BusinessMirror September 18, 2020

Still the richest, but pandemic dented their fortunes siblings 1Sy$13.9B

Tan $2.3B 6Andrew

Villar $5.5B 2Manuel

Tan $2.2B 7Lucio

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siblings Jaime Zobel de Ayala Razon Jr. $4.1B $3.6B 4Gokongwei 5Don $4.3B 3Enrique

Ang $2B 8Ramon

Tan Caktiong & Susan Co $1.9B $1.7B 9Tony 10Lucio

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OST of the wealthiest Filipinos remained at the top of Forbes magazine’s top 50 richest Filipinos for 2020, but many on the list saw their earnings plunge due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The collective wealth of the Philippines’s 50 Richest dropped to $60.6 billion from $78 billion a year earlier,” Forbes said, adding that 32 on the list saw their net worths decline.

The Sy siblings of the retail-led giant SM group and former Senate President Manuel B. Villar Jr. are still the wealthiest among them all.

The Sys, who took over the list after their father Henry Sy Sr. died early last

year, remained at the top with their net worth at $13.9 billion, albeit down by $3.3 billion.

Villar was at number two, but remained the country’s richest man individually, with his net worth at $5.5 billion, down by $1.6 billion from the previous year.

Port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr. moved up to the third position from four last year with his fortunes at $4.3 billion, also a steep drop from last year’s $5.1 billion.

Lance Gokongwei and his siblings debuted on the list at number four with $4.1 billion, replacing their father John Gokongwei Jr., who died in November last year.

Lance shares the fortune with his five sisters—Faith, Hope, Lisa, Marcia and Robina.

Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala remained at fifth, his fortunes slightly down to $3.6 billion from last year’s $3.7 billion; businessman Andrew Tan was up at sixth position from last year’s 10th with $2.3 billion also down from last year’s $2.55 billion.

Tycoon Lucio Tan was at seventh with $2.2 billion; Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp. was eighth at $2 billion; Tony Tan Caktiong of fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. was ninth at $1.9 billion; Lucio and Susan Co of grocery chain Puregold was 10th with $1.7 billion; and Mercedes Gotianun, matriarch of the siblings that operate Filinvest group, was at 11th with $1.5 billion.

Full story in Companies, B1

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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Friday, September 18, 2020 Vol. 15 No. 344

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

WHO’S TRULY POOR IN PHL? CONFUSED SENATORS ASK NEDA EXPERTS TO CLARIFY

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ITO Telecommunity Corp., which is expected to officially start its commercial telco operations in the first quarter of 2021, is spending P1 billion to develop a cybersecurity operating center to ensure that its network will not be used for potential cybercrime.

By Cai U. Ordinario

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Dito Chief Technology Officer Rodolfo Santiago said this initiative shows that his group puts a premium on cybercrime prevention and supports ongoing endeavors to keep the country’s cyberspace safe. The remarks come as an apparent effort to allay fears in many quarters that the setting up of cellsite towers inside military camps by Dito—which is minorityowned by China Telecommunications Corp.—could open the country to risks of “spying” by the Chinese government, given that China Telecom is a state firm.

Referring to Dito’s P1-billion investment, Santiago said during a media briefing on Thursday, “That amount is contracted to be utilized for the building of our cybersecurity operating center to monitor cyber attacks. It will fund the equipment, software and the training of our team.”

He did not go into specifics as to the configuration of the cybersecurity operating center.

Aside from this, Dito said it has picked US-based tech firm Fortinet to be its primary cybersecurity provider. It is also tapping other cybersecurity providers to support its requirements. These include NexusGuard, McAfee, Nessus, Veritas, Pentaho Data, IDAM Systems by BeyondTrust, Microsoft, Cisco ISE, Siemplify, ManageEngine and SolarWinds.

Continued on A2

A DITO Telecommunity rooftop tower construction crew is seen, as the company ramps up infrastructure initiatives to meet its target of 1,300 cell towers needed to achieve mandated targets of 37-percent population coverage and speed of 27 mbps by January 2021. PHOTO COURTESY OF DITO TELECOMMUNITY

PHL banana exports down 10% in 7 months

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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HE country’s banana exports from January to July fell by 10 percent to $1 billion from $1.1 billion as Covid-19 lockdowns impacted economies and international trade, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

Total banana shipments during the 7-month period fell 4 percent to 2.439

million metric tons (MMT) from 2.541 MMT recorded in the same period of last year, PSA data showed.

Japan was the country’s top banana export market during the reference period, accounting for almost half of the total value of shipments, according to data.

Banana exports to Japan rose by 12 percent to $455.061 million from last year’s $406.753 million as volume

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.3940

of shipments expanded by 15.17 percent to 915,565.821 MT.

Given the increase in exports to Japan, the East Asian market is poised to regain its position as the Philippines’s top banana market this year.

China had been the country’s top banana export market in the past two years, but its purchase of the yellow fruit from the Philippines fell by 30 percent to $287.423 million from last

year’s $408.239 million.

Banana shipments to China declined by 24.24 percent to 714,740.487 MT from 943,464.449 MT, based on PSA data.

PSA data also showed that the value of banana exports to South Korea fell by 16.7 percent to $134.409 million from $161.425 million, while volume of shipments declined by 12.55 percent to 296,263.779 MT.

HE country’s poverty data came into question on Thursday as senators struggled to make sense of definitions and income classifications at the budget hearing of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

With the confusion, Acting Neda Chief Karl Kendrick T. Chua committed to discuss the matter at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Board, which is chaired by the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary.

Chua added that efforts to define the composition of the Philippine middle class will also be included. To date, the country does not have its own definition of which households constitute the middle class.

“What I think is the main concern, Mr. Chair, is we do not have an official definition of this.

That’s why when we have certain programs and research, we come up with different numbers. So what I will do, I will discuss in the PSA Board all these to see if we can come up with something official. So moving forward, that definition will be consistent,” Chua said.

Based on the official PSA estimates, National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa said the poverty threshold was estimated at P25,800 per year per Filipino or, for a family of five, P126,000 per year.

Individuals and families who earn less than this amount annually are automatically considered poor in the government’s estimates. Mapa said there are about 3 million families who are poor, consisting of around 17.67 million or close to 18 million individuals.

According to Neda Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon, part of the agency’s research agenda for 2021 is to undertake a study that will help classify the non-poor.

Edillon added that the findings of the study will be presented to the PSA Board to “make it official.” She said defining and classifying the nonpoor, including identifying the middle class, had been attempted by various studies in the past.

Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) President Celia M. Reyes added that based on a recent study of the state-owned think tank, the non-poor nationwide can be classified into six groups using 2018 data.

Reyes said based on the study, the low-income but not poor group consists of 8.4 million houseSee “Poor,” A2

See “Banana,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4612 n UK 62.7622 n HK 6.2445 n CHINA 7.1631 n SINGAPORE 35.6598 n AUSTRALIA 35.3276 n EU 57.1920 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9027

Source: BSP (September 17, 2020)

A2 Friday, September 18, 2020

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

DOTr suspends distance easing in PUVs amid Covid risk debate

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

HE Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Thursday suspended the implementation of its controversial policy relaxing the physical distancing measure in public utility vehicles (PUVs).

In an online press briefing, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade made the decision in order to give President Duterte enough time to review the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) recommendation on the matter.

“He [Tugade] said he doesn’t want to pressure the President into making his decision, as if he is duty bound to make it within a period of time,” Roque said.

He said the President may finally announce his decision during his public address next Monday.

New recommendation

THE policy to reduce physical distancing for passengers inside PUVs from 1 meter to 0.75 meter was approved by the IATF last week, but it decided to review it after getting considerable public opposition.

Roque said the IATF was able to submit its new recommenda-

tion to Duterte on Thursday after several days of consultations and deliberations.

One group, which includes the DoTR, is pushing to reduce the physical distancing, so PUVs could carry more passengers and quicken the resumption of more businesses.

The other faction includes some health officials, who are advocating that the 1-meter rule in PUV stay. They said lowering it could lead to an increase in new novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases.

Still another expert group, which counts two former health secretaries, said the one-meter distance is ideal but that easing it a bit would not lead to a needless spike of cases as long as the other safeguards—use of face masks, face shields, and no talking during public commutes—are strictly observed.

groups are against relaxing the 1-meter rule, which they noted was a recommendation from no less than the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rather than ease the said standard, National Confederation of Transport Workers Union (NCTU) chairman Ernesto Cruz said the government should just increase the available number of PUVs such as traditional jeepneys.

He noted that out of the 55,000 traditional jeepneys nationwide, only 17,000 are being allowed to operate using a service contracting scheme, wherein the government pays them so they could continue to operate.

The service contracting is necessary since the physical distancing rules significantly reduced their number of passengers per trip.

“There are still 38,000 jeepneys

which are still not being allowed to operate,” Cruz said in an online press conference.

NCTU has joined the Nagkaisa labor coalition, Health Justice and Healthy Philippines Alliance, and Action for Economic Reforms and other members of the Move as One Coalition to demand for government officials to go to work by commuting.

They hope policy-makers will reconsider easing the 1-meter rule once they are exposed to the risks of commuting with minimal physical distancing.

Research-based

FORMER Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, however, belied the belief that reducing social distancing in PUVs will immediately lead to higher Covid-19 cases.

“WHO makes certain norms

and standards. And you remember, they’re trying to do this for all countries. But when they do these norms and standards, it is not a dogma; that is not gospel truth,” Dayrit said in an online briefing.

“In fact, WHO asked the countries to deal with this according to their own context. And therefore, it is not correct to say it cannot be reduced [1-meter rule],” he added.

Dayrit admitted that reduced physical distancing will pose a higher risk for passengers of getting infected, but only, he stressed, if they will not comply with other minimum health standards.

Citing the results of two international studies, he noted the said risk could be countered if commuters will wear face masks and face shields as well as not speak and eat in well-ventilated public transportation.

HEALTH advocates as well as labor and transportation

“From the beginning, we in Dito have taken note of all the concerns related to cybersecurity. We never made it public but we sought the best that the US had to offer in terms of cybersecurity,” Santiago said. The nod to US suppliers is seen as a counterbalance to fears about the “China” factor.

Dito has been under intense scrutiny over the past few days due to its intention to build network infrastructure in military camps. While Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said recently they have approved the plan—which was shelved in 2019 on strong objections by senators, among others—critics insist this poses a threat to national security, given that Dito’s foreign partner, China Telecom, is a state-owned enterprise.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros earlier noted that China’s Communist Party has a track record of demanding the “cooperation” of its state companies in initiatives involving its national interest.

China has been in a long-running tussle with the Philippines on Beijing’s “muscling” in the West Philippine Sea. Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea, but Manila won in 2016 its case against such “excessive claims” in its filing with a UN arbitral tribunal.

The US has also noted supposed security risks linked to Chinese-made equipment and infrastructure.

Dito is expected to launch its commercial telco operations in March 2021. Santiago said his group has already “fully adjusted to the challenges” posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now ramping up infrastructure initiatives to meet the target.

“As of September 13, Dito now has a total of 859 out of the 1,300 estimated number of towers needed to achieve mandated targets of 37 percent population coverage and speed of 27 mbps by January of 2021,” Santiago said.

He added that his group has signed new contracts with six contractors, namely: LCS Holdings, Zeal Power, ALT Global, CEEC Tower, Aboitiz and Leo Group.

Continued from A1

Banana exports to Iran, the country’s top market in the Middle East, grew by almost 12 percent to $41.6 million from $37.162 million.

The volume of banana shipments to Iran reached 177,598.639 MT, 84.41 percent higher than last year’s 96,307.028 MT, based on PSA data.

Mindanao gets big share of DPWH 2021 outlays

To ensure a safe and reliable national road system, the agency has appropriated P46.2 billion for its Asset Prevention Program and P109.9 billion for its network development, which includes road widening, construction and diversion of roads and flyovers.

The DPWH also allocated P23.1 billion to its Bridge Program, which covers replacement of temporary to permanent bridges, replacement of weak bridges, retrofitting, repair and widening of permanent bridges, and construction of new permanent bridges.

During the submission of the DPWH budget to Congress, the Department of Budget and Management said the Duterte administration will continue to advance the Build, Build, Build program despite the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Negros Oriental Rep. Arnulfo Teves questioned the DPWH’s basis for the budget allocation per district of congressmen.

Teves also asked the DPWH to submit the list of districts with highest and lowest allocation next year, noting his district will only receive almost P2 billion while Taguig and Camarines Sur are getting P8 billion and P11.8 billion, respectively.

Villar, however, explained that the basis of allocation for legislative district is not necessarily absorptive capacity, but it includes the pipeline of the projects.

“We don’t have the immediate breakdown of each legislative district.

That’s why we have to come up with it, and submit it. Everyone is welcome to scrutinize the per legislative [district] breakdown,” he said.

Meanwhile, the briefing of the DPWH was deferred after Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante noted that there are only two undersecretaries present at the plenary.

Continued from A1

Banana…

Lead by example

Continued from A8

Dito…

PLASTIC sheets on a traditional jeepney separate passengers as part of health measures to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease in Manila, July 3, 2020. The Department of Transportation has suspended its decision to ease physical distancing rules in PUVs to give President Duterte leeway to make a final decision. AP/AARON FAVILA

Yearlong outlook

Who’s truly poor in PHL? Confused senators ask Neda experts to clarify Continued from A1

holds with a monthly family income of P10,957 to P21,914 for five; while lower middle income consists of 7.6 million families earning P21,914 to P43,828 a month.

The middle class, meanwhile, consists of 3.1 million families earning a monthly income of P43,828 to P76,699; while the upper middle income consists of 1.2 million families earning P76,699 to P131,484 a month.

Reyes said the last two classifications include the upper income but not rich group which consists of 358,000 families earning P131,484 to P290,140 per month; while the rich group consists of 143,000 families earning at least P290,140 a month.

Angara: Data gaps

HOWEVER, Senate Finance Committee Chairperson Juan Edgardo Angara pointed out that the numbers do not tally given the estimates for the poor and the nonpoor. Data showed that there are 26 million families nationwide and about 3 million to 4 million poor households nationwide.

This leaves about 22 million to 23 million non-poor households.

However, the estimates provided by the PIDS data show only around 20.8 million by the BusinessMirror calculations, and Angara’s pegged it at 24.75 million families.

Angara recommended that the government come up with a reconciled estimate that can fit in just “one bond paper” to avoid any further confusion when it comes to the data.

“We’re just looking for better tools to understand the universe so that we can respond better. That’s the main goal, Sec. Karl,” Angara said on Thursday. “I think we can use this PIDS, at least these will be useful in terms of analyzing development in provinces. It’s relevant to Balik Probinsiya, it’s relevant to our health program, it’s relevant to our poverty programs.”

Escaping poverty

IN a statement on Thursday, Chua said government interventions through the recently enacted Bayanihan Act II will help millions of Filipino families recover from poverty caused by the pandemic.

These interventions include cash-for-work programs, emergency subsidies, funds for the micro, small and medium enterprises through the banking sector.

Chua said that in terms of getting back on track to reducing poverty incidence in the country, the pace will also depend on when the vaccine will be available, so that the economy can fully open.

“Right now we are seeing a gradual recovery of the economy and employment has bounced back significantly. There’s a lot of uncertainty

but the general direction is that we are going to see more opening up of the economy and we are going to make sure that people who are not able to work will be supported,” he said.

Recovery and the kind of jobs that will be available, he added, will mostly depend on personal behavior and the people’s ability to practice minimum health standards.

The Neda chief earlier said there could be a temporary increase in urban poverty because of the pandemic and quarantine in urban areas, but a gradual recovery of the economy can be achieved so long as the economy can safely open up.

Chua said the pandemic has significantly affected urban areas such as Metro Manila and Cebu because of the higher number of Covid-19 cases in these areas. These economic centers experienced longer lockdowns that prevented millions from working, causing them to slip back or fall deeper into poverty.

“This indicates that the impact on the rural areas is minimal, if at all.

So, we are going to make sure that the urban poor and those affected by the quarantines will get the support that they need to prevent further deterioration,” Chua said.

Chua said prior to the pandemic, around 6 million were lifted from poverty in 2018, four years ahead of the 2022 target. As of 2018, the poverty rate has gone down from 23.5 percent in 2015 to 16.7 percent in 2018.

THE Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) sees total banana exports this year to decline by 17 percent to 162.2 million boxes from 195.5 million boxes last year.

PBGEA said homegrown bananas, the country’s banner agricultural export crop, may be progressively losing their share in the world market due to a range of issues ranging from high tariffs, plant infections, rising competition and an aggressive, government-subsidized foray by Latin American producers into traditional Philippine markets.

For one, banana exporters have sounded the alarm over the looming threat of a shrinking share in the Chinese market due to rising competition with Asian neighbors like Vietnam and Cambodia, which have also started to “pirate” local industry experts to develop their plantations.

Worse, the spread of the pest Fusarium wilt and detrimental effects of climate change on banana production have resulted in lower output, hence, reduced volume of exports, according to PBGEA. The group estimates that 20 percent of the country’s area planted to bananas have been damaged

by Panama disease.

As of March, PBGEA Executive Director Stephen A. Antig said the disease has already affected about 30,000 hectares to 40,000 hectares of banana plantations in Mindanao.

Antig added that the unfavorable weather conditions, particularly the drought in Mindanao, are adversely affecting local banana production.

The country’s banana output in the first half fell by nearly 2 percent to 4.293 MMT from 4.375 MMT in the same period of last year, based on PSA data.

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Probers eye three factors in Air Force chopper crash in Basilan

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HE Air Force is eyeing three factors that may have caused the fatal crash of one of its Sikorsky S-76A air ambulance in Basilan on Wednesday as it officially identified the four personnel who perished during the mishap.

The S-76A from the 505th Search and Rescue Group boarded by four Air Force personnel was on its way to Jolo from Zamboanga City when it went down into a rubber plantation in Lantawan, Basilan under inclement weather.

The helicopter, police and local officials said, exploded and caught fire after the crash, burning the bodies of the crewmen on board.

Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Aristides Galang said they are now eyeing

weather condition, mechanical problem and pilot error that may have caused the crash of the ill-fated helicopter.

“Material factor, human factor and environmental factor, those are what we are considering during the investigation,” he said.

Galang said the air ambulance helicopter was on its way to Sulu to carry out a medical evacuation mission when it went down at Barangay Upper in Manggas, Lantawan.

He identified the fatalities as Maj. Jessie Miller, pilot in command; 1st Lt. Mack-Ar Ferrer, co-pilot; and air crew Staff Sgt. Miguel Banas Jr. and Airman 2nd Class Benedicto Leal Jr. The Air Force has grounded and posed for inspection of all of its S-76A aircraft in its fleet. Rene Acosta

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, September 18, 2020 A3

ASG bandits kidnap elderly Fil-Am man in Zamboanga

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

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ECURITY forces are pursuing a band of kidnappers who abducted a 64-year-old man, said to be a Filipino-American, in Zamboanga del Norte on Wednesday.

The Army’s 1st Infantry Division (ID) said its forces and local policemen are running after the kidnappers of Rex Triplet, a resident of Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte.

Triplet was reportedly with his wife during the kidnapping but

the woman managed to escape, a report from the 1st ID under Maj. Gen. Generoso Ponio said.

The couple are reportedly on their way home to the village of Piacan on board a motorcycle driven by Triplet when four armed men in camouflage uniforms flagged them down.

Triplet’s wife, whom the military did not identify, managed to escape and seek help from officials of the adjoining village of Tapanayan.

The kidnapping was the first in years in Zamboanga del Norte. In November last year, Abu Sayyaf Group

(ASG) bandits kidnapped Briton Allan Hyron and his Filipino wife in neighboring Zamboanga del Sur. The couple were rescued in Sulu by military forces two months after they were taken by the ASG. In Rizal, a father-and-son, who were said to be the prime suspects in a series of kidnappings of Indian migrants, were killed during an alleged shootout with anti-kidnapping operatives on Wednesday night.

Brig. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, chief of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) of the Philippine National Police,

identified the suspects as Rodel Cabungcal Basi and his eldest son Romar Basi.

Estomo said members of the Special Operations Unit of the AKG were about to serve a search warrant at the residence of the suspects at Sitio Ibabaw 2, Dulongbayan in Teresa, Rizal when the shootout ensued.

The operating team recovered a .45 caliber pistol, a 9mm handgun and a shotgun.

Estomo said the two were involved in various cases, including kidnapping, gun-for-hire, homicide and murder.

148,461 jobseekers register in CSC’s online career fair ‘DOH CHIEF NEED NOT SIT AS PHILHEALTH BOARD CHAIR’

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LMOST 150,000 applicants have registered in the ongoing online job fair of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

CSC said a total of 148,461 jobseekers filled out the personal data sheet and uploaded it to JobStreet.com, which served as their private sector partner in the conduct of the Government Online Career Fair (GOCF) from September 14 to 16, 2020.

The registration will allow the said participants to apply for the 2,452 available employment opportunities from government offices during the weeklong GOCF.

CSC said the top 10 most viewed available positions in the GOCF are administrative assistant; administrative assistant III (secretary II) (Internal Audit Service); staff officer II; administrative assistant II; staff officer I; engineer II; revenue officer I (non-assessment); administrative assistant II; administrative assistant 1 (secretary); and engineer II. Meanwhile, the government agencies, which got the most interests among the jobseekers are the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), Land Bank of the Philippines, Department of Education (DepEd), Develop-

ment Bank of the Philippines and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

CSC Commissioner Aileen Lizada appealed to participating government agencies to fast-track their screening process of the applications they have received.

“This will allow them [applicants] to know if they still lack requirements, or if they are qualified for the position [they have applied for],” Lizada said.

CSC held the GOCF, which started on Monday and will be ending on September 18, 2020, as part of its observance of the 120th anniversary of the Philippine Civil Service. Samuel P. Medenilla

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USTICE Secretary and Task Force PhilHealth head Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said an incumbent health secretary need not occupy the board chairmanship of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. on a concurrent capacity.

Guevarra said the PhilHealth board chairman post does not have to be reserved for the health secretary since the agency is a health state insurer and has nothing to do with public health in general.

“I really leave it to Congress to determine what needs to be done in terms of reorganization. But, my view about

this is, it is not really a health institution, it’s a health insurance institution.

So, I would agree that there is really no need for the secretary of health to act as PhilHealth chairman,” Guevarra said in an interview over CNN Philippines.

“First and foremost, it’s a health state insurer that is why it needs people who has expertise on business and finance. There is no health issue involved here. I can agree with the proposal to replace [the chairman of the board], not because it’s Secretary [Francisco] Duque [III] but because of the nature of the functions,” Guevarra explained.

He also noted that the health sec-

retary has numerous duties and responsibilities with the Department of Health, PhilHealth and attending to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“He [Duque] is just spreading himself too thinly because of the many responsibilities he is attending to. But that is not really an excuse. PhilHealth is an important agency, there should be more vigilance on their part,” he stated.

Although the task force PhilHealth has not found probable cause to recommend the indictment of Duque over the multibillion PhilHealth fund mess, Guevarra said this does not mean that he is now totally off the hook. Joel R. San Juan

A4 Friday, September 18, 2020 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Economy BusinessMirror

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COMP says ‘sustainable mining’ in PHL begins next year via TSM

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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HE implementation of the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative for member-companies of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) will begin next year.

In a news statement issued on Thursday, COMP said it is now ready to implement TSM, a Canadian mining model, after nearly three years of substantial review of the program’s various components to assure applicability to conditions in the Philippines.

Through TSM, COMP aims to drive its members’ environmental and social performance and ensure that key mining risks are managed responsibly, and best practices are applied at members’ facilities nationwide.

Peter MacArthur, Canadian ambassador to the Philippines, said when TSM was launched by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) in 2004, the program “was the first mining standard to apply at the facility level, with public reporting, independent verification and civilsociety oversight.

Today, the envoy said, TSM helps to ensure affected communities have the data they need to know nearby mines are being managed responsibly and safely for the overall public good.

“A very important aspect of TSM is the way in which it incorporates civil-society oversight through the Community of Interest Advisory Panel, which not only oversees the development and implementation of TSM but also provides a dialogue table between the industry and civil society, resulting in an

industry that is more aware and responsive to the views of communities,” MacArthur added.

In 2017, COMP signed a mutual cooperation agreement with MAC for the adoption of TSM in response to President Duterte’s call for the mining industry to follow Canadian and Australian standards.

“The pronouncements of President Rodrigo Duterte in the beginning of his term served as a wakeup call for the mining industry to adhere to international standards,” Nonita Caguioa, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) assistant secretary for Mining Concerns said in the same statement.

“In response the government has implemented new mining policies and strict environmental guidelines that are all geared towards the protection of the environment and the

mining communities. As we are facing this global pandemic, the government considers the mining industry as one of the primary measures for economic recovery,” she said. “This is an opportune time for the industry to adopt the TSM because sustainability should go hand in hand with economic growth.”

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Wilfredo Moncano, for his part, said that this is the first time that TSM has been adopted in Asia.

“We at the MGB are delighted with COMP’s establishment of this [program] and we express our gratitude as you have complied to the call of our President,” the mining official said.

Apart from Canada and the Philippines, other countries that have adopted TSM are Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Finland, and

Spain. South Africa, Indonesia, and Laos have expressed strong interest in adopting TSM as well.

“Rest assured that the DENR and the MGB will give their utmost support for the development of TSM,” Moncano added.

“We will also guarantee our role to serve by administering and enforcing more progressive laws and regulations for the mining sector,” he said.

“We all know that mining is finite and temporary use of land for the creation of economic wealth. The challenge [for COMP members] is to ensure TSM will be used properly to achieve sustainable development,” Moncano stated.

MacArthur said investors are increasingly looking at how to measure the environmental and social performance of miners and are turning to standards like TSM.

“In fact, Sustainalytics, a major environmental and social ratings agency, recently developed a new tailings indicator that leans heavily on TSM,” the envoy pointed out.

“The only way a miner can receive the top level of performance in the Sustainalytics indicator is through TSM,” he stressed.

The COMP recently completed the rollout of the TSM initiative among its member-firms in Luzon and Visayas.

It was launched in Mindanao last month.

A total of over 200 individuals representing the country’s biggest large-scale mining projects participated in the Luzon-Visayas and Mindanao TSM rollouts.

The rollouts, held via a videotelephony platform, were hosted by The Embassy of Canada Trade Mission.

Bill widens entry to Tesda skills and devt programs

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O help bridge the country’s skills gap, a lawmaker on Thursday filed a bill providing universal access to skills training and creation of a national skills development program.

In House Bill 7671, or the proposed 21st Century Skills Act, House Committee on Ways and Means and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said his bill seeks to open the labor’s force universal access to Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) training and upskilling, as well as reskilling grants for displaced workers and the unemployed.

He said the bill will establish a national program known as SkillDev, which will provide universal access to annual training programs. The program places emphasis on job training for emerging, or resilient industries, such as the BPO sector and the digital economy.

“The bill will help modernize our outlook on labor from merely protecting jobs with mere regulation, notwithstanding trends in the economy that could render such jobs useless, to protecting workers by making them ready for the ever-changing jobs of the 21st century,” he said.

“Everyone above 15 years of age will get free skills training, every year. On top of this, there will be allowances for displaced workers and other vulnerable groups,” Salceda added.

The bill, he said, follows his model in Albay, which became the model for the Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education Act, or UniFAST, or the country’s free college tuition scheme.

“We have several mindsets that hold our economy back. We think an office job is al-

ways the best kind of job. We think that a college diploma, regardless of skill set, will save us. There are high-value industries—most notably high-tech manufacturing, logistics, construction, and the BPO sector—that will hire you not for your degree, but for your skills,” Salceda said.

“These industries are here now, but they are struggling to find people with the skill set needed to get the job done, all while we have a persistent underemployment problem. Clearly, we need to bridge the skills gap, to develop both business and labor. This proposal is a win-win for all,” Salceda stated.

The bill proposed the creation of a Skills Development Account, which all Filipinos above 15 years of age will be entitled to. Annually, SDA holders will have 200 hours of free training that they can use to upskill, or reskill.

There will also be support services for SDA holders who are displaced workers, or who are formerly incarcerated persons seeking reentry into the labor force.

These support services include a living allowance during the training program, a childcare allowance when applicable, transportation allowance, training materials allowance, and career counseling services.

SDA holders will be entered into a national skills database which will help Tesda match skilled workers with labor demand.

The trainings will be formulated based on labor market demand, as reflected in the annual skills demand reports at the regional and national level. The database will also be used for formulating national industry and labor policy, and programs to create higher-paying skilled jobs in the economy.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

DOLE eyes employment for 700K displaced informal sector workers under Bayanihan 2

By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

T

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is targeting to provide emergency employment to a new batch of 700,000 displaced informal sector workers under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2.

In an online briefing on Thursday, Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC) Director Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla said the figures represent the estimated number of beneficiaries if they will be given a P5-billion funding for their Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/ Displaced Worker (TUPAD).

DOLE is still finalizing the distribution of its P13-billion funding under the Bayanihan 2 under its three programs to help workers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aside from TUPAD, the funds will also be used for DOLE’s Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for workers in the formal sector and Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Extended duration

TUPAD is a program of DOLE, which provides at least 10 days of temporary emergency employment, to its beneficiaries that

includes displaced workers and other members of the marginalized sector.

The workers are then tapped to help in social community projects, such as sanitizing, or repairing public facilities in exchange for a minimum wage.

They are also given basic orientation on occupational safety and health, micro insurance, as well as personal protective equipment and other necessary equipment for their tasks.

For the purpose of the Bayanihan 2, Trayvilla said, they will be extending the duration of the program to 15 days.

Project coordinators

BECAUSE of the expected larger scale of their TUPAD program under Bayanihan 2, Trayvilla said they will also be hiring additional project coordinators to serve as their liaison with local government units.

She said the coordinators will also be tasked with the profiling and monitoring of TUPAD beneficiaries, as well as the liquidation of TUPAD funds.

Currently, the labor official said, DOLE was already able to cover 604,901 beneficiaries for its TUPAD implementation this year, of which, 423,511 were employed to disinfect their own homes in areas under community quarantine.

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

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, September 18, 2020

A5

South Africa says 12 million ‘probably’ had coronavirus C

APE TOWN, South Africa—About 12 million people in South Africa have “probably” been infected with the coronavirus, but that startlingly high number has not caused a similarly high death rate and might indicate a widespread “level of immunity,” the country’s health minister says.

More than 20 percent of South Africa’s population of 58 million have had the virus at some point, Dr. Zweli Mkhize estimated this week. He cited studies that found the presence of coronavirus antibodies in blood samples taken

from parts of the population. The findings have prompted the government to launch a national study, he said.

“South Africa has seen the surge receding, and thus raises the question of the level of immunit y that may already be existing in society,” he said.

Other studies have indicated that up to 40 percent of the population might be immune to the virus, Mkhize said. Some South African experts suggest that Africa’s most developed economy may be approaching herd immunity,

but scientists believe at least 70 percent to 80 percent of a population needs to be immune before there’s any effect. And with Covid-19 it’s unclear how long that immunity might last.

Wi t h co n f i rm e d v i ru s ca s e s d ro p p i n g significantly, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday evening announced that South Africa’s borders will reopen as of October 1, with visitors required to show negative coronavirus test results not longer than 72 hours before departure. Visitors will not be permitted from countries deemed at high risk, Ramaphosa said, not naming names.

Ramaphosa also announced further relaxed restrictions on public gatherings, to a maximum of 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors.

The president warned that the second wave of the pandemic in some countries has been worse than the first. “A second wave would be devastating to our country,” he said.

South Africa’s number of confirmed virus cases have dropped in recent weeks after a peak in late July that saw the country recording up to 15,000 cases daily, and raised fears that health services in some major cities might collapse. Official figures

showed just 772 new cases on Tuesday.

South Africa is also seeing declines in hospital admissions, people in intensive care units and deaths attributed to Covid-19, health minister Mkhize said. “ Co n s i s t e n c y a c ro s s t h e s e i n d i c a t o r s reassures us that, indeed, we are in the midst of a trough in the pandemic,” he said.

South Africa has just over 650,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to the government’s latest official count, the eighth-highest caseload in the world. At its peak, South Africa was the

fifth most affected country, behind the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, which all have much larger populations.

Experts have tried for months to figure out why South Africa’s official death rate from Covid-19 is low—15,641 people have died, according to government figures. There were fears at the start of the pandemic that poverty, crowded living conditions, restricted access to clean water and the high prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV would put South Africa, and Africa at large, in danger of millions of deaths. AP

A6

Friday, September 18, 2020 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Madness and character

T

here are two quotes that are particularly applicable to 2020 and all that has happened. The first is from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He died in 1900 and has had an amazing impact on late 20th and early 21st century thinking. At age 44, he suffered a complete loss of his mental faculties. That is probably appropriate since the quantity of his intellectual output was immense.

He wrote a book in 1886 titled Beyond Good and Evil and said this: “Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.”

James Lane Allen was a 19th century American novelist who wrote, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” “Adversity” is usually misquoted as “crisis” as Allen was speaking of the life experiences of an individual character in one of his books, but the point remains.

We are living through a period when both “madness” and true character are being revealed every day.

It is horrible to think this and even worse to say it, but the nations that have had the largest problem with the pandemic are also those where the political opposition has been more strident before and during the outbreak. There is no “proof,” of course, but it seems that certain groups are cheering for the virus in hopes of damaging the “current administrations.”

Included in the list of “Covid losers” are Brazil, Chile, and Peru in South America. All are considered pandemic hot spots and all were racked with large political opposition and protests last year. “August 24, 2019—Brazilian protesters rail against Bolsonaro as Amazon fires rage on.” “October 30, 2019: Chile’s worst unrest in decades.” “October 1, 2019: Protests in Peru as country is thrown into political uncertainty.”

Others like the United Kingdom and the United States have not been much “united” for some time. When President Donald J. Trump restricted travel from China, this was how presidential candidate Joe Biden reacted. “One day after the travel restrictions were put into place, Biden said in Iowa, “We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus…. This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia—hysterical xenophobia—and fear-mongering to lead the way instead of science.”

The UK’s Boris Johnson has been under constant attack for his government’s response to the pandemic, but this probably has as much to do with the Brexit issue as Covid. But there is little question that the political opposition used any Covid response policy failures to their benefit.

Of course, government health-care policies that were in place prior to the pandemic were a large factor in determining success or failure.

Thailand had some 20,000 Chinese tourists from the Wuhan area in the country in January. And Thailand is a huge success story. But it is also without question that its health monitoring and provincial care system were huge factors. But that system worked because Thailand had 1 million volunteers to implement that policy. Note the word “Volunteers.”

There is the active concept of “Thainess.” Thai oligarchs are viewed very unfavorably. The wealth gap between Thailand’s richest and poorest remains the widest in the entire world by some measures. Yet there is a strong belief that what is good for one average citizen is good for all.

Thais work for that idea. Adversity reveals a nation’s character.

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Bridging the digital skills divide Sonny M. Angara

Better Days

O

ur understanding of the digital world defines how we access it. The less we understand how it works and what’s possible within it, the fewer the chances there are to reap its benefits in full. Fast Internet connections and low-cost smartphones mean nothing if we cannot partake of the economic possibilities the online world offers. That’s a dimension of the “digital divide” that isn’t discussed as much—the digital skills gap.

Fortunately, some people have already shown us the way. Gian Javelona is a computer engineer from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines; he created an app that helped students register, pay tuition, and keep track of classes. He co-founded OrangeApps and was in the 2017 Forbes 30 under 30 list for Asia.

Martin Xavier Penaflor is the founder of the Tangere, a market research company. Their major advantage is that they use app-based surveys for business intelligence and analytics services that both big and small businesses can afford.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairperson for the Senate Committee on Labor, has also talked about others who have recognized opportunities in the digital world. Tor Sagud was a pioneer trainee in 2D Digital Animation at the Cordillera School of Digital Arts. He is now a concept artist, illustrator, and animator for

local and international studios. He has also published “—An Illustrated Guide,” and has started his own studio. He is also a perfect example of the “Tatak Pinoy” ideal, as he is now focusing on creating original Filipino artwork and is involved in trying to revive the Philippine comic book industry.

Gian, Martin, and Tor addressed the digital opportunities they saw.

But not everyone is as well versed in technology as they are. Indeed, if you’re not tech-savvy, you will be left behind.

We are not the only country to have serious concerns about going digital. The 2019 Essential Digital Skills Framework report of the UK’s Department of Education identified that up to 11.3 million people—21 percent of the adults in their country—did not have full basic digital skills, with up 4.3 million not knowing how to use a smartphone or access

an e-mail account. Coursera’s 2019 Global Skills Index echoed this issue, estimating that up to two-thirds of the global population is behind in terms of critical tech skills—and in developing economies, it can be as high as 90 percent.

Even with these gloomy global figures, however, we should recognize our growing online work force: our freelancers. According to Paypal’s 2018 Global Freelancer Insight Report, our country has one of the highest number of freelancers per capita, with roughly 2 million Filipinos engaged in freelance work. Even more encouraging is the fact that Payoneer’s 2020 Gig Economy Index stated that the Philippines was the fastest-growing freelancing country in the world. We are ahead of India, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, and Mexico in this regard.

These developments are the reasons why Senator Villanueva, myself, and several of our colleagues recently co-authored and co-sponsored the Philippine Digital Workforce Competitiveness Act (SB 1834), which took into consideration another bill I authored—the National Digital Careers Act (SB 1469).

This Act will ensure that all Filipino workers will have access to trainings on digital skills and competencies that are of a global standard.

This, in turn, will encourage innovations and entrepreneurship.

Protection and support for the digital work force will be made available. Steps will also be taken to ensure that PWDs, senior citizens, indigenous peoples, and those located

in isolated or disadvantaged areas are able to access the opportunities in the digital world.

Furthermore, an Inter-Agency Council for Development and Competitiveness of the Digital Workforce will be established, involving various government agencies and chaired by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda). This council will be the primary government entity for planning, coordinating, and implementing programs that will enhance the country’s digital work force.

Local government units (LGUs) will take charge of creating local policies that will support and promote the development of digital technology, careers, and innovations in their respective communities. Public-private partnerships will also be developed for training, skills development, and certification programs. Finally, digital libraries, learning hubs, and co-working or shared service facilities will also be set up as part of the support ecosystem of the digital work force.

The Next Normal is already here.

Developing and implementing a national strategy to make our digital work force globally competitive should now be an integral part of our country’s economic future.

Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 16 years—nine years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and seven as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.

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

Federal judges are souring on lockdown orders

By Noah Feldman | Bloomberg Opinion

A

Trump-appointed federal district court judge in Western Pennsylvania has issued a ruling declaring Pennsylvania’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions unconstitutional. It gives an unfortunate boost to Donald Trump’s efforts to depict Covid-19 safety measures as overblown, but it could well be reversed on appeal—after all, most of the restrictions the judge struck down are currently suspended.

Nevertheless, it is worth emphasizing that the court’s judgment isn’t completely unexpected at this stage in the pandemic. As the immediacy of the emergency waxes and wanes in different places, there is reason to expect that courts in zones with relatively low numbers of Covid-19 cases will start holding that more aggressive restrictions are situationally inappropriate. It’s therefore sensible for states to calibrate their emergency responses carefully, and provide concrete justifications for emergency policies as soon as it is practicable to do so.

The Pennsylvania restrictions struck down by the court are similar to those adopted in many states around the country earlier this year. One, dating back to July, restricted indoor gatherings in the state to 25 people and

outdoor gatherings to 250. A second directed citizens to stay at home except for a range of basic activities. (There is some debate about whether this was an order or merely an advisory.) The third divided businesses into the categories of “life-sustaining” and “non-life-sustaining,” closing the latter.

A cautious judge would have avoided ruling on the constitutionality of the stay-at-home and business orders, because they are now suspended everywhere in Pennsylvania. Instead, the judge, William Stickman IV, who has been on the job for just over a year, chose to issue a decision based on the theory that the governor and public health officials could reinstate the suspended orders at any moment. Thus, he reasoned, the orders are therefore still in force.

That argument isn’t great—nor is it

entirely preposterous. When civil liberties are in play, it’s good for courts to be vigilant. Yet judges are always well-advised to avoid making hard constitutional decisions when it isn’t warranted. One relatively easy way for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to reverse much of the decision would be to hold that the district court shouldn’t have considered the constitutionality of orders that were not being applied to citizens at the moment of judgment.

Stickman spent a good portion of his ruling discussing the appropriate standard of review – the kind of technical legal issue that bores non-lawyers to death but that can matter a lot for how cases are decided.

The quality of his analysis was mixed.

On the one hand, Stickman was correct to say that he would not apply a 1905 precedent, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the case that says the government can require vaccination in a pandemic. It’s still good law, having never been struck down by the Supreme Court. But the case was decided before the era of modern civil liberties law, and the deference that the court gave to the government’s policy needs to be updated to fit contemporary constitutional doctrine.

On the other hand, in applying what is known as “intermediate scrutiny,” the judge seemed to demand that the government policies be much more narrowly tailored to fit the emergency than that standard ordinarily requires. He did so by treating all the state restrictions as trampling on fundamental rights to free assembly, due process and equal protection.

Then he insisted that the restrictions didn’t adequately fit the government’s goal of curtailing the pandemic. In essence, Stickman second-guessed the Pennsylvania restrictions.

For example, he observed that the regulations allow for large numbers of people together in malls based on occupancy restrictions. This, the judge said, was in contradiction to the 250-person gathering limit. Yet it is common for government regulation to try to achieve an important policy goal without perfectly accommodating every situation—especially when the regulation is trying to preserve public safety while also allowing some modicum of a functioning economy.

Stickman also said that it was unconstitutional for the same restrictions to apply across Pennsylvania, in both

See “Feldman,” A7

Opinion

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, September 18, 2020

A7

Amal Clooney: The world’s Dispatch from Bicol: The canceled feast Most Fascinating Person Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Manny F. Dooc

TELLTALES

I

was intrigued when I received my invitation to join the 18th MAP International CEO Web Conference 2020 the other week.

The theme of the conference sounded interesting enough, “A Whole New World: Reigniting the Stalled Global Economy,” but I was more allured by the name of one of the featured speakers in the top-caliber forum. Her name: Amal Alamuddin Clooney, who was chosen by top anchorperson, Barbara Walters, some years back as the “Most Fascinating Person.” Aside from being the wife of famous movieland’s heartthrob, George Clooney, Amal is a barrister par excellence and an uncompromising human-rights advocate and staunched media freedom activist.

Amal was born in Beirut during the civil war in Lebanon but her mother, Baria Alamuddin, gave birth to her during a lull in the fighting.

Hoping that peace would eventually descend on his ravaged land, her father, Ramzi Alamuddin, named her Amal—the Arabic term for “hope.”

She is a mother to fraternal twins, Ella and Alexander. The Clooneys are currently nestled in an elegant house, set on a tiny island in the Thames River called Sonning Eye. The newly married couple bought the place soon after they got married for 10 million euros. It was a lavish honeymoon present which is fast becoming a tourist attraction in Berkshire although parts of the property, including the tennis court and majority of the lawns, were submerged during the epic flood this year.

She studied in Oxford where she earned her Bachelor of Law degree where she received academic awards for academic excellence. She pursued her legal studies in the US where she completed her Master of Law at the New York University School of Law. She was awarded the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for excellence in entertainment law. Later, she captured the most coveted award in entertainment—the heart of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor, George Clooney, to whom she has been happily married since September 27, 2014.

She did an internship with Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Sotomayor was later on appointed by President Barack Obama as the 3rd US female Supreme Court Justice after Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and the iconic justice, Jane Bader Ginsburg. Amal formally started work as a lawyer at the top law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, doing sensational cases like Enron. But her heart was more on the pro bono criminal cases which she handled on the side until she realized and asked herself: “I cared more about the outcome of those cases (pro bono) than my paid cases… Why am I not doing more of that kind of work?” So she left her high-paying job and worked at the International Court of Justice at the UN in the Hague where she was getting a meager stipend of $20,000 per annum.

Amal was already a renowned and high achieving international barrister when she met George Cooney in 2013. A year after their marriage, the couple attended the 2015 Golden Globes Award hosted by Tina Fey who acknowledged the power couple: “Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria,

Feldman. . .

continued from A6

densely settled cities and rural counties. This can’t be right as a matter of constitutional law; if the regulations apply differently in different places, opponents would have argued that they were unconstitutional for that reason.

There are plenty more legal problems with the ruling. It is not at all clear that there is a fundamental constitutional right to keep businesses open, for instance. The judge came dangerously close to reviving the long-discredited

and was selected for a 3-person U.N. Commission. So tonight her husband is getting a lifetime-achievement award.”

Amal champions the women’s cause. As a mother of a young daughter, she appreciates the work of the #MeTooMovement. She has nothing but praise for the courageous women who have come forward and told their stories. Amal expressed the hope that “the future workplace will be safer for my daughter than it was for people of my generation.” Now, a lot of her work deals with abuses and discrimination against women and violation of press freedom. Among her prominent cases include our very own Maria Ressa, Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative reporter who denounced the corruption of the Azerbaijan’s President, and Mohamed Fahmy, Egypt’s bureau chief of Al Jazeera, who was arrested by the Egyptian authorities. Both Ismayilova and Fahmy were released from prisons through Amal’s intervention. She also represented Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad and former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and at some point, Julian Assange, in his extradition case.

In her talk at the MAP Conference, Amal emphasized that “what we must remember is that a clampdown on critics—a silencing of dissent—is not a sign of strength but the ultimate sign of weakness. It is a sign that you cannot win in the ‘marketplace of ideas.’” Talking about the Maria Ressa decision, she said that the subliminal message is: “Be quiet or you will be next.”

She stressed that she is not neutral when she hears courageous voices speak up for what is right, and that she will do what she can to amplify them.

In recognition of her valuable work, Prince Charles launched the Amal Clooney Award to give honor to incredible young women of the world. In the same year, Amal was named the special envoy on media freedom by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

In a lengthy Vogue interview, she has high hopes that the system of global justice will emerge and eventually rule the world.

She dreams that free speech will be less imperiled and that the government won’t be able to get away easily when it assaults press freedom. And she boldly declared that it is only when the guilty of the world are dragged into the light of judicial process that women and journalists will be able to live in safety. What a truly remarkable and fascinating woman! doctrine that there exists a right to do business under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The court of appeals will have a chance to correct this and other problematic formulations in the decision.

My main takeaway, however, is that while courts basically allowed states to impose whatever restrictions they deemed necessary during the early phases of the pandemic, at least some courts are going to shift gears now. In principle, that’s actually a good thing. We don’t want the necessary and appropriate emergency responses to the pandemic to erode our civil liberties.

N

ot in my lifetime, I told myself. Not in my lifetime that the biggest, most important festival in the Bikol region would be canceled. When acquaintances asked some weeks back if it was possible for them to travel to Naga so they could attend the Peñafrancia fiesta, I had to tell them to wait. A day after those inquiries came flooding in, I had an initial update: travelling to Bikol will not be easy.

At the border of Quezon province and Camarines Sur, there are border guards. They make sure you have papers from where you came from. If the papers are not in order, you are sent back. There are groups that for some reason make it to the boundary between Milaor, the town before the bridge that crosses the Bikol River and then to the city of Naga, and are subjected to quarantine procedures.

Reading these reports is unreal until it happened to members of our household. My sister-in-law was travelling with my niece, her husband and their small son, to Daet, Camarines Norte. They left the city of Naga early in the morning but were back after lunch because at the boundary between Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte, a checkpoint was already set up.

It was, as they narrated, surreal to be in that area and not be allowed to travel through. Not in their lifetime.

Not in anyone’s lifetime.

Boundaries materializing and the consciousness that one is not free to travel anymore are life-altering phenomena.

Still, nothing disturbs the Bikolanos more than the fact Marian devotion reputedly to be the only regional devotion—in that the entire region celebrates it—and the celebratory aspect of the same have been canceled. There are two ways of looking at this cancellation: one sector believes only the fiesta is affected by

this decision, and that the devotion goes on. Another group looks at the devotion as a product of local histories and cultures; change the process and the whole event is altered.

The devotees know the scenario.

There are two major events in the Peñafrancia. One is the Traslacion, which is the transfer of the icon or the “Ina” (Mother) from her shrine by the river by way of a land procession. The present-day Shrine bears the honorific title of a Basilica Minore, and is readily known for its physical size as well as its capacity to bestow graces. From that site, the Virgin is borne by male devotees known as voyadores (literally “voyagers” but also understood as “bearers”), until they reach the Metropolitan Cathedral.

The distance between the Shrine and the Cathedral is minimal. The whole process of moving the icon could take less than an hour. But the Traslacion is noted for its chaos rather than order as male devotees scramble to touch the hem of the manto or veil, which serves as a cape, of the Virgin. Women are not allowed to be in the immediate circle of the voyadores.

After nine days, the Virgin returns by way of the Naga River, a polluted body of water that appears cleaner, as it is deeper, on the day of the fluvial procession because of the rains. Usually, on the two or one day before the river procession, the city

ARISE, not CREATE! Joseph Anthony Lim

EAGLE WATCH

B

ayanihan to Recover as One Act, Part 2 (Bayanihan 2) was signed by the President on September 11, 2020. Many businessmen, non-government organizations and progressive legislators find the allotted P165.5 billion of the law too trifle and small in comparison to the earlier act passed by the Lower House (but not yet a law) called Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE).

ARISE—sponsored by Rep. Stella Quimbo and Rep. Joey Salceda. ARISE allotted P1.3 trillion for (a three-year) fiscal stimulus including a large amount of much-needed infrastructure building (over and beyond “Build, Build, Build”) employing the many unemployed.

The fact that the Covid situation will last at least one more year and will most likely take two years or more, had sacrificed the long-term and forwardlooking economic view over short and medium-term concerns. Bayanihan 2 had reduced the potential multiplier effects of infrastructure investments especially outside National Capital Region and nearby provinces. The current Bayanihan 2 Act is more focused on NCR and nearby provinces—the biggest hotspots of Covid infections—except for the P24 billion allotted for agriculture and the funds for overseas Filipino workers living in other regions. Fiscal Stimulus in Bayanihan 2 has been turned into more of a Social Amelioration Program for those hard-hit by the Covid pandemic. Of course, SAP itself is also a fiscal stimulus, but does not include the construction of very needed infrastructure we really need in the post-Covid economy. These include, aside from better health care and hospital systems, not only in Metro Manila but in the provinces, better land, rail and water transportation systems linking provinces and cities, and a bigger

capacity and use of clean energy.

When the Lower House passed ARISE in June, there was a lot of optimism from the business sector that a strong fiscal stimulus would be finally enacted to revive a collapsing economy. The elements of the act included, over three years: n P650 billion infrastructure (beyond “Build, Build, Build”)—using the many unemployed as workers. n P150 billion—economic relief for MSMEs. n P110 billion—wage subsidies. n P70 billion—assistance to transportation industry. n P66 billion—assistance to agrifishery sector. n P58 billion—assistance to tourism industry. n P50 billion—loans for agrarian reform beneficiaries. n P44 billion—assistance to industry and services sectors. n P42 billion—subsidy for students. n P25 billion—assistance to displaced, vocational workers. n P15 billion—P10 billion Covid19, P5 billion Tesda.

All of these had been heavily slashed in Bayanihan 2, leaving the Philippines with one of the smallest fiscal stimulus among the countries in the world.

The economic managers, Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and National Economic and

its boon—or magic—with the rest of the population.

Shrines or those sites of what devotees believe to be the source of power are material and physical locations. They are not neither here nor there but a somewhere, a fixed origin from which mana, the life force energy, as the Pacific islanders call it, emanate and to which the fervent love and worship return.

What would have happened—as people quietly proposed—if the procession was conducted? Would the devotees observe spacing? Would no rope separating the Mother from Her children be respected? The tactility inherent in this September commemoration—would it be subverted or substituted by a longing gaze from afar?

As it is, there will be no updated photos of the awesome and the magnificently Instagrammable shots of the Virgin, her silver globe-carrosa so made to prevent ardent—and usually drunk—faithful to climb on it, as the globe carrying the image tossing wildly on a sea of men. There will be no barge majestic at twilight, the candles and torches blazing around, boisterously and unashamedly proclaiming the ardent faith.

There will be only memories and sadness, like the thoughts in this column and a writer making sense of an absence.

would be visited by strong rains. The old people would say “pinapano an salog” (the river is being filled up).

All this would not happen this year.

Last Friday, the second Friday of the month of September, the city was quiet. No buntings from softdrink and liquor companies adorned the streets of the city. No booths selling souvenirs were seen in the city’s two main parks, one to commemorate the region and its 15 Martyrs rising against the Spanish colonization and the other to celebrate the national hero.

There were announcements on the live-streaming of the novenas.

Some rejoice at the idea that the celebration, which is really about praying, has regained its original, true, spiritual form. But there are those who, even as they affirm the novenas, insist it is not the same ritual at all.

From this discourse arises the persistent notion that, while the institutional Church may run officially the devotion and the feasting that goes with it, the whole celebration is really a people’s entitlement to a faith they are making a sense of.

Protocols done in the name of health are enforced. Please stay in your parishes. Please do not come to Naga.

People will then be missing the journey of Ina not so much as a metaphor but as the gritty and earthbound indicator of a Shrine sharing

Development Authority (Neda) Director General Karl Chua said that there are just not enough revenues to back up the P1.3 trillion three-year program of ARISE. They instead said that they just can afford P300 billion (including “Build, Build, Build” projects) or P165 billion without the Build, Build, Build projects.

This is coincidentally the total amount allotted to the Bayanihan 2 Act. They said this would result in a fiscal deficit, which would already reach 9 percent of gross dometic product. Beyond this, we will weaken our “macroeconomic fundamentals” and the international credit agencies may downgrade us.

Instead they recommended a fiscal stimulus of P300 billion (mentioned in previous paragraph), and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) lending of P200 billion (total for the whole year) via LandBank with guarantee from PhilGuarantee.

But their most important recommendation is a tax-cut stimulus called CREATE—which they wanted to substitute for ARISE. CREATE is Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act. Its elements are: n Corporate Income Tax Cut—from 30 percent to 25 percent starting this year to 2022, 1 percent reduction from 2023 to 2027 to reach 20 percent in 2017 (controversial)—target saving MSMEs. n Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) will give fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to what government sees are priority and beneficial industries. n NOLCO increased to five years— Net operating loss carryover where losses by companies this year can be used as tax deduction for the next five years, instead of the currently allowed three years by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The first two items above were part of TRAIN 2, the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion part 2 plan of the Duterte administration before the pandemic. The second item was supposed to include the stoppage of income tax holidays and other tax incentives for firms that have enjoyed it for the last decade or so. Many multinational corporations objected to this negative list, so it was removed in

CREATE and these fiscal incentives are allowed a stay of another nine more years.

The best part of CREATE is the increase of NOLCO from three years to five years. NOLCO is net operating loss cover, allowing tax deductions of corporate income losses for this year to continue up to three years. This is part of the regulations of the BIR. Given the extent of income losses across the firms in the entire economy because of the worldwide calamity of Covid and lockdowns, the CREATE bill extends it from three years to five years. This is but fair.

But the most objectionable part of CREATE is its main focus, which is the cut in the corporate income tax.

The reasons for my objections are: a) it is more reasonable to stimulate the economy by fiscal spending and employment of the unemployed. Tax cuts will just be saved instead of either spent or invested if firms and households believe that the pandemic will last a long time (which it most likely will) and the Covid cases do not decrease, and firms’ employees are being infected, b) Tax cuts will mean more revenue losses which is really needed to finance spending in health, SAP, infrastructure building and employing the unemployed, c) Most companies will have reduced and negative incomes this year, and very likely the next year, so tax cuts in the early years will not benefit them and will not lead to a stimulus, and d) Despite having the highest nominal corporate income tax in Asean, the actual collected income tax collection (using the effective tax rate) is actually much lower. (We have a lower tax revenue capacity than Vietnam and Cambodia—both poorer than us). This is due to under-declaration of receipts and over-declaration of expenses, and abuse of exemptions, oftentimes with the connivance of BIR officials. This certainly must be corrected in CREATE, simultaneous with the cut in the nominal tax rate, but it IS NOT. So it is: ARISE (plus 5-year NOLCO), not CREATE! Add another stimulus bill to Bayanihan 2 using the ARISE bill.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

A8 Friday, September 18, 2020

DOT only has ₧1.4B to promote PHL as pandemic guts tourism

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) will allocate some P1.44 billion in its budget next year to promote the Philippines and its many key destinations to foreign and domestic travelers.

In the House Committee on Appropriations hearing for the DOT ’s proposed P3.52-billion budget, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said a large chunk of the promotions budget, at P915 million, will be aimed at domestic tourists, who she described as “the backbone of our tourism industry.”

International marketing promotions will be allocated P360 million, while country brand development will get P170 million. “We need to continue promoting internationally to keep the country top of mind among our markets so they don’t forget us,” she explained to lawmakers who asked why the agency had

such a budget for foreign tourists amid projections of the slow recovery of international travel. The rest of DOT’s budget, at P23.58 million, is allocated for support to its operations.

Several lawmakers led by Rep. Mark Go and Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, however, advocated an increase in DOT’s budget to its originally proposed P4.43 billion before the Department of Budget and Management capped it, in recognition of the large contribution of the tourism industry to economic growth. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the tourism sector accounted for 12.7 percent of the country’s

gross domestic product in 2019. It also employed 5.7 million, 4.8 million of whom, said the DOT, have already been affected by Covid-19 in terms of closures, loss of work or reduced income.

DOT-attached agencies such as the Intramuros Administration also proposed a budget of P90 million, and the National Parks Development Committee, P230 million. (See, “DOT to revise plan as Covid-19 upends targets,” in the BusinessMirror, August 31, 2020.) “[Our 2021 budget] is P96.3 million lower [than this year’s budget].

We hope we would still be able to provide what is needed given the pandemic. We will make do what we have,” said Romulo Puyat.

The Philippines’s budget for tourism promotions pales in comparison to its neighbors. Malaysia, for instance, allocated $270 million alone for its Visit Malaysia 2020 program, prior to the pandemic; Thailand’s tourism stimulus package this year is $718 million; and Indonesia has a $965-million budget for its tourism revival program in 2021.

In her presentation, the DOT chief said the strategic tourism thrust for 2021 will be the craft-

ing of timely policies for a safe and fun tourism; creating standards and protocols in line with global best practices; development of and enforcement of tourism standards and regulations; inclusive and participatory policy formulation with stakeholders, alignment of Tourism Response and Recovery Plan with the updated National Tourism Development Plan—all of which cost an estimated P376.88 million.

Among its key strategies in boosting domestic tourism is the development and marketing of regional circuits all over the country grouped into: North Luzon Circuit (Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Cordillera Administrative Region); Southern Luzon (Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol); Visayas (Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Samar, Cebu and Bohol, Negros Island, Aklan, Iloilo); and Mindanao (Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Socsksargen and Caraga). “ T he DOT w i l l rea l ig n its branding campaign to support domestic tourism as domestic tourism suffered unprecedented impact of the [Covid-19] pandemic,” said Romulo Puyat.

“The pandemic has hampered if not halted many of our activities

and projects, which were scheduled from March to May—a period which we considered as peak season for tourism,” she added.

Even as the DOT has been persistently trying to reopen many tourism destinations, a number of local government chiefs are hesitant to do so, fearing a potential outbreak. For now, test cases that will be reopening are Baguio and the Ilocos region; Boracay, which has reopened to Western Visayas tourists; El Nido; and Bohol, which will be hosting an international travel fair.

“We are trying to help local destinations to reopen. We have been giving them online digital platform [to monitor tourists]. But they are asking for Covid-19 testing centers.

They said they will reopen if they have labs,” she said. The DOT has already submitted a proposal to the Department of Health to establish Covid testing labs in key destinations in the country.

International tourists arrivals from January to August 2020 fell by 76 percent to some 1.32 million.

(See, “Arrivals down 76 percent, but travel fair nets buyers,” in the BusinessMirror, September 17, 2020.)

With Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

DENR PROBES MANILA BAY FISH KILL: NATURAL CAUSES, CYANIDE, OR SABOTAGE?

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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@jonlmayuga

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is investigating the reported fish kill in Manila Bay. This, after assorted fish species were spotted floating near the Baseco Compound, some 5.1 kilometers away from the Baywalk area, the site of the controversial P389-million Manila Bay Beach Nourishment Project.

“We are not discounting the possibility that the fish kill was caused by natural causes or possibly cyanide fishing near the area. But we are also not discounting the possibility that it is an act of sabotage to discredit our initiatives in Manila Bay,” Undersecretary Benny Antiporda said.

The DENR’s undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns said almost the same time last year, on October 10, a fish

kill in Manila Bay was reported.

This was attributed by experts to the drastic decrease in dissolved oxygen level in Manila Bay. The official dismissed the insinuation by critics of the project that the dumped crushed dolomite may be the reason for the fish kill.

“There are insinuations that the dolomite is to blame. How could that be when the project site is some 5 kilometers away from the fish kill?” he said.

Antiporda, who conducted an inspection on the site, said water samples from the area were already obtained and laboratory tests are being done.

He said he spotted tilapia floating near Baseco Beach.

“We are not discounting the possibility that this is an act of sabotage. I really wish it was not,” he said.

Antiporda said on September 19, the DENR will lead the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day Celebration in the “Boracaylike” Beach in Manila Bay.

Fund-starved AMLC will postpone AI initiatives

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

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ACING a 35-percent budget cut, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said it will not be able to push through with its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives next year.

AMLC Executive Director Mel Georgie B. Racela said in a Senate hearing on Thursday that the agency was gearing toward investing in artificial intelligence next year to improve the analysis of suspicious transactions.

“We intend to delve into artificial intelligence in 2021 because what we currently do is manual analysis of suspicious transaction reports,” he said. “This takes a lot of time for the analysts to do.”

With this in mind, AMLC proposed a P71-million budget for its smart money laundering and terrorist financing detection project in 2021.

However, Racela lamented that only P305,000 was approved, which is less than 1 percent of the proposal.

“So basically, they are shutting down that project,” he said.

The budget for the majority of AMLC’s proposed projects and spending next year were either reduced or denied, according to Racela’s presentation, after the agency received only P85.15 million for 2021. This is 35 percent lower than its 2020 budget of P130.97 million.

Compared to its original proposal, the approved amount is down by around 62 percent from P226.84 million.

Among the items that faced significant budget cuts as well are capacity building program; and assessment and operational planning, council and staff meetings.

The former was cut by P20.13 billion to only P600,000 while the latter was reduced by P10.57 million to P900,000.

Meanwhile, the AMLC’s proposed budget for acquiring additional technology and software seen to beef up the cybersecurity of its database was denied.

According to the council’s list, these are the items under data and electrical structured cabling, firewall technology update project and information technology helpdesk tool upgrade. These amount to a total of P6.81 million.

Racela, however, clarified that the 2021 budget cut will not affect the ongoing programs. “There will be no effect in regard to our current 2020 program by the reason of the reduction,” he said.

2021 budget breakdown

Bulk of the approved 2021 budget—or around 80 percent, amounting to P68.26 million—is allocated to maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).

This is markedly lower compared to this year’s budget of P102.02 million. The original proposal for 2021 submitted by AMLC was P127 million.

Travel expenses top the MOOE list, which amounts to P5.14 million. This is followed tby training and scholarship expenses of P1.31 million.

Other expenses include utility expenses, communication expenses, professional services and repairs and maintenance.

The remaining P16.89 million of the 2021 budget, meanwhile, is earmarked for capital outlay. AMLC asked for P99.83 million earlier for the same item. This year’s budget for the capital outlay was set at P28.94 million.

Mindanao gets big share of DPWH ’21 outlays

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

M

@joveemarie

INDANAO will receive a huge allocation for capital outlays allotted to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in 2021.

At the budget briefing of his agency before the House of Representatives on Thursday, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said DPWH has been granted a total of P667.3 billion budget in 2021.

The 2021 DPWH’s budget is 15 percent higher than its 2020 allocation of P581.6 billion.

Of the 2021 allocation, P9.1 billion will go to personnel services; P14.1 billion for maintenance and

other operating expenses; P634 billion for capital outlay (CO) and P850 million as automatic appropriations, which include retirement and life insurance premium and the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC).

Meanwhile, based on the presentation of the DPWH, Mindanao will receive P180.6 billion as capital outlays and these include P25.15 billion for Region 13; P47.48 billion for Region 10; P27.29 billion for Region 9; P56.33 billion for Region 11 and P24.42 billion for Region 12.

Receiving the second highest CO allocation is Southern Luzon, for a total of P120.7 billion. Of this budget, P55.98 billion is alloted for

Region 4A; P21.50 billion for Region 4B and P43.27 billion for Region 5.

For 2021, Northen Luzon will receive a total of P110 billion or P17.65 billion for Cordillera Administrative Region; P24.59 billion for Region 1; P20.24 billion for Region 2 and P47.68 billion for Region 3.

The Visayas will receive a total of P87.84 billion and the National Capital Region, P51.54 billion.

Moreover, the DPWH has also allotted P179.4 billion next year to ensure a safe and reliable national road system and P84.3 billion to protect lives and properties against major floods. These two operations are also included as CO. Continued on A2

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sy siblings, Villar top Forbes PHL richest list for this year

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By VG Cabuag

@villygc

he Sy siblings of the SM group and former politician, Manuel B. Villar Jr., are still the wealthiest Filipinos in 2020, according to the Forbes list of the richest people in the Philippines.

However, many of those included

by Forbes in the list of top 50 richest Filipinos saw their earnings plummet due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Sy siblings, who took over the list after their father died early last year, remained at the top with a net worth of $13.9 billion. The figure, however, is lower by $3.3 billion. The Sy family operates the chain of SM shopping malls in the Philippines and China and Banco de Oro, the country's biggest lender.

Villar was at number two, but remained the country’s richest man individually, with a net worth of $5.5 billion, down by $1.6 billion from the previous year. Villar is mostly into property development, but he has recently expanded to retail.

Port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr. moves up to 3rd place, from 4th last year, with a fortune of $4.3 billion, also significantly lower from last year's $5.1 billion.

“The collective wealth of the Philippines’s 50 Richest dropped to $60.6 billion from $78 billion a year earlier,” Forbes said, adding that 32 in the list saw their net worth decline.

Lance Gokongwei and his siblings debuted on the list at number 4 with $4.1 billion, replacing their father John Gokongwei Jr., who died in November last year. Lance shares the fortune with his 5 sisters—Faith, Hope, Lisa, Marcia, and Robina.

The magazine said banking fortunes were also hit hard, with the Ty siblings of GT Capital and Metrobank

shedding 46 percent of their fortune to $1.4 billion, from last year's $2.6 billion. The net worth of Frederick Y. Dy of Security Bank Corp., was down by more than 46 percent to $190 million.

The Ty siblings were in 12th place, while Dy was at 37th.

Edgar Sia II, who was ranked 21st, was this year’s biggest gainer. His net worth expanded by 75 percent, or $300 million, to $700 million.

“That rise was partly due to the successful IPO [initial public offering] of his Merry Mart in June; shares of the grocer have nearly doubled since the listing as quarantine measures boosted sales,” the magazine said.

Six names were dropped off the list, including Edgar Saavedra of Megawide Construction Corp.

However, Megawide co-founder Michael Cosiquien, who already left the company to set up his own property firm, stayed on the list as most of his wealth was tied to an earlier sale of the company’s shares.

The estate of San Miguel’s Eduardo Cojuangco, who died in June, was inherited by his wife, Soledad Oppen-Cojuangco, who came in at 16th. She shares the fortune with their 4 children—Carlos, Luisa,

Margarita and Mark.Mikel Aboitiz, Lourdes Montinola, Michael Romero and Luis Virata—all at the bottom of the Forbes list—returned in the rankings, but their comeback was largely due to this year’s lower cutoff, which fell 23 percent to $100 million.

Meanwhile, Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala remained at 5th with his net worth slightly down to $3.6 billion, from last year's $3.7 billion while businessman Andrew Tan moved up to 6th from last year's 10th with $2.3 billion, also down from last year's $2.55 billion.

Tycoon Lucio Tan was at 7th with $2.2 billion; Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp. was 8th at $2 billion; Tony Tan Caktiong of fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. was 9th at $1.9 billion; Lucio and Susan Co of grocery chain Puregold was 10th with $1.7 billion; and Mercedes Gotianun, matriarch of the siblings that operate Filinvest group, was at 11th with $1.5 billion.

Forbes said it compiled the list using information from the individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, private databases, government agencies and other sources. Their net worth was based on stock prices and exchange rates as of the close of markets on August 28.

@rectomercene

B

udget carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB) on Thursday appealed to affected passengers for patience over their refund, saying the company has revamped its procedures to speed up the processing of the pending refund requests that were filed last April.

“To date, we have refunded over P2.4 billion booking cancellations related to Covid-19, equivalent to 50 percent of refund requests received,” the carrier said in a statement, adding that it is committed to complete pending refunds, and will update passengers once these

have been processed.

Cebu Pacific is among the airlines worldwide hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the closures of borders and travel restrictions.

Last week, the International Air Transport Association said airlines are expected to lose $84.3 billion this year.

Aviation experts said air carriers around the world are facing extreme financial pressures and are cutting capacity at unparalleled rates in the absence of meaningful passenger demand.

“Some airlines have shut down completely, a portion of these may never return.”

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines

(PAL) is also reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic and is set to slash its work force by 2,000 personnel during the next round of job cuts.

In March, the flag carrier reduced its manpower by 300 employees, ranging from ground staff to executives.

With no end in sight to the pandemic, the airline expects travel demand to remain “extremely low.”

Cebu Pacific is no exception, saying that currently, “Cebu Pacific is only able to operate 10 percent of its pre-Covid network.”

The carrier said since the start of this pandemic it has received an unprecedented number of refund requests due to the flight cancellations

brought about by the lockdown.

Cebu Pacific said its original refund process “was not designed to handle this volume of requests, and this resulted in a backlog,” and had since then revamped its procedures to address this.

“We understand how challenging this whole situation is, and we sincerely apologize for the delay,” it said.

At present, Cebu Pacific said refunds may take up to 6 months to process from the time the request was filed.

“We thank our guests for their patience and understanding as we continue to enhance our processes for this to be resolved soonest.”

Foodpanda PSALM lowers Malaya plant bid price launches T in Japan

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elivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda is launching operations in Japan Thursday, expanding its Asian footprint to the world’s No. 3 economy.

The company will roll out its meal delivery services in six Japanese cities in a first phase, including Kobe, Yokohama and Nagoya, Jakob Angele, Foodpanda’s Asia Pacific chief executive officer, told Bloomberg TV’s Rishaad Salamat and Juliette Saly. The firm will initially invest €20 million ($23.5 million) in the effort, he added.

Foodpanda’s entry will escalate competition with existing players in the market including Demae-Can Co., Uber Eats, FineDine, Maishoku, Rakuten Delivery and Amazon Japan.

Japan’s food delivery market is at a nascent stage compared with more mature markets like Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to Angele. “Therefore, we do see a very large opportunity and a very clear path for Foodpanda to become the market leader in Japan,” he added.

Established in 2012, Foodpanda now operates in more than 300 cities across the Asia Pacific, delivering meals and groceries. Berlin-based parent Delivery Hero announced in December it would take control of South Korea’s biggest food delivery app, Woowa Brothers Corp., at a $4 billion valuation. Bloomberg News

he Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is selling the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (MTPP) and its underlying land for P2.188 billion, 51 percent lower than the state firm’s previous offer price.

The state firm said Thursday that the board has set the minimum bid price (MBP) for the privatization of the power facility at P2,188,400,000. PSALM took into account the book value of the asset, the zonal value of the land, the substantial losses incurred and continue to be incurred by PSALM in maintaining the plant, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on marketability, the electricity demand, and the need to have a justifiable price that would lead to a successful public bidding.

Third party consultant, the Isla Lipana & Co. Pricewaterhouse Cooper Global Network, assisted in this activity. The MBP in the last public bidding as well as in the negotiated sale stood at P4,481,796,017.

PSALM submitted last August 25 the MBP to the Commission on Audit for approval. It also forwarded supporting documents and the detailed explanation on how the PSALM Board arrived at the said price.

“There were many considerations that had to be looked into by the PSALM Board in setting the Minimum Bid Price, but foremost is the need to arrive at a fair and reasonable Minimum Bid Price that would actually lead to a higher probability of a successful privatization.

We need to privatize the Malaya Power Plant this year so that the proceeds of the sale can be used to settle maturing obligations this year and minimize PSALM’s borrowings, PSALM President and CEO Irene Besido Garcia said.

Deadline for submission of bids is set on September 23. All bids will be opened on the same day.

This is PSALM’s third attempt to privatize the Malaya asset. PSALM conducted two rounds of public bidding for the sale of said assets on September 18, 2019, and on November 22, 2019. However, both bidding exercises were declared a failure due to lack of interested bidders. Lenie Lectura

B1

SEC greenlights SMIC fixed-rate bond offer

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he Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved SM Investments Corp.’s (SMIC) P30-billion shelf registration of fixed-rate bonds, a third of which will be offered by the company immediately.

The SEC has approved the said shelf registration, which should be issued in tranches within three years, during its en banc meeting on September 15.

SMIC will initially offer some P10 billion of fixed-rate bonds, some P5 billion of which is its principal offer while the rest is for the oversubscription option.

Net proceeds from the offer at about P9.88 billion will refinance existing debt obligations of the company.

The first tranche will comprise 3.5-year Series H Bonds due in 2024 to be issued in minimum denominations of P20,000 and in multiples of P10,000.00 thereafter, and traded in denominations of P10,000 at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.

It will be offered to the public at face value.

BDO Capital and Investment

Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., BPI Capital Corporation, First Metro Investment Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. were picked as joint lead underwriters.

SMIC, the Sy family’s holding firm, said its net income in the first half slid 69 percent to P7.1 billion, from P23 billion last year, as the lockdowns affected its banking, retail, and mall operations.

Consolidated revenues fell 21 percent to P185.5 billion, from P233.7 billion recorded a year ago.

The property and banking businesses accounted for 61 percent and 34 percent of net income, respectively, while retail contributed 5 percent.

“Our half year financial results are within our overall expectations, given the context of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak which had a greater impact in the second quarter,” SMIC President and CEO Frederic C. DyBuncio said.

“The results also reflect the group’s continued financial prudence and conservative balance sheet after our banks made substantial provisions for potential customer delinquencies.” VG Cabuag

MORE Power says SC ruling is ‘major win’ for Iloilo City

M Cebu Pacific pleads for patience over refunds

By Recto L. Mercene

Friday, September 18, 2020

ore Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision affirming the power distribution firm's authority to operate in Iloilo City.

“This victory has definitely made every step of the year-long legal wrangle very much worth it despite PECO’s delaying tactics and fake news propaganda against us. The ruling, more than anything else, is a clear message by the High Tribunal that nothing is over and above the welfare of the general public," said MORE Power President Roel Castro in a statement issued Thursday.

“This is definitely a major win for all of us, most especially for Iloilo power consumers who spent years, decades even, putting up with all the unbridled violations and inequities of the former utility distributor.”

Castro assured Iloilo consumers that MORE Power will continue to work hard to improve and modernize the distribution system in the city.

“We applaud the Supreme Court for making this decision and by standing alongside the advocacy of the people to finally oust a monopoly that has trampled on the rights of the Ilonggos for so long,” he added.

Lawmakers also made similar statements.

Iloilo City Rep. Julienne Baronda said Congress was confident early on that the SC will side with the lawmakers’ decision in granting MORE Power the franchise.

“We were confident since the start that the High Tribunal will uphold the Congressional franchise. We know we were acting within our legislative powers and took into account the promise of

better service” Baronda said.

President Duterte signed the law granting the 25-year franchise to MORE Power as the sole power distributor on February 14, 2019.

As Iloilo City’s lone representative in Congress, Baronda had appealed to Panay Electric Co. (PECO) to respect the law and follow the decision of the SC. “Now that the Supreme Court has spoken, the people of Iloilo City expect both camps to respect the law. We hope that More Power will now be able to fully fulfill its promises to us,” she added.

Surigao del Sur Representative Johnny Pimentel also shared the same view. “I believe that the Supreme Court made the right decision and with this ruling by the Supreme arbiter of our laws, PECO has no more recourse but to accept it.”

On an 8-6 vote, the SC favored the petition of MORE Power and reversed the July 2019 ruling of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court that declared unconstitutional Sections 10 and 17 of Republic Act 11212.

Section 10 and Section 17 of the law gave MORE Power the power of eminent domain, and the power to expropriate or acquire the private assets of PECO including poles, wires, cables, transformers, switching equipment, stations and buildings, machinery and equipment which it uses in its operations.

PECO’s franchise lapsed on January 18, 2019. It failed to secure another franchise because lawmakers said PECO failed to address thousands of consumer complaints related to overbilling, poor customer service, power interruptions and fire incidents. Lenie Lectura

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Companies BusinessMirror

Friday, September 18, 2020

mutual funds

September 17, 2020

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 195.58 -24.79% -11.38% -5.09% -22.34% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.0783 -31.33% -13.18% -3% -21.98% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 2.6256 -34.93% -15.91% -6.96% -28.62% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.6687 -31.31% -12.74% n.a. -25.53% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.6793 -21.35% n.a. n.a. -20.02% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 4.2079 -23.28% -9.62% -4.61% -21.03% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,4 0.6574 -25.38% -12.14% n.a.

-22.99% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a 82.88 -29.69% n.a. n.a. -19.71% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 39.2257 -25.51% -10.05% -3.94% -23.51% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 421.27 -23.01% -9.41% -4.09% -20.93% Philequity Alpha One Fund, Inc. -a,d,5 0.8737 n.a. n.a. n.a. -15.18% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.0014 -24.39% -9.39% -3.63% -22.19% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 29.3409 -24.67% -9.01% -3.3% -22.58% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7716 -26.07% n.a. n.a. -24.21% Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 4.0047 -25.14% -9.42% -3.23% -23.33% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a 669.54 -25.03% -9.53% -3.36% -23.22% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.605 -34.44% -13.4% -7.31% -28.94% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 3.0877 -28.71% -11.08% -4.7% -26.64% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 0.7673 -25.24% -9.71% -3.42% -23.33% United Fund, Inc. -a 2.8001 -25.06% -8.62% -2.9% -23.35% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c 89.9147 -24.91% -9.09% -2.57% -23.12% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$1.0711 9.97% 0.56% 4.28% 4.15% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.5175 16.38% 8.15% n.a. 10.07% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.5647 -6.14% -4.79% -2.76% 0.12% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.0406 -11.66% -5.34% -1.34% -6.44% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.3888 -10.59% -3.89% -2.55% -9.22% First Metro Save and Learn F.O.C.C.U.S. Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a,1 0.1725 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-24.51% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.8285 -7.12% -1.77% 0.13% -6.79% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.4522 -9.54% -3.39% -1.08% -8.89% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 15.3806 -9.99% -3.68% -1.23% -9.32% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a -11.9% -4.51% -1.28% -10.32% 1.9032 Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.2429 -16.96% -5.78% -2.44% -16.06% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d 0.9293 -9.5% n.a. n.a.

-8.51% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d 0.8299 -18.41% n.a. n.a. -16.71% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d 0.805 -20.68% n.a. n.a. -18.95% Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.7968 -19.65% -6.98% -3.35% -18.26% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03927 2.72% 2.8% 2.13% 2.8% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -b $1.0502 5.55% 3.82% 3.77% 0.95% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $4.1543 10.02% 5.68% 6.06% 6.23% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a,3 $1.1673 5.29% 2.98% n.a.

3.42% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 367.86 4% 3.09% 2.6% 2.77% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.949 1.79% 0.87% 0.31% 2.47% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.1997 3.84% 4.82% 5.02% 2.62% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2956 4.37% 2.76% 2.28% 3.25% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.4469 4.94% 3.33% 1.99% 3.72% 4.17% 2.65% 5.97% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.6338 7.95% Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a,6 1.3095 6.01% 4.33% 2.44% 4.2% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.9494 5.6% 4.25% 2.32% 4.26% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 1.0327 9.06% 3.48% 1.9% 7.09% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.17 5.34% 4.71% 2.9% 3.07% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.7346 4.24% 3.96% 2.32% 1.97% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $478.75 3.1% 2.5% 2.87% 2.22% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є217.18 -1.3% 0.77% 1.19% -1.19% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.2386 3.55% 2.99% 2.64% 2.6% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0264 2.33% 1.7% 1.67% 2.33% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -b $1.0897 -0.33% 0.2% 0.41% -0.36% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4999 3.87% 3.57% 3.46% 4.01% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0611663 1.96% 2.12% 2.06% 1.44% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.2156 2.38% 1.97% 2.59% 1.27% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 129.04 3.58% 3.29% 2.5% 2.55% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.0446 2.33% n.a. n.a.

1.78% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2898 2.86% 3.04% 2.61% 1.96% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0486 1.57% n.a. n.a.

0.99% Feeder Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities Sun Life Prosperity World Equity Index Feeder Fund, Inc. -a,d,7 1.0273 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Global Multi-Asset Income Fund Inc. -b,d,2 $0.95 n.a. n.a. n.a.

-4.04%

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

1 - Launch date is September 28, 2019. 2 - Launch date is November 15, 2019. 3 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last October 9, 2019.

4 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.). 5 - Launch date is December 09, 2019.

6 - Re-classified into a Bond Fund starting February 21, 2020 (Formerly a Money Market Fund). 7 - Launch date is July 6, 2020.

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

Luzon electricity peak demand rises as firms, factories hum back to life

E

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

lectricity peak demand in Luzon has already breached the level recorded in September 2019 by 3 percent, data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) showed. The electricity spot market operator said Thursday that Luzon peak demand last September 8 stood at 10,563 megawatts (MW) while September 2019 peak demand was recorded at 10,260MW. The 303MW difference was brought about by an increase in economic activities as the government relaxed community quarantine restrictions.

“At the onset of September, the Luzon peak demand was noticeably increasing. We have already breached 2019 level peak demand for September. This can be attributed to an improving economic activity. This is a good sign that we are slowly recovering. Hopefully, we can sustain this in the coming months,” said IEMOP Chief Operating Officer Robinson P. Descanzo Descanzo during a virtual press briefing.

Based on data presented, peak demand in April this year stood at 8,277MW from April 2019’s 10,889MW; 9,607MW in May this year from 11,181MW in May last year; 10,594MW in June 2020 from 11,307 in June 2019; 10,552MW in July this year from 10,927MW in July last year; and 10,345MW in August 2020 from 10,544MW in August last year.

Including Visayas, IEMOP reported that the System Peak Demand likewise exceeded its 2019 demand levels in September by 1.3 percent or 163 MW higher to 12,586MW. Descanzo added that the aggregated Luzon and Visayas peak demand of 12,586 MW on September 8 was the highest demand recorded since July.

However, the state weather bureau expects La Niña to occur start-

ing this month. Descanzo said this weather condition could affect power usage.

“With La Niña approaching, demand could go down because of a cooler temperature and less activities outside because of rainy days ahead. We hope there would be an uptick in the side of manufacturing as Christmas season is fast approaching. We expect some activities to address the requirement for the coming holidays,” he said.

IEMOP is the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.

It also reported that the effective spot settlement price (ESSP) for customers in August stood at P2.08 per kilowatt hour (kWh). This, however, spiked to as high as P36.11 per kWh during a single interval beginning September 4 when several power plants went offline.

“Beginning September 4, 2020, a decrease in supply level was observed with several generating plants going on scheduled maintenance, a number of notable plants on forced outages, and capacity deration of some power producers,” it said.

“There were 31 trading intervals with market clearing prices higher than P10 per kWh for the period of September 4-13. Despite the occurrence of price spikes on the said period, the average price still amounted to only P3.64 per kWh as of September 13.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

September 17, 2020

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

ASIA UNITED BDO UNIBANK BANK PH ISLANDS CHINABANK EAST WEST BANK METROBANK PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK BRIGHT KINDLE COL FINANCIAL FIRST ABACUS FERRONOUX HLDG IREMIT MANULIFE NTL REINSURANCE PHIL STOCK EXCH SUN LIFE

45.15 87.5 65.4 21.75 8.22 35.5 8.18 23.95 49.5 16.32 94 54.1 0.76 24.5 0.57 2.81 1.3 738 0.59 157 1891

46.15 88 65.55 21.8 8.25 35.6 9.11 24 49.95 16.46 94.75 54.2 0.8 24.55 0.58 2.9 1.36 750 0.62 157.9 1975

45.05 88.9 64.25 21.75 8.22 35.5 9.09 24 49.95 16.3 95.3 54.1 0.76 24.5 0.57 2.81 1.37 755 0.61 157.9 1975

45.05 88.9 65.55 21.85 8.22 35.7 9.11 24.5 49.95 16.46 95.3 54.2 0.8 24.5 0.58 2.81 1.41 755 0.62 158 1975

45.05 86.85 63.8 21.45 8.16 35.1 9.09 23.85 49.95 16.22 93.6 54.05 0.76 24 0.57 2.81 1.25 750 0.61 157 1975

45.05 88 65.55 21.75 8.22 35.5 9.11 23.95 49.95 16.46 94 54.2 0.8 24.5 0.58 2.81 1.36 750 0.62 157 1975

300 3287330 823620 102300 120400 2949200 17300 1636200 2300 46800 887470 11600 4000 10300 34000 3000 187000 160 12000 2040 10

13515 288112964 53396366.5 2226785 987158 104381670 157384 39295775 114885 761858 83461762 628540.5 3080 251350 19610 8430 250030 120050 7340 322308 19750

-4505 -86451574 -26820718 -917400 7518 6299450 -30373445 89910 -52114 34607543 16230 -27200 -

INDUSTRIAL AC ENERGY 3.05 3.06 3.13 3.16 3.05 3.06 8559000 26377770 ALSONS CONS 1.23 1.25 1.22 1.24 1.22 1.24 223000 275340 ABOITIZ POWER 25.75 26 26.35 26.35 25.55 25.75 1386500 35796860 0.168 0.172 0.172 0.172 0.168 0.172 280000 47210 BASIC ENERGY FIRST GEN 24.65 24.8 24.9 25.25 24.35 24.8 274000 6784195 60.8 60.85 60.95 62 60.7 60.8 9650 586935 FIRST PHIL HLDG MERALCO 270.2 271.8 271 271.8 269.2 271.8 98700 26724852 MANILA WATER 14.12 14.2 14.2 14.38 14.02 14.18 1013400 14435282 3.04 3.05 3.04 3.08 3.04 3.05 693000 2114950 PETRON 3.03 3.29 3.11 3.11 3 3 44000 132870 PETROENERGY PHX PETROLEUM 10.72 10.96 10.94 10.96 10.72 10.96 148300 1616260 PILIPINAS SHELL 17.36 17.4 17.58 17.58 17.08 17.4 671200 11561246 SPC POWER 9.22 9.23 9.17 9.24 9.17 9.22 145100 1335803 AGRINURTURE 7.81 7.96 7.98 8 7.79 7.96 33000 258395 2.41 2.43 2.45 2.45 2.38 2.43 656000 1595320 AXELUM CNTRL AZUCARERA 11.4 11.98 11.4 11.4 11.4 11.4 1000 11400 CENTURY FOOD 17.38 17.48 17.42 17.7 17.14 17.48 831500 14476064 DEL MONTE 4.73 4.78 4.72 4.8 4.72 4.8 36000 171960 DNL INDUS 5.59 5.62 5.7 5.7 5.4 5.59 1733100 9670934 9.89 9.97 9.95 9.97 9.78 9.97 533600 5284178 EMPERADOR 64.05 64.25 64 64.25 63.9 64.25 43330 2777489.5 SMC FOODANDBEV 0.65 0.66 0.66 0.66 0.64 0.65 3097000 2008860 ALLIANCE SELECT FRUITAS HLDG 1.27 1.28 1.3 1.31 1.25 1.28 22671000 29178180 GINEBRA 49.15 50 50 51.9 49 50 17930 896804.5 130.2 131 134 136 130.2 130.2 1570770 207735016 JOLLIBEE 7.98 8 8.27 8.27 7.42 8.25 4100 30803 MACAY HLDG 5.14 5.15 5.09 5.27 5.09 5.15 238500 1231266 MAXS GROUP SHAKEYS PIZZA 5.84 5.85 5.9 5.92 5.85 5.85 219800 1289976 ROXAS AND CO 1.17 1.18 1.21 1.21 1.16 1.17 3371000 3965090 4.58 4.69 4.67 4.69 4.58 4.58 11000 51210 RFM CORP 1.9 1.92 1.89 1.97 1.89 1.95 284000 547420 ROXAS HLDG UNIV ROBINA 136.9 137 137.7 138.8 136.9 137 1215190 166888256 VITARICH 0.8 0.81 0.8 0.82 0.79 0.81 5060000 4094700 VICTORIAS 2.23 2.24 2.24 2.24 2.23 2.24 68000 152310 CONCRETE A 52.55 53 52.5 56.95 52.5 53 8360 452094.5 52.65 56 55 61.95 51.5 56 8230 469692 CONCRETE B 1.54 1.55 1.5 1.56 1.49 1.54 18193000 27948970 CEMEX HLDG DAVINCI CAPITAL 3.16 3.39 3.16 3.4 3.16 3.4 49000 156520 EAGLE CEMENT 13.8 14.06 13.9 14.4 13.8 14.06 88700 1242694 EEI CORP 6.6 6.63 6.64 6.7 6.61 6.65 63200 421120 5.63 5.64 5.53 5.68 5.53 5.63 1724700 9684399 HOLCIM 7.29 7.3 7.2 7.34 7.1 7.3 768300 5587664 MEGAWIDE 8.49 8.69 8.6 8.74 8.6 8.74 1500 13040 PHINMA TKC METALS 0.69 0.7 0.72 0.72 0.68 0.7 1465000 1022320 VULCAN INDL 0.73 0.75 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 48000 36050 110.8 120 110.8 110.8 110.8 110.8 30 3324 CHEMPHIL CROWN ASIA 1.89 1.91 1.95 1.95 1.89 1.89 58000 111360 EUROMED 1.93 1.94 1.98 2.06 1.92 1.94 1046000 2089990 LMG CORP 4.23 4.5 4.93 4.93 4.15 4.5 3658000 16601940 MABUHAY VINYL 4.42 4.5 4.6 4.6 4.5 4.5 35000 157800 CONCEPCION 20.75 20.8 20 20.75 20 20.75 63200 1265875 2.17 2.18 2.16 2.19 2.1 2.18 5773000 12340940 GREENERGY 6.06 6.07 5.95 6.09 5.95 6.06 211100 1270735 INTEGRATED MICR IONICS 0.98 1 1.03 1.03 0.98 1 1164000 1152600 SFA SEMICON 1.4 1.41 1.36 1.4 1.36 1.4 492000 684080 CIRTEK HLDG 6.01 6.04 6.26 6.3 5.95 6.01 4279000 26002658

-2436810 -18107760 -1027765 -395834 -7524090 2038902 -1656400 -510796 -521734 -91999.9997 3990 -5063962 -33480 -2183737 -813235 -2100394.5 -175410 -1000 -134707822 -20330 -65639 -4072 -1174310 -9340 -68710473 -479 -1162580 -67375 574830 2449236 35000 19890 90000 24000 -62150 -204872 -257570 60719.9999 180060

HOLDING & FRIMS ABACORE CAPITAL 0.475 0.48 0.48 0.48 0.475 0.475 3320000 1579650 ASIABEST GROUP 7.83 8.09 8.09 8.09 7.83 8.08 2500 20077 AYALA CORP 708.5 715 698 715 698 715 140410 99553510 47.45 47.5 47.1 47.5 46.6 47.5 505600 23927185 ABOITIZ EQUITY 7.1 7.11 7.1 7.11 7.09 7.1 11249100 79867644 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 2.35 2.36 2.32 2.37 2.21 2.35 3017000 6935410 AYALA LAND LOG ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.54 0.56 0.55 0.56 0.54 0.54 646000 351840 ATN HLDG A 0.57 0.58 0.58 0.58 0.57 0.57 1034000 589760 0.57 0.62 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.56 20000 11300 ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL 5.18 5.22 5.18 5.18 5.14 5.18 3888400 20134666 4.1 4.11 4.12 4.16 4.09 4.11 2099000 8633470 DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV 8.5 8.75 8.62 8.75 8.5 8.5 44500 378347 FJ PRINCE A 3.34 3.79 3.79 3.79 3.79 3.79 3000 11370 GT CAPITAL 396.8 397 404.2 405 397 397 164720 65891398 61.5 61.7 62.5 62.6 61 61.7 1057560 65258874.5 JG SUMMIT 4.8 4.98 4.42 4.8 4.42 4.8 5700 27018 JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR 0.6 0.62 0.62 0.62 0.59 0.62 3000 1830 LOPEZ HLDG 2.42 2.43 2.43 2.43 2.42 2.42 75000 182090 LT GROUP 8.85 8.89 8.79 8.89 8.72 8.89 566800 5028298 0.49 0.52 0.51 0.52 0.51 0.52 20000 10370 MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV 3.4 3.42 3.52 3.52 3.38 3.4 24123000 82917740 0.81 0.83 0.8 0.86 0.77 0.83 1832000 1522490 PRIME MEDIA REPUBLIC GLASS 2.4 2.48 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.48 45000 103820 SOLID GROUP 0.98 0.99 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 19000 18620 151 155 155 155 150 150 690 104940 SYNERGY GRID SM INVESTMENTS 898 905 910 915 893 905 223100 201165595 100 100.1 100 100.9 100 100 370220 37027219 SAN MIGUEL CORP TOP FRONTIER 124 128 130 130 124 128 820 102750 ZEUS HLDG 0.135 0.139 0.135 0.14 0.135 0.135 3700000 504050

-323100 18571015 -6105035 48247457 1429850 159130 -632402 387440 -37400 -19946306 5333480 590 -77600 132564 -33782720 17830 2919360 -15364472 -23950 590

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.53 0.54 0.53 0.54 0.53 0.54 273000 146930 ANCHOR LAND 8 8.37 8.01 8.37 8.01 8.37 5200 41707 AYALA LAND 31.15 31.4 31.45 31.45 30.75 31.4 8288900 257695325 0.98 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 5000 4950 ARANETA PROP AREIT RT 25.75 25.8 25.7 26 25.7 25.8 4088400 105376970 1.36 1.37 1.35 1.38 1.35 1.36 49000 67010 BELLE CORP A BROWN 0.78 0.8 0.81 0.81 0.79 0.8 3883000 3084200 CITYLAND DEVT 0.78 0.85 0.8 0.85 0.8 0.85 17000 13700 0.128 0.13 0.128 0.131 0.127 0.13 770000 98980 CROWN EQUITIES CEBU HLDG 5.82 5.99 5.93 5.99 5.93 5.99 28500 170445 4.99 5 4.97 5.01 4.93 5 308900 1539076 CEB LANDMASTERS CENTURY PROP 0.36 0.37 0.37 0.375 0.36 0.36 4660000 1706200 DOUBLEDRAGON 14.1 14.26 14.46 14.46 14.1 14.26 1212200 17308116 DM WENCESLAO 5.88 5.9 5.85 5.9 5.75 5.9 1721700 10072131 0.26 0.27 0.26 0.275 0.255 0.27 3160000 827400 EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO 0.084 0.085 0.086 0.087 0.085 0.085 400000 34060 FILINVEST LAND 0.91 0.92 0.92 0.92 0.91 0.92 1868000 1713180 GLOBAL ESTATE 0.75 0.77 0.78 0.78 0.76 0.76 774000 589350 8990 HLDG 7.17 7.2 7.25 7.3 7.2 7.2 58000 417790 1.21 1.22 1.25 1.25 1.2 1.21 1957000 2381580 PHIL INFRADEV 0.7 0.75 0.73 0.73 0.72 0.72 31000 22330 CITY AND LAND MEGAWORLD 3.09 3.1 3.14 3.14 3.07 3.1 10511000 32476890 MRC ALLIED 0.249 0.25 0.248 0.255 0.247 0.25 26130000 6530230 PHIL ESTATES 0.29 0.3 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29 150000 43500 1.12 1.14 1.16 1.16 1.12 1.12 129000 146020 PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND 14.66 14.78 15 15 14.52 14.66 1295300 18992688 0.224 0.225 0.225 0.225 0.225 0.225 150000 33750 PHIL REALTY ROCKWELL 1.51 1.56 1.56 1.56 1.56 1.56 1000 1560 SHANG PROP 2.63 2.71 2.68 2.68 2.63 2.63 24000 63910 1.88 1.94 1.95 1.95 1.89 1.94 510000 970540 STA LUCIA LAND SM PRIME HLDG 28.35 28.5 28.5 28.65 28 28.5 8363600 236875095 1.2 1.22 1.24 1.24 1.21 1.22 356000 433510 SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND 3.25 3.27 3.29 3.29 3.24 3.25 597000 1943600

540 -24737860 -11835905 -8240 170445 -24500 -924200 -10702886 -5820000 487930 -264265 -605760 -6674740 167500 -12738238 -50660 -91563680 -832610

SERVICES ABS CBN 7 7.02 7 7.15 6.99 7.02 538200 3782898 GMA NETWORK 5.09 5.1 5.08 5.1 5.07 5.1 289900 1474814 MANILA BULLETIN 0.395 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 90000 36000 2090 2098 2062 2100 2054 2090 40050 82872060 GLOBE TELECOM 1390 1392 1393 1399 1381 1390 169145 235125685 PLDT 0.057 0.058 0.055 0.06 0.055 0.058 218300000 12765650 APOLLO GLOBAL DFNN INC 3.1 3.15 3.19 3.31 3.05 3.15 167000 528150 DITO CME HLDG 3.69 3.7 3.64 3.71 3.63 3.69 18657000 68621410 0.068 0.073 0.069 0.073 0.068 0.073 190000 13140 ISLAND INFO JACKSTONES 1.62 1.63 1.66 1.7 1.63 1.63 72000 119830 NOW CORP 2.36 2.37 2.34 2.38 2.34 2.37 3142000 7425210 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.178 0.18 0.178 0.178 0.175 0.178 3040000 535820 PHILWEB 2.24 2.25 2.33 2.39 2.2 2.24 1540000 3486530 2GO GROUP 8.42 8.44 8.45 8.46 8.42 8.42 24200 204218 3.51 3.54 3.54 3.58 3.48 3.51 538000 1898400 CHELSEA CEBU AIR 37.7 37.9 38.1 38.2 37.7 37.9 127200 4,815,260( INTL CONTAINER 107.7 108.5 106 108.5 105.2 108.5 964940 103587195 LBC EXPRESS 15.2 15.56 15.62 15.62 15.22 15.22 1500 22950 MACROASIA 4.9 4.91 4.84 4.98 4.84 4.9 6062000 29854790 1.98 2.02 1.9 2.08 1.85 2.02 8380000 16707850 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 2.2 2.29 2 2.35 2 2.2 79000 173370 PAL HLDG 5.8 5.84 5.89 5.89 5.8 5.84 19300 112937 HARBOR STAR 1.12 1.13 1.16 1.16 1.11 1.12 4389000 4908380 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.027 0.028 0.027 0.028 0.027 0.028 25400000 688800 1.38 1.49 1.49 1.49 1.49 1.49 10000 14900 DISCOVERY WORLD WATERFRONT 0.385 0.395 0.385 0.39 0.38 0.385 540000 208000 IPEOPLE 7.05 7.4 7.75 7.75 7.22 7.22 7700 56085 STI HLDG 0.345 0.35 0.345 0.355 0.345 0.345 3160000 1098150 BERJAYA 3.37 3.38 3.2 3.37 3.1 3.37 1715000 5583900 6.95 6.96 7 7.02 6.87 6.96 5606400 38913824 BLOOMBERRY 1.91 1.94 1.93 1.94 1.92 1.94 19000 36610 PACIFIC ONLINE LEISURE AND RES 1.27 1.32 1.32 1.32 1.27 1.32 161000 205400 MANILA JOCKEY 2.07 2.24 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 6000 13200 PH RESORTS GRP 2.15 2.26 2.26 2.26 2.26 2.26 3000 6780 PREMIUM LEISURE 0.32 0.325 0.32 0.325 0.32 0.325 5270000 1695000 5.84 5.86 6.04 6.1 5.78 5.84 2859300 16836619 ALLHOME 1.39 1.4 1.4 1.41 1.39 1.4 704000 985300 METRO RETAIL PUREGOLD 48.55 49.15 47.7 49.15 47.7 49.15 3711100 180238450 ROBINSONS RTL 67.6 67.75 68 68 67.45 67.6 343200 23226981 PHIL SEVEN CORP 119.5 120.8 120.8 120.8 120.8 120.8 50 6040 1.18 1.19 1.17 1.19 1.16 1.18 1804000 2125600 SSI GROUP 15.6 15.7 15.9 15.9 15.6 15.6 1062100 16716918 WILCON DEPOT 0.29 0.295 0.295 0.295 0.29 0.295 470000 137650 APC GROUP EASYCALL 6.4 6.52 6.41 6.52 6.2 6.4 26500 169709 PAXYS 2.06 2.22 2.05 2.06 2.05 2.06 13000 26680 0.228 0.23 0.232 0.234 0.225 0.227 10430000 2393960 PRMIERE HORIZON SBS PHIL CORP 4.2 4.3 4.32 4.32 4.3 4.3 33000 142340

-27299200 -114763210 41560 238650 31160 -19030 40250 -63000 2,744,050.0003) -17058870 -4686 -101610 63360 -1765140 11480 32000 -1511622 102200 -18297050 -11718443 -36770 -5114144 131750 -138040

MINING & OIL ATOK 7.22 7.84 7.92 7.92 7.5 7.84 2100 15861 APEX MINING 1.54 1.55 1.6 1.6 1.52 1.55 9403000 14544460 -603650 0.0008 0.0009 0.0009 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 91000000 81400 ABRA MINING ATLAS MINING 3.89 3.9 3.89 3.89 3.89 3.89 35000 136150 -54460 2.68 2.75 2.77 2.78 2.68 2.75 349000 949560 BENGUET A BENGUET B 2.68 2.79 2.8 2.85 2.8 2.85 2000 5650 COAL ASIA HLDG 0.219 0.226 0.225 0.226 0.225 0.226 90000 20300 2.44 2.55 2.55 2.55 2.43 2.55 176000 446860 152900 CENTURY PEAK 7.72 7.74 7.91 7.91 7.73 7.73 5400 42105 DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL 1.27 1.28 1.3 1.3 1.26 1.27 21755000 27868460 -12086630 GEOGRACE 0.229 0.231 0.232 0.232 0.228 0.231 300000 69040 LEPANTO A 0.142 0.143 0.147 0.148 0.143 0.143 22350000 3235980 LEPANTO B 0.146 0.15 0.146 0.146 0.145 0.145 580000 84120 81200 0.0095 0.0096 0.0095 0.0096 0.0095 0.0096 18000000 172700 MANILA MINING A MANILA MINING B 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 0.01 0.011 12000000 126000 MARCVENTURES 0.91 0.92 0.95 0.95 0.9 0.92 1327000 1221540 6300 NIHAO 2.07 2.09 2.08 2.12 2.08 2.08 293000 613000 -66970 NICKEL ASIA 3.07 3.08 3.13 3.14 3.07 3.07 4916000 15160200 1017870 0.37 0.375 0.385 0.385 0.375 0.375 50000 19150 OMICO CORP ORNTL PENINSULA 0.54 0.56 0.57 0.58 0.55 0.56 516000 288400 PX MINING 4.28 4.29 4.3 4.31 4.25 4.28 2080000 8896110 3102710 SEMIRARA MINING 9.83 9.84 9.87 9.9 9.8 9.83 677300 6655766 363807 ACE ENEXOR 5.75 5.76 5.76 5.76 5.7 5.75 62200 357059 0.0082 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 22000000 182600 ORNTL PETROL B PHILODRILL 0.0082 0.0084 0.0085 0.0085 0.0081 0.0082 31000000 256600 PXP ENERGY 5.29 5.3 5.39 5.39 5.28 5.29 552100 2932601 -782240

PREFFERED HOUSE PREF A 100 101 101 101 101 101 300 30300 AC PREF B1 512 515 515 515 515 515 90 46350 ALCO PREF B 100.5 103.4 100.5 100.5 100.5 100.5 3850 386925 100.3 107 107 107 107 107 500 53500 ALCO PREF C AC PREF B2R 506 512 512 512 512 512 100 51200 CPG PREF A 101.1 102 102 102 102 102 240 24480 DD PREF 100.6 101 101 101 100.6 100.6 15400 1551410 193152 GLO PREF P 504 512 505 505 505 505 4890 2469450 1001 1030 1030 1030 1030 1030 10 10300 GTCAP PREF A MWIDE PREF 101.3 101.5 101.3 101.3 101.3 101.3 190 19247 PNX PREF 3A 98.25 98.3 98.25 98.25 98.25 98.25 500 49125 PNX PREF 3B 101 102.7 102.6 102.7 102.6 102.7 2470 253657 PNX PREF 4 940 945 946.5 946.5 940 945 11060 10397775 PCOR PREF 2B 1001 1020 1040 1040 1000 1001 1815 1830120 1080 1088 1088 1088 1088 1088 100 108800 PCOR PREF 3B SMC PREF 2C 78.2 78.25 78.2 78.45 78.2 78.25 3250 254423.5 SMC PREF 2F 76.5 77.5 78 78 76.6 77 21020 1616810 -1152000 SMC PREF 2G 75.3 76 75.25 76 75.25 76 24990 1885740 -531240 SMC PREF 2H 75.6 75.8 76 76 76 76 1000 76000 -61560

PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR 6.66 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.66 6.7 533300 3572625 -3505625 GMA HLDG PDR 4.81 5.05 5 5.05 5 5.05 220300 1102500 -899500

WARRANTS LR WARRANT 0.63 0.64 0.63 0.64 0.63 0.64 62000 39390

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ALTUS PROP 10.38 10.48 10.6 10.6 10.3 10.48 82700 864622 -4346 ITALPINAS 2.02 2.03 1.95 2.04 1.94 2.02 4140000 8228150 -14010 KEPWEALTH 5.3 5.35 5.26 5.4 5.26 5.35 38800 205698 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.06 3.02 3.03 7597000 23074740 428100 MERRYMART 0.54 0.55 0.54 0.55 0.53 0.55 2489000 1353710 XURPAS

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS

FIRST METRO ETF 89.6 90.55 90.85 90.85 89.3 89.6 36290 3263574.5 2686

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Friday, September 18, 2020

B3

B4 Friday, September 18, 2020

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Asia-Pacific officials urge states to prioritize spending on health

T

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

he government of the Philippines, as well as those in Asia and the Pacific, must prioritize spending on health in the budget amid the Covid-19 pandemic, finance and health ministers said.

During the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors on Thursday, more than 40 officials emphasized the importance of universal health coverage (UHC) and the need for stronger collaboration to mobilize healthcare financing.

Citing a World Bank Group analysis, World Bank Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population Muhammad Ali Pate said estimates show that growth in public spending for health will decline across most low-income and middle-income countries in the region amid the pandemic, adding that this may put at risk the gains that have been made in expanding UHC in recent years.

“As countries emerged slowly from the lockdowns, they must determine the best way forward for their health systems and economies in the face of huge uncertainty,” Pate said during the symposium on “UHC in Asia and the Pacific: COVID-19 and Beyond.” “We need to make sure our countries mobilize the necessary

funding to respond to the Covid-19, and also its secondary impact while building sustainable and resilient health systems that will prepare countries for future outbreaks because Covid-19 is one, but it’s not going to be the last, public health threat that we will face.”

Moreover, Pate pointed out that finance and health ministers “must work hand in hand in ensuring adequate funding and proper spending of the budget for health.”

“Finance ministers must sufficiently prioritize health in the budget and health ministers must demonstrate that funds are spent efficiently and effectively,” he added.

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa also said collaboration between finance and health ministers is crucial for member-economies to provide “cost-effective, inclusive, and highquality health interventions, underpinned by sustainable finance.”

“We have to build health systems where people from all walks of life, including the elderly, the poor and

the vulnerable, can access health services at an affordable cost while maintaining these health systems’ financial sustainability—even in aging societies that many countries in Asia and the Pacific are heading toward,” Asakawa said. “Our collective experience of the fight against the pandemic speaks volumes about why we must also ensure that UHC is financially sustainable and inclusive to all.”

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said increased excise taxes on “sin products” in the country softened the blow of the pandemic to the country’s revenues.

“We were able to leverage excise tax collections from so-called ‘sin products’ to fund our UHC program.

We are the only administration in the Philippine history to have increased sin taxes three times in the last four years,” Dominguez said. “Tax increases on cigarettes, alcohol, and electronic nicotine devices shielded us from the worst of the pandemic’s impacts on our revenue collection.”

World Health Organization Regional Director for Southeast Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh lauded this move by the Philippine government to mobilize domestic revenues for health through pro-health taxes.

“Such levies would not only generate additional revenues for health but also produce happier, healthier populations,” Singh said.

But on top of prioritizing health in the budget and imposing pro-health taxes, Singh also recommended that countries improving value for money in health by investing in primary

Playbooks for membership growth

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any associations are seeing a significant hit to membership this year due to the Covid-19 crisis. Yet some associations are growing.

What can we learn from these associations and other historically fastgrowth associations? What can you do during these tough times and how can you prepare for faster membership growth ahead?

These lingering questions were answered in a webinar organized by the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE). Entitled “Your Membership Marketing Playbook: Game Changers for Driving Membership Growth,” the webinar featured Elisa Joseph Anders, senior account director at Marketing General Inc. (MGI) in Alexandria, Virginia, United States of America.

The three game changers and corresponding playbooks your association can use to drive membership growth are as follows: 1. Getting everyone on board to invest in membership recruitment.

Three playbooks were mentioned: (a) link your association’s mission and growth; (b) project your future membership; and, (c) demonstrate the economic

power of membership.

On (a), Elisa cited the example of the American Nurses Association (ANA) whose mantra is “standing together to fight Covid-19,” uniting nurses across the US by informing and supporting them during the pandemic. This resulted in membership growth.

On (b), membership equilibrium (steady state) involves balancing new members added and lapsed members who leave, with this formula: number of new members per year divided by the lapse rate (which is one minus the renewal rate).

On (c), Elisa covered four values: customer value (members are better customers); lifetime value (the economic value produced by a typical member); stability value (balanced membership numbers); and, mission value (the rallying point).

2. Building a best practices recruitment program.

Four playbooks were presented: (a) identify the who and the why; (b) conduct multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns; (c) conduct testing; and, (d) evaluate your results.

On (a), the key questions to ask are: who are your target audiences and why should they join? Those most likely to

Association World Octavio Peralta join, ranked from highest to lowest, are former members, customers, inquirers, members of like associations, subscribers and directories. It is also about reaching the right people with the right messages, in the right places, at the right times.

On (b), current multi-channel, multitouch campaigns that tend to work best are digital marketing, telemarketing, and direct mail.

On (c), recruitment testing approaches include A/B test (please refer to my column on July 26, 2019, https:// businessmirror.com.ph/2019/07/26/a-btesting-for-associations/), landing test and format/layout test.

On (d), Elisa said measure everything.

If you don’t know what is and isn’t working, you’re making bad decisions.

3. Innovating to drive membership recruitment.

healthcare and pro-poor initiatives that protect and promote the health of vulnerable groups.

Last week, senators questioned the “anemic” budget for health, including the funding for vaccines and test kits under the proposed 2021 national budget amid the pandemic.

Senator Risa Hontiveros was “baffled” as to why the Department of Health (DOH) ranked only fifth in budget prioritization behind the Education sector (P754.4 billion) Department of Public Works and Highways (P667.3 billion), Department of the Interior and Local Government (P246.1 billion) and the Department of National Defense (P209.1 billion).

This is despite the 26.06-percent increase in the proposed 2021 budget for DOH alone amounting to P131.72 billion from P104.49 billion in 2020.

However, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the proposed budget for DOH this year is even lower than its adjusted budget this year of P153 billion, which included the increased funding from Republic Act (RA) 11469 and RA 11494.

Under the proposed 2021 national budget, the Executive branch has also allotted an “initial” P2.5 billion for the acquisition of the Covid-19 vaccine. Development Budget Coordination Committee Chairman and Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado said this would hopefully cater to about 3.8 million poor Filipinos.

The Executive branch is proposing P2.67 billion and P1 billion for personal protective equipment sets and test kits, respectively.

Two playbooks were given: (a) develop new membership markets, and (b) deploy new membership models.

On (a) and (b), the example given was that of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

Since adopting the “whole child” development approach, the ASCD has increased its membership from mostly teachers to now include principals, supervisors and district administrators.

The ASCD has also changed its membership model to a tiered one: executive membership, executive membershipplus and leadership circle with corresponding benefits.

So, what’s your association’s playbook now?

The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific and the Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives. PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 8 on November 25 and 26, 2020 with the theme, “Leading with Agility.” The two-day virtual event is supported by Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board and the PICC. E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details on AS8.

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ADB to build Asian hub for tax, disaster issues

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

T

he Asian Development Bank (ADB) will establish a regional hub to support tax policy and boost tax efforts to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the region’s post-pandemic recovery.

In his speech on Thursday during a webinar organized by the ADB, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said the regional hub will focus on promoting disaster risk mitigation and promote international tax cooperation.

Boosting local resources for the SDGs is important since these development needs cannot be financed by debts alone, according to Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

“This hub will serve as an open platform where countries and development partners can collaborate closely to share experiences and practical knowledge and coordinate on development support,” Asakawa said at the second stage of the ADB Annual Meeting.

“I believe promoting stronger collaboration and coordination between a country’s tax policy and revenue administration bodies is needed to improve the transparency and predictability of tax systems,” he added.

The regional hub has the following aims: encourage exchange of information; knowledge sharing across partners, international financial institutions, bilateral revenue organizations and developing economies; and, collaboration and development coordination across development partners.

It will be an open and inclusive platform, with a focus on South–South policy dialogue. The regional hub will seek to bring together practitioners from tax policy bodies as well as tax administration bodies of developing economies to achieve meaningful progress in tax reform.

In establishing the hub, the ADB said it will also mainstream disaster risk mitigation and international tax cooperation in its operations. Examples of this mainstreaming are technical assistance and policy-based lending to help governments enhance their capacity for disaster risk mitigation and adoption of international tax standards.

“It is vital that we move forward together on these issues with a sense of urgency. Through our efforts on disaster risk mitigation and international tax cooperation, we can lay the foundation for a robust, resilient, and sustainable recovery from the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic—and we will achieve the SDGs,” Asakawa said.

The ADB official explained that prior to the pandemic, tax-to-GDP ratio was already low in developing member-countries (DMCs) of the ADB at an average of 17.6 percent while Southeast Asian nations only averaged 15 percent.

In the Philippines, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), showed the the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio was at 18.2 percent as of 2018, the highest in recent years. The lowest tax-to-GDP ratio recorded in the country was at 14.8 percent in 2010.

Asakawa noted that tax yields across developing Asia are volatile and have large variability across time. These yields are also threatened this year given the lockdowns imposed to control the spread of Covid-19.

“Due to decreasing tax revenues and increasing expenditures as a result of the pandemic, many of our developing members have little room to increase their external debt further,” he said.

“These figures remind us of the importance of broadening the tax base and enhancing tax compliance. At the same time, we must also address the issue of disaster risk mitigation from a wider perspective,” he added.

More Filipinos build up savings amid lockdown

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad

T

he ING Bank NV-Manila Branch is seeing Filipinos saving more money amid the implementation of lockdown measures. The Dutch financial company’s local business also believes the trend would likely continue even after the coronavirus pandemic is declared licked.

The ING Bank NV-Manila said in a statement on Thursday that more households are seen reducing their discretionary funds to build up savings instead.

This behavior is expected as more Filipinos have become jobless and the economic prospects have remained bleak after lockdown measures were imposed by the government, the bank said.

Government data shows unemployment rate climbed by 10 percent in July year-on-year. Meanwhile, the Philippine economy has entered into a recession after posting a contraction in two consecutive quarters.

“The pandemic has altered the way Filipinos think about and undertake their financial transactions,” ING NVManila Branch head Hans B. Sicat said.

“Right now, more Filipinos are motivated

to save more and spend less in preparing for their future.”

ING said in a report that the number of bank savings account opening increased since the Duterte government imposed restrictions mid-March.

In April, ING said it was keeping its saving interest rate at 4 percent per annum to encourage more clients in creating an account as the need to build up savings increases.

With this in place, the bank said that customers could earn 16 times more in interest rate compared to most retail banks.

The bank noted there’s no required minimum amount to start earning interest and lock-in period.

“We want to encourage more Filipinos to adopt a habitual savings mindset, especially as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic changes the way we save and spend,” Sicat said. “And we are committed to help more Filipinos to be financially included, one savings account at a time.”

ING NV launched its digital banking platform in the Philippines in 2018. The Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based financial firm is also present in a dozen countries across the Asia Pacific region.

Federal Reserve sees rates near zero through 2023 to boost employment, prices

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ederal Reserve officials held interest rates near zero and signaled they would stay there for at least three years, vowing to delay tightening until the US gets back to maximum employment and 2-percent inflation.

The US central bank “expects to maintain an accommodative stance” until those outcomes are achieved, it said in a statement Wednesday following a 2-day meeting that beefed up its description of future policy.

The fresh guidance is the Fed’s first step in an evolving communication strategy, after it unveiled a new longterm policy framework last month to allow inflation to overshoot its 2 percent target after periods of underperformance.

The Fed’s new dot plot

Announced by Chairman Jerome Powell at the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference, officials expect to refine their

approach to economic projections later this year and they may also reach consensus on how to talk about their balance sheet.

“This very strong, very powerful guidance shows both our confidence and our determination,” Powell told a press conference following the meeting, though he noted it was still a bit of a work in progress. “There’s no cook book.”

The Treasuries yield curve steepened slightly last Wednesday after the decision and as investors digested Powell’s remarks. Ten-year and 30-year yields briefly spiked to session highs of 0.70 percent and 1.46 percent, respectively while he spoke. That caused the spread between 2-year and 10-year yields, along with the gap between 5-year and 30-year yields, to widen slightly.

The dollar rallied and Asian stocks dropped with US and European futures as markets digested Powell’s uncer-

tainty about the economic rebound and a lack of fresh measures to contain longer-term bond yields.

Somber and sobering

“Powell’s most important point is that the Fed will keep policy accommodative for as long as it take to bring the hardest hit workers back,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton in Chicago. “Powell was more somber and sobering in his tenor than the statement.”

The vote, in the FOMC’s final scheduled meeting before the US presidential election on November 3, was 8-2. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan dissented, preferring to retain “greater policy rate flexibility,” while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari dissented in favor of waiting for a rate hike until “core inflation has reached 2 percent on a sustained basis.”

Powell and other Fed officials have stressed in recent weeks that the US

recovery is highly dependent on the nation’s ability to better control the coronavirus, and that further fiscal stimulus is likely needed to support jobs and incomes.

casts, Fed officials see a shallower economic contraction this year than before, but a slower recovery in the coming years.

Support economy

“The recovery has progressed more quickly than generally expected,” Powell said, while cautioning that the pace of activity will likely slow and “the path ahead remains highly uncertain.”

In addition to slashing borrowing costs in March, the central bank has pumped trillions of dollars into the financial system through bond purchases and launched a slew of emergency lending facilities to keep businesses afloat. The economy has partly recovered from the steepest downturn on record and some sectors such as housing are doing well, but Covid-19 continues to kill thousands of Americans each week, unemployment remains high and industries like hospitality and travel are depressed.

The Fed on Wednesday committed to using its full range of tools to support the economic recovery.

The central bank repeated it will continue buying Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities “at least at the current pace to sustain smooth market functioning.” A separate statement on Wednesday pegged those amounts at $80 billion of Treasuries a month and $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities.

Officials see rates staying ultra-low through 2023, according to the median projection of their quarterly forecasts, though four officials penciled in at least one hike in 2023.

In other updates to quarterly fore-

Path ahead

Fiscal aid

Moreover, temporary extra jobless benefits are running out and the political stalemate over a new round of stimulus threatens to set back the economy.

Uncertainty could hang over government policies at least until the outcome of the presidential and congressional elections is clear. Republicans including President Donald Trump— who trails challenger Joe Biden in national polls—have proposed a smaller package of aid than Democrats have.

Powell said that fiscal measures taken early in the crisis were a big help and more was probably needed.

“The overwhelming majority of private forecasters who project an ongoing recovery are assuming there will be additional substantial fiscal support,” he said, noting around 11 million Americans remain out of work and will require further assistance.

Bloomberg News

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Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Friday, September 18, 2020

B5

MayWard takes on early voter campaign Edward Barber and MayMay Entrata

Madonna to direct, cowrite biopic about herself

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press NEW YORK—A biopic about Madonna has found a uniquely qualified director: Madonna, herself.

Universal Pictures announced on Tuesday that the studio is developing an untitled film about the pop star that Madonna will direct and cowrite with Juno scribe Diablo Cody.

Madonna said she wants the film to convey “the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer—a human being, trying to make her way in this world.”

“The focus of this film will always be music,” said Madonna in a statement. “Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me.

It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”

The film will be produced by Amy Pascal, the former Sony Pictures chief who produced A League of Their Own, the 1992 film costarring Madonna.

“This movie is an absolute labor of love for me,” said Pascal. “I have known Madonna since we made A League of Their Own together, and I can’t imagine anything more thrilling than collaborating with her and Diablo on bringing her true-life story to the big screen with Donna [Langley] and our partners at Universal.”

Madonna, 62, previously directed the 2008 British drama Filth and Wisdom and the 2011 period drama W.E., with Abbie Corning and Andrea Riseborough.

Madonna, whose last album was 2019’s Madame X, has sold 335 million records worldwide in her career.

DINGDONG DANTES

Dingdong wins Asian Star Prize at 15th Seoul International Drama Awards

TOP GMA star Dingdong Dantes received the prestigious Asian Star Prize at the 15th Seoul International Drama Awards announced via livestream on September 15.

Dingdong dedicated his award to all the frontliners and his fellow Filipinos. “This award is a tribute to all the frontliners in the world—soldiers, health-care workers and volunteers,” he shared. “This award is also for my loved ones and all the Filipino people. May we find consolation knowing that our stories are being appreciated especially during these trying times. Again, thank you very much. A snappy salute to you all.”

GMA Entertainment Group’s Pinoy adaptation of Descendants of the Sun, where Dingdong stars as Capt.

Lucas Manalo or “Big Boss,” was also recently recognized as the Most Popular Foreign Drama of the Year in the awards ceremony. It is the first television program in the country to receive such recognition from the annual global festival.

The 15th Seoul International Drama Awards was held last September 10 at the MBC headquarters in Sangamdong, Seoul.

The Seoul International Drama Awards is a yearly festival organized by the Seoul Drama Awards Organizing Committee and Korean Broadcasters Association which bring together all professionals in the field of TV drama production and media industry and, global audiences who enjoy television dramas.

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ERE’S some exciting news for you voters: It’s now less than two years until the presidential election. Here’s more exciting news for us workers: It’s certain we’ll have a holiday in May 2022.

So if you want to join in on the fun, just head to the nearest Comelec office and register. My chismosa friend proudly informed me through Viber that her daughters finally trooped to their city hall, in matching face masks and the latest face shields they ordered online, and even saw her neighbor in the premises. Sadly for her, her daughters never got to know why their neighbor was also in city hall but knowing her, she could only have wished it was due to something scandalous so that she would have something to report to me. Still, she was able to slip in that her daughters were wearing the latest Nike Jordans and even sent a screenshot of her Instagram post of her daughters. I just replied that, yes, I saw that post so that she would get the hint she need not waste data to send it to me.

But actually I’m happy for her daughters—and I’m also happy that young stars MayMay Entrata and Edward Barber also went to their local precinct to register. MayMay and Edward form the MayWard loveteam and they are both products of Pinoy Big Brother with the former bagging the grand prize.

Since then, they have made a number of movies and TV shows, and even landed a couple of endorsements along the way.

The young stars posted a picture on Instagram to their followers of them filling up the necessary forms.

“Mag pa-rehistro na para makaboto,” MayMay told her fans and followers. “Registered to vote. Make sure you do, too!” Edward posted. “Let’s change the course of our nation and write OUR OWN history.” He even included the hashtag “#40MStrong” as well, which refers to the estimated 40 million youth who will be eligible to vote in the next elections.

Meanwhile, TV host Robi Domingo accompanied his co-PBB alums and posted, as well, referring to how fans would vote on who should stay or not in the Big Brother House. “Ngayon sila naman ang boboto para sa kinabukasan,” he said. “Ikaw, nakapag-register ka na ba?”

They made it all so simple and, based on my registration experience eons ago, it really is. The Comelec even posted guidelines in their social-media accounts with specific instructions on how to register and these are: download the application form and fill up three copies but do not sign them yet; go to the nearest Comelec office and make sure to observe proper guidelines, such as wearing of face mask, shield, disinfection and social distancing, etc.

So, what are you waiting for guys? Go out, register

and make your vote count. nnn ANTICIPATION is high among viewers as this year’s the 72nd Emmy Awards will be held virtually for the first time because of the ongoing pandemic. The awards show will air live on September 21 at 8 am (Philippine time), with a preawards show at 7 am and a prime-time encore at 8 pm on Fox Life on SkyCable.

Producers of the show assure their guests and audiences that the event will be more entertaining and just as glamorous.

Catch Jimmy Kimmel lead television’s biggest night as he hosts the ceremony from Staples Center.

With no red carpet and a live audience, the Emmys will have cameras in as many as 140 locations to be able to include all the nominees live on the show instead of a videoconferencing app.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which takes on the biggest news in politics and pop culture today, is nominated for Outstanding Variety Talk Series and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series for David Paul Meyer. See Trevor and The Daily Show correspondents send up the follies of people

behind today’s biggest headlines from Monday to Friday, 11:30 pm, on Comedy Central.

With a whopping 18 nominations this year for its writing, directing, production design, editing and performances, Ozark is poised to go home with a bounty of honors. Follow the exploits of Marty Byrde, the embattled financial advisor whose failed money-laundering scheme in Mexico lands him in hot water and forces him to make up for it by bringing his operation from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, with his family in tow. Watch the landmark series on Netflix using your Sky Fiber subscription.

With its own impressive 26 nominations for editing, music, performances, cinematography, HBO’s Watchmen is on the top tier of shows on the Emmy list this year. Turning the superhero genre on its head, Watchmen follows the story of masked vigilantes treated by society as outlaws. The series can be streamed on HBO Go using your SkyFiber subscription.

For the complete list of nominated titles you can watch on your TV or stream via SkyCable, visit mysky. com.ph/emmys2020. n

Daang Dokyu sets opening activities on Martial Law anniversary WHEN all the world is seeking to reflect on the lessons emerging from the pandemic, a group of filmmakers is sounding out the call to resist the temptation of forgetfulness.

Daang Dokyu, a festival showcasing a selection of documentary films, sounds this call with its lineup of opening films under the theme “Martial Law, Never Again.”

Slated from September 19 to 21, Daang Dokyu’s opening salvo will feature ABS-CBN’s documentary, titled Marcos: A Malignant Spirit, and Ramona Diaz’s Imelda. It will also premiere Kiri Dalena’s Alunsina and Nettie Wild’s A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution. Completing the lineup is Lito Tiongson’s Mendiola Massacre. All films will be streamed online.

According to Jewel Maranan, one of the festival directors, “The opening program is not just a lineup of films to remember the past but a statement for us in the present. Our generation has been witnessing the erosion of our freedoms, unbelievable abuses of power, and a growing confusion about the future. We think documentaries can help make up our minds about the lessons already learned, mistakes we shouldn’t repeat, and what we shouldn’t allow again to be done to us as a people.”

Marcos: A Malignant Spirit, hosted by Angelo Castro Jr., is a rarely seen film even by those who have been studying Marcos archives. It contains rare footage and recorded conversations. This 1986 film is about the plunder of a nation and it looks into the inhuman manner in which Marcos and his henchmen systematically drained the economy in their greedy and unrelenting quest for fortune.

Imelda is a 2003 documentary film about the life of Imelda Marcos. The film documents her childhood, marriage to Ferdinand Marcos, her role in the dictatorship, her family’s exile in Hawaii, and their eventual return to the Philippines. It

won the Excellence in Cinematography Documentary Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Daang Dokyu’s opening activities will also tackle other important issues. Alunsina documents the struggle of children and families in an urban settlement severely affected by the government’s war against drugs—an ideology that has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug users, leaving hundreds of children without parents.

A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution examines the left-wing revolution of the Philippines and chronicles the three points of a political triangle—the legal left, the illegal (armed) revolution, and the enemy which threatens them both: the armed reactionary right. It has never been shown in the Philippines and will be making its debut

here after 32 years. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Film Forum) in 1989 where it won the People’s Choice Award. It also won the top Prix du Public award at the 50th anniversary of the National Film Board of Canada; Grand Prize at the Houston Film Festival; and Best Cinematography from the Society of Canadian Cinematographers.

Mendiola Massacre, filmed in 1987, is a newsreel of the massacre in Mendiola Bridge on January 22, 1987.

The protest action for genuine agrarian reform by peasant organizations led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas resulted in the deaths of 13 farmers and injuries of hundreds of civilians.

More information is available at www.daangdokyu.ph.

B6 Friday, September 18, 2020

E-jeep boosts Atimonan’s, fight vs. COVID-19

Tanduay wins big in China’s top wines and spirits tilt

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ITH their premium and unique taste, Tanduay rums continue to be recognized by leading international wines and spirits award-giving bodies. Most recently, two of its rum products bagged top honors in the largest and most influential wines and spirits competition in China—the G100 International Wine & Spirits Awards.

Tanduay Double Rum was awarded a gold award and Tanduay Rum Gold received a silver award in the competition, which is committed to selecting the best quality and most cost-effective wines for the Chinese market and promoting them to buyers across the country.

“This is a huge honor coming from one of China’s most prestigious awards. We are extremely grateful for the recognition and will continue to work hard to provide our consumers with only the best products,” said Tanduay Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing Paul Lim. Tanduay Double Rum is one of Tanduay’s most internationallyawarded products. This sipping rum belongs to the cognac level of spirits. It is a blend of two aged reserves (16-year-old rum and 5-year-old rum) that are further aged in the barrel for another two years. Produced in small batches, it has a minimum run of only 5,000 bottles per production—a truly premium product.

The Tanduay Rum Gold is also one of Tanduay’s most awarded

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ESIDENTS of Atimonan in Quezon province received last week an electric jeepney (e-jeep) from Atimonan One Energy, Inc. (A1E) and e-Sakay, Inc. The PhP1.07 Million e-jeep was turned over to Atimonan Mayor Rustico Mendoza, who lauded the gift as timely in the town’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic The brand new unit has a 16 passengers capacity, but to observe physical distancing, it will only accommodate eight passengers per trip.

Mendoza expressed gratitude to Meralco PowerGen (MGen) and A1E for continuously supporting the municipality.

“This is part of our vision for Atimonan to be part of modernization efforts that are being done at the national level,” he said.

The e-jeep project is part of A1E’s commitment to build a sustainable, progressive, self-reliant and empowered community through the implementation of social development projects and programs in partnership with the LGU. “This project is consistent with MGen and A1E’s core values and business strategy, which are aligned with One Meralco Group’s sustainability agenda that focuses on power, planet, people and prosperity,” said MGen president and CEO Rogelio L. Singson during the virtual turnover.

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Singson added that MGen remains committed to bring into reality the A1E power plant as part of the company’s energy transition plan that involves a diversified power portfolio that will utilize high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) technology and renewable sources. eSakay President and CEO Raymond B. Ravelo said: “We are very happy to be part of this very important project. This is really for greener roads and bluer skies in Atimonan."

The e-jeep donation is part of e-Sakay-led One Meralco green mobility program, which involves deployment of electric vehicles in a bid to shift towards safer, more efficient, sustainable and environment-friendly transportation system.

Mondelez Philippines donates learning kits and laptops to adopted public elementary schools

T products. It has received 7 Monde Selection International medals and has also won Gold in the International Review of Spirits and a Silver in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition

in 2018, among others.

Earlier in the year, Tanduay was declared the World’s Number One Rum

by Drinks International magazine for the third consecutive year.

HE ongoing pandemic has caused one of the biggest disruptions in Philippine education, affecting millions of students all around the country. Because the vulnerabilities of education have been revealed by this virus, a call to action has emerged to support students who may not have the means to continue their learning at home. Thankfully, the Joy Schools Program of Mondelez Philippines has been innovating to continuously support its adopted schools even during the suspension of face-to-face classes.

The Joy Schools is the flagship community program of Mondelez Philippines, which has been running for the past 9 years. It has touched the lives of tens of thousands of students, through the adoption of 16 public

The best diaper is one that offers long-lasting protection for baby HEN finding the right diaper for baby, parents are often left to experiment with different brands and the many options available in the market. With so many options, how do parents make sure which really is the best?

The best diaper for Pampers and Power Parents Solenn and Nico, is one that offers long-lasting protection for baby — keeping his or her butt protected from babad the entire day.

Mommy Solenn and Daddy Nico put Pampers to the Long Lasting Pwettection test vs Brand X to determine which diaper performs best in protecting baby against babad in 24 hours.

Each power parent had their own diaper to test: Solenn for Pampers and Nico for Brand X, the next leading brand. During the test, both poured 6 cups of 50 mL of blue liquid into each diaper — this represents the average 6 wettings of baby in 24 hours. After pouring each cup of blue liquid, a stuffed teddy bear (to illustrate baby

HIZZONER takes e-jeep for a spin. Atimonan Mayor Rustico Joven Mendoza tries out the electric jeepney.

Thylane) is gently pressed onto the diaper pad to check if the blue liquid transferred to the teddy bear. The blue liquid transferring to the teddy bear’s bum is a sign that baby’s butt is already babad in a pool of wetness and the diaper has to be changed.

Solenn and Nico repeated these steps five more times, changing both the teddy bear and the diaper every time the blue liquid visibly transferred on the teddy bear’s bum, for both Brand X and Pampers.

The result after 6 rounds? Less babad butts with Pampers! This shows how one diaper from Pampers was able to give longer lasting and better protection from babad vs Brand X. Leaks may happen in the cuffs of the diaper, especially as baby moves around. Pampers has anti-leak guards that allow the diapers to adjust to baby’s movement preventing spillage from the diaper.

Diapers made with plastic material may feel rough and tough which can

be uncomfortable for babies. Pampers Dry Pants is endorsed by the Skin Health Alliance with its anti-irritation layer on the top sheet to help make sure that the texture of the diaper is comfortable for baby.

Daddy Nico mentioned that it was actually his idea to try Pampers. Mommy Solenn shared, “With Pampers we never got to experience the frustration [of choosing other brands]. Because she [Thylane] doesn’t experience irritation, her pwet is always dry, she’s never leaked so I’ve never even had to change her bed sheets that often — I change it once a week. She’s so clean. And I think Nico agrees with me that Pampers is the best with triple pwet-tection — no leakage, no irritation, and it’s just the best for a dry butt.”

Pampers Baby Dry Pants triple pwet-tection not only delivers long lasting protection and comfort to babies, but it delivers security for parents and big savings value because of less changes.

elementary schools for various interventions on nutrition.

As part of the Joy Schools Program’s efforts to support its 3 currently adopted schools – Don Galo Elementary School and Marcelo Green Elementary School in Parañaque, and Balara Elementary School in Quezon City– the Company, together with partner Philippine Business for Social Progress, will be giving away learning kits to 300 students.

Each kit contains materials which can help students to keep up with their class activities, even remotely. These basic school materials are simple yet urgently needed by public school students as they embark on their home learning journey. These 300 adopted students are also part of a 9-month feeding program, where families will receive vegetable packs good for one week’s worth of meals. To help ensure students get the right nutrition to continue their learning.

More importantly, as the country is temporarily shifting to online learning, the majority of the adopted students do not have access online. The Company will be extending their commitment of strengthening education as a common good through the donation of 150 laptops to the aforementioned schools.

COVID-19 most definitely creates real challenges. The pandemic invites engagement and action from all sectors of society, including government, corporate organizations, and citizens of this country. This virus has radically reshaped our world, mostly in a negative manner, but efforts like these make resiliency even more possible. Providing access to digital tools and educational materials will hopefully pave the way back to a better normal.

EXP+ platform simplifies CX services

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GLOBAL leader in end-to-end customer experience (CX) products and solutions recently announced the launch of EXP+, its Enterprise Experience Platform, a flexible solution with complete cloud capability that is designed to simplify the delivery of end-to-end CX services, while boosting efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

EXP+ offers integrated and vertical-specific solutions tailored to clients’ specific needs, including performance management, chat, email, voice-based contact center solutions, digital transformation, automation, data-driven insights and CX consulting.

“At Sitel Group, experience is what we do. We have spent 35+ years delivering exceptional and impactful experiences for the brands we support and dedicating ourselves to delivering exceptional associate experiences through programs like Sitel MAX,” said Martin WilkinsonBrown, Chief Marketing Officer, Sitel Group. “With EXP+, we are redefining CX delivery through our robust digital solutions and human-oriented services defined under four connected product families – Empower, Engage, Explore and Evolve.

Within this ecosystem, elements work together seamlessly to continuously improve our clients’ CX delivery, drive more efficiency and create greater business value.”

While each solution within the EXP+ platform delivers value as a standalone product, the exponential power of the platform is revealed when multiple solutions work together tailored to our clients’ CX goals. EXP+ solutions integrate seamlessly, sharing information, eliminating data silos and creating momentum across CX delivery. This flexible integration propels CX strategies forward, generating maximum impact and minimal effort

needed with every addition. The EXP+ platform is built around four powerful product families that combine to deliver leading-edge end-to-end CX: EXP+ Empower, EXP+ Engage, EXP+ Explore, and EXP+ Evolve.

“Sitel Group’s expertise, depth of understanding and CX know-how, combined with advanced digital solutions and a seamless integration of our products is what differentiates our platform,”said Ryan Maund, Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Sitel Group. “EXP+ is a solution that’s always a step ahead of the technology it is built upon because it has been assembled using our own intellectual property and deep human understanding of the industry. This intimate knowledge of the business allows us to drive iterative improvements, resulting in fast ramp-up times and immediate value for brands, all while delivering a competitive advantage through our AIenabled data and analytics solutions.”

Launching with Sitel Group’s new EXP+ solution, the company also announces a new brand message: “Create Connection. Value Conversation.” Aligning with the seamless integration of technology and the human touch apparent in the EXP+ solution, Sitel utilized Sitel MAX , or My Associate Experience, to devise this brand message from the ground up through more than 500 hours of employee ideation sessions across 16 countries. Sitel MAX drives the group’s commitment to improve the associate experience by listening to and involving associates in brand activities and initiatives, and the team involved more than 15% of Sitel Group’s employees to decide on the final message.

Through this new identity combined with the new EXP+ platform we are transforming the future of CX to provide our employees and our clients with an unparalleled experience," said Wilkinson-Brown.

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

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ERIBEL, France—Colombian rider Miguel Angel Lopez won the toughest mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France, while race leader Primož Roglic added a few crucial seconds to his advantage over rival Tadej Pogacar.

The much-vaunted 17th stage saw Roglic finishing 15 seconds behind Lopez in second place, while Pogacar trudged over the line 30 seconds behind Lopez in third.

But with another tough day of climbing to come on Thursday, Roglic remained wary of the threat posed by his Slovenian countryman— although back home people may not care which of the two stands atop the podium when the race finishes in Paris on Sunday.

“I don’t think the job is done. Am I happy with the gap I have over Pogacar? Well.... It’s never enough. When you have something, you always want more,” he said. “These last days I’ve seen so many Slovenian flags on the roadside, all day long. This always gives you some extra energy, it is such an unique feeling. I hope they are proud of us back in Slovenia.”

The 170-kilometer trek’s final ascent to the Méribel ski station was the high point of this year’s race at 2,304 meters, winding up a Loze pass never before ridden and with tortuous gradients of 24 percent.

“I felt really good on the climb, but you can’t compare these last 4-5K to anything else.

I’m glad this stage is behind us,” said Roglic, who praised his American teammate Sepp Kuss for his efforts in helping him up the hardest parts. “On this climb, every meter counts. Having his help was really good.”

Lopez timed his attack perfectly with just under 3 kilometers to go while Roglic

Sports BusinessMirror

Friday, September 18, 2020 B7

ROGLIC: JOB AINT DONE accelerated away from Pogacar, who clawed some of the gap back but may have bid farewell to his chances of winning the Tour.

“I lost a few seconds. It was very steep. I did my best and I’ve lost a bit of time on Lopez and Roglic but it’s not over yet,” Pogacar said. “There’s another difficult stage tomorrow. It’ll be another hard battle.”

Roglic is 57 seconds ahead of Pogacar with four stages remaining. Lopez overtook Rigoberto Urán to move up to third overall and is one minute, 26 seconds behind Roglic heading into another testing mountain stage on

Thursday. Urán dropped to sixth.

As riders tackled the steepest section of the Loze, where tarmac was laid last year on a mountain path which is only open to bikes, Pogacar increased the pace with about 4 kilometers left while Roglič tucked behind him and Urán was dropped.

Lopez then attacked and went after Richard Carapaz, one of five riders who had formed an early breakaway group and the last to be caught with 3 kilometers remaining.

With Lopez surging ahead, Roglic attacked Pogacar, who responded well near the end to limit the damage.

French President Emmanuel Macron was on hand to applaud Lopez when he crossed the finish line after four hours, 49 minutes and eight seconds of a grueling trek which featured two of the hardest climbs known as Hors Categorie, or beyond category.

YELLOW jersey wearer Primož Roglic checks on his pursuers, none of whom is 2019 champion Egan Bernal who withdraws before Stage 17. AP

Lopez explained why he was not unsettled by the daunting climbs.

“At 2,000 meters of altitude, I feel like at home. I took some advantage when I had to,” he said. “It’s wonderful. The team did an excellent job from start to finish...we’ve dreamt big and we never lost faith before fighting day after day.

This stage win is the best.”

Sam Bennett kept the green jersey for best sprinter from rival Peter Sagan but Benoit Cosnefroy faded early in the final ascent and lost his best climber’s polka-dot jersey to Pogacar.

Defending champion Egan Bernal pulled out before Wednesday’s stage. The Colombian had been struggling since Friday’s stage in the Jura mountains, where he dropped more than seven minutes on the main contenders.

Stage 18 from Méribel is 175 kilometerslong and another demanding one with an early Category 1 climb, followed by another one up the Aravis pass and the Hors Categorie Plateau des Glières before an undulating descent to La Roche-sur-Foron. AP

Tough test for tough times at US Open

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HEN golfers fall asleep imagining how they’d play this course or that, they’re almost never dreaming about Winged Foot. That includes Tiger Woods. The place is a nightmare for him, too.

Then again, if the aim is to stage the toughest test in golf, in the midst of a pandemic no less, where else would you plant the flagstick? Only two players have finished under par in the five US Opens contested over the century-old design and no one on the ground in Mamaroneck, New York, this week, including the favorites, expects to make a serious dent in that legacy. Just the opposite.

“The viewers at home are going to see some pretty bizarre stuff and probably a lot of putts and chips that make us look pretty bad,” Justin Thomas said.

“If you’re into that stuff,” he added, “then you’re going to like this week.”

Which prompted at least one enterprising fan on Twitter to retort: “Why would I want to watch bad golf when I can do that to myself?”

A fair enough question, but one which the US Golf Association (USGA) rarely bothers to ask itself.

The USGA selects the venues for the national championships and sets them up, sometimes diabolically, happy to let the game’s three other major championships and nearly every week out on tour offer what amounts to a skeet-shoot.

Birdies have been plentiful since golf resumed play back in June. Six players have won with scores of 20 under par or better, including an eye-popping, 30-under-par win

by Dustin Johnson, the favorite at tee-off time, at the Northern Trust last month. The low scores could be the result of golfers using the extra time off to practice or just decompress, or maybe even a lack of fans applying pressure on the leader coming down the stretch.

Whatever the reason, don’t expect a lot of red on the board, or conversely, too much complaining by the players this week. It was at Winged Foot, not coincidentally, where the USGA’s rallying cry was made by the late Sandy Tatum, its president at the time, after a

EGAN’S GONE G

RENOBLE, France—Defending Tour de France champion Egan Bernal pulled out of the race ahead of a mammoth stage in the Alps, his Ineos Grenadiers team said Wednesday.

Bernal had been struggling since last weekend’s stage in the Jura mountains, where he dropped more than seven minutes on the main contenders and slipped out of contention.

Hampered by back pain, the 23-year-old rider lost more time during Tuesday’s first Alpine stage.

Bernal was in 16th place overall, 19 minutes and four seconds behind race leader Primoz Roglic.

“This is obviously not how I wanted my Tour de France to end, but I agree that it is the right decision for me in the circumstances,” Bernal said. “I have the greatest respect for this race and I’m already looking forward to coming back in the years ahead.”

Last year, Bernal became the first Colombian to win the Tour, and the youngest champion of the post-World War II era. His team said Bernal will try to recover as quickly as possible and redefine his goals for the rest of the season.

“We have taken this decision with Egans’ best interests at heart,” Ineos Manager Dave Brailsford said. “Egan is a true champion who loves to race, but he is also a young rider, with many Tours ahead of him.”

Bernal’s withdrawal marked the end of Ineos’s dominance at cycling’s biggest event.

The successful period started in 2012 with Bradley Wiggins’s victory, when the team was called Team Sky. The squad won seven of the last eight editions with four different riders, but its best-placed rider this year is Richard Carapaz, who stood 14th ahead of Wednesday’s Stage 17. AP particularly brutal opening round in 1974.

“We’re not here to humiliate the best players,” he said. “We’re simply trying to identify who they are.”

Along with Johnson and Thomas, several other guys on impressive runs are being touted by the bookies, few gaining more buzz than Jon Rahm. The Spaniard by way of Arizona State has already notched the two toughest tournaments this year—the Memorial at Muirfield Village and the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, holding off loaded fields in both—and is poised for his major breakthrough.

With tight fairways, thick rough, slick greens and five closing par-4s of 425 yards and better, Winged Foot places a premium on driving accuracy, distance control with the irons and especially the short game.

That could bring young Collin Morikawa, the recently crowned PGA Championship winner, and just-turned-40 Aussie Adam Scott into the mix. AP

PBA GOVS MEETING Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Chairman Ricky Vargas (rear, left) and the league’s board of governors— NLEX’s Rod Franco, Alaska’s Richard Bachmann, San Miguel Beer’s Robert Non, NorthPort’s Eric Arejola, Barangay Ginebra’s Alfrancis Chua, Terra Firma’s Bobby Rosales (also vice chairman), Meralco’s Alfredo Panlilio, Blackwater’s Silliman Sy, Phoenix’s Raymond Zorrilla, Magnolia’s Rene Pardo and Rain or Shine’s Atty. Mamerto Mondragon—along with Commissioner Willie Marcial, Legal Counsel Melvin Mendoza and Deputy Commissioner Eric Castro pause for a photo opportunity during Thursday’s meeting at the league’s headquarters in Libis, Quezon City.

Parks: Time for Erram to show God-given talent

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OBBY RAY PARKS JR. admits Kelly Williams’s retirement is one too big a shoe to fill for him and his fellow TNT Katropa.

But the three-time Asean Basketball League local Most Valuable Player Parks won’t turn into a donut crew of Katropa.

The son of the late Bobby Parks Sr., one of the best imports the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has ever seen, believes 6-foot-8 John Paul “Poy” Erram has the materials to take over the 6-foot-6 2008 MVP Williams’s role.

“I respect and understand his [Williams] decision. He has definitely given so much to the game. ‘A huge void to fill indeed in terms of leadership and talent,’” Parks told BusinessMirror.

“But I believe Poy [Erram] now has more chances at showing his God-given talent.”

TNT went on a rebuilding program before the start of the 45th season, trading and signing players here and there. And one of them was Erram who the Katropa acquired from the NLEX Road Warriors in a sort of a complex trade that involved the Blackwater Elite.

What TNT and NLEX wanted the team

gots with the Road Warriors nailing Anthony Semerad, Rabeh Al Hussaini and the rights to Blackwater’s 2020 first round and 2021 second round picks. The Elite, on the other hand, secured Marion Magat, Ed Daquioag, Yousef Taha and TNT’s 2021 and 2022 first round picks.

Parks, meanwhile, said he is working hard to motivate himself during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I always believe on working on everything. To be an all-around player that could do multiple things and play both ends of the floor—which means I have to be in the best shape I possibly can be in,” said Parks, who just arrived from the US last week.

“I have a huge chip on my shoulder as I felt that people didn’t see how much I give to the game so I am definitely motivated,” he said.

“All I did during the quarantine was just tried to get in the best shape possible, eating good food, and having the best training regimen that was available.”

The PBA governors, on the other hand, met face-to-face late Thursday at the league’s Quezon City offices to decide on the bubble—

parks

eRram

patterned after the National Basketball Association model—they intend to operate starting on October 9.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial met several players in a dialog the other day and gathered the pros prefer the NBA model over the league’s other option that is based on the German’s Bundesliga closed circuit system.

In the NBA bubble, the teams are confined in a single protected area with the teams’ members staying in hotels, while the Bundesliga system imposes a home-venuehome policy.

Motoring BusinessMirror

Henry Ford Awards Best Motoring Section 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 2011 Hall of Fame

B8 Friday, September 18, 2020

Editor: Tet Andolong

Not only Hilux but Conquest has joined the mix “ T hank you ver y much.

Maraming salamat po!”

So there. Short but sweet.

Outstanding offers galore

I

N its fourth virtual vehicle launch this week, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) unwrapped the new Hilux and the Conquest. Here’s the speech of Atsuhiro Okamoto, the TMP president, during the digital media presentation.

“I would like to thank all of you for your constant support to Toyota.

And while we are far apart, we are glad that each of our online events is met with excitement.

“We share that feeling of anticipation, so I will not keep you waiting any longer. Today we are proud to unveil the refresh of an iconic powerhouse.

“Media friends, let me present to you the new Toyota Hilux and Toyota Hilux Conquest!

“The world-famous Hilux has been the consistent segment leader in the Philippines since 2015.

Through the years, Hilux owners have enjoyed their vehicle’s

tough looks, powered by Toyota’s signature quality, durability, and reliability. Let us not forget that the Hilux is just so fun to drive, whether at work or at play.

“This 2020, the New Toyota Hilux and Toyota Hilux Conquest arrive with an impressive new look, that is more rugged and exciting than ever.

“The new Hilux is designed to meet the tough demands of Filipino drivers and the country’s varying roads. I am confident that the Hilux would once again prove why it is the Philippines’s pick-up of choice. Tough on every road, every inch a Hilux.

I now give way to Elvin “The Big E” Luciano as he unfurls a range of “value offers” from Toyota this September.

“TMP’s ‘Take on New Roads’ promo runs from September 4 to 30, and can be availed at all 70 Toyota dealerships nationwide. Under its ‘Pay Low, Pay Light, or Savings Scheme,’ Toyota customers can acquire the Vios at a low down payment of P112,950 (XE CVT), the new Wigo at a monthly payment of P5,981 (1.0 E M/T), or enjoy discounts of up to P120,000 for Fortuner (G Dsl AT), and P130,000 for Hilux (4X4 G AT).”

Listen to Sherwin Chua Lim, TMP’s first vice president for vehicle sales operations: “We acknowledge the increasing need for safe and efficient mobility. Since financial situation is tough, it’s a must to spend wisely and get the best value out of your money. We help our customers achieve this not just through affordable and flexible financing deals, but also through our products that are easy to maintain, fuel-efficient, and will last a lifetime. Only Toyota can offer this sure advantage.”

Elvin’s payment scheme follows: “Aside from these unparalleled discounts, every new Vios [G, E, XLE], Corolla Altis, Rush, Innova [V, G, E, Touring Sport], Fortuner, Hilux

[Conquest, G, E], and Hiace [FMC GL], comes with free periodic maintenance service up to 20,000 kms.

“In addition, all brand-new Toyota Vios G, E and XLE units bought will have warranty coverage of five years or 150,000 km whichever comes first.

“Likewise, free one-year comprehensive insurance also await new owners of Wigo variants, Vios G, E and XLE and XE variants, Corolla Altis 1.8V HV and 1.6V CVT [TFS transaction only], Innova V, G Dsl, Touring Sport and E Dsl [TFS transaction only], and Fortuner 4x2 G Dsl AT. “For Toyota owners or other brands, trade-in rebates as much as P35,000 [for Vios and Innova], and P40,000 [for Corolla Altis] are also available for every purchase of participating models within the promo period.

“For more details, visit https:// toyota.com.ph/promos/newroads.”

It can’t get any better than this, Big E.

PEE STOP God hears and next lis-

tens. That was proven again when Vernon B. Sarne, the former boss of Top Gear PH and now Visor chieftain, got hit recently by aneurysm, and miraculously survived it via an operation. Definitely, the rain of prayers from friends, relatives and even strangers implored to pitch in a “little prayer” combined to storm the gates of heaven. Vernon is now up and about. Praise the Lord!

MODEL

PAYMENT SCHEME Pay Low at P112,950 For XE CVT Pay Light at P7,528 For XE CVT Cash Savings

VIOS (New)

P20,000.00-1.5 G & E P35,000.00-1.3 XLE CVT P35,000.00-1.3 XLE M/T P10,000.00-1.3 XE CVT

WIGO(MC)

Pay Light at P5,981 For 1.0 E M/T Pay Low at P177,750 For 1.6 V CVT Pay Light at P10,141 For 1.6 E MT

ALTIS

Cash Savings P50,000.00-V HV and V CVT P30,000.00-G and E MT Pay Low at P111,450 For 1.3 J M/T

AVANZA

Pay Light at P7,378 For 1.3 J M/T Cash Savings P25,000.00 For All Variants Pay Light at P10,127 For 1.5 E MT

RUSH

Cash Savings P15,000.00 For All Variants Pay Low at P220,050 For 2.0 G Dsl AT Pay Light at P10,540 For 2.0 J Gas MT

INNOVA

Cash Savings P10,000.00-G Gas and E Gas P20,000.00-V, G Dsl, Touring Sport and E Dsl P30,000.00-J DSL and J Gas Pay Low at P244,950 For 4x2 G Dsl MT Pay Light at P16,031 For 4x2 G DSL MT

FORTUNER

Cash Savings P60,000.00-All variants exc. G Dsl AT P120,000.00-G Dsl AT Pay Low at P140,850 For 4x2 J DSL MT Pay Light at P9,066 For 4x2 J DSL MT

HILUX

Cash Savings P50,000.00-All Variants exc. 4x4 G, PUV, FX and Cab & Chassis P80,000.00-4X4 G MT P130,000.00-4X4 G AT Pay Light at P16,993 For Commuter Deluxe

HIACE (FMC)

Cash Savings P25,000.00-GL Grandia AT/MT P30,000.00- Commuter Deluxe 2.8 M/T

ALPHARD

Pay Light at P39,633-Alphard

Bostik keeping trains safe and Kia unveils expansion, growth, and upcoming model launch reliable through innovation Story by Randy S. Peregrino

facilities. Also, four more facilities are planned by the end of 2020 or early 2021. K ia intends to continue expanding its reach, way into 2021.

To further boost its presence and provide better customer service that Promises to Care, all vehicles are backed by a 5-year or 160,000-km warranty* and 24/7 Emergency Roadside Assistance.

These will be further boosted by upcoming programs such as increasing its parts line-up by four times and subjecting each dealer to stringent operations standards. The overall objective is to improve the customer experience from walking in and after it has been delivered.

K

R

AILWAY vehicles transport large numbers of people every day. In the Philippines, data from the Department of Transportation show that the congested Manila Metro Rail Transit System accommodated a daily average of more than a quarter of a million passengers in 2019.

Considering the number of lives involved in the operations of railway mass transit systems, manufacturers are charged with the responsibility to keep trains dependable through wear and tear and other incidents, such as onboard fire.

From the long line of innovations of leading global multi-market adhesive specialist Bostik comes Simson ISR 7003 FR, the first fire retardant sealant based on Silyl Modified Polymer (SMP) technology in Asia.

The new solution meets the highest requirements in the railway vehicle industry according to EN45545, the European standard that aims to protect passengers and staff against onboard fire incidents in railway vehicles.

Part of the regulation are a series of evaluation tests to check a substance’s performance along the axes of fire spread, and to determine the hazard levels (HL) the material qualifies for.

Bostik’s Simson ISR 70-03 FR meets the highest HL-3 status on smoke density, toxicity, and oxygen index.

Demonstrating mechanical properties necessary for elastic bonding

as a good compromise of an adhesive and sealant, ISR 70-03 FR is developed for interior and exterior sealing applications in railway vehicles, from windows to roofs to metal frames and floor systems. It can also be used as a constructive bonding adhesive.

Bostik’s SMP formulations are designed to meet the stringent specifications of bond strength, durability, and elasticity over a broad range of temperatures and humidity ratios. Thus, SMP-based ISR products, like Bostik’s Simson ISR 70-03 FR, offers excellent resistance to UV, weather, and temperature.

Simon ISR 70-03 FR exhibit superb adhesion performance on a wide variety of substrates, with limited to no pre-treatment necessary, eliminating additional and unnecessary steps, costs, and labor.

Bostik is a leading adhesive specialist in the construction, consumer, and industrial markets worldwide. For more than a century, the company has been developing innovative bonding and sealing solutions based on important factors such as vibrations, temperature variations, and fire resistance, among others.

OEM and tier suppliers around the globe can depend on Bostik’s consistent high standards for product quality, innovation, technical support, and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.bostik.com.

IA Philippines recently hosted an online media session via zoom meeting. They discussed the current economic situation, its impact on the automotive industry, and how Kia intends to use its Power to Surprise to help ease its effects on the company and its customers. Anchored by no less than Kia Philippines president Manny Aligada, he also tackled aggravating by the challenges faced by the two major contributors to the country’s economic performance, the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

These, in turn, are seen to affect economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product, which is estimated to slip to 0.6 percent from a projected 6.6 percent for 2020.

More unboxings lined up

Kia fitted its K2500 Karga with plastic dividers to enforce physical distancing measures.

The automotive industry in the time of Covid-19

For the automotive industry, vehicle sales declined by 52 percent year-on-year. Apart from that, the cautious lending of bank institutions and dealerships challenged to generate volume along with the burden of fixed overhead costs, are seen to dampen the industry’s overall performance. However, there are still a few bright spots that business entities who are operational can look forward to. For instance, Kia Philippines sees various opportunities for growth and a way to contribute to the local economy.

A few bright spots

While Kia currently ranked 10th in sales rankings, some vehicles are seen as being in tune with the new normal way of life. The Picanto and Soluto, for instance, are perfect for daily drives and those looking for affordable personal transport.

Then, there is the K2500, which is ideal for delivery and shuttle services for businesses. Kia fitted its K2500 Karga with plastic dividers to enforce physical distancing

Kia Philippines president Manny Aligada with the Soluto. Kia Philippines

measures. Customers are encouraged to check the Kia Philippines website to review current promos and offerings designed for buyers looking for an affordable deal.

A few surprises for the year

Besides its vehicles, K ia Philippines has a few plans lined

up for its clients. For this coming third quarter of 2020, four new dealerships are set to open.

T hese are K ia Mar ik ina, K ia Fair view, K ia Isabela, and K ia Bonifacio Global City. This upcoming expansion would bring K ia Philippines’ entire dealer network to 34 sales and ser vice

Before the year ends, Kia Philippines is set to surprise with two unboxing events. The first is the launch of its Virtual Showroom.

Slated for the last quarter of this year, on top of the current website functions, it provides customers the opportunity to shop for a new K ia vehicle from comfort and safety. Following this is the unboxing of an all-new model designed to cater to the Filipino motorists’ needs and to provide speedy mobility for the Filipinos. “ The coronavirus and lockdown may have taken their toll on the local and global economy.

Yet, we at Kia Philippines, are confident that we will overcome these with sales and aftersales initiatives, continuous expansion of our dealer network, entering into the digital age with a virtual showroom, and an unboxing of an all-new model,” said Aligada. “All these are designed to not only jumpstart our brand but the economy as well.” With all these surprises, Kia Philippines not only hopes to boost its presence in the country but help uplift our countrymen’s lives with relevant products and services.