BusinessMirror October 04, 2021

End-Aug NG borrowings dip to ₧2.39T G ROSS borrowings by the national government as of August settled at P2.39 trillion, slightly lower than the same period last year.

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed gross borrowings dipping by 3.3 percent from P2.47 trillion recorded a year ago as the government borrowed less from both domestic and foreign sources.

Gross domestic borrowings fell to P1.93 trillion during the eightmonth period from last year’s P1.96 trillion.

Almost half of the gross domestic borrowings as of August this year or P911.86 billion was raised through Treasury Bonds.

MREIT, Inc., the REIT company of Megaworld, debuts on the Philippine Stock Exchange on October 1 with a symbolic bell-ringing for its listing in four locations. Leading the rites at PSE were PSE AVP and Head of Issuer Regulation Division Marigel B. Garcia, MREIT, Inc. President and CEO Kevin Andrew L. Tan, Megaworld Chairman and CEO Dr. Andrew L. Tan, Finance Sec. Carlos G. Dominguez III, PSE President-CEO Ramon S. Monzon, and PSE SVP-COO Atty. Roel Refran. Story on page B1.

This is followed by the short-term borrowings from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which stood at P540 billion and Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) at P463.32 billion.

Likewise, the government’s gross foreign borrowings dropped by 10 percent to P458.5 billion from P509.7 billion.

Global bonds cornered the biggest share of the total, accounting for P146.17 billion, followed by Euro Bonds (P121.97 billion), and program loans (P99.69 billion).

For the month of August, the gover nment ’s g ross bor rowings only amounted to P117.74 bil lion this year, plung ing by 80.79 percent f rom P612.91

bil lion in the same month in 2020.

The huge decline may be attributed to lower gross domestic borrowings which stood at P100.97 billion, an 82.7-percent dive from P584.37 billion in August 2020.

Unlike this year, the government offered Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) in August last year which enabled it to borrow a total of P516.34 billion.

On the other hand, gross foreign borrowings in August this year also went down by 41.2 percent year-on-year to P16.77 billion from P28.54 billion.

The national government programmed to borrow a total of P3.1

trillion this year, most of which is expected to be raised through domestic sources.

As of end-August this year, the national government’s outstanding debt has hit a new record high of P11.64 trillion, up by more than a fifth from P9.62 trillion a year ago.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III earlier said the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise to 59.1 percent this year and peak next year at 60.8 percent—slightly above the internationally accepted threshold—before gradually tapering off to 60.7 percent and 59.7 percent in 2023 and 2024.

Bernadette D. Nicolas

RETAIL DOLLAR BONDS w

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Monday, October 4, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 355

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 18 pages |

SALE NETS $1.6B FOR PHL ‘VACCINE-CENTRIC TACK IN COVID MUST GO WITH TESTING, TREATMENTS’

By Cai U. Ordinario

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THE Makati skyline is seen from the Pacific Star building view deck in this recent photo, evoking hope of a recovery despite the pandemic. The Philippine government has received a boost from its usual lifesavers, the overseas Filipinos, who actively participated in the maiden sale of Retail Dollar Bonds (RDBs), which drew US$1.593 billion (about P80.8 billion), almost four times bigger than the initial target. BERNARD TESTA

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

HE Philippine government raised a total of US$1.593 billion (about P80.8 billion) from its maiden sale of Retail Dollar Bonds (RDBs), almost four times bigger than its initial target.

See “Retail dollars,” A2

@caiordinario

HE gover nment ’s response to the pandemic may be “too vaccine-centric” and should be replaced with a more holistic approach, including serious focus on mass testing and supporting therapeutics, according to a former head of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

In an e-mail, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo L. Neri told BusinessMirror that the concerns raised

by Neda Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua on the impact of the pandemic on the economy in the next 40 years are valid.

These concerns should be met with a more holistic approach and be treated as an opportunity to build new foundations for the Philippine economy.

“Our approach is too vaccinecentric which, while useful, cannot be the main measure, as seen in the high infection rates in US and

Israel, even much higher infection rates per million population than the Philippines,” Neri said.

“We should see this crisis as an opportunity to reform our economy and society to make it more socially and environmentally responsible as advocated by the World Economic Forum [WEF] in their Great Reset advocacy,” he added.

Neri said a holistic approach to manage the crisis is to include quick and low-cost mass testing in the country as well as the endorsement of therapeutics.

These therapeutics, he said, include the use of Ivermectin, VCO (virgin coconut oil), and other nasal sprays to help control infections and transmission, among others.

Neri said Chua’s recent estimates should prompt top officials in the government to consider the damage that lockdowns have inflicted on the economy.

Continued on A7

‘Turn down music, stop virus from spreading’

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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URN down the music.

That’s one of the health and safety rules issued by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Tourism (DOT) so food establishments can help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

R est au r a nt m a n a ge me nt must, “Ensure that music volume is kept to a minimum to discourage loud talking, which increases the likelihood of droplet transmission.” They must also “remind customers that face masks may only be removed while eating or drining.” Play areas and playgrounds are likewise prohibited on the restaurant premises.

The rules are contained in the agencies’ joint memorandum circular no. 21-02, signed on September 28, 2021, by Trade Sec ret a r y R a mon L opez a nd Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat. The health and safety guidelines cover food establishments such as restaurants, commissaries, cafeterias, cafes, lunchrooms, bistros, fast-food

establ ishments, food cour ts, buffets, eateries, retail bakeries, mobile food trucks, and dining areas in hotels.

This developed as the InterAgency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) expanded the dining capacities of Metro Manila restaurants.

See “Turn down music,” A2

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.8790 n JAPAN 0.4572 n UK 68.5595 n HK 6.5350 n CHINA 7.8620 n SINGAPORE 37.4772 n AUSTRALIA 36.7703 n EU 58.9382 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5666 Source:BSP(October1,2021)

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, October 4, 2021

‘Plantitos,’ online sellers behind employment growth

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@caiordinario

LANTITOS and plantitas as well as online sellers swelled the number of employed workers in August, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA said agriculture and forestry, which posted the highest increase in employment may have been due to gainful activities fueled

by Filipinos’ new-found hobby of growing ornamental plants.

Online sellers and unpaid family workers, meanwhile, increased the number of workers in the wholesale retail sector.

“Agriculture and forestry includes growing of food and nonfood crops [such as ornamental plants], livestock and poultry production and animal products, hunting and trapping of animals and related support activities,” PSA told BusinessMirror in an e-mail.

“Since the pandemic started, there were emerging businesses or gainful activity related to growing of

crops and ornamental plants [plantita or plantito],” it added.

Based on the data, the highest increase in the growth of employment in the Agriculture sector was between April 2020 and July 2020 when jobs increased by 2.09 million to 9.75 million.

This was followed by August 2021 when there was an increase of 1.78 million to 9.85 million and October 2005, when there was an increase of 1.065 million to 10.595 million workers.

In terms of employed workers in the Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles Industry, PSA data showed there were 9.5 million employed in the sector.

However, more than half or 4.85

Turn down music...

More dining capacity

AS per IATF Resolution No. 141

Continued from A1

dated September 30, 2021, indoor dining services of restaurants have

million were self-employed workers without any paid employees. The number of these workers also increased by 455,000 from the 4.395 million in July 2021.

“Increase in the number of employed in the Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles industry from July 2021 to August 2021 can be attributed to the increase in self-employed without any paid employee and worked without pay in own family operated farm or business, these classes of worker are the proxy indicators for informal,” PSA said.

The increase in the number of workers without pay in their own family farm or business also posted an increase of 577,000 to 1.099 million in August 2021 from 543,000 in July 2021.

In contrast, wage and salary workers declined by 20,000 to 3.193 million in August 2021 from 3.213 million in July 2021.

Employers in their own family-operated farm or business remained unchanged at 361,000 in July and August 2021.

Services dominate

ON Friday, PSA said the services been increased to 20 percent of their indoor seating capacity for fully vaccinated individuals. Establishments granted a Safety Seal Certificate by the government, may increase their indoor dining with an

sector consistently dominated the employment hub, or 56 percent of the total employed persons in August 2021. The agriculture and industry sectors contributed 25.1 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively.

The top five industries with the largest increase in number of jobs were Agriculture and Forestry with an addition of 1.78 million jobs to 9.85 million in August from 8.07 million in July.

PSA data listed other sectors posting the highest increase in employment: wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles which generated an additional 992,000 jobs, amid ECQ; manufacturing, 169,000; other service activities, 148,000; and fishing and aquaculture, 128,000.

Industries that lost the most jobs in August were led by education, with 238,000 jobs lost. This brought down employment in the sector to 1.18 million in August from 1.42 million in July 2021.

This was followed by Administrative and support service activities with 183,000 jobs lost; Professional, scientific and technical activities, 110,000; construction, 85,000; and Human health and social work activities, 83,000. additional 10 percentage points, or for a total of 30 percent of seating capacity.

For al fresco or outdoor dining, restaurants can continue to offer 30 percent of their outdoor seating capacity. If they have a Safety Seal from the government, they also can increase their seating an additional 10 percentage points, or a total of 40 percent of their outdoor seating space.

“It is worth noting that the IATF backed the proposal for expanded dining capacity as 99 percent of tourism workers employed in DOTaccredited hotels and restaurants in Metro Manila have been inoculated against Covid-19,” said Romulo Puyat in a news statement.

She urged the dining public to patronize DOT-accredited establishments as the latter’s employees have already been vaccinated. “The operations of these restaurants are strictly monitored by the Department to ensure they strictly observe health and safety protocols,” she added.

Other guidelines

AS in previous dining guidelines, clear dividers are needed on tables in indoor dining setups. Restaurants must also ensure “adequate air exchange” via open windows, use of fans to improve air flow, installation and regular maintenance of air filtration devices, etc.

Restaurants also have to install hand-washing stations with hand soap or 70 percent isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, hands-free trash receptacles, implement a chair distance of 1 meter apart, have a screening area at entrances, use StaySafe app or any municipal app integrated with it, and ask guests to present their vaccination card for indoor dining. Buffet services are still to be managed where waitstaff will serve food to diners.

Households can dine together at one table, “provided they show proof of the same address,” and provided their table is kept a one-meter distance from other guests’ tables.

“Food establishments that fail to comply with the mandatory requirements will be given a warning and shall be endorsed to the local government unit health office.” After the warning, if food establishments are still noncompliant, they may be closed down in keeping with LGU rules and regulations. Reopening shall only be allowed when the establishments comply with health and safety regulations.

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BM’s RECTO MERCENE SOARS TO THE SKY WITH NO LIMITS Continued from A10

While protocols bar night flights especially in bad weather, the officer in command decided to continue, after estimating that waiting for daybreak would be too late for the shivering folk who must be plucked from rooftops while lahar flows continued to swell.

Only someone with Recto’s intimate knowledge of aviation could have described in such precise detail the many d i f f ic u lt m a neuvers t a ken by the courageous soldiers.

Shortly after that account was published in TODAY, then P r e s i d e nt F i d e l V. R a mo s handed out medals and recognition to over a dozen men and women who played a role in the heart-stopping drama.

While he liked covering reallife dramas, Recto was a man of great humor, as his Facebook posts indicate. In 2019, he made like an adversary of Bruce Lee, who got a kick in the chin, as he gamely posed at a wax museum. “Hetong bagay sayo!!! me pa-pose pose ka pa k tiger woods,” wrote Recto on his FB caption, giving the martial arts star a make-believe spiel.

Knowledge, passion, empathy

RECTO wrote well because he knew his stuff. He wrote with passion, because he deeply appreciated the life and work of people he covered—be they aviation employees from pilots to technical crew to air control personnel; to diplomats in the line of fire in conflict areas; or soldiers doing rescue; or even ordinary employees doing indispensable stuff in airports but are often overlooked or whose pay or benefits get stalled.

Recto was rushed to Asian Medical Center on September 7, after falling at home and bumping his head.

He was confined, with a subarachnoid hemorrhage; and no Covid or pneumonia. But doctors kept him confined because of recurring fever, and some troubling indicators. He underwent a battery of tests, and after two weeks, they finally told his family, his bone marrow tests showed cancer spreading—in advanced stage.

Doctors committed to prepare him for palliative care at home, so he can be rested, be happier in surroundings dear to him, like the bonsai he had carefully nurtured for decades.

However, though he was stable, doctors could not immediately release him from hospital. At3pm Saturday, October 2, Recto passed on, quietly in his sleep. No struggle, no pain. In the words of Monty Python which he loved to watch, “He’s passed on, gone to meet his Maker, bereft of life, he rests in peace, pushing up the daisies, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.”

The man who spent nearly six decades soaring and roaming, in various incarnations of a travele—first, as private pilot and air traffic controller, then as aviation reporter and photojournalist, and then as diplomatic and foreign affairs reporter—has gone on to the sky with no limits, where air traffic needs no controls and airplanes never have to take off or land.

Fly high, idol, legend, role model for young journalists, friend of thousands, and advocate for ordinary folk—you are Philippine journalism’s irreplaceable treasure.

Retail dollars...

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon reported to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III that Filipinos from more than 30 countries, including the Cayman Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Cyprus participated in the government’s latest offering with five-year and 10-year tenors.

“We saw a total of 520 transactions through our digital channels, for a total of USD 809,200, translating to an average placement of around USD 1,500 per online/mobile transaction. Of this volume of digital placements, roughly 40 percent or USD 329,400 are PesoClear placements,” De Leon said.

Of the total amount raised from RDBs, more than half or $866.2 million was already raised during the rate-setting auction on September 15. The 5-year and 10-year tenors fetched coupon rates of 1.375 percent and 2.25 percent, respectively.

Proceeds from the sale of RDBs will be used to fund the government’s Covid-19 recovery and resilience programs. At a minimum placement of just $300 (P15,000), the RDBs are seen to be far more accessible than the traditional US dollar-denominated global bonds

Continued from A1

issued by the Philippine government which require a minimum subscription of $200,000.

Apart from the minimum investment of $300, the Treasury said investors will get to enjoy full coupon payments as the final withholding tax on interest to be assumed by the Philippine government. On top of relatively higher returns, RDBs are expected to attract US dollar earners as the structure mitigates foreign exchange risk on the part of investors by maintaining the original currency of their investment.

The Treasury said investors can choose whether to do a straight USD placement or through PesoClear, wherein cash flows in RDBs are paid and received by an investor in PHP with the currency conversions done by the selling agent bank.

The national government programmed to borrow a total of P3.1 trillion this year, most of which is expected to be raised through domestic sources.

As of end-August this year, the national government’s outstanding debt has hit a new record high of P11.64 trillion, up by more than a fifth from P9.62 trillion a year ago.

Biz, sectoral groups...

Thus, the groups urged “all parties to pursue and cooperate with this investigation to the fullest extent allowed by law.”

The groups urged “lawmakers, members of the Executive department, constitutional commissions and, if they are brought in, members of the judiciary to conduct their proceedings with integrity, transparency, and respect, and in compliance with our laws and established procedures.”

The signatories were: Bishops-

Continued from A10

Businessmen’s Conference, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Investment Houses Association of the Philippines, Judicial Reform Initiative, Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Ateneo de Naga University, Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, De La Salle University, De La Salle Philippines.

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Immigration bureau reshuffles more than 300 airport officers

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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HE Bureau of Immigration has reshuffled more than 300 officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as part of its continuing measures to address corruption activities among its personnel.

The 341 BI personnel have been given new terminal assignments starting Sunday following the approval of the rotation scheme by BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente.

The BI said the reshuffle also affected 77 immigration supervisors assigned at the airport.

The rotation of the BI personnel would be the last for this year as the next reshuffle will be implemented in the first quarter of 2022, according to BI Acting Port Operations Chief Carlos B. Capulong.

Lawyer Capulong noted that the number of BI personnel reshuffled last October 3 excluded the 99 newly-hired immigration inspectors undergoing on-the-job training at the airport.

Earlier, Morente announced that the bureau is fast-tracking the recruitment of nearly 200 new BI officers who will be deployed to the NAIA and other major ports early next year.

The BI chief said the agency would need more inspectors in light of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) plan to raise the daily cap on passenger arrivals and reopen other airports to international travel.

Morente added he is hopeful international travel will normalize early 2022 in light of the government’s vaccination program, which is expected to pave the way for herd immunity against Covid-19.

Lawmaker sees Mayor Duterte gunning for presidency after father airs decision

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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OUSE Deputy Speaker Bernadette HerreraDy said she hopes Sara Duterte-Carpio, President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, will change her decision to run for presidency in the coming national elections instead of running for the third and final term as Davao City mayor.

Herrera-Dy echoed a group’s statement after her father retracted statements he plans to run for vice president. The chief executive’s decision paves the way for the mayor to seek the highest post of the land, the Hugpong para kay Sara (HPS) group said last Sunday.

According to the Commission on Elections, substitution of candidates shall still be allowed until November 15.

Mayor Duterte-Carpio filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for reelection as Davao City mayor last Saturday.

The president has announced he is retiring from politics “in obedience to the will of the people, who placed him in the presidency many years ago.”

But the Palace said President Duterte would pro-actively campaign for his candidates and make sure that the conduct of the coming 2022 elections would be “free, honest, peaceful and credible.”

The president and his daughter agreed earlier that only one Duterte should run for the national post in the May 2022 elections.

Herrera-Dy said results of a survey shows that majority of the Filipino people still prefer Mayor Sara to be the next president for the next six years “despite her reluctance to seek presidency.”

Duterte’s daughter continues to lead the latest Pulse Asia Survey for the preferred presidential candidates for the May 2022 national elections.

The survey conducted from the Sept 6-11 2021 showed 20 percent of the respondents prefer Duterte as their first choice to be their presidential candidate, followed by Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. with 15 percent and Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso aka Isko Moreno with 13 percent.

Herrera-Dy claims the number of HPS supporters and chapters continues to swell since September. She added that more than 20,000 HPS members had pledged their loyalty to persuade Mayor Duterte to throw her hat into the presidential derby in 2022.

“Sara’s reluctance to run means she has discernment—a process that includes silence, good counsel and the ability to listen to the voice of the people,” Herrera-Dy said.

e-Governance law’s passage seen hastening digitalization

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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SENIOR lawmaker has said Congress could help fasttrack the national government’s digitalization tack by approving the e-governance law, which will facilitate contactless transactions and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of basic services.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. emphasized President Rodrigo Duterte en-

dorsed his proposed e-governance law during the Chief Executive’s last State of the Nation Address (Sona) in July. He added the bill also earned the support of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta).

The e-governance bill, which mandates the establishment of an integrated, interconnected and interoperable information and resource-sharing and communications-network spanning the entirety of the national and local governments, secured the Lower Chamber’s

@reneacostaBM

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HE Philippine Nav y announced the grounding of all its AW-109 helicopters following an accident in Isabela involving one of the choppers where a pilot was slightly injured.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Adeluis Bordado said last Sunday that all five AW-109s have been grounded pending the results of the investigation into the mishap involving one of the helicopters.

However, Bordado refused to

comment further on the incident, the investigation of which is being conducted with the help of the helicopter manufacturer.

The five AgustaWestland helicopters were acquired a couple of years ago by the Navy for a variety of missions, including maritime surveillance, search-and-rescue and maritime security.

A statement released by Navy Spokesman Cdr. Benjo F. Negranza said the involved AW-109 helicopter figured in a mishap at around 2 a.m. on September 26 in Lal-lo, Cagayan.

“The incident happened when the

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waste production by exploring reusable and returnable packaging and incentives for both buyers and sellers who purchase online,” Kurit-Lagting Cofounder Allan Abrigo was quoted in a statement as saying.

“We also need our policymakers and local government units to promote genuine solutions to curb plastic pro-

fuerte wants to establish a contactless, electronic-based system of services in all government offices and state-run corporations to do away with paper-based official transactions and physical queuing in government offices as a highly-contagious and lethal pathogen remains a threat.

He said the Philippines needs to speed up its digital shift, especially with the predominance of online transactions and electronic payments, as well as the use of the Internet to access information.

PHOTOS show the story titled “Becoming 30 at 12” that garnered for BusinessMirror Reporter Cai U. Ordinario (right photo) honors from the Philippine Statistics Authority. PHOTOS BusinessMirror

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HE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recognized one of BusinessMirror’s reporters during the 10th National Statistics Month (NSM) Media Awards.

Cai U. Ordinario, BusinessMirror’s Macroeconomy reporter, was bestowed the “Best Statistical Reporting in Print Media” award by the PSA last Friday.

This is not the first time the PSA has cited Ordinario for excellence in Statistics Reporting. In 2019, together with fellow BusinessMirror reporter Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas, she also won the “Best Statistical Reporting in Print Media” and in 2013 for “Best Online Reporting” for a story she wrote for Rappler.com.

“This award aims to recognize the significant role and contribution of media in promoting and popularizing official statistical information by way of featuring data/statistics and other products and services from the Philippine Statistical System,” the PSA said in a recent statement.

Ordinario’s winning article titled “Becoming 30 at 12,” published in 18 October 2020 for BusinessMirror’s weekend edition, talked about teen pregnancy (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/10/18/ becoming-30-at-12/) The article noted that based on the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 9 percent of women age 15 to 19 are pregnant with their first child or are already mothers; a decline from 10 percent incidence in 2013.

Further, births to mothers aged 10 to 14 years were sired by fathers twice or even three times their age.

Based on the data shared by the Popcom (Commission on Population and Development), an 11-year-old even gave birth to a child sired by a 52 year old.

Apart from Ordinario, other awardees in the 10th NSM Media Awards were Ralf Rivas of Rappler for “Best Statistical Reporting in Online Media” and Lois Calderon of CNN Philippines for “Best Sta-

aircraft was attempting to land on its designated station after it returned from conducting a mission in support of Northern Luzon Command’s Internal Security Operations,” Negranza was quoted in the statement as saying.

“The pilots and crew sustained very minor injuries and only stayed in the medical facility as a matter of medical procedure,” he added.

However, as Bordado clarified, only one of the two pilots has sustained a minor abrasion. The chopper has two pilots and two crews.

Reports said that the chopper, barely three feet from the ground,

“tilted” as it attempted to land.

This is the fourth mishap involving military aircraft in 10 months.

The first one involved a Huey helicopter by the Philippine Air Force that crashed in Samar early this year.

An Air Force Blackhawk helicopter also crashed in Tarlac while on a night proficiency training during the middle part of this year, killing its pilots and crews.

In August, an Air Force C-130 plane went down while attempting to land in Sulu, killing 50 soldiers and injuring 46 others. Three civilians who lived near the crash site were also killed.

Bicol artists renew call for transparency on plastic packaging waste ICOL-BASEDgroupKurit-Lagting Art Collective renewed calls for a clean and green environment by breaking free from plastic during an exclusive online discussion on artmaking and zero waste lifestyle amidst Covid-19.

“As artists, we are calling for transparency on plastic packaging waste in our communities and to reduce current

nod last year. The bill remains pending in the Senate.

Villafuerte said the proposed law is part of his troika of legislative initiatives designed to further accelerate the Philippines’s digital switch.

The lawmaker explained that the use of technology-driven tools will provide the country with new opportunities for growth “and make our economy more inclusive, especially for millions of Filipinos in the countryside.”

Through e-governance, Villa-

PHL Statistics Authority honors BusinessMirror’s Cai Ordinario

Navy grounds all five helicopters after crash of AW-109 in Isabela

By Rene Acosta

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, October 4, 2021 A3

duction and consumption and should not promote dirty solutions such as incineration and thermal treatment,” Geri Matthew Carretero, the group’s art director, added.

Theartgroupsaidithasbeenleadinga series of webinars, trainings, workshops, music production and exhibits as their contribution to the worldwide environ-

mental preservation efforts.

One of the recent projects of the collective is a collaborative mural initiative titled “Bloom in the New Normal” with YES-O (youth for environment in school organization) as part of Department of Education’s project “Back to School: Let a Million Flowers Bloom,” at Pangpang Elementary School in Sorsogon City.

tistical Reporting in TV Broadcasting Media.” Philstar.com was judged the “Best Media Advocate

for Statistics.”

All the awardees will receive a plaque of recognition from the PSA.

PNP Chief orders police to avoid partisan politics

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HILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar warned PNP members from engaging in any form of partisan politics amid the ongoing filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) by politicians running in next year’s elections.

Eleazar issued the warning last Sunday as he reminded police personnel of the apolitical stand of the PNP in his effort to discourage any policeman from playing politics.

“I am warning all our personnel not to meddle into political activities or do things that can be misconstrued as expression of support to any candidate,” the PNP chief said. “Mananagot sa akin ang sinumang makikisawsaw sa pulitika sa aming hanay. [Anyone who will dip his hands into politics from our ranks will have to face me.]”

“The loyalty of the more than 222,000-strong PNP is to the Constitution and to the Filipino people and not to any political candidate,” Eleazar emphasized.

The PNP chief has earlier ordered an aggressive campaign against loose firearms and private armed groups as part of the early security preparations to ensure the peaceful, honest and orderly conduct of the national and local elections next year.

Meanwhile, Eleazar said that the first two days of the filing of COCs nationwide has generally been peaceful and orderly.

The filing of COCs started on October 1 and will end on October 8.

“The filing of the Certificate of Candidacy remains peaceful and orderly across the country, but we are not lowering our guard on the possibility of any eventuality especially during the last day of the filing,” Eleazar said.

“We in the PNP are continuously focused in securing this first part of the electoral process and while I am the chief PNP, I will do everything in my power to make sure that the organization will be shielded from partisan politics,” he added. Rene Acosta

A4 Monday, October 4, 2021 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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DTI crafts guidelines for online merchants, asks for comments T

Govt finalizing cold-chain industry road map–exec

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @TyronePiad

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HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), along with other government agencies, is currently developing a joint administrative order (JAO) aimed at enhancing consumer confidence in e-commerce transactions.

The Trade department has released the draft order recently, which is open for inputs and comments until October 15.

The proposed guidelines seek to inform the online merchants and e-commerce platforms to adhere with the relevant laws, including the rules and regulation on the sale, distribution, production, importation, marketing, sale and transport of products. This is in addition to improving protection for consumers transacting with online merchants.

The online merchants or pro-

viders of consumer goods, digital content or product, digital financial services, online travel services, ride-hailing services and online courier and education are covered in the proposed JAO. It also seeks to include e-commerce platforms, online sellers, merchants, e-marketplace or e-retailers.

“To build trust in e-commerce and to protect and uphold the interest of consumers at all times, all online businesses are enjoined to abide by the following rules, as reflected in the ‘Asean Online Business Code of Conduct,’” the proposal said.

As such, the online businesses are reminded to refrain from doing illegal and unfair business practices while upholding value consumer rights. They should always follow the policies, laws and regulations, including conforming to local standards, the draft JAO noted.

“Online businesses shall ensure

shared responsibility along the entire supply chain. They shall not compromise product and food safety, not offer products which have been recalled, banned or prohibited, and shall ensure that their services are of highest quality,” the proposal read.

The draft order said online businesses should be transparent when it comes to their prices, including any additional costs. This, as it reminds them to allow customers to review and cancel transactions; and to address the consumer complaints seriously.

The proposed JAO also pointed out the need to protect consumer information and privacy, in addition to establishing a secure online payment setup.

“Through the NPC [National Privacy Commission], the law regulates the collection, recording, organization, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, consultation, use, consolidation, blocking,

erasure or destruction of personal data,” it noted.

Through this JAO, the DTI, NPC, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Department of Environment and Natural Resources are set to monitor and enforce the policies.

The DTI earlier this year said it aims to boost the contribution of the e-commerce industry to P1.2 trillion by 2022, which is equivalent to 5.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

In a survey released by global fraud detection company Vesta last month, it revealed that online shoppers in the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia identified safety and security as primary concerns for electronic and mobile commerce. As such, they seek solutions that can enhance protection against fraud when making their online purchases.

Defensor to Senate: Act on bill hiking senior citizens’ pension

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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LAWMAKER on Sunday urged the Senate to act on a House bill seeking to double to P1,000 the monthly pension of some 3.8 million indigent senior citizens.

Rep. Michael T. Defensor of Anakalusugan made a call on the Senate to pass House Bill (HB) 9459, as a presidential proclamation designates October 1 to 7 of every year as Elderly Filipino Week, in honor of all citizens above 60 years of age.

“The bill is already with the Senate, after the House passed it in July.

In fact, no less than Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III authored the counterpart Senate bill,” Defensor said. “Now would be a good time for the Senate to pass the bill while we

are observing Elderly Filipino Week.”

The bill would amend Republic Act 7432, which maximized the contribution of senior citizens to nationbuilding and granted them benefits and special privileges, among others.

The measure seeks to enhance the capacity of indigent senior citizens to meet daily subsistence and medical requirements. It provides that the monthly stipend of indigent senior citizens would be augmented from P500 to not less than P1,000.

“We have a multitude of elderly Filipinos rearing their grandchildren whose parents have been driven to work overseas in search of greener pastures,” Defensor said.

HB 9459 mandates the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to

review the monthly pension rate every two years, with a view to further raising the amount periodically, after taking into consideration the annual rate of increase in consumer prices.

“The P500-monthly allowance has been reduced into a pittance by the overall increase in the cost of living,” Defensor said. The lawmaker said that once the bill is enacted, Congress would be compelled to double to P47 billion the yearly budget for the DSWD’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens.

In the proposed P5.024-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2022, Defensor said the DSWD is getting only P23.5 billion to pay for the P500 monthly pension of poor seniors.

Centenarians

MEANWHILE, Defensor said a total of 7,322 Filipinos who have reached

the age of 100 years old have already received their one-time P100,000 cash award from the national government since the passage of the Centenarians Law of 2016. “We in Congress are absolutely committed to sustain the funding for the P100,000 cash gift of all Filipinos who reach the age of 100 years old, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad,” Defensor said.

The lawmaker issued a separate statement on National Respect for Centenarians Day, which the nation observes every first Sunday of October under the Centenarians Law, or Republic Act 10868.

“In the 2022 national budget, we have provided another P135.8 million in new appropriations to pay for the P100,000 cash bonus of 1,358 Filipinos who are expected to turn 100 years old next year,” Defensor said.

HE National Cold Chain Committee (NC3) is finalizing the priority actions and programs under the industry roadmap for the local cold chain sector, one of the committee’s chairman said.

Board of Investments (BOI) Governor Marjorie O. Ramos-Samaniego said that the technical working groups (TWG) recently met to tackle policy reforms, cold chain services, cold chain logistics and food-anddrug safety education. “[Once] everything is finalized, we are going to have a resolution done amongst the NC3 to have a continuity of the plan and the commitment to achieve the projects and programs that are proposed in the workshop,” she said.

The BOI official highlighted the need to further develop the cold chain sector as it supports “deeper linkage of local agricultural production with agro-processing and food manufacturing and facilitate expanded trading whether domestic or export.”

“This will also build the capacity of traditionally food-insecure [underserved] areas to build on their food stocks, especially in times of disasters or pandemic,” she added. “More importantly, cold chain is critical in the proper handling of vaccines to preserve their potency and efficacy.”

The road map seeks to cater to both food and non-food industries, including meat, fisheries and aquaculture, dairy, fruits and vegetables, pharmaceuticals and electronics.

The cold-chain industry also helps in distributing the agricultural products of smallholder farmers to other markets as well, according to Food Cold Chain Project National Policy Coordinator Mae Valdez. Valdez added the industry also helps create buffer food stock during crises and disasters.

Meanwhile, she sounded the alarm on the lack of cold infrastructure in the country, which are mostly operated by big companies, malls, supermarkets and retail store chains.

Valdez attributed this to the type and structure of domestic regulations, as well as their enforcement. The “inefficient” enforcement of regulations, she said, were due to regulators having insufficient staff; and lack of effective communication and consultation between the regulators and private entities, among others.

Attracting investments

COLD Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) President Anthony S. Dizon said it is crucial to identify the locations needing cold chain facilities to attract investments.

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

Dizon, who is also vice chairman of the NC3, said the investment climate should be conducive for foreign investments to allow further technology transfer and market access, stressing the need to promote ease of doing business further.

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

Dizon added that government units should also provide incentives to boost investments.

Improving better road infrastructure networks and marine transportation facilities is also a must, he said, to allow movement of goods.

“It is also necessary to address investors’ concerns with the cost of operating cold chain logistics services, particularly fuel costs and the required passage fees collected at ports and

by LGUs,” he said.

Lastly, the CCAP official proposed to streamline the franchising procedures for cold chain logistics services.

In December last year, the BOI and its partner industry stakeholders Cold Chain Industry Roadmap to address the logistics for Covid-19 vaccines, which are subject to storage at specific temperatures. Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

BluePrint.PH to hold three-day seminar on winning 2022 polls via social media

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REELING IN THE YEARS

This photo of a fisherman reeling in his handline after a night out on the Lagonoy Gulf is one of many in a coffee table book published by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature. Titled “Bangkulis: Tuna Tales from Hook to Cook,” the coffee table book commemorates a decade of sustainable fisheries work in the Philippines, the WWF said in a statement. PHOTO COURTESY WWF-PHILIPPINES

HE Covid-19 pandemic brings dramatic changes in the country’s political landscape, with social media platforms emerging as the new election campaigns battleground next year.

BluePrint.PH, a communication, research and campaigns firm, in partnership with the Center for Local and Regional Governance (CLRG) of the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), will hold a three-day workshop titled: “Election Campaign Management in the New Normal: on October 6,7 and 8, 2021 through Upskilling and Retooling Political and Communication Strategies.”

BluePrint.PH CEO Eero Brillantes said the 3-day workshop offers opportunities to learn new campaign strategies, upskill communication approaches to campaign managers, advocacy and communication specialists, as well as the political can-

didates themselves.

“Campaigning for the national and local elections during the pandemic has shifted from face-to-face to digital interactions, bringing challenges and opportunities for campaign and communication strategists to learn the dynamics of reaching out to audience, and generating voters,” said Brillantes said.

He added that election campaign tactics must include effective use of social media platforms to reach out and influence audience, build followers, and turn these followers into voters.

BluePrint.PH offers Sentiment Analysis tool services that use Artificial Intelligence to gauge people’s prevailing thoughts, opinions and moods being expressed on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to help campaign strategists to craft their platforms, formulate messages to be able to reach and influence voters.

The workshop introduces new roles of the campaign managers in determining audience/voters, issues, and the digital communication environment.

CLRG representatives will also present strategies in crafting good governance, inclusive and participatory platforms, as well election laws, and rules on accountability.

Meanwhile, BluePrint.Ph Research Director Kaye Domingo said winning elections require solid research foundations to be able to reach out the right audience, and deliver effective messages using the digital platforms.

“The digital platform is a whole new environment for social discourse, that can be useful to generate votes and win the elections,” Domingo said.

BluePrint.PH and CLRG have partnered with reputable media organizations BusinessMirror and Manila Broadcasting Co.

NBI to probe for criminal liability of cops in fatal anti-illegal drug ops

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

J

USTICE Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said some 154 policemen involved in 52 anti-illegal drug operations where deaths occurred will be investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for possible criminal liability.

Guevarra made the disclosure after meeting with the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Friday to discuss the findings of the DOJ panel on the 52 cases that were

turned over by the panel for review.

The 52 cases that were scrutinized by the panel involve findings of administrative liability by the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) against hundreds of police personnel for alleged misconduct in the course of anti-illegal drug operations.

DOJ Undersecretary Adrian Ferdinand S. Sugay, however, clarified that one case that the panel reviewed was not drug-related while no death occurred in another case.

The findings and recommendations of the panel have been submit-

ted by the DOJ to President Duterte.

The Chief Executive recently said before the United Nations General Assembly that he has instructed the DOJ and PNP to review the conduct of the government’s campaign against illegal drugs and to make accountable those who acted beyond what the law requires.

Guevarra said that based on the facts gathered by the IAS, the police officers involved in these cases were not only administratively liable.

“The existing evidence pointed to their possible criminal liability as

well. The DOJ, thus, informed the PNP that these cases will be endorsed to the NBI for case build-up and filing of criminal complaints if warranted by the evidence,” Guevarra said.

“Around 154 police officers were involved in these 52 cases,” he added.

If the NBI will rule that the PNPIAS findings are enough to establish criminal liability against the police officers, Guevarra said the agency may file the complaints directly.

However, if the NBI will deem that the evidence available are not sufficient to support the filing of a

complaint, the agency will conduct further investigation in order to gather more evidence.

Guevarra added that the participation of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the investigation to be conducted by the NBI may be tapped.

Also during the meeting, he said the PNP and the DOJ through the NBI have agreed to institutionalize cooperation in investigating similar cases in the future, in order to determine simultaneously the administrative and criminal liabilities of those the policemen involved.

“The PNP and the DOJ are one in the belief that the war against drugs could be won without the use of excessive force and unnecessary loss of lives,” the DOJ secretary emphasized.

Pending the NBI’s investigation of the 154 policemen, Guevarra said the justice department would focus its attention on the nearly 100 other similar cases undergoing preliminary investigation or court trial involving law enforcers accused of committing crimes during anti-illegal drug operations across the country.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Monday, October 4, 2021 A5

Covid deaths eclipse 700,000 in US as Delta variant rages

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t’s a milestone that by all accounts didn’t have to happen this soon.

The US death toll from Covid-19 eclipsed 700,000 late Friday—a number greater than the population of Boston. The last 100,000 deaths occurred during a time when vaccines—which overwhelmingly prevent deaths, hospitalizations and serious illness—were available to any American over the age of 12.

The milestone is deeply frustrating to doctors, public health officials and the American public, who watched a pandemic that had been easing earlier in the summer take a dark turn.

Tens of millions of Americans have refused to get vaccinated, allowing the highly contagious Delta variant to tear through the country and send the death toll from 600,000 to 700,000 in 3 1/2 months.

Florida suffered by far the most death of any state during that period, with the virus killing about 17,000 residents since the middle of June. Texas was second with 13,000 deaths.

The two states account for 15% of the country’s population, but more than 30% of the nation’s deaths since the nation crossed the 600,000 threshold.

Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has analyzed publicly reported state data, said it’s safe to say at least 70,000 of the last 100,000 deaths were in unvaccinated people. And of those vaccinated people who died with breakthrough infections, most caught the virus from an unvaccinated person, he said.

“If we had been more effective in our vaccination, then I think it’s fair to say, we could have prevented 90% of those deaths,” since mid-June, Dowdy said.

“It’s not just a number on a screen,” Dowdy said. “It’s tens of thousands of these tragic

stories of people whose families have lost someone who means the world to them.”

Danny Baker is one of them.

The 28-year-old seed hauler from Riley, Kansas, contracted Cov id-19 over the summer, spent more than a month in the hospital and died Sept.

14. He left behind a wife and a 7-month-old baby girl. “ T h is t h i ng h a s t a ken a grown man, 28-year-old young man, 6’2”, 300 -pound man, a nd took him dow n l i ke it was nothing,” said his father, 56-year-old J.D. Baker, of Milford, Kansas. “And so if young people think that they’re still ...protected because of their youth and their strength, it’s not there anymore.”

In the early days of the pandemic, Danny Baker, who was a championship trap shooter in high school and loved hunting and fishing, insisted he would be first in line for a vaccine, recalled his mother.

But ju st a s v acc i n at ions opened up to his age group, the US recommended a pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots. The news frightened him, as did information swirling online that the vaccine could harm fertility, though medica l ex per ts say there’s no biological reason the shots would affect fertility.

His wife also was breastfeeding, so they decided to wait.

Health experts now say breast-

feeding mothers should get the vaccine for their own protection and that it may even provide some protection for their babies through antibodies passed along in breastmilk.

“There’s just a lot of miscommunication about the vaccine,” said his wife, 27-yearold Aubrea Baker, a labor and deliver y nurse, adding that her husband’s death inspired a Facebook page and at least 100 people to get vaccinated. “It’s not that we weren’t going to get it. We just hadn’t gotten it yet.”

W h e n d e at h s s u r p a s s e d 600,000 in mid-June, vaccinations already were driving down caseloads, restrictions were being lifted and people looked forward to life returning to normal over the summer. Deaths per day in the US had plummeted to an average of around 340, from a high of over 3,000 in mid-January. Soon afterward, health officials declared it a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

But as t he Delta var iant swept the country, caseloads and deaths soared — especially among the unvaccinated and younger people, with hospitals around the country reporting dramatic increases in admissions and deaths among people under 65. They also reported breakthrough infections and deaths, though at far lower rates, prompting efforts to provide booster shots to vulnerable Americans.

Now, daily deaths are averaging about 1,900 a day. Cases have started to fall from their highs in September but there is fear that the situation could worsen in the winter months when colder weather dr ives people inside.

In a statement Saturday, President Joe Biden lamented what he called the “painful milestone” of 700,000 Covid-19 deaths and said that “we must not become numb to the sorrow.”

He renewed his pitch for people to get vaccinated, saying the country has “made extraordinary progress” against the coronavirus over the past eight months thanks to the vaccines.

“It can save your life and the lives of those you love,” Biden

In this undated file photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, a Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 39 aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in two sorties on Saturday. Taiwan Ministry of Defense via AP

Chinese warplanes fly toward Taiwan for 2nd straight day

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AIPEI, Taiwan—China flew more than 30 military planes toward Taiwan on Saturday, the second large display of force in as many days.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 39 aircraft entered

Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in two sorties, one during the day and one at night. That followed a similar pattern on Friday, when 38 planes flew into the area south of the self-governing island.

China c l a ims Ta iwan,

which lies off its east coast, as its territory. The two split in 1949 during a civil war in which the Communists took control of mainland China and the rival Nationalists set up a government on Taiwan. AP

said. “It will help us beat Covid-19 and move forward, together, as one nation.”

Almost 65% of Americans have had at least one dose of vaccine, while about 56% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But millions are either refusing or still on the fence because of fear, misinformation and political beliefs.

Health care workers report being threatened by patients and community members who don’t believe Covid-19 is real.

See “Covid,” A6

Aubrea Baker displays her wedding photo as she and her 7-month-old daughter Haylen visit one of her late husband’s favorite fishing spots Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, in Burlington, Kan. Her husband, Danny Baker, was among the 700,000 US victims of Covid-19, dying on Sept. 14 after testing positive in July.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

A6

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, October 4, 2021

Headwinds mounting for world economy into 2021 final stretch

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he global economy is entering the final quarter of 2021 with a mounting number of headwinds threatening to slow the recovery from the pandemic recession and prove policy makers’ benign views on inflation wrong.

The spreading Delta variant continues to disrupt schools and workplaces.

US lawmakers are wrangling over the debt ceiling and spending plans. China is suffering an energy crunch and pursuing a regulatory crackdown, while markets remain on edge as China Evergrande Group struggles to survive.

Fuel and food costs are soaring worldwide, combining with congested ports and strained supply chains to elevate price pressures. Labor shortages continue to plague some employers.

Although the expansion seems intact, such a backdrop is fanning fears of a mix of weaker growth and faster inflation to come, threatening to complicate nascent efforts by central banks to dial back stimulus without rattling markets.

“Expectations of a swift exit from the pandemic were always misplaced,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. “Full recovery will be measured in years, not quarters.”

Here’s a breakdown of the major risks:

China crunched

China’s energy travails have forced manufacturers to curb production and prompted economists to cut their growth forecasts. Bloomberg Economics expects the power shortages to have the biggest hit to expansion since a nationwide lockdown when the pandemic first erupted.

Regions impacted by the curbs represent about two-thirds of the economy and include the top five provinces in terms of gross domestic product— Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and Henan. In a sign of what’s to come, factory activity contracted in

Thousands protest Bolsonaro in Brazil, seek his impeachment

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IO DE JANEIRO—With Brazil’s presidential election one year away, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and dozens of other cities around the country to protest President Jair Bolsonaro and call for his impeachment over his government’s handling of the pandemic.

The protests, smaller than those in support of Bolsonaro last Sept. 7, were promoted by leftist parties and some union movements linked to the former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Worker´s Party. Da Silva is widely expected to run against Bolsonaro in Brazil’s Oct. 2, 2022 presidential election.

Saturday’s protest targeted the president for his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bolsonaro, who is not vaccinated and doesn’t usually wear a mask, has underestimated the severity of the virus and promoted crowds during the pandemic. Some 597,000 have died of Covid-19 in Brazil, a country of 212 million people. Demonstrators also protested surging inflation in mainstays like food and electricity.

“It is very painful to see that health and education are being destroyed, and there are many starving people in the country,” Marilena Magnano, a 75-yearold retiree, told The Associated Press.

“We need Bolsonaro out of the government, his time has passed.”

The president’s approval ratings have steadily declined throughout the year, but he remains far more popular than prior presidents who were impeached —most recently Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party in 2016. AP

September for the first time since the pandemic began.

That’s compounding a drag from the crisis engulfing Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer, and a broader slowdown in the all-important housing sector. President Xi Jinping’s push for tighter regulations of industries including technology is also unnerving investors.

Costlier food and energy

China’s energy problems also risk triggering a renewed surge in world agriculture and food prices as it means the country is set for a difficult harvest season from corn to soy to peanuts and cotton. Over the past year, Beijing imported a record amount of agricultural products due to a domestic shortage, driving prices and global food costs to multiyear highs.

A United Nations index is up 33% over the past 12 months. At the same time, some gas, coal, carbon and electricity benchmarks are hitting records.

The price of oil passed $80 a barrel for the first time in three years and natural gas is the costliest in seven, helping to push the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index to its highest level in a year.

TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said the gas crisis that’s affecting Europe is likely to last all winter.

It could get even worse. Bank of America analysts are telling

clients there is a chance of oil reaching $100, spurring an economic crisis.

Supply squeezed

With the northern hemisphere winter approaching, the Delta variant remains another worry.

That helps explain why congestion is building at key crossroads for international commerce, from ports in Shanghai and Los Angeles, to rail yards in Chicago and warehouses in the U.K. Retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp. in the US are ordering everything possible to ensure shelves are stocked, particularly for the late-year boost of holiday shopping.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, are having trouble sourcing key parts such as semiconductors, chemicals and glass.

Dubai’s DP World, one of the biggest global port operators, expects bottlenecks that have rattled global trade flows will continue at least for another two years.

There is also a shortage of labor in some industries with the coming week’s US payrolls report providing an insight into how much of a problem that was for firms in September.

Policy problems

The shine is also coming off US economic policy as a locomotive for the global recovery. While President Joe Biden swerved a disruptive shutdown of the federal government for now through a stopgap funding bill, fractured talks continue on his $4 trillion economic agenda with deep divisions among his Democrats on the way forward.

Compromise on the shutdown came after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that her department will effectively run out of cash around Oct. 18 unless

Congress suspends or increases the federal debt limit. Failure to do so would trigger both a recession and financial crisis, Yellen said.

Globally, fiscal policy support is set to slow into 2022 after governments ran up the biggest debts since the 1970s.

Monetary policy

Biden and Yellen must also decide whether to hand a second term to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, a decision which could also roil markets.

For Powell and his international counterparts, the combination of slowing growth and stubborn inflation is a challenge.

Friday alone saw news of the fastest euro-area inflation in 13 years and a US gauge rose the most on an annual basis since 1991.

For now, Powell and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde are voicing cautious optimism that inf lation will ease. But economists are asking at what point transitory becomes more persistent.

And that makes plans to reduce bond purchases or raise interest rates a risky proposition.

Many Latin American central banks and some in eastern Europe have already hiked borrowing costs, Norway just became the first developed nation to do so and the Fed is signaling it will pare its bond-buying program as soon as November.

Deutsche Bank AG strategist Jim Reid reckons the world economy may be facing its most hawkish period for monetary policy in a decade.

“Central banks are playing with fire by tapering to avert inflationary pressures without being fully sure of where we stand in the cycle,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. Bloomberg News

UK extends truck driver visa program as fuel crisis persists

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ONDON—The British government has extended an emergency visa program for truck drivers as fuel shortages showed few signs of abating Saturday, particularly in London and the southeast of England.

In an announcement late Friday, the Conservative government said temporary visas for nearly 5,000 foreign truck drivers it hopes to recruit would run into 2022 instead of expiring on Christmas Eve as originally planned.

The short duration of the program announced last week drew widespread criticism for not being attractive enough to entice foreign drivers.

The government said 300 fuel drivers would be able to come to the UK from overseas “immediately” and stay through March. Some 4,700 other visas for foreign food truck drivers will last from late October to the end of February.

In another move intended to ease the pressure at Britain’s pumps, around 200 military personnel, including 100 drivers, will be deployed beginning Monday to help to relieve fuel supply shortages that have caused empty pumps and long lines at filling

stations.

The government says the situation is already improving.

“UK forecourt stock levels are trending up, deliveries of fuel to forecourts are above normal levels, and fuel demand is stabilizing,” Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said. “It’s important to stress there is no national shortage of fuel in the UK, and people should continue to buy fuel as normal.”

However, the Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent filling stations, warned that fuel supplies remain a problem and could be getting worse in places.

“In London and the southeast, and possibly parts of eastern England, if anything, it had got worse,” the group’s chairman, Brian Madderson, told BBC radio.

Madderson welcomed the deployment of military drivers next week but warned it would have a limited impact.

“This isn’t going to be the major panacea,” he said. “It’s a large help, but in terms of the volume, they are not going to be able to carry that much.”

Opposition parties are urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to

Trump asks US judge to force Twitter to restore his account

EW YORK—Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account, which the company suspended in January following the deadly storming of the US Capitol.

Trump’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion in US District Court in Miami seeking a preliminary injunction against Twitter and

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recall parliament next week to address the wider situation of labor shortages and disruptions to supply chains. In recent months, many companies have reported shortages, including fast-food chains K FC, McDona ld ’s and Nando’s. Supermarket shelves have also looked barren, and fears have grown that they will not be stocked as usual in the run-up to Christmas.

In an attempt to stave off a shortage of Christmas turkeys, the government also announced that 5,500 foreign poultry workers will be allowed into the UK beginning in late October and can stay until the end of the year.

Johnson’s pro-Brexit government is keen to downplay talk that the driver shortage is a result of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

However, when the country left the economic orbit of the EU at the start of this year, one of the bloc’s main tenets ceased to apply—the freedom of people to move within the EU to find work. With Brexit, tens of thousands of truck drivers left the UK to go back to their homes in the EU, further pressuring an industry already facing long-term staffing issues. AP its CEO, Jack Dorsey. They argue that Twitter is censoring Trump in violation of his First Amendment rights, according to the motion.

Twitter declined to comment Saturday on Trump’s filing.

T he company per manent ly banned Trump from its platform days after his followers violently stormed the Capitol building to try to block Congress from certifying

www.businessmirror.com.ph

China’s energy crisis highlights weaknesses in Xi’s power plans

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hina’s energy crisis has highlighted weaknesses in one of President Xi Jinping’s top priorities—energy security—that could have ramifications for the power system for years to come.

To avoid repeats of the chaos ravaging the world’s second biggest economy, the country will probably have to take major steps toward reshaping its grid and power market, building fuel reserves, and adding more renewable and flexible energy sources.

“These are all on the cards and there will be great impetus once the dust has settled on this episode,” said Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Research Program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Here are some policy options that Beijing is likely to explore.

Set them free

A trigger for the current crisis was power plants shutting down because of heavy losses on buying expensive coal and selling into a highly regulated electricity market. Today’s pricing regime dates only to 2019, when fi xed electr icit y benchmarks were replaced w ith a hybr id model offering some f lexibility, but far short of the free-f loating rates seen in parts of Europe and the US. Hunan province is planning to trial a pricing system linked to coal costs from October. Guangdong has raised tariffs to incentivize more supply. And the country is considering raising rates on industrial users. But a major obstacle to more liberalization is the potential hit to downstream users including manufacturers. “If China liberalizes the power market, then it may provide enough power supply, but rising power costs could also make a dent on the local economy,” said BloombergNEF’s head of China research Kou Nannan.

Get connected

More connectiv it y bet ween power grids in different regions could ease localized shortages.

China’s two main grid operators—State Grid Corp. of China oversees more than 80% of the country, while China Southern Grid Corp. handles five southern provinces—have rapidly built out long-distance power lines across the country, but there’s still more work to do.

At present, there are significant disconnects—both physi-

Covid...

cally and in terms of coordination—between different parts of the country, or even in some cases within the same provinces, said David Fishman, a manager at Lantau Group, an energy consultancy. And there’s very little inter-provincial power trading.

“That’s why you can have issues where one part of the country has lots of power and another place doesn’t have any,” Fishman said. “The more connectivity you have, the more you can efficiently allocate supply. So there is a case for more investment in ultra-high voltage lines and more local lines.”

Go green

The global energy crunch has, for some, exposed the pitfalls of moving away from fossil fuels before renewable energy is mature.

In China, the government “will probably be a bit more cautious about retiring the coal fleet,” said BloombergNEF’s Kou. But the current situation— where China’s being forced to hunt for gas and coal in a global bidd ing wa r—high l ights t he security benefits of domestic w ind, solar and hydropower.

W hat’s needed in addition to the country’s plans to add massive amounts of clean energy are investments in flexible storage such as pumped hydro or largescale batteries to manage the ups and downs of renewable flows.

“Recent months have exposed the vulnerability of China and many other economies to fossil fuel prices and strengthened the case for moving to zero-carbon energy sources,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Clean Energy and Air.

Stocking up

Even with China’s renewables binge, coal isn’t going away any time soon, and September’s debacle has exposed serious problems in the management of the fuel’s supply and reserves, Lantau’s Fishman said. Inventories at power plants are running critically low with prices soaring even before winter arrives.

One way to cushion such shortages would be to copy the success of its strategic oil reserves by building and filling state-owned coal storage facilities throughout the country. Not only would that provide a backstop in future times of need, but buying to fill up inventories during periods of fallow demand could help miners as well.

Bloomberg News

The first known deaths from the virus in the US were in early February 2020. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 deaths. During the most lethal phase of the disaster, in the winter of 2020-2021, it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths.

The US reached 500,000 deaths in mid-February, when the country was still in the midst of the winter surge and vaccines were only available to a limited number of people. The death toll stood about 570,000 in April when every adult American became eligible for shots.

“I remember when we broke that 100,000-death mark, people just shook their heads and said ‘Oh, my god,’” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Then

we said, ‘Are we going to get to 200,000?’ Then we kept looking at 100,000-death marks,” and finally surpassed the estimated 675,000 American deaths from the 19181919 flu pandemic.

“And we’re not done yet,” Benjamin said.

The deaths during the Delta surge have been unrelenting in hotspots in the South. Almost 79 people out of every 100,000 people in Florida have died of Covid since mid-June, the highest rate in the nation.

Amanda Alexander, a Covid-19 ICU nurse at Georgia’s Augusta University Medical Center, said Thursday that she’d had a patient die on each of her previous three shifts.

“I’ve watched a 20-year-old die. I’ve watched 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds,” with no pre-existing conditions that would have put them at greater risk, she said.

“Ninety-nine percent of our patients are unvaccinated. And it’s just so frustrating because the facts just don’t lie and we’re seeing it every day.” AP

Joe Biden’s presidential win. Twitter cited concerns that Trump would incite further violence. Prior to the ban, Trump had roughly 89 million followers on Twitter.

Trump was also suspended from Facebook and Google’s YouTube over similar concerns that he would provoke violence. Facebook’s ban will last two years, until Jan. 7, 2023, after which the company will re-

view his suspension. YouTube’s ban is indefinite.

In July, Trump filed lawsuits in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida against all three tech companies and their CEOs, claiming that he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored. The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed as part of Trump’s case against Twitter. AP

Continued from A5

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, October 4, 2021 A7

US to PHL: Clarify license scheme for agri imports

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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HE United States has asked the Philippines to further explain its import licensing regime for agricultural products and provide more details about its fish import scheme in its latest letter to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Washington transmitted another official communication, dated September 23, to the WTO Committee on Import Licensing containing follow-up questions on the Philippines’s import licensing system.

It was the third letter submitted by the US to the multilateral trade body which detailed Washington’s concerns over the Philippines’s use of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-ICs) to “restrict” ag-

ricultural imports.

In its latest communication, the US raised 11 follow-up questions regarding the Philippines’s SPS-IC regime.

“The United States thanks the Philippines for its response to the United States’ questions regarding the Philippines’ Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance (SPS-IC) regime in G/LIC/Q/PHL/5. The United States requests the Philippines respond to the following follow-up questions and additional questions in writing,” the letter read.

As early as April, Washington raised concerns over Manila’s SPS-IC regime, saying the Philippines was using the system to “restrict” farm imports by not issuing SPS-ICs. The SPS-IC is a document that certifies that imported commodities do not pose threats to

animal and human health.

“The United States is still concerned that SPS-IC permits are used for purposes other than ensuring that imported agricultural products meet the standards to protect human, animal, or plant life or health,” Washington said in its April communication.

Follow-up questions

THE US asked the Philippines to comment on the statements made

by Philippine officials “regarding the practices of the Philippine SPSIC regime and influence on relevant Philippine Department of Agriculture [DA] bureaus.”

Washington cited in particular Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s announcement in May that the Philippines will not import rice

during the harvest season and Agriculture Undersecretary Rodolfo V. Vicerra’s pronouncement last year that the DA needs to manage the timing of SPS-IC issuance so that imports will not coincide with domestic harvest.

The US also inquired from the Philippines if it would consider a single SPS-IC issuance for multiple shipments to make verification of compliance of shipments with SPS requirements more “administratively manageable.”

“This would apply in particular for imports from suppliers that have an established track record of providing product that is free from diseases and pests of concern and present no risks to human, animal, and plant life and health.”

The US also questioned the DA’s

basis for “limiting validity periods” of SPS-IC for specific commodities as prescribed under its Administrative Order (AO) No. 9 Series of 2010.

Under the AO, imported commodities have varying “must ship out by” deadline—15 days for live milk fish and 60 days for meat products.

Meat, fish imports

WASHINGTON also raised new questions related to the DA’s decision to extend the effectivity of the SPS-IC for meat imports and the approval of a scheme for importing small pelagic fishes.

The US asked the Philippines about the “rationale” for the temporary extension of SPS-IC for meat import from 60 days to 90 days and the reason for “the suspension of SPSIC issuance for roundscad, bonito,

mackerel, and moonfish under Special Order No. 705, Series of 2020.”

“What are the criteria for determining the amount of fish to be allowed imported and the timeframes for the amount of allowed fish to be imported?” the letter read.

“Please explain how restricting SPS-IC issuances ‘under the 2021 CNI [certificate of necessity to import] 60,000 MT before the closed fishing season and automatically expire on 31 December 2021 for importers is different from a quantitative restriction?”

Washington also raised questions about the “qualifications and/ or requirements for importers of fish products to receive an SPS-IC?” “Please cite relevant regulations that set out these qualifications,” the letter read.

INEAPPLE was the most lucrative agricultural commodity last year as it recorded a 526-percent return on investment (ROI), the highest among the 27 local farm and fish products, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its annual report, the PSA said pineapple production in 2020 had a 526.98-percent ROI, with farmers earning a gross revenue of P782,978 from their investment of P124,881 per hectare.

The PSA report showed that the net income for every hectare of pineapple production was at P658,097, translating to a net profit-cost-ratio of P5.27, which refers to the amount of net income per every peso investment.

“Per kilogram, cost of production of pineapple was estimated at P3.09.

Farm-gate prices averaged P19.37 per kilogram,” the PSA said in the report published recently. The PSA data showed that the average pineapple yield per hectare last year was at 40,422 kg.

PSA data indicated that the average farm-gate price of pineapple per kilogram was at a 3-year high in 2020. Production cost was also at a 3-year high due to more expensive planting materials and labor.

Figures from the agency also showed that the average pineapple yield per hectare last year dropped to a three-year low.

The second most profitable crop was watermelon which recorded an ROI of 462.48 percent, according to the PSA report.

BUSINESSMIRROR FILE PHOTO

Switzerland announce Pineapple is most profitable crop–PSA FAO, 2021 Innovation Award winners P T

The total cost of growing watermelon in one hectare of land reached P79,912. Gross revenue amounted to P256,262 based on an average yield of 17,141 kg per hectare and average farm-gate price of P14.95 per kg.

“After subtracting cash costs, returns settled at P206,654 per hectare. Returns amounted to P205,961 per hectare after deducting cash and non-cash costs,” the PSA said. “Net returns per hectare averaged P176,350.”

The PSA said farmers earned P2.21 for every peso invested in watermelon production.

Out of the 27 agricultural commodities included in the report, only coffee production posted a negative ROI last year, according to the PSA. It recorded an ROI of -6.623 percent last year with total gross returns at P43,388 per hectare, P3,077 lower than the production cost of P46,465.

Foreverypesoinvestedincoffeeproduction, farmers lost P0.07, according

to PSA. In 2019, every peso invested in coffee production yielded P0.07.

PSA data showed that coffee farmers last year had to deal with more expensive inputs such as fertilizer, labor, and interests on crop loan, which caused average production cost to hit a 3-year high.

Coffee yield per hectare fell to a two-year low of 535 kg while the average farm-gate price declined to a three-year low of P81.04 per kg.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Big African cocoa crop makes chocolate rebound more crucial

W

EST Africa’s cocoa giants are gearing up for what looks like another big harvest, putting further focus on whether a post-Covid demand recovery can absorb a glut built up over the past year.

The main-crop harvest officially begins Friday Ivory Coast and next week in Ghana, the world’s two top exporters of cocoa, accounting for about two-thirds of global production. While their combined output is expected to fall in the new season, it’ll remain historically large, accord-

ing to the countries’ regulators and analyst estimates.

Too much supply weighed on prices since the pandemic began, though signs of improving chocolate demand have helped London futures rebound 17 percent since mid-July. The global market is seen moving into a shortage or being balanced over the coming year, with Asia remaining a key driver, Rabobank said.

Ivory Coast reduced its main-crop farmgate price 18 percent to 825 CFA francs ($1.46) per kilogram Friday

compared with a year earlier. Ghana, which has seen unsold beans pile up following slower overseas demand, kept its minimum price steady at the equivalent of $1.71 per kilogram, its Minister of Food and Agriculture Owusu Afriyie Akoto also announced Friday. The second-biggest grower will start its new season on October 8, he said.

The gap between the farmgate prices in the two countries could encourage smuggling. It may create an arbitrage where middlemen buy beans in Ivory Coast and then sell

them at a higher price in Ghana, Godfred Bokpin, a finance professor at the University of Ghana, said by phone from Accra.

Another big talking point in the market has been how the sector will fare with a $400-a-ton premium brought in a year ago to support farmers. The charge came into effect just as lockdowns hurt consumption, prompting middlemen to pay less than the government-set minimum price and accusations that some big chocolate companies tried to skirt the premium. Bloomberg News

HE Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the federal government of Switzerland have announced the winners of the 2021 edition of the annual International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food Systems, a joint initiative designed to encourage and celebrate innovation and entrepreneurs who successfully implement outstanding projects in the agriculture sector.

The awards were announced in a virtual ceremony with the participation of FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and Christian Hofer, Director-General of the Federal Office for Agriculture of Switzerland.

The ceremony was held on October 1, the first day of the flagship event of the World Food Forum—a youth-led movement and network to transform or agri-food systems.

The main Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems award is given for innovations that impact more than one level of the supply chain and strengthen the link between farmers and consumers. A second prize is also awarded for Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems. The prize for each award is $30 000, allowing winners to take their business to the next level.

This year’s award for Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems went to Ifarm360, a start-up enabling investors to crowd-fund smallholder farmers in Kenya. In addition to access to finance, Ifarm360 offers smallholder farmers crop advice and supervision, as well as farming inputs and equipment such as solar irrigation kits. Ifarm360 connects smallholder farmers, the crowd investors and off-takers, creating a win-win-win business model.

Special mention was given to Enveritas for using digital technology and innovation to conduct sustainability verification of unorganized and underserved smallholder coffee farmers globally.

The Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems award was split this year between two projects, both of which received equally high rankings from the Screening Committee.

Access Agriculture AISBL was recognised for enabling young people individually or as a team, to use solar powered technology to show farmer-to-farmer training videos in local languages in remote villages with no electricity, no internet access and poor mobile signal. Access Agriculture is working with local communities across the Global South, while also improving the environment using agroecological principles.

Access Agriculture shared the prize with Bountifield International, who offer young people in rural areas new opportunities as postharvest technology entrepreneurs providing a fee-for-service to farmers to process, preserve and sell their crops. Bountifield’s ‘business in a box’ model equips them with needed technology, access to financing and information they need to drive agribusiness value addition, to reduce food loss, and to increase growth across rural Africa.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu congratulated the winners, adding that the Award “highlights the importance of innovation and youth as key drivers to transform agri-food systems. FAO is working to engaging and empowering youth to transform our agri-food systems.”

“I wish to convey my appreciation to the Government of Switzerland for the effective partnership which has led to this successful outcome. It also affirms the value of our shared goal—to encourage game-changing solutions by innovative approaches and people,” he said.

Christian Hofer, Director-General of the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, said the “Swiss-FAO International Innovation Award aims at honouring already existing projects that proved to be successful and have a potential to scale up or spill over to other parts of the food systems. This kind of support is important because there is a need for a larger number of well-functioning innovative projects to achieve food systems transformation.”

“I’m convinced that transformative change is only possible of it engages young people and if it exploits the potential of digitalization in the agriculture and food sector,” he said.

‘Vaccine-centric tack in Covid must go with testing, treatments’ Last week, Chua estimated that the lockdowns and the pandemic will cost the country some P41 trillion in the next40years.(Seestory: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/09/25/ neda-pandemic-to-cost-phl-economy-p41-4-trillion-in-total-lossesover-next-40-years/) He said ad hoc solutions and gradual measures are not enough to address the concerns raised by Chua. He said new foundations such as harnessing the fourth industrial revolution; developing sustainable

business models; and redesigning skills and jobs for the digital era are crucial.

He cited a need to strengthen and fund sustainable development at the regional level; revitalize global cooperation and multilateralism; restore environment health and minimize environmental degradation; and give shape to a green economic recovery are also key to the “Great Reset.”

“We talk about performing a reset when a system can no longer operate under its current parameters

and needs to be restarted. This crisis caused by Covid-19 has exposed some systemic flaws, highlighting the need to reset the global economy and its models,” Neri said.

“Nations such as Japan and Germany and including the Philippines, have managed to recover from even more severe crises and catastrophes, such as the World War II, etc. where massive physical destruction, economic damage, financial and fiscal costs, and human fatalities occurred,” he also said.

3 key strategies

MEANWHILE, over the weekend, Chua said accelerating the vaccination rollout, managing risks better, and implementing the economic recovery program are the government’s three key strategies to reach the country’s growth targets for 2021 and 2022.

Chua added that while prospects for the country’s economic recovery remain promising, its sustainability depends on the actions we take in dealing with the virus.

He noted that including minors in the vaccination drive could be the most important thing that can be done once the country receives additional vaccine supplies.

To date, Chua said, the government’s vaccination drive has peaked at half a million per day.

This, he said, is an encouraging development given that vaccination is an important driver for the country’s recovery.

The second strategy that Chua mentioned is better risk manage-

continued from a1

ment and the safe reopening of the economy. This involves lowering the age restrictions for those allowed to go out to enable more family activities, allowing limited face-to-face schooling in low-risk areas, and imposing granular lockdowns in areas with higher risk.

The final strategy is implementing the economic recovery program.

This includes the timely use of the 2021 budget by reprioritizing it to address the gaps in education, health, and human capital development.

A8

Monday, October 4, 2021 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Ending corruption?

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here has always been a robust relationship between what we now call Big Government and Big Business that stretches back centuries. In 1599, a group of merchants formed the East India Company with initial capital of about $7 million in today’s currency. The purpose was to create trade routes to the Indian Ocean and beyond. One year later it was granted a Royal Charter, by which the government gave the company a monopoly on all “English trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.”

The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, parts of Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong—all colonies of the British Crown.

From London in 1813 to 1815, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild European banking empire, was instrumental in almost single-handedly financing the British war effort during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Panic of 1907 was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50 percent from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on banks.

The US Independent Treasury system through the US Treasury could not inject enough liquidity into the financial system to stop the bank runs and stock market collapse. John Pierpont Morgan was the wealthiest and most well-connected banker and had helped rescue the US Treasury during the Panic of 1893. J.P. Morgan managed the liquidation of the insolvent financial institutions and provided both “confidence” and $30 million ($1 billion today) to buy New York City bonds.

The synergy between “Big Government” which holds power and authority and “Big Business” with its money and network is inevitable and necessary. But there is no question that at times that relationship has been thoroughly corrupt.

The Australian State of New South Wales includes Sydney (total population 8.2 million) and has a larger economy than Thailand and nearly larger than Singapore and Malaysia combined. Gladys Berejiklian assumed office as NSW Premier in January 2017. She resigned last Friday as she is under investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption from activities between 2012 and 2018. The ICAC said it was investigating whether she was involved in conduct that “constituted or involved a breach of public trust.” Berejiklian has been the most visible public official during the pandemic.

New South Wales has always been a hotbed of corruption. A royal commission in 1905 revealed Lands Minister Paddy Crick had been involved in large-scale extortion and corruption. The 1951 Maxwell Royal Commission revealed widespread police involvement in corruption.

During Labor Premier Neville Wran’s time in office (1976–1986), the corrective services (prisons) minister and chief judicial officer of the NSW Court were imprisoned for corruption.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption was established in 1988 by Premier Nick Greiner. In 1992, the ICAC found Greiner guilty of corruption, although the courts on appeal overturned the finding.

One prominent presidential candidate goes so far to promise to “put an end to corruption.” Another says that he will “eliminate corruption.”

Corruption, like another crime, requires two “guilty” parties. In the past the prostitute and not the customer was charged with the “crime.” Maybe it’s time to focus on the instigator of the bribe and corruption as well as the recipient.

A journey with the IPs and ICCs this October

hen we think about indigenous peoples and cultural communities in the Philippines, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s their culture and beliefs that many of us are unfamiliar with, or their colorful clothing and accessories, their religious or spiritual practices that are quite different from ours. Maybe some of us know them to be skilled craftsmen and artists, or admire their rich and original—but perhaps slowly disappearing—languages and arts.

To celebrate Indigenous Peoples Month this October, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples drafted a monthlong program that culminates on the 29th of October in a special commemoration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act. This year’s theme is “The Journey of Indigenous Peoples for Genuine Recognition, Respect, and Self-governance” or “Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan para sa Tunay na Pagkilala, Paggalang, at Sariling Pamamahala.”

On the other hand, we know that the IPs have long been advocating for recognition and respect of their rights and the protection of their lands and communities. In many ways they are placed in the margins, whether intentionally or not, it doesn’t matter much because the crucial thing to do is empower and uplift them, and help them in their struggles.

To celebrate Indigenous Peoples Month this October, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples

culture and arts based on their Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices or IKSPs. This includes some of the things I mentioned above like praying, chanting, singing, dancing, making handicrafts, playing musical instruments, wearing of their cultural attire, and so on.

On top of this, daily programs from Monday to Friday throughout October will happen via Zoom and Facebook Live on the official FB page of NCIP. The 13 regions and partner agencies of NCIP will be hosting their

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

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(NCIP) drafted a monthlong program that culminates on the 29th of October in a special commemoration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA). This year’s theme is “The Journey of Indigenous Peoples for Genuine Recognition, Respect, and Self-governance” or “Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan para sa Tunay na Pagkilala, Paggalang, at Sariling Pamamahala.”

Everyone is invited to join in the celebration of the IPs’ indigenous

My two cents take on the PAREX Project

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Environmentalists working together with capitalists can only ensure success in providing the need of a growing city while protecting the environment, which we sorely need. An honest and sincere dialogue is needed.

And the PAREX Project can even be the start of a good collaboration between these parties, even beyond PAREX.

To be fair, conflicts regarding the encroachment of infrastructural projects that should lead to progress on the preservation of the environment are a normal occurrence. The gas pipelines that cut through pristine reservations of land in the western hemisphere are good examples of this. The mangrove reserve south of the Manila Bay has prevented much of the reclamation while other areas north of that continue to be reclaimed. It is indeed true that environmental concerns are primordial before pursuits toward progress take place.

not been developed along such lines, then this is something that, at this point of its development, can still be achieved.

And we have the proper ingredients among our protagonists to make this happen. On the one hand, you have a Ramon Ang who, based on his previous engagements, has never had a question on environmental concerns despite the fact that his interests cover such areas as power and mining. On the environmentalists’ side are all the respected academics and environmentalists who share a sincere intent to protect our natural resources. What may be needed is a sincere dialogue between these two parties. Both mean well and I am sure both can work together, given the chance.

For one, the way the proposal was presented, there are already safeguards in place and efforts to be taken to protect the environment. Pasig River will be dredged in a way that even past government administrations have not embarked

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own programs to showcase talents and products of the IPs and the Indigenous Cultural Communities. The Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives or IPMRs will be giving their Ulat Katutubo or state-of-theICC address. The best practices of ICCs and IPs within their Ancestral Domains will be recognized, alongside notable ICCs and IPs, ADs, and NCIP employees. A photo contest and an NCIP hymn-writing contest complete the long list of activities for the month.

The highlight, of course, would be the event happening on the 29th of October 2021—the 24th commemoration of the IPRA. NCIP Chairman Allen Capuyan will present NCIP’s milestone accomplishments regarding the legislation. The day will end with a cultural show (Katutubong Kasuotan: Pagkakakilanlan ng Kultural na Pamayanan) at 5:30 p.m. featuring the inter-generational cultural attires of the 101 ICCs and IPs all over the nation.

Let us take part in the celebration and get to know the IPs and ICCs—their practices and knowledge systems, as well as their issues and struggles.

urrently hogging the headlines is the brewing opposition to the Pasig River Expressway Project, which intends to provide a better access of the long neglected east-west corridor of Metro Manila and Rizal. On one side of the table is the proponent, the San Miguel conglomerate, which has lately been undertaking milestone projects to include Metro Rail Transit 7, Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway (TPLEX), Star Toll and the soon to take shape Bulacan International Airport. On the other side of the table are several environmental and transport mobility groups that have bonded together to oppose this project. Their concern basically covers two points: Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) will environmentally damage the already almost lifeless Pasig River and that the project will not really solve the lack of road corridors that it intends to address and will in fact exacerbate the situation.

But the PAREX Project can be viewed in a different light. I would like to think that this project can marry both the need to protect the environment while hanging on to its intent to provide a better avenue for that east-west traffic that, we also need to admit, we sorely need.

There is such a thing as sustainable infrastructure, which refers to the design and building in ways that do not diminish the social, economic and ecological processes required to maintain human equity, diversity, and the functionality of natural systems. If the PAREX Project has

on. Second, public transport via a BRT will ensure the reduction on harmful GCG emissions emanating from individual carbon fed vehicles.

These should be a good start. The environmentalists can then enlist the support of RSA to ensure the sustainability of the river beyond the dredging—something similar to what has been done in Seoul, South Korea. The BRT can be required to be all electric or even run on waste to energy, which is now available with buses made from Sweden. Bike lanes and walkways beneath and within the PAREX roadways can be tweaked similar to the New York “Highline” where above ground gardens can be maintained.

Environmentalists working together with capitalists can only ensure success in providing the need of a growing city while protecting the environment, which we sorely need. An honest and sincere dialogue is needed. And the PAREX Project can even be the start of a good collaboration between these parties, even beyond PAREX. The national government can initiate this. If not, other agencies like MMDA and DOTr or the Metro Manila cities where the PAREX alignment is located can do it. The important thing at this point is to try to work this out and exhaust all means to come to an agreement.

With this, we can only move forward for the better.

The author maybe reached via: thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, October 4, 2021

A9

Supply chain management FREE-SIDENTIABLES: Lacson–Stomach in, chest out education in the Philippines Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

Marvin Bunyag

DEBIT CREDIT

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upply chain disruptions have been severe in the wake of the pandemic. Factory shutdowns. Ports congestion. Lockdowns.

The rising freight rates. Cargo ships run aground in Suez Canal.

Companies have struggled to adapt to these massive disasters because they were unprepared. The turmoil has pushed businesses to put much attention on their supply chain professionals to take the lead in securing their inventory, logistics capacity, and the entire supply chain.

The disruption tortures the global supply chains, prompting companies to look for individuals with comprehensive supply chain expertise who can navigate an organization through uncertainties and changing environment while reducing cost, increasing efficiency, and boosting revenue.

According to the 2021 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, 84 percent of Chief Executive Officers are planning to increase long-term investment in talent development.

Another report from a recruitment firm, Michael Page, revealed that the supply chain is ranked third among jobs with the highest hiring activity in the nation. The data conform with the US Labor Statistics that predicts supply chain employment will grow by 30 percent in the next decade. The tremendous growth in the supply chain sector is propelled by the emergence of ecommerce, technological advancements, global trade, and changing consumer behavior.

Although the careers in supply chain management are promising, it is facing a major problem—talent scarcity. In the Philippines, only a few universities have supply chain curriculum. The data I received from the Commission on Higher Education revealed 162 students in the supply chain program during the 2018 to 2019 school year. That is a tiny .02 percent of the 826,494 total population of students enrolled in the business discipline.

Why is supply chain management not getting solid foothold in Philippine academics?

Several reasons. Like any business, profit is a deciding factor for schools to open a new program.

The lack of public awareness about the supply chain will yield to lower enrollees, and in turn, will generate insufficient income to pay faculty salaries and other costs. There is also an inadequate collaboration between the industry and universities to launch this program. Further, the supply chain function including logistics, procurement, and operations are viewed by many as a support department rather than a strategic driver. It makes the supply chain discipline less lucrative to invest in

Companies rely heavily on their supply chain for their growth because they understand that if costs across the supply chain are reduced along with improved efficiency, overall financial performance increases. academics. But from an industry perspective, it is a field needing investment.

Meanwhile, supply chain organizations have stepped up in providing training and certification to equip the work force with the latest knowledge and skill. However, universities play a crucial role to sustain talent development towards the future.

The evolving marketplace calls for schools to recalibrate their business curricula to ensure graduates have the relevant skills needed in the 21st century. And supply chain is undeniably the area requiring an urgent response from academics because of a talent shortage pummeling this industry-driven field.

To roll out a supply chain program, colleges should partner with the industry so they can tailor their curriculum based on real-world input. This partnership allows industry experts to teach as they have specific and deeper expertise in this field, making the program competitive. Experts can bring real cases in the classroom, allowing students to develop solutions and use critical thinking skills.

Besides, an internship should be part of the academic journey so that students can work on real projects and build professional connections.

Companies rely heavily on their supply chain for their growth because they understand that if costs across the supply chain are reduced along with improved efficiency, overall financial performance increases.

This fact should trigger stakeholders—students, universities, and industry—to advance the supply chain education in the country.

Marvin Bunyag, CPIM, is a freelance supply chain consultant and a founder of ExploreSCM Supply Chain Insights.

This column accepts articles for publication from the business and academic community. Articles not exceeding 600 words can be e-mailed to jltantorres@up.edu.ph.

Second in a series

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is declaration had a similar impact as that of North Korea’s launch of its new anti-aircraft missile. Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Morena Lacson, ahead of all others, publicly announced that he is running for President. Unswerving, and unperturbed, he will again launch a nationwide campaign, the same way he did in 2004 but hoping for a different result.

Having lost against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, he now guns for a second attempt at a presidential seat, as if his 50-year epoch of public service would not suffice—three terms as a Senator (20012013, and 2016-2022) and 32 years with the Philippine National Police.

His 50 years of illustrious experience could very well come within the ambit of the powerful and inspiring narrative in Victor Hugo’s book Les Miserables. Ping Lacson’s adventure in public service can only compete with his 48 years of solid marriage to which the good senator is still so much a part of. Both in his service to the country and in his marital life, the Filipino word “matatag” sums them all up. Particularly fascinating is the fact that Senator Ping is a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (Matatag) Class of 1971.

Ping Lacson’s distinguished career, in the realm of lawmaking and law enforcement, is nothing less than stellar! As a legislator, he authored, sponsored or co-authored a plethora of key measures, including the AntiMoney Laundering Act, Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, and the Anti-Hazing Law of 2018. Perhaps

the most controversial in the list of legislative produce attributable to the Honorable Senator is the AntiTerrorism Act of 2020, which confers to the government more powers to run after individuals and groups falling under what critics decry as a treacherous and blurred definition of terrorism. Against a backdrop of purported violations of human rights, I think this Ping-sponsored bill, subject of numerous petitions in the Supreme Court challenging its constitutionality, can make or break his presidential bid.

His legislative accomplishments include privilege speeches that generated one bombshell after another as the aroma of graft and corruption has been lingering in government.

For instance, Senator Ping exposed the “tara system” or bribery at the Bureau of Customs and the anomalies in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF a.k.a. pork barrel). Speaking of this “senatorial allocation”, Ping never used his P200 million PDFs and he never accepted any cent from PDAF’s most famous linchpin—Janet Lim Napoles. Even when some of his companions at the Senate did so, Senator Ping stayed away from such temptation. His non-

use of this PDAF allotment speaks much of Senator Ping’s character.

Equally prolific in the arena of law-enforcement, Senator Ping achieved much in the resolution of high-profile crimes including kidnap-for-ransom cases. During his tenure as PNP chief, Lacson allocated 85 percent of police resources to frontline units and imposed a 34-inch waistline limit for police officers. Senator Ping’s trim physique and youthful looks are indicators of his self-discipline, as I hold such a high regard for people who can take care of their body, if not their appetite and passion.

Controversies do hang above Senator Ping’s head like a sword of Damocles, the most haunting of which are the kuratong baleleng and DacerCorbito charges. He went into hiding out of self-preservation under an atmosphere of political persecution at that time. Incidentally, Senator Ping was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.

Visually, I will always remember Senator Ping’s “stomach in-chest out” bearing, as if he recently graduated from the PMA! He never lost his good military posture (brace up, chin in, shoulder back), which actually bespeaks his public and private persona! He talks straight as an arrow, never mincing words in the process.

This “stomach in-chest out” bearing, physically and figuratively speaking, will be the Senator’s strongest point in this presidential race. Such bearing, unyielding and steadfast, reminds me of the Biblical Daniel who likewise evoked the same “good posture”: straight, nononsense, disciplined, and solid.

Daniel refused to eat the royal food and drink the king’s wine lest he defile himself; declined to bow to the gold statue; and refused to cease his praying at a time when bowing to anyone other than the king was banned, an act for which Daniel was thrown

The improving image of the insurance industry

By Reynaldo A. de Dios

S

everal decades ago a survey was conducted on the general impressions of the public on the insurance industry. The findings were, sad to say, not favorable. At that time, the industry was overcrowded, poorly capitalized and managed by inadequate professional management. These are some of the impressions: 1. Insurance is a racket.

2. Insurance companies are fast in collecting premiums but slow in paying claims.

3. Insurance companies are more concerned with making profit than improving benefits and services to their policyholders.

4. Insurance agents are more interested in increasing their commission than in providing adequate protection for their clients.

5. The insurance industry lacks social consciousness.

We now have a much different and

improved environment. The capital requirements of all insurance companies was increased by the new Insurance Code to P900 million as of December 31, 2019 and to be further strengthened to P1.2 billion by December 31, 2022, which will make capital requirements of Philippine insurance companies the highest among Asean countries and further strengthens their financial position.

This, however, has resulted in the reduction of players in the market.

On the other hand, insurance companies have embarked on a massive

training of their staff and agency force. They have also invested significantly in technology to improve the level of service and claims payment. The Insurance Commission has also embarked on the same path by introducing regulations for effective supervision and assistance to the industry as they were also given the authority to supervise the health maintenance organizations, the preneed industry, and the mutual benefit associations.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been somewhat of a booster for the insurance industry. In a recent survey conducted by the AIA Group, 75 percent of Filipinos agreed that insurance has become more important than ever for protection in case of unexpected incidents such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, the agency force had a difficult time in selling their products, but sub-

‘Everybody is frustrated,’ Biden says as his agenda stalls

By Lisa Mascaro & Zeke Miller | Associated Press

W

ASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on Saturday acknowledged frustrations as Democrats strain to rescue a scaled-back version of his $3.5 trillion government-overhaul plan and salvage a related public works bill after frantic negotiations failed to produce a deal.

“Everybody’s frustrated, it’s part of being in government, being frustrated,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for a weekend stay at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He pledged to “work like hell” to get the two pillars of his domestic agenda passed into law, but refrained from laying out a new deadline.

The president had gone to Capitol Hill on Friday for a private meeting with House Democrats that was partly a morale booster for the disjointed caucus of lawmakers. According to lawmakers in the room, he discussed a $1.9 trillion to $2 trillion-plus price tag for the larger package that

would expand the country’s social safety net.

The White House and its allies in Congress are prepared for protracted negotiations. Biden said he would soon travel around the country to promote the legislation and he acknowledged concerns that the talk in Washington had become too focused on the trillions in new spending and taxes in the bill.

He pledged to do more to educate the public about the plan’s new and expanded programs, which he contended have the support of the vast majority of the electorate.

“I’m going to try to sell what I think the American people will

into the den of lions. Daniel was uncompromising to the king’s decree just as Ping was uncompromising to temptation of corruption! Lacson remained true to his PMA motto of integrity, as he consistently said no to bribery, corruption, plunder or any matter that would “defile” him. He maintained a sense of discipline, both physically and professionally. Lacson never compromised his principles just as Daniel never compromised his faith. Standing true to this stomach in-chest out posture, both Daniel and Senator Ping, in the metaphorical sense, taught us to never compromise or make concessions, if it will entail losing yourself in the process.

As the “standard” back then was to use the PDAF, legally or illegally as in the case of the Napoles scheme, Lacson refused to compromise. As the practice back then was to bow to an idol and stop praying, the Biblical Daniel refused to compromise. These two men proudly stood straight on their principles and faith, stomach in-chest out, so to speak.

The Bible teaches us that God does not condone compromising His commands: “Be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left” (Deuteronomy 5:32); Joyful are those who “do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths” (Psalm 119:3).

Concerning matters that God has clearly addressed, we should never negotiate, bargain, or compromise.

We must stand straight and abide in His instructions.

Senator Ping Lacson, with his stomach in-chest out” posture, lasted 50 years as a no-nonsense public servant with no whiff of corruption.

Should he stay true to this bearing for the next six or so years, never wavering and by no means compromising, President Ping may well add another golden period to his already illustrious career.

buy,” Biden said Saturday, adding, “I believe that when the American people are aware of what’s in it we’ll get it done.”

The president said he believed the legislation will be signed into law with “plenty of time to change the tax code for people next year.”

It’s a pivotal time for Biden and the party. His approval ratings have dropped and Democrats are restless, eager to deliver on his signature campaign promise of rebuilding the country. His ideas go beyond roads-andbridges infrastructure to delivering dental, vision and hearing care for seniors, free prekindergarten, major efforts to tackle climate change and other investments that would touch countless American lives.

Holdout Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia had dashed hopes for a swift compromise on a framework when he refused to budge late Thursday on his demands for a smaller overall package, about $1.5 trillion.

Without a broader deal, prospects for a vote on the companion public works bill stalled out as progressives refused to commit until senators reached agreement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told colleagues that “more time is needed” as they shape the broader package.

The House on Friday night passed a 30-day measure to keep transportation programs running during the stalemate, essentially setting a new deadline for talks, October 31. The Senate approved it without debate during a brief Saturday session, to halt the furloughs of more than 3,500 federal transportation workers, a byproduct of the political impasse.

Biden signed it by evening.

Pelosi, keeping her promise to centrists, had insisted earlier Friday that there would be a “vote today” on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that is popular but is snared in the debate over Biden’s broader measure. But with Democratic progressives refusing to give their support

for that slimmer roads-and-bridges bill unless advances were made on the president’s big bill, Pelosi was unwilling to call for a vote.

“Out of respect for our colleagues who support the bills and out of recognition for the need for both,” Pelosi said in a letter Saturday to House Democrats that she would not bring the smaller measure “to the floor to fail.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, a key centrist Democrat who helped steer the public works bill to Senate passage but has concerns that Biden’s overall bill is too big, was dismayed by the delay on the bipartisan package negotiated with the president.

In a statement Saturday, she said the canceled vote was “inexcusable, and deeply disappointing” and “erodes” the trust needed for “goodfaith negotiations.”

With Republicans solidly opposed to Biden’s sweeping vision, the president and Democrats are reaching for a giant legislative accomplishment

sequently with the support of the Insurance Commission of endorsing sales through digital technology, the volume of new business increased. In fact, this was notably proven in the sales of investmentlinked products.

Insurance is a rather technical business so it behooves the industry to make itself appear less technical and complicated. The industry has introduced much more sustained customer-focused initiatives to build trust and confidence. It must always consider the interest of its clients and policyholders, which is not at odds with theirs. It is therefore safe to say that the image of the insurance industry has improved as insurance companies have regained the trust of the general public.

The author is a risk management consultant and Editor of Insurance Philippines magazine.

on their own—all to be paid for by rewriting federal balance sheets with tax increases on corporations and the wealthy, those earning more than $400,000 a year. The larger of Biden’s proposals is a years-in-the-making collection of Democratic priorities with an ultimate price tag he says is zero, because the tax revenue would cover the spending costs.

“We will and must pass both bills soon,” Pelosi said in her letter. “We have the responsibility and the opportunity to do so. People are waiting and want results.”

The White House and Democrats also are focusing on raising the nation’s borrowing limit before the United States risks defaulting on its obligations—a deadline the Treasury Department estimates will be reached no later than Oct. 18. The House has already acted, but Republicans senators have indicated they will not provide votes for bipartisan passage and want Democrats to go it alone.

A10 Monday, October 4, 2021

‘Enough power on first day of Malampaya shutdown’ T

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

HE Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) had imposed the secondary price cap last week but clarified that the spike in spot market prices had nothing to do with the shutdown of the Malampaya gas facility starting Saturday.

According to IEMOP Chief Operating Officer Robinson Descanzo, the P6.245 per kilowatt hour (kWh) secondary price cap was imposed at 4:25am of September 30 and was lifted at 12:40pm of October 1. The preventive scheduled period of the Malampaya gas facility started October 2.

The cap is a price-mitigating mechanism imposed when there are persistent high market prices.

Since the secondary price cap was triggered, this meant that the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices averaged P9/kWh or higher for at least three days.

IEMOP is the operator of WESM, the country’s trading floor for electricity.

The triggering of the secondary price cap happened even before the shutdown of Malampaya. Descanzo

recalled that Dinginin plant was suddenly out last September 28, but resumed September 30. Thereafter, WESM prices started to drop until the cap was lifted sometime noon of October 1. Since then until Sunday, when the shutdown of Malampaya commenced, the price cap was no longer triggered.

“The gas maintenance work started already but we have sufficient supply today. This is why demand is also low. There was no price cap today,” Descanzo said in an interview Saturday.

The IEMOP official earlier said that there would be a supply margin of 4,000MW during the shutdown, as most of the gas-fired power plants fueled by Malampaya would be able to run on liquid fuel.

Moreover, the coal plants that were on shutdown before have now re-

sumed operations.

With the Malampaya gas facility shutdown, the 1,200MW Ilijan plant and the 440MW San Gabriel plant of First Gen Corp. also went on shutdown, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said over the weekend.

However, the Power Supply Agreement (PSA) between Ilijan’s South Premiere Power Corp. and Meralco obligate the former to provide replacement power so it could continue to supply Meralco at contract prices, despite the Malampaya shutdown.

Other First Gas plants—Sta. Rita (1,000MW) and San Lorenzo (500MW), have switched to liquid fuel so that their capacity will continue to be available to the Luzon grid. Santa Rita, San Lorenzo, San Gabriel and Ilijan plants supply almost 60 percent of Meralco’s requirements.

To make sure that Meralco has sufficient power requirements to service its customers, it asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to exempt the 90MW Contract for the Supply of Electric Energy (CSEE) it entered into with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) from the conduct of Competitive Selection Process (CSP).

The DOE granted Meralco’s re-

quest. Meralco subsequently wrote the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) about the immediate implementation of the CSEE, which is valid until July 2022.

Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez said the immediate implementation of the CSEE with PSALM is meant to reduce exposure of Meralco to high WESM prices.

The utility firm also asked for the same exemption from the DOE on the emergency power supply agreements with Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (MPPCL) for the procurement of 120MW and with Panay Electric Development Corp.

(PEDC) for 50MW. “We have not received a response from the DOE on the emergency PSAs with MPPCL and PEDC,” said Fernandez.

Meralco First Vice President and Head Regulatory Management Office Jose Ronald Valles said the PSAs are intended to cover peaking requirements from October 2021 through the election period, until July 2022.

“In light of the increased frequency and persistence of Malampaya gas restrictions, the October 2-22 Malampaya shutdown, anticipated shrinking electricity operating reserve margins leading up to the May 2022 elections, especially with upcoming simultaneous scheduled maintenance and possible forced outages of power plants—all of which only become visible in recent months—Meralco requested Certificates of Exemption from CSP from the DOE. Meralco eagerly awaits DOE decision on this request,” he said.

BM’s RECTO MERCENE SOARS TO THE SKY WITH NO LIMITS

By Lourdes M. Fernandez

Editor in chief

R

ECTO L. MERCENE, veteran photojournalist who covered aviation, defense, Malacañang, Senate and foreign affairs, and who “shot” Ninoy Aquino as he lay at the tarmac on August 21, 1983, has died, his family announced.

The BusinessMirror reporter had been in hospital since September 7, and was being prepared for release from confinement so he can get palliative care at home after doctors detected cancer spreading in his bone marrow.

On Saturday afternoon, however, he died peacefully in his sleep, according to youngest child Danica, who had been caring for him.

Besides Danica, he left behind son Recto II (Jay); grandchildren Yumilka, Zach; and brother Dante. He now joins his wife, Henedina Bella; daughter Mia Grace; brothers Floro, Antonio, Wilberto, and sister Greta.

Born May 27, 1944 in Gasan, Marinduque, Recto shot to fame as a photojournalist at the then Times Journal—one of only three daily broadsheets allowed during the Marcos regime—when he shot a series of “Hail Mary” photos after mediamen were ordered by soldiers to drop to the floor just as shots rang out at the tarmac.

His hand never left the shutter, his camera atop his head, even as he could not see what was going on down at the tarmac, Recto recalled of that moment. But the very dramatic photos that emerged, especially of the then opposition leader’s white-clad body being dragged into a military van, went around the world. His photos were among those submitted to the Agrava fact-finding board

Biz, sectoral groups seek ‘full, fair accounting’ in Pharmally investigation

By Butch Fernandez

T

@butchfBM

HE chief prober in the ongoing Senate inquiry of P11 billion in Pharmally contracts to supply masks and face shields signalled Sunday that senators have no intention of needlessly prolonging the inquiry into the Duterte administration’s use of pandemic funds.

However, the Senate Blue Ribbon panel is committed to render a complete report to give the people the true picture on the supply contracts for face masks and face shields, as well as test kits for Covid-19, bagged by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., according to Senator Richard Gordon, Blue Ribbon chairman.

Also on Sunday, 13 major business and sectoral groups reminded “all parties to pursue and cooperate with this investigation to the fullest extent allowed by law. Our frontliners and the Filipino people deserve a full and fair accounting.”

The groups, in a statement joined by several leading universities, said the context—it being a pandemic where resources are scarce and people dying—“would make the wrongdoing particularly onerous and deserving of the full force of sanctions on its perpetrators that our justice system provides,” if the allegations raised in the hearings are proven correct.

Gordon also made it clear in a radio interview, when asked for comment on President Duterte’s order barring Cabinet members from further appearing in Senate

hearings, “We [senators] respect Cabinet members asked to appear before the Senate.”

He, however, invoked a provision in the law that “if called to appear and you do not, you are liable for contempt.”

Still, Gordon hastened to assure that “we are not asking for their arrest,” but noted that the Revised Penal Code can be invoked if they ignored the invitation.

“They [witnesses invited to testify at Senate inquiry] will not be arrested but they can be charged for disobedience under the Revised Penal Code if they ignore Senate summons,” added Gordon, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.

At the same time, the senator said the focus of the probe by the Committee on Public Accountability is guided by the rule that “all laws require due diligence, even in calamity.”

Meanwhile, in their “Statement on Investigation of PPE Purchases,” the 13 big sectoral and business groups said: “The allegations, testimonies, and documents provided regarding the use of public funds meant to acquire items to minimize the threat to the lives of our citizens occasioned by the pandemic are very sobering.”

If these are proven untrue, “the public may view it as yet another exercise in politically motivated drama but, sadly in this case, would be another blow to the unity and faith we need to fight and recover from the pandemic.”

See “Biz sectoral groups,” A2

RECTO tasked by then President Marcos to investigate the assassination.

Mercene was an air-traffic controller and private pilot for 18 years before being bitten by the journalism bug. Forced to choose between his government job and being a reporter, he chose the latter.

He told colleagues he never regretted it, because, throughout his rich, illuminating reportage on aviation for decades, his network of friends and sources, not to mention his knowledge in the field, served him in good stead in his job as journalist.

Besides the airport beat, Mercene was often tapped to cover stories in Defense, and produced some excellent reportage on the work and hazards of courageous Air Force pilots tasked to do rescue and humanitarian work during calamities. One such reportage, published in Teddyboy Locsin’s newspaper TODAY, gave a detailed, technical account of how PAF airmen, at great risk to themselves, continued with the race to rescue, at nightfall and despite rains and winds, scores of people stranded on rooftops in Pampanga after lahar flows from monsoon rains swamped their villages.

Continued on A2

Restore ₧9.6-B cuts in 2022 budget of DepEd–BBM

S

ENATORS were urged to restore nearly P10 billion in cuts in the 2022 budget of the Department of Education and its attached agencies, ahead of deliberations in the chamber.

In making the call, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. pointed out that education is a continuing public expenditure that naturally grows proportionately with the burgeoning population.

“Therefore, budgetary allocation for public schools and related facilities, and new alternative learning systems and platforms on account of the pandemic, academic and support personnel compensation, scholarship and related academic entitlements and continuing education for teachers should be spared from budgetary cuts,” he stressed.

The former senator explained: “This is the only way Philippine education can keep up with international standards and make Filipino graduates globally competitive.”

Marcos stressed that education is crucial to the country’s development and Congress should exercise its power of the purse to ensure that budgetary constraints would not hamper the concerned agencies from carrying out their functions properly.

“How can our country progress if education remains in dire straits because the institutions in charge cannot operate well for lack of budget?”

Marcos asked aloud in a statement at the weekend.

Marcos was reacting to reports that the Department of Budget and Management slashed the budget of the DepEd and its attached agencies in the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress.

The Commission on Higher Education sought P62.3 billion for 2022, but it was reduced to only P52.6 billion on the recommendation of the DBM, or a reduction of P9.6 billion.

Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

Monday, October 4, 2021

B1

Megaworld to infuse Uptown Bonifacio assets into Mreit

M

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

egaworld Corp. said it will inject some of its office and commercial assets inside Uptown Bonifacio into Mreit Inc. by 2023 to bulk up its real estate investment unit.

The company, however, did not identify the properties it will infuse into Mreit. To date, Uptown Bonifacio, the parcels of land owned by the group of businessman Andrew Tan

within the Ayala’s Bonifacio Global City (BGC), has close to 331,300 square meters of completed office and commercial projects. Another 70,000 square meters of prime of-

fice spaces are set to be completed in three years, the company said.

“These prime office and commercial assets can be potentially injected into Mreit. With BGC having the highest office rental rates among major business districts in the country, these fresh assets can truly bulk up Mreit’s portfolio, increase its rental revenues, and of course, grow the distribution yields for our investors,” Mreit President and CEO Kevin Andrew L. Tan said.

In 2022, Tan said Megaworld will inject some 100,000 square meters of prime office assets from Eastwood City, McKinley Hill and Iloilo Business Park into Mreit.

Mreit’s initial portfolio for its ini-

tial public offering (IPO) consists of only 10 prime office buildings covering around 224,431 square meters in Megaworld’s developments in Eastwood City in Quezon City, McKinley Hill in Taguig and Iloilo Business Park.

Uptown Bonifacio’s office properties are home to some of the biggest names in the IT and BPO industries.

A new tower, Worldwide Plaza, will be the future headquarters of the Philippine Global Service Center of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., the leading global banking and financial services provider. The 25-storey, built-to-suit office tower has been touted as the largest single office

leasing transaction in Philippine real estate industry in terms of total space leased to a single company and transaction value in 2018.

“Once all of the seven office towers in Uptown Bonifacio are completed, the township will have the biggest office portfolio among our 27 township developments. We look forward to having some of these as-

sets become part of Mreit,” Tan said.

Mreit’s shares were listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange last Friday.

Its share price gained P0.60 to close at P16.70, up from its IPO price of P16.10. It climbed as much as P17.16 during the day, but succumbed to profit taking at the close of the trading session.

Group defends Pasig River Expressway project

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

A

n environmental think tank took up the cudgels for San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposed P95-billion Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) project, saying opposition to the project is “premature.”

“They seem ready with their guns even if the detailed plan has yet to be presented. Why?” BenCy Ellorin, an environmentalist and convenor of the Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and the Environment said in a statement.

The 19.37-kilometer PAREX of SMC Infrastructure will traverse the cities of Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasig, and Taguig.

Last month, SMC signed a supplemental toll operations agreement with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways for the construction of PAREX which gives

SM Prime to hike use of clean energy

S

hopping mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc. said it will expand its energy source portfolio, favoring clean energy, on top of installing solar panel on the roofs of its facilities across all of its business segments over the medium term.

The company said it will increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity consumption by more than half across all of its business segments by the end of next year. This is in support of the Department of Energy’s program of moving up the renewable energy supply component of the country to 35 percent by 2030.

On top of diversifying energy suppliers, SM Prime will also expand the use of solar roof decks in its various properties to partly meet the electricity requirements of its business operations.

“Sustainability has always been a part of SM’s strategy and we are continuously exploring ways to promote environmental consciousness in our operations and developments. We are now embarking on a program to utilize more of renewable energy in our business operations to minimize environmental impact,” SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim said.

As of the first half, SM Prime has eight facilities under the DOE’s Retail Competition and Open Access scheme that are utilizing clean energy in its operation with a total capacity of 7.7 megawatts. Through the program, the number of facilities using clean energy will be increased to more than 50, with a combined maximum capacity of 140 MW. VG Cabuag

Ramon Ang’s SMC a 30-year franchise to build and operate the PAREX along the Pasig River banks within 36 months.

The company will shoulder the P95-billion cost to build PAREX, with no taxpayer or government money used.

The project, however, was met with criticism and skepticism.

In defense of the project, Ellorin said the issues raised against the projects are “conjectures and premature.”

He said the group would rather engage the project proponent, San Miguel, to ensure the fulfillment of its plan to integrate mass transport system through the bus rapid transit (BRT), bike lanes and the protection and enhancement of heritage and historical sites along with the project.

“There is also no showing yet in any disclosed documents that certain heritage and historical sites would be destroyed, while the issue of the proj-

ect covering the Pasig River seems a wild claim,” said Ellorin.

The group said SMC’s plan to spend P2-billion for Pasig River rehabilitation, the bus rapid transit, and bike lanes, is “a laudable example of integrating environmental restoration in major infrastructure development projects.”

It also lauded SMC President Ramon S. Ang for pushing the bus rapid transit, a modern mass transportation system.

The project, Ellorin said, could become a model of green infrastructure, and “one that enhances environmental rehabilitation instead of contributing to the degradation of host ecosystems.”

The hybrid expressway project is touted to be the country’s first green hybrid highway.

“It is good that the environment has been placed front and center in this project,” said Ellorin.

SMC will separately undertake

the clean-up and rehabilitation of the Pasig River alongside the PAREX project. The Filipino company earmarked P2 billion for the extraction some 3 million tons of silt and solid waste from the river to improve the river’s carrying capacity and flow, thereby mitigating flooding and improving the water quality of the river.

A rehabilitated river, according to SMC project planners, would make possible the safe use of the river as a mode of transportation.

The company will build a six-lane elevated expressway that will run along the banks of the river, from Radial Road 10 in Manila to C-6 Road or the South East Metro Manila Expressway in Taguig. Once operational, PAREX will link the eastern and western cities of Metro Manila and will connect to the Skyway system—realizing the vision of an integrated elevated road network that will link the north, south, east, and west corridors of the capital.

Corp. B, Double Dragon Properties Corp., Manila Mining Corp. B and Nickel Asia Corp.

thematic in the upcoming quarters.”

Tantiangco said, the local market’s 10-day exponential moving average of 6,922.66 points as of October 1 is seen as its initial support followed by its 50-day exponential moving average of 6,814.24. The market’s resistance is seen at the 7,000-7,100 range.

STOCK-MARKET OUTLOOK Last week

The lack of trading catalysts caused share prices to fall last week and the main index to remain at the 6,900-point level even after Mreit Inc. debuted on the local bourse.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 27.93 points to close at 6,923.60 points.

The main index was up for most of the week, but the rise was not enough to counter its fall on Tuesday and on Friday, the listing day of Mreit.

Average daily transaction for the week was higher at P8.27 billion, while foreign investors, which made up some 37 percent of the trades, were net sellers at P1.52 billion.

Other subindices also ended mixed. The broader All Shares index was up by 2.87 points to close at 4,326.51, the Financials index fell 14.34 to 1,412.45, the Industrial index rose 40.91 to 10,300.34, the Holding Firms index was down 27.67 to 6,894.28, the Property index declined 65.43 to 2,989.88, the Services index climbed 25.54 and the Mining and Oil index retreated 38.99 to 9,397.55 For the week, losers edged gainers 141 to 80 and 29 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers were Semirara Mining and Power Corp., GMA Network Inc., Ginebra San Miguel Inc., Liberty Flour Mills Inc., Euro-Med Laboratories Phil. Inc. and 8990 Holdings, Inc. Top losers were Ever-Gotesco Resources and Holdings Inc., APC Group Inc., Concrete Aggregates

This week

Share prices may mimic last week’s movement as investors are looking for catalysts to trade.

The market will look at September’s inflation data, which will be out next week.

“If the September inflation rate comes out to be significantly higher compared to August’s 4.9 percent, then we may see a pessimistic reaction in the bourse. The rising global oil prices with the Brent crude standing near the $80 per barrel mark is also seen to pose a downside risk. If the rally of oil prices continues, then it may cause negative sentiment in the market since it is expected to strengthen inflationary pressures in the country,” Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco, senior research analyst at Philstocks Financials Inc., said.

“Investors, primarily those offshore, may also monitor the peso which has shown weakness this week. If the peso depreciates further this week, it may cause more foreign fund outflows which in turn would weigh on the local bourse.”

Broker 2TradeAsia took note of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ inflation forecast of 4.8 percent to 5.6 percent for September.

“We have to underscore the demand-pull impact coming from holiday and election seasons. In this case inflation hedges and by extension, interest rate hedges, may go

Stock picks

Broker Regina Capital Development Corp. gave a cut loss rating on the stock of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (MBT) after its price has been trading below its key short- and long-term moving averages since mid-September despite several attempts to settle higher.

“MBT reached as high as P44.65 intra-day but eventually broke down from its month-long support level of 43.90 yesterday. The indicators suggest that the stock’s downtrend would persist in the next few days. The next support to test is MBT’s year-to-date low of P43,” the broker said.

Metrobank shares closed last week at P44 apiece.

Meanwhile, the broker advised to buy when it support price of P109.95 holds for the stock of BDO Unibank Inc. as its movement last week solidified the stock’s resistance at P113.50, though its technical readings show mixed results.

“The mostly-bearish signals could further weigh on BDO’s stock price and put the immediate support of 109.95 to the test,” it said.

BDO shares closed Friday at P112.30 apiece. VG Cabuag

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Monday, October 4, 2021

www.businessmirror.com.ph

New unit of Solar PHL aims to expand local solar farms

S

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

olar Energy Zones Inc. (SEZ), a new subsidiary of Solar Philippines, wants to host the solar power projects of other power firms.

This move is meant to address the shortage of solar sites so the country’s largest power companies

can soon have their own largescale solar projects.

“Our aim is no longer to com-

pete with the country’s power companies, but to enable them to build projects, to ensure that solar soon becomes the largest source of new energy in the Philippines,” said Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste.

SEZ, which is independent from Solar Philippines’s power plant business, is currently finalizing agreements for 10,000 hectares, mostly near its existing projects in Batangas, Tarlac, and Nueva Ecija.

“Despite the significant demand for new solar plants, there is a scarcity of sites. Our SEZ’s will make it easy for any of these power companies that decide to build solar to locate in these zones and start construction that same year,” Leviste noted.

The SEZ setup is similar to the solar parks of India, where companies co-locate solar projects in large shovel-ready sites with common facilities that benefit from economies of scale.

Converge founder bats for reciprocity in telco investments

B

ring it on. This was the response of Converge ICT Solutions founder and CEO Dennis Anthony H. Uy when asked about his stand on the call of some sectors to fully open the country’s telecom sector to foreign players.

“I welcome foreign investors.

However, I also want the governments of these foreign players to give Philippines companies a reciprocal treatment,” Uy said in a recent one-on-one online inter-

view with the BusinessMirror.

“For example, if I am going overseas to invest, will they also welcome me? They must give Filipino investors fair and equal treatment.”

Uy said it would be quite unfair if foreign telcos are allowed to operate here and compete against the local telcos while Filipinos will have a hard time or be prevented from investing in other countries.

“I will repeat. It should be reciprocal.”

“This would not be possible had we not begun the development of these sites six years ago, when others did not believe that largescale solar would be viable. Now the power industry is convinced that it is, we are making available these sites to help others enter the market,” Leviste said.

Solar Philippines will be announcing over the coming months several projects of other power companies to be constructed in its zones over the next five years.

He said the capacity of these will be multiple times greater than the country’s total solar capacity to date, making solar a major share of the country’s energy mix.

Solar Philippines had said it would build over one gigawatt of projects in Batangas, Cavite, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.

Last June, it announced a plan to build a 225-megawatt solar facility in Nueva Ecija. Leviste said the facility is going to be the largest of its kind in the country.

mutual funds

October 1, 2021

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year per share Return*

Y-T-D Return

Stock Funds

Dennis Anthony H. Uy

The House of Representatives passed in March 2020 House Bill 78 which aims to amend the Commonwealth Act 146 or the Public Service Act that allows foreign ownership of telecommunications and transportation businesses which also removes the 60-40 rule on foreign ownership.

Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman voted against the measure because it contradicts Section 11 of Article XII of the Constitution which gives majority (60 percent) ownership, operation, control and management of public utilities to Filipino citizens or to Filipinoowned corporations or associations.

Nevertheless, Uy said Congress should have included a reciprocity clause that indicates that foreign players should not be state-owned or state-controlled.

“If we are competing against a state-owned company, we will not stand a chance because of their huge resources.”

He said the Senate raised good points by raising the issues of reciprocity and entry of state-owned companies.

Earlier, Senators Panfilo Lacson and Risa Hontiveros dissented on the plan to exclude telecommunications from the definition of public utilities in the amendatory bill for the 85-yearold Public Service Act now being rushed through the Senate.

Lacson said the new version of the PSA might run into a “constitutional challenge” because it contravenes the objective of the 1986 Charter framers, which clearly articulated that telecommunications as a public utility must be controlled by Filipinos.

Hontiveros warned of “grave consequences on national security” if telecoms would be classified as a non-public utility as this would enable Chinese players to gain control of a crucial sector.

Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a

222.06

15.02%

-3.52%

-3.71%

-2.26%

ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a

1.5804

46.1%

4.61%

2.3%

20.37%

ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0653

17.94%

-7.33%

-6.62%

-2.16%

Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.7417 11.65%

-5.56% n.a.

-8.75%

First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.7726 13.33%

-1.68% n.a.

4.18%

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

21.34%

-0.74%

-1.47%

1.86%

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

5.0332

0.7465

15.56%

-3.19%

-5.44%

96.22

15.37%

-6.13% n.a.

-5.54% -2.39%

PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a

45.7218

18.24%

-1.72%

-2.34%

Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

477.39

14.77%

-1.56%

-2.82%

-2.36%

Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d

1.0944

25.39% n.a. n.a.

-0.26%

Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a

1.2455

26.08%

0.38%

-0.81%

6.62%

Philequity Fund, Inc. -a

34.9001

20.51%

-0.95%

-1.26%

0.37% -2.57%

Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a

0.8895

16.78% n.a. n.a.

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a

4.6949

18.89%

-1.03%

-1.71%

-2.01%

Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

785.78

19.02%

-0.93%

-1.73%

-1.97%

Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a

0.711

18.42%

-5.18%

-4.84%

-1.1%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.6275

19.28%

-3.04%

-2.84%

0.1%

Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.8968 18.59%

-1.29%

-1.89%

-2.28%

United Fund, Inc. -a

-1.49%

-1.08%

-1.26%

-1.25%

-1.87%

3.2769

18.25%

-3.85%

Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 105.5404 19.05% -0.78%

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

$1.1393

9.96%

3.67%

4.48%

-5.29%

Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.778

18.38%

10.76%

11.13%

6.29%

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

1.6763

8.73%

0.85%

-1.5%

0.46%

ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a

2.2141

9.34%

0.4%

-1.37%

-3.12%

First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.645

11.57%

1.91%

0.15%

0.69%

First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.1968 NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a

15.09% n.a. n.a.

1.9658

7.95%

2.66%

0.58%

-0.07%

PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a

3.6792

7.59%

2.02%

-0.75%

-2.92%

Philam Fund, Inc. -a

16.4748

7.8%

1.98%

-0.71%

-2.75%

Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a

2.0617

9.04%

0.44%

-0.62%

-1.41%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.5733 11.11%

-0.31%

-1.32%

0%

6.73% n.a. n.a.

-3.63%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9855 Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.9058

10.9% n.a. n.a.

-4.57%

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.8955

12.95% n.a. n.a.

-4.03%

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a

15.32%

2.21%

0.9073

-0.39%

-1.54%

-0.66%

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

$0.03782

-2.68%

2.55%

0.98%

-3.27%

PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b

$1.0633

3.43%

2.6%

2.42%

-5.9%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.6886 13.78%

8.26%

7.77%

3.9%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a $1.2057 6.02%

4.7%

4.07%

0.29%

0.54%

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

373.11

1.35%

2.99%

2.39%

ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.9276

-1.2%

1.22%

0.16%

1.44%

Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a

3.2418

1.25%

3.37%

4.18%

0.82%

Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a

2.2542

-1.63%

2.05%

1.2%

-1.92%

First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4315 -0.66%

3.17%

1.67%

-0.88%

Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a

4.4489

-3.68%

4.89%

1.16%

-3.91%

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a

1.3169

0.43%

3.97%

2.63%

-0.33%

Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a

3.9747

0.46%

4.65%

2.1%

-0.66%

Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a

1.0318

-0.38%

5.27%

1.53%

-1.12%

Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.2001

0.67%

5.06%

2.54%

-0.19%

Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a

-0.06%

4.35%

1.84%

-0.8%

1.7409

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

$487.86

1.98%

3.08%

2.06%

ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a

Є220.21

1.45%

1.08%

0.74%

0.79% 0.45%

ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1926

-3.67%

2.09%

1.13%

-6.81% -2.26%

First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.026 -1.14%

1.59%

0.71%

PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b

$1.0301

-5.1%

0.01%

-1.48%

-5.5%

Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a

$2.4875

-0.12%

4.64%

1.66%

-2.07%

Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0628456 2.42%

3.38%

2.04%

0.88%

Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1391 -1.37%

2.75%

0.44%

-2.62%

2.55%

0.73%

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

130.77

1.25%

2.97%

First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0554 0.98% n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Peso Starter Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.3106

1.54%

2.75%

2.55%

0.7% 1.06%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0588

0.91%

1.56% n.a.

0.49%

Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d 1.3252

31.76% n.a. n.a.

17.32%

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -a,d

$0.97

4.3% n.a. n.a.

-1.02%

a - NAVPS as of the previous banking day. b - NAVPS as of two banking days ago. c - Listed in the PSE. d - in Net Asset Value per Unit (NAVPU).

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

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

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance

Govt insurer to bare tack to stop financial bleeding

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

T

HE management of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.

(PCIC) is set to present its financial status and computation of contingent liabilities before its newly-reorganized board of directors.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who now chairs the reconstituted PCIC Board, said he has ordered the management of the government-owned and governmentcontrolled corporation’s (GOCC) to report on October 7. The chief of the Department of Finance (DOF) said the information to be presented during Thursday’s Board meeting should include an outline on how the PCIC should be managed and initial ideas about possible reinsurance coverage.

Moreover, the PCIC management is also expected to present expansion of the insurance coverage to include more crops and how PCIC can provide parametric insurance compared to its current policies.

Apart from stanching the firm’s financial hemorrhage, Dominguez said during the new Board’s first meeting last September 24 that their immediate task include reorganizing the corporation and determining how the GOCC “can provide better insurance coverage to Filipino farmers.”

The DOF chief said he has since pointed out that for the past two decades, the PCIC has been heavily reliant on subsidies from the national government, which has amounted to over P23.3 billion.

In addition, the PCIC received P5.3 billion from the Agri-Agra Fund since 2015. About P4.5 billion is being proposed as a subsidy to the PCIC for 2022.

Dominguez said he expressed concern this “trend is not sustainable.” He added he also urged the board to find ways “to ensure that the Filipino farmers—PCIC’s primary stakeholders—get the most value for their money from the insurance premium subsidy being received by the PCIC from the national government.”

Board Member Rolando L. Ma-

casaet also suggested that the PCIC look into the possibility of adopting Philippine Financial Reporting Standards 4, which covers insurance contracts, so that the GOCC can properly prepare its financial statements.

The new Board is now composed of the following: Dominguez as chairman; Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar as vice-chairman; and, PCIC President Jovy C. Bernabe, Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) President-CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo and Macasaet, president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System, as members.

One representative each from the private insurance industry and the subsistence farmers’ sector (preferably representing agrarian reform beneficiaries, cooperatives and/ or associations) have yet to be appointed to complete the composition of the 7-person body.

Given the new composition of the PCIC board of directors, the Board also reconstituted its Committees on Governance and on Audit and Risk Management.

Dominguez earlier said the PCIC should provide increased insurance coverage to farmers with lower premiums, while determining how much the government is losing because of the lack of adequate insurance coverage in the agricultural sector.

He added that the PCIC should engage the services of an actuary accredited by the Insurance Commission in performing the valuation of its actuarial reserve liabilities.

Through the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 148, President Duterte reorganized the Board of Directors of the PCIC and transferred its attachment from the Department of Agriculture to the DOF. The EO said the move would “ensure that its operations are rationalized and monitored centrally in order that government assets and resources are used effectively and the government’s exposure to all forms of liabilities, including subsidies is warranted and incurred through prudent measures.”

US Fed seen doing best to avoid taper tantrum

T

HE Federal Reserve is doing its best to avoid the taper tantrum of 2013 as it moves toward curbing its bond buying. Ironically for Treasuries investors, 2021 could turn out to be even worse than eight years ago.

The latest bond selloff—triggered by a hawkish shift in the Fed’s signal on its policy path—has left the Bloomberg US Treasury Index down 2.2 percent this year, on track for the first annual loss since 2013, when it declined 2.8 percent.

With key measures of inflation surging and coronavirus cases starting to ebb, investors and strategists from firms such as Societe Generale SA and UBS Group AG are bracing for more losses this quarter. Confidence in that view may only grow with the release of monthly jobs data next week, which is forecast to show hiring accelerated in September.

“It may not be a straight line higher, but there’s some catchup to do” for bond yields, said Leslie Falconio, head of US fixed-income asset allocation at UBS Financial Services. “Our expectation is that consumer demand will recover from the setback” of the past few months, when the resurgent virus slowed economic momentum.

Falconio expects 10-year Treasury yields to rise to around 1.75 percent by year-end, around their peak for 2021. The yield reached about 1.57 percent this past week—the highest since June—before buyers started to nibble.

After several months of stability, global bond markets started to slump last month after central banks including in the US and the UK signaled a move to reduce pandemic-era stimulus to head off inflation.

Traders boosted bets that the Fed

will start raising rates late next year and lift them almost three times by the end of 2023. A power crunch across Europe and China is also keeping bond investors on edge.

There are plenty of forces that could limit a further selloff. Lawmakers are locked in a standoff over raising the US debt ceiling, with the government weeks away from a possible default, in the estimate of the Treasury. And in China, growth is cooling amid a property-market slowdown and a power shortage.

But so far, international investors don’t seem to be swooping in with significant purchases, a dynamic that has capped Treasuries declines in the past.

The market is hardly anticipating a repeat of the rout eight years ago, when then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke triggered a surge in yields after he suggested the central bank could begin to reduce asset purchases. In that episode, 10-year yields jumped more than 100 basis points in four months.

Jobs crossroads

BUT traders are now turning to the September labor report for the next potential catalyst for higher yields.

With the Fed all but teeing up November as the likely announcement of a plan to reduce its asset purchases, the payroll report Friday could ratify that view by offering fresh signs of broad economic strength. The median forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is for a gain of 470,000 jobs in September, double the previous month.

Investors have been tilting toward an extended selloff. A JPMorgan Chase & Co. survey showed that a net 25 percent of its clients were short Treasuries as of Monday, the most since early September.

Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Monday, October 4, 2021

B3

Bank dollar lending shrank in Q2 on credit slowdown

By Bianca Cuaresma

W

@BcuaresmaBM

HILE local loans managed to climb to the growth territory in August, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed that dollar loans extended by banks still contracted in the second quarter of the year.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno reported that as of end-June this year, outstanding loans granted

by Foreign Currency Deposit Units (FCDU) of banks stood at $16.2 billion. This is lower by $170 million—or by 1 percent—than the

end-March 2021 level of $16.3 billion as principal repayments exceeded disbursements.

FCDUs refer to a unit of a local bank or a branch of a foreign bank authorized by the BSP to accept deposits in non-peso denomination.

This is pursuant to Republic Act 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines, as amended.

As of end-May 2021, a total of 76 BSP-supervised entities are allowed to engage in FCDU activities. These include 46 universal and commercial banks, 21 thrift banks, and 9 rural and cooperative banks.

The BSP said the decline in FCDU loans may be attributed to lender banks’ tighter credit standards, which resulted in a slowdown in their lending operations and credit activity.

The borrowers’ reduced working capital and funding requirements relative to pre-pandemic levels amid economic slowdown and availability of other sources of funding may also have contributed to the decline.

The maturity profile of the FCDU loan portfolio during the period remained predominantly medium- to

long-term debt. These are debts payable over a term of more than one year. Medium- to long-term debt represented 78.9 percent of total loans during the period, lower than the 79.9 percent level as of end-June last year.

Of the total 67.1 percent outstanding loans to residents, 40.2 percent went to the following resident industries: power generation companies at 17.7 percent; merchandise and service exporters at 14.6 percent; and public utility firms at 7.9 percent.

Gross disbursements in the second quarter of 2021 reached $14.1 billion, 11 percent lower than the previous quarter’s figure. The BSP said this is mainly due to the decrease in funding requirements of an affiliate of a branch of a foreign bank.

Similarly, loan repayments were lower by 11.6 percent.

PSBank launches mobile app for opening online account

P

HILIPPINE Savings Bank (PSBank) announced it has launched a mobile application (app) for opening a peso savings account.

“What used to require at least a visit to the bank is now replaced by an online account opening service through one’s smartphone and the mobile app,” the 62-year-old bank said through a statement. The bank said the account opening only requires one valid identification card and a “selfie.”

According to the bank, its app allows customers to perform tasks

such as bills payment, fund transfers, mobile check deposits, time deposit placements, toll RFID and telecommunications reload, loan application and account opening.

“Our customers’ safety is our number one priority. This is the reason why we continuously strengthen our digital infrastructure so that Filipinos can do their banking transactions whenever they want and wherever they are,” PSBank Senior Vice President for Marketing Emmanuel A. Tuazon was quoted in the statement as saying. “Supplementing today’s consumer lifestyle, this new

feature allows customers to do more despite staying indoors.”

PSBank’s online account opening service completes the bank’s suite of digital services, designed to keep in step with its customers’ ever-evolving needs, the bank said. The mobile app offers a wellrounded and best-in-class user experience, from real-time account management to savings growth and security, it added.

The bank said customers may also open a maximum of two accounts online. New customers may also request a debit or prepaid Mastercard

for their newly-opened deposit account and have it ready for pick up at any of the bank’s branch or delivered to their registered mailing address.

“Our clients can attest that we constantly innovate to make banking simpler and so much easier,” Tuazon said.

“This time, innovation becomes our tool in helping Filipinos safeguard their health. Trust that we will keep on harnessing digital technologies and continue to upgrade our industry-leading product and service offerings for our customers,” he added.

Perspectives Alphabet shelves plans for bank accounts in app Securing the cloud–the next

A

LPHABET Inc.’s Google is shelving plans to add bank accounts to its payment app, becoming the latest tech giant to dial back its ambitions for financial services.

For years, Google has said it’s working on adding bank accounts from partners such as Citigroup Inc. and Bank of Montreal to its revamped app. The idea was that Google Pay users would be able to use the app to apply for so-called Plex checking and savings accounts from 11 banks.

“Our work with our partners has made it extremely clear that there’s consumer demand for simple, seamless and secure digital payments for online and in-store transactions,” a spokesman for Google said in a statement. “We’re updating our approach to focus primarily on delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.”

Google has tried, and struggled, to become a primary medium of commerce—a goal that’s also proven elusive for rivals like Facebook Inc. The Plex accounts were just one part of a broad overhaul of the Google Pay app, which also allowed users to link up their existing bank accounts and credit cards and search for discounts when setting out to shop or dine. Since its debut in 2015, Google Pay—originally called Android Pay—has amassed 150 million users in 30 countries.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Google scrapping its bank-account plan.

Work on updating the Google Pay app —wh ic h consu mers mostly rely on to send money to friends or for online shopping—began under Caesar Sengupta. He was vice president of the payments business and over-

chapter in public services

C

Alphabet Inc. said it is shelving plans to include a bank account in a Google pay app. Bloomberg News saw Google’s Next Billion Users initiative until his departure in March. Sengupta was replaced

by Bill Ready, a former PayPal Holdings Inc. executive, in April.

By the time Ready took the reins, the Plex account project was behind schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A slew of noteworthy executives departed the company and rather than pushing ahead, Ready decided to abandon the effort.

Since leaving Google, Sengupta founded a financial technology company called Arbo Works, and has recruited several of his former colleagues in his effort to “to rethink an industry that is primed for change.”

Among his new employees are Felix Lin, the former vice president of partnerships for Google Payments; David Shapiro, the former chief business officer of Next Billion Users at the tech giant; and Edward Chiang, a former director of product management. In total, Arbo’s website lists a dozen employees—in addition to Sengupta—all of whom came from Google. That level of attrition made it harder to get Google’s Plex accounts off the ground. Bloomberg News

LOUD has gone mainstream and, as one of the crucibles of the new digital economy, innovative cloud services, platforms and infrastructure are helping to deliver high levels of scalability, flexibility and resilience. Cloud solutions are helping to unlock leading capabilities for government bodies pursuing workforce productivity gains, enhanced efficiency and new ways to meet rapidly evolving consumer expectations.

Many organizations, governments included, are still in the early stages of their migration to cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), grappling with issues that include stubborn legacy architecture, data privacy compliance and the role of cloud providers versus the organization. Others may be more advanced in their adoption of increasingly popular Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Meanwhile, almost every organization today relies on some form of cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) for standard office productivity tools, online training, enterprise-wide HR management platforms and more.

Keeping sensitive government data secure

AS governments migrate to various cloud services, security professionals have anxiously witnessed the increasingly sophisticated efforts of cyber criminals to exploit cloud technology that inherently broadens and complicates enterprise security challenges. Governments have been understandably cautious, if not reluctant, to simply shift all their data to the cloud—as some of their data is highly sensitive and protects national interests.

Governments should first understand exactly what data they hold,

and what data is appropriate for the cloud. Some data may be too sensitive and should never leave on-premise data centers. But, aside from this—key questions remain.

Do you have a shadow IT issue? If so, your shadow cloud problem may likely be more extensive. Has your IT development team missed a few security controls on a product/service that’s due to go live in a week? Your cloud development-and-operations (DevOps) team may likely be planning to launch dozens of new products and/or services to the public at the same time, and each needs to be managed appropriately. Challenges of this nature can often arise from a false sense of security regarding your cloud services.

Major cloud service providers offer a robust suite of security controls and cyber defenses that are designed to outperform typical network and application controls.

But unless those controls are configured correctly and tuned to an organization’s threat landscape and security processes, they may not be effective. And unless security governance adapts to the culture and mindset shift that comes with cloud adoption and agile DevOps, the security team can risk rapidly losing control of its estate. Adopting a false sense of security in the cloud can be costly.

The excerpt was taken from the KPMG Thought Leadership publication entitled “Securing the cloud —the next chapter in public services.” © 2021 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG global organization of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Ltd., a private English company limited by guarantee. All rights reserved.

For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg.com.ph.

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

Who is driving the great resignation?

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By Ian Cook

also which of these employees can likely be retained with targeted interventions. For example, after extensive analysis, the trucking company found that drivers who had less experience and a remote supervisor were much more likely to resign than more-experienced drivers and those receiving inperson support.

ccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. Resignations peaked in April and have remained abnormally high for the last several months, with a recordbreaking 10.9 million open jobs at the end of July. How can employers retain people in the face of this tidal wave of resignations?

1. Resignation rates are highest among midcareer employees.

Employees between 30 and 45 years old are responsible for the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average jump of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021.

While turnover is typically highest among younger employees, our study found that over the last year, resignations actually decreased for workers in the 20 to 25 age range (likely due to a combination of their greater financial uncertainty and the reduced demand for entrylevel workers).

There are a few factors that can help explain why the increase in resignations has been largely driven by these midlevel employees. First, it’s possible that the

shift to remote work has led employers to feel that hiring people with little experience would be riskier than usual, since new employees won’t have the benefit of in-person training and guidance. This would create greater demand for those in midcareer, giving them greater leverage in securing new positions.

It’s also possible that many of these midlevel employees may have delayed transitioning out of their roles due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, meaning that the boost we’ve seen over the last several months could be the result of more than a year’s worth of pent-up resignations.

And of course, many of these workers may have simply reached a breaking point after months and months of heavy workloads, hiring freezes and other pressures, causing them to rethink work and life goals.

2. Resignations are highest in the tech and health care industries.

While resignations actually decreased slightly in industries such as manufacturing and finance, 3.6% more health care employees quit their jobs than in the previ-

WWW.FREEPIK.COM

Addressing the root causes of these staggering statistics starts with better understanding them.

To explore what has been driving this recent shift, my team and I conducted an in-depth analysis of more than 9 million employee records from more than 4,000 companies. This global data set included employees from a wide variety of industries, functions and levels of experience, and it revealed two key trends:

3. Develop tailored retention programs

ous year, and in tech, resignations increased by 4.5%. In general, we found that resignation rates were higher among employees who worked in fields that had experienced extreme increases in demand due to the pandemic, likely leading to increased workloads and burnout.

Employers must take a datadriven approach to improving retention

These trends highlight the importance of taking a data-driven approach to determining not just how many people are quitting, but who exactly has the highest turnover risk, why people are leaving and what can be done to prevent it. The details will look different in every organization, but there are three steps that can help any employer more effectively leverage data to improve employee retention:

1. Quantify the problem

Before you can determine the underlying causes of turnover at your organization, it’s critical to quantify both the scope of the

problem and its impact. First, calculate your retention rate using the following formula: Number of Separations per Year ÷ Average Total Number of Employees = Turnover Rate You can use similar formulas to identify how much of your turnover is coming from voluntary resignations, versus from layoffs or firings. This will help you identify exactly where your retention problem is coming from.

Next, determine the impact of resignations on key business metrics. When employees leave an organization, remaining teams often find themselves without key skill sets or resources, negatively impacting everything from quality of work to bottom-line revenue. It’s important to track how increased turnover correlates with changes in other relevant metrics in order to get a full picture of the costs of resignations.

For example, a trucking company I worked with identified that what appeared to be a small increase in turnover due to a nationwide driver shortage was in fact costing them millions of dol-

lars in hiring and training resources. Quantifying the problem both helped leaders get the internal buy-in necessary to address it and informed decisions around what kind of retention interventions would be most effective.

2. Identify the root causes

Once you’ve identified the scope of your retention problem, it’s time to conduct a detailed data analysis to determine what’s really causing your staff to leave. Ask yourself which factors could be driving higher resignation rates. Exploring metrics such as compensation, time between promotions, size of pay increases, tenure, performance and training opportunities can help to identify trends and blind spots within your organization. You can also segment employees by categories such as location, function and other demographics to better understand how work experiences and retention rates differ across distinct employee populations.

This analysis can help you identify not just which employees have the highest risk of resigning, but

Now that you’ve identified the root causes of turnover at your organization, you can begin to create highly customized programs aimed at correcting the specific issues that your workplace struggles with most. For example, if you discover that people of color are leaving your organization at a higher rate than their white peers, a diversity, equity and inclusionfocused approach may be called for. If you find that time between promotions correlates strongly with high resignation rates, it may be time to rethink your advancement policies.

You may discover that a lack of effective data infrastructure is hampering your ability to make these sorts of data-driven decisions. One higher-level intervention that may be necessary is to invest in an organized, user-friendly system for tracking and analyzing the metrics that will inform your retention efforts.

Adopting a data-driven retention strategy isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort to do it right, especially in the current market. With greater visibility into both how serious your turnover problem really is, and the root causes that drive it, you’ll be empowered to attract top talent, reduce turnover costs and ultimately build a more engaged and effective workforce.

Ian Cook helps leaders elevate their human resources strategies and programs through the effective use of people analytics.

The SEC is serious about cybersecurity. Is your company?

By Stephen Riddick

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his summer, the US Securities and Exchange Commission signaled a significant change in how it thinks about what constitutes a threat to companies: It now considers cyber vulnerabilities to be an existential business risk. This was evident in fines levied against two companies over inadequate disclosures of cybersecurity issues. In mid-August, the SEC announced that Pearson PLC had agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors following a 2018 breach and theft of millions of student records. And in June, the SEC announced another settlement and a $500,000 fine against real estate services company First American Financial Corp. for lack of disclosure controls following the discovery of a vulnerability in its system that had exposed 800 million image files, including Social Security numbers and financial information.

These fines signal a major shift, and one that could profoundly change the way companies think about cybersecurity threats, communicate internally about these threats and disclose breaches.

Businesses are required to properly disclose “risk factors” in SEC filings to inform the investing public about the risks that may come with the stocks they purchase.

These risks can include competitive threats, natural disasters,

supply-chain issues, economic downturns, political events, public-health issues, trade wars and cybersecurity incidents. Disclosures detail the operational risk investors face from the threats and detail their potential impacts on the company’s critical business operations, revenue, market share and reputation. While companies have to maintain proper controls for how they disclose the information to regulators, historically there have been few regulatory repercussions from the SEC for companies that suffered cyberattacks.

This, of course, was never sustainable. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was created to ensure transparency and fairness in the capital markets. While the act doesn’t specifically require companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents, the SEC has been ramping up its warnings that it considers them a serious issue. In 2011, the agency clarified that significant cybersecurity-related risks and incidents need to be disclosed. And a 2018 update to guidance cited the “ongoing risks and threats to our capital markets” from cybersecurity incidents.

These updates—and their emphasis on the real risks that lax cybersecurity poses—reflect the state of the world right now. Cybersecurity breaches can ultimately harm a company’s financial condition and share price. In addition to the costs of remediation from a cyberattack and loss of custom-

ers, revenue and reputation, there could be shareholder lawsuits, customer lawsuits, increases in insurance premiums and increased scrutiny from external auditors and the board of directors. Cyberattacks can distract management and trigger customer audits of a company’s cybersecurity defenses, which can lead to the involvement of outside counsel and other third parties, and significant added expenses.

Corporate leaders can take these steps to address this shift:

1. Create a disclosure committee composed of director- and senior directorlevel employees

This committee should conduct surveys every quarter to ensure the company is aware of any material anomalies in the financial, legal, operational and cybersecurity realms that should be disclosed to senior executives, the board of directors, external accountants and, potentially, the SEC. T his due-diligence process provides support for the certifications that the CEO and chief financial officer make to the SEC every time 10Qs and 10Ks—required quarterly and annual financial reports, respectively— are filed, and is designed to make sure the CEO and CFO have the information they need to avoid any potential disclosure-related liability. The committee should either have an information secu-

rity leader as a member or consult with information security leaders before each meeting.

2. Don’t wait too long to disclose

A pp r op r i ate m e m b e r s o f management, senior executives, the CEO and the board of directors need to be informed about cybersecurity risks, incidents and their business impacts in a timely manner—and if a public disclosure is necessary, it should be made promptly.

In the First American Financial case, six months passed between the information security team becoming aware of the breach and the company’s public disclosure of it. The SEC seems to be saying, at the ver y least, that six months is too long for a public company’s disclosure controls and procedures to kick in and ultimately generate public disclosure of a breach. This is notable because the SEC has not seen fit to immerse itself in the internal affairs of public companies regarding cybersecurity before now.

Ultimately, the timing of disclosure depends on the facts of each case. These include whether the breach is material and the SEC ’s 8 -K regulations, which generally impose a four-day disclosure requirement to report significant unscheduled events or changes relevant to shareholders or the SEC, are triggered;

whether state or federal laws are implicated; and whether agreements w ith third parties are implicated.

3. Understand your risk by building visibility into your assets

Use vulnerability management tools to assess the overall corporate and information technology environment by taking an inventory to identify what assets are in your environment, their criticality to business operations and their overall exposure. This will help security teams prioritize which issues require immediate attention based on business risk, such as applying patches to critical systems.

4. Regularly conduct forensic assessments of the company’s cybersecurity systems and all known and potential internal and external threats

Once security leaders have analyzed the results and have recommendations, share the takeaways with the C-suite so they have a regular snapshot of the risk level.

5. Be prepared to disclose cybersecurity issues such as vulnerabilities, breaches and other cyber incidents before the full scope of the incident is understood

Update disclosures as the details become more clear, financial consequences are quantified

and other repercussions emerge.

Carefully determine what the impact is on the company of the incidents, how they could a d v e r s e l y a f f e c t o p e r at io n s and finances, and be prepared to divulge exactly when senior management and the board were informed.

Going for ward, we will see greater scrutiny on how companies hand le the disclosure of cybersecurity matters. The Biden administration has been laser focused on creating greater transparency with cybersecurity in an attempt to improve ou r nat ion’s defensive c apabilities in the face of nonstop ransomware and other attacks.

In strategic guidance provided in March, President Joe Biden listed cybersecurity defenses as a top priority for our countr y’s national security, the first time cybersecurity was designated as such.

Regulators will expect more transparency from public companies that experience cyberattacks and other incidents that can have material financial consequences.

The more visibility companies have into their cyber-risk the more effectively they can address it. This means less risk for their investors and a healthier marketplace.

Stephen Riddick is general counsel at Tenable, a cyber exposure platform.

Style

BusinessMirror

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Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Monday, October 4, 2021

B5

Beatrice Luigi Gomez: Trailblazer Taguig on top. Beauty-wise, Cebu City was the top choice for all the judges. Personally, her being gay was a plus point for me as this can stir up interest in her during Miss Universe [run].”

As the reigning Binibining Cebu, Bea has the privilege of being under the tutelage of couturier Cary Santiago. Her national costume was created by upcoming designer Axel Que. She was scintillating in her Albert Andrada LuxeSport swimwear, and was a glamazon in her Amato Couture by Furne One evening gown.

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DAY after her triumph as the new Miss Universe Philippines 2021, Beatrice Luigi Gomez gained widespread (though not universal) adulation as the first openly gay winner of the country’s top beauty title. But the humble Cebu City athlete and navy reservist, 26, said in an interview: “Honestly, I haven’t been highlighting my LGBTQI+ advocacy kasi for me it’s something na we should normalize...’Yung idea na we exist. So to be the first-ever crowned LGTQIA+ member, for me, it’s not a big deal. People should appreciate and learn from it.”

She’s got a point. She’s an icon. She’s a legend. She is the moment.

BEAUTY IN BRAVERY BEA has been playing sweet music with her girlfriend, DJ Kate Jagdon, her “Happy Pill,” since 2015. On April 25, 2019, she gave a glimpse of her gender expression and identity on Instagram: “Nonbinary...sometimes I’m Beatrice/Bea, other days I feel like being Luigi. It’s about being feminine and masculine at the same time.” On her way to winning Binibining Cebu 2020, over 50-plus candidates, Bea was asked: What makes you beautiful? Without batting an extended eyelash, she replied, “I guess what makes me beautiful is my bravery, and being true to myself. To tell you guys honestly, I have a girlfriend, I have tattoos, and I’m very proud of my imperfections, and I guess that is what makes me beautiful.”

Our country being a bastion of Christianity (and bigotry), of conservatism (and hypocrisy) and closedmindedness (and ignorance), Bea faced tremendous backlash for her unapologetic candor.

“I’ve been criticized a lot for winning the Binibining Cebu crown for being gay. I just didn’t feel like I owe anyone my identity because the people who know me personally love me just the way I am, especially my family whose opinions matter to me the most, and so I decided to always be true to myself,” she posted on her Facebook account on June 20, 2020.

“If being gay didn’t make God happy, why then does He continue to bless me and give me the strength to overcome life’s every challenge? I only truly became happy and lived life to the full when I started becoming honest to myself.”

In a feature on www.preview.ph on September 2, Bea said: “As beauty queens, our No. 1 job is to be [ambassadors] of the things that we believe in. As a representative of the LGBTQIA+ community, the goal here is for people to see us, to notice us, and [to] know that we have a lot to offer to our communities. At the end of the day, I just want everyone [to be] accepting of who we are and what we can do.”

At the Top 10 casual interview portion at Miss Universe Philippines, she was asked: Do you think the Philippines is ready to send a member from your community to the Miss Universe pageant?

“I honestly believe that our country has definitely been [come] a long way in battling for equality, especially for the LGBTQIA+ community. Our country has been very supportive and I think we are definitely

ready to send someone, an LGBTQIA+ member, to the Miss Universe.”

UNDER-THE-RADAR BEAUTY I ASKED fashion designer Jojie Lloren, who was

one of the judges on the Miss Universe Philippines finals night on September 30 at the Henann Resort Alona Beach in Panglao, Bohol, what made Bea the unanimous choice of the judges.

He replied: “The final Q&A placed Cebu City and

QUEER QUEENS STILL, it is distressing, but hardly surprising, how steeped internalized homophobia is within the LGBTQ+ community. I just wish we should all be happy that Bea won. To be dismissive of her chances at the international finals is a great disservice to us.

That a lesbian/nonbinary will be competing at Miss Universe is not unique, but Bea being open and proud makes her instantly iconic.

The Audrey-like Miss Kosovo Marigona Dragusha, second runner-up at Miss Universe 2009; and Spain’s Patricia Rodriguez, first runner-up at Miss Universe 2013, and Sofia del Prado, Top 10 at Miss Universe 2017, all came out after their pageants. The most high-profile LGBT former queen, Miss USSR 1991 Julia Legimova, second runner-up at Miss Universe 1991, is married to the Czech-American tennis legend Martina Navratilova.

Israel is the best country in the intolerant Middle East for LGBTs. Gays can serve openly in the Israeli military, and Bea’s being a Philippine Navy reservist can work to her advantage. In the beauty-pageant front, Talleen Abu Hannah was the first transgender contender at Miss Universe Israel, placing in the Top 4 in 2018. Incidentally, Fil-Am transgender Kataluna Enriquez, Miss Nevada, will compete at Miss USA 2021.

Being LGBT isn’t a hindrance to performing well at Miss Universe. For the LGBTQ struggle, representation is important. So let us revel in this victory. Never take visibility for granted. n

Luxury brand among stars in Venice filmfest A CAST of luxury SUVs, sedans, coupes and cabriolets swapped road for red carpet at the recent 78th Venice International Film Festival.

Against the stunning backdrop of the Lido, stars of the big screen arrived on the red carpet in various Lexus models for the opening ceremony at Sala Grande where the famous Italian actor Roberto Benigni received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Lexus’ passion for the “seventh art” was told through the eyes and experiences of Lexus Brand Ambassador Edoardo Leo, the acclaimed actor, director and screenwriter, who explained how qualities that make cinema unique are mirrored in the values of the Lexus brand. The partnership between the magic of cinema and Lexus was forged by a shared desire to create truly unique and unforgettable emotional experiences, through elements that define the distinctive character of the final product: attention to detail, craftsmanship, innovation and vision.

This character is embodied in the all-new NX luxury mid-size SUV, which

made its debut at the festival. The NX expands Lexus’ vision of electrification through advanced new plug-in technology delivering the highest levels of performance and efficiency, while its distinctive new Tazuna cockpit reflects the human-centred philosophy which lies at the heart of Lexus design.

The new NX also offers a nextgeneration multimedia and connectivity system alongside leading-edge technologies for greater safety, comfort and convenience.

Edoardo Leo also highlighted the collaborative work which Lexus has engaged in to help the entertainment sector. Following an acutely difficult period for the arts, Lexus is supporting “Poltrone Rosse”, a crowdfunding initiative with UNITA, the National Union of Theatre and Audiovisual Interpreters, to assist performers, especially women during pregnancy.

Lexus has been the Official Car of the Venice filmfest for five consecutive years.

More information can be found at www. lexus.com.ph.

Penelope Cruz

TimothÉE Chalamet and Zendaya

Jake Gyllenhaal

‘True Beauty’ actor is the face of beauty campaign

Korean actor Hwang In-yeop has appeared in a number of dramas, including the web drama W.H.Y. and other projects, such as Freshman (2019), The Tale of Nokdu (2019) and 18 Again (2020).

It was in True Beauty last year where he played the role of an angry young man quietly grieving over the death of his friend, when more people started to take notice of Hwang In-yeop. He was the second lead in the drama but he received as much attention as the lead stars. In fact, True Beauty gained more viewers largely because of Hwang In-hyeop.

Hwang In-yeop lived in Davao City for four years when he was younger, way before he became a model and made his acting debut.

In a video for BYS Philippines, of which he is the new endorser, Hwang In-yeop said he hopes to

visit Davao City in 2022 and, if ever, this visit will be the first time after 12 years of being away from the country. Hwang In-yeop is also the face of BYS Philippines’s new campaign “Uncover Beauty.”

Angie Goyena, iFace general manager, said the story of True Beauty tells about a girl with whom Hwang In-yeop falls in love with despite being ridiculed by their peers for her attachment to wearing makeup.

“This story is something that strikes a chord with our 2021 campaign ‘Uncover Beauty,’ and signing on Hwang In-yeop as our endorser is a statement about our stubborn assumptions concerning gender and beauty. This is an opportunity for us to smash stereotypes and shift away from standards, and also be that voice to help shape the way we see beauty.”

Hwang In-yeop’s likeness graces the packaging of the Skin by BYS Minis, a set of the brand’s best-selling skin-care products.

Mere months after the launch of Skin by BYS, it has slowly strengthened its foothold in the local skin-care scene and gained brand love and loyalty.

The range of Skin by BYS Minis, which contains Botaniceutical Plus-10, includes: n The Extra Gentle Milk Jelly Cleanser, a nonirritating formula suitable for all skin types. n The Extra Gentle Hydrating Balancing Toner, a hydrating toner formulated with hyaluronic acid that

helps restore skin elasticity and reduce fine lines. n The Extra Glow Brightening Serum, a lightweight serum rich in vitamin C and natural skin boosters including Papaya and Lime Fruit Extract. n The Extra Glow Face Cream, a brightening cream that leaves skin glowing. n The Extra Brightening Eye Cream, which brightens the skin around the eyes and helps diminish puffiness, thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties and other natural skin boosters. n The Extra Effortless Pore Perfecting Sunblock, a weightless sunscreen with broad-spectrum SPF 50 PA+++, as well as pore-blurring and sebumcontrolling properties. It has Green Tea Leaf Extract, which protects the skin against UV damage.

The serum, the face cream, and the eye cream have been reformulated to add BuleResisterWE, a polyphenol component of wine that aids in protection against exposure to the high-energy blue light emitted from screens, which cause premature aging.

Along with the six products, the set also comes with two limited-edition Hwang In-yeop photo cards.

If you’re a fan of K-drama and K-pop, you’ll know these photo cards are valuable especially since they won’t be reprinted again.

Skin by BYS is exclusively available at Watsons, The SM Store, and online on Amorfia, Watsons and ShopSM.

KOREAN actor Hwang In-yeop

B6 Monday, October 4, 2021

Song writing, photo contest winners announced

Beeinfotech PH bullish on data center growth as hyperscalers arrive in country

Reynaldo Huergas, Beeinfotech PH President and CEO

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ATA center services provider Beeinfotech PH (Bee Information Technology PH Inc.) is confident that the Philippine data center market is ready to cater to the needs of global hyperscale companies. This is due to a variety of factors, including the growth of enterprise cloud and data center adoption in the country, rising Internet use, and the recent improvements in the nation’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) capabilities.

Recent forecasts have revealed that developments in the Asia Pacific make the region a prime destination for hyperscalers.

According to Frost & Sullivan, APAC will lead all the other regions as the top data center market in the world by 2025. The firm also noted that the Philippines is expected to boom in data center growth, with an average increase of 24% in data center supply within the next three to five years. This was highlighted by the Department of Trade and Industry in a recent online event[1] announcing the arrival of hyperscale companies in the country.

“These projections show how the country’s ICT abilities have vastly improved throughout the years. It’s a testament that the Philippines is ready to take on a pivotal role in ensuring that the online services people around the world use daily and enjoy keep running through hosting the infrastructure of hyperscale companies within our shores,” said Reynaldo Huergas, Beeinfotech PH President and CEO. Hyperscale refers to the expansion of significant resources in a data center to quickly adapt to customer demand. The

companies that have this ability are mostly IT enterprises that deal with a lot of realtime data through their online services, such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Huergas notes that despite these companies having their own data centers, certain logistical considerations make it much more feasible for them to colocate or host infrastructure within data center partners that already have the facilities.

Beeinfotech PH’s own multi-million peso “The HIVE” facility launched in August, for example, has a 3,000-plus rack space wellsuited for scaling resources quickly.

“It will take companies years to build their data center, not just because of the construction itself, but due to several hurdles such as the paperwork and permits that need to be complied with first. By colocating resources to a local data center partner, hyperscale companies can deploy immediately to answer customer demand at once,” adds Huergas.

Philippines as the next premier data center hub for hyperscalers

BEEINFOTECH PH notes that several hyperscale companies have been eyeing the Philippines for a while now. The country’s positive connections with the East and West make it a gateway for both to expand to the fast-rising APAC market, while allowing companies within the region to make their mark on the rest of the world. Beeinfotech PH also cites that the surrounding data center hubs in other ASEAN countries have become too congested to support the critical compute zones needed by hyperscale companies.

The rising number of undersea cables

strengthening the country’s connectivity is also attracting global companies. Currently, there are 10 international submarine cable systems providing connectivity to the Philippines, and by 2024, there will be five more trans-pacific subsea cables connecting the nation to the rest of the world.

Beeinfotech PH also contends that the high-ranking Internet use of Filipinos makes expansion into the Philippines as lucrative as ever due to the possibility of tapping a digital-savvy market of nearly a hundred million online users.

“The high Internet usage of Filipinos translates to a profitable market for hyperscalers. But to reach them first, hyperscalers have to bring their resources closer by either expanding or colocating. The closer their presence is, the faster the delivery of their content will be, thus enabling them to attract and retain a significant audience,” said Maricar Nepomuceno, Beeinfotech PH Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning & Business Development.

The rising data center market in the Philippines is another reason for hyperscalers to show up. Beeinfotech PH is among the few data center service providers in the Philippines with the facilities to host hyperscale companies. In addition to extending truly telco-neutral and bespoke colocation services, its The HIVE facility offers an open canvas within its premises to meet all stringent requirements and allow hyperscale companies more freedom in their colocation methods.

For more information on Beeinfotech’s hyperscale-ready services, visit beeinfotech.ph.

Globe At Home delivers #WinsForAll with all-new Unli Fiber Up Plans

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HE UNLI FIBER Up Plans are Globe At Home's latest line of leveled-up home broadband plans that deliver faster, more affordable, and accessible internet so that every member of the household can create better experiences and embrace the new normal of their everyday life and work that is heavily reliant on technology.

The all-new Globe At Home Unli Fiber Up Plans 1499 and 2099, with up to 35mbps and 70mbps speeds respectively, give users faster connection through fiber technology. This enables them to attend online classes without interruptions; take clear video calls while working from home; share important files faster with improved upload and download speed; enjoy binge watching on streaming sites that quickly load, and many more. And with these daily online experiences now seamless, every member of the family can achieve success at home, fueling #WinsForAll. “Globe strives to provide the best for its customers through product innovations that uplift their everyday lives. Globe At Home’s newest offering is our way of enabling families to thrive and win in their personal and professional lives, even while staying home, as we forge ahead into the new future shaped by the pandemic,” said Barbie Dapul, Vice President for Marketing of Globe Broadband.

All-in fiber plans to power #WinsForAll GLOBE At Home is enabling #WinsForAll with its improved home connectivity bundled with a range of new health and lifestyle essentials,

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HE Civil Service Commission (CSC) announced the winners of the CSC National Song Writing Contest and Online Photography Contest held during the 121st Philippine Civil Service Anniversary celebration. The virtual awards ceremonies were streamed live on the CSC Facebook Page on 23 and 24 September, respectively.

From 11 regional entries, Donalyn N. Onilongo of the Department of Justice, Rizal emerged as 2nd Runner Up, Jackson Ray S. Sevillo of Iloilo National High School as 1st Runner Up, and Jerome Vincent B. Cruz of Social Security System, Angeles City as Grand Champion. The winners received PHP30,000, PHP40,000 and PHP50,000 respectively. Regional winners also received cash consolation prizes.

The CSC National Song Writing Contest, hosted by the CSC Regional Office IV, was held instead of the Government Choral Competition (GCC), which was temporarily suspended due to the ongoing pandemic. The winning original compositions were assessed on creativity and originality, melody, lyrics, and overall likeability, and will be used as performance pieces on the next GCC. Contest adjudicators included choral masters/musicians Mr. Arwin Q. Tan, Ms. Mary Katherine Trango-Cabral, and Ms. Cristina Cayabyab.

Meanwhile, the 2021 Online Photography Contest, hosted by the CSC Human Resource Relations Office, aimed to highlight through images the various ways civil servants or lingkod bayani have risen to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. Now on its second run, this year’s theme was Pagtugon ng Lingkod Bayani sa Patuloy na Hamon ng Pandemya.

The CSC received 423 entries nationwide, and 48 photos advanced to the national finals.

From these entries, Marianne D. Soriano from Pangasinan National High School

bagged 1st prize with her photo “Beyond the Four Corners”, featuring a teacher eagerly facilitating his synchronous online class on a pile of two black boxes as a makeshift table for his laptop and other learning materials outside a classroom where other teachers also conduct their school functions in ensuring the continuity of learning amid the pandemic.

Ms. Soriano received PHP15,000.

Evelyn P. Pidut from Muta Elementary School (Region II) came in 2nd place with “Bridging Future Through the New Normal Education”, while Ryan Rogon Poliran from the Department of Education (Region XI) came in 3rd place, receiving PHP12,000 and PHP10,000 respectively.

Contest judges included award-winning photographers and photojournalists, Mr. Fernando Garcia Sepe Jr., Ms. Xyra Cruz Bacani, and Mr. Pablo Beltran.

The Philippine Civil Service Anniversary has always celebrated culture and the arts during September, including major events such as the Government Choral Competition before the pandemic, and the online photo contest which promotes creative expression despite crisis.

MERALCO FULLY SUPPORTS THE GOVERNMENT’S BBB PROGRAM. Meralco crews conduct relocation of poles and electric facilities along Roxas Boulevard, near Redemptorist Road, Baclaran, Paranaque City. This project involved retirement of one (1) pole, installation of six (6) sub-transmission poles, and relocation of two (2) 115-kV lines, giving way for the ongoing construction of the Redemptorist Station of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project. The extension project aims to extend the existing LRT Line-1 system southward by an additional 11.7-km stretching from Baclaran, Paranaque to Bacoor, Cavite.

Despite the heightened community quarantine measures implemented by the government due to COVID-19 pandemic, Meralco personnel and its subsidiaries are continuously working hard to ensure safe, adequate, and uninterrupted electric service to its customers, and guarantee the timely relocation of its affected electric facilities to pave the way for the speedy completion of the government’s Build-Build-Build (BBB) infrastructure projects such as the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project.

MPIC ranks 1st in Sustainalytics ESG Risk Ratings among multi-sector holdings companies in the Philippines

M plus rich content, and entertainment.

Users can get a slew of exciting freebies such as complementary health services and limited-time access to streaming platforms filled with exciting movies, series, and educational shows, perfect for every member of the family.

The Unli Fiber Up Plan 1499 powers your home with 35Mbps Fiber speed for as low as P1499 a month. It comes with 1-year access to KonsultaMD, a subscriptionbased telehealth service that allows you to get professional medical advice from licensed doctors in just one click.

Meanwhile all Unli Fiber Up Plans 1699 and up come with fast, unlimited fiber connection; free landline; and unli calls to Globe and TM for 24 months. In addition to your 1-year access to KonsultaMD, you can now relax, kick back, and unwind with free 3-month entertainment access to HBO GO, Viu Premium, Amazon Prime Video, WeTV, and Upstream.

To top it off, Globe At Home has made it easy to apply for any of the plans online with just one valid ID. Upon approval, you can expect fast installation in just 48 hours.

Existing Globe at Home LTE and DSL customers can upgrade their current subscriptions to any of the Unli Fiber Up plans without extra charges. They also get a free modem, which can be installed at no extra cost as part of the new and improved connectivity experience offered by Globe At Home.

“Globe At Home’s Unli Fiber Up Plans are designed to cater to various needs and interests of our customers with faster, more affordable, and reliable connectivity, to empower every member of the household to realize their full potential and achieve wins for all,” added Dapul.

To know more about the exciting new Globe at Home Unli Fiber Up offers, log on to globe.com.ph/help/broadband/plans/unlifiber-up.html

ETRO Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) ranked first among multi-sector holdings companies in the Philippines and was recognized as an “ESG Industry Top Rated” company by Sustainalytics after receiving an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Risk Rating score of 12.8 as of May 2021. This score places MPIC in the “Low Risk” category of experiencing material financial impacts from ESG factors. The score positions MPIC in the top 4% of companies in Sustainalytics’ Diversified Financials Industry.

MPIC President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Ma. K. Lim said “Throughout our business, we adopt a precautionary approach by implementing cost-effective measures to manage and mitigate ESG risks in accordance with our long-term business objectives. We are grateful for institutions like Sustainalytics that enable us to effectively evaluate our risk management processes and benchmark against global best practices.”

Sustainalytics is a global leader in ESG research covering over 13,500 companies globally. Its ESG Risk Ratings are designed to help investors identify and understand financially material ESG risks and how they might affect the long-term performance for investments.

MPIC was assessed on its exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how it is managing those risks. This multidimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at an assessment of an ESG Risk Rating that is comparable across all industries.

“At MPIC, we go beyond mere compliance

with regulations and consciously aim to articulate and anticipate risks through strategies that future-proof our operations.

We identify the impacts of our activities at an early stage to mitigate any adverse effects.

From managing ESG risks and uncertainties, to creating opportunities and a future marked by human progress and inclusion, our work of making everyone’s lives better continues.” said Chaye A. Cabal-Revilla, MPIC Chief Finance, Risk and Sustainability Officer.

“Given the essential nature of the services our companies provide, we have a clear responsibility to foster a culture of sustainability that can create enduring value for our shareholders and society” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, MPIC Chairman. “Our Board and senior management embrace their role in driving MPIC’s long-term direction towards sustainable growth.”

MPIC is committed to helping achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by managing its impacts, improving its performance, and tracking its progress against the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Marketing BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, October 4, 2021 B7

(Almost) everything I know I learned from journalism Part One

PR Matters

B y Abigail L. Ho-Torres

1. There’s a story in everyone and everything.

On my junior year in college, I took a class called Specialized Reporting, which required us to keep a small notebook and pen handy: to jot down thoughts, ideas, and observations that may later be developed into stories. This habit stuck with me and was further reinforced when I did my internship at the Inquirer. My mentor Gerry Lirio, then the broadsheet’s City Editor, encouraged us interns to contribute articles for Tales of the City, which featured human interest stories from all over the Metro. He told us that everyone and everything has a story. It is

Campaign Spotlight: Coca-Cola launches ‘Real Magic’ brand platform, including refreshed brand identity and global campaign USA—Coca-Cola is inviting the world to celebrate the real magic of humanity in its first new global brand platform for the Coke Trademark in five years.

The “Real Magic” brand philosophy is rooted in the insight that magic lives in unexpected moments of connection that elevate the everyday into the extraordinary—a timeless learning that feels more relevant than ever in today’s hyperconnected yet divided world. Real magic happens when people get together and when what we share in common is greater than what sets us apart.

“We’re at an inflection point,” said Manolo Arroyo, chief marketing officer, The Coca-Cola Company. “The

WWW.FREEPIK.COM

I

SPENT the first decade of my professional life as a business journalist for a national broadsheet. I also worked as a stringer for wire agencies, an editor for international magazines and web sites, and, occasionally, a writer for a homegrown fashion magazine. When I decided to make the jump to the corporate world, I was not entirely sure if my 10 years in journalism have prepared me enough for my next chapter.

For one, I had no experience with a desk job. I was a beat reporter, so I was out on the field almost every single day. I got restless when chained to a desk for too long. For another, I had no idea how to operate in a corporate environment. As a reporter, I saw my beatmates significantly more than my own officemates.

We rarely reported to the office.

When we did, it was usually just for two to three hours—for staff meetings or roundtable sessions with sources.

Now already a decade into my career as a business communicator, I realized that my journalism training actually gave me more than enough ammunition to survive and even thrive. The seemingly simple things that I took for granted when I was still in the media helped me adjust to the corporate life and hone my skills as a public relations professional.

Below are some of those learnings.

up to us to coax those stories out and weave the words together for those stories to come alive.

This has served me well as a corporate communicator. Having this mindset allows me to see different angles to every story. I see problems and solutions as multifaceted and can be addressed and presented in different ways. If one solution does not work, another solution may do the job. This is also helpful for strategy formulation, stakeholder engagement, and program or campaign conceptualization and execution.

2. Research, research, research.

This cannot be stressed enough.

It is a journalist’s responsibility to report facts accurately and to provide media consumers as complete a story as possible. Before attending a coverage, interviewing a source, and writing a story, they have to do background research on what they will be covering. This allows journalists to have a better grasp of what angles to use, how to develop their stories, and how to package these in a way that is both relevant and interesting to the public.

Cor por ate com mu n ic ators have a similar mandate, just with

last 18 months have disrupted every aspect of life and presented us with a once-in-a-generation choice to go back to a binary, black-and-white way of seeing the world or help make the world a better place. “Real Magic” is about creating a movement to choose a more human way of doing things by embracing our unique perspectives.”

The “Real Magic” platform includes a new design identity for the Coke Trademark—which includes Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar—anchored by a fresh expression of the CocaCola logo. The “Hug” logo, inspired by iconic Coca-Cola packages wrapped with our signature trademark, was conceptualized by Wieden+Kennedy London. Coca-Cola engaged KnownUnknown, a global network of independent talent, to craft the visual identity, including all photography, animations and illustrations.

In addition, a group of photographers, artists and illustrators will bring the “Real Magic” concept to life. Their different styles will provide a variety of campaign imagery, with some artists creating more realistic depictions and others offering

different objectives. We have to frame our stories and positions well to positively influence consumers’ attitudes and behaviors.

The type, depth, and breadth of research depends on the communication objectives and target audiences.

3. Create and nurture relationships.

A n y com mu n ic at ion- re l ated profession relies heavily on relationships with stakeholders. For journalists, relationships with sources are important, as this allows not only better access to stories, but also enough trust and rapport for authenticity to really shine through. For public relations professionals, the stakeholder base is even wider, depending on area of specialization, issues and concerns, and program or campaign.

Knowing your stakeholders is important. Building and sustaining relationships with them is even more crucial, especially during these times of difficulty and change. Like reporters who keep in close touch with sources even when there is no story to be had, we also stay connected with our various stakeholders even

more abstract variations.

“This is the most diverse visual representation of the Coca-Cola brand in our history,” said Rapha Abreu, Global Vice President of Design, The Coca-Cola Company. “It is diverse not only in the creatives who helped bring ‘Real Magic’ to life and the people featured in the work, but also in the different photography and illustration styles, colors and treatments used.”

The goal of “Real Magic”, Arroyo said, is to significantly increase the Coca-Cola consumer base through an ecosystem of experiences anchored in consumption occasions, such as meals and breaks, and merged with consumer passion points like music and gaming. “‘Real Magic’ is not just a tagline.

We see it as a philosophy that transcends advertising and embodies all that is special about the brand,” Arroyo said, noting that it supports The Coca-Cola Company’s purpose to refresh the world and make a difference.

“It will serve as our North Star by shaping all expressions of the CocaCola trademark in its next chapter.”

The “One Coke Away From Each

when we do not need anything from them.

4. Serve your audience, not yourself.

I remember some of my journalism school professors and former editors reminding us that it’s all about the story, not the reporter.

Journalists should have as objective a view as possible so that only facts, and not opinions, are delivered to consumers. Editorials and opinion columns are the only exception. The story itself is the star. Reporters are the medium by which these stories shine.

In the world of PR, this applies to the programs and campaigns we serve to our audiences.

While stellar accomplishments are linked to your excellent planning, hard work, and good execution, try not to promote yourself too much, outshining even the results of your communication efforts. There is a thin line between building your personal brand and placing the spotlight on you. Let your work speak for itself.

5. Show, don’t tell.

Both journalists and corporate communicators have words as their strongest weapon. The evo-

Other” campaign represents the first creative experience under the “Real Magic” platform. Blending real and virtual worlds, “One Coke Away From Each Other” is a metaphor that celebrates our common humanity. The film, which launched digitally on September 27, asks what if Coca-Cola, as a symbol of togetherness, could bridge universes meant to be apart to create “Real Magic.” The film features three well-known gamers: DJ Alan Walker, Team Liquid’s Aerial Powers and Average Jonas.

Coca-Cola partnered with advertising agency BETC London to create the “One Coke Away From Each Other” campaign along with Colors Paris production company, as well as leading film director Daniel Wolfe and gaming and CGI specialist production partner Mathematic.

The campaign also features social, digital and out-of-home executions.

In select markets, Coca-Cola is running a code hunt beginning October 11 where fans can win prizes, including gameplay sessions with celebrity gamers. There are 25 codes hidden within the film. Through collaboration with the Brand Part-

lution of the media consumption landscape, however, has added photos and videos into the mix— a testament to how more visual media are viewed as more engaging to audiences.

This does not mean that the written word no longer has a place in this new media environment. Words continue to have power. Striking, well-thoughtout copy can spell the difference between a consumer just scrolling past your material and a consumer buying your product, contracting your service, or getting on-board with you on your c au ses. We l l- resea rc hed a nd well-written position papers and press releases can turn the tide of policy and public opinion in your favor.

These five points are actually commonsensical, but it does not hurt to be reminded of these seemingly basic things. In the conduct of our duties, we often get so caught up in the whirlwind of deliverables that we forget about the more fundamental areas of our role as communicators. It is always good to learn from others’ experiences, not just from our friends from the media.

We can all learn from each other, whatever we have done in the past and whatever we are doing now. And after the learning comes the doing.

(To be continued) PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. HoTorres is AVP and head of Advocacy and marketing of Maynilad Water Services Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.

We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to ask ipraphil@gmail.com.

nership Studio at Twitch, the interactive livestreaming service, gaming creators on Twitch will unlock another 10 codes with viewers during livestreams on their Twitch channels.

As a part of the campaign, CocaCola will award prizes to consumers who find and enter the hidden codes on a Coca-Cola micro site, in participating countries. Winners can receive their share of one of the largest-ever prize pools of Bits, a virtual good used to show support for Twitch streamers, as a part of the sweepstakes administered by Coca-Cola.

“Through the ‘Real Magic’ platform, we ultimately want to engage people very differently through an ecosystem of unique and ownable experiences,” Arroyo said. “‘One Coke Away From Each Other’ has been built for, and with, a community that demands something different than what they may have come to expect from Coca-Cola. In developing this campaign, we’ve partnered with the best creators, with gamers, with Twitch and with others to find our place in a reality unlike any we’ve known before. That’s tremendously exciting.”

Patafa sets up bubble training camp in Baguio

T

By Josef Ramos

HE Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) will set up its bubble training camp at the Athletic Bowl in Baguio City this month in preparation for next year’s Hanoi 31st Southeast Asian Games and Hangzhou 19th Asian Games.“We need this formal training camp because our athletes have not been training together since the March 2020 lockdown, so it’s almost two years now,” Patafa President Dr. Philip Ella Juico told BusinessMirror on Sunday. “We will continue monitoring our athletes abroad and develop team spirit among them.”

Patafa Marketing Communication Director Edward Kho said the association intends to open camp on October 3 to allow athletes from the provinces to adjust their schedules.

“Most athletes will be coming from the provinces and they have no flight bookings yet,” Kho said.

Kho said the camp is expected to last three months and will cost between P2 million and P3 million.

Forty athletes—including 2019 SEA Games gold winners Aries Toledo (decathlon), Clinton Bautista (hurdles), Sarah Dequinan (heptathlon) and Christine Hallasgo (women’s marathon)— will be in the camp.

The athletes will be joined by coaches Sean Guevara (head coach multi events), Dario da Rosas (head coach multi-events), Emerson Obiena (pole vault), Arniel Ferrera (discus, hammer and shot put), Danilo Fresnido (javelin), Joebert Delicano (jumps), Jeoffrey Chua (sprint hurdles), Jojo Posadas (sprints and jumps), Eduardo Buanavista (long distance), John Lozada (middle distance) and Julius Nierras (sprints).

They will be housed at the Baguio Vacation Apartment.

Foreign-based athletes— including Tokyo Olympians EJ Obiena (Italy) and Kristina Knott (US)—will continue training abroad, Juico said. The others are Eric Cray (Texas), Natalie Uy (Atlanta) and William Morrison (Indiana).

The Philippines clinched 11 gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals in athletics in the 2019 SEA Games.

Magsayo gets shot at world title vs Russell

M

ARK “MAGNIFICO” MAGSAYO finally earned a crack at a world title against reigning World Boxing Council featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. of the US. MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons said the hard work and sacrifice Magsayo underwent for years have finally paid off.

“Mark Magsayo is finally achieving his dream of fighting for the prestigious ‘green belt’ or for the world title,” Gibbons told BusinessMirror over the weekend. “It’s very amazing.

Everything has gone perfect for Magsayo after a lot of pain, suffering and ups and downs through his career.”

Gibbons said the date and venue of the 26-year-old boxer Magsayo’s has yet to be determined.

Magsayo (23-0 win-loss record with 16 knockouts) is the WBC’s No. 1 featherweight contender. The Tagbilaran City native won his last three fights

Sports BusinessMirror

B8

| Monday, October 4, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

ABUEVA KEYS MAGNOLIA’S GAME 1 WIN C ALVIN ABUEVA engineered a fourthquarter breakaway to lift Magnolia over Meralco, 88-79, in Game One of their best-of-seven semifinals series in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.

Abueva scattered eight points in a 20-3 Magnolia burst that gave the Hotshots a commanding 82-72 advantage with close to three minutes remaining.

The Hotshots didn’t look back after that enroute to the head start in the long semifinal showdown.

“We didn’t expect this to be an easy game, but a grinding game because you cannot set aside Meralco,” Magnolia coach Chito Victolero said. “They are here in the semifinals for a reason.”

“It’s very important to take Game 1 in this series,” added Victolero, who was slapped a technical foul along with Meralco’s Raymond Almazan for taunting.

Abueva finished with 13 points and cemented his bid for the Best Player of the

Conference award by also hauling down seven rebounds and making two steals.

He melted Meralco’s 69-63 lead early in the fourth period by leading that decisive run despite nursing four fouls.

“I’m thankful to Calvin [Abueva], I knew he wanted to play, so I told him to be careful,” Victiolero said,. “He helped us a lot in those crucial minutes.”

Ian Sangalang racked up 18 points as Abueva warmed the bench because of foils. He also had eight rebounds to compliment Paul Lee’s 17 and Jio Jalalon’s 12 points.

“Coach Chito [Victolero] challenged us to step up and we did our job,” Sangalang said. “We also handled our emotions in this game, we didn’t complain and we let the coaches do their job on the sidelines.”

The Hotshots outscored the Bolts, 27-15, in the final period after trailing 61-64 at the end of third frame.

The Hotshots redeemed themselves from a 94-95 loss in the eliminations last September 1 on Chris Newsome’s game-clinching layup. Magnolia squandered a 13-point lead in that loss.

TNT Tropang Giga withstood San Miguel Beer’s furious rally in the

1-1 weekend for Ravena brothers

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HIRDY RAVENA got back at elder brother Kiefer as SanEn NeoPhoenix beat Shiga Lakestars, 101-96, in overtime on Sunday in the Japanese B.League at the Ukaruchan in Otsu, Japan.

After losing to his elder brother on Saturday, 83-93, the 24-year-old Thirdy Ravena erupted for 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists to help NeoPhoenix exact revenge on the Lakestars and claim their first

win this season.

“It definitely felt better than yesterday [Saturday] because this is kind of the opposite from yesterday’s game. It was a team effort and it was very fruitful,” Thirdy, who finished with 11 points in Saturday’s game, said during the online news conference aired live by Tap Digital Media Ventures’ TAP Sports and TAP GO. Thirdy delivered the finishing kick in the last two minutes of the

I IMMENSELY enjoyed myself watching the B.League debut of Kiefer Ravena with the Shiga Lakestars versus his brother, Thirdy’s San-En Neophoenix, in a come from behind 93-83 win.

I must say that I did check on Japan’s professional basketball league a couple of years ago due to Ryo Tawatari

extension period for a 97-89 cushion NeoPhoenix never relinquished.

Elias Harris added 18 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks for San-En. Kiefer finished with 20 points and four assists while Ovie Soko also had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakestars. Kiefer also had 11 points, eight assists, three rebounds and three steals without any turnover in 25 minutes of action in Shiga’s win on Saturday.

Regulation ended at 85-all.

Josef Ramos

R

G

ALLOWAY, New Jersey—Inbee Park birdied three of her last five holes to match Jin Young Ko with a six-under 65 and leave two top South Koreans in the world tied for the lead Saturday in the ShopRite Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

Ko, the No. 2 player in the world, played in the morning on the windy Bay Course at Seaview and ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine. She had to settle for only one bogey on the back nine and was the first to post at 11-under 131.

Park is the No. 3 player in the world and putted well all day, her hallmark.

She holed a 30-foot birdie on No. 6 and had a six-foot par save on the next hole.

They were two shots ahead of ANA Inspiration winner Patty Tavatanakit, who birdied the final hole to cap off a bogey-free 65.

Brittany Lincicome (67) and Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark (68) were three shots behind going into the final round.

Filipino-Japanese Yuka Saso, meanwhile, carded a 70 and together with her opening 67, dropped from joint 11th to a share of 16th place at fiveunder.

The US Women’s Open champion’s round was marred by a double-bogey on the par-4 No. 12 but made eagle-three on No. 18 and also made four birdies and three bogeys.

Bianca Pagdanganan, on the other hand, submitted a one-under 70 to go three three-under after two rounds to share 32nd place.

Dottie Ardina also shot a 70 after a 71 and tied for 62nd at oneunder.

Ko has a recent history of playing her best golf at the end of the year.

She sat out most of the LPGA Tour season last year, staying home during the pandemic, and returned to capture the CME Group Tour Championship.

Now she sets her sights on a third victory in her last five starts on the LPGA Tour. That doesn’t include the Olympics, where Ko tied for ninth.

“I like it better than earlier in the year,” said Ko, who changed swing

YUKA SASO has yet to flash her championship form. AP

coaches late last year and feels all parts of her game are starting to come together.

Park won her first start of the year at the Kia Classic, but has been struggling of late by going six consecutive events outside the top 10.

“I remember putting good in Kia and then earlier in the season,” Park said. “And then middle of the season to the end of the season, not as good. I feel like this week is almost back to like where I was putting really good earlier in the season.”

Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, has not played since the US loss in the Solheim Cup a month ago. That leaves Ko and Park, both multiple major champions and former No. 1 players, to battle it out.

“Jin Young is really, really good player, too, so I think it’ll be really fun out there tomorrow playing with her,” Park said. “Obviously, you need some birdies out here to win tomorrow. Knowing that No. 2 player in the world is hunting for the same thing I am hunting for, definitely need to put some good performance.

Good motivation to play for.”

Not to be overlooked is Tavatanakit, the first major champion of the year, who is well within range.

“I was thinking since I’m two back, I would say 4 or 5 under tomorrow would put myself in a really good position because I know how good they are,” Tavatanakit said. “No pressure, no expectations. I’m just going to go out there and play golf, and hopefully I get up to where I think I should be.”

Pinoy ‘Skipman’ breaks Guinness record on to establish a new world mark of 40,980 skips after six more hours.

Pending recognition from the Guinness World Records, Alonzo, trained and mentored by Gadric Chusenfu, was overjoyed by his incredible feat.

He almost quit due to vexing cramps but was cheered on by family members, including De La Salle swimming team captain Benzi Yang, who helped him cool down on several occasions.

“I’m out of words, it is super overwhelming. Halfway through my legs were cramping. I didn’t expect talaga na maaabot ko pa and when you guys started cheering parang becoming

happy lang, suddenly mataas na pala number ko in that hour,” said Alonzo.

Julie Alonzo also thanked the people behind her son’s feat, especially Yang, saying: “Thank you so much Benzi for helping Ryan made the feat possible. You came exactly at the right time. You did all the legs shaking, stretching and ice cubes here and there.

And all the morale support and encouraging words ‘Go, go, go Uncle Ryan…

Ngayon ka pa mag-give up?”

Chusenfu said Alonzo trained like a marathoner as he went through strength, speed and endurance workouts just to make sure that he is physically ready for the challenge.

Brazilian teen enjoys new life after skateboarding success

RAYSSA LEAL: My life changed suddenly. AP

Josef Ramos

Watching the B.League

fourth quarter to escape with an 89-88 victory in Game One of their own best-of-seven semifinals series.

Tropang Giga almost squandered a 77-65 cushion early in the payoff period after the Beermen came to within jabbing distance, 88-89, on CJ Perez’s back-to-back baskets with 33 seconds to go.

But Marcio Lassiter couldn’t connect a floater at the buzzer allowing TNT to escape with the win.

Roger Pogoy finished with his conference-high 23 points while Jayson Castro added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists for TNT. Perez led the Beermen with 23 points. Josef Ramos

YAN ONG ALONZO displayed extraordinary speed and endurance and beat the Guinness world record for double under skips during the Jump to Greater Heights event at Ayala Malls Circuit Makati on Saturday.

Fondly called “Skipman,” the 34-year-old father of one bettered the previous high of 20,000 double skips when he made 21,327 double after six hours. In jump rope, a double under means a participant needs to jump higher than usual while swinging the rope twice under his feet.

Despite battling cramps, the son of Kumori Japanese Café owner went

in the US—split decision over American Rigoberto Hermosillo last October 3 in Los Angeles, knocking win over Pablo Cruz last April 10 in Connecticut and a spectacular 10th-round knockout win against Mexican Julio Ceja on August 21 in Las Vegas.

The 33-yearold Russell—31 wins (18

knockouts) and one loss—has lorded it over the WBC featherweight division since 2016.

Magsayo arrived in the US in July 2020 and has since been training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

THE Hotshots’ Calvin Abueva drives against the Bolts’ John Pinto.

Inbee, Jin share lead, Saso drops to 16th spot

who was on Terrace House 2019-2020. The latter is one of my favorite reality television shows, and Tawatari at that time was playing for the Yokohama Corsairs.

It took the move of Thirdy Ravena a season ago to increase my interest that was heightened further by the move of Kiefer Ravena, Kobe Paras, Juan and Javier Gomez de Liano, Dwight Ramos and Kemark Carino to Japan.

I love international basketball and that is why I enjoy the Asean Basketball League, the Euroleague, and now, the B.League. The National Basketball Association, of course, has gone global for some time now.

Locally, I am not a fan of this isolationist attitude that Filipinos have. The local National Collegiate Athletic Association in particular for not allowing foreign players.

Remember years ago when the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) had some Asian imports? They were treated like novelties rather than real players. And two seasons later, it was dead in the water.

The Filipino is selfish. Generally, he thinks the worlds revolves around him when it does not. He wants to have the world’s slice of cake but when it comes to sharing his own, he doesn’t want. All in the guise of protecting his own.

You can be sure every Filipino basketball player now has

L

IKE most 13-year-olds, Rayssa Leal woke up and began preparing for school. It was an important day because English and literature tests awaited.

She also had to help out with house chores and look after her seven-year-

old brother. At some point, she would also have to take care of her dog, a pug named Slink. But unlike most 13-yearolds, Leal also had to touch base with her staff and squeeze in a Zoom interview before her classes. She was also already looking ahead to her next

an eye to playing in Japan.

How the PBA reacts is anyone’s guess.

One can argue that the United States of America and Europe are so far ahead in sports they can afford to open their doors to foreign players. And yet, Japan, a technological leader is showing us the way.

There is a rub, in my opinion though, to how the B.League is set up.

At first I thought that having two imports play at the same time alongside the Asian import could hurt Japanese basketball. That leaves at any one time, two slots left for the homegrown players.

I can understand that B.League chairman Shinji Shimada, who also owns the Chiba Jets, disagrees and believes that it can only help local hoops and that it will force the locals to raise the level of their game. Sure it does, I just think they are better served having more home grown players on the court, and that they have a direct outcome on the game.

Yet, all these moves have been to increase awareness and participation of basketball in Japan which is a rapidly growing sport. Each B1 club needs an annual revenue of $285,000 to gain a license to participate in the division.

“work trip” coming up in a few days.

Life has been anything but normal for the Brazilian teenager who became an overnight sensation after winning a silver medal at the Olympics’ inaugural skateboarding competition in Tokyo a few months ago. AP

That they have 22 clubs in their professional league is a triumph.

Yes, the pandemic hurt them financially last year, but they have put measures in place—an emphasis on live streams to augment the limited live attendance that is allowed.

Incredibly, Shimada’s goal is to have half a million subscribers per month from the start of the season all the way to its end.

The internationalization of their game is something worth watching and you can be sure the neighboring Asian pro leagues will be watching.

I think too that part of the appeal of the league is it is in Japan, a most beautiful, interesting, and intriguing country. They are a first world country and the first in the post-World War II period to become an economic power. The “success” of the recent Tokyo Olympics and the strong finish of their home teams has elevated sports in their country.

While this pandemic is nowhere near done, how the B.League fares will also provide a template to all.

Right now, the B.League is every bit worth watching.

The B.League can be viewed at Tap Go. Check out the Tap Go FB page for details on how to subscribe.