefits that go way beyond just keeping your hands clean.”

This brand of hand soap boasts of ingredients derived from one of the country’s healthiest natural products ­t he coconut, with the rest composed of premium natural materials, no harsh, synthetic, or crude-oil derived ingredients.

Coco ingredients

It is the first and only hand soap in the market made with CocoMCT (medium chain triglycerides), the most essential component of coconut oil, a natural moisturizer, with anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. It is compatible with the natural lipids found in the hands, allowing it to easily penetrate the skin’s surface to pamper the skin.

Thus, hands are clean and naturally nourished after washing.

The efficacy of naturally occurring fatty acids and monoglycerides as antimicrobial has been

extensively studied and presented in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, specific monoglyceride and fatty acid component with most potent activity is found in coconut oil. Being formulated with coconut in the form of soap, Monoglycerides and Triglycerides, Dr. Coco is thus safe and “naturally antimicrobial.”

Meanwhile, the safety and efficacy of coconut oil and its derivative was also evaluated by an expert panel of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), which assesses and reviews the safety of ingredients in cosmetics and publishes the results in peer-reviewed scientific literature. It said the primary function and application of coconut oil and its derivative has been described as skin conditioning active and safe, which means Dr. Coco Natural Hand Soap is “naturally nourishing.”

With the pandemic still raging, think of the soap we use to wash our hands. Perhaps, it is time to ponder and discover how we can change the way we clean and wash our hands and make it better, safer, and healthier, for the sake of our families and of ourselves.

Biocare Lifesciences sustains growth despite pandemic

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By Lito Cinco

he fact that one’s business is in the “essential” category gives the company a better chance of surviving in today’s business environment that is hit by a worldwide pandemic.

To survive and post an impressive growth rate, sustaining prepandemic figures, 20% to 30% in the case of Biocare Lifesciences Inc., is certainly a big achievement. However, according to the company’s Managing Director Dileep Tiwari, an Indian national who opted out of being employed doing the same job and started the health-care distribution business in 2012, “luck is just a small factor, the reasons why we are surviving and doing good these times are hard work, solid research on new products to continuously expand our brands and product lines, a focused approach on marketing,

are doing very well in the market.

“Collectively, we can say we were able to help save many lives because of these drugs, however, because of the surge in cases in India, the export of Remdesivir has been temporarily suspended and limited for Indian use, this has created a problem on our sourcing but we are addressing this and trying to fulfill the demand from other countries like Egypt and Bangladesh,” added Tiwari.

Biocare Lifesciences Inc. Managing Director Dileep Tiwari

and supported by a professional team, coupled with the trust we have earned from government and private hospitals.”

His company was the first to bring in wonder drugs Remdesivir and Favipiravir, both used for specific conditions among Covid-19 patients, and followed this year with Tocilizumab, all of which

Challenging times

It does not mean however that the business is not facing its share of challenges in the current times.

Tiwari pointed out that they had around 38 brands but the sales in some sectors like inhalers have dropped considerably because people are not going out or allowing themselves to be admitted in hospitals unless extremely needed.

He added that they had “some

brands they could not import in small figures based on demand, we have to buy them based on minimum batch size and due to the pandemic and lockdown that followed, some of them expired or reached near expiry before we can dispose of them.”

“However what we do as a service is even before such medicines expire, knowing we will not be able to move them anymore, we try to donate them to different hospitals with their approval so they can be used immediately by doctors, and they appreciate this very much,” Tiwari said who was assigned in South America as country manager until he decided to work on his own with no regrets.

His business, which started with only two staff in a small office in Makati, now employs 20 office staff and 70 field sales personnel scattered all over the country. This, in itself, is a big challenge for the

sales people who used to do personal visits to doctors. However, his sales force is intact and “we continue to hire people but we needed to reduce working hours and started work-from-home programs.

He noted that what is needed in the pharmaceutical industry is to change the perception that quality drugs are only found in Europe. According to Tiwari, he has been sourcing drugs from other countries outside of Europe like Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, India, Korea and Bangladesh.

India, he added, is considered the world’s pharmacy due to its large scale manufacturing capacity, huge investments in research and development, coupled with a robust domestic consumption. India dominates the global generic market, exporting nearly US$20 billion worth of medicines, equivalent to nearly 20% of the global market, including 40% of the generic demand in the United States.

Sports

THE two-shot victory at Kiawah Island would stand as Phil Mickelson’s greatest major. AP

BusinessMirror

B8

TESSA JAZMINES | tessa4347@gmail.com

PART OF THE GAME

| Thursday, May 27, 2021

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

K

IAWAH ISLAND, South Carolina— Among the congratulations that poured in for Phil Mickelson becoming the oldest major champion in golf was a video tweet from Jack Nicklaus, who is still good at math.

“You know, something sort of strikes me that 50 years old is older than 46,” Nicklaus said with a grin.

“Well done, my friend. Many more.”

Many more? At age 50?

Mickelson plays a game with which Nicklaus might not be familiar, even though the most iconic of his 18 majors was Nicklaus winning the Masters at age 46.

During an interview at the end of 2016, Nicklaus said that sixth green jacket “was an accident in many ways.” He started to scale back his schedule after winning two majors in 1980. He won twice more before the 1986 Masters, but he really wasn’t playing much golf.

“It’s really difficult when you’ve had as much success as I had over a long period of time to charge your batteries, day after day, and go back out and say, ‘Man, I want to do this again,’” Nicklaus said.

That’s where Mickelson stands alone.

The list of 24 players who have reached No. 1 since the world ranking began in 1986 does not include Mickelson, who is more accomplished than all but one of them. He has never won a PGA Tour money title. He has never been PGA Tour player of the year. He is not among the most elite group in golf with the career Grand Slam.

Only one of those can change.

And even in the glow of his twoshot victory at Kiawah Island to win the PGA Championship, adding the US Open still seems like a long shot.

That would stand as his great-

PHIL’S LEGACY: LONGEVITY

est major. It might even top Tiger Woods winning the Masters after overcoming four back surgeries that left him wondering if he could ever play again.

What won’t change regardless of what Lefty does next is his legacy of longevity. It doesn’t sound all that sensational. But it is.

Never mind Mickelson becoming the oldest player to win a major, breaking a record that had stood for 53 years.

Mickelson set another record Sunday as the first player in PGA Tour history to go 30 years between victories. He won his first when he was a junior at Arizona State. He won his 45th when his daughter was a senior at Brown.

“He’s been on tour as long as

I’ve been alive,” Jon Rahm said.

“For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, even when it hasn’t been working, it’s truly admirable.”

From his first full season on the PGA Tour, Mickelson never finished lower than 60th on the money list.

That was last year, at age 49, during a season disrupted by the pandemic.

He made the Tour Championship 19 of his first 20 full seasons, the exception in 2003 when his wife went through a scary and troublesome pregnancy that ended well with their third child.

As for team competitions, Mickelson played his first Presidents Cup in 1994 and was part of every US team until the last one in 2019 at Royal Melbourne. He

hasn’t missed a Ryder Cup since his 3-0 debut at Oak Hill in 1995.

Whether he’s at Whistling Straits in September is to be determined.

The last American to win a major and be left off the Ryder Cup team was Todd Hamilton, the British Open winner in 2004. The last American major winner left off any team was Keegan Bradley, who won the PGA Championship as a rookie in 2011. The final pick for the Presidents Cup went to Bill Haas, the FedEx Cup champion.

Neither was named Phil Mickelson.

Most remarkable about his longevity is that he kept working harder even as progress was difficult to see. AP

BCDA assures strict protocols during Fiba Asia Cup tourney

BASES Conversion and Development Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Vince Dizon is confident of a successful hosting of the event.

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HE Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has assured that strict health protocols will be implemented to ensure the safety of more than 600 local

and foreign players, coaches and tournament staff during the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia Cup Qualifiers to be held in Clark next month.

BCDA President and Chief Executive Officer Vince Dizon said the BCDA and its subsidiary Clark Development Corp. (CDC), in coordination with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), the national government and the local governments of Pampanga and Angeles City, are doing the necessary preparations to provide a safe sports bubble environment for the nine participating teams.

“Hosting the PBA [Philippine Basketball Association] bubble in Clark last year gave BCDA and CDC the experience of mounting sporting events in the face of Covid-19,” Dizon said.

“This time, with the arrival of foreign teams for the Fiba Asia

Cup, BCDA and CDC will step up to the challenge and leave no stone unturned. Health and safety measures will be strictly enforced to protect all athletes and staff, and to eliminate the possibility of spreading the virus.”

Dizon is also deputy chief implementer of the Philippines’s pandemic response.

In coordination with Fiba, organizers will implement the Philippine Sports Commission, Games and Amusements Board and Department of Health’s Joint Administrative Order on Physical Activities and Sports During the Covid-19 pandemic.

The movement of players, coaches and staff will be limited to within the airport, hotels and the Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center where the tournament will be held.

The designated hotels are Quest Hotel and Conference Center in Mimosa and Lohas Hotel in Redwood Villas, both in

the Clark Freeport Zone.

While the games are slated for June 16 to 20, the 200 foreign delegates from eight countries and territories are scheduled to arrive on June 13.

They will be quarantined the next day, then practices will be held on June 15. Visiting teams will depart on June 21.

They are required to take RT-PCR tests 12 days, seven days and two days before departure to the Philippines. They must also secure RT-PCR tests on the day of arrival, four days after arrival, and before departure if required by the country of destination.

A total of 617 participants are expected to be included in the bubble. Besides the foreign teams, included in the Clark event are the Gilas Pilipinas team, Fiba and SBP personnel, as well as hotel, transport and ancillary staff. Also in the bubble are staff from TV5, PLDT and Smart, who are official partners with Fiba.

‘PINOY SAKURAGI’ TO ‘POULTRY KING’ J

By Josef Ramos

EAN MARC PINGRIS remains at the top of his game and at 39 years old, still packs a lot of power and skills in his 6-foot-4 muscular frame grizzled from a promising high school and collegiate career and an explosive act not only in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) but also in the national team program.

Until retirement beckoned the proud son of Pozorrubio in Pangasinan after a 16-year PBA career.

“I decided to retire to give way to the young players,” Pingris told BusinessMirror on Wednesday, the morning after he announced his decision to hang his No. 15 jersey with Magnolia.

“I am so thankful to the San Miguel Corp. and Magnolia for their all-out support,” he said.

Pingris was quick to declare he can still stand the banging and pounding from younger players,

but opted to walk down the lane toward a full-time family life.

“If you’ll ask me, I can still play, I am in a good condition even during the pandemic,” he said. “It has nothing to do with injuries, but the time has come [to retire]. I want to focus on my businesses.”

“I have nothing to prove anymore. I already enjoyed my PBA ride,” he added.

Speaking of Magnolia, the “Pinoy Sakuragi” is bound to spend most of his time in Santa Cruz, Nueva Ecija, to tend to his poultry farm that rests on an eight-hectare property he invested on from his playing career.

The poultry is large in scale. Do the math—36,000 poultry heads in each of the 640 chicken houses.

That’s huge.

And where do all these chicken go? Where else but to Magnolia— his team for the last 11 years— where they will become the “Pambansang Manok” on every family’s

Let The Games what?

dining table.

Pingris was drafted third overall by defunct Air21 (then FedEx Express) on 2004 behind No. 1 Rich Alvarez (Shell) and James Yap (Purefoods). Before that, he played for Philippine School of Business Administration and later on the national team under Boyzie Zamar.

His strong presence in the middle and a work ethic on defense that compares him to a raging bull in fighting for those rebounds and blocking shots earned him a spot on Chot Reyes’s Gilas Pilipinas team that broke the South Korean jinx in the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship.

Pingris was in tears—and practically everyone else on the team—after that historic 86-79 victory over the Koreans that sent the Philippines to a return act to the World Cup in Spain.

“My Gilas stint in 2013 is one of the most memorable experiences in my basketball career, besides my first PBA championship with Pure-

foods in 2005 and the notable 2013 grand slam with Magnolia under former coach Tim Cone,” he said.

Pingris’s social media post on his retirement was his basketball career in a nutshell. He thanked practically everyone that made him the Pingris of Philippine basketball—Air21 owner Bert Lina, Zamar, Johnny Tam, Leo Austria, Siot Tanquingcen, Ryan Gregorio, Reyes, Jorge Gallent, Cone, Jason Webb and Chito Victolero.

Also on his honor roll were his teammates, members of the coaching staff, utilities, Doc Raffy, Nick, RC, Jojo Peralta and Reena Dimaculangan.

The list went on with Purefoods team manager Alvin Patrimonio, long-time governor Rene Pardo and SMC bosses the late Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Ramon S. Ang, Alfrancis Chua and Butch Alejo. He also thanked long-time manager Ed Ponceja.

Pingris won’t go easy into

HAMLET would have been so at home with the Tokyo Summer Olympics situation. “To be or not to be,” is that the question?

From the looks of it, the Summer Olympics will push through as scheduled on July 23, with the preceding event, the Torch Relay, already well on its way across the various prefectures in Japan. It is in Kyoto on the way to Shiga, as we speak.

Most onlookers would call it a hardheaded move. Over 80 percent in Japan are against pushing through with The Games which had already been postponed by the pandemic outbreak last year. The coronavirus is still giving everyone there the heebie jeebies as Japan contends with a fourth wave of infections.

The numbers show that 43 percent of respondents in an Asahi Shimbun poll want the Games cancelled, while a smaller number (40 percent) want to postpone it some more. Only 14 percent want the Games to go on, foremost of which are the organizers, who have used the slogan “Hope Lights Our Way” for the Torch Relay.

Let’s not forget that Japan lobbied to host the 2020 Summer Olympics after a devastating earthquake, a tsunami and the nuclear disaster of Fukushima in 2011. It wanted to use The Games as a symbol of hope and reconstruction. But alas, nobody saw Covid-19 coming. And even as the world is one with Japan in its efforts to inspire themselves and the rest of us with an undying belief in brightness, the reality of this pandemic is just too much to ignore.

“Take a look at a current coronavirus map of the world. It is still ablaze in reds and bright oranges and not just in ravaged India. Parts of Europe, much of South America—all still awash in the virus. All of those countries are planning to send teams to the Olympics.

“Japan, like many island nations, has done a relatively good job of controlling its borders and the virus. Scroll down the list of countries by cases and deaths and it takes a while before you get to Japan. That’s good. But scroll down the list of countries by vaccination rate and Japan is also near the bottom. That’s bad.

“Japan has a long and complicated history with vaccinations and a low degree of ‘vaccine confidence.’ Back in the early 1990s, a supposed link between the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and a higher rate of aseptic meningitis led to the government not recommending the shot, which is a basic vaccination in the United States and much of the world. The Japanese government also doesn’t recommend the HPV vaccine, designed to prevent cervical cancer in women.

Combine that vaccine hesitancy with Japan’s conservative approach to regulatory approval of vaccinations, a factor in the country’s slow trajectory to approving and procuring Covid-19 vaccines, and the result is many barriers to getting shots into arms.

Which is not good for a nation scheduled to host the first global event of the pandemic,” said former Philippine Sports Commission chairman Aparicio Mequi in a Facebook post.

So why will the Tokyo Summer Olympics still push through? More than national pride and the desire of athletes themselves to compete and put what they’ve trained for out there, the pragmatic reason ‘tis said, is money. The Olympic preparations has already cost Japan an unprecedented $15.4 billion, $3 billion more than planned because of the pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee, which is pushing for the Games, needs to recoup its costs as well. Sustained largely by selling broadcast rights, the IOC will lose even much more than Japan if the Olympics are canceled. The current crisis is such that bidders for future Olympic Games are not as enthusiastic as before. Well, no thanks to the overall uncertainty brought about by the pandemic fallout.

Which is why the IOC has cut out the exciting bidding process and the dramatic announcement of who will host future Games by declaring outright that Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Los Angeles will be it in 2028.

Brisbane, Australia has also been picked to host the 2032 Games.

Olympic organizers led by Seiko Hashimoto say the Olympics has a responsibility “to build a legacy for the future society.” We are sad to lose this special opportunity to welcome so many visitors to Tokyo. But we are looking forward to bringing people together in new ways, as we develop initiatives to share support from around the world and connect with one another virtually.

“The Tokyo Games motto is “United by Emotion.” This is now truer than ever. Together we have faced this crisis. Together we have fought to overcome it. Together the world’s athletes will compete for glory. Together we will watch them strive to deliver the performance of a lifetime. And together, their strength and resilience will inspire us, as this year’s competition showcases the very essence of the Olympics and Paralympics: a celebration of peace, of potential and of humanity.

“Wherever you are this summer, I hope you will join us as we make the Tokyo Games a light of hope: the light near the end of the darkness.”

“Sure, Japan already has spent an enormous amount of money on the Olympics. But if the pandemic should have taught us anything, it is that you can’t place economic priorities ahead of health. That strategy backfires.

The protocols for the Games will be restrictive and much of it will be ‘bubbled.’ But there will not be requirements for athletes and other participants to be vaccinated.

How could there be, considering the scarcity of vaccines in many participating countries, including the host?” notes Dr. Mequi.

Paul Newberry of the Associated Press in his column titled “The Olympics Will Go On But In Name Only” says it succinctly: “Sadly, no matter how the IOC tries to spin it, everyone in the Pandemic Games will be walking on eggshells until the flame is extinguished on August 8. Only then can the celebration really begin. Or, more likely, nothing more than a giant sigh of relief.”

retirement with celebrity wife Danica and their 12-year-old son Jean Michael and nine-year-old daughter Anielle Micaela.

“I also see myself doing travel vlogs and coaching big men in the PBA,” he said. “I am thinking of

travelling around the entire Philippine archipelago.”

How about a career in showbusiness, join his father-in-law Vic Sotto in the longest-running Filipino noon time show “Eat Bulaga?”

“I don’t think so,” he said.

JEAN MARC PINGRIS will be spending more time with his wife Danica, son Jean Michael and Anielle Micaela.