BusinessMirror September 01, 2022 by BusinessMirror

By Andrea E. San Juan T HE Philippine IT and Business Process Man agement (IT-BPM) indus try is seen to grow by 8 to 10 percent in terms of revenue by the end of 2022, according to IT and Business Process Associa tion of the Philippines (IBPAP). A fter achieving record-high growth in 2021, IBPAP said in a statement on Wednesday that the country’s IT-BPM industry “is projected to increase be tween 7 to 8 percent in terms of full-time employees [FTEs] and 8 to 10 percent in terms of revenue by the end of the year.”In addition, with the fore casted growth for 2022, the sec tor is poised to fulfill Roadmap 2028’s vision of generating 1.1 million new jobs in six years. I n fact, IBPAP President and CEO Jack Madrid said at a virtu al press conference on Wednes day that foremost among the growth drivers for the industry over the next six years will be the “criticality of a digital-ready talent workforce.”

NTERNATIONAL concerns over the possible spread of the more infectious Omicron Covid-19 variant prompted the government to reimpose mandatory facility-based quarantine for all arriving passengers in the country. Acting Presidential spokesperson Karlo B. Nograles announced on Sunday that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) suspended the implementation of its Resolution No. 150A (s.2021), effectively imposing stricter protocols for all inbound

See “IT-BPM,” A2 TAIWAN FORCES FIRE AT DRONES FLYING OVER ISLAND NEAR CHINA THE WORLD ›› A11

PESO

‘Close borders, cut Omicron exposure risk’ See “Omicron,” A2 PESO EXCHANGE

Continued on A2 IT-BPM REVENUE SEEN TO GROW 8-10% IN ‘22 w P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 22 pages |

“As the BSP proceeds with the withdrawal of monetary accommodation, it will continue to ensure that domestic liquidity conditions remain conducive to sustaining the econom ic recovery, in line with the BSP’s price and financial stability objectives,” the Central Bank said. Bianca Cuaresma

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel M. Rosales said about 3.11 million coconut farmers and farm workers have been registered with the government since it started updating its registry following the enactment of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund law.

The new variant is a threat, especially with the holidays coming up and more foreigners being allowed to travel to the Philippines, De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas toldTheBusinessMirror.holidaysusually bring in Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are eager to spend Christmas with their loved ones, while foreigners living in temperate regions usually want to relax in tropical countries like the Philippines. This year’s influx of OFWs is expected to be heavier since many of them were unable to come home for the holidays in December 2020.

To note, IATF Resolution 150A had allowed fully vaccinated non-visa travelers from Green List areas to enter the country without the need for facility-based quarantine as long as they secure negative Reverse TranscriptionPolymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) test within 72 hours prior to their “Exceptdeparture. forcountries classified as ‘Red,’ the testing and quarantine protocols for all inbound international travelers in all ports of entry shall comply with the testing and quarantine protocols for ‘Yellow’ list countries,” Nograles said, citing the provision of IATF Resolution He noted Hong Kong, which has confirmed a case of the Omicron

THE growth of consumer prices likely remained elevated in August this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“On the other hand, if people would see names on the list and they think they are not coconut farmers or their details are incorrect, they can report it to the PCA for immediate action,” he added.

Net debt redemption means there were more debts repaid compared to the amount borrowed during the period. Meanwhile, gross foreign borrowings in the same period also contracted by 9.7 percent to P518.7 billion from last year’s P574.4 billion. This was raised through global bonds (P146.17 billion), program loans (P139.98 billion), euro-denominated bonds (P121.97 billion), a project loan (P86.41 billion), and yen-denominated samurai bonds (P24.19 billion). See “Borrowings,” A2

ENDING activity in the country contin ued to be strong in July amid high prices, as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a double-digit growth in loan expan sion during the month. he BSP said on Wednesday that out standing loans of universal and commer cial banks expanded by 12 percent yearon-year in July, the same rate of growth as inankJune. lending first collapsed into contrac tion territory by 0.7 percent in December 2020, as the restrictions forced by the pandemic af fected the local banking industry. n comparison, bank lending grew 13.6 per cent before the onslaught of the global health crisis in March 2020. he BSP said the sustained growth in bank lending and liquidity will support the recovery of economic activity and domestic demand. “ Looking ahead, the BSP will continue to ensure that liquidity and credit dynamics re main in line with the BSP’s price and financial stability objectives,” the Central Bank said in a statement.Brokendown, outstanding loans to resi dents rose by 11.9 percent in July follow ing the same expansion in the previous month.Outstanding loans for production activi ties increased by 11.6 percent in July after growing by 12 percent in June, driven mainly by the rise in lending for real estate activi ties (14.6 percent); manufacturing (16.2 percent); information and communication (29.3 percent); and wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles (9.3 percent). Similarly, the expansion in consumer loans to residents accelerated to 14.7 percent in July from the revised 10.9 percent in June due to the year-on-year increase in credit card loans, motor vehicle loans, and salary-based general purpose consumption loans. A t the same time, the BSP said outstanding loans to non-residents grew by 14.6 percent in July after a 16.4-percent uptick in the previ ous month. I n a separate report, the BSP also said do mestic liquidity—measured as M3—grew by 7 percent to P15.4 trillion in July from the revised 7.2-percent growth in June.

5.9-6.7%

w P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages |n Monday, November 29, 2021 Vol. 17 No.52 NATL GOVT BORROWINGS FOR 10 MOS DIP TO P2.75T Omicron risk of quarantine

BSP reports 12% growth in bank lending in July

NONIE REYES By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

Rosales explained that about 500,000 coconut farmers and workers were added to the PCA’s 2018 list that had about 2.5 million coconut farmers and farm workers. The PCA’s next step is to conduct an exclusion-inclusion procedure by making the updated farmers’ registry public, providing everyone the opportunity to check the veracity of the list, Rosales added. “The list will be posted in public spaces where people can easily see them. This allows everyone to see who are listed in the registry and if farmer doesn’t see his name then he shall coordinate with the PCA immediately,” he explained at a recent dialogue with coconut farmers.

ORE than 3 million coconut farmers and workers are now registered with the government’s registry, which serves as the basis for the number of people to be covered by the utilization of the P75-billion coconut levy fund.

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

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas M

I n its month-ahead inflation forecast, the BSP said inflation could have settled between 5.9 and 6.7 percent during the month. In July, inflation already hit a 4-year high at 6.4 percent. T he BSP said inflation for Au gust was driven by the continued increase in key food prices. This could, however, be offset in part by the decline in global oil prices, the reduction in electricity rates, lower meat and fish prices, and apprecia tion of the Lookingpeso. ahead, the BSP will con tinue to closely monitor emerging price developments to enable timely intervention that could prevent further broadening of price pres sures, consistent with BSP’s man date of price stability conducive to sustainable economic growth,” the BSP said in its statement.

BSP PROJECTS AUGUST INFLATION AT

The suspension of the rules for “Green List” countries will be in effect from November 28, 2021 to By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM lion). In the same period, there was also a net redemption of Treasury Bills amounting to P43.94 billion.

“My recommendation is to protect the borders. Do not allow people with a history of travel to countries with positive cases to enter,” Oplas said. “We should be more restrictive. [We have to be] more protective in terms of our Oplasmeasures.”saidthat while this will be a setback to some industries, this is a fair measure considering that this could help prevent placing the country in another strict lockdown, which, she said, the economy can no longer afford. “It is better that we do protective preventive measures than get exposed again. We have a lot to lose,” Oplas said. “We should do it now so that we can open just before Christmas. If it gets contained, we can open it again.”Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (ACERD) Associate Director Ser Percival K. Peña-Reyes said closing the country’s borders would be effective but should still adhere to the standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO). What is needed, Peña-Reyes told this newspaper, is for travel restrictions to be put in place swiftly and for government to be proactive in imposingPreviousthem.instances when the country had the opportunity to impose travel restrictions did not prevent the spread of Covid-19. That was mainly because the decision was not made immediately, he said. “ Kung papatay patay [If we’re slow] and we get caught flat-footed, [that’s risky] We were too reactive instead of proactive before. We should learn from that,” PeñaReyes said. “It’s a delicate balancing act. We need to push testing and tracing to be properly informed of our decisions. Blanket/shotgun approaches could have dire consequences on the economy.” RATES n US 50.4600 n JAPAN 0.4374 n UK 67.2329 n HK 6.4722 n CHINA 7.9013 n SINGAPORE 36.8968 n AUSTRALIA 36.2807 September 1, 2022 Vol. 17 No. 328 EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.2430 n JAPAN 0.4053 n UK 65.5793 n HK 7.1659 n CHINA 8.1393 n SINGAPORE 40.2253 n AUSTRALIA 38.5377 n EU 56.3499 n KOREA 0.0417 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9762 Source BSP (August 31, 2022)

n Thursday,

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario LOSING the country’s borders is one of the most immediate courses of action the government must take to prevent the latest Covid-19 variant, Omicron, from reaching Philippine shores, according to local economists.

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

FOCUS these days is once again on the dying salt industry in the Philippines, a “shameful” situation for an archipelagic country with one of the longest coastlines. From the few remaining salt beds of Barangay Santa Isabel in Kawit, Cavite and a repacking store in Parañaque City, rock salt makes its journey to consumers’ tables. Press Secretary Beatrix Cruz-Angeles said the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is coordinating with other agencies to conduct R&D programs to increase the production of marginal and artisanal salt makers. This would augment the implementation of BFAR’s P100-million Development of the Salt Industry Project for salt makers in Regions 1, 6 and 9.

The PCA official noted that the completion of the initial list of coconut farmers registry would be just in time for the expected rollout of coconut levy-funded programs as President Duterte is expected to sign the industry development plan in early 2022. Rosales said the PCA will not stop updating its list of coconut farmers and enjoined them to register in order to reap the benefits of the decades-long idled coconut levy fund. “We will not stop at 3.1 million. We hope that more individuals will register in our coconut farmers registry,” he said.

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

P resident Ferdinand “Bong bong” R. Marcos Jr. earlier said his administration will study the inclusion of nuclear power in the country’s energy mix. Up to lawmakers WHEN asked about her position on the proposal to abolish the Procurement Service of DBM (PSDBM), Pangandaman said she will defer to Congress on the matter. S he also reiterated her position to lawmakers to give the present administration under the leader ship of Dennis S. Santiago of PSDBM a chance to prove itself. Again, our procurement system is already clean and in order, and in fact, Atty. Dennis Santiago already made the issuance that will con centrate on the major mandate of PS-DBM, which is to procure noncommon use supplies,” Panganda man said. To further boost the credibility of PS-DBM, Pangandaman said it will use e-procurement and eshopping systems adopted by the national government. T he PS-DBM had been the sub ject of Commission on Audit (COA) reports on questioned pandemic supply purchases, for which the Department of Health turned over to it P42 billion of its funds; and the procurement of allegedly overpriced laptops for the Depart ment of Education.

Continued from A1 Lotilla...

A lbay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lag man, for one, said, “I fully support an increase in DOT’s budget and

O n the first day of the Sum mit, IBPAP said the industry will showcase its growth potential in headcount and revenues by 2028, as well as the global and local trends shaping the business landscape. Meanwhile, its Day 2 will center on panel discussions that will talk about the role of infrastructure in reinforcing the IT-BPM sector in the country; the greater impact of hybrid work on the employee experience; and global best prac tices when it comes to attracting and developing talent.

A sked whether DOT will be changing its current slogan, the still-popular “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” Garcia Frasco said the agency will “enhance it to reflect the current conditions [coming from the pandemic]” and strengthen the so-called Filipino brand that will emphasize the culture and heritage of the country. S he also assured Lanao del Norte, 1st district Rep. Moha mad Khalid Dimaporo that the Mindanao region will receive some 30 percent of the DOT’s proposed budget next year, for the support of tourism develop ment projects. T he DOT also sought a Tier-2 funding to create an Infrastruc ture Development Fund and a Tourism Contingency Fund, the latter to be tapped to help tour ism destinations quickly rebuild in the aftermath of a natural di saster or calamity. A sked by Gabriela Women’s Party-List Rep. Arlene Brosas how much of DOT’s budget will aid tourism workers who have lost their jobs, Garcia Frasco said it was “not DOT’s mandate” to pay out subsidies or provide ayu da and the like. As such, it has partnered with other government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Labor and Employment. In the National Capital Region alone, more than 520,000 displaced workers in the tourism sector received cash aid amounting to P3.1 billion last year, under a joint program be tween the DOT and DOLE with funds coming from the Bayanihan 2 Act.Of the total requested budget of P3.58 billion, P3.3 billion is al located for the Office of the Secre tary, P63 million to the Intramuros Administration, P204.62 million to the National Parks Development Committee, and P9.53 million to the Philippine Sports Scuba Diving Commission.Theagency also responded to questions on its use of funds, as pointed out by the Commission on Audit, but its officials assured lawmakers they had already imple mented some 97 percent of the lat ter’s recommendations. from

Continued from A14 DBM... Continued from A14

“ But I can assure you that we will try to adhere to the timelines that are in the department circu lar that I issued in 2007 on the renewal and approval of transfers and interest in the service con tract. I realize that the deadlines there are tight, but as much as possible, we would like to address these issues within the framework of that department circular,” he added.

Samuel P. Medenilla

“I think the unprogrammed funds are actually itemized for transpar ency of everyone,” Pangandaman said. Nuke free IN another development, DBM said its proposed P5.26-trillion national budget next year still has no provi sion for the proposed rehabilitation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. We have no budget for that,” Pangandaman said. Talksofthepossibleoperation of the unused and mothballed power plant surfaced as the government is now considering tapping nuclear energy to address the growing need for additional power.

BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.phThursday, September 1, 2022A2 News Continued

T he DOE would tap technical and financial advisors to help the agency review the technical and financial aspects of the pro posed sale. “So I want to assure you and the public that the De partment of Energy will exercise the utmost care and diligence in reviewing this proposal,” Lotilla hadThesaid.main objective is to ensure that the Philippine government and the Filipino people will be able to take full advantage of this resource and that within the framework of Presidential Decree 87, we look for ward not only to the extraction of the existing resource but that we also look to the full development of the other oil and gas resources of the country,” he said.

DOT seeks ₧3.5-B budget; no full recovery till 2025

BSP PROJECTS AUGUST INFLATION AT 5.9-6.7%

increase the Tieza subsidy so that we could build more infrastructure, and make us more competitive with our Asean neighbors, and create livelihood opportunities.”

T his was revealed by Tourism Secretary-designate Christina Gar cia Frasco at Wednesday’s hearing for the DOT budget at the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations. “Under present conditions, we will not be able to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2025,” she said. Under a medium scenario, for eign arrivals could hit 4.8 million by 2023, and on the upside or most optimistic scenario, as many as 6.48 million tourists. T he DOT is seeking a budget of P3.58 billion next year, although a number of legislators support an increase to help revive the tourism sector and give back jobs to workers, who lost them due to the pandemic travel restrictions.

Two weeks ago, the BSP mon etary board raised its main in terest rates by another 50 basis points to control inflationary pressures and expectations in the country. This came after an off-cycle hike of 75 basis points in July.BSPGovernor Felipe Medalla said the decision came as their latest baseline forecast for in flation has shifted higher for 2022. According to the latest BSP projections, average inflation is projected to further deviate from the 2 to 4 percent target range of the government for the year at 5.4 percent. Intheir June meeting, the BSP’s forecast for 2022 inflation was to average at 5 percent. C ontrastingly, inflation fore casts for 2023 and 2024 have de clined. Inflation for next year is now expected to hit 4 percent on average, down slightly from the 4.2 percent forecast in June. For 2024, inflation is expected to fall further into the target range at 3.2 percent from the 3.3 percent forecast in June. A recent survey also showed that private economists see infla tion averaging at 5.4 percent this year, parallel with the BSP’s latest forecast.Analysts, however, were not yet convinced that inflation will recede down to within-target for 2023. The survey showed that private economists’ mean infla tion forecast for next year is at 4.2 percent.Thetarget band for next year is still at 2 to 4 percent.

U nder the DOT’s proposed budget, some P1.3 billion will be allocated for the branding cam paign of the country. This is a sub stantial increase from the P309 million allocated this year. (See, “Not fun! DOT branding cam paign budget cut to P309M,” in the BusinessMirror , Febru ary 1, 2022.)

O n its final day, the Summit will focus on the Philippines’s refreshed value proposition through a panel discussion with government lead ers who will share insights on how to further elevate the country on the global IT-BPM stage.

THE Department of projecting(DOT)Tourismisforeign visitor arrivals of at least 3.23 million by 2023, still below the 8.26-million historic high in 2019.

IT-BPM...

“There has never been a more im portant time to address the mis match of talent supply and demand. We are in a global work for talent and I think given our inherent ad vantages, the fact that we have a young population, the fact that our countryside locations, not just Manila, have excellent schools, we have an opportunity to continue and maybe do a better job in up skilling and reskilling the existing work force with the support of our private sector partners but we’ll also need the full support of the different branches of government in making this happen,” Madrid told reporters. I n a statement, IBPAP said its target of creating 1.1 million new jobs in six years will be possible if enabling conditions are met and appropriate interventions are carried out, such as favorable government policies or incentives and remote work; stronger and more reliable infrastructure; ac celerated upskilling and reskilling of the Filipino talent for digital services; enhanced value propo sition to highlight country-level competitiveness; and improved ease of doing business to attract more global investors. “ This is just one of the many significant milestones that the ITBPM industry will reach by 2028. Additionally, the Philippine ITBPM sector will create more impact through countryside development, digitally-enabled services, dollar revenue, high-complexity work, and indirect employment,” Madrid said in a statement. T he IBPAP chief added that the flagship organization of the IT-BPM industry will unveil more details related to the Philippine IT-BPM Industry Roadmap 2028 at the 14th International Innovation Summit (IIS) in September. “ We’re excited to reveal more at IIS 2022 through keynotes and ple naries on talent strategies, chang ing workways, key action plans, and many more,” Madrid said. R oadmap 2028 is the blueprint of the industry as it gears up to ac complish more in terms of jobs, in vestments and exports in the next sixHyears. appening on September 27-29, the International Innovation Sum mit will have a theme, “The Big PH IT-BPM Leap: Growth. Resurgence. Impact. Transformation.” I BPAP said the Summit will set the stage for how the country will continue to be at the forefront of talent, technology, and transfor mation.“We’re entering a new chap ter at IIS 2022 and there is no doubt that the industry will demonstrate grit as it drives to contribute to economic growth, achieve a resurgence across the different subsectors, create more impact in the lives of more Fili pinos, and become an engine of transformation that promises an even brighter future for the country,” Madrid said.

“The PNOC Exploration Corp. is considering the matter of giving its consent to the sale of Shell’s interest, and as far as the Depart ment of Energy is concerned, we would have to review the sale and the terms and conditions under which it is going to be made,” the energy chief said.

Ramon Magsaysay Award recipients named South Korea affirms commitment to build boat to bolster Manila Bay cleanup drive

ILOILO MASS WEDDING Mayor Jerry Treñas officiates the civil marriage of 15 couples in a mass wedding ceremony at City Mall in Tagbak, Jaro, Iloilo City. CITY MAYOR’S OFFICE

T he other awardees are Sotheara Chhim, a mental health advocate from Cambodia; Gary Bencheghib, an anti-plastic pollution warrior from Indonesia; and Tadashi Hat tori, a sight-saving humanitarian from Japan. T he former is being feted for “his calm courage in surmounting deep trauma to become his people’s healer; his transformative work amidst great need and seemingly insurmountable difficulties, and for showing that daily devotion to the best of one’s profession can itself be a form of greatness.”

I n addition, the Korea Export Import Bank (KEXIM Bank) has also pledged to finance a $105-mil lion project for maritime safety en hancement in Rombling and Cebu in partnership with the Philippine Department of Transportation. T he buoys are aimed at helping reduce the risks of marine acci dents and eventually, protecting marineKoreaenvironment.willremain committed to supporting the Philippines’s initiative to promote and advance regional cooperation to keep our seas and oceans clean, healthy and sustainable,” he said.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ARNOLD ALMACEN/ILOILO

SC lifts TRO barring PDLs from voting in elections

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga & Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

T his will augment the PCGs ca pacity, which only has one 2-tonnage boat doing cleanup of the Manila Bay.

Batanes, Calayan and Babuyan Island by Thursday once Hin namnor enters PAR and be re named Henry. In case of landfall, Batanes, Ca layan, and Babuyan Island may ex perience 185 kilometers per hour (kph)“Thatwinds.iswhy we are now advising the people to be prepared for the ty phoon,” he said in Filipino. Rainshowers are expected by Thursday and Friday in Zambales, Cordillera, and other parts of North ern Luzon, including some parts of Central Luzon. In an 11 a.m. Bulletin issued on Wednesday, Pagasa said Gardo is forecast to move generally northnorthwestward or northwestward throughout the forecast period as it interacts with Hinnamnor out sideGardoPAR.is moving northwestward at 10 kph and is packing maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near theBycenter.8a.m. on September 1, it is expected to be moving at 860 kilo meters east northeast of extreme Northern Luzon. On the other hand, in its Tropi cal Cyclone Bulletin No. 5 issued at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 31, Pagasa said the center of the eye of Hinnamnor was spotted at 980 kilometers northeast of extreme Northern Luzon. It is packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kph near the center, with gustiness of up to 240 kph and a central pressure of 925 hPa. By 8 a.m. on September 1, it is ex pected to be at 515 kilometers east northeast of Itbayat, Batanes. The super typhoon is forecasted to affect extreme Northern Luzon until September 5, bringing about strong winds and rains that may trigger flooding in the area. Red Cross alert MEANWHILE , an army of volun teers has been alerted by the Philip pine Red Cross (PRC) to prepare to respond after Pagasa reported that Hinnamnor might bring heavy rains to some areas in extreme Northern Luzon.PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon said these volunteers are ready to assist in delivering PRC’s disaster response operations in complement with PRC’s modern response equipment and data net work, enabling the humanitarian organization to rapidly deliver aid in emergency situations arising fromHeavyhazards. rains may cause flooding and landslides, and the PRC remind ed the public to follow the organi zation’s 4Ps: Predict, Plan, Prepare, and Practice, while it monitors the situation on the ground through its chapters and via its state-of-the-art operations center. “Magbantay at maging aler to. ’Yan ang lagi nating mensahe sa mga Red Cross chapters kapag may parating na bagyo [Let us be ready and be prepared. That is always our message to our Red Cross chapters if there is an expected typhoon], Gordon said. He added that the PRC always upholds its mantra “Volunteers + Logistics + Information Technology = a Red Cross that is Always First, Always Ready, Always There.” Pagasa is also currently moni toring Gardo, but it is “unlikely to directly affect the weather condi tion in the country within the fore cast period,” according to the state weather bureau. For any emergency assistance, please call the PRC’s Operations Cen ter at 143 or 8790-23-00.

R MAF Chairperson Aurelio R. Montinola III said Madrid “joyfully creates safe spaces for children” amid the many hindrances that come her way.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, September 1, 2022 A3BusinessMirror

The Nation

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome @maloutalosig SOUTH Korea has reaffirmed its commitment to build a boat for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) that would help clean up hun dreds of thousand metric tons of marine litter in Manila Bay, an of ficial of the South Korean Embassy in Manila said. L ee Kyoo Ho said the pandemic has stalled the implementation of the joint project with the PCG and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to manage marine litter pollution in Manila Bay. International studies show that the Philippines accounts for about 800,000 metric tons of plastic ma rine pollution annually. T he five-year program will es tablish a marine litter monitoring system, station a clean up vessel near Manila Bay, and enhance marine litter management capac ity. The Korea International Co operation Agency (KOICA) will fund the project, which will cost around $7.7 million, or around P431.2 million. “ This project is scheduled to be implemented from 2021 to 2025. But due to the pandemic, it has been delayed a bit,” Lee told the Business Mirror . “The three major com ponents will be completed around either the end of 2025, or the begin ning of 2026.” T he marine cleanup vessel will be designed and built by Ko rean engineers. Initially, the idea is to build a 60-tonnage cleanup vessel similar to what the Korean coast guard is using.

THE state weather bureau is closely monitoring two weather disturbances affect ing the Philippines. S upertyphoon “Hinnamnor” maintained its strength as it moves closer to the Philippines, while tropi cal depression Gardo continues to move northwestward hovering east of extreme Northern Luzon. W hile Gardo is not likely to make landfall, the country’s state weather bureau said Hinnamnor, which is now a super typhoon, might enter the Philippine Area of Responsibil ity (PAR) by Wednesday evening or ThursdayPhilippinemorning.Atmospheric, Geo physical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Admin istrator Vicente B. Malano said in a news conference that eventually, Hinnamnor may overpower and cause Gardo to dissipate. Gardo is not likely to make land fall, he Engr.added.Juanito S. Galang said Signal No. 3 may be hoisted over

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

A NETWORK of digital advo cates is asking the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to investigate spam texts with the names of the recipients included in the text. D igital Pinoys national cam paigner Ronald Gustilo, in a news statement, said the NPC should immediately address the concerns of the spam text recipients as they are worried as to how the sender was able to know their identity in what seemed like a “personalized spamWetext.” arealarmed by what seems to be a personalized spam text from yet another online gambling site. We would like to know as to how an online gambling company, with an address based in London, was able to know the names of their recipients.” T he message is inviting the recipients to a link which will be redirected to an online gambling site, HXFXGlobal. According to their web site, they are based in Warwick, London. Gustilo is asking the NPC to inves tigate how the personal information of recipients got into the hands of spammers. Digital Pinoys previously sought an investigation against spam texts from BingoPlus, also an online gambling platform. We are deeply concerned as to how a foreign online gambling plat form possibly gotten hold of Filipino personal information. NPC should launch an investigation as soon as possible and find out if there was any mishandling leading to a data breach or data leak from an entity,” the statement read. Gustilo also told the NPC that the agency should find out and imme diately seek prosecution if there are cohorts based locally and whether local companies collecting personal information are selling these data to third parties. The people deserve to be assured that their personal in formation is safe and secured. NPC should prosecute those found to have a hand in this operation. We must not take this lightly as this may lead to bigger problems in the future,” the group warned.

T he Foundation’s leader shared that Chhim “reverses the com pounding effect of generational trauma through his perseverance and empathy.” Bencheghib, on the other hand, is honored for Emergent Leadership for “his inspiring fight against marine plastic pollution, an issue at once intensely local as well as global; his youthful energies in combining na ture, adventure, video, and technol ogy as weapons for social advocacy; and his creative, risk-taking passion that is truly a shining example for the youth and the world.” A ccording to Montinola III, he “inspires us all to reimagine the environmental impact we can make when we combine passion and a sense of adventure.” Meanwhile, the latter will be rec ognized for “his simple humanity and extraordinary generosity as a person and a professional; his skill and compassion in restoring the gift of sight to tens of thousands of people not his own; and the inspi ration he has given, by his shining example, that one person can make a difference in helping kindness flourish in the world.” H attori “demonstrates that dedication and kindness can el evate the definition of individual social responsibility,” said the RMAF chairperson. I ncepted in 1958, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, named after the late Philippine president, cel ebrates his legacy and leadership example. This accolade is bestowed annually to individuals or organiza tions in Asia who possess the same selfless service and transformative influence of the late and beloved Filipino leader.

Group presses NPC probe into spam text scam

By Roderick L. Abad @rodrik_28 Contributor

A FILIPINA children’s rights advocate is named among the recipients for this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize. T he Board of Trustees of the Ra mon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) announced on Wednesday that Bernadette J. Madrid, together with her fellow Asian honorees, will be conferred with the continent’s premier prize and highest honor in formal Presentation Ceremonies to be held at the Ramon Magsaysay Center in Manila on November 30. Each will receive a certificate and a medallion bearing the likeness of the seventh Philippine president, who was posthumously referred to by the people as the “Idol of the Masses.” Pediatrician by profession, Ma drid is cited for “her unassuming and steadfast commitment to a noble and demanding advocacy; her lead ership in running a multisectoral, multidisciplinary effort in child pro tection that is admired in Asia; and her competence and compassion in devoting herself to seeing that every abused child lives in a healing, safe, and nurturing society.”

Pagasa keeps tight watch on TD ‘Gardo,’ Supertyphoon ‘Hinnamnor’

2022

“ KOICA will build a guideline for maintenance of the vessel and provide vessel staff with a capac ity program for maintenance,” he said.KOICA will also help the Philip pines draft a policy or strategic plan to monitor marine litter in Manila Bay, which will be carried out by the national government, local govern ment units surrounding Manila Bay and nongovernment organizations. Capacity building programs will also be designed by KOICA, DENR andTPCG.hemarine litter monitoring system also includes data collection and analysis, and establishment of guidelines for marine litter manage ment, Lee added. “Korea is committed to strength ening its bilateral partnership with the Philippines in achieving clean, healthy and sustainable oceans by combating marine plastic pollution and securing maritime safety and security,” Lee said at the sidelines of the East Asia Summit Workshop on Maritime Cooperation hosted by the Department of Foreign Af fairs in Manila from August 30 to September 1, 2022.

T HE Supreme Court (SC) has lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued in 2016 enjoining the Com mission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing its resolution that allows detainees to vote in the national and local elections. T he TRO stemmed from the peti tion filed by lawyer Victor Aguinaldo seeking to declare as unconstitution al Comelec Resolution 9371 that was promulgated on March 6, 2012. In his petition, Aguinaldo sought the issuance of a TRO as an immedi ate relief against the implementation of the said Comelec resolution. But in a nine-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez and released to the public on August 26, 2022, the Court unani mously declared that Aguinaldo lacks the legal standing to file the petition and also failed to present an actual case or controversy that would warrant judicial review. “ Wherefore, the instant peti tion is dismissed. The temporary restraining order issued on April 9, 2016 is lifted thereby allowing the Commission on Elections [Comelec] to fully implement Resolution No. 9371 in the upcoming and succeed ing elections,” the resolution read. Covered by Comelec Resolution 9371 are detainees who are: (1) con fined in jail, formally charged for any crime/s and awaiting/undergoing trial; (2) serving a sentence of impris onment for less than one year; or (3) whose conviction of a crime involv ing disloyalty to the duly constituted government such as rebellion, sedi tion, violation of the firearms laws or any crime against national security or for any other crime is on appeal. In his petition, Aguinaldo assailed the validity of Comelec Resolution No. 9371 as it failed to provide for its own implementing rules and regula tions, did not undergo prior public consultations, violates the equal protection of laws by favoring per sons deprived of liberty (PDL) vot ers over other classes of voters and fails to address certain operational and logistical blind spots. A guinaldo argued that the rules have “imperfections, inadequacies and deficiencies in its applications, and thus, creating uncertainties, loopholes, gaps and ambiguities in its provisions, application and/ or implementation.”However,theCourt said Aguinal do failed to establish the requisites for judicial review such as the exis tence of an actual and appropriate case or controversy and a substan tial interest of the party raising the constitutional question. Petitioner had not shown any such circumstances. Absent a clear showing of a diminished right for which petitioner will suffer because of the implementation of the as sailed Comelec resolution, it can not be said that a conflict of legal rights exists. On this score alone, the instant petition is already dis missible,” the SC pointed out. O n the petitioner’s legal stand ing, the SC noted that he merely stated that he was filing the petition as “a citizen, lawyer and taxpayer” without elaborating how the imple mentation of the Comelec resolution would affect him. “As a general rule, the challenger must have a personal and substan tial interest in the case such that he has sustained, or will sustain, direct injury as a result of its enforcement. Petitioner’s material averments fail to show how he stands to be affected by the implementation of Resolution No. 9371,” the SC said. He does not appear to be a PDL voter covered by the Comelec issu ance, or an official tasked with imple menting its provisions. Essentially, petitioner has no interest in this sup posed controversy,” the Court added.

T he Philippines’s trade chief said these impacts are considered to be relatively minor and temporary because there are other ports of entry into the UK such as the Southampton Port and London Gate way, which are also main entry points for shipments coming from Asia. In fact, Pascual said, “Philippine prod ucts may also be shipped to the UK via other European ports.” Further, Pascual said the effect of the strike would be more on delays, causing disruptions in supply chains and will pos sibly increase operational costs due to the diversion of shipments. He said the main products that pass through the Felixstowe port include food, electronics, garments, and automotive parts.

A s the largest container port in the UK, the Felixstowe Port handles more than a third of cargoes entering the UK, includ ing from Asia, said Pascual.

Thursday, September 1, 2022 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

stands at P26.7 billion. Recognizing that disaster prepared ness and recovery should be the top prior ity in disaster-prone Philippines, Pagcor in 2019 allotted P3.5 billion for the con struction of multi-purpose evacuation centers and started building safe havens for 77 disaster-prone areas nationwide. To date, 15 evacuation facilities have been completed in various parts of the country. According to the 2020 World Risk Index, the Philippines ranks 9th in the world as the most affected country from extreme weather events. Every year, the country experiences almost all forms of disasters. It will be recalled that in January 2020, before the pandemic surged in March 2020, Taal Volcano erupted and caused the evacua tion of more than 135,000 people. It also damaged infrastructure and livelihoods, and disrupted essential services, such as water supply and education. During the disaster, Pagcor provided permanent shelters to displaced locals. In its Pagcor Village Project, which costs P30 million, it provided 100 units of 30-square-meter houses for the displaced residents in the towns of Agoncillo, Le mery, Balete and Mataas na Kahoy.

A4 BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph

DTI: UK port strike may lead to shipping delays

A ccording to a Bloomberg report, “about 2,000 dockers at the Port of Fe lixstowe began an eight-day walkout on Sunday [August 21], halting the flow of goods through the UK’s largest gateway for containerized imports and exports.” T he same Bloomberg report under scored that the largest port in the UK handles “about a third of Britain’s total container volume and an even bigger share of direct trade with Asia.” The strike could disrupt more than $800 million in trade, according to Rus sell Group, a data and analytics company,” read the Bloomberg report. Meanwhile, according to a CNBC re port, the standstill at UK’s largest con tainer port, which stemmed from the walkout of 1,900 members of the Unite union for eight days were due to failed wage negotiations. “ Unite said members rejected the aver age 8 percent pay offer from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company because the wage offered was lower than the rate of inflation,” read the CNBC report. T he CNBC report unveiled that “CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, which owns Port of Felixstowe said in a statement on the port’s web site it was ‘disappointed’ the walkout had gone ahead and called its offer of salary increases of on average 8 percent ‘fair.’” On August 21, the day the strike be gan, Bloomberg reported that export shipments waited 5.2 days on average, “but that figure stood at 9.4 day—an 82 percent surge—as of August 26,” citing FourKites, a supply-chain visibility form. By comparison, the wait for export shipments at northern Europe’s biggest ports rose by only 9 percent,” read the Bloomberg report. Andrea San Juan By Andrea San Juan THE Philippines is eyeing to be Canada’s production hub in Southeast Asia (SEA), according to the Board of Investments (BOI).

PHL eyeing to be Canada’s production hub in SEA, BOI chief says first Asean Caucus meeting virtually on Monday, August 22. During the meeting, the Asean Member States discussed the elements and approach for the negotiations, among others. Moreover, the BOI said in its state ment on Tuesday, “The ACANFTA Invest ment Chapter aims to create a framework for investments between and among the Asean and Canada and will include pro motion, facilitation, liberalization and protection of investments.” According to Rodolfo, a free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada will fa cilitate greater flow of trade, services, and investments to Asean. In February, Philippine Ambassador to Canada Rodolfo Robles said the FTA between the economic bloc, which in cludes the Philippines and Canada, is expected to be “modern and compre hensive.” As such, the trade deal is an ticipated to factor in the emerging trade realities, e-commerce, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the value chains.

“ This Pagcor provision, totaling be tween P7.29 billion to P12.15 billion for the country’s 243 legislative districts, is particularly significant as the country again braces for two weather disturbanc es, tropical depression ‘Gardo’ and super typhoon ‘Hinnamnor,’” said Co.

Economy

HOUSE Appropriation Committee Chairman Rep. Elizaldy Co on Wednesday said the P30-million to P50-million disaster resilience funds that the Philippine Amusement and Gam ing Corporation (Pagcor) will provide each legislative district is crucial in ensuring the safety and survival of the country’s disaster-prone areas.

‘Pagcor’s disaster resilience funds crucial for PHL calamity recovery’

For the Philippines, our national objective is to leverage Asean and position the Philippines as Canada’s production hub in the region,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said in a news statement issued on Tuesday. T he Asean-Canada Free Trade Agreement (ACANFTA) Working Group on Investment (WGI) held its first Plenary meeting virtually on Tuesday, August 30,2022. Designated as the Asean chair, BOI Governor Marjorie Ramos-Samaniego presided over the meeting. The De partment of Justice (DOJ) represented by Senior State Counsel Grace L. Es trada also joined the Philippine team, spearheaded by Elyjean DC Portoza, Director of BOI Legal and Compliance. All Asean Member States (AMS) and Canada attended the meeting. During the meeting, the represen tatives of the participating countries exchanged their views on the levels of ambition and elements of the FTA’s in vestment chapter. They also discussed the work plan, which will serve as the guide on the conduct of the negotiations. T he said working group held its

Following Asean’s launching of trade negotiations with Canada in November 2021, Philippine exporters said they want to expand their market access to the North American country in a bid to increase their product shipments as they sought recovery from the pandemic. In November last year, the Asean announced that it would pursue an FTA negotiation with Canada during the 10th Asean Economic MinistersCanada Consultation. A joint feasibility study in 2018 showed that the Asean economy would benefit from an FTA with Canada, projecting an increase in GDP of $39.4 billion. This growth is supported by tariff liberaliza tion, reduction of non-tariff barriers and enhancements in trade facilitation. Meanwhile, the Philippines, accord ing to the same study, stands to gain a 2.63-percent GDP increase from the trade deal, which is equivalent to $7.4 billion. Robles added that the FTA could also contribute additional $37.9 mil lion to the country’s export.

TRADE Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the ongoing strike at Felixs towe Port in Southeastern England would have some “temporary effect” on trade between the United Kingdom (UK) and the Philippines.

“On behalf of the House and Speaker Martin Romualdez, we thank Chairman Al Tengco for agreeing to provide evacuation and halflasttionstoPagcorhearing,quentearthquakes,helpdisasterresiliencebuildings.Thisamountwilleachdistrictcopewithtyphoons,floods,andvolcaniceruptionsthatfreourcountry,”Coadded.DuringarecentcongressionalbudgetTengco,thenewlyappointedchiefoperatingofficer,reportedtheHouseCommitteeonAppropriathatthegamingregulator’sincomeyearwasP35.48billion.Forthefirstoftheyear,Pagcor’sincomealready

“ Since the strike had been anticipat ed, our Post in London informed us that some shipments have been re-routed to minimize the impact of the port strike on PHL-UK trade,” Pascual said in a statement sent to reporters through Viber on Tuesday.

DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) Officer in Charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday confirmed the DOH was not consulted by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama on the issuance of an executive order (EO) lifting the mandatory wearing of face mask in theTcity.heEO “declaring the use of face mask within the territorial jurisdiction of the City of Cebu as non-obligatory but a measure of individual self-preservation and protection,” will take effect today, September 1,2022. T he wearing of face mask is also voluntary in schools, the EO stated. Face mask will only be mandatory in hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities, it added. We were never consulted in this matter,” Vergeire said during a news briefing. However, Vergeire said that the matter is under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) since the agency is the one tasked to implement the policy of the national government across all local government units. “And there is no exemption when it comes to the protocols and policies that we are implementing,” Vergeire, however, stressed. She also emphasized, “a city within a country cannot act on its own, cannot be an island across all islands.” “Hindi po pwede na isang lugar sa ating bansa na nagpapatupad ng kanilang protocol samantalang [It should not be allowed that one area is implementing their own protocol while] the rest of the country is implementing the other side of the protocol or magkaiba [they are different],” Vergeire stressed. “ We all know that we have porous borders. We know that people all over the country travel to and fro these different areas of the country and we know that Covid-19 crosses borders,” she said. S he also reminded that when the Covid-19 pandemic started, “We emphasized and highlighted that this should be a ‘one nation approach.’ This is the whole Philippines implementing safeguards for our population.”

anniversary

A s to the possibility of the removal of the facemask rule in the future, Vergeire assured that they will further study such move and that if there is already enough protection against Covid-19 through vaccination. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon told local chief executives that she would be tweaking her policies to “to uplift the lives of her Davao Oriental constituents, who are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and the current inflation.” Malanyaon said she would be con centrating on Oplan Kalsada, Opera tion Ilaw, renewable energy and two programs she called Davao Oriental Beautiful and Nationalizing Davao Oriental Provincial Center. T he governor added she would prioritize the rehabilitation of roads particularly those leading to farms and tourist destinations as her eco nomic development agenda centers on agriculture and tourism. She said tourism could be a po tential economic driver, with her program on “Davao Oriental Beauti ful,” a campaign to “showcase Davao Oriental as a world-class tourism destination in the country.” We want people to realize that we live in a really beautiful prov ince blessed with all these natural resources,” she said referring to the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, Mindanao’s first and a Unesco World Heritage site. She said she has organized ten teams each with a set of heavy equip ment to the 10 municipalities, taking advantage of the dry season. “Hope fully, we can deploy all equipment not later than the last week of August,” sheOsaid.nOperation Pailaw, the gover nor said, the provincial government and the Davao Oriental Electric Co operative, Inc. (Doreco) would launch a clearing operation of electric lines across the province to address fre quent power outages. Malanyaon said she hopes to im prove the power supply situation in the province by tapping renewable energy. She said the province was currently discussing with a Japanese company interested in investing in a biomass powerplant.

“ We have collaborated with WFP and FAO on a number of initiatives aimed at improving resilience and achieving peace and development in Mindanao. It is critical to have stable living conditions, food security and nutrition for all in order to achieve peace,” said Koshikawa Kazuhiko, Japanese Ambassador to the Philip pines, at the signing ceremony held at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office on Wednesday.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

UN,

Thursday, September 1, 2022 A5BusinessMirror News

Tau Omega Mu slates medical mission, grand ball

Davao Oriental Governor Malanyaon sets targets to uplift province from ‘poorest’ rank

By Andrea San Juan THE United Nations said the Government of Japan has donated $6 million, or P337.5 million, to support the new initia tives by the UN Food and Agricul ture Organization (FAO), and the World Food Programme (WFP) for farmers and fisherfolk affected by typhoon “Odette” (international code name Rai), in the Bangsam oro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Proliferation of scam text alarms even SC Associate Justice Leonen MMDA fields more traffic enforcers after SC halts NCAP implementation Government of Japan donate P337.5 million to ‘Odette’ victims

A SENIOR Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (SC) has expressed alarm over the proliferation of scam text messages containing the names of subscribers. In his Twitter post on Tuesday, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said, “Unsolicited or scam text mes sages on our phones already contain our names. This means that there is a data provider out there that has leaked or sold or been careless about our information. This makes all of us now vulnerable. Very dangerous.” L eonen’s post solicited more than 2,000 retweets and more than 6,000 likes as of this writing. Some of his followers also ex pressed apprehension over the ram pant text scam and called on the Na tional Telecommunications Commis sion (NTC) and telecommunication companies to immediately act on a possible data breach. Can the NTC, Globe and Smart do something? The scary part is our senior[s] are receiving [text] mes sages claiming there were problems with their bank accounts, with links attached. I told my mom not to open any unknown number,” one of his followers said. “I find this alarming. I thought I was the only one.... It’s quite shock ing that these text scams contain my full name,” another one commented. Sought for public guidance on the matter, State Counsel Gerald Vincent Sosa of the Department of Justice-Office of the Cybercrime (DOJ-OCC) admitted that he too received a text scam with his name and surname on it. He said it was possible that these scammers managed to obtain the personal information of telco sub scribers through data leak or through some other means. He cited the membership forms for some business establishments being filled out by availing custom ers as one of the possible sources of data leak, although he admitted that it would really be difficult to pinpoint the source of the data leak or how these scammers were actually able to obtain these data. There is data leak. It is impos sible that they would be able to ran domly get our names and numbers,” Sosa said. He explained that unauthorized processing and improper disposal of data is punishable under the Data Privacy Act of 2012. A ny complaint for violation of the provisions of the Data Priva cy Act, according to Sosa, may be brought before the National Pri vacy Commission. A s precautionary measures, Sosa advised cell-phone users to imme diately block the number of text scammers and activate cell-phone settings or apps that would screen or block calls or text messages from unknown numbers.

T he Japanese envoy added that the latest project by WFP will add “greater meaning” to achieving peace and progress, not only in BARMM but also across Mindanao. Further, the envoy said their partnership with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will help farmers and fisherfolk severely affected by Odette “restore their livelihoods and build their resilience against future climaterelatedThroughshocks.”such endeavours, I sin cerely hope that this genuine concern from the Japanese people reaches thousands of severely affected Filipi nos,” said the Japanese Ambassador.

T he ceremony was also attended by WFP Philippines Representa tive and Country Director, Brenda Barton, and FAO Representative ad interim in the Philippines, Sheila Wertz-Kanounnikoff.TheUnitedNations said in a news statement issued on Wednes day that $4 million or P225 million will go to WFP to support a twoyear project that aims to improve the livelihoods, food security and nutrition of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk and strengthen their inclusion in the agricultural value chain through improved market linkages, enhanced agricultural productivity and Social and Be haviour Change Communication activities.Around 7,500 farmers and fisher folk households in BARMM, includ ing decommissioned combatants and indigenous peoples, will benefit from the WFP project. “ They will be participating in activities such as construction of roads, establishing storage facili ties and communal irrigation sys tems, agro-forestry planting and establishment of nurseries—all designed to enhance their produc tivity sustainably,” said UN in the same statement. Moreover, WFP will introduce the farmers to the use of Farm2Go, a WFP-owned digital platform, which will digitally connect farmers to markets, allowing them to sell their produce at competitive prices. “ I would like to thank the Jap anese government and its people for their unparalleled support of our operations in the Philippines. This contribution will make a difference in the lives of farmers and fisherfolk and their families in Mindanao, an area where WFP has been supporting the BARMM government to achieve food secu rity,” said Brenda Barton, the WFP Philippines Representative and Country Director. Meanwhile $2 million, or P112.5 million, of the contribution of the Japanese government will be allot ted by FAO for the implementation of a humanitarian initiative that will support the restoration of the livelihoods and the enhancement of the resilience of 20,000 small-scale coconut farmers and fishers affected by Odette in Regions 7, 8, and 13, said the UN. T he UN said that through this partnership, which complements government response efforts to the disaster, FAO will provide farmers and fishers with agricultural and fishery inputs and complement these with capacity-building on climateresilient agriculture technologies and the use of climate information and early warning systems. As for long-term food and nunu trition security, the inputs and training will enable farmers to es tablish alternative and additional livelihoods and sources of income to avoid dependence on food aid.

OTING that it is not a respondent to the case, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Wednesday said that it will seek the advice of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to de termine its next move following the temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of the no contact apprehension poli cy (NCAP) issued by the Supreme Court (SC). D uring a news conference, MMDA Acting spokesperson and head of Legal Service Atty. Cris Saruca Jr. said they would consult with the OSG on its next action and whether it will have to intervene on the pending petition. With the TRO, Saruca said, they would now have to strengthen their physical apprehension and adjust the deployment of its traffic personnel on the ground. Saruca said on-the-ground ap prehension will continue and de ployment of traffic enforcers shall be adjusted to cover the areas where NCAP cameras are located like Edsa, Commonwealth, Quezon Avenue, Roxas Boulevard, C-5, and Macapa galWBoulevard.hileSaruca said that the NCAP has contributed to behav ioral shift of motorists, he stressed that the agency will do its best to efficiently perform its mandate on traffic and transport management sans the policy. Rest assured that the MMDA, through the leadership of Acting Chairman Engineer Carlo Dima yuga III, will do its best to carry out our traffic management mandate by apprehending physically and directing traffic physically, as we await final resolution on the NCAP case,” he said. Meanwhile, collection of NCAP fines shall also stop for those who have been apprehended by the policy after the issuance of TRO on Tuesday. Apprehensions that happened prior to the TRO issu ance shall still be subject to cor responding penalties. The Supreme Court said that the TRO is effective im mediately and shall continue until further notice, hence, it is prospective, and those who have been caught through the policy prior to the issuance of the TRO still have to pay their fines,” Saruca explained. A ccording to the official, the MMDA registered more or less 107,000 NCAP apprehensions from January until August 24 of this year. Common violations in clude disregarding traffic signs, number coding scheme, and no loading and unloading. Even without the NCAP, Saruca hoped that discipline among mo torists would be maintained to en sure smooth traffic flow and safety of all road users.

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao@awimailboxBureauChief

City mayor did not consult DOH on easing of face mask rule–Vergeire

D AVAO CITY—The provin cial government of Davao Oriental is setting its eyes on lifting the province the dire straits, and the current priority programs would seek to cushion the continuing sore of being the second poorest province in the Davao Region.

THE Tau Omega Mu Fraternity and Ladies Circle (TOM) will hold a homecoming and grand ball at the Manila Hotel on October 15, 2022, to celebrate the organiza tion’s 50th founding anniversary. Leading up to the grand ball, TOM will also conduct free medical and dental clinics from October 8 to 10 for three underprivileged communities of indigenous people in Pampanga. The Pampanga free clinics will be in Sapang Bato, Porac (October 8); Madapdap, Mabalacat (October 9); and Santa Lucia Resettlement Area, San Fernando (October 10). A fter the free clinics, visiting TOM International members from around the world will host a night of fun and free drinks for all Omegans on October 13 during the “Blue Jeans Night” at the Baluarte de San Diego in Intramuros, Manila. T he October 15 grand ball will mark the culmination of all school and community activities that TOM members here and abroad have mobilized as part of their year-long golden anniversary cel ebration. They earlier donated medical supplies and equipment for treating Covid-19 patients to some hospitals; mounted a fund drive for the benefit of selected charitable institutions; mobi lized food distribution runs for indigents; and organized a bloodletting drive, aside from holding internal activities for its members. TOM was founded in October 1972 at the University of the Philip pines-Manila. The TOM organizing committee is encouraging alumni and resident Omegans who have yet to sign up to contact either the TOM Secretariat at <omeganyear2022@ gmail.com> or any of the following: Emily Quevedo-Duterte, Jun Que, Cely Binoya, Gel Generoso-Jacaria, Maya Campana, and Chicoy Enerio.

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

Cebu

TARLAC BEAUTY TITLIST Miss Earth 2022 Jenny Ramp of Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac, receives a Plaque of Appreciation from Governor Susan Yap at the VIP Lounge of the Diwa ng Tarlac in Tarlac City on Tuesday. Ramp is one of three beauty queens who gained national prominence after winning the title. ASHLEY MANABAT

Basic Qualification: IT professional with 11.6 years of experience in RPA. Web & application development for various domain clients with indepth understanding of the following: robotics process automation (automation anywhere, blue prism, ui path nice, open span, work fusion)

5. FELYSIA IndonesianFRANSISCACustomer Service It Support Brief Job Description: Provide product/services, information, answer questions and resolve emerging problems.

6. AGUS SETYO RAHARJO Indonesian Programmer Officer Brief Job Description: Managing systems performance, providing tech support, reviewing and updating.

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

17. YAN, DECHENG Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking)

Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients

Basic ConductingQualification:market research and staying abreast of competitor positioning. Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 24. LIN, RONGZHENG Chief Operating Officer Brief Job Description: Working together with key participants to compile the budget.

Basic Qualification: Handling sales Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 EMIRATES 18/f Pacific Star Bldg., Sen. Gil J. Puyat Ave. Cor. Makati Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati 30.

Brief Job Description: Service Support Solution includes diagnosis, resolution and reporting of customer issues and questions Basic Qualification: BS BA degree holder, minimum of 2 yrs. customer service support experience Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 21. PINO ASTUDILLO, IGNACIO JAVIER Senior Process Executive Brief Job Description: Service Support Solution includes diagnosis, resolution and reporting of customer issues and questions Basic Qualification: BS BA degree holder, minimum of 2 yrs. customer service support experience Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 COOLSI TRADING CORP. Unit No. 2035 20, Flr No. 2nd Sorrosa, Bldg Bldg, Fb Harrison St. St.zone 2 District 1, Barangay 9, Pasay City 22. LIN, ZHIGANG Chief Financial Officer Brief Job IdentifyingDescription:andaddressing financial risks and opportunities for the company.

Brief Job Description: Interact with customer to provide information, support and problem resolution to inquiries and order status. Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both oral and Salarywritten.Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 ACCENTURE, INC. 7f, Robinsons Cybergate Tower 1, Pioneer St, City Of Mandaluyong 2. JONES, JOSE SIMAO FILIPE SW/App/Cloud Tech Support Analyst

Basic Bachelor’sQualification:degree;knowledge in dangerous goods regulations and advanced load control and currently holds or has previously held licenses in these areas; knowledge in relevant health and safety requirements. Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above EXLSERVICE PHILIPPINES, INC. 6th Floor, One E-com Center, Harbor Drive, Mall Of Asia Complex, Pasay City 31.

Brief Job Description: Develop business plans, monitor sales and ensure adherence to company procedures.

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual. Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 37. HE, HubBOWEIDeputy Director Brief Job Description: Works directly underneath an executive director and responsible for managing and overseeing the operations of the department.

13. LEE YU SOON Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking)

7. ANTONY CHANDRA Indonesian Programmer Officer Brief Job Description: Managing systems performance, providing tech support, reviewing and updating.

4. SOWA, YOJI Executive Director Brief Job Description: An Executive Director is responsible for all the operations and activities in the company; they are responsible for ensuring that the company is operating in an effective manner with great oversight

11. FANG, QIAN Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking) Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients

1. NAN EI WAI WAI HNIN Mandarin Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: Must be 4 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ALTERA KARNA BUSINESS CORP. 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Flrs. Eighty-one Newport Blvd., Newport City St., Barangay 183, Pasay City

ALPHA PHILINDO SOLUTION INC. 2/f 134 Bldg., 134 Jupiter St., Bel-air, City Of Makati

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 FAR EAST BUSINESS CONSULTANCY INC. Unit Ug11 Upper G/f Cityland 10 Tower Ii, 154 H.v. Dela Costa St., Bel-air, City Of Makati 32. SU, WEIJIE Mandarin Office Supervisor

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual. Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 36. SONG, QINGHUA Assistant To The Transportation Director Brief Job Description: Manage practices with the transportation district wide and ensure the safeties of the economical transportation services.

Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients Basic Qualification: *Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. *Preferably 6 months to 1-year customer service experience. *Detail-oriented and has the ability to multi-task. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PHILIPPINES, INC. 2nd, 3rd, And 4th Floors, Science Hub Tower 4 Bldg., Mckinley Hill Cyberpark, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig 20. MARKPHUM, NAHMFON Senior Process Executive

Basic reportingSupervisingQualification:thefinancialandbudgeting team. Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 23. HUANG, BINGLIN Chief Marketing Officer Brief Job Description: Building a network of reliable external agencies and marketing professionals

Brief Job MaintainsDescription:officeservices by organizing office operations and procedures; preparing payroll; controlling correspondence; designing filing systems; reviewing and approving supply requisitions; assigning and monitoring clerical functions Basic CollegeQualification:Graduate;Fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese Language; Must work well under pressure and excellent sense of priorities; At least 1 year experience related to the position applying for Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 FIBERHOME PHILS., INC. U-19d 19/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati 33. ZHU, ProjectYANGManager

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Basic Qualification: Must be 4 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

8. FERI AGUSETIAWAN Indonesian Programmer Officer Brief Job Description: Managing systems performance, providing tech support, reviewing and updating.

10. ROHMAT HIDAYAT Indonesian Programmer Officer Brief Job Description: Managing systems performance, providing tech support, reviewing and updating.

Basic Qualification: Must Have Master’s Degree in Data Science, Computer Science or Information Technology Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

Basic Qualification: Job-relevant degree/ 5-10 yrs. Supervisory/managerial experience in logistics or operations/ multilingual. Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 38. YANG, TAO Hub Manager Brief Job Description: Ensure a smooth and effective process. Implement strategy and training monitor data quality and goal achievements.

Basic Qualification: Can contributes information, ideas, and research to help develop marketing strategies; can help to detail, design, and implement marketing plans for each product or service being Salaryoffered.Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 28.

Basic Qualification: Must be 5 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ECU WORLDWIDE (PHILIPPINES) INC. U-804-805 Scape Bldg. D, Macapagal Blvd., Barangay 76, Pasay City 29. SHARMA, ROHIT Sales Manager International Brief Job Description: Sales profitably of company.

AMER MOUSA SAIF HUWAIR ALZAROONI Cargo Manager Brief Job Description: Manage cargo employees in compliance with corporate and local regulations, policies, and procedures to ensure the development of a disciplined skilled and motivated workforce.

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

Basic Qualification: Must be 4 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as project manager, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 FLASH EXPRESS SOFTWARE (PH) CO., LTD. INC. 11/f Cybersigma, Lawton Ave., Mckinley West, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig 34. CUI, AreaYUNDONGManager

Basic MandarinQualification:speaking customer service representative. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 DIGICHROM INC. Unit 2602 & 2603 26/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati 26. NGUYEN THI THANH TUYEN Vietnamese Speaking Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming and outgoing calls, chats and emails.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Basic Qualification: Must be 4 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

12. HUANG, WENXUAN Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking) Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients Basic Qualification: *Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. *Preferably 6 months to 1-year customer service experience. *Detail-oriented and has the ability to multi-task.

Brief Job Description: The position will require candidates to take calls using any of the 6 languages to support our clients with their i.t related incident and requests. Some of the roles and responsibilities for the role include perform initial triage for it issues raised by customer, log, track, and update incidents, attempt first time fix resolution for known issues, identify target resolver group and route tickets, doo remote troubleshooting, install/ uninstall applications for incidents raised by customers Basic Qualification: Graduate of any 4yr course, preferably it or engineering related. Strong working knowledge of the service desk function. Good knowledge level on multiple it technologies. Excellent communications skills both written and verbal. Willing and able to work effectively in a diverse and multi-cultural environment. Willing and able to work on a shifting schedule Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 3. KABWE, SIMON KAGHO SW/App/Cloud Tech Support Analyst Brief Job Description: The position will require candidates to take calls using any of the 6 languages to support our clients with their I.T related incident and requests. Some of the roles and responsibilities for the role include perform initial triage for it issues raised by customer, log, track, and update incidents, attempt first time fix resolution for known issues, identify target resolver group and route tickets, doo remote troubleshooting, install/ uninstall applications for incidents raised by customers. Basic Qualification: Graduate of any 4yr course, preferably it or engineering related. Strong working knowledge of the service desk function. Good knowledge level on multiple it technologies. Excellent communications skills both written and verbal. Willing and able to work effectively in a diverse and multi-cultural environment. Willing and able to work on a shifting schedule. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 AEON CREDIT SERVICE SYSTEMS (PHILIPPINES) INC. Unit 1101 & 1102, Citynet Central, No. 298b, Edsa Cor Sultan St., Brgy. Highway Hills, City Of Mandaluyong

Basic PreparingQualification:timelyand accurate financial performance reports. Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 DAXIFA CORPORATION Mpire Center 93 West Avenue, Project 7, 1, Bungad, Quezon City 25. YU, SHUZHEN Mandarin Speaking Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Addressing customer concerns and issues thru phone call and email.

Basic Qualification: Can work harmoniously with executive team such as the marketing director or managing director to set the marketing strategy for the business .Must be willing to hire and manage junior marketing team that includes PR and creative staff. Able to speak and communicate using mandarin is an advantage Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

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

16. XU, WEIHAO Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking) Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients

Basic Qualification: Must be 4 years bachelor degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic ProficientQualification:inSpeaking, Reading and Writing in Mandarin Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 EASTERN GOLD CORPORATION 503, Nueva St., Barangay 289, Binondo, City Of Manila 27. LEI, YAO Marketing And Sales Agent Brief Job ResearchesDescription:anddevelops various marketing strategies for products and services and implements marketing plans and works to meet sales quotas

BusinessMirrorA6 www.businessmirror.com.phThursday, September 1, 2022

RAI, BIMAL ASHWANI Assistant Vice President - Operations Brief Job Description: In-depth understanding of the RPA/cognitive tools (blue prism. Automation anywhere. UIPATH, work fusion) development experience along with knowledge of tools capabilities, features, and functionalities, own the technical solution

HUANG, RONGCHENG Senior Marketing Specialist Brief Job Description: Looking after the budget of the marketing department and making sure the budget spend is delivering a return on investment. Managing the design and production of promotional materials, such as websites and brochures.

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

8 STONE BUSINESS OUTSOURCING OPC 5/f To 10/f, Tower 4 Pitx #01, Kennedy Road, Tambo, City Of Parañaque

Brief Job Description: Develop business plans, monitor sales and ensure adherence to company procedures.

Basic Qualification: *Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. *Preferably 6 months to 1-year customer service experience. *Detail-oriented and has the ability to multi-task. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 15. SUN, QIUTING Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking) Brief Job Description: Provide customer service to clients Basic Qualification: *Any nationality who can speak and write Chinese fluently. *Preferably 6 months to 1-year customer service experience. *Detail-oriented and has the ability to multi-task. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

9. MOECH FAZAR SIDIK Indonesian Programmer Officer Brief Job Description: Managing systems performance, providing tech support, reviewing and updating.

18. YU, JING Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking)

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 35. LYU, AreaLITINGManager

19. ZHANG, XIWANG Customer Service Representative (Chinese Speaking)

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

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 89. LY THI HUYEN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 90. LY VAN MAT Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires

Brief Job Description: Manage HCL technologies infrastructure, End User Computing, Audit and Compliance, onboarding new projects, Consolidation / Expansion

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

FOREIGN NATIONAL

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 79. WEI, MUYAO Chinese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 80. ZHANG, WENYU Chinese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 40. ERIC FEBRIANTO YAPIN Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints. Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 41. HOANG ANH TU Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 42. I MADE JODI PERMANA Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 43. LEI, JIEHUA Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 44. LISMA SIHOMBING Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 NGUYEN VAN TU Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 81. CELVIN Indonesian Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 82. JEFRISON Indonesian Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF NATIONAL POSITION BRIEF QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

51.

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 52. WONG SAI WENG Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 HAIER ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES PHILIPPINES INC. Blk 11 Lot 35 B Acropolis, Green Subd., Bagumbayan, Quezon City 53. LU, XIANG Mandarin Speaking Financial Officer Brief Job Description: In charge of overseeing the financial transactions of the company Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 54. LI, YINGCHUN Mandarin Speaking Operation Manager Brief Job Description: Responsible for keeping track of the big picture and identifying potential areas for improvement Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 55. ZHOU, MandarinXIWENSpeaking Sales Head Brief Job Description: Responsible for leading sales teams to reach their sales target Basic Qualification: Fluent in Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 HCL TECHNOLOGIES PHILIPPINES, INC. Net Cube Center, 3rd Avenue Corner 30th Street, E-square Zone, Bonifacio Global City, City Of Taguig 56. KUMAR, SANDEEP Deputy General Manager

FAWAZ S A A KH ALFAHAD Acting Sr. Country Manager Brief Job Description: In charge of overseeing and maintaining the overall operations of the Corporation.

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Finance Supervisor, excellent interpersonalcommunication,andpresentation skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 63. QIAN, BAOGUO Mandarin Head Operation Manager Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Head Operation Manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals. Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Head Operation Manager, excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 INFOVINE INC. 8th, 9th, 10th/f Aspire Corporate Plaza Bldg., Macapagal Blvd. St., Zone 10, Barangay 76, Pasay City 64. DUONG THI SA Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 65. HOANG THI HANG Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 66. LE THI NGOC ANH Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 67. NGUYEN THUY DUYEN Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 68. PHAM THI THOA Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 69. WOONG VINH NHAT Chinese Speaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about products and services Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 J-NA ALLOUT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP. 3/f Lipams Bldg., #48 President Avenue, B. F. Homes, City Of Parañaque 70. NYEME, MERVEILLE MYOAH Congolaise Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Track main industry trends in Congo through blogs, micro blogs and forums

RANGE BusinessMirror A7www.businessmirror.com.ph Thursday, September 1,

DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND

AND

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 95. NGUYEN PHUC CUONG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

NGUYEN VAN TAN Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints

KUWAIT AIRWAYS CORPORATION G/f Jeg Ii Bldg., 150 Legaspi St., Lv, San Lorenzo, City Of Makati 74.

Basic Qualification: At least Bachelor’s Degree. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF , AND BRIEF SALARY 2022 39. BUDI FIRMAN NIAS Customer Service Representative Brief Job SupportsDescription:customersby providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints.

Basic ProficientQualification:inspeaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 HUBEI SHUIZONG WATER RESOURCES AND HYDROPOWER CONSTRUCTION CO. LTD. - PHILIPPINES BRANCH OFFICE Unit A & B, 20/f Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati 62. LEI, MandarinYAO Finance Supervisor Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Finance Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

91. MAC VAN SAN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 92. NGUYEN BAO GIANG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

DESCRIPTION

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

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 NEO NorthINCORPORATEDTowerCentrum Bldg., Aseana Avenue, Entertainment City, Baclaran, City Of Parañaque 97. XUE, ChineseKEDANSpeaking Admin Associate Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about product and services

POSITION

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

Basic Qualification: Diploma. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower, C4 Rd. Edsa Ext., Barangay 76, Pasay City 75. NAING MIN THANT Burmese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 76. NANG HOM Burmese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 77. WAI YAN LIN Burmese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read, and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 78.

Basic Qualification: College graduate, speaks and write fluently in English Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 71. TEAYAH, KYEONG-HI JOHANNA Liberian Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Track main industry trends in Liberia through blogs, micro blogs and forums

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 93. NGUYEN CONG MINH Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 94. NGUYEN DUC VUONG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 96. NGUYEN THI NGAN Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic ProficientQualification:inspeaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 60. CHENG, LIFENG Philippines Datacom DITO Fixed Network Project Consultant Brief Job Description: Provide datacom network design for acceptance test and service migration and for DITO network all over Philippines Basic ProficientQualification:inspeaking, reading and writing in mandarin Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 61. SUN, YONGLE Senior Marketing Manager For Globe Lte And 5g Development Project Brief Job Description: Help customers develop customized 5g industry solutions

FOREIGN

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

47.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 98. CHEN, ChineseLILISpeaking Graphic Designer Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: College graduate, speaks and write fluently in English Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 JFE ENGINEERING CORP. - PHILIPPINE BRANCH 23/f Cyberscape Alpha Bldg., Sapphire & Garnet Roads, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, City Of Pasig 72. ENDO, EISUKE Senior Business Representative Brief Job Description: Conduct project survey waste water market and waste water energy/handling proposals and analyzing project contract, legal documents Basic Qualification: Experience on sales, construction, develop, and waste water treatment business Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 KATAHIRA & ENGINEERS INTERNATIONAL Unit 21th Flr . 2103 The Podium West Tower 12,, Adb Ave., Ortigas, Wack-wack Greenhills, City Of Mandaluyong73.NARUSE,ConsultantISAMU

Brief Job Description: Work with engineering professionals to build and maintain highways

Basic QualificationQualification:Graduate, IT Head - Infrastructures & End user computing services, Audit, Asset Management , Project onboarding Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 57. DAS, NAMRATA Lead Software Engineer I Brief Job Description: Release and program management for digital experience. Taking care of end to end cycle from preparation to release the software product Basic Qualification: Release and managementprogramknowledge and experience. B. Tech (IT) , Postgraduation in management Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 HR SWANLYN BEAUTY CORPORATION 122-b, Aguirre Avenue, B. F. Homes, City Of Parañaque 58. KIM, CHAEMIN Marketing Consultant Brief Job Description: Promotes services products and discounts on social media Basic ProficientQualification:inspeaking, reading and writing in Korean and English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES PHILS. INC. U-5302, 53/f Pbcom Tower, 6795 Ayala Ave., Cor., V.a. Rufino St., Bel-air, City Of Makati 59. FENG, HAILONG DITO LTE Development Project Consultant Brief Job Description: Monitor weekly report and present the progress and issues of the project to the headquarter

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Level; Preferably With Customer Service or Sales Experience; Fluent in Mandarin and Basic English Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 46.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 83. MEGA KARTIKA DEWI Indonesian Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 84. NICO NUARI Indonesian Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 85. HAU THU THAO Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 86. LINH TU CUONG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 87. LO VAN CUONG Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquires Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read and Write Chinese Language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 88. LUONG VAN HANH Vietnamese Customer Service Representative Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

ZHAO, HONGPENG Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic Qualification: College graduate. Fluent in Cantonese, Taiwanese and mandarin language. Excellent communication skills. At least 1 year experience relevant to the Salaryposition.Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic ThroughQualification:extensiveand fluency in mandarin language and characters. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 125. LY TU HUONG Customer Relation Representative (mandarin Translation)

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

WU, XUERUI Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic Qualification: Able to work on a different components of a given project. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 133. ZOU, AssistantJIANWEIProject Manager Brief Job Preparation,Description:supervision and checking the project of the company.

LIN, MandarinXIAONINGProject Planner

110. LIU, JIE Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic Qualification: 5-10 years experience in working for British curriculum schools/post-graduate certificate of education (PGCE) or similar accreditation/ experience with computerbased training software. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 104. WILLERTON, LAURA EMILY Instructional Developer Brief Job Description: To implement and deliver the UK national curriculum ensuring a high standard of education and ensuring that teaching programs, curriculum, materials, and other components are in line with the educational objectives of the school.

Basic Qualification: In-depth understanding of construction procedures, materials and project management principles. Must have understanding in cost planning and contracts administration. Familiarity with construction/project management in Mainland China and the Philippines. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 107.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 101. WU, ChineseXUEFEISpeaking Graphic Designer Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about product and services

109. CHEN, XINKUN Mandarin Quality Control Officer

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Project Planner is responsible for planning and scheduling various workloads. Gathers and analyzes information to prepare status report. Evaluate current procedures and recommends changes to improve the efficiency of planning and scheduling of projects.

Brief Job Description: Provide customer service support to the organization by obtaining, analyzing and verifying the accuracy of order information promptly.

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 NOKIA SHANGHAI BELL PHILIPPINES, INC. Penthouse W Fifth Bldg., 5th Ave. Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, City Of Taguig 102. MA, DeploymentYUN Service Manager Brief Job Description: Responsible for end to end project delivery, acceptance milestones management, program planning, engineering management, supply chain & logistics management, quality & standards management.

Basic Qualification: College graduate. . Fluent in Cantonese, Taiwanese and mandarin language. Excellent communication skills. At least 1 year experience relevant to the Salaryposition.Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 123. CHU THI QUYNH NHU Mandarin Team Leader Brief Job ResponsibleDescription:forbusiness consultancy practice. Accountable for the successful delivery of complex project implementation, in which the team leader also acts as project manager.

WANG, ChineseWENFANGSpeakingGraphic Designer Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about product and services

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Brief Job Description: Forecast requirements; prepare annual budget; schedule expenditures; analyze variances; initiating corrective actions. Prepare reports in Japanese language. Ensuring all operations are carried on in appropriate, cost-effective way

Basic Qualification: With at least 6 months customer service experience/ good in oral communication and SalarywrittenRange: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 100.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 117. YAN, HAORAN Mandarin Quality Control Officer

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

WANG, MandarinPENGJUNProject Planner

Basic ThroughQualification:extensiveand fluency in mandarin language and characters. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 127. RONG, LIANGYU Customer Relation Representative (mandarin Translation)

Basic Qualification: Fluent in the Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 137. ZHANG, QIAN Project Manager Brief Job Description: In charge of ensuring, their teams complete all projects in time and within budget.

Basic Qualification: The Mandarin Project Planner is responsible for planning and scheduling various workloads. Gathers and analyzes information to prepare status report. Evaluate current procedures and recommends changes to improve the efficiency of planning and scheduling of projects. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 108. YANG, MandarinHUORANProject Planner

Basic Qualification: Bachelor’s degree; excellent communication skills; technical Salaryexpertise.Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 NORD ANGLIA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MANILA INC. Neo Chinatown Bradco Ave., Aseana, Tambo, City Of Parañaque 103. ROBINSON, DEENA LEE Instructional Developer Brief Job Description: To implement and deliver the UK national curriculum ensuring a high standard of education and ensuring that teaching programs, curriculum, materials, and other components are in line with the educational objectives of the school.

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

Basic Qualification: College graduate, speaks and write fluently (Japanese and SalaryEnglish)Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 VEHICLE MASTER SERVICE CORP. #27, T. Santiago St.,, Canumay West, City Of Valenzuela 135. GUAN, HUIFENG Project Manager Brief Job Description: In charge of ensuring, their teams complete all projects in time and within budget.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 121. ZHU, YINGYING Mandarin Quality Control Officer

Brief Job Description: Support the end to end project director in defining the project team, project scope, goals and deliverables that support business goals in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in the Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 136. WANG, JITAO Project Manager Brief Job Description: In charge of ensuring, their teams complete all projects in time and within budget.

111. MAO, XIBING Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

SEEKTOP SERVICE MANAGEMENT INC. 25/f Alphaland Corporate Tower, 7232 Ayala Ave. Extn. Cor. Malugay St., Bel-air, City Of Makati 124. LUONG QUOC PHI Customer Relation Representative (mandarin Translation)

Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE National Capital Region located at DOLE-NCR Building, 967 Maligaya St., Malate Manila, within 30 days after this Pleasepublication.inform DOLE National Capital Region if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 REVON MOTION BUSINESS CONSULTANCY INC. G/f Pmj Bldg., Evangelista Cor. Cuangco Sts., Pio Del Pilar, City Of Makati 122. NGUYEN THI MINH TRANG Mandarin Customer Service Representative

Basic Qualification: Must be knowledgeable in developing and reviewing project quality plans, contract documents and project specifications. Must have Knowledge to a wide range of construction materials, methods, and techniques. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 116. XU, CHENGHAO Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

BusinessMirrorA6 www.businessmirror.com.phThursday, September 1, 2022 99. MYA MYA AYE Chinese Speaking Graphic Designer Brief Job Assist/helpDescription:customers, give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: Must be knowledgeable in developing and reviewing project quality plans, contract documents and project specifications. Must have Knowledge to a wide range of construction materials, methods, and techniques. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 114. WU, XIN Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic Qualification: • One (1) vacant position • JLPT N1 passer; Fluent in Japanese and English (Speak, read and write) • At least 5 years working experience in the same field • Strong verbal, visual and written communication skills with the ability to explain approach to all levels of organization • Extensive knowledge in the same industry is preferred Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Brief Job Description: Handle service support calls, emails and chats related to inquiry from clients and/or customers through mandarin to English translation. Basic ThroughQualification:extensiveand fluency in mandarin language and characters. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 SKYLUCK CORPORATION #360, Unit 243 Shaw Center Mall, Shaw Blvd. Penthouse Shaw I.t. Center, Addition Hills, City Of Mandaluyong 128. KIM, KoreanJEONGEUNResearch Analyst Brief Job ExtensiveDescription:knowledge of online marketing, media, and revenue management Basic Qualification: Can speak and write fluent Korean language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 129. HAN, SEUNGWOO Korean Technical Support Staff Brief Job Description: Can speak and write fluent Korean language Basic Qualification: Field incoming help requests from end users via both telephone and work orders in a courteous manner Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 130. LEE, MYEONGJUN Korean Technical Support Staff Brief Job Description: Field incoming help requests from end users via both telephone and work orders in a courteous manner Basic Qualification: Can speak and write fluent Korean language Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 TENMAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT INC. Unit 805-808 The One Executive Office Bldg., #5 West Ave., Nayong Kanluran, Quezon City 131. PEARSON, ALEXANDER GORDON Consultant

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

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 120.

ZHAO, WANGJIE Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic Qualification: Fluent in the Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 138. WEI, DANLU Sales And Marketing Specialist Brief Job Description: In charge of ensuring, their teams complete all projects in time and within budget.

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

112. SHI, XIAOHAI Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

Basic ThroughQualification:extensiveand fluency in mandarin language and characters. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 126. PHAM LUONG AN BINH Customer Relation Representative (mandarin Translation)

Basic Qualification: Able to work on a different components of a given project. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 TOKYO MKK CORPORATION Unit 4291, 4/f, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Macapagal Avenue, Tambo, City Of Parañaque 134. YAZAWA, SAEKO Japanese Consultant Brief Job Description: Share the expertise and knowledge to help businesses to attain goals

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Basic Qualification: 5-10 years experience in working for British curriculum schools/post-graduate certificate of education (PGCE) or similar accreditation/ experience with computerbased training software. Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999 PHILKO UBINS LTD. CORP. 6/f Unit A Renaissance Tower 1000, Meralco Avenue, Ugong, City Of Pasig 105. HWANG, INBUM Chief Technology Officer Brief Job Description: Identify, compare, select and implement technology solutions to meet current and future needs

WEBLIO PHILIPPINES INC. U-601 6/f Itc Bldg., 337 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Bel-air, City Of Makati 139. KUMAGAI, HIKARI Operations Manager

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

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

Basic internationalwritingProficientQualification:inspeaking,&reading;handledprojectsand minimum 2+ years experience in the same field. Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above THEIDI CONSTRUCTION CORP. Unit 503 East Tower, Psec Exchange Road, San Antonio, City Of Pasig 132. QIN, AssistantTAO Project Manager Brief Job Preparation,Description:supervision and checking the project of the company.

YILV SUNNY TRAVEL CORPORATION Unit 25d 2/f Zeta Ii Bldg., 191 Salcedo St., San Lorenzo, City Of Makati 140. LIU, MandarinBIN Travel Specialist Brief Job Description: Ticket booking, hotel reservations, organize transportation Basic Qualification: Abe to Speak Mandarin Chinese and English Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 141. WANG, MandarinXIAOLONGTravelSpecialist Brief Job Description: Ticket booking, hotel reservations, organize transportation Basic Qualification: Abe to Speak Mandarin Chinese and English Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999 *Date Generated: Aug 31, 2022

Basic Qualification: College Graduate Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 POWERCHINA PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Unit 2101 21/f Bdo Equitable Tower, 8751 Paseo De Roxas, Bel-air, City Of Makati 106.

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

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

Basic Qualification: Fluent in the Chinese language. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No. NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Basic Qualification: Must be knowledgeable in developing and reviewing project quality plans, contract documents and project specifications. Must have Knowledge to a wide range of construction materials, methods, and techniques. Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 118. YANG, KUN Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

113. SHI, YUN Mandarin Quality Control Officer Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Quality Control Officer ensures that the quality of product from plans to actual construction is strictly implemented.

The initial production estimates for CY 2022-2023 were presented by the Sugar Regulatory Administra tion (SRA) last August 16 during the online consultation with sugarcane industry stakeholders. The documents showed that sug arcane hectarage in CY 2022-2023 may shrink to 389,113 hectares from 394,637 hectares. Sugarcane tonnage in CY 20222023 is initially projected at 21.22 MMT versus 21.439 MMT in the previous crop year. Raw sugar yield, meanwhile, could reach 1.77 50-kilogram bags per ton of cane milled (LKg/TC), slightly higher than the 1.74 LKg/TC in the previous crop year. Citing government forecasts, the documents indicated that the La Niña phenomenon would still be “active” until the first quarter of next year, which could affect the produc tion of sugarcane farms. The above normal rainfall is “ex pected” to happen from October until January 2023, based on the state weather bureau’s forecast at the end of However,July.ifLa Niña continues to weaken, sugar recovery would rise and offset the reduction in sugarcane hectarage in the new crop year. “As we expect that La Niña will weaken early next year, improve ment in LKg/TC is anticipated,” the documents read. “The 1.876 MMT pre-milling estimate might increase if La Niña will continue to weaken, improvement of LKg/TC in Negros and Bukidnon will be significant.”

“The undersigned directors fur ther believe that the continuous supply of PAP is crucial to be able to continuously produce the volume of aquatic feed needed to maintain the current aquaculture production.”

The NAC-ADCE argued that the country is not yet out of the woods in terms of eradicating ASF, which caused the death and culling of mil lions of pigs nationwide since the presence of disease in the country was first confirmed in August 2019. It pointed out that allowing the entry of pork PAP from ASFinfected countries could still be a pathway for the incursion of ASF virus in the country. “The DA cannot categorically claim that the ASF problem in our country is ‘under control’, hence in troducing another risk is tantamount to deliberately endangering the local industry,” NAC-ADCE said. The committee said hog raisers have raised concerns about the DA’s decision to lift the import ban on pork PAP due to questions on bios ecurity and possible cross contami nation of feed products that could introduce ASF virus to farms. The NAC-ADCE said there is a “perceived” risk of cross contamina tion between hog and aquaculture feeds since there are only a “hand ful” of feed mills in the country that produce only aquatic feeds. “Given that the PAP will be used by non-commercial feed mills ex clusively for aquatic feed, there are questions on the type of biosecu rity interventions to be put in place along the value chain from the ports of entry to the feed mills to the end user,” it “Theresaid.are other countries that can supply PAP where a higher cost of procuring and shipping PAP is perceived to be less of an issue com pared to the threat of continuing re currence of ASF.” Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

“We have an estimated demand of 2.2 MMT to 2.3 MMT. We do not see that our production would hit the de mand,” he said in an earlier statement. “Why are we going to export when we cannot supply the domestic mar ket? We do not see any opposition to the [proposed] SO [Sugar Order] 1.” An all “B” sugar allocation would mean that all locally produced raw sugar would go to the domestic mar ket. This also means that the Philip pines may not export sugar. The SRA board has the power to classify the country’s sugar output depending on its destined market: A for the United States market, B for the domestic market and D for the world market. “C” sugar would refer to reserved sugar that could be further reclassified by the SRA board as either A, B, or D. The SRA board usually issues SO 1, which outlines the production policy for the new crop year, a few days before or at the start of the new CY. Alba told the BusinessMirror that the SRA board is still awaiting the comments of the Department of Agriculture (DA) regarding the draft SO 1 for CY 2022-2023. SO 1 also includes the premill production estimate for the new crop year. This could be the second consecu tive crop year and the third time in the past decade that the Philippines allocated its entire raw sugar pro duction for domestic consumption. (Related story: years-may-be-necessary/)fao-phl-sugar-imports-in-next-9-mirror.com.ph/2022/08/04/oecd-https://business

THE need for collaboration and partnerships: a strategically located drop-off point for plastic waste under a joint effort of Nestlé PH, Plastic Credit Exchange, SM Supermalls and SM Cares.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO try include making a full transition from plastic to paper straws. Work ing with the Department of Educa tion (DepEd) and the National Solid Waste Management Commission, it has developed solid waste manage ment modules reaching millions of students in over 20,000 public schoolsWithnationwide.theDepartment of Envi ronment and Natural Resources, it is helping to train LGUs on solid wasteThroughmanagement.theBear Brand Tibaya nihan project, since 2016 Nestlé PH has provided over 12,000 benches and chairs made of up cycled Bear Brand packs for 131 public schools through the DepEd. This year, another 5,000 Tibay chairs will be turned over to schools in 12 cities nationwide. The firm has reduced its use of plastic year-on-year since the early 1990s and continues to accelerate this process. By 2025 its packag ing including plastics will be 100 percent recyclable or reusable, and it will cut virgin plastics consump tion by 1/3. Since 2016, all its fac tories have attained zero waste to landfill“Plasticstatus.pollution has complex challenges that need a collective, whole of society approach. With the commitment and participation of our employees, we will strengthen our collaboration with public and private sector partners to continue breaking new ground towards a waste-free future. “As the EPR law is implemented, we will intensify our efforts in searching for packaging alterna tives while working to reduce plas tic use, putting in place collection and recycling mechanisms, and mobilizing consumer involvement and“Beyondparticipation.investing in sustain ability practices which is integral to our business, at Nestlé we are on a journey to regeneration. An important aspect of this is help ing to protect, renew and restore the environment. We are joining hands with other stakeholders to create a cleaner, healthier and more resilient planet for future genera tions,” Marzouki said.

Agriculture/Commodities

THE importation of processed animal protein (PAP) of pork from countries with con firmed outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) was endorsed by various sectors, including the high-level Na tional Fisheries and Aquatic Resourc es Management Council (NFARMC), government documents showed. NFARMC, the highest-policy making body on the country’s fisheries and aquaculture indus tries, formally endorsed the im portation of porcine PAP in April to prevent the rise in feed costs that would be detrimental to do mestic fish production. It issued resolution No. 06 that formally requested the Depart ment of Agriculture to resolve the problems faced by aquaculture pro ducers regarding imported porcine PAPThesupply.resolution was unanimously signed by the 15 members of the NFARMC from the government, aca deme, fisherfolk sector, commercial fishers group, aquaculture industry, non-government organization, and fish“Theprocessing.NFARMC hereby request the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry to immediately address the issue of dwindling supply of raw materials for aquaculture production as it is a threat against the overall food se curity concerns of the whole nation,” the resolution read. The NFARMC based its recom mendation on international tech nical guidelines that ASF in pork products is inactivated when heat treated at a minimum temperature of 70 degrees Celsius for at least 30 Itminutes.notedthat the production of By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas DESPITE expectations that raw sugar output will im prove in the new crop year, the Philippines’s sugar sector may not be out of the woods yet as pro duction could remain below 2 million metric tons Government(MMT).documents ob tained by the BusinessMirror showed that the pre-mill crop out put estimate for crop year (CY) 20222023, which starts on September 1, is at 1.876 MMT. The initial forecast is flat com pared to the estimated 1.867 MMT raw sugar output in the recently con cluded CY Historical2021-2022.government data showed that the projected output for the new crop year may be the second lowest in the past 22 years, just be hind last year’s production. The information in the docu ments obtained by the Business Mirror was corroborated by various sugar industry players and sources, including those who attended a meet ing where government officials pre sented the production estimates.

‘Sugar output in new CY to hit 1.87 MMT’

YOUTH graduates of the training program of the Seafdec/AQD assist in the stocking of milkfish breeders at the newly constructed broodstock facilities of the research center in Tigbauan, Iloilo. PHOTO: SEAFDEC/AQD

THE LandBank of the Philip pines (LandBank) has ap proved P17.4 billion in loans to 1,220 borrowers nationwide for the production of high-value crops. The loans will finance the produc countrysidenongovernmentnessandoperatives,smallofproductionmaygram.maypackaging,crops,theasupBankrehabilitationandestablishmententbudwoodasgramerscropSulongeredasandingfruits,tionofhighlandandlowlandvegetables,aswellasindustrialcropsincludabacaandbamboo.Spices,legumes,alternativefoodstaplecropssuchsoybeanandrootcropsarealsocovforfinancingundertheLandBankSakaLendingProgram.Asidefromincreasedhigh-valueproduction,thebanksaidfarmcanavailofloansundertheprotofinancerelatedprojectssuchtheestablishmentofnursery,andormotherandplantorparclonegardens,aswellasfortheofnewplantations,thereplanting,rejuvenationandofoldtrees.FinancialsupportundertheLandSulongSakaProgramextendstopost-harvestcropactivitiessuchfermentationanddrying,includingprocessingandmanufacturingoflikeroasting,grinding/milling,andstoring.TradingandexportactivitiesalsobefinancedundertheproIndividualsmallfarmholdersborrowupto90percentforaloan,whileamaximum80percentmaybeborrowedbyandmediumenterprises,cofarmersassociationsorganizations,largeagribusienterprisesandcorporations,organizationsandfinancialinstitutions.

high-valueloansapprovesLandBankP17.4-Bforcrops

porcine PAP undergoes thorough manufacturing processes that en sure the inactivation of any present ASF virus in the product.

Counter proposals IN a statement on Tuesday, the Sama hang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sin ag) said various industry groups wrote to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., urging him to recall the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) decision to allow the entry of imported PAP even from ASF-infected countries. Marcos is currently the concur rent agriculture chief. Groups that submitted their po sition papers blocking the lifting of the import ban on pork PAP were the National Advisory Committee for Animal Disease Control (NACADCE), Sinag, Philippine College of Swine Practitioners, Philippine Soci ety of Animal Nutritionists, National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. and the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc. In its Resolution 05-2022 dated August 11, the NAC-ADCE “strongly” urged Marcos to rescind DA’s Memo randum Order (MO) 59 that autho rized the importation of pork PAP from ASF-infected countries.

The resolution of the attached agency of the DA was signed by the 15 regional directors of the bureau and the bureau’s then National Director. “The undersigned directors are convinced that the inclusion of PAP in aquatic feed diets poses no risk of transmission of ASF virus, as the temperatures used in the manufac ture of these feed ingredient and the processing of the aquafeeds it self, are both way beyond sufficient to inactivate the ASF virus,” BFAR’s resolution read.

Council, BFAR backed PAP imports from ASF-hit nations

In a separate resolution in June, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) also endorsed the importation of PAP from ASFinfectedBFARcountries.alsocited the same grounds given by NFARMC in pushing for the entry of porcine PAP from ASF-infected countries which have been earlier banned by the government due to the presence of the fatal hog disease.

www.businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Thursday, September 1, 2022 A9BusinessMirror

T HE new law on extended pro ducer responsibility (EPR) for plastic waste is a major milestone in tackling plastic waste and its implementation will suc ceed with sustained collaboration and partnerships among stake holders. These are the government agencies and local government units (LGUs), manufacturers and importers, NGOs and civil society groups, and consumers and com munities, said Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki of Nestlé PH, one of the country’s largest food and beverage manufacturers. “The effective implementation of the law is urgently needed to tackle the plastic pollution crisis,” he Republicsaid. Act 11898, The Ex tended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022, defines EPR as the environmental policy approach and practice that now requires producers to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, from manufac ture to consumption or use, and especially to its post-consumer or end-of-life stage. Large enter prises are covered, with auditing and annual compliance reports to be submitted. Plastic packaging refers to products used to carry, protect or pack goods for trans portation, distribution and sale. The law mandates establishing or phasing in EPR programs within six months, with yearly incremen tal target recovery rates up to 80 percent by 2028. “At Nestlé, our purpose is un locking the power of food to en hance quality of life, today and for generations to come. In serving people, we need natural resources and a healthy planet, and so we strive to do our share to protect the environment and ultimately help regenerate the Earth in our operations,” said Marzouki. As a voluntary form of EPR, Nestlé PH has been fully plastic neutral for two years as of this August. It has re covered over 52 million kilos of plas tic waste as of last July, equivalent to the volume of plastic packaging it put out in the market. The company’s firsts in the coun

Earlier, SRA Acting Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba announced that the new SRA board recommended an all “B” sugar production allocation for CY 2022-2023 amid tight supply and higher demand for the sweetener. (Related story: for-domestic-use/)may-allocate-all-sugarproduction-mirror.com.ph/2022/08/23/phl-https://business

‘Law on extended producer responsibility a major step in tackling plastic waste’

Gorbachev ventured into other new areas in his 70s, winning awards and kudos around the world. He won a Grammy in 2004 along with for mer US President Bill Clinton and Italian actress Sophia Loren for their recording of Prokofiev’s “Pe ter and the Wolf,” and the United Nations named him a Champion of the Earth in 2006 for his environ mentalGorbachevadvocacy.issurvived by a daugh ter, Irina, and two granddaughters. The official news agency Tass re ported that he will be buried at Mos cow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.

“There is nothing more precious in the world than human lives. Ne gotiations and dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and recognition of interests are the only possible way to resolve the most acute contradictions and problems,” he said.

M Gorbachev,OSCOW—Mikhailwhoset out to revitalize the Soviet Union but ended up unleashing forces that led to the collapse of communism, the breakup of the state and the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. The last Soviet leader was 91. SOVIET President Mikhail Gorbachev waves from the Red Square tribune during a Revolution Day celebration, in Moscow, Soviet Union, on November 7, 1989. Russian news agencies are reporting that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91. The Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies cited the Central Clinical Hospital. AP/BORIS YURCHENKO

JAPAN’S Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on Wednesday, August 31, 2022. AP/SHUJI KAJIYAMA

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years col lecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world. Yet he was widely despised at Russianshome.blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union—a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles. His run for president in 1996 was a national joke, and he polled less than 1 percent of the vote. In 1997, he resorted to making a TV ad for Pizza Hut to earn money for his charitable foundation. “In the ad, he should take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like he divided up our country, and then show how to put it back together again,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a one-time Gor bachevGorbachevsupporter.never set out to dis mantle the Soviet system. What he wanted to do was improve it. Soon after taking power, Gor bachev began a campaign to end his country’s economic and political stag nation, using “glasnost,” or openness, to help achieve his goal of “perestroi ka,” or restructuring. In his memoirs, he said he had long been frustrated that in a country with immense natural resources, tens of millions were living in poverty. “Our society was stifled in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,” Gorbachev wrote. “Doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the arms race, it was strained to theOnceutmost.”hebegan, one move led to another: He freed political prisoners, allowed open debate and multi-candi date elections, gave his countrymen freedom to travel, halted religious oppression, reduced nuclear arsenals, established closer ties with the West and did not resist the fall of Com munist regimes in Eastern European satellite states. But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his Long-suppressedcontrol. ethnic tensions flared, sparking wars and unrest in trouble spots such as the southern Caucasus region. Strikes and labor unrest followed price increases and shortages of consumer goods. In one of the low points of his ten ure, Gorbachev sanctioned a crack down on the restive Baltic republics in early 1991. The violence turned many intel lectuals and reformers against him. Competitive elections also produced a new crop of populist politicians who challenged Gorbachev’s policies and authority.Chiefamong them was his former protégé and eventual nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, who became Russia’s first president.“Theprocess of renovating this country and bringing about funda mental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipat ed,” Gorbachev told the nation as he stepped“However,down.let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom.” There was little in Gorbachev’s childhood to hint at the pivotal role he would play on the world stage. On many levels, he had a typical Soviet upbringing in a typical Russian vil lage. But it was a childhood blessed with unusual strokes of good fortune. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born March 2, 1931, in the vil lage of Privolnoye in southern Russia. Both of his grandfathers were peas ants, collective farm chairmen and members of the Communist Party, as was his Despitefather.stellar party credentials, Gorbachev’s family did not emerge unscathed from the terror unleashed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin: Both grandfathers were arrested and im prisoned for allegedly anti-Soviet activities.But,rare in that period, both were eventually freed. In 1941, when Gor bachev was 10, his father went off to war, along with most of the other men fromMeanwhile,Privolnoye.the Nazis pushed across the western steppes in their blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union; they occupied Privolnoye for five months.When the war was over, young Gorbachev was one of the few village boys whose father returned. By age 15, Gorbachev was helping his father drive a combine harvester after school and during the region’s blistering, dustyHissummers.performance earned him the order of the Red Banner of Labor, an unusual distinction for a 17-year-old. That prize and the party background of his parents helped him land ad mission in 1950 to the country’s top university, Moscow State. There, he met his wife, Raisa Max imovna Titorenko, and joined the Communist Party. The award and his family’s credentials also helped him overcome the disgrace of his grandfa thers’ arrests, which were overlooked in light of his exemplary Communist conduct.Inhis memoirs, Gorbachev de scribed himself as something of a maverick as he advanced through the party ranks, sometimes bursting out with criticism of the Soviet system and its leaders. His early career coincided with the “thaw” begun by Nikita Khrushchev. As a young communist propaganda official, he was tasked with explain ing the 20th Party Congress that re vealed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s repression of millions to local party activists. He said he was met first by “deathly silence,” then disbelief. “They said: ‘We don’t believe it. It can’t be. You want to blame everything on Stalin now that he’s dead,’” he told the AP in a 2006 interview. He was a true if unorthodox be liever in socialism. He was elected to the powerful party Central Com mittee in 1971, took over Soviet ag ricultural policy in 1978 and became a full Politburo member in 1980. Along the way, he was able to travel to the West, to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Those trips had a profound effect on his thinking, shaking his belief in the superiority of Soviet-style socialism. “The question haunted me: Why was the standard of living in our country lower than in other developed countries?” he recalled in his memoirs. “It seemed that our aged leaders were not especially worried about our un deniably lower living standards, our unsatisfactory way of life, and our falling behind in the field of advanced technologies.”ButGorbachev had to wait his turn. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and was succeeded by two other geriatric leaders: Yuri Andropov, Gorbachev’s mentor, and Konstantin Chernenko.Itwasn’t until March 1985, when Chernenko died, that the party finally chose a younger man to lead the coun try: Gorbachev. He was 54 years old. His tenure was filled with rocky periods, including a poorly conceived anti-alcohol campaign, the Soviet mil itary withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But starting in November 1985, Gorbachev began a series of attentiongrabbing summit meetings with world leaders, especially US Presidents Ron ald Reagan and George Bush, which led to unprecedented, deep reductions in the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals.Afteryears of watching a parade of stodgy leaders in the Kremlin, West ern leaders practically swooned over the charming, vigorous Gorbachev and his stylish, brainy wife. But perceptions were very differ ent at home. It was the first time since the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that the wife of a Soviet leader had played such a public role, and many Russians found Raisa Gorbachev showy and Althougharrogant.therest of the world benefited from the changes Gor bachev wrought, the rickety Soviet economy collapsed in the process, bringing with it tremendous eco nomic hardship for the country’s 290 million people. In the final days of the Soviet Union, the economic decline acceler ated into a steep skid. Hyper-inflation robbed most older people of their life’s savings. Factories shut down. Bread linesAndformed.popular hatred for Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, grew. But the cou ple won sympathy in summer 1999 when it was revealed that Raisa Gor bachev was dying of leukemia. During her final days, Gorbachev spoke daily with television report ers, and the lofty-sounding, wooden politician of old was suddenly seen as an emotional family man surren dering to deep grief. Gorbachev worked on the Gor bachev Foundation, which he cre ated to address global priorities in the post-Cold War period, and with the Green Cross foundation, which was formed in 1993 to help cultivate “a more harmonious relationship be tween humans and the environment.” In 2000, Gorbachev took the helm of the small United Social Democratic Party in hopes it could fill the vacuum left by the Communist Party, which he said had failed to reform into a mod ern leftist party after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He resigned from the chairmanship in 2004. He continued to comment on Rus sian politics as a senior statesman— even if many of his countrymen were no longer interested in what he had to say.“The crisis in our country will con tinue for some time, possibly leading to even greater upheaval,” Gorbachev wrote in a memoir in 1996. “But Rus sia has irrevocably chosen the path of freedom, and no one can make it turn back to Gorbachevtotalitarianism.”veeredbetween criti cism and mild praise for current Rus sian President Vladimir Putin, who has been assailed for backtracking on the democratic achievements of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras. While he said Putin did much to restore stability and prestige to Rus sia after the tumultuous decade fol lowing the Soviet collapse, Gorbachev protested growing limitations on me dia freedom, and in 2006 bought one of Russia’s last investigative newspa pers, Novaya GorbachevGazeta.alsospoke out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. A day af ter the February 24 attack, he issued a statement calling for “an early ces sation of hostilities and immediate start of peace negotiations.”

The World BusinessMirrorThursday, September 1, 2022 Editor: Angel R. Calso • www.businessmirror.com.phA10 Mikhail Gorbachev, who steered Soviet Union breakup, dead at 91

By Jim Heintz The Associated Press

Japan PM apologizes for party’s church links; vows to cut ties express my apology” for causing the public’s doubts and concerns over the continuing revelations in media re ports about the party’s extensive ties to the church, Kishida said. The Unification Church, which was founded in South Korea in 1954 and came to Japan a decade later, has built close ties with a host of conser vative lawmakers over their shared interests of opposing communism. Abe’s grandfather and former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi was a key figure that helped the church’s politi cal unit in Tokyo. Since the 1980s, the church has faced accusations of problematic re cruiting, sales of religious items and donations, which often lead to finan cial strains on the followers’ families and, according to experts, mental health of adherents’ children. The is sues led to the government’s decision to cut ties with the church. Abe sent a video message last year to the Universal Peace Federation, an international group affiliated with the church, which experts say may have motivated the suspect in Abe’s shooting. Abe had praised the federa tion’s co-founder Hak Ja Han Moon, who is also head of the church, for her effort in promoting traditional familyExpertsvalues.and cult watchers also say that the church has promoted its key agendas such as the opposition to women’s advancement and same-sex marriage to influence policy. Kishida shuffled his Cabinet ear lier in August to purge seven min isters linked to the church. Among them was Abe’s younger brother No buo Kishi, who acknowledged that church followers volunteered in his election campaign. Dozens of LDP members have since come forward with their ties to the church and relatedKishidaorganizations.saidatthe news confer ence that he has instructed LDP Sec retary General Toshimitsu Motegi to survey the party fully over any other members’ ties to the church. Kishida said he is rushing the effort but it may take time because the review will spanKishidadecades.apologized for the loss of public trust because of the scandal and his lack of explanation for orga nizing a state funeral for Abe, one of most divisive leaders in Japan’s post warThehistory.state funeral scheduled for September 27 has split public opin ion. The only other state funeral in postwar Japan was for former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who signed the San Francisco Treaty that restored ties with the Allies and ended the US occupation of Japan.

By Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press T OKYO—Japan’s Prime Min ister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday his ruling party will cut ties with the Unification Church following a widening scan dal triggered by former leader Shinzo Abe’s assassination last month, and apologized for causing the loss of public trust in Widespreadpolitics.cozyties between members of Kishida’s governing Lib eral Democratic Party, many of them belonging to Abe’s faction, and the South Korean-born church have sur faced since Abe was shot to death while giving a campaign speech in July. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagani, who was arrested at the scene, alleg edly told police he killed Abe because of his apparent link to the church. In a letter seen by The Associated Press and social media posts believed to be his, Yamagani said he believed his mother’s large donations to the church had ruined his life. Some Japanese have expressed understanding, even sympathy, as de tails of the man’s life emerged, creat ing deep implications for the political party that has governed Japan virtu ally uninterrupted since World War II. While religious groups must abide by law, “politicians are strictly re quired to be careful about groups with social problems,” Kishida said. Mem bers of his Cabinet and other key posts have agreed to review their past links and cut ties with the church. “As president of the LDP, I honestly Gorbachev died after a long illness, according to a statement issued by the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. No other details were given. Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breath taking series of changes. But they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domi nation and the end of decades of EastWest nuclear confrontation. US President Joe Biden called Gor bachev a “man of remarkable vision” and a “rare leader” who had “the imagi nation to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. “The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of peo ple,” Biden said in a statement. “Hard to think of a single person who altered the course of history more in a positive direction” than Gor bachev, said Michael McFaul, a politi cal analyst and former US ambassador in Moscow, on Twitter. “Gorbachev was an idealist who believed in the power of ideas and individuals. We should learn from his legacy.” Gorbachev’s decline was humiliat ing. His power hopelessly sapped by an attempted coup against him in Au gust 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on December 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later. A quarter-century after the col lapse, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered us ing widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in the nuclear country. “The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war,” he said. Many of the changes, including the Soviet breakup, bore no resemblance to the transformation that Gorbachev had envisioned when he became Soviet leader in March 1985. By the end of his rule, he was pow erless to halt the whirlwind he had started. Yet Gorbachev may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure. “I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world,” Gorbachev told the AP in a 1992 interview shortly after he left office.“Iam often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more per sistence and determination,” he said.

Kishida’s Cabinet last week allo cated at least a 250 million yen ($1.8 million) budget to invite about 6,000 guests for the funeral at the Budokan arena in KishidaTokyo.insisted that Abe de served a state funeral because of his achievement in raising Japan’s global profile as its longest-serving postwar leader. He said Japan must respond with courtesy to “outpour ing of condolences” from foreign leaders and legislations.

V ladimir Isachenkov and former AP news director Kate de Pury in Moscow contributed.

AP By Paul Byrne The Associated Press K YIV, bridgesclaimedUkraine—Ukrainetohavedestroyedandammunitionde pots and pounded command posts in a surge of fighting in the Russianoccupied south, fueling speculation Tuesday that its long-awaited counter offensive to try to turn the tide of war is underway. Russia said it inflicted heavy casualties in return. The clashes took place in Ukraine’s Kherson region, where Moscow’s forces rolled up major gains early in theWhilewar. independent verification of battlefield action has been diffi cult, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence report that several Ukrainian brigades had stepped up their artillery fire in front-line sec tors across southern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities kept the world guessing about their intentions, sidestepping talk of a major counter offensive over the past couple of days. The port city of Kherson, with a prewar population of about 300,000, is an important economic hub close to the Black Sea and the first major city to fall to the Russians in the war that began six months ago. Occupation forces have spoken of plans to hold a referendum on making the Kherson region a part of Russia and have pressured residents to take Russian citizenship and stop using Ukraine’sUkraine’scurrency.presidential office re ported “tough battles” going on across practically all of the area and said Ukrainian forces destroyed ammuni tion depots and all large bridges across the Dnieper River vital to supplying Russian troops. The Ukrainian military said Tues day evening that the Russians were shelling more than 15 settlements in the Kherson area and resorting to airstrikes.TheBritish said that most of Rus sia’s units around Kherson “are likely under-manned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines” while its forces there are undergoing a significant reorganization.RussianDefense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konash enkov maintained that its forces stood up well and that Ukraine lost hundreds of troops, tanks and other armored vehicles in Monday’s action. His claim could not be in dependently verified. Ukrainian independent military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told The Asso ciated Press that “it will be possible to talk about the effectiveness of Ukrai nian actions only after large cities are retaken.” He added that Ukrainian forces had breached the first and the second lines of defense in the Kherson region several times in the past, “but it didn’t bring about results.” “The most important thing is Ukrainian artillery’s work on the bridges, which the Russian military can no longer use,” Zhdanov said. The war has turned into a stale mate over the past months, with casu alties and destruction mounting and the population bearing the brunt of the suffering during relentless shell ing in the east and south. In other battlefield reports, at least nine civilians were killed in more Rus sian shelling, Ukrainian officials said, from the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv to the northeastern industrial hub of Kharkiv, where five were killed in the cityThecenter.fighting complicates what could be a treacherous trip from Kyiv to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, by an inspec tion team from the UN’s atomic en ergyTheagency.experts may have to pass through areas of active fighting, with no publicly announced cease-fire, to reach the Rus sian-occupied plant, where shelling has driven fears of a catastrophe. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the area over and over. Nikopol, a city just across the Dnieper from the plant, again came under a barrage of heavy shelling, authorities said, with a bus station, stores and a children’s library dam aged. And a Russian missile strike targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the plant, Ukraine said.

Heavy fighting rages in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region

Taiwan forces fire at drones flying over island near China

FIREFIGHTERS work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack that heavily damaged a building in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Monday, August 29, 2022. CORREA

Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.

AP IN this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen watches soldiers operate equipment during a visit to a naval station on Penghu, an archipelago of several dozen islands off Taiwan’s western coast on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.

Tsai told the self-ruled island’s military units Tuesday to keep their cool in the face of daily warplane flights and warship maneuvers by rival China, saying that Taiwan will not allow Beijing to provoke a conflict. She also inspected a radar squadron, an air defense company, and a navy fleet.

BusinessMirror Thursday, September 1, 2022 The World www.businessmirror.com.ph A11

AP/LEO

By Vanessa Gera The Associated Press W ARSAW, Poland—In the Latvian capital of Riga, an obelisk that soared high above a park to commemorate the Soviet Army’s capture of that na tion in 1944 was toppled last week. It crashed into a pond to the cheers of thoseDayswatching.earlier in Estonia, a replica of a Soviet tank with the communist red star was removed by cranes and trucked away to a museum—one of up to 400 destined for removal. And in Poland, Lithuania and Czechia, monu ments to the Red Army have been coming down for months, a belated purge of what many see as symbols of pastRussia’soppression.waronUkraine has given a renewed push to topple the last re maining Soviet monuments in nations that regained their sovereignty from Moscow more than three decades ago. These countries now belong to NATO and the European Union and are staunch supporters of Ukraine. At the end of the communist era, when Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia regained their independence from the Soviet Union and Poland and its neigh bors rejected Moscow-backed commu nism, those nations began renaming streets and purging the most hated symbols, including statues of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and other communist bosses. Many of these relics are now housed in museums. In Warsaw, authorities in 1989 quickly toppled a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish aristocrat who organized the Soviet secret police after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Under his rule, the Cheka, the fore runner of the KGB, was responsible for a wave of terror. Such changes followed the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who died in a Moscow hospital on Tuesday at the age of 91. But memorials to Soviet soldiers or their role in defeating Nazi Ger many remained in many places, met with indifference or respect for the ordinary soldiers who died fighting Adolf Hitler’s brutal regime. The war in Ukraine, however, has triggered memories of how some of those soldiers also raped local women and carried out other war crimes. Krista Sarv, the research director for the Estonian History Museum, said after statues of Lenin and other lead ing communists were toppled in the 1990s, people could largely ignore the other memorials. But views changed suddenly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and now the memorials “scream loudly about occupation and annexation.” Karol Nawrocki, the head of Po land’s Institute of National Remem brance, which is overseeing the re moval of the monuments, says “before our eyes, history has become a living experience.”“Dressed in the uniforms of the Russian Federation, with Lenin and Stalin in their heads and hearts, Rus sian soldiers ‘liberate’ Ukraine by mur dering women, children and killing soldiers,” Nawrocki said. “Let it be clear: There is no place in the Polish public space for any commemoration of the totalitarian communist regime and its people,” he added.A2016 decommunization law had already called for a purge of commu nist symbols and names, but some municipalities did not have the money for that, so the institute has stepped in to help. Since February, the Polish institute has identified 60 monu ments for removal—and has toppled more than 20.

In Lithuania, a number of remain ing Soviet memorials have been re moved since the spring to little pro test. But in Latvia and Estonia, which have sizeable Russian minorities, the removals have stirred greater emo tions, with local Russians—and the Russian government—seeing it as an offense against their war heroes. Dmitry Prokopenko, a Russianspeaking Latvian who opposed remov ing the Riga obelisk, said his grandpar ents fought and a great-grandfather died in the fight “for freedom against the Nazis.” To him, the memorial hon ored their sacrifice. “Latvia is a land where Latvians and Russians live together,” he said. “I think that one part of the state, one part of the country, should respect also the rights of the other part.” The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday released a lengthy state ment denouncing the demolition of Soviet monuments in the Baltic countries as “barbaric” and threat ening Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia with retaliatory measures.

Ex-Malaysian leader Mahathir, 97, hospitalized with Covid-19 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia— Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Moham ad, 97, was hospitalized Wednesday after testing positive for Covid-19, his office “Mahathirsaid.has been admitted to the National Heart Institute for ob servation for a few days as advised by the medical team,” it said in a state ment. It didn’t provide further details on his Mahathir,condition.who was Malaysia’s prime minister for two different periods, once was the world’s old est leader. He has had two coronary bypass surgeries but remains robust and sharp witted. He was admitted several times to the same hospital earlier this Mahathiryear.later said he was hospi talized after experiencing shortness of breath due to a shortage of red blood cells. He later had a pacemaker implanted but acquired an infection during the surgery. He has said he thought he was dying at that point but somehow made a recovery. Mahathir ruled Malaysia initially for 22 years until his retirement in 2003. Spurred by anger over govern ment corruption, he led the opposition to a historic election victory in 2018 that ousted the governing party in the first peaceful transfer of power since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. Mahathir became the world’s old est leader at 92 for a second stint but that triumph lasted only 22 months as his government collapsed due to defections. Mahathir formed a new ethnic Malay party in 2020 and a Malay alliance this year to contest elections due next year. Mahathir said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month that he plans to contest the polls “If I am strong enough, if I am healthy enough, if they want me to contest, I will contest.”

TAIWAN MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE VIA AP

In apparent slap against Poland, Belarus last week reportedly leveled a memorial containing the graves of Polish wartime soldiers. Polish officials declared that ac tion barbaric, given that Poland has a policy of not disturbing the graves of Soviet soldiers. Rafal Leskiewicz, a historian with the Polish remem brance institute, explained “as Chris tians, we treat graves as holy ground. It doesn’t matter who is in the graves.”

“Had it not been for the victory of Polish and Soviet soldiers in May 1945, Poland might not have existed at all,” said the letter by magazine editor Pawel Dybicz and historian August Grabski. But many other Poles note that World War II broke out after Soviet Union and Nazi Germany agreed secretly in 1939 to carve up Poland and the Baltic states. Only after Germany betrayed and invaded the Soviet Union did the Red Army begin to fight the EvenGermans.before Russia’s war in Ukraine, the monuments have been a source of tensions. In 2007, the relocation of a World War II monument of a Red Army sol dier in Tallinn, Estonia, sparked days of rioting.In2013, an artist put up a statue depicting a Soviet soldier raping a pregnant woman next to the Gdansk tank. The unauthorized sculpture was quickly removed. After Russia invaded Ukraine, a different artist covered the tank with a large handsewn Ukrainian flag to protest what he called the “tyranny” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Poland’s northern city of Gdan sk, there’s been a heated debate about a Soviet T-34 tank on Victory Avenue, and the city has decided not to remove it. The tank commander was a Polish lieutenant, and Polish soldiers played a key role in freeing the former Ger man city of Danzig from the Nazis. In an open letter, two descendants of wartime Polish soldiers expressed their indignation at the removal of monuments.Theyrecalled that Polish soldiers died fighting with the Soviets to free Poland from the Nazis and that the Soviet victory resulted in Poland re ceiving a swath of defeated Germany’s territory and cities including Gdansk and Wroclaw. They also noted it was the Red Army that liberated Aus chwitz, Majdanek and many other Nazi death camps.

War protest: Statues fall as Europe purges Soviet Union monuments

AIWAN’S military fired warning shots at drones from China flying over its outposts just off the Chinese coastline, underscoring heightened tensions and the self-ruled island’s resolve to respond to new provocations.

In some cases locals support keep ing Red Army memorials because of its role in defeating Nazi Germany. Some fear the erasure of historical memory, or see an affront to their own ances tors who fought alongside the Soviets.

Taiwan’s forces said in a statement that troops took the action on Tuesday after drones were found hovering over the Kinmen island group. The statement Wednesday referred to the unmanned aerial vehicles as be ing of “civilian use,” but gave no other details. It said the drones returned to the nearby Chinese city of Xiamen after the shots were fired. Taiwan pre viously fired only flares as warnings. The incident comes amid height ened tensions after China fired mis siles into the sea and sent planes and ships across the dividing line in the Taiwan Strait earlier this month. It followed angry rhetoric from Beijing over a trip to Taiwan by House Speak er Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US dignitary to visit the island in 25 Chinayears. claims Taiwan as its own territory and its recent actions have been viewed as a rehearsal of a possible blockade or invasion. China’s drills brought strong condemnation from Taiwan’s chief ally, the US, along with fellow regional democracies such as Australia and Japan. Some of China’s missiles early in August fell into near by Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Taiwan maintains control over a range of islands in the Kinmen and Matsu groups in the Taiwan Strait, a relic of the effort by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists to maintain a foothold on the mainland after being driven out by Mao Zedong’s Communists amid civil war in Taiwan’s1949.Defense Ministry said China’s actions failed to intimidate the island’s 23 million people, saying they had only hardened support for the armed forces and the status quo of de-facto Officialsindependence.saidanti-drone defenses were being strengthened, part of a 12.9 percent increase in the Defense Ministry’s annual budget next year. The government is planning to spend an additional 47.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1.6 billion), for a total of 415.1 billion NTD ($13.8 billion) for the year. The US is also reportedly prepar ing to approve a $1.1 billion defense package for Taiwan that would include anti-ship and air-to-air missiles to be used to repel potential Chinese inva sionFollowingattempt. the Chinese drills, the US sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait, which China has sought to designate as its sovereign waters. Foreign delegations from the US, Ja pan and European nations have con tinued to arrive to lend Taipei diplo matic and economic support. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is cur rently visiting Taiwan to discuss production of semiconductors, the critical chips that are used in everyday electronics and have become a battle ground in the technology competition between the US and China. Ducey is seeking to woo suppli ers for the new $12 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) plant being built in his state. Last week, the Indiana governor visited Taiwan on a similar mission. Taiwan produces more than half the global supply of high-end proces sor chips. China’s firing of missiles during its exercises disrupted ship ping and air traffic, and highlighted the possibility that chip exports might be interrupted.ReactingtoDucey’s visit, China on Wednesday reaffirmed its opposition to any official contacts between the US and Taiwan. That was a further reminder of the Communist Party’s refusal to acknowledge the separation of powers within the US government and the right of American local offi cials to operate independently of the administration.“Weurgetherelevant parties in the US to...stop any forms of official con tacts with Taiwan, and refrain from sending wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces,” Foreign Minis try spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily“Chinabriefing.willtake strong measures to resolutely safeguard national sov ereignty and territorial integrity,” Zhao said.

www.news.businessmirror@gmail.comThursday, September 1, 2022 • Editor: Angel R. Calso Opinion BusinessMirrorA12

But the man who died at age 91 on Tuesday was also reviled by many countrymen who blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union and its diminution as a superpower. The Russian nation that emerged from its Soviet past shrank in size as 15 new nations wereThecreated.lossof pride and power also eventually led to the rise of Vladimir Putin, who has tried for the past quarter-century to restore Russia to its former glory and beyond. “After decades of brutal political repression, he embraced democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika—openness and restructuring—not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation,”

Printed by brown madonna Press, Inc.–Sun Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called him “a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War.” “The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist, and tireless advocate for peace,” the UN chief said in a statement.Guterres quoted Gorbachev’s observation in his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize speech that “peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity.” “He put this vital insight into practice by pursuing the path of negotiation, reform, transparency and disarmament,” the UN chief said. Gorbachev’s contemporaries pointed to the end of the Cold War as one of his achievements.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business GroupAdvertisingChairmanChiefCreativeAssociateEditorPublisherinChiefEditorNewsEditorSeniorEditorsOnlineEditorDirectorPhotographeroftheBoardPresidentSalesManagerCirculationManager

Francis has started studying “weather whiplash” in 2012, to find out why global weather patterns have been swinging wildly from one extreme to another. The World Weather Attribution initiative was started in 2014 after scientists concluded that the emerging science of extreme event attribution could be turned into measurable observations. Climate scientists at WWA provide robust assessments on the role of climate change in the aftermath of an extreme event. AP Science writer Seth Borenstein said the scientists at WWA, mostly volunteers who quickly examine extreme weather for a climate change fingerprint, have a strict criteria of events to investigate: they have to be record-breaking, cause a significant number of deaths, or impact at least one million people. So far this year they’ve been swamped. He quoted a WWA official as saying there have been 41 events—eight floods, three storms, eight droughts, 18 heat waves and four cold waves—that have reached that threshold point. In just two weeks in late July and early August, the US had 10 downpours that are only supposed to happen one percent of the time—sometimes called 1-in-100-year storms. That’s not counting the Dallas region, a likely 1-in1,000-year storm, where some places got more than nine inches of rain in 24 hours, wrote Borenstein. In the Horn of Africa in the midst of a devastating but oft-ignored famine and drought, nearby flash floods add to the humanitarian disaster unfolding. Europe, which suffered through unprecedented flooding last year, has baked with record heat compounded by a 500-year drought that is drying up rivers and threatening power supplies, the AP report said. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized what it called compounding weather disasters as a future threat. “Frankly how fast and how badly it’s now playing out is a surprise to many of us,” said IPCC’s Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in the Netherlands. “It’s scary how quickly it is appearing in front of our Scientistseyes.”suspect climate change is at work in two different ways. The biggest way is simple physics. As the atmosphere warms it holds more water (7 percent more for every degree Celsius), scientists said. Think of the air as a giant sponge, said UCLA and Nature Conservancy climate scientist Daniel Swain. It soaks up more water from parched ground like a sponge “which is why we’re seeing worse droughts in some places,” he said. Then when a weather system travels further, it has more to dump, causing downpours. Another factor is the stuck and wavier jet stream—the atmospheric river that moves weather systems around the world—said Francis of Woodwell Climate Research Center. Storm systems don’t move and just dump huge amounts of water in some places. Other places, like China, are stuck with hot weather as cooler, wetter weather moves around them. From the Associated Press: “Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June, officials said Sunday, as the country’s climate minister called the deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe”. The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four of the country’s provinces. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting millions of people.” Extreme weather events are getting more extreme in all parts of the world. As Francis has told the US Senate, “we need to pull out all the stops to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases and to remove carbon from the atmosphere”. There’s an urgent need to deliver the same message to all governments and leaders of the world.

OUTSIDE THE BOX John Mangun

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Lourdes M. Fernandez Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug Lorenzo M. Lomibao Jr., Gerard S. Ramos Lyn B. Resurreccion, Dennis D. Estopace Angel R. Calso Ruben M. Cruz Jr. Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes D. Edgard A. Cabangon Benjamin V. Ramos Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines. Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025. (Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807. (Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news.businessmirror@gmail.com www.news.businessmirror@gmail.com

tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to usFrenchall.”

V laDimir PUTin—and by extension all russians past, present, and future—are lucifer’s minions, on earth for the purpose of destroying God-fearing people as evidenced by the attack on Ukraine. That could be true.

President Joe Biden said. He added that “these were the acts of a rare leader—one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War but although widely feted abroad, he was a pariah at home. It was unclear how news of his death will be received in Russia amid its nationalist war in Ukraine. World leaders paid tribute to a man some described as a great and braveOutgoingleader.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “in a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his

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

“Mikhail Gorbachev played a critical role in the peaceful end to the Cold War. At home, he was a figure of historical importance, but not in the way he intended,” said Robert M. Gates, who headed the CIA from 1991 to 1993 and later became US defense secretary.

So here we are 13 years later and Forbes—July 20, 2022: “Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon, said European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.”

By patrick quinn | The Associated Press BanGKOK—The passing of mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and for many the man who restored democracy to then-communist-ruled european nations, was mourned Wednesday as the loss of a rare leader who changed the world and for a time gave hope for peace among the superpowers.

BusinessMirror

Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Since 2005 ✝

Weather whiplash: Deadly droughts and superfloods

‘The most direct impact of ice loss is the escalation of global warming. The extra heat now being absorbed by the planet where ice used to exist has intensified global warming. This year alone, we’ve all watched in horror as a record number of $1 billion disasters including wildfires, heat waves, floods, and rapidly intensifying hurricanes—devastated parts of the US and elsewhere, threatening the security of affected communities, straining agriculture and food security, and stretching relief resources. This, Senators, is the face of global warming.”

The foolish get fooled Mikhail Gorbachev’s death mourned as passing of rare leader

President Emmanuel Macron described Gorbachev as “a man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history.”

“By weakening the police state and dismantling Stalinist economic structures, he set in motion the collapse of the Soviet Union as its diverse nationalities declared independence and the economy cratered. In doing so, Gorbachev gave the peoples of the USSR the opportunity for a vastly different and better future, an opportunity subsequently taken from them,” he added.

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a tweet that “his life was consequential because, without him and his courage, it would not have been possible to end the Cold War peacefully.” In Asia, he was remembered as a leader with the courage to bring change. associated Press writer Edith m Lederer at the United na tions and other aP journalists around the world contributed to this report.

MEMBER OF War in 2008. In 2009, natural gas company Gazprom refused to supply its product until Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz paid its debts for previous gas supplies, prompting Gazprom to turn off the supply to Ukraine, Southeastern Europe, and partially to other European countries.Manycountries were unprepared and were without supplies for days, leading to significant economic consequences. Read this in Reuters on January 7, 2009 regarding Europe’s reliance on Russia for energy: “Austria—about 60 pct of gas for domestic use from Russia, Germany—about 42 pct, France—about 24 pct, Poland—about 47 pct,” and that is only a partial list. So here we are 13 years later and Forbes—July 20, 2022: “Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon, said European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.” How bad is it? According to Reuters, hundreds of cars have lined up at Poland’s Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka coal mine, as householders wait for days and nights to stock up on heating fuel. While Poland produces over 50 million tons every year, imported coal from Russia is a household essential. “Artur’s household is one of the nearly 4 million in Poland that rely on coal for heating (these households are probably in better shape than the ones relying on natural gas, which price is rising by 10 percent to 20 percent every day) and now face shortages and priceNaturalhikes.”gas in Europe is 10 times more expensive than it was a year ago. The Guardian—August 29, 2022: “Skyrocketing energy prices mean almost one in four adults in the UK will not switch on the heating at all this winter. That figure was even higher for parents with children with 27 percent saying they would leave the radiators cold while 11 percent said they were considering taking out a EUobserver—Augustloan.” 30, 2022: “Wholesale day-ahead electricity prices—the prices energy companies pay for that day’s electricity— breached €700 per megawatt-hour in some countries on Monday, including France and Austria, compared to an average of €20 and €50 per MWh lastDearyear.”Ms. Von der Leyen, if you don’t want scandalous pictures of your private parts on the Internet, do not take a camera into the bedroom...or whatever. Also, never let one of Satan’s bad boys control your energy supply.

In October 2008, American political commentator, Jeff Kuhner, wrote the following: “Mr. Putin is now bent on dismembering Ukraine. The Russian strongman has made no secret of his contempt for Kiev’s independence. In April, he told President Bush that Ukraine is “not even a real state.” Any attempt at partition (speaking of Crimea) by Moscow would be met by fierce resistance. It would spark a bloody Russo-Ukrainian war.” Interestingly, Russia’s annexation of Crimea did not lead to war and even more interesting, Russia invaded Ukraine and that did cause war, which appeared to be Putin’s objective from day one. He has effectively eliminated any chance of Ukraine becoming a Nato member with Russia now holding a 1,200-kilometer long, 100+ km wide buffer zone from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east down south through Crimea and then west to 200 kilometers from Odesa.

The Ukraine-Russia relationship has been “complicated” since the 17th century when the Russian empire annexed much of Ukraine’s territory and its autonomy. The Russians considered Ukrainians and Belarusians ethnically “Little Russia.” Ukraine was a founding member— with Russia—of the Union of Soviet SocialistUkraineRepublics.became independent after the end of the USSR and things started to sour. Russia was “allowed” to lease some of the naval bases in Sevastopol for the Russian Navy until 2017, and Filipinos know how that “lease” arrangement ultimately turns out. There was no way Putin was going to give up his Crimea bases. It was just easier to take the whole peninsula.Also,there were the several Soviet–Western Europe oil and gas pipelines that ran through Ukraine and from which Ukraine made a healthy commission. But Ukraine supported Georgia during the Russo-Georgian

editorial

That’s how Dr. Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, described the threats to national security posed by Arctic ice loss and warming when she testified at a US Senate hearing nearly two years ago. “The impacts I’ve discussed are symptoms of the underlying disease. To treat the disease, we need to pull out all the stops to reduce emissions of heattrapping gases and to remove carbon from the atmosphere via natural (such as reforestation) and technological (carbon capture) means,” she said.

First of two parts in this day and age where the fast pace of civilization pushed peo ple to build more corporations, businesses, and engage in count less commercial endeavors, it is inevitable that parties will have more occasions to disagree. this and the advent of the proliferation of use of social media has necessitated the need to take advantage of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as arbitration, to en able parties to amicably reach a suitable end to their arguments and protect their interests and reputations at the same time. And this has been pursued by strengthening the arbitration laws through its recent amendments of laws and rules, pro-arbitration jurisprudence and establishment of stakeholders’ organizations and arbitration in stitutions, such as the Philippine institute of Arbitrators (PiArb); the Philippine international Center for Conflict Resolution (PiCCR); and the Construction industry Arbitration Commission (CiAC).

The need for more affordable housing due to increasing population resulted to the conversion of many of the salt beds into residential sub divisions.Asof2020, the population of Las Piñas City is estimated at 606,293, where 32,485 are from Pulanglupa. Pollution from industrial and domestic sewerage draining into Manila Bay destroyed the pristine waters that had been the salt indus try’s primary ingredient. Land developments such as bay area reclamation and Coastal Road construction disrupted salt pro duction.Thedredging and construction work prevented fishermen from go ing out to sea. Bulk of the salt pro duced began falling into the lower priced segunda and tertia categories. Other large salt producers also converted their areas into fishponds and residential and commercial properties in order to create profit avenues.Saltimported from other coun tries like China and India were also offered at lower prices. Large salt farms in Cavite, Las Pi ñas, and Bulacan were forced to close down due to seasonal pattern chang es caused by climate change, along with the salt producers’ reliance and use of old production methods. While the Philippines has one of the longest shorelines in the world, covering 36,000 kilometers, the coun try now resorts to salt importation. The Department of Agricul ture noted that the Philippines im ports about 550,000 metric tons of salt every year, or approximately 93 percent of the country’s salt re quirement.Theweakening of the salt indus try is partly attributed to the pas sage of RA 8172 or the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (ASIN) law passed in 1995, which requires all producers of food-grade salt to iodize the salt that they produce, manufacture, import, trade or dis tribute for human and animal con sumption.Thelaw seeks to reinforce the ad vocacy in battling the problem of mi cronutrient deficiencies, specifically, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Goiter is one of the most common IDD, which is the irregular growth of thyroid gland. People with goiter often have an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland, which can lead to the appearance of a mass or swell ing of the neck. All food manufacturers and pro cessors using food-grade salt are also required to use iodized salt in the processing of their products. All food outlets, restaurants, and stores are also mandated to make available to customers only iodized salt in their establishment. The Department of Trade and Industry is required to provide the machine to incorporate iodine in the salt being produced, but it failed to comply, resulting in the slow death of the salt industry. The limited development, includ ing the lack of innovation and inter ventions, as well as low enterprise and investment opportunities, also led to the decrease in salt output.

The FBI also seized 33 boxes containing more than 100 classi fied records during its Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and found classified documents stashed in Trump’s of fice, according to a filing that lays out the most detailed chronology to date of months of strained interac tions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the discovery of government secrets.The filing offers yet another indication of the sheer volume of classified records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. It shows how investi gators conducting a criminal probe have focused not just on why the re cords were improperly stored there, but also on the question of whether the Trump team intentionally mis led them about the continued, and unlawful, presence of the top secret documents.Thetimeline laid out by the Justice Department made clear that the extraordinary search of Mar-a-Lago came only after other efforts to retrieve the records had failed, and that it resulted from law enforcement suspicion that addi tional documents remained inside the property despite assurances by Trump representatives that a “dili gent search” had accounted for all of the material. It also included a picture of some of the seized documents bearing clear classification markings, per haps as a way to rebut suggestions that whoever packed them or was handling them could have easily failed to appreciate their sensitive nature.The photo shows the cover pages of a smattering of paperclipbound classified documents—some marked as “TOP SECRET//SCI” with bright yellow borders, and one marked as “SECRET//SCI” with a rust-colored border—along with whited-out pages, splayed out on a carpet at Mar-a-Lago. Beside them sits a cardboard box filled with goldframed pictures, including a Time magazineThoughcover.itcontains significant new details on the investigation, the Justice Department filing does not resolve a core question that has driven public fascination with the investigation—why Trump held onto the documents after he left the White House and why he and his team resisted repeated efforts to give them back. In fact, it sug gests officials may not have received an Duringanswer. a June 3 visit to Mara-Lago by FBI and Justice De partment officials, the document states, “Counsel for the former President offered no explanation as to why boxes of government re cords, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the Premises nearly five months after the production of the Fifteen Boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the Admin istration.”Thatvisit to Mar-a-Lago, which came weeks after the Justice De partment issued a subpoena for the records, receives substantial atten tion in the document and appears to be a key investigative focus. Though Trump has said he had declassified all of the documents at Mar-a-Lago, his lawyers did not suggest that during the visit and instead “handled them in a manner that suggested counsel believed that the documents were classified,” ac cording to the document. FBI agents who went there to receive additional materials were given “a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents,” the filing states. That envelope, according to the FBI, contained 38 unique docu ments with classification markings, including five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret. During that visit, the document says, Trump’s lawyers told investi gators that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in one location—a Mar-aLago storage room—and that “there were no other records stored in any private office space or other location at the Premises and that all avail able boxes were searched.” After that, though, the Justice Department, which had subpoenaed video footage for the property, “de veloped evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s inves tigation.” The filing does not iden tify the individuals who may have relocated the boxes. In their August search, agents found classified documents both in the storage room as well as in the for mer president’s office—including three classified documents found not in boxes, but in office desks. “That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former President’s coun sel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter,” the document states. It says, “In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence person nel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clear ances before they were permitted to review certain documents.” The investigation began from a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration, which recovered 15 boxes from Mar-aLago in January that were found to contain 184 documents with classi fied markings, including top secret information.Thepurpose of the Tuesday night filing was to oppose a request from the Trump legal team for a special master to review the documents seized during this month’s search and set aside those protected by claims of legal privilege. US Dis trict Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hear arguments on the matter on Thursday.Cannon on Saturday said it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint such a person but also gave the Jus tice Department an opportunity to respond.OnMonday, the department said it had already completed its review of potentially privileged documents and identified a “limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged informa tion.” It said Tuesday that a special master was therefore “unnecessary.” In a separate development, the Trump legal team has grown with the addition of another attorney. Chris Kise, Florida’s former solici tor general, has joined the team of lawyers representing Trump, ac cording to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss the move by name and spoke on condition of anonym ity. Kise did not return messages seeking comment. Colvin and Balsamo reported from New York.

Feds cite efforts to obstruct probe of docs at Trump estate Arbitration as a fair, speedy, cost, and effective mode of resolution of commercial disputes in the Philippines

To be continued

Facial scanning PARENTS are required to upload each family member’s temperature, health codes with their travel details and Co

ASIN law and the weakening salt industry

Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law of fices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808 or 0908-8665786.

During harvest time, there were many small pyramids of white crys tals scattered in the city that pro duced 40-50 kilos of rock salt per day.

By Eric Tucker, Jill Colvin & Michael Balsamo

The salt was graded and classi fied as tertia, segunda and primera. Las Piñas was most known for its primera or first-class salt used to flavor fine dishes. Tertia salt had the most impuri ties, the darkest color and was used with dry ice to preserve ice cream. Segunda salt was used to preserve freshUnfortunately,fish. the salt beds be came casualties of urbanization.

ASIN Law was seen limiting inno vations on the type of salt that will fit the needs of a product, which leads to the loss of some nutrients during processing.Withthis, small local salt farm ers are unable to compete with large salt producers in the global market.

China school mayhem continues for third year as classes close CHINESE students are facing the start of a third year marred by unpredictable schedules as schools across the nation postpone classes in an effort to get Covid-19 outbreaks under control. Schools in major cities including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen and panda-rich Chengdu in the southwest, and the northern port hub Tianjin, are deferring restart dates amid virus flareups. Numerous other provinces—including Zheji ang, Henan, Liaoning, and Jilin— also are seeing delays, according to municipal government statements. There were 1,675 local cases re corded nationwide for August 30, down by more than half from two weeks ago as local leaders implement ed strict measures to contain some of the country’s largest outbreaks. The educational delays fore shadow more disruption for Chinese students and show how the coun try’s stringent Covid Zero approach impacts life well beyond the virus itself, more than two-and-a-half years after the pandemic started. While the rest of the world is living with Covid, China has retained a zero-tolerance policy focused on dy namically eradicating the pathogen wherever it Shanghaiappears.isexpected to resume classes on time on September 1, after being closed for almost six months while the city battled the virus. Of ficials are asking schools to take strict prevention measures to avoid spreading it.

But first, let me give a brief sum mary of our arbitration laws. The Philippines is among the first sig natories of the 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention) and acceded to the same as early as 1967. The Philippines as a member of the United Nations Com mission in International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) also adopted the UN CITRAL Model Law (Model Law) as the governing law on international commercial arbitrations. Hence, when the Congress enacted Republic Act (RA) No. 9285 or the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004 (the ADR Act), it incorporated the Model Law in its entirety. Five years after or in 2009, the Department of Justice issued the ADR Act’s Implement ing Rules and Regulations (IRR), and the Supreme Court issued the Special Rules of Court on Alterna tive Dispute Resolution (Special ADR Rules, A.M. No. 07-11-08-SC). These two rules, in addition to the ADR Act incorporating the New York Convention and the Model Law, are our arbitration laws.

The Associated Press WASHinGtOn the Justice Department said tuesday that classified documents were “likely concealed and re moved” from former President Donald trump’s Mar-alago estate as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the discovery of the government records.

Thursday, September 1, 2022 Opinion A13BusinessMirrorwww.news.businessmirror@gmail.com

The official web site of Las Piñas City narrated the history of its salt industry. In the 18th century, saltmaking technology using solar dry beds was introduced to Las Piñas, then a known fishing village. Over time, hundreds of hectares sur rounding the old town were convert ed into salt beds known as “irasan.” Later, clay tiles or gibak were brought down from as far away as Vigan to line the salt beds. This prevented the salt from coming into contact with the ground and allowed the salt to become white. Solar evaporation method is the oldest method of salt production. This is ideal in warm climates as evaporation rates exceed precipita tion rates. This method retains ions such as chloride, sodium, sulfate, magnesium, calcium, and potassium, which are abundant in salt water.

Until the mid 1990s, i remember seeing salt pyramids lined up along the salt beds on my way home to las Piñas. las Piñas City was once dubbed the “Salt bed of the Phil ippines,” concentrated in Barangay Pulanglupa where i now reside.

LegalDennisBytesGorecho

By Justice Noel Gimenez Tijam (Ret.)

To be specific, Republic Act No. 9285 or the ADR Act, defines arbitra tion as a voluntary dispute resolution process in which one or more arbitra tors, appointed in accordance with the agreement of the parties, or rules promulgated to resolve a dispute by rendering an award. The Supreme Court, in the case of Fruehauf vs. TEAM (GR No. 204197, December 23, 2016) defined it as an alternative mode of dispute resolution outside of the regular court system. The use of alternative dispute resolutions has long been support ed by the State. In fact, in my ponen cia of the case MABUHAY HOLD INGS CORPORATION vs. SEMB CORP LOGISTICS LIMITED (G.R. No. 212734. December 5, 2018.), the Supreme Court was emphatic in saying that “The ADR Act and the Special ADR Rules both declare as a policy that the State shall encour age and actively promote the use of alternative dispute resolution, such as arbitration, as an impor tant means to achieve speedy and impartial justice and declog court dockets. Thus, our jurisdiction adopts a policy in favor of arbitra tion. This pro-arbitration policy is further evidenced by the rule on presumption in favor of enforce ment of a foreign arbitral award under the Special ADR Rules.”

It bears stressing that the pro-ar bitration policy of the State includes its policy to respect party autonomy with the greatest cooperation and the least intervention from the courts. Thus, Rule 2.3 of the Special ADR Rules provides that “the parties are free to agree on the procedure to be followed in the conduct of arbi tral proceedings.” Nonetheless, the courts shall exercise the power of judicial review as provided by the Special ADR Rules and shall only in tervene in the cases allowed by law or the Special ADR Rules in furtherance of domestic and international com mercial arbitrations where the seat of arbitration is in the Philippines. Arbitration is anchored on a number of basic principles which are also its advantages and are the same reasons why parties are drawn to engage in this type of dispute reso lution. These principles were also emphasized in the handbook which are the doctrines of predictability; neutrality; principle of competencecompetence; party participation; fi nality; separability or severability; flexibility of rules as the parties are not bound by the strict technical rules of procedure and evidence; equality of the parties; and lastly, confidentiality.

vid test results every day. Students, meanwhile, must take daily tests first thing when they arrive at school. Some schools in the city have even stricter measures than the official guidance. Some teachers have been trained to administer tests for stu dents and must do so before starting classes. Facial recognition systems have been launched at the gates of other schools to scan every student, and only those with a negative Covid result within 24 hours can enter. The first class of the day for some lower grades has been cancelled since it now takes longer to get into school. The measures also go beyond schools. The annual Chengdu Mo torshow in Sichuan province, one of China’s biggest auto conventions, and the Pet Fair Asia in Shenzhen, have been canceled due to Covid. Chengdu, which detected over 400 local infections in the latest fla reup, said all schools in the city will delay reopening for students’ safety. Tianjin, the port hub that’s 30 min utes away by bullet train from Bei jing, said primary schools and high schools will shift to online classes starting September 1, according to a statement from the city’s education department.Covid’sdisruption is still affect ing foreign business confidence in China, with many companies exit ing or shrinking their footprint in the world’s second-largest economy. Pandora A/S, the American jewelry brand, isn’t seeing signs that trad ing is returning to normal because of the Covid disruption, and has yet to make a decision on relaunching the business there, Chief Executive Officer Alexander Lacik told Bloom berg TV. Bloomberg Opinion

Senator Tulfo, chairing the com mittee’s organizational meeting, sought updates on the creation of the new department and its proposed legislative agenda and priority bills. Tulfo said the primary goal of the committee, which was created roughly two weeks ago, would be to uphold the implementing rules and procedures of Republic Act 11641 or the Act creating the DMW and to protect the rights of Filipino mi grant workers in all stages of em ployment, recruitment, placement, deployment, termination and/or repatriation. “This committee will devote itself to the passage of laws that will make the process and the procedures of deployment, repa triation, and financial assistance streamlined and hassle-free, 100 percent automated or digitalized and most importantly, affordable for migrant workers,” Tulfo said. Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go said Ople was “tailor-fit” to head the new agency, which he had pushed for in the 18th Congress, and credited law makers with finally enacting it despite their initial serious reservations that creating a new department would counter the stated goal of rightsizing the bureaucracy. “As one of the au thors of the bill (creating the DMW), I will continue to support the DMW to ensure that the safety and welfare of our OFWs will be protected,” Go said, adding that the department’s mechanisms should be strengthened in combatting all cases of maltreat ment and abuses of OFWs. A t the same DMW hearing, Sen. Robinhood Padilla gave Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) chief Arnaldo Arevalo “Ar nell” Ignacio a blue garb, in recogni tion of his dedication and hard work in ensuring the welfare of overseas Filipino workers around the world. Padilla said in jest that Ignacio has been working so hard that he had yet to go home to “change the clothes he has been wearing since yesterday.’” He also hailed the great contributions of migrant workers to the economy. “They are contributing US$35 billion in our economy. In real sense, our migrant workers are our exports. We are exporting their skills. Therefore, it is important to protect our migrant workers,” the senator said in Filipino.

Lotilla: Review of Prime Infra Malampaya buy-in ‘on track’

CA grills Manalo; 2 envoys get confirmation

DBM GIVES DETAILS OF P588-B ‘GREY AREA’

A14 Thursday, September 1, 2022

Updating lawmakers at a hybrid organizational meeting of the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers on the creation of the DMW and its pro posed legislative agenda, Secretary Ople said DMW was envisioned as “the primary agency tasked to protect the rights and promote the welfare of overseas Filipino workers.” A t the same time, Senator Raffy Tulfo, presiding over the hearing Wednesday, sought the assurance of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) of help for distressed OFWs housed in shelters in various destinations abroad. T he new department was initialy established in the 18th Congress and signed into law on December 30, 2021 under Republic Act No. 11641 and took effect on February 3, 2022. Secretary Ople, in her initial pre sentation, sought the senators’ sup port for the “most urgent priority” of her department to digitalize all processes, explaining that, “we are streamlining the processes” so that after labor attaches validate the pa pers of migrant workers, the POEA’s job becomes “just ministerial.” Our mandate is to really reach out to OFWs as the primary agen cy tasked to protect them,” she stressed. Partly in Filipino. B esides digitalizing all process es involving OFWs, Ople said the DMW is also working closely with law enforcement agencies in track ing human traffickers, given the new trends in illegal recruitment, which, she noted, is now being done mostly in social media. She also noted that increasingly, traffickers use more than one country to tran sit their potential worker-victims, so it becomes harder to track them. Ople likewise lamented the piti fully low, single-digit number of convictions in cases of illegal recruit ment filed in the past several years.

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

for the energy security of the country.”TheMalampaya project is one of the country’s most important power assets and is the only local producer of indigenous natural gas. It began operations in 2001, with the consortium’s license for the project set to expire in 2024. O perating since 2001, the Malampaya gas field supplies fuel to around 40 percent of gas-fired plants in Luzon, generating around 3,457 megawatts (MW) for the Lu zon grid. It may be recalled that SPEX sold its 45-percent stake to Malampaya Energy XP Pte Ltd. (MEXP), a com pany previously owned by Udenna Corporation of Davao business man Dennis Uy. PNOC-EC did not give its consent to this deal. Later on, MEXP and Prime Exploration Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Prime In fra, signed a share purchase agree ment. Prime Infra’s undertaking PRIME Infra earlier vowed to ac celerate investments in the Malam paya gas field to improve the output of existing wells and, if possible, develop new wells in the area once license extension is secured from thePgovernment.rimeInfra’sinvestment in the expansion of Malampaya opera tions will also be critical to provid ing the necessary infrastructure to support the development of natural gas in the area, one of the key points defined in the administration’s en ergy agenda. L otilla said last week the review on the Malampaya deals would be finished and resolved within the year, with PNOC-EC likely to give the green light on Prime Infra’s in vestment deal. “The schedules are quite tight … Even if we stretch a bit, I don’t think they would have to go beyond this year,” the DOE chief had said. E xplaining the process, Lotilla said PNOC-EC, with its 10-per cent stake in the Malampaya proj ect, “will give consent first.”

THE review of Razon-led Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc.’s (Prime Infra) acquisition of a controlling stake in the Malampaya consortium is “on track,” and an early resolution on this by the government is vital to the country’s energy security, the energy chief said on Thursday.

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM D EPARTMENT of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secre tary Susan Ople assured senators Wednesday the newlyestablished agency is on track in its bid to “digitalize all processes” overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are required to go through “so they do not need to line up repeatedly.”

A PLANNED joint PhilippineChina exploration in the resource-rich West Philip pine Sea has yet to push through, as China insists on applying its laws on Philippine territory, Foreign Affairs Secretary-designate Luis Enrique Manalo told senators on Wednesday.AttheCommission on Appoint ments confirmation hearing, Sena tor Grace Poe asked Manalo if there were other countries or private firms, other than China, that ex pressed interest in joint-explora tion in the Philipine teritory. “ If we agree to their terms, would it pose a delicate situation with Chi na? Are we, in a way, secretly bound with an agreement with China?” Poe asked Manalo during the CA committee screening nomination of the Foreign Affairs Secretarydesignate.Manalo recalled that in the past, Russia aired interest to conduct a joint exploration of the area in the Philippines, but backed out, and only Chinese companies are signal ling interest “at present.” S en. Imee Marcos, meanwhile, pressed Manalo to give his stand on the French court ruling ordering Malaysia to pay US$14.9 billion to the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate for breach of an international private lease agreement. M arcos brought up a newspaper column chiding Manalo for being a “weakling” for his silence on the Sabah claim issue. “Given that you are the Secretary of our Depart ment of Foreign Affairs, let’s now set the record straight. What is ac tually your stand on the Sabah is sue? Do you intend to support the continuing act of the Republic of the Philippines, following its predeces sor and interest of recognizing the Sultanate of Sulu as a leading and unifying institution in the indig enous cultural communities in the Sulu archipelago and territories of North Borneo?” the senator asked. M analo said his department will abide by the continuing Philippine policy and that the agency is coordi nating with concerned agencies to really assess the nature and impli cations of the French court ruling. T he CA panel suspended the con sideration of Manalo’s ad interim appointment to a later date. S enate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri, concurrent chair person of the Commission on Ap pointments (CA), presided over the hybrid plenary session of the commission on Wednesday. During the session, the CA confirmed the nominations of former ambassador to the United Kingdom Antonio Manuel Lagdameo as Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, and Philippine Ambassador to the United States (US) Jose Manuel Romualdez. T he two officials are the first two nominees confirmed by the CA in the 19th Congress.

Zubiri, in the meeting of the CA Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, expressed belief that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. could play a bigger geopolitical role in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region, particularly in helping ease tension between China and Taiwan. Zubiri said the Philippines can take the lead in forming an aligned position that there should be no outbreak of hostilities within the region. “I think he (Marcos) can do it. With the mandate that is given to him by 31 million Filipinos, I think we can take that lead,” Zubiri added. R omualdez agreed with the Sen ate president that Marcos could play a major role in the region. In fact, Romualdez added, he encouraged the President to visit all Southeast Asian countries at the soonest pos sible time. Butch Fernandez

PASSENGERS get off a public-utility jeepney at a terminal in Pasay City on Wednesday, August 31, 2022. From the current P11 minimum fare that was approved in July, jeepney fare is expected to increase this month, as the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board mulls over petitions by public-transport groups, including jeepney drivers and operators, to increase their respective fares as pump prices continue to increase. says DMW’s Ople

T HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has finally shed light on the al leged P588-billion “grey area” in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP), which was flagged in Congress.Duringavirtual press conference on Wednesday, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman gave a detailed breakdown of the Unpro grammed Appropriations (UA). T his after Deputy Speaker Ralph G. Recto called on Malaca ñang to disclose the details of the UA, particularly the P380billion component,which will be used to support Foreign-Assisted Projects (FAP). UA breakdown IN her presentation, Panganda man said of the FAP, P2.2 billion will be for initiatives of the De partment of Social Welfare and De velopment (DSWD), while P378.2 billion will be for “loan proceeds requirements” of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). I n a statement, DBM said, “all loan proceeds under the DOTr were transferred to the unprogrammed appropriation, due to their history of low absorptive capacity insofar as loan proceeds are concerned.” DBM defines FAP as govern ment projects, which are wholly or partly financed by foreign loans and/or foreign grants. A lso making up a large portion of the flagged UA is the P149.6 billion which will be used for Infrastruc ture Projects and Social Programs. P angandaman said the un programmed funds will also be allocated for the following pur poses: the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Program (P5 billion); Budgetary Support to Government-Owned and/or -Controlled Corporations (P20.6 billion); Risk Management Program (P1 billion); Payment of Arrears of Land ancesEmergency11211pursuantngmillion);PropertyRightServiceServiceOffice-InformationTransportationTechnology(P2billion);RefundoftheDevelopmentFeeforthetoDeveloptheNampeidaiinTokyo,Japan(P210.5andtheBangkoSentralPilipinas(BSP)EquityInfusiontoRepublicAct(RA)(P10billion);PublicHealthBenefitsandAllowforHealthandNon-HealthCareWorkers(P18.9billion).DBMsaiditisreadytodefendtheflaggedUA,whichwillonlybeimplementedoncetheadditionalfundsforitbecomeavailable,beforeCongress.

“Just to assure you that the re view by the PNOC-EC (Philippine National Oil Company–Explora tion Corp.) on Prime Infra’s acqui sition is on track, and the notifi cation to the DOE (Department of Energy), having been received, that is also moving in parallel,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said dur ing an online news briefing held Tuesday. TheMalampaya gas field, which delivers around 20 percent of the country’s electricity requirements, is operated through Service Con tract No. 38 (SC 38) granted to the consortium of SPEX (Shell Philip pines Exploration B.V.), Chevron Malampaya (now UC38LLC), and state firm PNOC-EC. L otilla acknowledged that the ongoing review is crucial to the country’s energy security as the “present Malampaya-Camago field is a finite one,” and that “the resolution of legal, technical and financial issues” on the sale of Malampaya operator Shell Philip pines Exploration’s (SPEX) inter est to Prime Infra is “important

ROY DOMINGO See “Lotilla,” A2 See “DBM,” A2 Digitalization of OFW processes a priority,

Globe partners with Internews to support quality journalism Pokémon Air Adventures launches in Singapore Contributed photo

pa ssengers can expect to book a trip between si ngapore, Tokyo and s e oul, with flights departing bi-monthly from Changi a i rport, Terminal 1. The routes of the p i kachu Jet TR will be reviewed periodically and customers can check out the latest details on scoot’s website. Offering an enjoyable and inclusive travel experience, passengers can also look forward to inflight amenities bearing po kémon designs, including original merchandise such as tote bags, lanyards, bucket hats and a collector’s edition of the aircraft model donned with the special livery. These are available for purchase during flight bookings through s coot’s website and mobile app from 9 s e ptember, and onboard the inaugural flight. a dditionally, a selection of specially curated Japanese inflight meals have been prepared to support the p i kachu Jet TR launch for the coming two quarters and are also available for pre-order.

Ng Companies B1Thursday, September 1, 2022

DOE taps experts for industry review

By VG Cabuag @villygc Davao businessman Dennis a. Uy said he is looking for “strategic partners” for Udenna Corp.’s capital-intensive businesses, such as its shipping and petroleum trading firms.

Dito CMe has a 53-percent stake in Dito Telecom. Uy said assuming there is no event risk, the telecom venture’s eBITDa or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is also on track to be positive as early as the end of 2024. “Dito Telecom is also bullish, it will soon finish negotiations with a consortium of lenders headed by Bank of China for a $4.1-billion longterm loan to finance the expansion of its network, which must cover 84 percent of the population by 2024,” the company said.

BusinessMirrorEditor: Jennifer

Leslie Thng, C e O, s coot, said, “We are excited and humbled to be the first a s ean airline to partner with The pokémon Co. to connect customers across our network on the p i kachu Jet. Together with one of the key franchises in the world, s coot will offer customers a one-of-a-kind experience on the p i kachu Jet TR through a series of complementary inflight amenities, merchandise, meals and activities. This will add fillip to the travel industry that is still recovering from the effects of the Covid pandemic, and we hope that this will help reignite the passion for travel and adventure.”Following the grand unveiling of the p i kachu Jet, a special p i kachu Weekend will be held in si ngapore from no vember 18 to 20 as part of T p C ’s ongoing support for international travel and si ngapore’s tourism economy. The event will feature a night show held at Marina Bay, alongside an exciting pokémon GO event, “ pokémon GO s a fari Zone: si ngapore”, which will be held at Gardens by the Bay. A.

NOVOTEL MANILA ARANETA CITY CELEBRATES CULINARY HEARTISTRY. In this year’s Philippine Culinary Cup, the most distinguished culinary competition in the Philippines, chefs from Novotel Manila Araneta City demonstrated their culinary mastery and conquered at the World Food Expo (WOFEX) 2022 held last August 3 to 6, 2022 at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. The Novotel Manila Araneta team of culinary geniuses headed by hotel’s secret ingredient, Executive Chef Massimiliano Pauletto, showcased their distinctive flair in the kitchen and took home a total of 9 medals. For the team categories, the Dream Team of Sous Chef Rhenner Alair, Demi CDP Jacobsen Bustamante and CDP Catherine Basiyo earned silver medals. Also bagging silver are Demi CDP Armani Labonete and Chef Richard Caoile for Filipino Cuisine. Earning the bronze medals from different categories are Demi CDP John Paul Llamas for French Touch Seafood, Demi CDP Jacobsen Bustamante for U.S. Lamb, Sous Chef Rhenner Alair for U.S. Pork, and Demi CDP Ernest Goleta for Plant-Based Meal. CDP Shaina Mendoza and Chef Imee Julia Rivera joined French Touch Dessert and U.S. Beef categories respectively. Taste our award-winning dishes and witness the culinary team’s artistry at Food Exchange Manila, Gourmet Bar by Novotel, The 6th Manila, and Indulge Gelato and its event services. The Novotel Manila Araneta City online boutique is a fresh new retail concept where hotel guests and dedicated Novo-fans can shop for popular staycations, unique spa treatments, buffet goodies, and a variety of items from the hotel’s famed TakeMeOut menu. Contributed photo

Udenna seeking ‘strategic partners’ for subsidiaries Uy’s holding firm Udenna said it is inviting investors to invest in its listed firms Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure h o ldings Corp. and p h oenix p e troleum p h ilippines Inc. “We are looking for partners who can help us further expand our businesses and promote our brands. We have clearly spelled out our growth strategy which does not simply include selling assets. Like all visionary entrepreneurs, we want to go beyond the buy and sell mentality and move towards a more sustainable business that protects and supports the thousands of families that depend on us,” he said in a statement. Chelsea reported a 37-percent increase in revenues to p2.91 billion in the first half from last year’s p2.13Revenuesbillion.from freight business improved by 57 percent to p1.59 billion while the passenger segment saw its topline figures surge by 297 percent to p516.53 million for the period following the easing of mobilityTherestrictions.company, however, still booked a net loss of p1 billion, or the same level as last year. phoenix returned to profitability in the second quarter with a net income of p200.56 million from last year’s p131.38 million, a 52-percent increase.Forthe first half, the company still booked a loss of p120.8 million narrower than last’s year’s loss of p251.21Revenuesmillion.for the first half, meanwhile, grew 11 percent to p 7 6.18 billion from last year’s p 6 8.52 billion. The company said it is reaping the benefits of its long-standing commitment in streamlining operations and maximizing efficiency across the business as operating expenses was lower by 10 percent quarteron-quarter.phoenix has continued to advance resource management initiatives and operational improvements. The company is likewise developing a new supply model to navigate through the persistent volatility in the markets and foreign exchange,” it said.Udenna said it is also upbeat about its telecom foray. a positive bottom line is anticipated to materialize for Dito Telecommunity Corp. by 2026 or 2027, the company said. Dito CMe holdings Corp., the listed telco, said the company remains on track despite the pandemic.

By Lenie Lectura @llectura The Department of energy (DOe) has tapped experts from the energy sector to assist the agency in reviewing pending issues in the oil and gas industry. energy s e cretary Raphael Lotilla on Wednesday announced the designation of special technical and financial review committees and consultants. he said these advisers are highly regarded in their fields of expertise.“Inavailing of the expertise of these individuals, we want to assure the public that the DOe will exercise the utmost care and diligence, in carrying out its mandate involving the country’s upstream oil and gas sector in general, including the country’s biggest gas-to-power initiative to date—the Malampaya-Camago project,” Lotilla said. he said the advisers are also expected to assist the DOe in ensuring that its decisions on matters relating to the Malampaya service contract consider all the relevant factors and are founded on sound technical analyses. The technical review committee will be chaired by Rufino B. Bomasang. Its members include Francisco G. Delfin Jr. and Froilan a Tampinco, while edgar Benedict C. Cutiongco will serve as a consultant. Bomasang was the former president and CeO of the pnOC-ex ploration Corp. (pnOC-eC). he joined the government in 1976 and served under five successive presidents of the Republic. Delfin Jr. served as DOe Undersecretary while Tampinco served as napocor president and psa LM CutiongcoVice-president.hasmorethanthree decades of experience in oil and gas exploration and production operations, garnered both at the pnOC-eC and pea R L Oil, Mubadala pet roleum, and InterOil Corp. in singapore. he is the current president of the philippine petroleum a ssociation of the Upstream Industry and a senior Lecturer at the University of the philippines national Institute of Geological Thesciences.financial review committee will be chaired by Roberto G. Manabat. Its members include J. Carlitos G. Cruz and Gabriel R. singson Jr. atty. ephyro Luis B. a matong will serve as Manabatconsultant.isthefounding and former Chairman and CeO of K pMG R.G. Manabat & Co., a member firm of K pMG International. he was also the former senior partner of sGV & Co. and served as an independent director of several private companies. Cruz was the former chairman and managing partner of sGV & Co and is currently a Trustee of the Makati Business Club while singson was a former undersecretary of the Department of Finance (DOF). a matong, meanwhile, served as a Commissioner of the securities and exchange Commission and DOF assistant secretary. atty. Luis Ma. G. Uranza will serve as legal consultant. Uranza is an expert in corporate law and financial rehabilitation, criminal, civil, and commercial law. he served as a director of pnOC-eC

J apanese-based The pokémon Co. (T p C ) has announced the launch of its pokémon a i r a dventures in si ngapore, commemorating the project with a partnership with s c oot p t e Ltd (s c oot) for an exclusive p i kachu Jet in si ngapore.Thecompany said the milestone collaboration marks the first a sean airline outside of Japan to launch a unique pokémon-themed inflight experience. a s international travel restrictions ease, the partnership aims to revitalize the travel and aviation industry and connect travellers through a unique aviationTheexperience.pikachuJet TR commences the first phase of T p C ’s pokémon a i r a d ventures with the aim of encouraging international tourists to travel to si ngapore. The two parties unveiled the livery for the p i kachu Jet at a press conference held in si ngapore Changi a i rport earlier today. a s part of its exterior design, the aeroplane features pokémon-related imagery specifically custom-made for si ngapore. The p i kachu Jet, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with a capacity of 375 seats, is scheduled for its inaugural flight on 9 s e ptember to Tokyo, Japan.

LOBe has partnered with global non-profit Internews in a pioneering effort to raise quality journalism above the disinformation clutter and promote authenticity through support for carefully vetted local media organizations via programmaticThroughadvertising.adsfor news, Globe is now the first and only telco and digital solutions platform in the philippines to take part in such an effort, aligned with its long-running programs that aim to protect the public against online threats, including falseWithinformation.thepartnership, Globe said it has committed to direct ad spending to online news sites verified by Internews, including small and independent outlets that would otherwise have limited access to media investments from a major enterprise.

“This partnership is aligned with our advocacy to promote responsible online behavior. We are proud to be the first in the industry to partner with Internews in this noble initiative,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe Chief sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer. “Our goal is to bring to the fore what journalism ought to be: a chronicle of truth and a source of quality and useful information that could help communities realize their full potential,” she said. Internews cited Globe’s commitment to ads for news, calling it a valued partner in advancing responsible media investing and improving access to quality information. “Responsible media investment today will have a meaningful positive impact on communities and society tomorrow. Globe’s partnership with Internews is significant because of Globe’s leading commitment to investing in advertising on trusted local news. In doing so publicly, Globe also sets a noble example for other major companies to follow,” said Chris h ajecki, a d s for ne ws Director. ads for news is a global program led by Internews, with support from the World e conomic Forum and GroupM, which aims to provide crucial ad support for local media organizations as they face financial woes. It also hopes to prevent the use of advertising funds on websites linked to fake news. In the philippines, ads for news partnered with the a sian Center for Journalism to vet independent news websites using global journalism standards and the Ga R M Brand sa fety and su itability st andards. The Makati Business Club is also a partner in the advocacy among leading companies in the private sector. Globe will, in turn, make use of its funding commitment to place advertisements on a chosen selection of trusted local news websites. The company said its partnership with Internews is another major step towards its goal of promoting a safe online environment and quality information access for all.

The registration for the online lending platforms was made only eight days after the CDO was issued and months after the deadline for such registration has lapsed.

During the continuation of the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the sugar order fiasco last August 30, Tulfo asked acting BOC Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz why it was taking them so long to decide whether the sugar shipment is legal or illegal.“Thereason why I am asking this is because I am also proworker. Because of that [delay] many shipping workers have been affected,” Tulfo said. “They were expecting to have work once the shipment arrived but because the shipment was placed under custody, they have no work.” Ruiz, in his response, told the committee that he is still waiting for the submission of the investigation report but, he said, initial investigation showed the import documents are in order.

BOC asked on status of sugar shipment in Subic Home Credit financial-literacylaunchesdrive

under Entry Numbers C-12513 and C-12521.TheThai exporter is listed as Ruamkamlarp Export Co. Ltd while the local customs broker was identified as Malou Leynes Buerano. The BOC-CIIS reported that the cargo is covered by a “Special Permit to Discharge (SPD) and Verified Single Administrative Document (SAD)” from BOC and with a verified clearance from the Sugar Regulatory Administration through a certain Rondell Manjarres.

C ONSUMER finance company Home Credit Philippines Inc. has launched a campaign aimed at giving hope to the Filipinos in times of pandemic and teaching the public of fundamental financial literacy.Thecompany, which entered the country nine years ago financing cellular phones to regular consumers, said the campaign is part of the company’s goal of financial inclusion for more“ThroughFilipinos.the campaign, we definitely want to build a stronger relationship with our customers, to make them emotionally connected with us and show them that we can be their financial ally in many parts of their lives,” Sheila Paul, Home Credit’s chief marketing officer, said.“The campaign gave the brand a face and feeling. It also empowered over 13,000 employees showing them that they could be the brand ambassadors themselves,” Paul added. “We really wanted to give them something that they can be proud of and show the world the efforts that they put through.”

Home Credit, which also gives out personal loans, said it continues to find more opportunities to expand its services both online and offline by partnering with more brands and retailers across key categories such as healthcare, fashion, beauty and fitness.“Building on Home Credit’s heritage of delivering a broad range of financial products and services, Home Credit Philippines has enabled almost 9 million Filipinos nationwide to access credit opportunities. As the needs of our consumers continue to evolve, we commit to supporting them as we build a more financially resilient Philippines,” company CEO David MinolHomesaid.Credit has disbursed more than P178-billion worth of loans to Filipinos across segments, including the services, education and health sectors. Now, most of its transactions are made through its smartphone application but only available on Android phones.

Radical wealth-tax proposal too early, alternatives eyed

“We are now in the process of collating data on GHG emissions of our own loan portfolio,” she said. RCBC is the first local bank to participate in PCAF, an initiative among financial institutions worldwide to enable harmonized assessments and disclosures of GHG emissions financed by loans and investments. RCBC completed the PCAF onboarding training program in early October last “RCBC’syear.participation in PCAF is a decisive step in understanding the climate impact of the businesses that the bank supports,” Lamberte said. Portfolio monitoring is a central component of RCBC’s sustainability initiatives. Other than the participation in PCAF, the bank has embarked on another pioneer capacity-building activity last year by enabling it to contribute to the Philippine commitment to the Paris Agreement. This involves the bank’s advisory engagement with the International Finance Corporation for the use of t he Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment, or “Pacta,” tool, the first to be conducted by the International Finance Corp. in Asia. The results of the Pacta evaluation will be integrated into its environment and social stress testing results that will be reported to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The bank distributed sustainability infographic materials to its corporate clients and suppliers, aimed at promoting awareness of environmental protection, including reduction of GHG emissions and carbon footprint, water conservation and the integration of environmental responsibility into their operations. VG Cabuag

SEC permanently stops ops of 3 online lenders

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM SENATE Deputy Minority Leader Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel sees the passage of Real Property Valuation Reform bill and the mandatory public co-ownership of digital platforms as better options at this time instead of just trying to tax wealth in the country.

“The recall of officials from the Bureau of Customs-Port of Subic is standard procedure while an investigation is being conducted,” Ruiz was quoted in a statement as saying. “The BOC will not comment until after the investigation results are completed.”

By VG Cabuag @villygc THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday it has made permanent its cease-and-desist order (CDO) against online lending operators Skymart, Withu and Spendcash. In separate resolutions dated July 26, the agency denied the respective motions filed by Skymart, Withu and Spendcash for the lifting of the cease and desist order dated February 10 for lack of merit. The SEC issued the order after finding that the three entities have engaged in lending and financing activities without securing the necessary licenses from the SEC. The regulator added these firms violated several regulations such as the requirement for registered lending and financing companies to disclose and report their online lending platforms to the SEC. The firms were also accused of ignoring the prohibition on abusive debt collection practices. Republic Act 9474 (Lending Company Regulation Act of 2007) requires persons or entities operating as lending companies to register as corporations and to secure from the SEC the necessary authority to operate.“[T]he Commission finds that the continued operation of the online lending operators constitutes a clear violation of and should be penalized pursuant to [RA 9474] because it engages in or carries out a lending business without the required license form the Commission,” according to the SEC’s order. “The acts of the unregistered online lending operators in illegally offering and providing loans to the public, charging high interest rates and subjecting its debtors to unfair treatment through abusive and even libelous language in collecting the loaned amount.”

Banking&Finance

Last August 18, the BOC said it averted the possible smuggling of 7,021 metric tons of sugar from Thailand at the Subic Port in Zambales after they learned that the import permit used for the cargo was “recycled,” meaning it was already used for an earlier sugar shipment. The cargo vessel MV Bangpakaew was found to be loaded with 7,021 metric tons of Thailand white refined sugar equivalent to 140,000 bags and with total tax payment valued at P45,623,007.51.Initialprobeshowed that the consignee of the smuggled sugar is Oro-Agritrade Inc. under the account of ARC Refreshments Corp.

Axed officials SIX officials from the BOC-Port of Subic were relieved from their posts pending investigation into an alleged attempt to smuggle sugar into the country, Malacañang said last August 24. (See https://businesssugar-smuggling-probe/)boc-subic-execs-reassigned-amid-mirror.com.ph/2022/08/24/6-

VG Cabuag Y UCHENGCO- L ED lender Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) said on Wednesday it started collating data on greenhouse gas emissions of its loan portfolio as part of its environmental and sustainability commitment. Armi M. Lamberte, first vice president and head of portfolio quality division of the bank, said RCBC is ramping up efforts to lower its carbon Lambertefootprint.saidthat as a participant to the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), RCBC must disclose the GHG emissions of its portfolio within three years from joining the organization.

In a recent webinar tackling wealth tax, Hontiveros admitted that she still can’t see a clear political way forward yet for the “more radical proposals” to tax wealth in the“Icountry.wishto be proven wrong. But I also want to get a handle on the political prerequisites of wealth taxation,” Hontiveros said in her pre-recorded video message during the forum titled “Wealth Tax for Tax Justice: A Call Whose Time Has Come.” Given this, Hontiveros said she intends to support the passage of the Real Property Valuation Reform bill (House Bill 4664), which was among the priority measures being pushed by the Department of Finance as well as President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. Thehimself.billseeks to broaden the tax base used for property and propertyrelated taxes of the national and local governments, thereby increasing government revenues without raising the existing tax rates or devising new tax impositions.

The senator said the passage of the bill would not only make it easier for the government to levy capital gains taxes when properties change hands but it would also make it possible to “operationalize land value capture” in the future, particularly for parcels that are closely located to publicly financedHontiverosprojects.recalled that she introduced special legal provisions in the budget of the Department of Housing that would enable it and the Department of Transportation to expand project footprints of the train stations and secure parcels for

This photo courtesy of the senate Public Relations and information Bureau shows sen. Rafael “Raffy” T. Tulfo during a hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the sugar order fiasco last Tuesday, August 30. Photo courtesy oF senate PrIB

social and economic housing around and towards the upcoming train stations in north and south of Tutuban. “In effect, this approach can preempt, instead of just taxing the income and wealth creation from land speculation by some of the biggest property developers and their politician allies,” she explained. Apart from this, Hontiveros also pitched the idea of implementing mandatory public co-ownership of digital platforms instead of just trying to tax the wealth that they create.“Inthis way, the public shares in the super-profits instead of levying a wealth tax, and the public also gets a direct say in the internal governance of these novel and often fantastical economic creatures,” she said. For Jomo Kwame Sundaram, senior advisor at Khazanah Research Institute, emphasized the importance of having a well-designed wealth tax system to avoid the risk of capital flight and tax avoidance. “How do we tax wealth appropriately? And in this regard, I think it is important for us to look at the taxes on wealth as a stock compared to other type types of taxes, including income taxation,” added Sundaram, who is also visiting fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at the Columbia University. “It is very important because you do not want to create a situation where the rich basically hide all their wealth and the rich who refuse to invest in you have an investment strike and the possibility of the economy coming to a grinding halt.” Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno earlier said imposing wealth tax in the country must be “appropriately designed,” noting the feasibility of its implementation as well as its potential impact on investors in theHowever,country. Diokno also pointed out that it might be more difficult to collect wealth tax rather than a value-added tax. Before taking over the chairmanship of Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian earlier said he is eyeing to file a bill seeking to impose an additional tax or increase the tax rate of wealthy individuals.Thinktank Ibon Foundation Inc. is also pushing for the imposition of wealth tax, saying this could yield substantial revenues for the government to expand its social and economic services while reducing inequality.Awealth tax on the 50 richest Filipinos alone can raise up to P224 billion in revenues, based on earlier estimates by IBON Foundation. The forum was organized by the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development, the UP Center for Integrative Development Studies (Alternative Development Program) and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.

In its resolution to declare the CDO permanent, the SEC noted that the registered corporations supposedly operating the three lending companies failed to comply with SEC Memorandum Circular 19 (Series of 2019), which requires lending and financing companies to report all their existing online lending platforms.

BusinessMirror Editor: Dennis D. Estopace • Thursday, September 1, 2022 B3www.news.businessmirror@gmail.com

RCBC starts collecting data on portfolio’s GHG emissions

SENATOR Rafael “Raffy” T. Tulfo has sought clarification from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) regarding the status of the sugar shipment in Subic that was placed under the custody of the bureau on suspicion that it was using recycled import documents.

Expansion HOME Credit has expanded its network to1 0,000 retail partners nationwide, aggressively grown its online presence and forged partnerships with the country’s biggest brands.Thecompany then focused on advocating financial literacy, as part of its environment, social, and governance programs. As a result, Home Credit closed its very first ESG-linked credit facility with Deutsche Bank in December last year amounting to P1.2 billion. This facility provided women and first-time borrowers with expanded credit access and supported financial literacy programs in the country. It also supported the company’s digitalization efforts, which then enabled Home Credit to provide 60 percent of its loan via digital channels.InMay this year, Home Credit pioneered a P420 million social finance facility, which was recently increased to P820 million, with the foreign bank Citi. This facility supported Home Credit’s customers in purchasing basic digital devices, half of the loan of which goes to women, who make up 50 percent of Home Credit’s customers. The company also closed a P7 billion two-year credit facility with UnionBank to provide comprehensive financial access to more Filipinos. The agreement allows Home Credit to provide more Filipinos with financial accessibility and inclusion across the brand’s intuitive and affordable loan products. “We enable Filipinos to live the lives they want to live now by broadening their access to responsible finance, championing financial literacy and empowerment, and promoting innovation and digital inclusion,” Zdenek Jankovsky, Home Credit’s director and treasurer, said. “Sustainability and responsible business have always been integral to Home Credit’s approach. By giving everyone the opportunity to access financial services, including those underserved, we help people improve their quality of life,” he said.

The SEC also found that the online lending operators have been imposing onerous and unreasonable terms, charging high interest rates and performing acts that violate the right to privacy of their borrowers.

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes P UB l IC h ealth stakeholders have urged the government to sustain the implementa tion of the Rare Disease law based on its objectives and provide as well as increase regular funding in succeed ing“Thereyears. is an evident dispropor tion in the availability of treatment and resources, and this inequality is being aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Professor Victor Andres Manhit, president of Strat base ADR Institute, during a recent hybrid town hall discussion called “The State of the Rare Disease l a w: Continuing Implementation and the Delivery of Responsive h e alth Ser vices to the Affected Population.” “Now that Congress has ear marked P104.9 million for this after six long years, it is time all stake holders work to address the deeply complex issue of inequality through good governance, political reforms, social investments and multi-sector efforts,” Manhit said. The law, passed in 2016, seeks to address the needs of persons with rare diseases to increase their chance of survival. Funding challenges I N t he Senate, Senator Juan e d gardo Angara, chair of the Senate com mittee on finance, acknowledged that the program would encounter challenges in terms of funding as the country is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic. h e a dded the appropriation is insufficient to provide treatment and fund research on rare new Nevertheless, Angaradiseases.

O N e i n two Filipino employ ees are struggling with m ental health concerns. While the Covid-19 pandemic may seem to be ending, 50 percent of Filipino workers are struggling with some form of mental health issue because of financial concerns, job pressures, and return-to-office anxieties. This is because there are many barriers to proper mental health care, including stigmatiza tion, lack of awareness, and poor ac cessibility to mental health services. To address the need for accessible mental health care—for people do not know when, where, or how to go for help—MindNation created the MindNation app, a one-stop shop for your holistic well-being needs. MindNation app W I T h the app, you can now take care of your well-being every day, anyTheday. app not only gives you access t o 24/7 teletherapy services, but it also comes with a Daily Mood Tracker and WellBeing Quiz© that you can take regularly to track emotions and understand your state of well-being. Clinically based and databacked, the results come with rec ommended ways to attain better s tates of well-being. App users can also access Mind eD, an on-demand learning program that allows you to master mental health skills, develop good wellbeing practices and support your journey towards healing through audio/visual exercises, toolkits, and worksheets.Downloading the MindNation app is FR ee and is available on Google Play and the App Store. Get it through the official web site http://mindna tion.com/app C laudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

assured the legislature is committed to support the cause. h e n oted, however, that the private sector could be tapped as a partner and provide incentives with the government in making progress in the fight against rare diseases. Alvin Manalansan, health care and education convenor of Citizen Watch Philippines and co-convenor of U h C ( Universal h e alth Care) Watch, emphasized that every Fili pino has the right to health and that no one should be left behind in the delivery of timely, responsive and sustainable health services. Other speakers at the forum, all representatives of stakeholder groups, stressed the whole-of-soci ety in tackling health issues. Dr. Carmencita D. Padilla, Chan cellor of University of the Philip pines–Manila and Founding Chair man of the Philippine Society of Orphan Diseases (PSOD), said that they were aiming for people with rare diseases to be covered by universal health “Wecare.aretrying to be as inclusive as possible despite some of the limi tations in the law,” she said, adding that a whole of society approach is needed. Dr. Razel Nikka M. h a o, Di rector of Disease Prevention and Control Bureau of the Department of h e alth, said their vision is to en sure the best health outcomes for Filipinos with rare diseases through integrated management of patients’ conditions. however, Dr. e v a Maria C. Cu tiongco-dela Paz, e x ecutive Director of the National Institutes of h e alth, said their main challenge is deter mining which rare diseases should be included in the initial rare disease list that will be covered by the law. “For our part, the support of the Pharmaceutical and h e althcare As sociation of the Philippines [P h A P] hinges on four basic principles: see ing rare diseases as a public health priority, empowering patients and their communities, promoting con tinued research and development, and ensuring sustainable patient access to diagnosis and care,” said Daisy Cembrano, P h A P’s Director for h e althcare Policy. Durhane Wong-Rieger, Ph.D., representative of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Rare Disease Organiza tions, acknowledged the Philippines is not alone in this problem as the huge disparity across the globe even in well-developed countries. Cynthia Magdaraog, President of PSOD, said while their patients have enjoyed an international com passionate access program, she em phasized this is not sustainable. She added this is a challenge as medi cines for rare diseases are beyond the means of most people.

Editor: Anne Ruth Dela Cruz

Muntinlupa’s crackdown on illegal vices reaps success

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor W IT h its relentless effort to keep away its constituents from il legal substance abuse that have nil effects not only to their health and well-being but to their socioeconomic status as well, the City of Muntinlupa has been recognized by the Department of the Interior and l o cal GovernmentNational Capital Region (DI l G -NCR) of fice for the effective implementation of its programs against illegal drugs. The DI l G -NCR rated the City’s AntiDrug Abuse Council (ADAC) as “highly functional,” per the result of its recent audit of anti-drug abuse programs among key cities and towns in Metro Manila. Additionally, it also gave a “func tional” rating to Muntinlupa’s Peace and Order Council (POC) for effective imple mentation of policies and programs for security and “Congratulations,order. Muntinlupa City! Maraming salamat sa lahat ng bu mubuo ng ating ADAC at l o cal POC [Thank you to the people behind our Anti-Drug Abuse Council and local Peace and Or der Council], Mayor Rozzano Rufino Biazon said in response to the recent achievements of the local government unit ( l GU ). The DI l G -NCR audit ran from 2019 to 2021. It covered the implementation of anti-drug programs by l GU s, such as anti-drug interventions for persons who use drugs (PWUDs).

Govt told to look out for welfare of people with rare diseases

A global state of deafness that’s unheard of The World h ealth Organization (W h O) said that last 2019, 1.5 billion people globally were hav ing hearing loss problems, and by 2050, this will almost double to 2.5 billion, or about one out of four people. Over a billion young people, on the other hand, are at risk of avoidable hearing loss due to exposure to loud sounds commonly associated with recre ational use of devices like music players or game consoles, while about 200 million people have chronic ear infections that can be prevented or treated, based on W h O e stimates. In the Philip pines, the prevalence of chronic ear infections or chronic otitis media is at 4 percent, one of the highest in the world. “We really need to do something about it today to prevent it from hap pening because it’s going to be a staggering problem,” Dr. Chi ongThissaid.problem on hearing loss is also an expensive one. Ac cording to a study, Dr. Chiong said, almost US$1 trillion were lost due to unaddressed hear ing problems globally in 2020. It was also learned, she said, that an additional annual investment of US$1.33 per capita by govern ments can increase coverage of ear and hearing care services up to 90 percent that can benefit 1.3 billion people, with a return of about US$16 for every dollar invested in the next 10 years.

By Rory Visco Contributor T he number of cas es of people with hearing problems is on the rise. The University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery said that in the Philip pines in 2020, those with moder ate to severe hearing loss are at about 15 Deafnesspercent.can seriously af fect both children or adults, like learning and emotional develop ment for kids, loneliness, stigma and social isolation for adults, and higher risk factors of demen tia for the elderly. So, how do others know if a child, an adult or elderly has hearing problems? Moreso, how should other people act?

Download MindNation app for your holistic well-being

Health& Fitness BusinessMirror

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco h OW c an you minimize the risk of getting the infection if you are living or caring for a person with monkeypox? In a webinar on “Monkeypox: e m erging h e alth Crisis,” Dr. Chris topher John Tibayan, Infectious Dis ease Specialist, shared ways in how to prevent the spread of monkeypox within your home. Dr. Tibayan said that in han dling the laundry, do not mix the clothes of persons with monkey pox with those of other household members.“handle with care and with gloves. Don’t shake the clothes or the virus will spread,” Dr. Tibayan said. “Technically separate the laun dry,” he said, adding that detergent can kill the virus. On frequently touched surfaces, Dr. Tibayan said that it is better to “avoid sweeping and using the vac uum“Usecleaner.”anapproved virucidal agent when cleaning [surfaces, floors],” he Theadded.US Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention (US-CDC) recom mends that people with monkeypox remain isolated at home or in another location for the duration of the ill ness. That, however, might not be possible in all situations. It said that prioritizing isolation and infection control strategies helps prevent transmission while balancing the impact of this infec tion on the daily lives of people di agnosed with monkeypox. These considerations, the US-CDC said, may change as more information is gathered from the 2022 global out break of monkeypox. Bathroom usage CDC recommends that those in fected with monkeypox should use a separate bathroom if there are others who live in the same household.Ifthisisnot possible, the patient should clean and disinfect surfaces such as counters, toilet seats, fau cets, using an e PA ( e n vironmental Protection Agency)-registered dis infectant after using the bathroom. This means cleaning up after activi ties like showering, using the toilet, or changing bandages that cover the rash. Consider disposable glove use while cleaning if the rash is present on the Peoplehands.with monkeypox should follow these recommendations un til the monkeypox infection has resolved: n Friends and family should avoid contact with those infected with monkeypox. n Avoid close contact with pets in the home and other animals. n Do not engage in sexual activity. n Do not share potentially con taminated items, such as bed linens, clothing, towels, wash cloths, drink ing glasses or eating utensils. n Routinely clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces and items, such as counters or light switches, using an e PA-registered disinfectant in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Wear well-fitting source control (e.g., medi cal mask) when in close contact with others at home. n Avoid wearing contact lenses to prevent inadvertent infection of the eye. n Avoid shaving rash-covered ar eas of the body as this can lead to the spread of the virus.

Thursday, September 1, 2022B4

During the recent webinar “The Silent epidemic of Deafness: Dumarami ba ang nabibingi” or ganized by the University of the Philippines, together with UP Manila NI h National Telehealth Center and in cooperation with UP Philippine General ho spital (PG h ) , Dr. Charlotte Chiong, Dean of the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Ma nila, said yes when asked if there is a rise in the number of cases of people having hearing prob lems, and this has gone unno ticed because of the still-raging pandemic. “What we wanted to share to everyone is how does deafness happen and what we can do about it.”

Expert shares tips on how to prevent monkeypox spread

So what is hearing loss?

Pe O P le with normal hearing can hear about 25 decibels, while those with mild hearing loss can hear only about 40 decibels, and the threshold of about 60 decibels is classified as moderate hearing loss, and above that can already be described as suffering from severe or profound hearing loss. Dr. Chiong pointed to a graphi cal representation she called “speech banana.” In order for a child to learn how to speak, the child must hear all the vowels and the consonants within the “speech banana,” from the low frequency of about 125 to 250 cycles per sec ond up to about 8,000 to 10,000 cycles per second. “If a child has hearing problems, let’s say in the high frequency, the child cannot hear the ‘s,’ ‘sh’ or ‘th’ sounds, which may result in a mumbling speaking pattern or bulol in Ta galog. So it is important for a child to hear words and sounds so they can develop their own language,” Dr. Chiong explained. The ear can be examined us ing an otoscope, others via a simple penlight, or the ear can be pulled outward or backward to straighten the ear canal to be able to see if there’s a discharge, ear wax (“tutuli”), or if the ear drum is punctured. “Back in 2003, we already taught nurses in schools how to use a tuning fork, which produces a specific sound, and how to validate its use so as early as 2006 or 2007, we conducted a mass screening and found out that many children have hear ing issues. School children who are not doing good in school may not necessarily mean they are in capable of learning but may have hearing problems and should be supported, especially during this pandemic.”Shealso advised against the use of Q-tips or cotton swabs (cot ton buds to many) that will push the ear wax further inside the ear, which may cause impacted wax or “cerumen.” Dr. Chiong also pointed to the “1-3-6 Goal of eh DI” or e a rly h e aring Detection and Inter vention. If an infant fails in the newborn screening, this should be confirmed if a child has mild, moderate or severe hearing prob lems using an Auditory Brain stem Response (ABR), and there should already be intervention by the time the child turns six months old using a hearing aid or through speech therapy. For the elderly, Dr. Chiong said age-related damage is the single biggest cause of hearing loss. In the Philippines, more than 50 percent of people 65 years old and above have hearing loss, which is one of the biggest asso ciated factors for dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. What do we do now? She said the high cost of inac tion and unaddressed hearing loss issues will cost the world economy about US$980 billion annually. “There’s a need for ef fective intervention all through out the life span of people, for newborns, young adults, people who are working, and of course for older people,” she said. Dr. Chiong also urged people like mothers to learn about Re public Act 9709 or the “Universal Newborn h e aring Screening and Intervention Act of 2009,” which also helped create the National h ea ring Screening Reference Center (N h S RC) at the UP Ma nila. Mothers, she said, should bring their children to an accred ited newborn hearing screening facility to check if their child has hearing problems so early inter vention can be done. She also reported that at the PG h , t he Philippine h e alth In surance Corp. (Phil h e alth) pro vides access to free hearing aids for children from newborn up to 18 years old, where they can also avail of speech therapy services, which Phil h e alth pays under the “Z Benefits” package. “This is still under a pilot stage but people who need testing can come to the PGh s o they can be assessed by social workers and how Phil h e alth can help them.”

Anti-smoking drive APART from the success of its anti-drugs war, the city’s anti-smoking drive has also been proven effective with the re cent dis posal of 2,500 cigarettes and six vape units worth P512,500. From October 2017 to 2019, the Muntinlupa Smoke-Free Task Force (SFTF) confiscated at least P1.4 mil lion worth of prohibited tobacco products. ThelGU has pioneered the enact ment of the Comprehensive Smoke Free Ordinance through City Ordinance No. 17-072 since 2017, following former President Rodrigo Duterte’s e x ecutive Order No. 26, otherwise known as the Nationwide Smoking Ban. Under the local ordinance, the use and distribution of cigarette and to bacco products are prohibited in the city’s enclosed or partially enclosed public places, workplaces, public con veyances (whether mobile or station ary), except in designated smoking areas.Those who are caught smoking or vaping in restricted places will be fined P500 to P5,000 and penalized with two to 14 hours community service. Muntinlupa SFTF is made up of the City h e alth Office, Philippine National Police-Muntinlupa, Muntinlupa Traffic Management Bureau, e n vironmental Protection and Natural Resources Of fice, Public Order and Safety Office, and Public Information Office, among other local Followingoffices.itsinception in 2017, the Department of h e alth conferred the Red Orchid Award to Muntinlupa City for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) in recognition of its outstanding initia tives against tobacco use. Based on a study on the compliance level of cities in Metro Manila in imple menting smoke-free policies conducted by the Metro Manila Development Au thority and University of the Philip pines College of Mass Communication Foundation Inc., from December 2019 to February 2020, the l GU e arned a very satisfactory rating with a compli ance rate of 74.1 percent.

The overall state of PWUDs in Muntinlupa is overseen by the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Office (DAPCO), which is part of the local ADAC and DAPCO,POC. which is headed by PCol. Flo rocito Ragudo (ret.), implemented vari ous programs, including the evaluation and certification of drug-free workplaces and residences and the effective reform and rehabilitation of PWUDs.

More Pinoys down with hearing problems, may reach pandemic levels, says doctor

CLINICAL TEST ON EFFECTIVENESS OF ANTISEPTIC GARGLE IN COVID ER A

REACH OUT TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

and request that payment. Buy the products only after everyone has paid. After purchasing the items, arrange a pickup.

How to save on school supplies by tapping your community

Teaching heroism through art and literacy BY ALAN RODRIGUEZ ON UNSPLASH

SOME nice finds from Lookingforjuan. com and how they facilitate donating books PHOTO

A RECENT in-vivo study done by the UERM Memorial Medical Center Research team shows a locally-available antiseptic gargle solution, Difflam-C, significantly alleviating the so-called Covid-19 Sore Throat—the most common symptom and tell-tale sign of people diagnosed withTheCovid-19.in-vivo study focused on establishing whether the combination of Benzydamine HCl and Chlorhexidine gluconate in Difflam-C is effective in a real-world setting, with the study conducted on 219 Covid-19 patients from November 2021 until February 2022. This combination of active ingredients found in Difflam-C solution have been gaining popularity in the Philippines particularly among doctors and health-care professionals, with the synergistic action of its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anesthetic, and antiseptic properties in relieving sore throat, as well as other symptoms of throat and mouth infection. Lead investigators of the study found that the gargle significantly relieves the Covid-19 patients’ sore throat and alleviated throat discomfort associated with difficulty and/or pain in swallowing. Results also show that it helps shorten the duration of the said condition in Covid-19 patients, with the VAS scores of participants significantly decreasing during course of treatment with Difflam-C. “At specified time intervals, median VAS scores showed a decreasing trend from baseline until after 12 hours of Day 1, significantly different from baseline values (p<0.001). There were some participants whose sore throat pain was relieved within 30 minutes of first use of the solution which persisted even until after 12 hours,” said lead investigator Dr. Jennifer M. Nailes, MD, MSPH, vice president for research of the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center Inc. Though yet to be published by Acta Medica Philippina, a peer-reviewed general medical and health science journal, these results are extremely encouraging and present a positive step in addressing the Covid-19 sore throat, using a widely available medicated gargle solution, such as Difflam-C in the study. It should be noted that only vaccination, boosters and the continuing observance of health protocols help in the prevention of Covid-19 infection.

• Thursday, September 1, 2022 B5 Parentlife BusinessMirrorwww.businessmirror.com.ph

By Laura McMullen NerdWallet

AP Editor:

CREATE A CARPOOL WHETHER you have to haul kids to school or to extracurricular activities, high gas prices will hurt. So try organizing a carpool with nearby families. Sharing driving duty is kind to the Earth, your wallet and—as Klokkenga points out—you. “When somebody else picks up your kid, you just gained 10 to 15 more minutes of time,” she says. And when it’s your turn to drive, she says, you can learn more about your kid and their classmates. “It promotes conversation,” she says. “Lots of times, you’re finding out more about what’s going on.” Gerard S. Ramos

WE have just observed National Heroes’ Day. Nowadays, it is not as easy to teach heroism to our children. I remember bringing my children to Rizal Park and the Intramuros area when they were around 10 years old. As a family, it was good to learn and re-learn our heroic history. I have also tried to remind them of the importance of the Filipino language and how it reminds us to love our country. Recently, I found a good way to make this more palpable for my kids through a medium that is close to them...art and words. I enjoyed seeing books that have socially-relevant topics that my kids can totally relate to. These two book titles are Safe Space: A Kid’s Guide to Data Privacy and I Am the Change in Climate Change. What is notable is that when you purchase these from the online store Lookingforjuan.com, each purchase is matched with book donations to disadvantaged communities. This way, my children know that being a hero today is possible with the little things we can do as individuals in our community, as well as establishing and supporting purpose-filled entities like Looking for Juan.The online store is replete with art-based books and gift items, and it aims to improve literacy in the Philippines by merging art and purpose with every purchase. This makes it easy for individuals and companies to complete their requirements for gifts while contributing to the future of the next generation. Navigating through the site also allowed me to find interesting stories of everyday heroism from people like web developer and social entrepreneur Koree Monteloyola, which I can share with my Entrepreneur,kids. racer, vlogger, environmentalist and trans woman Angie King tied-up with Looking for Juan. Leafing through the pages of Looking for Juan’s books, she was impressed and wanted more of these books to get to more children. “I wanted to donate to spread the messages in Looking for Juan’s books. Sadly, I don’t think parents and teachers are educated enough to explain these things to children. The books clearly describe things that kids should shape minds and thoughts. I still love reading a good book in this digital age because it just more satisfying than reading a web page,” said Angie, who provided a budget to disseminate learning through the web site. The titles purchased by her fund are Safe Space: A Kid’s Guide to Data Privacy and I Am the Change in Climate Change.SafeSpace: A Kid’s Guide to Data Privacy is an activity book that introduces the concept of personal data to children while teaching them how to protect it. Through engaging activities and child-friendly language, the book breaks down how social media, online gaming platforms, and other platforms get our data and how it is used. The book also emphasizes how and why we should strengthen our privacy settings. Meanwhile, I am the Change in Climate Change unpacks the concept of climate change to kids through child-friendly illustrations and interactive activities grounded in science. The book aims to promote environmental stewardship by helping kids realize adapt to climate change. The sponsored books were given to kindergarten and Grade 6 students of East Central School and participants of San Miguel National High School’s “Reading on Wheels” program held in the communities of Barangay Mandaragat and Barangay San Miguel in Palawan. Everything was arranged by Looking for Juan. Another example is the case of US-based Bianca Altavas who shopped from the web site specifically to provide donation, and Looking for Juan decided to send the additional books to Bianca’s area of choice. At the height of the pandemic, Bianca yearned for a way to extend assistance from overseas to her kababayans in Roxas City. She wanted to do something particularly for the children. “Covid-19 has affected our children’s education, so I wanted to help bolster learning even within the home with quality books that children can read independently or with their parents,” Bianca explained. copies of Karapat Dapat by May Tobias-Papa and Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK). The 60-page activity book depicts the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in a way that children themselves can understand. The book aims to empower children by letting them know that they are valuable, celebrated, and protected no matter their background, gender, or religion.

Looking for Juan matched each of Bianca’s purchase with two books, allowing her to donate 600 books in total. These were turned over to barangay representatives and teachers who took charge of distribution to 47 day-care centers around Roxas City. “Every Filipino can help the next generation just through a simple purchase and Looking for Juan can be a mission partner in making this happen,” said Looking for Juan CEO Larissa Chavez. To partner with Looking for Juan, or to learn more about its advocacy, e-mail store@lookingforjuan.com or shop at www. lookingforjuan.com n

IT’S that time again: back to school, back to spending so much money on supplies. And this year, families will have to shell out even more than usual because of inflation. Thankfully, you can still save money on supplies and other gear by leaning on local parents, neighbors and community members. Here’s how.

DON’T want to coordinate that kind of effort? Klokkenga suggests tapping existing groups. Call your public library, local community center or place of worship to ask if they’re leading a back-to-school supply drive. If not, consider making the case for one. For example, if there are several school-age kids who attend your place of worship, ask leaders to organize a fundraiser for school supplies. “See if they can help be a partner, so to speak, in both the administration of it and in getting some money,” Klokkenga says. Make sure to mention how inflation has driven up these costs for many of the group’s participants, she adds.

BUY IN BULK, THEN SPLIT THE COSTS YOU know who else is buying the same supplies you need? The parents of your kid’s classmates. So join forces. Buy certain supplies in bulk if the cost per unit is less than that of a smaller pack. Then split those supplies among other caregivers, so each person pays less than if they had gone solo.Buying in bulk is a smart strategy for more general items typically found on classroom lists. These could include facial tissues, disinfecting wipes, plastic storage bags, paper towels and sanitizers, says Charles Field, CEO of TeacherLists, a digital platform that enables teachers to upload supply lists, which retailers and parents can access. Say your kid is supposed to bring hand sanitizer. One 12-ounce bottle could cost $16. But buy a four-pack for $36, and four people could each spend $9 per bottle. Also try this method for harder-to-get and more expensive items, says Maggie Klokkenga, a Morton, Illinois-based certified financial planner and owner of Make a Money Mindshift, through which she coaches clients on their cash flow. Say that fine-tipped dry-erase markers are tough to find. Rather than multiple parents searching empty shelves and paying a premium—collaborate. Klokkenga, a parent of three school-age kids, has tips for coordinating to save on supplies. “It does require some behind-the-scenes organizing,” she says.First, keep the number of people involved to under 10, she suggests, “before it gets a little hairy.” Gauge interest before proceeding. Next, compare prices on those items you want to split. Amazon is a safe bet for everyday essentials, she says, but office supply stores can be promising for large orders of classroom-specific items. Finally, tell parents how much the cost will be per person

GET SECONDHAND GEAR FROM LOCAL MARKETS USING preowned supplies and clothes is both eco-friendly and usually cheaper than buying new. The secondhand route is best for reusable items, such as clothes, backpacks and money.However, Field points out that buying used is riskier for supplies that can wear down without you knowing, like ink pens. You may also find free or discounted items in other local, online spaces, such as Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor andForCraigslist.in-person shopping, seek out yard sales, garage sales and thrift stores.

SUPER Typhoon Odette (international name: Typhoon Rai) was the 15th and strongest (Category 5) typhoon that hit the Philippines in 2021. Bohol was among the hardest-hit provinces after the typhoon exited the country two days after it made its first landfall on December 16, 2021. The typhoon brought torrential rains, violent winds, floods and storm surges along its path as it made nine landfalls across the Visayas and Mindanao islands. After the calamity, the Municipality of San Miguel, Bohol, had a hard time not just dealing with the physical impact of the typhoon but also with properly processing the anxiety and trauma among residents across its 18 barangays. “Our LGU (local government unit) officials could not handle pleas for relief because they were also victims of the calamity,” Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Ma. Belen Hinacay recalled. Thus, they all felt relieved when ChildFund Philippines reached out to offer assistance. “We were not just counting on monetary support, and ChildFund provided us with something that was equally important that is rarely included as part of the typical relief packages of humanitarian organizations. And that assistance would remain with us even for many more typhoons and calamities to come,” she adds. San Miguel was among the typhoon devastated areas where ChildFund rolled out its signature Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) program. Through the initiative, experts from ChildFund train local government officials and personnel, teachers, and volunteers in assessing and processing mental and emotional stress of distressed children and adults. The program is strategically and creatively designed to be a workshop where subjects and activities would be guided to deal with personal issues and psychosocial stresses and other traumatic experiences caused by extreme hazard events (such as strong typhoons, earthquakes, etc.).

Third, we need to help families increase their awareness and level of preparedness to disasters. And lastly, coordination and collaboration is a must among humanitarian organizations, donors and Local Government Units to improve complementation of resources and interventions and to reach more people in need,” Galido ChildFundsaid.has committed to keep such interventions during massive disasters. The organization is confident that its programs are appropriately designed and well-targeted to benefit children by helping them, their families and their communities overcome the economic, mental, and emotional stress brought about by calamities.

BREVILLE’S Barista Express

Assistance to typhoon victims CHILDFUND Philippines was quick to launch its Typhoon Odette response in December 2021. The project’s goal was to reach more than 24,000 individuals or 4,500 families across 36 barangays in the program areas of San Joaquin in Iloilo and Bacolod City in Negros Occidental, along with non-program areas of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and Bohol. “We started monitoring the projected track of Typhoon Odette before it made landfall, keeping watch of existing program areas that might be hit. We then asked our local partners in those areas to prepare accordingly,” says Erwin Galido, Disaster Risk Management Specialist at ChildFund Philippines.Theresponse spanned from immediate relief to recovery phases and was scheduled to be completed by the end of August 2022. ChildFund completed Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) sessions and directly reached about 3,600 children and adults in seven municipalities and 20 barangays in Palawan and Bohol; provided Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) and immediate shelter/livelihood repair to about 500 families in San Joaquin, Iloilo and Bacolod City in Negros Occidental; and distributed shelter kit assistance to 100 families in Puerto Princesa City. The organization also provided learning and health kits to about 2,100 affected learners in San Joaquin and Bacolod City, while immediate livelihood assistance was extended to 275 families in San Joaquin. Helping each other OVERALL, Typhoon Odette and the outpour of humanitarian support from the government, local and international nongovernment organizations like ChildFund Philippines, and the private sector reinforced the importance of the collective responsibility to support each other and rise together. “There are four important lessons we at ChildFund and our partners from the public and private sectors realized from Typhoon Odette. First, MHPSS and similar interventions should be included as a key component of any immediate response to disasters. Second, there is a need for LGUs to recalibrate their disaster preparedness and capacity to deal with worst-case scenarios.

Meralco embarks on sustainable supply chain journey with supplier scorecard

The brand also does this through initiatives that explore the other creative avenues that coffee can tap, such as music, for example. In probably one of its most distinct campaigns, the brand held its MusiCaffeinated sessions which featured several personalities who shared their favorite tunes while telling stories about their sources of inspiration over a cup of coffee. Mark Tanseco of Let’s Eat Pare perfectly shows the type of bliss one can get from both coffee and music when he gave everyone a peek at how he uses his Breville Philippines Barista Touch while listening to the beloved classic Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel. Seasoned restaurateur Happy OngpaucoTiu is another good inspiration. A busy businesswoman with several catering services, restaurants, and boutique bed and breakfast under her belt, Happy is someone who knows good taste, both in her coffee and lifestyle. “My favorite me time of the day is coffee time. I love black coffee early in the morning to perk me up and Iced Coffee Ala Mode during late afternoons to end my busy day. Now that I have the Barista Touch at home, I can create third-wave specialty coffee at home with ease!” The same goes for Camille Anglo, who claims that coffee makes or breaks her mood for the day. The food enthusiast and surfer even shared that she openly tells her husband, Chef JP Anglo, how coffee makes her a better version of herself. “I love you more than coffee, but not before coffee,” she claims in an Instagram post. “I am a much better person with coffee and I’m so glad none of you have to know me before I’ve had my cup in the morning.” Even food whiz Chef Francis Lim, the brains and the talent behind the iconic Tipple and Slaw Bar and Restaurant, attests to how easy the Breville Barista Touch makes his life to be as a coffee lover when he showed how he can create his favorite drink with the same ease that he cooks his breakfast eggs. “All it takes is one touch to satisfy your senses with cafe-quality coffee at the comfort of our homes or workplace!”BrevillePhilippines also launched its Brave and Beautiful campaign where they released a limited edition black model of the Barista Express. With its classy design that can fit in the most sophisticated-looking coffee nooks, the brand has pushed forward a product that fulfills both functionality and aesthetics—two very important factors that the most loyal coffee lovers appreciate. For more information visit https://www. breville.com.ph/.

Thursday, September 1, 2022B6

damaged houses. But more importantly, ChildFund trained us to help the calamity victims overcome the fear and anxiety they were having after the disaster,” he says. Kagawad Ronald Olorga of Barangay Babuyan in Puerto Princesa City and an Indigenous People Mandatory Representative also expressed appreciation for ChildFund Philippines’ typhoon assistance efforts. He, along with families in his village, was a beneficiary of the MHPSS intervention and Shelter Kit assistance from the organization. “It would take so much for us to fully recover but we are thankful for the support so we can restart,” Olorga says. “Right now, our biggest challenge is getting our livelihood back. About 90 percent of the coconut trees we rely on for our copra (dried coconut meat) were uprooted. Most of our fishermen’s boats were also damaged. But we are still fighting, determined to go on with our lives, thanks to the MHPSS program.”

ON December 27-28, ChildFund Philippines in coordination with the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) of Bohol conducted a series of assessments in nine (9) municipalities and four (4) barangays belonging to the 10 communities identified by the province to be most badly hit by the typhoon.

Disaster response in Palawan PUERTO Princesa City in Palawan was another area that was among the beneficiaries of ChildFund Philippines’ disaster response initiatives. City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Earl Timbancaya said they learned a lot from the “ChildFundorganization.provided some assistance to help our people fix or rebuild their

Coffee inspires a taste for refined lifestyles W HAT makes a good cup of coffee memorable? For some, it might be the taste or the rush of energy that they enjoy. Others, however, may talk about the memories, the inspiration, and other sentimental things that they get from their favorite sip of joe. Whatever your answer is as a coffee lover, one thing remains true: coffee is more than just a necessary part of our lifestyle. It IS a lifestyle itself, one that inspires and connects with other aspects of ourselves.

CREBA is the exclusive NAR cooperating association tasked to promote and safeguard the NAR brand and Code of Ethics among real estate professionals in the Philippines.

More than just a trend: How Third-Wave

“It was a big help. The first batch of trainees from the municipal offices then trained barangay leaders in all 18 barangays. Soon, MHPSS was able to help more people across the town. Since then, we have observed that most of the calamity victims were going out again and trying to go on with life despite the odds,” Hinacay shared.

‘We Need Each Other’: ChildFund PH shares lessons from Typhoon Odette

This is something that Breville Philippines has always stood up for as one of the most passionate ambassadors of third-wave specialty coffee in the country. A premium home lifestyle brand, Breville has always been set on sparking everyone’s love for the drink by bringing it closer to where they are. With products that let all caffeine enjoyers craft their special cups in their own homes, the brand unlocks a creativity and sense of inspiration for everyone who wants to create deep, personalized connections with their favorite drink.

OFFICERS of Nestle Philippines, Inc. (NPI) recently presented to Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma (2nd from right, top photo) their safety and welfare programs and public commitments supportive of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals at the DOLE Central Office in Intramuros, Manila. The labor chief is also joined by (top photo, from right to left) Undersecretary Ernesto R. Bitonio, Jr., Assistant Secretaries Paul Vincent Añover and Dominique R. Tutay in discussing collaboration on best practices and knowledge sharing with the NPI team (photo below) headed by Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki (4th from left), SVP and HR Director Greg Scilipoti, Legal Officer Atty Krisma Guyala and Corporate Affairs Head Jose Uy. (Photo by Alejandro P. Echavez, DOLE-IPS)

THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has taken its commitment to embed sustainability in its operations to a higher level with the adoption of a sustainability scorecard covering the Company’s entire value chain. The Meralco Supplier Sustainability Scorecard (MS3) was established as a tool to assess suppliers and contractors on key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, while using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards as guiding principles. MS3 provides Meralco with a comprehensive view of its business partners’ ESG performance and is now incorporated in the Company’s vendor accreditation process. Through this program, Meralco is better positioned to heighten and operationalize its sustainability agenda—called Powering the Good Life—by ensuring a sustainable supplyMeralco,chain. through its Supply Chain Management (SCM) office, maintains a network of active suppliers and contractors integral to the Company’s ability to deliver high quality and reliable electric service to its customers. SCM has so far implemented MS3 to its top suppliers, which account for 95 percent of the Company’s spend. The program will eventually cover all Meralco’s active suppliers as the Company strives to ingrain sustainability excellence throughout its supply chain. Beyond driving compliance to ESG standards, MS3 serves as a platform for the Company to have meaningful engagement with its suppliers by understanding the challenges they face in becoming more sustainable and aiding them in building their own sustainability strategies and programs. “With the implementation of MS3, Meralco is making headway in increasing awareness on the importance of sustainability among our external stakeholders. Working with different suppliers, we, at SCM, are in a distinctive position to influence and inspire other companies to also embed sustainability in their operations. Sustainable development is a collective effort. Meralco cannot do it alone, and we are truly embracing our role as an enabler in this greater push for sustainability,” said Maria Luisa V. Alvendia, Meralco Chief of Staff to the President and CEO and Supply Chain Advisor. Meralco has embarked on various key initiatives to drive its sustainability agenda. One such program is the Company-wide ban on Single Use Plastics (SUPs), which began in 2019 and was extended to Meralco’s suppliers, particularly for packaging of delivered equipment and materials. Going forward, Meralco will continue to introduce and implement more programs in collaboration with its stakeholders to generate sustainable value. “Our aim is to ingrain sustainability in all we do, placing it at the core of our strategy and operations as a Company. MS3 is indeed a breakthrough step in broadening the reach and impact of our sustainability efforts as we collaborate closely with our vendor partners in powering the good life for all,” Meralco First Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Raymond B. Ravelo concluded.

CREBA HEAD ADDRESSES MANILA LEG OF INTERNATIONAL REALTORS’ MEET. Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Associations Inc. (CREBA) national president Noel Toti M. Cariño addresses the recently held International Realtor Members (IRM) at the Manila leg of the IRM Forum Series. The special guest was Vicky Silvano, Global Ambassador of the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors (NAR) who also graced prior IRM Forums in Pampanga, Baguio and Cebu.

BusinessMirror

THE Embassy of Israel, in partnership with the University of the PhilippinesMindanao and IDEAS Davao, hosted the Davao-Israel Innovation Night in line with the first-ever Davao Start-Up Week. “We are happy to share our success stories, especially with the Philippines, as Israel is known as the ‘Start-Up Nation’ which houses over 9,000 start-ups,” Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission Nir Balzam said. “Filipinos are talented individuals; they find solutions despite limited resources. I believe that with stronger support for innovation and start-ups, many more can be achieved.”Balzam added, “We are still… connecting more with the industry [by] building more engagements to have Filipino start-ups collaborate with Israeli [peers].”

USAID Philippines Acting Mission Director Rebekah Eubanks joined House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Health Department Officer in Charge Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire and Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian Sotto in launching the integrated TB screening and booster-vaccination events at the Batasang Pambansa Complex.“TheUS government continues to demonstrate its commitment to help the Philippines achieve its development goals and more important, survive this pandemic that has hampered economic activities and continues to affect the health of Filipino families,” said Eubanks. “Together, we are forging stronger public-private partnerships to bolster health response efforts for both TB and RomualdezCovid-19.”thanked USAID for its partnership and reiterated the Lower House’s support of prevention efforts for the two diseases: “Our role in Congress will be to engage our peers to allocate funds for sustainable TB detection, care, treatment and prevention. We will include [in our agenda integration efforts to contain them].” To support the Philippines’s TB and Covid-19 prevention efforts, USAID is training health-care workers on infection prevention and control, as well as offering workshops on community TB screening and contact tracing. USAID is also offering free chest X-rays, referrals of TB-presumptive individuals for treatment, and linking with the QC Health Office to spread information about TB prevention and control. “Through this program, TB screening will be more accessible to high-risk communities,” said Vice Mayor Gian Sotto. “We will be able to reach out to a greater number of individuals and provide them access to treatment.”Sottoalso underscored the importance of joint efforts between the Philippine government and private partners to end TB amid Covid-19: “We are very [thankful as well for] the additional resources from USAID, University Research Co. LLC and their partner Advance Abilities. [With their help, our work in QC will be easier].” Since the pandemic began the US government has invested more than P2.8 billion ($50 million) in the country’s Covid-19 response. USAID has also armed the Health Department and local-government partners with P130 million ($2.3 million) worth of innovative tools for TB detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

THE Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have strengthened their partnership to address the needs of war-torn areas in Mindanao.

Thursday, September 1, 2022www.businessmirror.com.ph B7

IN celebration of National Lung Month, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported the Quezon City local government in boosting its tuberculosis-detection efforts by integrating free TB screening at select Covid-19 booster vaccination sites in the city, which started on August 22.

Asean Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi acknowledged the value of raising awareness among the region’s families and youth on the value of the sustainable use and conservation of its natural resources. “I am pleased that today’s event is being celebrated with our families and youths,” the secretary-general said. “As agents of change who will play a crucial role in our postpandemic recovery, Asean should expand opportunities for [the youth to join, as well as aid in] policy-making and community development.” Dr. Lim seconded by emphasizing the importance of empowering the youth as champions of biodiversity: “Steering the [region] toward a future where we all live in harmony with nature entails an intergenerational exchange of wisdom, experience and innovation. Through the Asean Youth Biodiversity Programme, the ACB is contributing to this call of developing and empowering the young minds of the region to take a bigger and more meaningful part in our conservation work.” Some of the highlights of the learning event were biodiversity storytelling, interactive games, and scienceHeadsexperiments.andrepresentatives of the embassies of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in the Philippines participated in the event.

“I am proud and honored to sit with Chairman Gordon to find mechanisms to deliver assistance at the quickest time,” Alqahtani said, acknowledging the former as a “great man, an expert in disaster management, and [globally well respected]...” In the past KSA’s embassy in the Philippines, through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief project, supported the PRC through donations of food baskets to meet the nourishment needs of up to 1,000 families or 5,000 individuals affected by armed conflicts. “We are grateful…His Excellency Alqahtani honors us to discuss [working] possibilities with the PRC,” Gordon said. “[We] are one in achieving our goal to alleviate human suffering and uplift the dignity of the most vulnerable communities.”

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon met with Ambassador Hisham Sultan Abdullah Alqahtani of KSA on August 18 to enrich their strategic linkage and cooperation in providing aid to the most vulnerable sectors in the island-region. Alqahtani mentioned that the Saudi Arabian government looks forward to delivering assistance and that the PRC, through the leadership of Gordon, has the mechanism to help the kingdom ship much-needed assistance.

DFA, envoys plant native trees to commemorate Asean month

THE tree-growing activity was held simultaneously with fun learning activities on biodiversity designed for the families of the attending executives and dignitaries.

UNDERSECRETARY Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro and Dr. Ahmed Hassen Al Hammadi DFA

Envoys&Expats

PHL, Qatar

LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA—Staying true to this year’s Asean Day theme which is “Stronger Together,” ambassadors, executives and officers representing the region’s member-states, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) convened for a tree-planting and family-day event. There, they signified commitments to act for ecosystems restoration as one solid community promoting a nature-positive future for theInregion.celebration of Asean’s 55th founding anniversary, the DFA and the ACB jointly organized the commemorative activity at the latter’s headquarters and at the UPLB campus on August 20.

Youth as conservation partners

The chairman shared that delegates from the Saudi Red Crescent Authority also visited the PRC Headquarters last month. “This just shows that the PRC is respected and well received by the [global community, making us their] partner of choice,” added Gordon.

OHA—Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and Asean Affairs Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro led the country’s delegation that participated in the first PhilippinesQatar Joint Consultation Meeting (JCM) on Political Consultations, hosted by the State of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on August 23. The Qatari delegation was headed by Secretary-General Dr. Ahmed Hassen Al Hammadi of the Qatari MoFA.Lazaro and Al Hammadi reviewed the progress of the two countries’ bilateral relations, including cooperation in the areas of culture, tourism, education, sports, trade, investments and the Theyeconomy.alsodiscussed opportunities and ways to enhance and expand partnerships, as well as exchange views on climate-change mitigation, as well as regional and international issues. The JCM serves as the primary dialogue mechanism with Qatar at the vice-ministerial level, where both sides are given opportunities to discuss current pressing matters. It was formalized through the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the Establishment of Political Consultations on Issues of Common Interest in December 2019. The second one will be held in Manila next year. Office of the Middle East and African Affairs’ Assistant Secretary Alfonso A. Ver and Acting Director Alex O. Vallespin, along with Charge d’Affaires a.i. Cassandra B. Sawadjaan and Vice Consul Benjamin A. Celedio of the Philippine Embassy in Doha, as well as Commercial Attaché Charmaine Mignon S. Yalong of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Dubai, also joined the country’s delegation.

Vice President for External Affairs Itamar Gero of the Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines shared his insights on the Start-up Ecosystem partnership between the Philippines and Israel. Also in attendance were Executive Director Dr. Eric Paringit of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development or DOST-PCIEERD, IDEAS Davao Project Lead Miguel Guillermo, representatives from DOST, Department of Information and Communications Technology, National Economic and Development Authority, Davao City local government units’ representatives, and the locale’s chamber of commerce.Davao-based start-ups joined the event and were given an opportunity to pitch their ideas to local investors and government officials. The Embassy of Israel actively builds bridges of innovation with the Philippines by collaborating with the government and private sectors. In June 2022 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) signed an agreement with the Israel Innovation Authority for joint collaboration on innovation. The agreement will foster the formation of collaborative prospects in the field of innovation between the two states. In April 2022 the embassy hosted in the “Holy Land” a Filipino delegation headed by DOST with their incubators and representatives from DTI, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the United Nations Development Programme. The representatives learned about the Israeli innovation ecosystem and saw elements that can be applied in the Philippines. Davao-based start-ups that pitched during the event were Virtualahan, Artificial Intelligence Meets Human Intelligence, GeoPik Technologies, Aguila Software Inc., Coffee for Peace, Geo Pindot, Infinit LMS Solutions, DPI Virtual Tour, Sureplus, and Green Habits Agri Venture. The event was a joint effort with Israel’s Honorary Consulate in Mindanao based in Davao headed by Honorary Consul Jorge Marquez.

Phil. Red Cross, Saudi Arabia partner for Mindanao’s cause

Israel builds bridges of innovation during Davao Start-Up Week

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Asean Affairs Daniel R. Espiritu shared that the bloc’s priorities are not only limited to joint political security and economic linkages: “Asean has already expanded the range of its concerns to nontraditional security issues which includes, among others, the environment.” Espiritu lauded the ACB—the sole Asean center hosted by the Philippines—for its continuous embodiment of the region’s commitment to the environment, biodiversity and sustainable development, and encouraged the countries to still support the ACB in realizing its mandate. In her speech, ACB Executive Director Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim thanked the leaders for their continued support to the center as the biodiversity regional hub: “We are inspired by [your] unwavering support…as expressed in the recent Joint Communiqué of the 55th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, where [its] role… in mainstreaming biodiversity in development, promoting nature-based solutions to [further] the region’s resilience to zoonotic diseases, addressing climate change, and facilitating Asean’s contributions to the post-2020 global-biodiversity framework, were recognized.” For a greener future THE Asean ambassadors and charge d’affaires, along with Espiritu, Dr. Lim, and UPLB Chancellor Jose V. Camacho Jr., planted seven native and endemic tree species along the ACB Headquarters in Mount Makiling Forest Reserve—an Asean Heritage Park. Dr. Lim shared that the location and the species for the tree-growing event were strategically selected to serve as a protection for two white lauan (Shorea contorta) trees beside the ACB headquarters. Forestry experts from UPLB and BINHI Program of the Energy Development Corp. expressed that these trees, which are around 25 meters tall and about 50 to 60 years of age, were likely to have been planted during habitat restoration efforts on Mount Makiling that started more than half a century ago. “One or two trees alongside each other are not enough to protect themselves from falling down when a strong wind or storm comes,” Dr. Lim emphasized. “I believe this is like Asean: If there are 10 [memberstates] standing together, we are stronger—enough to protect our region’s biodiversity from challenges andThethreats.”tree-planting activity is in line with the ongoing regional flagship program: the Asean Green Initiative, which aims to encourage the planting of at least 10 million native trees in the 10 member-states in a span of 10 years, in response to the United Nations’ Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. The AGI, a recognition scheme for past and ongoing treegrowing initiatives in the region, is being implemented by the ACB.

1st JCM

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon (left) with Ambassador Hisham Sultan Abdullah Alqahtani CHARGES d’Affaires Nurriha Ahmad of Malaysia (from left), Khairul Hazwan Nor of Brunei Darussalam and Aung Kyaw Oo of Myanmar; Ambassador Tull Traisorat of Thailand, Chancellor Jose V. Camacho Jr., Assistant Secretary Daniel R. Espiritu, Executive Director Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, ambassadors Phan Peuv of Cambodia, Hoang Huy Chung of Vietnam, Agus Widjojo of Indonesia, Gerard Ho Wei Hong of Singapore and Songkane Luangmuninthone of Lao PDR, as well as Assistant Secretary Marcial C. Amaro Jr. at the event. hold on Covid-19

political consultations US assists QC vs TB,

HEALTH Department Officer in Charge Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire (front row, from left), House Speaker Martin Romualdez and USAID Philippines Acting Mission Director Rebekah Eubanks at the National Lung Month celebration in Quezon City. US EMBASSY

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

ECOOIL-LA SALLE captured the Philippine Basketball Association D-League Aspirants’ Cup crown with a masterful 91-78 Game Three con quest of Marinerong Pilipino Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Michael Phillips held the torch for the Green Archers with his doubledouble of 15 points and 16 rebounds he laced with three assists and three steals as they claimed their first championship in the developmental league. “ We got to want it and want it more and the boys showed it,” said coach Der rick Pumaren, who finally ascended to the top of the ranks after a runner-up finish with Centro Escolar University in the 2019 Aspirants’ Cup. Schonny Winston topscored for EcoO il-La Salle with 16 points, five boards, five assists, and three steals and the Archers started off hot with a 21-9 opener. M ark Nonoy, who picked the right time to play his best game in the league, poured 15 points from three treys, and Evan Nelle got 13 points, five rebounds, and five dimes in the winner-take-all affair. I t wasn’t a walk in the park for the Green Archers, though. They squandered 21-point lead that was chopped to just nine points midway in the fourth period. B ut CJ Austria scored eight of the team’s final 12 points to close the conference out. “As I told the boys, this is part of the program, this is part of the process. If we’re gonna bring our A-game, we got to bring it in today’s game,” Pumaren said. Juan Gomez de Liano led Marinerong Pilipino in the bridesmaid finish with 30 points, six rebounds, and three assists as it once again fell short in the Finals. Jollo Go failed to finish the game for the Skippers after he was ejected for a low blow on Ben Phillips at the 8:53 mark of the third period.

By Josef Ramos MALAC AÑ appointmentANG’Sof Noli Eala as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will be a big boost to Philippine sports and Filipino athletes in particular, according to PSC Commissioner Olivia “Bong” Coo. e bowling legend Coo looked forward to working with the 59-year-old former Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director whose appointment was announced on Tuesday evening. I’m very happy to welcome Chairman Noli [Eala]. It’s really a big step for Philippine sports,” the 74-year-old Coo told BusinessMirror on Wednesday. P ress Secretary and Presidential Spokesperson Trixie Cruz-Angeles announced Eala’s appointment, which was signed by Executive Secretary Atty. Vic Rodriguez. Coo said they would immediately address all issues specially on the national team’s training center, exposure and nutrition, adding that these essential areas have already been started during the term of previous chairman William Ramirez. He’s been in the sports for such a very long time, and he knows the problems of each athlete,” Coo said. “So he’s exposed to the problem of Philippine sports. He knows the problem, and he knows how to solve it.” She also said that Atty. Guillermo Iroy may retain his post as executive director, although only one more commissioner—and not two as the PSC charter states—will be appppointed by Malacañang. E ala politely begged off for an interview, saying he would settle down first. COO NO TITLE REPEAT FOR EMMA

‘Chooks,’ Lanete sign up Ando, Tolentino as full-time 3x3 players

T HE Smart/MVP Sports Foundation National Taekwondo team bagged 19 medals—including eight golds—in just recent Asian Cadet, Junior and Para-Taekwondo Championships in Ho Chi Minh City. The gold medalists in poomsae were Ian Matthew Corton, Joshua Aaron Erece, Lucas Llarena, Caleb Angelo Calde, Dean Darnet Venerable, Casey De Leon, Acey Kiana Oglayon and Juliana Martha Uy. M arie Nicole Anne Labayne settled for silver while Elizabeth Marie Borres, Antonette Medallada, Aesha Kiana Oglayon, Cyrus MEMBERS of the national team proudly pose with their medals. Rodan Sinugbojan, Ethan Jervey Dayne Chavez, Kent John Ilde Banzon, Tachiana Keizha Mangin, Allain Keanu Ganapin, Andrew Fabella, Eljay Marco Vista and Paul Anthony Rodriguez bagged bronze medals for Taekwondo Philippines. The team’s participation was supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and Milo. T he other members of the team (Kyorugi) headed by Raul Samson were Stephen Fernandez (Competition Supervisory Board) and coaches Janneth Tenorio, Devy John Singson, Christian Al Dela Cruz and Carlos Padilla were John Renzo Balido, Legolas Peñaredondo, Jose Jacob Cartagena, John Joseph Timothy Melicado, Renzo Maverick Gavilanes, Justine James Diasnes, Vince Raiane Santianez, Merica Lillyn Chan, Felicity Jana Castel, Ryane Joie De Juan, Caitlin Julia Carlos, Sophia Jane Dorado, Andrea Marie Benocilla, Kurt Jyrus Emboltura. The tournament drew jins from 21 countries including Korea, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Iran, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hongkong, Mongolia, India, Singapore, Mongolia andThKazakhstan.eeventwas also part of a series of competition for the members of the national junior team.

Arcilla eyes title Cup

NEWtoRaducanu wouldsenseMaybeYORK—itmakesthat Emmatryfindsomething positive from becoming only the third woman in the professional era to lose in the US Open’s first round one year after winning the championship. M aybe, too, it seems like a bit of a stretch.Still, whether she was trying to convince others or herself, that was how Raducanu spoke about moving on from bowing out 6-3, 6-3 against Alizé Cornet on Tuesday night in her opening match at Flushing Meadows in 2022 following that remarkable run to the trophy as an unseeded 18-year-old qualifier in 2021. It is a clean slate. I can just start again. I don’t know what my ranking will be. Probably pretty low down,” Raducanu said. “With perspective, actually, as a 19-year-old, I’ve had not a bad year. To be top 100, if you told me that a year ago, I’d take it. But, like, I think it would be nice, in a way, to kind of just start over, start fresh.” Th e other defending champions who went home this quickly at the American Grand Slam tournament were Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won it in 2004, and Angelique Kerber, who won it in 2016 (and lost in the first round in 2017 to Naomi Osaka, who had yet to win any of her four major trophies). R aducanu said she was disappointed to join that small group. She also sounded somewhat relieved.“Imean, in a way,” said the British player, who is 15-19 since her triumph in New York, “the target will be off my back slightly.” R aducanu dealt with blisters on J OHNNY ARCILLA gets the top seeding in the absence of top player Jeson Patrombon as he seeks another Open title in the Gov. Edwin Jubahib Cup National Tennis Championships that unfolds Thursday at the DavNor Tourism and Sports Complex in Davao del Norte. The seasoned campaigner is brimming with confidence as he sets out for his 3 p.m. duel with Earl Casal but wary of the challenge ahead posed by a slew of rivals out to make an impact in the week-long championship put up by Gov. Jubahib as part of his continuing effort to boost the province’s sports program. A rcilla clinched the first Open crown staked this year in the Fr. Suarez Cup last May but yielded the Mati training in the Philippine Army. But the depth of the Jubahib Cup field remains as talent-laden as ever with Vicente Anasta leading the charge in the lower bracket of the 32-player draw that also features third seed Eric Olivarez, No. 4 Charles Kinaadman, Fritz Verdad, Norman Enriquez, Noel Damian Jr. and John Mari Altiche. O thers out to fuel their respective drive for the crown and the top P40,000 men’s singles purse in the event, presented by Dunlop and sponsored by Private Island Hills and Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP), are Bruce Hurtado, Vince Serna, Jason Battad, Ronard Joven, Romeo Largo, Geoffrey Bautista, Jarell Edangga, Jaffary JOHNNY ARCILLA is the top seed in Davao del Norte.

AP her racket-holding right hand, as she had earlier this year, and took a medical timeout after the first set for treatment from a trainer. She also was simply outplayed by Cornet, a 32-year-old from France who beat past major champions Simona Halep at the Australian Open, Jelena Ostapenko at the French Open and Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon, ending the No. 1-ranked woman’s 37-match winning streak at Wimbledon. This year I’m kind of the upset girl. I pull out an upset on every Slam,” the 40th-ranked Cornet said after disrupting her opponent with a constantly shifting mix of defense, strokes that pushed Raducanu deep behind the baseline and well-placed drop shots. “I was like, ‘OK, I did it on the three previous Grand Slams, so why not this one?’”

Eala as PSC chairman big boost–Coo

Blue Eagles eye bounce back victory against Navymen

THE Green Archers make winning Game 3 look easy.

Jins bag 19 medals in Ho Chi Minh

EALA

unwraps Sports BusinessMirror B8 Thursday, sepTemBer 1, 2022 Editor:mirror_sports@yahoo.com.phJunLomibao

PLAYING Coach Chico Lanete (center) seals the deal with Dave Ando (left) and Vince Tolentino.

Now add Raducanu to the list. I’m sorry, guys. I know you really like Emma,” Cornet told the crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium. “She’s a great player and a great person.”

A y ear ago, at age 18, Raducanu arrived at Flushing Meadows ranked 150th to participate in only the second major tournament of her nascent career. She wound up making it through qualifying and winning 10 matches in a row—all in straight sets—en route to becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title, defeating another unseeded teen, Leylah Fernandez, in the final. R aducanu came into the US Open seeded 11th after second-round losses at each of the first three majors of 2022.“She didn’t win a Slam for nothing,” Cornet said. “I know how she can play.” Cornet is playing in her recordsetting 63rd consecutive Grand Slam event. She’s only reached the quarterfinals at one of them—this year’s Australian Open. But she also owns six victories over opponents ranked in the top 20 this season. I’m handling my emotions better,” said Cornet, who actually was angered when the Armstrong roof was closed during the course of play early in the second set. “I guess I’m getting old. I’m never.”latebetterguessI’mbecauseIt’smature....gettinggood,32.Iit’sthan AP

Cariga and Jose Maria Pague. This week’s Open comes on the heels of Davao del Norte’s successful staging of the PPS juniors tournament last June with a number of sports activities lined up for the year under Gov. Jubahib’s sports development program. Also on tap in the weeklong tournament, backed by Darbmuco, Dacup Surveying Office, WEARBEMPCO, Velocity One Realty Ventures, Inc., Haven United Devt Corp., Panabo Mayor Jose Relampagos, CFARBEMCO, Marsman Drysdale Agri Business Corp., PBA Party List and Joan Este, is the Legends 40s, 50s and 60s men’s doubles offering a top prize of P30,000. For details, contact PPS-PEPP event organizer and program director Bobby Mangunay at 0915-4046464.

as Jubahib

Green Archers rule D-League at Skippers’ expense

EMMA RADUCANU becomes only the third woman in the professional era to lose in the US Open’s first round one year after winning the championship.

C HOOKS-TO-GO Pilipinas 3x3 signed two versatile players to beef up its pool for the second half of the FIBA 3x3 Pro Season. V ince Tolentino and Dave Ando signed threeyear contracts to be full-time 3x3 players with the country’s premier pool on Tuesday evening. The signing was held at the Bounty Agro Ventures Inc.’s office at Taipan Place at the Ortigas Center. “As promised, we will be giving our new head coach Chico Lanete all the resources he needs to be successful in his first foray as head coach,” Chooksto-Go president Ronald Mascariñas said. With Vince and Dave, he will have players that are as versatile as they come both in offense and in defense,” Mascariñas said. “And both players are what we are looking for—players who stand at least 6-foot-4 and show no fear on defense.” Tolentino, 29, is a 6-foot-5 forward who is coming off a three-year stint in professional 5-on5 basketball.“Iamvery excited about this opportunity. This will be my first time experiencing the 3x3 environment and I will do my best to adapt as quickly as possible,” the Ateneo product Tolentino said. A ndo, 22, is a lanky 6-foot-7 big who is coming off a four-year stint with University of Santo Tomas. This will be big for my career—to represent our country overseas and I thank Boss Ronald and Coach Chico for their trust in me,” said the young Cebuano Ando. L anete will soon announce if Tolentino and Ando will play for Cebu Chooks! or Manila Chooks! The team is preparing for the FIBA 3x3 Penang Challenger (September 10 and 11), Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3x3 Invitational Quest in Laguna (September 16) and Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3x3 Cebu World Tour Masters (October 1 and 2). I am grateful for the all-put support of Boss Ronald and Chooks-to-Go,” said Lanete, who will still play for Manila Chooks this season. “Our quest for qualification Paris Olympics goes on.”

A BARRFUDGEETENEO-tries to bounce back from a disappointing fiveset setback to VNS as it clashes with a debuting Navy side while National University (NU)Sta. Elena and Army also kick off their campaigns in the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference Thursday at the Paco Arena in Manila. The Eagles failed to match the VNS-One Alicia spikers’ strong start in the decider and absorbed a 21-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 9-15 loss in last Tuesday’s twinbill marking the resumption of the country’s first men’s volley league after a three-year hiatus due to pandemic. B ut they are expected to make the necessary adjustments in time for their 5:30 p.m. game with the Corvettes, to be led by Joven de la Vega and Joshua Umandal, who is fresh from a stint with Bahrain’s Bani Jamra. Fancied Cignal HD ripped a young Sta. Rosa squad, 25-17, 25-15, 25-22, to share the early lead with VNS in the seven-team single round robin eliminations of the league organized by Sports Vision. T he 2:30 p.m. duel between the Nationals and the Troopers also promises to be an explosive match with the former boasting of national team standouts Joshua Retamar and Nico Almendras while PJ Rojas is expected to lead the Troopers’ assault for the muchneeded head-start. N U-Sta. Elena is coming into the seven-team competition in top form following a runner-up finish in the ASEAN University Games in Thailand and a fourth-place effort in Thailand’s WSVI Datuk Bandar Cup. That tournament in Thailand honed us a lot for this Spikers’ Turf. It was our first tournament after the UAAP [University Athletic Association of the Philippines],” said NU head coach Dante Alinsunurin. Games are telecast on One Sports and One Sports+ and the league’s official web site http://spikersturf.ph/live.