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Wednesday, September 25, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 350

House leaders agree to extend ’19 budget T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

HE leadership of the House of Representatives has agreed to extend until December 2020 the validity of funds for the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and capital outlay (CO) of agencies in the 2019 national budget.

House leaders said the extension is needed due to the delays in the passage of the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and the

election ban on the implementation of infrastructure projects and social services.

House Majority Leader Martin

Romualdez on Tuesday said the leadership will prioritize the passage of a consolidated joint resolution seek ing to amend

“We have to ensure that funding requirements of some important national projects under the 2019 GAA will continue until next year.

Without the extension, the unused funds will go back to the National Treasury.”—Romualdez

Section 65 of the general prov isions of Republic Act (R A) 11260, or the GA A of fiscal year 2019, which provides that all appropriations shall be available for release and obligation until December 31, 2019.

See “Budget,” A2

NCR lags other sites in pay hike for HSW

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PESO exchange rates n

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

T

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) plan to hike policy rates anew in their upcoming meeting on Thursday is already “locked and loaded” despite the renewed concerns over rising oil prices in recent weeks, economists said.

In separate research notes, ING Bank Manila Nicholas Mapa and Philippine National Bank (PNB) economist Jun Trinidad agreed that the Central Bank, under the leadership of Governor Benjamin Diokno, will ease its rates by another 25 basis points on Thursday.

This will be potentially the third policy cut this year.

“As the threat of a global slowdown builds at a time where domestic growth momentum appears to be moderating, BSP appears primed to unload another salvo of rate reductions to stave off a festering economic slowdown,”

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@caiordinario

See “HSW,” A2

ECONOMISTS: 3RD RATE CUT IN THE CARDS THIS WEEK Mapa said.

The certainty of another rate cut on Thursday comes amid the threat of rising oil prices, which, in turn, could affect local inflation.

In 2018, higher oil-prices and tax reform pushed inflation to exceed the government’s target for the year and prompted local economic managers to implement measures to bring down inflation.

For BSP, this included several rate hikes to cut the accelerating rise of prices.

However, Trinidad does not see the rising oil prices for 2019 repeating the 2018 scenario, and citing several “coolant” measures that will counterbalance the effect of higher oil prices on the local economy.

“Oil prices spiked early this week following news of the drone attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil-processing plant that knocked off 5 million to 6 million barrels of oil per day in the global markets,” Trinidad said.

See “3rd rate,” A2

House panel backs retail trade bill for plenary okay

By Cai U. Ordinario

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is set to begin consultations for a possible increase in the salaries of kasambahay (household service workers) in Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR).

In a BusinessMirror Coffee Club Forum on Tuesday, DOLE Assistant Secretary Benjo Santos M. Benavidez said this will be part of the agenda when Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III meets with directors of Regional Tripartite Wage Boards (RTWBs).

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The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Assistant Secretary for Regional Operations and Special Concerns Cluster, Benjo Santos M. Benavidez, fields questions from journalists under the ALC Media Group at Tuesday’s BusinessMirror Coffee Club. The discussions ranged from the pending security of tenure (SOT) bill, regulations on alien workers and efforts to help distressed migrant workers, among others. NONIE REYES

he House Committee on Trade and Industry on Tuesday endorsed for plenary approval the chamber’s priority measure amending the Retail Trade Liberalization Act to remove the barriers to foreign investments in the local retail sector.

Valenzuela First District Rep. Weslie Gatchalian, the panel chairman, said the committee invoked House Rule 10, Section 48, or the “one-day hearing only” rule in approving the consolidated bill. The rule covers all bills that have been approved on third reading during the previous Congress.

Gatchalian said the bill amending the Republic Act (RA) 8762, or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, will be transmitted to the plenary for another round of deliberations.

The lawmaker said the bill seeks to further open up the Philippine retail trade industry. He said easing

barriers to investing in the sector will result in a greater variety of products, inflow of new technology and the availability of more jobs.

The bill allows foreign-owned partnership, associations and corporations formed and organized under the laws of the Philippines, upon registration with Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), or in the case of foreignowned single proprietorships, with the DTI, to engage or investment in the retail trade business with a minimum paid-up capital of the equivalent in the Philippine peso of $200,000.

The measure removes the requirement under RA 8762 for foreign investors to acquire shares of stock of local retailers. However, it deletes the requirement for the public offering of shares of stock by foreign-owned retail enterprises.

See “Retail trade,” A2

US 52.0600 n japan 0.4841 n UK 64.7262 n HK 6.6418 n CHINA 7.3128 n singapore 37.7931 n australia 35.2602 n EU 57.2400 n SAUDI arabia 13.8794 Source: BSP (24 September 2019 )

A2 Wednesday, September 25, 2019

News

BusinessMirror

‘Simple, unified’ Citira bill version preferred in Senate

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By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

HE Senate is not keen on approving the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira) in its current form, citing the burden of creating a more “simple and unified” version for the benefit of several stakeholders.

In a four-hour hearing on Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means discussed with various stakeholders their position on the bill and whether or not they approve of the current bill filed for legislation.

Among the stakeholders were the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Philippine Ecozones Association (Philea), the Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), foreign business chambers, among others.

“It’s clear to me that the different IPAs [Investment Promotion Agencies], the different

Budget. . .

Continued from A1

According to Romualdez, the House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab will begin consideration Wednesday of House Joint Resolution No. 9 filed

by Antique Rep. Loren Legarda and House Joint Resolution 10 introduced by San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and Davao Oriental Rep. Joel Mayo Almario seeking to extend the shelf life of this year’s national budget.

“If the committee headed by Cong. Ungab will approve the twin joint resolutions, most likely we will consider its second reading approval before we adjourn next week,” said Romualdez.

House Joint Resolution 9 and 10 provide that the House of Representatives and Senate, voting separately, shall extend the validity and period of availability of the fiscal year 2019 appropriations for MOOE and COs until December 31, 2020.

The joint resolution indicated that there are appropriations that have not been released and allotments issued that have not been obligated which shall automatically result in the reversion of the said unexpended appropriations to the unappropriated surplus of the general fund of the much-needed MOOE and CO. These funds are for priority projects, medical assistance program, aid, and relief activities, as well as for the maintenance, construction/repair, and rehabilitation of schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other essential facilities of the national government.

“We have to ensure that funding requirements of some important national projects under the 2019 GAA will continue until

3rd rate. . .

Continued from A1

“For net oil-importing countries like the Philippines and much of emerging Asia, the familiar oil price-induced inflation fears will be making a comeback even if global market conditions including supply profile may be structurally different from previous episodes of oil price spikes,” he added.

For this year, however, the economist cited potential “coolants” neutralizing oil price spikes. Among these, the slower growth of domestic demand and the prevailing import structure indicated a low share of fuel imports versus capital goods and raw material imports.

The government’s plan to lower retail rice prices can also be an effective coolant to upside oil price risk.

Thus, BSP’s promise to deliver a rate cut anew in September remains in place, the economist said.

represent at ions of econom ic zones, investment groups, sectors—each obviously would protect their own turf. Now, the burden really is to come up with a simple and yet as general, as we can, goals that will govern everybody because sa kanila rin naman nanggaling, eh [it came from them anyway]. We’re after simplicity,” Senate Ways and Means Chairman Pia Cayetano said in a press briefing after the hearing.

Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua said while the Department of Finance already agrees with the version passed by the House, they will still consider all proposals and try to include them in the bill.

“I think the first, most important thing we learned today is that next year. Without the extension, the unused funds will go back to the National Treasury,”said Romualdez, who chairs the House Committee on Rules.

2020 budget

In a news briefing, Capiz Rep. Fred Castro asked critics of the House leadership, including Sen. Panfilo Lacson, to stop spreading “disinformation”that the proposed P1.6-billion hike for House funds is only intended to support the increasing number of deputy speakers and key positions in lower chamber.

“Let’s be accurate by giving emphasis that the additional funds are meant also to benefit our Batasan employees, enhancement of the Congressional Budget and Planning Office, and planned improvement of facilities,” Castro said.

“In fact, the additional deputy speakers have helped the record-time passage of President Duterte’s revenue measures and the national budget. With the passage of revenue measures, we assure the Filipino taxpayers that the 2020 national budget will be a reflection not only of the President’s vision, but also of the people’s will,” he added.

According to Castro, the swift passage of the national budget would give more time for the Senate to scrutinize the appropriation bill to avoid delays.

“The House also strictly complied with the ‘no pork, no parking, and no delay’ policy. We want President Duterte to sign the national budget into law by December because it would translate to economic growth,” he added.

Castro said the lower chamber approved the national budget that will not only pass the test of constitutionality and legality, but also of transparency and accountability.

ING Bank Manila’s Mapa shares that view, as Diokno vowed to move swiftly to offset some of last year’s aggressive tightening, and in line with the government’s effort to chase a 6-percent growth for 2019.

“BSP’s new communication policy puts primacy on transparency as Diokno looks to restore credibility and establish trust with the market through forward guidance. Thus, even as BSP embarks on a heroic gambit to boost flagging growth via easing, market reaction has been positive and the peso has been stable,” Mapa said.

“The rate cuts will go a long way to restore now shackled growth momentum as capital formation has turned sluggish under the weight of the BSP and its 2018 rate barrage. With household spending recovering, hopefully the resuscitated investment momentum will be enough to offset still sluggish government spending which tries to hurdle last year’s impressive spending spree as government chases 6-percent growth,” he added.

“It’s clear to me that the different IPAs, the different representations of economic zones, investment groups, sectors—each obviously would protect their own turf...The burden...is to come up with a simple and yet as general...goals that will govern everybody.”—Cayetano

many of them are increasingly moving from oppose to negotiate.

And many of them are understanding the principles that we are fighting for, which are performancebased, time-bound, targeted and transparent. So, we hear them, I commit to responding to each of their position papers, but it’s not something we can agree piecemeal.

We have to put them all together and see the package work,” Chua said in the press conference.

“What we will do onwards is to go through all their position papers, put together all their requests, and see if this is something that is doable. And I’ll discuss with Senator Pia and the team how we can proceed on this,” he added.

As for how much longer it is going to take to see a unified version of the bill, Cayetano said she would like to see it through “no matter

Retail trade. . .

Continued from A1

The bill also eliminates the required net work, number of branches and track record conditions for foreign retailers to engage in retail trade in the Philippines.

Under the measure, only nationals from, or judicial entities formed or incorporated in countries which allow the entry of Filipino retailers, to engage in retail trade in the Philippines.

The bill reduces the required locally manufactured products carried by foreign retailers to 10 percent, from 30 percent of the total cost of their stock inventory.

Bill champions

House Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda, one of the authors of the bill, said amendments to RA 8762 will help boost the foreign direct investment (FDI) performance of the Philippines.

In a position paper, Trade Undersecretary Ireneo Vizmonte said the DTI supports the immediate passage of the bill as it will boost foreign investments in the Philippine retail industry.

Vizmonte, citing data on FDI inflows into the retail sector, noted the initial success of the passage of RA 8762, with investments surging to $31.3 million in 2000 from a zero base the previous year.

However, he said inflows fell drastically to $1.8 million the following year.

“Reforms in the Philippine retail sector are timely given the significant changes in the investment pattern in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean] with wholesale and retail trade receiving the largest FDI at $38.9 billion in 2017,” said Vizmonte.

“This sharp growth of 75 percent from

T-bonds. . .

Continued from A8

He said the government has been diversifying its sources of funds.

This means the country has several sources of funds that are not part of the memorandum recently issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Sta. Ana said funding from the countries included in the Presidential directive accounted for a “very small portion of our financing and definitely, you have to balance it out with spending for example and then the performance of the revenue.”

The Department of Finance and the National Economic and Development Authority said it’s still business as usual when it comes to Official

how long it takes.”

The senator said that while a lot of changes are still needed to be taken into consideration, prolonging the debate on the Citira has no real benefit and that time is of the essence.

“The Filipino business community, and therefore the Filipinos, demand that we provide for stability and predictability. So, there’s nothing to gain even if I say I can be patient, I’ll listen to all the questions. We don’t gain from that,” Cayetano said.

“So, I would be able to ask my colleagues once I present it to them to work with me within a reasonable period,” she added.

A week ago, the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading the bill including the Citira, saying it will ensure that the grant of fiscal incentives will help bring greater benefits to the country in the form of higher and more dispersed investments, more jobs and better technology.

Asked whether they did not accept the House’s version as passed, Cayetano said, “They have their reasons for passing the version that they passed. And I will have reasons for passing the version that I will pass.” $22.2 billion allowed this industry to overtake traditional main recipients of FDI, namely finance and manufacturing, which recorded investments of $31.6 billion and $15.6 billion, respectively,” he added.

Vizmonte noted that the current foreign equity restrictions on retail trade have contributed to the unfavorable investment environment and effectivity shielded domestic enterprises from competition.

“Efforts at further liberalizing this sector would not only encourage greater investments into the country but also create a competitive environment that encourages continuous innovation,” he said.

In line with the bill’s proposal to set a lower minimum paid-up capital requirement for retail enterprises at $200,000, Vizmonte said the department recommends a higher threshold of $300,000.

Vizmonte said the DTI is proposing the promotion of locally manufactured products by requiring that at least 20 percent of the aggregate cost of the stock inventory of foreign retailers is made in the Philippines. At least 10 percent of Philippine goods in their inventory, he said, should be sourced from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Objectors

The Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) registered its opposition to the bill in a position paper.

“If [the bill] comes into fruition, the proposed amendments will upset a careful balance first stuck 19 years ago between the government, the economy, foreign investors, consumers and especially Filipino entrepreneurs,” said the PRA. “In other words, [the proposal] intends to strip the protection extended by law to MSMEs against foreign competition, of which many are unprepared against,” it added. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz Development Assistance (ODA).

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters on Monday that the suspension of the talks with those that voted in favor of the UNHRC resolution “will not have a significant impact on the country.”

Dominguez said the suspension will not affect existing ODA grants and loans. For projects that may be affected, he said the government may seek assistance from multilateral development banks (MDBs).

The Finance chief said the rates offered by these countries are comparable to those offered by MDBs and other bilateral partners.

Dominguez said the total grants on record from these countries reached $377.43 million, of which $228.89 is from Australia and $4.71 million is from Italy.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

DND bid to be exempted from ODA ban is up to the President–Palace

By Samuel P. Medenilla

M

@sam_medenilla

ALACAÑANG on Tuesday said it will be up to President Duterte to decide if the Department of National Defense (DND) will be exempted from the government ban from accepting grant and loans from countries supporting the United Nations (UN) probe on the country’s war against illegal drugs.

In a television interview, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he will ask for the exemption since it could affect the military’s modernization program.

In a press conference, Presidential Spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said Duterte may consider granting the proposal as it affect’s national security.

“The President is a very reasonable man. If it involves national security, he might. I don’t know yet.

We have to wait for his thoughts on the matter,” Panelo said.

During the weekend, a memorandum from the Palace, which ordered government agencies to temporarily shun grants and loans

Binay. . .

Continued from A8

She maintained that the doctrine of finality of judgment applies to preliminary investigations it had conducted.

She also claimed that her right to due process was violated when she was not served with copies of the motions for reconsideration of her coaccused.

Binay argued that she was not informed of the allegations contained in these pleadings, which effectively deprived her of her right to be notified and heard.

She also contended that the Ombudsman’s failure to immediately resolve the complaints against her constitutes a violation of her right to speedy disposition of cases.

However, the SC ruled that the Ombudsman did not act with grave abuse of discretion when it determined the existence of probable cause against Binay.

It held that contrary to the former mayor’s position, the May 9, 2011, resolution had not yet attained finality when the Ombudsman received the initial finding.

“This Court will not interfere with the Office of the Ombudsman’s determination of probable cause except when it acted with

HSW. . .

Continued from A1

Benavidez said Bello noticed that kasambahay wages have recently increased by around P500 to P1,000 in all regions, except for NCR. DOLE data showed the last time wages for HSW increased in Metro Manila was in December 2017 when wages grew by P1,000 to an average of P3,500 a month.

“In other regions, they continue to update the wage rate of kasambahay through the RTWBs. This time, the directive of the secretary especially to DOLE-NCR, to the RTWPB of NCR, [is to] begin, to start the review, the consultative process that in the near future, we can release a minimumwage rate for the kasambahay,” Benavidez said.

Benavidez said the meeting next week with the regional directors also aims to get all the regional directors “on the same page” when it comes to wages, especially for domestic workers.

To date, the highest paid kasambahay are those located in cities and first-class municipalities in Region 1 or the Ilocos Region. They earn P4,500 per month on average.

This is followed by those in cities

from 18 countries supporting the “Iceland Resolution,” was released to the public.

The Iceland Resolution called on the UN Human Rights Council to probe the alleged human-rights violations in the country’s war against illegal drugs.

The 18 countries that supported the resolution are Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Iceland, Italy, Peru, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland and Uruguay.

Even with the Palace order to agencies to suspend loan and grant negotiations still in effect, Panelo said the country still maintains diplomatic relations with the aforementioned countries.

“Our relations with them are not confined to loans, we have other areas where we could still talk,” Panelo said.

“We also have not observed any adverse effect in the 18 countries. In fact, we don’t hear any reaction coming from them. The ones reacting are the critics [of the administration],” he added. grave abuse of discretion,” the Court ruled.

The Court added that Binay’s failure to receive a copy of the motions for reconsideration filed by her co-accused does not result in violation of her right to due process.

“Petitioner does not deny that she moved for reconsideration of the assailed August 29, 2013, Consolidated Resolution. She was given the opportunity to question the decision against her. She was not denied due process,” the Court pointed out.

The contract with Apollo Medical Equipment and Supplies was questioned by the COA because of the lack of public bidding.

City officials allegedly relied on Apollo’s claims that it was the sole distributor of the New Jerseybased hospital bed manufacturer UGM-Medysis.

However, it turned out that the hospital beds were not manufactured by UGM-Medysis but a Taiwanese company identified as Juhng Mei Medical Instruments Co. Ltd. The manufacturer’s invoice for the transaction showed that the items’ actual total cost was merely P2,447,376.14, which was well below P36,431,700, the amount paid to Apollo. and first-class municipalities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); Region 3 or Central Luzon; and Region 6 or Western Visayas. They draw an average salary of P4,000 a month.

The most recent increase in wage rate was in August 2019 in Region 4B or Mimaropa where kasambahay wages increased by P1,000 to reach an average of P3,500 a month.

“The other regions have been increasing the rates on their own,” Benavidez said. “So that everyone will be on the same page, we are said to meet the regional directors next week to discuss this matter but we will also discuss other matters.”

The International Labor Organization (ILO) considers Batas Kasambahay as a landmark piece of labor and social legislation that extends labor rights, benefits, and protection to nearly 2 million domestic workers in the Philippines.

It sets minimum standards for wages, hours and days of rest, and other benefits for domestic workers. Furthermore, it extends social security, public health insurance, and home development mutual fund coverage to the sector and provides for mechanisms for quick response to abuse and accessible means to redress grievances.

The Nation

A4 Wednesday, September 25, 2019 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BusinessMirror

PMA chief, commandant of cadets quit posts over Dormitorio’s death by hazing

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By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM & Marilou Guieb | Correspondent

HE superintendent and commandant of cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) resigned from their posts on Tuesday as they accepted command responsibility over the death of cadet 4th Class Darwin Dormitorio, which, investigators say, was the result of hazing.

Four cadets were also being expelled and another three were being suspended over the death, which prompted heads at the country’s premier military school to roll, including the relief from posts of two tactical officers and two military doctors.

Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista and Brig. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro sub-

mitted their resignations to Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr., which the Armed Forces chief of staff accepted just hours before he retires and would be succeeded by incoming chief of staff Lt. Gen. Noel Clement.

“All the administrative and criminal procedures are done already and we feel, I feel, being the one respon-

sible as the head or superintendent, I think this is the right time that I have to step down to pave way for further investigation if it necessitates,” said Evangelista.

“Nobody actually pressured me, or looking at it on that aspect for me to resign. I think it is a, by virtue of command responsibility, it is by virtue of command responsibility, so me, together with the commandant of cadets will step down,” he added.

Evangelista’s resignation was the first for the highest leader of the PMA over a case of hazing and even by the cadets’ commandant, which in the case is Bacarro, a Medal of Valor awardee, the highest award in the military, an award only a handful of soldiers have so far managed to earn and receive.

“Although we have done everything, we volunteered to resign under the principle of command responsibility,” said Bacarro, whose records in the military were highly regarded until Dormitorio’s case arose.

“For me, my concern is to save the organization...whether you like it or not, we are the commanders. But our resignations were not an admission

that we have done wrong, that we had lapses,” he added.

The resignation of the two highest leaders of the PMA comes with the separation from the academy of Cadet 3rd Class Shalimar Imperial and Felix Lubag, Cadet 1st Class Axl Rey Sanupao and Cadet 2nd Class Nickoel Termil.

Cadet 1st Class Irvin Sayud, Elbert Lucas and Christian Correa were also suspended.

Last week, the military school suspended Maj. Rex Bolo as its senior tactical officer and Dormitorio’s tactical officer, Capt. Jeffrey Batistiana.

The leadership also suspended Col. Cesar Candelaria, commanding officer of the academy’s hospital, and a certain Capt. Apostol, Dormitorio’s attending physician.

The Department of National Defense lauded the decision of Evangelista and Bacarro in resigning from their posts, saying they were the finest example of command responsibility.

“By choosing this course of action, Lt. Gen. Evangelista and Brig. Gen. Bacarro have shown the hallmark of true leadership as espoused by the

military profession and the principle of command responsibility.

We wish both gentlemen the best in their future endeavors,” the DND said through its Spokesman Director Arsenio “Popong” Andolong.

Dormitorio, a 20-year-old cadet from Cagayan de Oro started vomiting at 1 a.m. of September 18 and complained of stomach ache. He was found unconscious at the barracks and was rushed to the station hospital. He was pronounced dead at 5:15 a.m. due to cardiac arrest secondary to internal hemorrhage.

Medico-legal findings showed that he suffered blunt force trauma as bruises were found on his stomach and body. Evangelista assured that Dormitorio’s death will not be in vain. “PMA will take this opportunity to cleanse its ranks and further professionalize every aspect of education and training,” he vowed.

He added that the suspects are now held at the military stockade and administrative sanctions will be meted. But once the criminal charges are filed, they will be transferred to the Baguio City jail.

NPA ambush wounds 3 cops in Oriental Mindoro

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HREE policemen were wounded after the police vehicle that was carrying them was ambushed on Tuesday by suspected members of the New People’s Army in Oriental Mindoro.

Two other policemen, including the deputy chief of police of Pinamalayan Municipal Police Station, and a civilian who is a village leader, escaped unhurt during the ambush.

Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, spokesman of the Mimaropa regional police, said the police vehicle of Pinamalayan was on its way to Calapan City when it was waylaid by armed men at around 7:45 a.m. along the national highway at Barangay Pasi 2, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro.

The police mobile, driven by Pat. Raquel Generoso, was bearing Capt. Ruelito Magtibay, deputy police chief of Pinamalayan, and three other members of the station identified as Master Sgt. Ivan Fortus, Senior Master Sgt.

Irene Lazo and Cpl. Ivy Carmona.

The policemen were joined by barangay Chairman Noli dela Cruz of Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro.

During the ambush, Fortus, Lazo and Carmona were wounded. They were brought to Oriental Mindoro Provincial Hospital.

Faltado said that based on the information provided by barangay Chairman Danilo Caspe of Barangay Pasi 2, a loud explosion was heard from the ambush site followed by burst of gunfire against the policemen who were aboard the mobile car.

At the time of the reported ambush, the policemen were on their way to Calapan to attend a radio program.

“During the incident, mobile patrol of Pinamalayan MPS was able to evade the ambush and continuously drove away from the killing zone,” Faltado said in a report. Still, three of the policemen were wounded. Rene Acosta

Davao City aims for 100-percent children vaccination target amid poliovirus scare

By Manuel T. Cayon

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

AVAO CITY—Some weekend revelers here havecanceled their booked island-hopping outings in the resort island of Samal in apparent reaction to Department of Health (DOH) reports showing the presence of poliomyelitis in environmental samples taken in this city’s sewage.

A Davao City-based operator of a barge for island-hopping operations in Samal told the BusinessMirror that at least four bookings were canceled over the weekend, and heard the same predicament from other boat operators.

“The common denominator is their statement of staying away from any possible contamination from contact with the waters of Bankerohan,” the boat operator said.

The city health office here confirmed a Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENREMB) study on August 22 which discovered a type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus. The sample water was taken from the Davao River near the Bolton Bridge area. The Bankerohan public market portion of the river is only 100 meters upstream from the Bolton Bridge portion.

“We must remember that our Davao River tested positive of the poliovirus so we need to conduct measures to prevent the epidemic here in the city,” said City Health Office (CHO) chief Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, as she cautioned parents against allowing their children to swim in rivers and public swimming areas as the country declared an epidemic to the virus.

Villafuerte issued the warning as she also announced a massive immunization against poliomyelitis on October 14, timed with the weeklong Nationwide Outbreak Response Im-

munization Campaign starting on that day.

Villafuerte has called on parents to bring their children to the nearest health centers for immunization against poliomyelitis, saying there was no other way to prevent the disease except through immunization.

She said the city would target 100 percent coverage for children ages five years old and younger to receive the oral polio vaccine (OPV) or inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). CHO teams have been directed “to cover every nook and corner of the city to achieve a 100 percent immunization coverage during the weeklong campaign.”

“We don’t want an 80 percent turnout, we want it to be 100 percent,” she said. The CHO would also establish immunization points near gated subdivisions to encourage residents to have their children immunized. “We will even conduct a house-to-house campaign to ensure that every child will be immunized to prevent the poliovirus from affecting them,” she said.

Villafuerte has asked residents “to maintain proper hygiene, cook their food thoroughly, avoid swimming in rivers and other public swimming areas, wash their hands thoroughly and ensure that they have their own toilet.”

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed on September 19 an outbreak of polio after a poliomyelitis was detected in a threeyear-old girl in Lanao del Sur. The child was already treated but showed residual paralysis.

A second case was also detected in a five-yearold boy in Laguna, although the affliction happened earlier, with the DOH saying the victim experienced the onset of paralysis last August 25, reports said. The DOH said however that the boy was able to walk after being treated although the two victims were still being monitored for residual effects of paralysis.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BCDA exec faces raps for alleged usurpation of authority and graft

By Ashley Manabat Correspondent

A

NGELES CIT Y—A highranking official of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is now facing criminal and administrative charges.

T he Citizens Cr ime Watch (CCW) filed cases of usurpation of authority and graft against Aileen Asuncion R. Zosa, BCDA executive vice president (EVP) and chief operating officer, with the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) on September 10.

On Tuesday, CCW President Diego Magpantay and its Central Luzon head Ruel Quitay, as well as CCW legal counsel, Atty. Raymund Palad, held a news conference here and presented their complaint to the media.

Palad said Zosa still holds her BCDA position despite the abolition of her office and her lack of appointment.

The Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) had approved the abolition of Zosa’s office and position since 2015.

But Palad said Zosa has held her position and has performed the functions of an EVP without any legal appointment. She also continues to receive salaries, benefits and emoluments to the damage and prejudice of the government, he added.

“The CCW and I are demanding answers from BCDA President and Chief Executive Officer [CEO] Vince Dizon who is also the Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and Projects, on why he continued to employ Zosa, and even made her head of the Special Bids and Awards Committee and give her the authority over three EVPs despite it all being contrary to law,” Palad said.

“We demand compliance with the law. Dizon has to fire Zosa out of BCDA,” he added.

The CCW has estimated that at Salary Grade (SG) 30, Zosa has received P15 million in government money in the form of salaries and benefits from February 2016 to present.

The Office of the EVP and four divisions were abolished when the GCG approved the BCDA restructuring plan, under Memorandum Order 2915-07 dated February 22, 2015.

Then-BCDA President and CEO Arnel Paciano Casanova issued Office Order 003-2016 informing officers and staff of the abolition of offices, creation of three offices and appointment of Joshua Bingcang as EVP for conversion and development, Nina Radoc as EVP for finance and retired general Carlos Quita as EVP for corporate services.

But Zosa’s SG 30 is higher than that of the three.

Palad said Zosa’s appointment as EVP was last February 1, 2010, or before the restructuring plan.

Palad said they were able to obtain a copy of her appointment under the Freedom of Information Act signed by President Duterte.

“She has no appointment paper as EVP that was issued after the restructuring plan of BCDA in February 2016,” Palad pointed out. It was learned that the Civil Service Commission in the NCR has confirmed the abolition of the EVP office and ordered an investigation of Zosa.

Zosa’s acts amounted to dishonesty which should be meted the penalty of dismissal from service with perpetual disqualification from holding public office, said Palad.

Magpantay said the CCW filed charges in the PACC so that immediate action can be taken against Zosa “because she is handling a sensitive position and we are wondering why the BCDA president has tolerated this.”

It can be recalled that the CCW is also the main complainant in the procurement aspect of the Dengvaxia controversy.

Economy BusinessMirror

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Singapore keen on bigger investment to Philippines

From P336K to P1.6M: Hefty fines to be slapped vs Pinoys who bring in pork, pork products to Taiwan

By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

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INGAPORE businesses looking for expansion opportunities in the region are highly considering the Philippine market as their choice investment destination, a recent survey showed.

The Singapore Business Federation’s (SBF) recent National Business Survey showed that the Philippines was among the top 10 markets of interest for Singaporean companies looking to expand their business.

“While many Singapore companies have established operations in the Philippines in industries such as manufacturing and infrastructure, there are untapped opportunities in areas such as information technology and digital solutions, which our companies with the capabilities will be able to take up,” SBF Chairman Teo Siong Seng said.

He added that the economic and social progress the Philippines has made, thus far, makes for an attractive and compelling case for Singapore investors.

“Asean remains a bright spot in a cloudy global economy and has abundant opportunities and potential for growth. Singapore and the Philippines have always enjoyed close economic ties,” the SBF chairman said.

In 2018, Singapore was the second-largest investor in the Philippines, and the Philippines’s largest export market among the memberstates of the Asean.

Loh Chin Hua, chief executive officer of Keppel Corp. who is also co-chairman of the PhilippinesSingapore Business Council, said the company is now exploring ways on how it can expand its investments in the Philippines, especially with the Duterte’s administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure modernization program now in full swing.

Keppel Corp. is one of Singapore’s largest conglomerates with involvement in the infrastructure sector.

He also noted that among the advantages of doing business in the Philippines is that investors can borrow in the local currency, thus reducing risks and enabling them to get reasonable returns.

“And that is quite a remarkable achievement because not many countries in this region can say that. And when you have to invest abroad but you have to borrow in their currencies, it always increases the risks,” Loh said. “For Keppel, we have operated two shipyards in the Philippines, and we are now looking to see how we can do more here.”

Earlier this month, a delegation of 21 Singapore business leaders from 14 companies joined the business mission organized by the SBF from September 9 to 11 2019. The delegation was led by SBF Chairman Teo Siong Seng.

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

ILIPINO inbound travelers to Taiwan caught bringing in quarantine items, foremost of which is pork products, will be fined P336,000 up to P1.6 million as part of Taipei’s biosecurity measures against the dreaded African swine fever (ASF).

In a Facebook post, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) shared the formal letter of Taiwan’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) informing the Department of Agriculture (DA) that it

has imposed higher fines for Filipino travelers since September 6.

‘Notice to travelers’

TAIWAN is implementing baggage inspection for passengers coming from the Philippines,” the

BAI said on Tuesday.

“In order to protect their country from the intrusion of animal diseases such as African swine fever, bringing of pork and pork products is strictly prohibited. Violators will be fined NT200,000 for first time violators and NT1,000,000 for second time violators [P336,000 up to P1.6 million],” it added.

In the letter dated September 17, BAPHIQ Deputy Director General Wen-Jane Tu said Taiwan has ordered mandatory inspection of all baggage of passengers from the Philippines after Manila confirmed its first ASF outbreak.

The same measure is being applied by Taiwan to other ASFaffected countries such as China and other Southeast Asian nations, Tu added.

“This new measure was enforced starting 6 Sept. 2019. Passenger from the Philippines who

carry quarantine items illegally [for the] first time will be fined NT200,000 and second time will be fined NT1,000,000,” said Tu, who is Taiwan’s chief veterinary officer, in the letter.

Tu said Taiwan is looking forward to work “more closely” with the Philippines “in handling the issue of transboundary animal diseases.”

“ASF is a global issue. Good communication and coordination among regional and international veterinary competent authorities are essential,” she said.

“I look forward to working even more closely with Philippines in handling the issue of transboundary animal diseases and to providing useful inputs which are beneficial to our region,” she added.

As early as mid-August, Taiwan has implemented stricter biosecurity measures on Filipino travelers’ baggage after it received

reports of possible ASF outbreaks in Bulacan and Rizal provinces.

The DA on Monday announced that the 12th ASF outbreak was recorded in Antipolo City and that the government placed more areas in Central Luzon under quarantine.

However, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar did not specify the additional sites in Central Luzon that are now under quarantine.

Dar said authorities are still completing the depopulation of hog farms to control the spread of the ASF virus.

“We have just placed [the new area in Antipolo] under quarantine by applying the 1-7-10 protocol,” he told reporters in an interview on Monday. “The other areas [under quarantine] are in Central Luzon.

We will mention the exact areas in due time. The work is ongoing and depopulation continues up until today,” Dar added.

Study shows PHL doing enough IP reforms, but notes issues on enforcement of rules, regulations

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

T

MEAT traders at a Quezon City market appear to be unfazed by the recent infestation of the African swine fever virus in some parts of the country, and noted a decline in the demand for the commodity, as well. NONOY LACZA

DA chief dangles perks to ‘supportive’ LGUs

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HE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it would provide “incentives” to local government units (LGUs) that would strengthen their agricultural extension system to help farmers improve their productivity through technology and knowledge transfer.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the DA would give LGUs “a lot of support” if they empower their agricultural extension services.

Dar added that the World Bank has already committed $500 million to implement the Provincial Agriculture and Fisheries Extension

Systems nationwide.

“This time around, let us make the province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Systems work,” he said in a speech during a farmers’ forum in Benguet last September 21.

The DA said they would encourage the LGUs to adopt the “One Province, One System” agricultural extension approach, which also involves cities and municipalities, in addressing the lack of agricultural extension workers and slow transfer of technologies in the provinces.

Due to the devolution of power to local government units, the

DA pointed out that its agricultural extension function has been transferred as the responsibility of the LGUs. Due to this, Dar said it is important that local chief executives strengthen their extension services to improve farm productivity in their respective provinces.

In a separate statement, Dar also appealed to local chief executives to help the DA in addressing problems hounding the farm sector today such as the decline in palay prices and the control of African swine fever. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

CL entreps to showcase best products in Manila in October

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, September 25, 2019 A5

NTREPRENEURS from the seven provinces of Central Luzon will showcase great finds and great buys in the upcoming Likha ng Central Luzon Trade Fair 2019. The Likha trade fair is one of the most awaited trade events for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region.

Now on its 21st year of being held in Metro Manila, the Likha Trade Fair has benefited thousands of traders who have participated since 1998. More than 160 MSMEs from Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Eicja, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales are expected to showcase their products to local and international buyers.

With the theme “Great Finds, Great Buys,” the Likha ng Central Luzon Trade Fair 2019 will be held at the SM Mega Trade Hall 2 in Mandaluyong City from October 2 to 6, 2018.

The opening of the fair is expected to be attended by key government officials from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), other national agencies and local officials

from the seven provinces of Central Luzon.

Sellers from Aurora are expected to showcase their well-known bamboo, driftwood and sabutan products, while Bataan MSMEs will sell their housewares, marine products and peanut delicacies. Bulacan will again showcase their world-class handmade jewelery, turmeric, bags and sauces. Entrepreneurs from Nueva Ecija will showcase their barongs, footwear and mushroom products to the fair. Pampanga participants will sell their famous lanterns, homemade nuts and delicacies while Tarlac will showcase their pottery, home décor and potato wine. The best of Zambales’s products, such as cashew, bignay wine and chicharon will also be on display.

A special setting showing prototypes of products that were the results of product cliniquing and design development services under the One town-One product (OTOP): Next Generation project will be featured. Under the project, the DTI provided MSMEs from Central Luzon with

design consultancy, product development services, and packaging and labeling design assistance.

Central Luzon MSMEs have captured wider markets and mainstreamed their products in major malls and stores because of their exposure in the Likha Trade Fair. Many of the participating entrepreneurs have been able to sell to some of the big retail chains in the National Capital Region. Some have already gone to cater to international buyers. This year, the Likha exhibitors target to earn more than P40 million in sales, aside from getting booked orders.

Likha ng Central Luzon Trade Fair is the major regional trade promotion activity jointly organized by the DTI-3 and PhilexportRegion 3, with the support of the Regional Development Council-Region 3 and the Central Luzon Growth Corridor Foundation Inc. (CLGCFI). The event is also supported by a media partnership with Philippine Information Agency, Philippine News Agency and other media organizations.

HE Philippines is implementing enough reforms to improve its overall intellectual property (IP) protection regime, but enforcement of rules and regulations, as usual, continues to be the issue for many firms, according to a study by an international research group.

The study by England-based Geneva Network, titled “The Importance of Intellectual Property Rights for Progress,” said Southeast Asian states now recognizes the importance of protecting IP rights to their economic and social objectives. Proof to this is Southeast Asian governments’ commitment to reform policies and laws on IP. However, the study said much has yet to be done and “the strength, scope and efficiency of the IP framework in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines is still well below the highest global standards, despite improvements in recent years.”

Geneva Network’s study claimed the IP protection regime in the Philippines, for one, has been strengthened in recent years. However, the problem lies in the implementation of IP rules that is resulting in the outright violation of these.

“However, weak enforcement continues to be an issue,” the study read.

“IP infringement is not considered to be a serious crime and is, therefore, often a low priority for the authorities and judiciary. Life science patents are becoming more difficult to obtain and there are concerns that compulsory licensing could become more widely

used,” it added.

A compulsory license is when a government permits a third party to manufacture a patented product, or process, without the consent of the patent owner.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights allows countries to invoke compulsory licenses for any patent, either for domestic production or importation.

Compulsory licenses have an extreme impact in the conduct of business of international investors reason few countries invoke it, but Southeast Asian economies make use of it often to reduce medicine costs.

“The Philippines is preparing guidelines that would broaden the scope of compulsory licensing as part of its Cheaper Medicines Act,” the study read.

“The threat and use of compulsory licenses can paradoxically reduce choice in the medicines available and undermine access. If a country regularly resorts to or threatens compulsory licenses, manufacturers will be unlikely to consider it a priority country for the launch of new medicines,” it added.

The study recommended Southeast Asian economies, including the Philippines, to limit the use of compulsory licenses to truly extraordinary circumstances, rather than making them a standard government practice.

Further, the region is asked to raise the awareness of its people on the impact and illegality of online piracy. In the Philippines alone, the entire film industry, valued P11 billion, is losing P1.6 billion yearly to online piracy, excluding losses from counterfeiting of optical media.

Drilon vows to scrutinize P4.1-T 2020 budget bill

By Butch Fernandez

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@butchfBM

ENATE Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Tuesday vowed to guard against reported “insertions” of multimillion pork-barrel funds for lawmakers in the Palace-proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 budget bill.

“I will wait for the budget as passed by the House and I will compare it with the President’s budget and see what are the insertions made,” Drilon said, adding, “Makikita naman iyan [We could be able to uncover any insertion], especially when the alignments are not coming from the agencies. We will see.”

Initially, Drilon declined to make further comments about the reported porkbarrel insertions in the 2020 budget proposal, saying: “I don’t want to comment until I see it.

But when asked if he will guard against the pork-barrel insertions, Drilon replied: “Yes, certainly.”

The Senate minority leader recalled that last year’s budget bill was delayed after it was found out that “there was about P90 billion addition to the Department of Public Works and Highways budget which the DPWH secretary said he didn’t know what it was.”

“It was apparently added after the bicam report was finished,” said Drilon. “We were able to catch it, scrutinize it and recommend the exercise of a line item veto. We will do the same exercise in the 2020 budget bill.”

In the same interview, Drilon dodged when asked to comment on the possibility of fresh attempts by some lawmakers to insert pork-barrel allocations in the budget bill.

“I just want to see the budget first,” Drilon said, explaining that “I don’t think it is proper to comment on the behavior of the other house. We will just look at the document and if in our best judgment it does not serve public interest, we will do what is necessary.”

A6 Wednesday, September 25, 2019 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

US threat to leave UPU bad news for Filipinos

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recent Associated Press dispatch said “the effects of President Donald J. Trump’s standoff with China could soon be coming to a post office near you, and higher shipping rates for some types of mail are the likely outcome.” As Trump is threatening to pull the US out of the 145-year-old Universal Postal Union, the AP said a showdown looms at a special UPU Congress this week in Geneva.

Established in 1874 and headquartered in the Swiss capital Berne, the Universal Postal Union is the second-oldest international organization worldwide.

With its 192 member-countries, it is the primary forum for cooperation between postal sector players. The Philippines became a member of UPU on January 1, 1922. Currently, there are more than 5 million postal employees around the world and 663,000 post offices. Postal services worldwide annually process and deliver an estimated 368.4 billion letter-post items and 6.4 billion parcels.

Trump’s complaint centers on the reimbursement that the US Postal Service receives for providing final deliveries of bulky letters and small parcels sent from abroad—usually ones not weighing more than 2 kilograms. Such mail can include high-value items like mobile phones, memory sticks or pharmaceuticals. The US president complained that some postal carriers like China’s aren’t paying enough to have foreign shipments delivered to US recipients.

The UPU remuneration system for letters and small packets—also known as the “terminal dues” system—ensures that Posts are compensated for the cost of handling, transporting and delivering items across borders. This multilateral agreement facilitates the movement of postal items across borders, ensuring that anyone, anywhere within the UPU’s 192 countries can send and receive international post. The current system was decided by the 2016 UPU Congress and entered into force in January 2018. It places countries into tiered groups applying different rates based on postal development indexes, with the goal of moving all countries into a single-rate system as the quality of postal networks improve.

Trump wants to reform the 145-year-old global system of coordinating postal policies, a method he says treats American companies unfairly. If his reform push fails, he said the US is ready to ditch the UPU in October, which could throw into chaos how packages are sent to and from the US. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, head of US delegation to the UPU Congress, said in an article published in Financial Times: “Manufacturers in countries as small as Cambodia and as large as China pay less to send small parcels from their countries to New York than US manufacturers do to ship packages from Los Angeles to the Big Apple. The US simply seeks a system of self-declared rates.”

The reform being pushed by the US is almost exclusively aimed at China, where exporters currently pay a heavily discounted rate to ship packages abroad. If the 192 UPU members approve the US-endorsed amendment, it could raise costs for Chinese e-commerce companies, while helping US companies like FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. On the other hand, if the proposal is not approved and the US leaves UPU, the US Postal Service would lose access to the legal, regulatory and technical framework that underpins global mail delivery.

If the US withdraws, small businesses that sell online to customers around the world could see service disruptions and dramatically increased costs for shipping. It will also adversely affect 4 million Filipino-Americans living in the US and their millions of relatives and friends in the Philippines, especially with the fast-approaching Christmas holidays.

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International law has benefited from legal thinking rooted in the Asian experience Teddy Locsin Jr.

Free fire

Welcome remarks of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. at the Seventh Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law held in Manila on August 22 and 23, 2019.

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upreme Court Justice Diosdado Peralta (TBC), His Excellency Judge Yuji Iwasawa of the International Court of Justice, Supreme Court Justice Francis Jardeleza, Their Excellencies Judges Chang-ho Chung and Raul Pangalangan of the International Criminal Court, His Excellency retired Judge Hisashi Owada, former President of the International Court of Justice and the first President of AsianSIL, Professor Elizabeth Pangalangan, Professor Harry Roque, Ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps, colleagues in government, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

It is a distinct honor to welcome you all to Manila for the Seventh Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law. The Department of Foreign Affairs is pleased to sponsor this event with the University of the Philippines Law Center and the Philippine Society of International Law. Our theme—“Finding Common Solutions to Contemporary Civilizational Issues from an Asian Perspective”—acknowledges the challenges our vast region must tackle collectively; collectively because no one pays attention let alone respect to singular and idiosyncratic opinions on such a matter. Either the solution is rooted in universal principles or it is mumbojumbo. It is sad but true: the best thinking in the West is the best thoughts on the subject of all mankind—be they in the East or West, North or South. Modernity is Western; so is efficiency in all pursuits good and ill. And universality in moral thinking is Immanuel Kant. There’s been no improvement on his categorical imperative; just refinements like Rawls’.

This is why Asian values never took off. To start with, Asian values boil down to the millennial curse of Oriental despotism marked chiefly by nepotism and abject submission to authority. Such values serve only as foundations of fear and despair; never of community and hope.

Asian values are invoked by those who abuse others—hopefully with impunity as a mode of unique cultural expression to be spared condemnation. They are the grand-sounding cultural excuse for abuse—from female circumcision to honor killing and biding feet.

Real solutions in our time, and for all time hereafter we hope, must be common ones and by common consent—better yet by consensus.

At least that’s Asian or Asean. Solutions that are worth the time discussing them must be seen to benefit everyone at first glance: like leaving no one behind—the motto of the US Marine Corps.

For the next two days, officials and academics will propose and debate legal solutions concerning counterterrorism, human rights, the rule of law, dispute settlement, and maritime issues; all these in ways addressing each notion’s varied and conflicting aspects.

These are but a few of the current challenges affecting the ordinary lives of ordinary people; and, therefore, of the President I serve.

Showed an extravagant way to make his duties lighter to bear, he said: “No. This is too much; it’s too expensive. I am but an ordinary man, accustomed to ordinary things.” These are the things that matter to the ordinary people we are sworn to serve.

We are very interested in the discussion; we will listen very closely; and we will participate very actively.

On fighting terrorism, we must understand the combustion that drug money laundering ignites in a mixture of murder, mayhem and religious madness; for example, in the taking of Marawi. The cleanness and celerity of its recapture by our Army was described in my presence at the Security Council as “a near textbook perfect victory”—dismissing outright allegations of human-rights violations from the usual suspects. The fight was savage, sweeping and swift. We took back in six months when it took the West six years to recapture Raqqa. There just wasn’t time to attach electrodes to anyone’s privates.

On human rights, we must confront the duplicity in the application of undoubtedly universal Western standards of decency in the treatment of fellow human beings. More famously honored by the West in the breach than the observance. On the one hand there is the wilfully ignorant—and for that reason all the more sweeping—condemnation of jungle folk like us when we address threats to public order and safety with the necessary severity. On the other hand, there is the silent acceptance of its gross failures and misdeeds which the West much prefers in having its own record judged.

The Philippine record comes closer to the Western ideal. It dates from the 1948 Universal Declaration, the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, to the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to name, but a few. But well before these codes of decent conduct were written, there was a country still a colony for all practical purposes that defied its anti-Semitic colonial master to take in the wretched of the Earth fleeing one holocaust after another in the West. Before subscribing to any written code of decent conduct, Filipinos practiced it first. Two Philippine administrations have offered Rohingya unconditional asylum—to the embarrassment of non-Christian neighbors who shut the door on their co-religionists’ faces.

On dispute settlement, let us discuss if pacta sunt servanda is still relevant when more states refuse to recognize let alone carry out judicial or arbitral awards they lost fairly and legally. Let us remind the world of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes—to date the most important achievement of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations.

Ladies and gentlemen, we may agree, we may disagree. But let us listen, let us learn from one another as scholars, as governments, as human beings— and Asians. Let’s do and be a little better than non-Asians even if we didn’t come up with the Western notions that hold true for all time and everywhere, only achieving in their place of origin a verbal allegiance.

We have half of the world’s human resources to address these challenges.

Surely there can be more creative and viable legal and political solutions drawn from the Asian experience of Western democracy. Looking at the record, we have done Western civilization rather better.

Long before the present millennium, the Asian Century was our creed. Twenty years on, the growth of our region in great part shapes that of the rest of the world. With emerging economic might comes a leading role and a major responsibility to do right.

Let me cite two examples.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations paved the way toward social and political stability in a region wracked by the most savage war of peace since the end of World War II. It replaced the moribund US-led South-East Asian Treaty Organization. In that turbulent period, five Southeast Asian countries—at odds with each other—came together to hold on to whatever they still had to build a safer, more progressive future from there. They quarreled every step of the way—like a family. None left the fold lest they miss out on the only viable prospect of peace, freedom and progress—by hanging together so as not to hang separately.

It has since affiliated with major neighbors such as Japan, South Korea and China—in the so-called Asean +3.

And promoted dialogue with partner states like the US in Asean Regional Forums. It’s framed the agenda for

meetings with Australia, India, New Zealand, Russia and others. But it has never adopted any of them as one of its own. That’s like letting the fox in the henhouse. At their farewell lunch for me, I told my Asean colleagues at the UN: “Whatever you do, don’t do a G-77 plus China. Never add a superpower.

You’ll end up the dog being wagged by its tail. Keep it simple: Southeast Asian and no one else.

Second, we have produced legal experts that continue to illuminate international law; from the International Law Commission to various international courts and tribunals.

International law has benefited from legal thinking rooted in the Asian experience, reflecting our pacific ways of accommodating each other where possible, and leaving each other alone when unable to. This year is a milestone for international law. I mentioned the principle of pacta sunt servanda enshrined in the treaty on treaties—the Vienna Convention.

Adopted 50 years ago, it codified bedrocks of acceptable international conduct we hold sacred today. If only we all followed our treaty obligations in good faith, there would have been— there could have been—less war and suffering; less deceit and consequent cynicism about the possibility of right in international relations.

There would have been—there should have been—more progress and better living standards within a larger self-enriching freedom. But to paraphrase Dag Hammarskjöld, perhaps, international law, like the United Nations, is negotiated not to take us to heaven but to save us from hell. After Hammarskjöld, the United Nations led the way to hell on a pavement of good intentions in Rwanda.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the coming into force of our constitution for the oceans: the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). Despite near universal acceptance by 168 states parties, the most imminent and potentially the most disastrous dangers in our world today pertain to maritime affairs—the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea. If only we respected pacta sunt servanda in our obligations under Unclos, there would be less animosity with its greater likelihood of conflict. If only the greatest power on earth led by the example of subscribing to Unclos, it would be a safer world. The only cure for the uncertainty that gnaws at our sense of security—and invites us to prepare for war to find its opposite in peace—is the universal acceptance of international law. Not in place of the national self-interest but to serve it better.

Before I conclude, I wish to take this opportunity to once again welcome our Keynote Speaker Judge Yuji Iwasawa and to announce that the Philippines is fully and unconditionally supporting his re-election to the International Court of Justice in the elections to be held next year. We do not seek any quid pro quo for our vote; because we are casting it for the best of the interest of the world—and therefore of our country. Thank you!

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

A conflict of laws?

Back to the grind

BusinessMirror

Aurora C. Ignacio

Atty. Johannes Benjamin R. Bernabe

Competition Matters

All About Social Security

ntellectual property law and competition law have traditionally been seen as at odds with one another. The conflict owes to the premise that intellectual property law is intended to protect the rights of inventors, artists, writers and businesses through the grant of patents, copyright and trademarks in their favor to the exclusion of others. In a very real sense, these intellectualproperty rights are in the nature of monopoly rights. If the right holder does not want and refuses to allow or license the use of his patent, copyright or trademark to another person, then the community is deprived of the benefits of the right holder’s creation.

he account officers of the Social Security System (SSS) have been working tirelessly since March 2019 to convince delinquent employers in their coverage areas to avail themselves of the one-time Contribution Penalty Condonation Program (CPCP). Upon clocking in at 8 a.m., they consolidate records and compute delinquencies. By 1 p.m., they literally went doorto-door to talk to employers. They had to bring homework on weekends to catch up with the deadline.

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Competition law, on the other hand, frowns upon monopolies.

While modern competition disciplines no longer prohibit monopolies per se, authorities are wary of and enforce the law against abuse of monopoly or dominant position.

Competition law is concerned with the effective and efficient functioning of markets. As such, one of its inherent aims is to ensure that whatever inputs and technologies are needed for the production of goods and services are not foreclosed, that is, made available to the extent possible to all market participants. The question is, how does a competition authority pursue this goal in the face of intellectual property law that permits right holders to restrict access to their creations?

There are no easy, straightforward answers, and much depends on the context and particular circumstances of each case. The protection of intellectual-property rights is justified in that it promotes dynamic efficiencies by incentivizing innovation. Technological and business innovations allow for the more efficient use of labor and capital, and over time, disrupt the old ways to pave for superior quality and consumer choice. Conventional wisdom has it that inventors and creators are more likely to undertake research and pursue inventive products and processes if they know that their innovation will be credited to them, and that the benefits arising from their ingenuity will be reserved for them.

The Philippine Competition Act is not blind to the benefits of innovation, and provides that where an entity is in a dominant position, the entity is not prohibited from entering into agreements that protect its intellectual-property rights. The PCA further recognizes that conduct which improves the production or distribution of goods or services, or promotes technical and economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit may not necessarily be an abuse of one’s dominant position. These are, of course, without prejudice to the Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCC) ability to pursue measures that would promote fair or more competition.

The PCC has not yet had occasion to directly rule on a controversy where the conduct of an entity in a dominant position is sought to be justified on the basis of intellectual property law. Some experts note that case law in the European Union, from which the

relevant provisions of the PCA on abuse of dominant position were adapted, may provide guidance. For instance, it has been ruled in the EU in the Magill case that a refusal to provide basic information, even if protected by copyright, which results in preventing the appearance of a new product, which the copyright owners did not offer and for which there is a potential demand among consumers, constitutes abuse. Similarly, in another case (IMS Health v NDC Health), it was ruled that in balancing the need to protect the economic rights of an intellectual-property rights holder and the need to protect competition, the latter can prevail where the refusal to grant a license prevents the development of a secondary or a neighboring market to the detriment of consumers. The same competition principles were upheld in cases involving Microsoft in cases more recently decided in the EU. Apart from these decided cases, the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines explicitly provides that the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines may grant a compulsory license, i.e., a license to exploit a patented invention, even without the agreement of the patent owner, in favor of any person who has shown his capability to exploit the invention where, among others, an administrative body has determined that the manner of exploitation by the owner of the patent or his licensee is anticompetitive. The PCC, being the agency mandated with the original and primary jurisdiction in the enforcement and regulation of all competition-related issues, clearly has the authority to determine such anticompetitive conduct. Its findings would then provide the basis for IPOPHL to issue a compulsory license that would rectify the restriction of competition in the market.

While much more can be writ and analyzed to explore the interface between competition and intellectual property law, what is certain and urgent is the need for the PCC and IPOPHL to come together and work on their modus for cooperation.

Commissioner Bernabe served as adviser to the Senate and the House of Representatives in the drafting of, and deliberations on the Philippine Competition Act. A lawyer by profession, he was a senior fellow at the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and served as the Philippines’s lead trade negotiator on select issues at the World Trade Organization, also in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Now that the dust has settled with the culmination of the program on September 6, 2019, it is now time to see the results.

SSS is still collecting data from branches nationwide. But as of September 13, the total number of delinquent employers who availed themselves of the program has reached 55,750. The good news: They have about 500,000 employees whose contributions have been settled.

To reiterate, CPCP was beneficial not only for employers and members but also for the SSS. For employers, CPCP allowed them to settle unpaid premiums of their employees with the incurred penalties waived under easy payment terms for a maximum of 48 months. The settlement of unpaid contributions reverted these employers to their good standing status with the pension fund. The

total amount of penalty condoned amounted to P4.42 billion. Employers were only made to pay for the unpaid premiums, amounting to P3.16 billion. Many of them opted for installment payments of up to 48 months.

For members whose benefits were delayed and whose loan privileges were cut due to unpaid premiums, the CPCP paved the way for them to fully enjoy their membership accorded with seven benefits from womb to tomb. Actively paying members can avail themselves of sickness, maternity, unemployment, disability, retirement, funeral and death/survivorship benefits.

Through the CPCP, the pension fund managed to collect from delinquent employers without the lengthy judicial process. As of September 6, 2019, SSS has collected

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 A7

P1.78 billion in contribution delinquencies. The remaining collection through amortization has a little interest to consider the value of money over time.

For me, the most significant impact of CPCP would be the happy faces of members who benefited from the program. The case of Marvin Almencion featured on TV Patrol shows the human face of the program. Almencion has been a household helper for 13 years but without SSS membership. At the time of CPCP, he was about 63 years old when his employer availed of the contribution condonation. In the TV feature, Almencion thanked his employer profusely for paying his SSS contributions. Today, he is back in his hometown province. He can apply for monthly pension soon. The story of Almencion is multiplied by almost half a million employees of employers who availed themselves of CPCP. CPCP was one program that gave a chance for delinquent employers to put their records back to good standing. The regular conduct of the Run Against Contribution Evaders campaign is also a softer approach than the issuance of warrants of arrest for court convicted delinquent employers. Under RACE, erring employers are notified through a show cause order posted in their premises and they are given 15 days to explain why they should not be held legally liable.

Now, SSS is back to the grind with aggressive coverage and collection efforts to ensure that employers fulfill

Can Clark be the next Hong Kong?

Susan V. Ople

Scribbles

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oung people who were born and studied in Hong Kong are now voting with their feet, choosing to emigrate to other places and countries that offer a work-life balance that the Chinese territory could never provide. It was estimated that around 24,300 residents left Hong Kong in 2017, representing a five-year high. Immigration consultants predict an even higher trend of departures among citizens who have become too weary and depressed over the endless protests and political battles for greater freedom and, yes, a better way of life.

By the year 2047, the two systems, one country policy shall likely become a relic of the past, as China fully absorbs the vibrant territory as an extension of itself. Hong Kong residents who thought that China would morph into a humongous version of the popular city are now realizing that in all likelihood their vision was wrong. Clashes over the controversial extradition bill have shown the unbending side of China and the uphill battle for Hong Kong residents to maintain a status quo.

I think that there is an opportunity to be had here, and if properly done, the Philippines can offer the BulacanPampanga-Tarlac corridor and the New Clark City as a viable investment and tourism destination that can rival Hong Kong, and even give Singapore a run for its money. We have ample time to prepare, and these three provinces

in Central Luzon have so much to offer to jaded Hong Kong investors, tourists and permanent residents.

The New Clark City, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), has an area of approximately 9,450 hectares and can easily accommodate up to 1.2 million. Its new Athletics Stadium is set to host from 20,000 to 50,000 foreign and local guests for this year’s Southeast Asian Games. All the facilities in the new sports complex adhere to world-class standards based on the guidelines of the International Association of Athletics Federations. The master plan for New Clark City was designed specifically to ensure that this metropolis would not end up as congested and chaotic as Metro Manila.

BCDA Chairman Greg Garcia told this writer that while Clark may not

become the international financial hub that Hong Kong is known for, it would have its vibrancy and global outlook. “With an airport, and a thoughtful plan to be green and smart, it could be more of a Singapore. New Clark City, for example, will only develop 40 percent and keep 60 percent open space.

But the airport will have the capacity of Hong Kong’s airport.”

The province of Bulacan will be equally as modern and economically attractive as San Miguel Corp. pushes through with the construction of a P734-billion international airport in the quiet, rustic town of Bulakan. The New Manila International Airport will have four runways, expandable to six, with a capacity of 100 million passengers every year. Alongside the airport project, San Miguel Corp. is also eyeing to build a coastal highway, an elevated train system, and a new seaport, thus transforming the historic province to a world-class commercial and transportation hub.

Meanwhile, the province of Tarlac will be home to the National Government Administrative Center at New Clark City. Phase 1 of the 200-hectare government center involves the development of back-up offices of various agencies to ensure continuous business operations and services for the people in case of disaster or national calamities. The second phase involves the construction of additional government buildings, public housing units and support service facilities.

This means that there will be ample government support easily extended to foreign investors that

How Brexit has already cost London’s financial hub billions

By Silla Brush & Viren Vaghela Bloomberg Opinion

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hether the United Kingdom leaves the European Union with no deal or clinches a last-minute agreement in the coming weeks, Brexit has already taken a toll on London’s finance industry.

Three years and three prime ministers since the vote, fraught negotiations and political turmoil have sapped confidence in the industry, putting financial firms on the verge of moving thousands of jobs—and possibly £1 trillion ($1.24 trillion)

of assets—out of London.

There are signs of resilience: London has extended its lead in foreignexchange interest-rate derivatives trading since the referendum, and the city remains the only European financial hub in consultancy Z/Yen’s ranking of the world’s top 10.

Still, Catherine McGuinness, chair of the policy and resources committee at the City of London Corp., which oversees the financial district, said there was little doubt that the Brexit process was hurting financial services, which account for 11 percent of tax receipts in the UK. “The UK does need to be very careful how it treats its services sector,

because it could lose more than it needs to if it’s not,” McGuinness said in an interview. “Of course we will lose some EU-facing business.” She said she’s “very concerned about the shorter term, especially if we have a no-deal exit.”

Here’s a look at the biggest repercussions so far.

The earliest fears about London hemorrhaging tens or hundreds of thousands of jobs haven’t become reality. Still, large global investment banks have relocated 1,000 jobs to the continent so far, and a total of 7,000 could easily move in the short term, according to consulting firm EY. Banks have also earmarked up

to £1 trillion in assets to move to the EU, EY said on September 19, but have been slow to actually shift them. The world’s biggest interdealer broker, TP ICAP Plc., said last month that it may shift as many as 60 brokers out of London if the UK leaves without a deal.

CME Group Inc., the world’s largest exchange, shifted its $230 billion European repo business on its BrokerTec platform to Amsterdam, according to the company’s latest data. It received regulatory approval in March. The roughly $40 billion in UK repo remains in London. Repo deals let big investors—like mutual funds—make money by briefly

lending idle cash to banks and broker dealers, who receive the financing by loaning out securities they hold in return.

LCH, the world’s biggest derivatives clearinghouse, shifted its euro repo clearing business to Paris earlier this year. The arm of London Stock Exchange Group Plc. has also been under pressure from Frankfurt-based Eurex Clearing, which wants a bigger share of the euro interest rate swap business. It has made some inroads in a growing market, but more than 90 percent of the market remains in London.

That’s because big firms dealing in multiple currencies can save on the

their obligations to report their business and employees to SSS, and pay their monthly contributions.

Last week, SSS, together with the Philippine National Police Manila Police District, continued its crackdown of delinquent employers when warrants of arrest were served to two employers in Metro Manila. To date, a total of 15 employers with warrants of arrest have been apprehended nationwide. Three of these are still ongoing trials in courts, while others chose to settle in the recently concluded CPCP. Truth to tell, SSS management does not want employers to be imprisoned. As much as possible, we want to avoid the lengthy judicial process. It is only when push comes to shove that we are forced to resort to filing of legal cases against violators of the SS Law. A reminder to all employers who availed themselves of the CPCP through installments, I strongly advise that you strictly comply with your monthly installments to avoid paying further penalties.

Thank you for the hard work, persistence, and dedication of our 721 account officers nationwide who personally assisted the employers to avail themselves of the CPCP. But the work is far from over. The crackdown on employers who continue to violate the SS Law continues.

Aurora C. Ignacio is SSS president and chief executive officer.

We welcome your questions and insights on the topics that we discuss. E-mail mediaaffairs@sss. gov.ph for topics that you might want us to discuss.

wish to relocate to Central Luzon’s most dynamic growth corridor. What lies next must be private-and publicsector investments in making sure that we have a sufficient talent pool for these new investors to hire and hone, thus facilitating a so-called brain gain that has proved elusive for our labor-sending economy. A more competitive curriculum combined with hands-on training geared toward the most modern workplaces of the future entails a convergence of efforts between industry and the educational sector. This alchemy would ensure that our demographic “sweet spot” would help the Philippines become Asia’s top commercial hub and the best alternative to Hong Kong even prior to the critical year of 2047.

The work-life balance that most Hong Kong residents and even Singaporeans long for, combined with affordable housing and educational opportunities, make us a competitive option. It is consistency of all these efforts over time that would make us an attractive and long-term investment hub. We just need to aim for the stars—and believe that this dream is indeed possible.

To quote Chairman Garcia: “Those three provinces—Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac—shall be growth centers. Individually strong, together awesome.”

Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues.

She also represents the OFW sector in the InterAgency Council Against Trafficking.

cost of margin they have to leave by using only a single clearinghouse.

Most large UK banks have been making provisions to account for an economic downturn or loans turning sour in a hard Brexit.

As much as £61 billion of insurance business is shifting. UK-based underwriters have been transferring policies held by European clients to units in Luxembourg, Ireland, and elsewhere: Admiral Group Plc., for example, chose Madrid, spending £4 million to £5 million to make that move.

With assistance from Will Hadfield, Stefania Spezzati and Jeremy Diamond.

A8 Wednesday, September 25, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL banana shipments may top 2018 record

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalasas

HE Philippines is on track to surpass the 3.4 million metric tons (MMT) of Cavendish bananas it exported last year based on preliminary trade data in the January-to-July period from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data from the PSA obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the country’s banana shipments in seven months reached 2.5 MMT, 50 percent higher than last year’s 1.661 MMT. This means that the Philippines is shipping over 350,000 MT of Cavendish monthly, compared to 237,285 MT recorded in the same seven-month period last year. If this is sustained, total shipments this year could reach a record high of 4.25 MMT. Historical PSA data indicated that the biggest export volume was

recorded in 2014, when shipments reached 3.631 MMT. The expansion in harvest area and significant investments in the sector allowed the Philippines to expand output and regain its position as the world’s second-largest exporter of bananas last year, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Major markets

China remained the top market for Philippine Cavendish in the January-to-July period. The East

Asian country accounted for 36.45 percent of total shipments, PSA data showed. Philippine banana exports to China rose by 65.09 percent to 911,247.344 metric tons, from 551,950.261 MT recorded last year.

The value of shipments also went up by 65 percent to $392.608 million from $237.460 million. The country’s banana shipments to China last year reached 1.273 MMT. PSA data also showed that banana exports to Japan reached 788,048.058 MT, or 54.27 percent higher than the 510,801.497 MT

BTr rejects bids for 20-yr T-bonds FN’s access

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@caiordinario

HE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said it rejected all bids for the reissued 20-year Treasury bonds (T-bond) at Tuesday’s auction as bid rates trended higher compared to the secondary market benchmark and the rate in the last reissuance.

The 20-year government debt papers, which will mature in 19 years and three months, carried a coupon rate of 6.75 percent. If the offers were awarded, it would have fetched an average rate of 5.356 percent, higher than the 5.015 percent posted in the last 20-year T-bond auction in July.

“Bids came in higher than secondary market levels and even in the last auction and we feel that, given the inflation path and the actions from the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas]...that the rates should not be heading where it is based on the bids,” Deputy Treasurer Erwin D. Sta. Ana told reporters after the auction on Tuesday.

Sta. Ana also suspected that there could be concerns surrounding geopolitical tensions and rising oil prices.

He noted that at the last Federal Reserve meeting there were reports of a “hawkish cut” and this was considered in the auction on Tuesday.

With this, Sta. Ana said dealers may have thought they could “park

funds” in long tenor securities.

“But we feel that oil prices [are] actually not a concern for now as the [BSP] Gov. [Benjamin Diokno] mentioned earlier, and you know there is a policy meeting wherein there is a possible rate cut as what has been circulating; so we don’t see the oil issue as a catalyst for rising interest rates,” he said.

Sta. Ana also expressed confidence that the recent Presidential directive to suspend aid negotiations with countries that backed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution to probe the Philippines’s drug war, would not affect the country’s funding program.

See “T-bonds,” A2

DIOKNO STAYS UPBEAT ON GROWTH PROSPECTS

to social welfare eyed

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ANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno is still highly optimistic about the Philippines’s growth prospects for this year, amid the economy’s slowdown in the first half of 2019.

In a recent speaking engagement, Diokno said the Philippines has come a long way from being “Asia’s sick man” and is now recognized globally as among the fastest-growing and most resilient economies in the world that enjoys even brighter prospects ahead.

“At the moment, the Philippines is on the verge of becoming an upper middle-income economy. And with the continued reform momentum, we are paving the way to become a high-income status economy by 2040,” the BSP governor said.

As of the second quarter of 2019, the Philippines recorded its 82nd consecutive quarter of uninterrupted economic growth.

In the first half of the year, however, growth slumped to its lowest in four years at an average of 5.6 percent. This was traced to the slowdown in public investments, amid the government’s inability to pass the 2019 budget on time.

“Our projection is for the Philippines to continue growing. This is consistent with the lofty goal of becoming a high-income economy in about two decades,” Diokno said in Euromoney’s Philippines Investment Forum held in Makati City.

“Based on latest government

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

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SIDE from work, foreign nationals in the country may also be granted access to the country’s social welfare services, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

At the BusinessMirror Coffee Club Forum on Tuesday, Labor Assistant Secretary Benjo M. Benavidez disclosed the proposal has already been raised in the latest board meeting of the Social Security System (SSS).

He noted this will be part of the country’s compliance with the United Nations (UN) Global Compact on Migration, which the Philippines signed in 2018.

“I happen to sit at one of the board meetings of the SSS, where this was discussed since it will need the necessary circular,” Benavidez said.

“Unfortunately, during that commission meeting, it was not approved because we still need accurate data on their numbers and location,” he added.

Unfunded database

NORTHEASTERLY SURFACE WINDFLOW PREVAILING OVER EXTREME NORTHERN LUZON as of 4:00 pm - September 24, 2019

Under a joint memorandum circular on permit issuance for FNs signed earlier this year, DOLE was tasked to maintain the governmentcentralized database of FNs in the country for tax, immigration and work purposes.

Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique R. Tutay said the database is currently still in development.

“The IT [information technology] teams from interagency will meet soonest for the requirements,”Tutay told the BusinessMirror in a SMS. Yet, another challenge for its development is the lack of funds for the said project.

“It was not included in our NEP [National Expenditure Program] for 2020, but we will request for reconsideration,” Tutay said.

Benavidez said they are eyeing the P1.1billion revenue from DOLE’s fees in issuing Alien Employment Permits (AEP), which is currently with the national treasury.

An AEP is issued by DOLE to FNs, who will be working in the country for more than six months.

Double counting

Benavidez said the database will also be crucial in the government’s campaign to accurately identify the number and movement of all FNs in the country.

Currently, he noted, they have had difficulty determining if the number of their AEPs corresponds to single FNs. Benavidez cited the report they got in Cebu, where they had a hard time determining if the AEPs they issued are being used by the same FNs who applied for it.

“They could be a new group. Or the same workers who left and returned so they could renew their work permits,”Benavidez explained.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) also raised the same concern— that some FN may be holding multiple permits to engage in several jobs.

Until the new database could be set up, Benavidez said they will be resorting to repeated labor inspections particularly for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo), which have the highest number of employed FNs. For this year, DOLE has registered 70,130 AEPs issued to FNs working in the 177 inspected service providers of POGOs. This is significantly higher compared to the DOLE’s AEP issuance in 2017 which only reached 41,993; in 2016 (41,993); and 2015 (28,371).

recorded last year. Banana shipments to South Korea expanded by 57.92 percent to 337,678.274 MT from 213,831.139 MT. China dethroned Japan as the top buyer of Philippine bananas last year as Filipino growers took advantage of the expanding Chinese economy and population.

Data from the government and International Trade Centre indicated that China became the Philippines’s No. 1 market for bananas in 2018, claiming the spot that Japan held for over 30 years.

estimates, the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals will continue to paint a positive narrative for the Philippine economy over the next three years. These are led by an even more robust economic growth, stable inflation, and healthy external payments position,” he added.

Diokno also said risks to the country’s economic growth are manageable.

“There will always be risks to the growth outlook. At the moment, some of the challenges ahead include global economic growth slowdown, the US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions, disruptive technologies, infrastructure gaps and weather disturbances,” he said.

“Rest assured the BSP will keep a watchful eye on these domestic and external headwinds to help maintain economic stability for the Philippines,” he added.

With his ties to the administration and his background as budget chief, Diokno has been dubbed by several analysts and economists as a “pro-growth governor.”

In his dialogue with the BusinessMirror recently, he said that growth per se is not bad, but now that he is BSP governor he wants to see more inclusive growth by keeping the inflation rate of the country at bay.

Diokno is poised to deliver another rate cut in the Monetary Board’s upcoming meeting in view of the country’s ailing economic growth and falling inflation.

Bianca Cuaresma

SC upholds Ombudsman in Elenita Binay graft case

By Joel R. San Juan

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@jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court has affirmed the resolution issued by the Office of the Ombudsman indicting former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay for graft and malversation of public funds in connection with the alleged oversupply of hospital beds to the Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) in 2001.

In a 16-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the SC’s Third Division junked Binay’s petition to nullify the Ombudsman’s consolidated resolution of August 29, 2013, which ordered her inclusion in the graft complaint filed against 15 other local government officials for violation of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for malversation of public funds.

Binay was initially cleared of any criminal liability by the Office of the Overall Deputy Ombudsman in a resolution issued on May 9, 2011. However, then-Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales reversed the ruling and instead approved the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s recommendation that she be

added as respondent.

Binay’s inclusion in the two criminal cases was anchored on the motions for reconsideration filed by her co-respondents, who said they could not be held liable for malversation because they were not the funds’ custodians.

They pointed out that it was Binay who not only was the custodian, but was also the approving authority in their disbursement.

In her petition before the SC, Binay sought the nullification of the Ombudsman’s consolidated resolution finding probable case against her, as well as the issuance of a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction to enjoin the Office of the Special Prosecutor and Sandiganbayan from continuing with the trial or any other proceeding in the criminal cases against her.

She argued that since neither the complainants Commission on Audit nor Roberto Brillante moved for reconsideration of the May 9, 2011, resolution, it turned final and executory and, thus, could not be reviewed or reversed by public respondent Office of the Ombudsman.

See “Binay,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Things to know about cash cards, the new wallet

By Joann Villanueva, PNA

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ANKS and technological solutions companies continue to introduce new products that cater to specific groups such as those who love shopping and traveling, and take-up is strong not only because of incentives but security features, as well.

However, some people said the limit on the amount they can load in their prepaid cards is smaller compared to the amount they can spend when they use their credit cards.

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier, the regulatory loading limit for a cash card is P100,000.

However, Fonacier told the Philippine News Agency on Friday that the load cap “is not absolute.”

“EMIs [electronic money issuers] can always request for a higher limit provided that the purpose and use can be justified and there are mechanisms in place to ensure that such cash cards will not be used for money laundering and other illicit activities,” she added.

Cash cards are now in demand since people have started to realize its benefits—chiefly, they’re safer to carry than cash—and because the Central Bank continues to push for the increase of electronic payments, with a target for it to reach 20 percent of total transactions by 2020.

Earlier this month, Filipinoowned infrastructure platform firm OmniPay and global payments services company Diners Club International Ltd. launched their tie-up for the dollar-denominated OmniPay Diners Club Forex Prepaid Card.

The card comes with a mobile app that allows holders to do real-time card-to-card transfer, and quick response payments on top of the usual balance inquiry, which can only be done through automated teller machines for some prepaid cards.

OmniPay President and Chief Executive Officer Simoun Ung said ensuring the safety of the cards issued by their partner

BOC installs new x-ray machines for containerized cargo in 4 ports

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By Cai U. Ordinario

company is a must, and is one of the challenges they need to face to be ahead of the pack.

“I guess one of our advantages is that we built our own and operate our entire IT [informationtechnology] infrastructure,” he said.

Ung said the company has noticed “a lot of pent-up demand” for payments card, and projects an additional 2 million OmniPay Diners Club Forex Prepaid Card issuance by its first year.

He stressed they have put in place measures to prevent their cards from being used for money laundering.

“We do all traditional [measures] but more importantly, I think the KYC [know-yourcustomer] has to be very strong.

And one of the things that we’re working with the Central Bank on this is to do an e-KYC,” he said.

Ung noted they intend to undertake the KYC process by getting prospective customer’s biometrics.

“You can do things like that.

That’s part of our front-end mitigation for the risk for money laundering,” he said.

“And the back end, of course, we track where the money goes.

You can do that in terms of the velocity checks—whether we see a lot of same cards or same series of cards all spending at the same place and those types of things are on our system,” he added.

In a news statement issued on Tuesday, the BOC said it had purchased six new upgraded x-ray machines from Astrophysics Inc., a US company based in Southern California.

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ISING entrepreneur Dennis Uy bagged the highly coveted Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence Award from the world’s most prestigious business awards program for entrepreneurs, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

“He has brought impact to the society and helped build a better working world from job creation through Udenna Corp.’s expanded portfolio, to charity-driven ventures through the Udenna Foundation and Phoenix Philippines Foundation,” said Singapore Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Llp. Max Loh. Winners of the Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence Award are selected according to their entrepreneurial spirit, strategic direction, community impact and personal integrity. Uy’s outstanding entrepreneurial story as a disruptor and industry game changer in the Philippines and the Asean region earned him the coveted title.

As chairman and president of Udenna Corp., which includes Phoenix Petroleum, Chelsea Shipping and Logistics, Enderun Colleges and Udenna Land, among others, he founded and led these companies into an aggressive and impressive growth in just a few years, and contributed to community development

Security Bank named Best Bank, Best SME Bank

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Best Bank and Best SME Bank in the Philippines.

SBC President and CEO Sanjiv Vohra received the awards during the 13th Annual Alpha Southeast Asia Awards on September 17, 2019, at Jurong Ballroom of the Shangri-La

Of the six units, BOC said two are for the Port of Manila, two for the Manila International Container Port, one for Port of Davao and another one for Port of Cebu. “[This] is in line with BOC’s

commitment to strengthen border security measure by increasing its nonintrusive inspection capabilities of containerized shipments,” BOC said. The newly acquired modern x-ray machines can scan at least 120 containers per hour, the BOC statement added, and these are also equipped with material discrimination capability allowing x-ray image analysts to distinguish organic and inorganic materials. The capacity of these machines makes image analysis of x-ray inspectors more accurate in their decision-making process.

The BOC added that the x-ray machines have lower radiation dose ensuring the safety of x-ray workers, as well as the transacting public who

may be exposed to radiation.

“The x-ray scanners are expected to further enhance the capability of BOC in detecting smuggled and antisocial goods like misdeclared items, undervalued goods, non-declared goods, as well as the entry of narcotics in various ports nationwide,” BOC said.

Further, these machines will also enable the rapid and effective screening of containerized shipments with minimum interruption to the movement of goods inside the ports.

Designed for ease of operation and maintenance, the x-ray scanners are expected to minimize unnecessary delays and enhance trade facilitation.

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award goes to Udenna group’s Dennis Uy

Security Bank President and CEO Sanjiv Vohra with Alpha Southeast Asia CEO/Publisher Siddiq Bazarwala

LPHA Southeast Asia, one of the leading regional financial capital markets magazines, recently awarded the best financial institutions in the region. Security Bank Corp., one of the country’s top lenders, received twin citations:

@caiordinario

he Bureau of Customs (BOC) has installed a new set of x-ray machines in the hope of implementing stricter border security nationwide.

Fonacier

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 A9

Hotel in Singapore.

Alpha Southeast Asia was established in 2007, and is the first and only institutional investment magazine focused on Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

through numerous corporate social responsibility programs.

“I am thankful for this award as this validates, not just my hard work, but also all of the people working with me in the Udenna group all these years.

Our goal is simple—to touch the lives of every Filipino in different ways. Each of our brands strives to be of service to the Philippines, and we will continue

to do so for years to come, especially now that we have the affirmation of this great honor,” Uy said.

Established by Ernst & Young Global Ltd. in 2002, EY Entrepreneur of the Year is a recognition presented to successful businessmen who have helped develop economies and communities in the Southeast Asia region.

UY

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If you have any information / objection to the above mentioned application/s, please communicate with the Regional Director thru Employment Promotion and Workers Welfare (EPWW) Division with Telephone No. 400-6011.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR

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Companies BusinessMirror

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

B1

Grab unveils grand plan to usher in Asean into digitally enabled world

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

J

@lorenzmarasigan

AKARTA—Super app Grab has embarked on a massive initiative that will help usher in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, to a new growth path driven by digitally enabled citizens, communities and businesses.

At the launch of Grab’s first Social Impact Report for 2019, Grab officials announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to provide critical technological access to “Aseans” through 2025.

The report revealed that Grab contributed roughly $5.8 billion in the Southeast Asian economy over the last year ending March 2019.

Grab also provided business opportunities to a large number of Southeast Asians. Grab was also able to help 1.7 million micro entrepreneurs open their first bank accounts, and helped spur cashless transactions in the region by 9 times, per the report.

Under its Grab For Good initiative, Grab aims to improve digital inclusion and literacy in the region by providing 3 million people with access to digital education, leveraging on its platform, partnerships and people.

“Grab envisions to create economic access and digital equity for all in Southeast Asia. To achieve this vision of empowerment, inclusiveness, and hope, we are launching Grab For Good, a program aimed at creating access for the various communities in Southeast Asia,” Grab Group CEO Anthony Tan said.

Through its partnership with Microsoft, Grab will scout for universities in the region to design and implement a curriculum that best fits the rising digital trends across the globe.

Aside from this, the partnership with Microsoft will open up more learning opportunities for Grab’s partner-drivers, riders, and their families through the Grab app. Both initiatives will also be introduced in the Philippines.

These, Microsoft President for Asia Pacific Andrea Mattea said, will help upskill Aseans, bridging the tech skills gap in the region, as well as prepare them for the future.

“One of the challenges we see in the Asia Pacific is the democratization of education. We believe education should be accessible to everyone, specifically tech and digital literacy,” she said.

Aside from this, Grab also aims to play a larger role in the digitalization of Asean businesses, especially the micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, which account for roughly 50 percent of the region’s GDP. To do this, Grab Cofounder Hooi Ling Tan said her group will apply the concept of creating economic opportunities at scale across multiple services beyond cars, food and payment.

“We now have the opportunity to help empower more than 9 million micro entrepreneurs, whether they are drivers, merchants, agent partners to earn an income in the Grab platform,” she said.

Through 2025, Grab aims to help over 5 million more traditional businesses, and small merchants digitize their workflows and processes.

DOE raises concerns on bid terms for Meralco power deal

T

HE Department of Energy (DOE) has raised some concerns on the bidding terms of Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) power-supply contract that involves 1,200 megawatts (MW) of greenfield capacity.

“I’m talking to [Meralco] about the certain correction on the TOR [terms of reference]. We’re talking of the size of the plant, not to be limiting...for the plant not to be 100 percent contracted because we want to build our electricity market.

Any greenfield plant can opt to contract or sell only, let’s say, up to 50 percent of the capacity,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

The 50-percent limit is only an example. Cusi said the DOE is still threshing the details out. “We just don’t like it to be limiting, so we encourage more participation so we can build the electricity market, improve our energy capacity, rates and energy reliability. If I sell my capacity at 100 percent then there will be no reserve. What is left for me to trade it in the market?” Cusi pointed out.

Meralco utility head economics Lawrence Fernandez said the DOE was given a copy of the bid bulletin. “It was clarified in bid bulletins that capacity in excess of 1,200 MW may be sold to others, e.g., the WESM [Wholesale Electricity Spot Market],” he said in a text message when sought for comment on Tuesday.

Meralco conducted a bidding, via competitive selection process (CSP), for the 1,200-MW greenfield capacity on September 15, but it was declared a failed bidding after only Atimonan One Energy Inc., a unit of Meralco Powergen Corp., submitted its offer. Meralco President Ray Espinosa said the TOR was amended in order to attract more bidders.

Cusi’s office received the modified TOR from Meralco recently. Once the DOE gives its green light, Meralco will proceed to publish the bid invite and hopefully conclude the bidding process, within the year.

If the CSP is successful, the next step for Meralco is to file the power-supply agreement (PSA) for approval before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

“We’re hoping this week it would be cleared so we can publish also this week and then we can start the rebidding,” said Espinosa.

The DOE has been vocal in saying that it does not want power-generation companies to sell 100 percent of their installed capacity to distribution utilities (DUs). A sufficient buffer must be set aside for replacement power, ancillary services and spot market.

In fact, the agency said in May it was crafting a circular that will cap the energy contracted at 70 percent of the power facility’s installed capacity.

“We have to encourage the power plants to be well-maintained. To do this, we’re looking at a 70-percent cap of their contracting with distribution utilities so that they can have more power available for replacement power, for power available for ancillary services and more power available in the spot market,” said DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella. Lenie Lectura

GrabFood

In the Philippines, Grab is putting prime focus on developing GrabFood, its food-delivery service, to help small-time merchants such as Jolly Jeeps expand their reach through a digital storefront in the ubiquitous Grab app, and the extension of credit lines.

Grab Financial will soon offer micro entrepreneurs loans to merchants to enable them to grow their businesses, and bring greater financial inclusion to the country that has a lack of it.

“As Grab grows from milestone to milestone, we have an evergrowing responsibility to serve the communities that drive our business,” Anthony Tan said.

FIRST GEN HOSTS SIEMENS First Gen Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Jon Russell (right, inset photo) greets Brian Byrne, CEO of Siemens Power Generation Service Asia, shortly before the three-day conference opened. Story on B2

B2

Companies BusinessMirror

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

MPTC acquires Indonesian toll-road operator MUN

F

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

ILIPINO expressway operator Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

(MPTC) has fully acquired Indonesian toll-road operator PT Margautama Nusantara (MUN), after buying out Malaysian investment holding companies CIIF Infrastructure Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and CAIF III Infrastructure Holdings Sdn. Bhd. for P3.44 billion.

T he t r a n s ac t ion , cou rse d through Singaporean firm Metro Pacific Tollways Asia Corp. Pte.

Ltd., involves the acquisition of a total of 2.12-million shares from the two companies. CIIF owns a

20-percent equity interest in MUN, while CAIF III holds a 4.98-percent share in the Indonesian company.

With the buyout, MPTC acquired an aggregate of 24.98-percent equity interest in MUN, a private Indonesian company that currently manages four toll roads in Greater Jakarta and Makassar.

This also resulted in the Filipino company owning 100-percent equity interest in MUN, taking into account its 75.89-percent equity interest in PT Nusantara Infrastructure Tbk., which owns 74.98 percent of MUN. “The transaction is expected to enhance profitability and strengthen the balance sheet of MPTC,” the disclosure read.

In Greater Jakarta, MUN operates the Bintaro Serpong Damai toll

road, a 7.25-kilometer expressway that connects Serpong and Pondok Aren in South Tangerang. It also runs the Jakarta Lingkar Baratsatu, a 9.7-km toll way that connects Kebon Jeruk (West Jakarta) with Penjaringan and the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport area, Cengkareng.

In the Makassar area, MUN operates the 5.95-km Bosowa Marga Nusantara, which links SoekarnoHatta port in Makassar and AP Pettarani road; and the Jalan Tol Seksi Empat, an 11.57-km road that runs from Tallo Bridge to the Mandai Makassar intersection.

MPTC netted P2.4 billion in core net income during the first half of the year, a 6-percent increase from the P2.3 billion it recorded the year prior.

Mobile network experience ‘improves’ in Aug in PHL

W

HILE the Philippines remains far from achieving the global average speed for mobile Internet, the mobile network experience in the country improved as of August, with Smart Communications Inc. still remaining the leading telco in the country based on overall experience.

Data from mobile analytics firm OpenSignal showed that Philippine mobile network operators improved their download speed experience as of August by a few points, with Smart posting an average download speed 9.4 Mbps, while competitor Globe Telecom Inc. was at 6.5 Mbps.

Based on the BusinessMirror’s computations, this means the Philippines has an average download speed

of 7.95 Mbps in August, or almost 10 Mbps lower than the global average of 17.6 Mbps, as per the March data of OpenSignal. Smart, likewise, won in the video experience metric, garnering an average score of 47.6 points, which is at the “Fair” category in OpenSignal’s 100-point scoring system. Globe was at 30.4 points, which falls under the “Poor” rating.

In terms of upload speed, Smart also led the market at a measly 3.3 Mbps, while Globe was trailing at almost half of its competitor at 1.7 Mbps, with latencies experience scores at 61.9 milliseconds (ms) for Smart and 64.2 ms for Globe.

Both operators almost tied in the 4G availability metric with a coverage of 75.3 percent for Globe and Smart

First Gen talking to 20 gas suppliers for its LNG project in Batangas

F

IRST Gen Power Corp. is in talks with 20 gas suppliers interested to supply the Lopez-led firm as it undertakes a billiondollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Batangas City.

“I think we are talking in excess of 20 different suppliers and there is no immediate need to make a decision today. We are still in active discussions with gas suppliers. We haven’t made any decisions in that regard,” said Jonathan Russell, First Gen executive vice president and chief commercial officer.

Even though the company is currently negotiating for short-term LNG supply, Russell said work is currently focused on looking at the start of construction of the terminal.

The supply of LNG, he said, will parallel that.

First Gen has completed predevelopment work to make the site construction-ready.

A groundbreaking was held in May at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in barangays Santa Clara, Santa Rita Aplaya and Bolbok, Batangas City.

“Maybe the way to think about that is, we separate the discussions for the long-term supply which is for 2024 onwards, and also for the short term if we execute the plan to bring in an FSRU [floating storage regasification unit]; then we might bring in LNG as early as 2021 to 2024. We are not yet ready to make a decision for the supplier at the moment,” he said.

The plan is to modify First Gen’s existing jetty to enable LNG to be brought in via an FSRU on an interim basis during the term of President Duterte.

An FSRU is an LNG storage ship with an onboard regasification plant capable of returning LNG back into a gaseous state. This can then be supplied directly to some or all of FGEN’s existing power plants that currently source gas from the Malampaya gas field.

Siemens pitch

Meanwhile, Siemens is interested to supply First Gen with the necessary equipment for its gas projects.

Siemens, if chosen, may be tapped as the O&M contractor for the gas power plants.

“We have said before that we have plans to build at least two new combined cycle units in Batangas.... We are planning to add roughly two new 600 megawatt units. Siemens is one of the companies we are talking with in doing that, using their new H-class machines and upgrade of the San Gabriel units but with higher output and better performance,” said Russell.

Lenie Lectura

a point shy at 74.3 percent.

“It’s pretty clear that Smart remains the operator to beat,” the OpenSignal report read. “But this does not mean Globe has been dormant.”

Globe: 75% availability

Globe, according to the report, “has become the first Filipino operator to pass 75 percent availability at a national level.”

OpenSignal surveyed 190,317 devices with a total measurement of 533.35 million from May until July.

The mobile analytics firm also noted a “pretty impressive score” in terms of 4G availability in Metro Manila for both operators. Together they managed to cover 86 percent of the

mutual funds

total area of the metropolis, which is on a par “even by the standards of much more developed mobile cities.”

The OpenSignal report added, “Even with just two operators, mobile network experience is continuing to improve in the Philippines, even if some people may think Smart could have benefited from a lack of competition for our awards.”

It noted, however, the forthcoming official entry of Dito Telecommunity Corp. in the picture, as it launches sometime in 2020. Dito is expected to go on a price war, according to analysts and industry stakeholders, given that it has to eat up its fair share of the market dominated by the two incumbent players. Lorenz S. Marasigan September 24, 2019

NAV One Year Three Year Five Year Y-T-D

per share Return* Return Stock Funds ALFM Growth Fund, Inc. -a 254.99 1.91% -1.82% -0.4% 1.11% ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 1.5575 12.2% 3.01% 1.06% 8.1% ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -a 3.9601 1.78% -2.92% -1.77% 1.46% Climbs Share Capital Equity Investment Fund Corp. -a 0.9542 7.07% n.a. n.a.

5.9% First Metro Consumer Fund on MSCI Phils. IMI, Inc. -a 0.8496 2.97% n.a. n.a.

3.52% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -a 5.4076 4.52% -0.21% -0.26% 2.55% First Metro Save and Learn Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,6 0.8657 4.46% -4.41% n.a.

3.47% MBG Equity Investment Fund, Inc. -a

117.47 1.67% n.a. n.a.

1.12% PAMI Equity Index Fund, Inc. -a 51.7896 6.04% -0.06% n.a.

5.21% Philam Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 537.86 5.83% -1.07% -0.36% 4.49% Philequity Dividend Yield Fund, Inc. -a 1.3005 4.22% -0.03% 0.75% 3.71% Philequity Fund, Inc. -a 38.3245 5.47% 0.88% 0.7% 4.62% Philequity MSCI Philippine Index Fund, Inc. -a,3 1.0259 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Philequity PSE Index Fund Inc. -a 5.2624 7.09% 0.72% 1.61% 6.12% Philippine Stock Index Fund Corp. -a

878.57 7.13% 0.61% 1.53% 6.05% Soldivo Strategic Growth Fund, Inc. -a 0.9085 7.44% -0.34% n.a.

5.64% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, Inc. -a 4.2603 5.95% 0.41% 0.81% 4.96% Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Stock Index Fund, Inc. -a 1.0094 6.7% 0.56% n.a.

5.77% United Fund, Inc. -a 3.682 5.88% 2.09% 1.92% 5.18% Exchange Traded Fund First Metro Phil. Equity Exchange Traded Fund, Inc. -a,c,2 117.7526 7.4% 1.38% 2.56% 6.32% ATRAM AsiaPlus Equity Fund, Inc. -b

$0.9585 -6.19% 1.51% -1.21% 3.16% Sun Life Prosperity World Voyager Fund, Inc. -a $1.302 -0.23% 7.65% n.a.

17.81% Balanced Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ATRAM Dynamic Allocation Fund, Inc. -a 1.6389 -0.61% -3.37% -3.02% -0.74% ATRAM Philippine Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 2.2832 3.46% -1.33% -0.19% 3.35% First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. -a 2.6461 5.35% 0.09% -1.48% 4.05% Grepalife Balanced Fund Corporation -a 1.3433 2.53% n.a. n.a.

2.99% NCM Mutual Fund of the Phils., Inc. -a 1.9557 6.72% 0.64% 1.01% 6.11% PAMI Horizon Fund, Inc. -a 3.7715 7.42% -0.62% 0.22% 6.86% Philam Fund, Inc. -a 16.9062 7.59% -0.54% 0.14% 6.28% Solidaritas Fund, Inc. -a 2.1408 4.4% 0.25% 1.21% 3.46% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Balanced Fund, Inc. -a 3.867 6.56% 0.27% 0.65% 5.91% Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2028, Inc. -a,d,4 1.0153 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2038, Inc. -a,d,4 1.003 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Achiever Fund 2048, Inc. -a,d,4 1.0005 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Sun Life Prosperity Dynamic Fund, Inc. -a 0.9827 6.28% -0.08% -0.02% 6.62% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Cocolife Dollar Fund Builder, Inc. -a $0.03849 9.81% 2.22% 2.44% 9.04% PAMI Asia Balanced Fund, Inc. -a $0.9889 1.2% 1.81% -0.59% 8.23% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund, Inc. -a $3.7769 2.42% 5.47% 3.04% 14.15% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Wellspring Fund, Inc. -a $1.1158 3.89% 3.52% n.a.

10.48% Bond Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 354 3.68% 2.24% 2.28% 3.07% ATRAM Corporate Bond Fund, Inc. -a,1 1.916 3% 0.02% 0.02% 3.06% Cocolife Fixed Income Fund, Inc. -a 3.0835 5.18% 5.31% 5.25% 3.61% Ekklesia Mutual Fund Inc. -a 2.2019 3.8% 1.18% 2% 3.41% First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund,Inc. -a 2.3312 5.16% 1.33% 1.52% 5.72% Grepalife Fixed Income Fund Corp. -a P 1.6078 2.17% -1.27% 0.31% 2.77% Philam Bond Fund, Inc. -a 4.2868 9.77% 0.54% 1.9% 9.36% Philequity Peso Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.7396 8.02% 1.33% 1.59% 6.33% Soldivo Bond Fund, Inc. -a 0.9483 6.24% -0.29% n.a.

6.41% Sun Life of Canada Prosperity Bond Fund, Inc. -a 3.0133 9.3% 1.94% 2.58% 8.95% Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund, Inc. -a 1.6678 9.03% 1.41% 2.12% 8.31% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities ALFM Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $465.43 4.57% 1.83% 2.87% 3.8% ALFM Euro Bond Fund, Inc. -a Є220.25 3.38% 1.28% 1.54% 3.56% ATRAM Total Return Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -b $1.1968 6.79% 2.02% 2.47% 6.32% First Metro Save and Learn Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $0.0259 4.44% 1.05% n.a.

4.44% Grepalife Dollar Bond Fund Corp. -a $1.7169 1.09% -2.07% 0.49% 1.58% PAMI Global Bond Fund, Inc -a $1.0982 6.71% -0.23% -1.11% 5.97% Philam Dollar Bond Fund, Inc. -a $2.4201 11.65% 1.74% 3.66% 11.48% Philequity Dollar Income Fund Inc. -a $0.0601504 5.81% 1.92% 2.09% 5.53% Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund, Inc. -a $3.1727 9.67% 0.95% 3.04% 10.47% Money Market Funds Primarily invested in Peso securities ALFM Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 124.63 4.08% 2.63% 2.07% 3.1% First Metro Save and Learn Money Market Fund, Inc. -a,5 1.0224 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Philam Managed Income Fund, Inc. -a 1.2372 5.48% 2.27% 1.41% 4.68% Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund, Inc. -a 1.2546 3.9% 2.8% 2.18% 2.9% Primarily invested in foreign currency securities Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Starter Fund, Inc. -a $1.0327 2.22% n.a. n.a.

1.65% 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 - Adjusted due to cash dividend issuance last January 29, 2018. 2 - Adjusted due to stock dividend issuance last June 5, 2018. 3 Launch date is January 3, 2019.

4 - Launch date is January 28, 2019. 5 - Launch date is February 1, 2019. 6 - Renaming was approved by the SEC last October 12, 2018 (formerly, One Wealthy Nation Fund, Inc.).

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

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PSE STOCK QUOTATIONS

September 24, 2019

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

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

64915.5 152386013 136786618 2459455 6036408 192063389.5 4687092 6113195 82420 8044 959800 60076187 1000593 78730 2090 918560 1590 5534332 1230 69550 17670 55999 183500

2517285 33551324.5 -1332435 2622734 -69797152 -2240130 -3217029 -232685 -92500 16290 -

INDUSTRIAL ALSONS CONS 1.3 1.32 1.32 1.32 1.3 1.3 106000 137820 38.95 39 39.95 39.95 38.9 39 2151300 84456400 ABOITIZ POWER BASIC ENERGY 0.25 0.255 0.255 0.255 0.247 0.255 1480000 374740 24.95 25 24.8 25.45 24.8 25 4756200 118960580 FIRST GEN 81 81.1 80.6 81.25 80.6 81 466200 37808714 FIRST PHIL HLDG 368 370 368 370 367 368 206980 76191574 MERALCO MANILA WATER 21.3 21.4 21.35 21.5 20.55 21.3 513200 10872315 PETRON 5.04 5.05 5.12 5.13 5.05 5.05 1454700 7371803 4.27 4.45 4.22 4.45 4.21 4.45 13000 55660 PETROENERGY 2.43 2.44 2.62 2.65 2.42 2.43 41704000 104114290 PHINMA ENERGY PHX PETROLEUM 10.8 10.98 11 11 10.7 11 25600 278920 PILIPINAS SHELL 33.65 33.8 33 34.5 33 33.8 1910100 64496495 7.4 7.48 7.48 7.5 7.35 7.48 43800 323703 SPC POWER 16.04 16.08 16.1 16.12 16 16.08 204900 3294470 AGRINURTURE CNTRL AZUCARERA 18 18.5 18.46 19.3 18.46 18.5 74300 1387138 14.06 14.24 14.2 14.28 14.1 14.24 351600 4985964 CENTURY FOOD 5.92 5.95 5.95 5.95 5.91 5.91 24600 145586 DEL MONTE 9.1 9.19 9.29 9.33 9.1 9.1 1055300 9743151 DNL INDUS EMPERADOR 7.15 7.16 7.24 7.24 7.15 7.16 2176500 15646389 SMC FOODANDBEV 91 91.2 89.55 91 89.55 91 320210 29055774 0.69 0.7 0.71 0.73 0.69 0.7 1148000 801270 ALLIANCE SELECT 49 49.35 49 49.5 48.1 49 40900 1988810 GINEBRA JOLLIBEE 219.8 220 221 221.8 219.6 220 844440 185918144 LIBERTY FLOUR 35.2 49.9 50 50 49.9 49.9 500 24960 13.6 13.74 13.64 13.76 13.6 13.74 128300 1759422 MAXS GROUP 0.19 0.205 0.189 0.21 0.189 0.208 640000 123640 MG HLDG 2.04 2.05 2.03 2.08 2.03 2.05 2901000 5944640 PEPSI COLA SHAKEYS PIZZA 11.64 11.7 11.8 11.8 11.64 11.64 177800 2075246 ROXAS AND CO 1.86 1.87 1.9 1.95 1.85 1.87 4461000 8461110 5.05 5.12 5.12 5.12 5.12 5.12 1500 7680 RFM CORP 2.38 2.4 2.3 2.52 2.3 2.4 34000 82930 ROXAS HLDG SWIFT FOODS 0.125 0.126 0.125 0.127 0.125 0.125 180000 22620 UNIV ROBINA 165.7 166 167 167 165.7 166 375260 62326379 1.24 1.25 1.21 1.27 1.21 1.25 2671000 3337120 VITARICH 2.42 2.52 2.52 2.52 2.42 2.42 9000 21880 VICTORIAS CONCRETE A 72.4 74.9 72.25 74.95 72.25 74.95 210 15199.5 77.15 80 77.1 80.35 77.1 80.15 2180 168897.5 CONCRETE B 2.71 2.72 2.64 2.74 2.64 2.72 2136000 5792510 CEMEX HLDG 6.05 6.15 6.14 6.15 6.14 6.15 22000 135280 DAVINCI CAPITAL EAGLE CEMENT 15.72 15.8 15.6 15.8 15.6 15.72 1389900 21823838 EEI CORP 10.48 10.5 10.5 10.6 10.48 10.48 230100 2413916 14.24 14.3 14.38 14.46 14.2 14.3 118100 1687568 HOLCIM 18.48 18.5 18.46 18.88 18.32 18.5 346400 6375076 MEGAWIDE PHINMA 10.3 10.48 10.16 10.94 10.1 10.48 85800 893436 TKC METALS 1.08 1.09 1.06 1.14 1.06 1.08 448000 478580 1.25 1.26 1.28 1.28 1.23 1.25 5030000 6290010 VULCAN INDL 2.08 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.08 2.12 168000 357790 CROWN ASIA EUROMED 1.66 1.73 1.66 1.66 1.66 1.66 6000 9960 5.4 5.42 5.39 5.42 5.35 5.4 234600 1264008 LMG CHEMICALS MABUHAY VINYL 3.3 3.53 3.53 3.53 3.53 3.53 1000 3530 5.2 5.25 5.21 5.25 5.17 5.2 56200 292319 PRYCE CORP 31 31.3 31.3 31.3 31 31 2100 65370 CONCEPCION GREENERGY 2.52 2.53 2.37 2.55 2.37 2.53 18377000 46012600 INTEGRATED MICR 8.22 8.3 8.45 8.45 8.21 8.22 46700 386770 1.52 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.55 22000 34100 IONICS 5.2 5.29 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3 100 530 PANASONIC SFA SEMICON 1.06 1.07 1.1 1.1 1.07 1.07 128000 137530 10.28 10.4 10.58 10.58 10.3 10.4 248800 2583474 CIRTEK HLDG

-16920 -5788910 30234665 -603521 -12853222 2193735 -1735363 -1229020 -52900 -2755415 748 1662276 998528 865399 -8493977 -20075465.5 668340 -28692804 -1052692 2100 209059.9997 -1554770 1270 -21145841 23220 21880 407310 20525640 -127896 -220724 -4418658 -168922 22690 55510 535 3530 525 6529820 -240114

HOLDING & FRIMS

ABACORE CAPITAL ASIABEST GROUP AYALA CORP ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL AYALA LAND LOG ANSCOR ANGLO PHIL HLDG ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG MJC INVESTMENTS METRO PAC INV PACIFICA PRIME MEDIA REPUBLIC GLASS SOLID GROUP SM INVESTMENTS SAN MIGUEL CORP SOC RESOURCES SEAFRONT RES TOP FRONTIER WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

55 142.5 91.5 25.5 12.1 67.7 12.8 44.9 57 114.8 26.9 196 59.05 1.13 2.01 18.3 0.53 5.39 1.24 0.435 0.92 180.9 1835

0.92 13.02 895 54.55 11.8 3.59 6.9 0.77 1.14 1.17 6.72 8.69 13.48 0.23 844.5 5.85 74.5 5.48 0.51 4.43 14.44 0.59 2.6 5 0.039 1.29 2.87 1.29 1006 177 0.86 2.44 229 0.229 0.26

57.9 142.6 91.55 25.55 12.14 67.75 13 45 57.4 119.9 27 197.2 59.2 1.15 2.08 18.66 0.59 5.4 1.28 0.445 0.93 181 1836

0.94 13.2 900 54.85 11.86 3.6 7.07 0.78 1.15 1.23 6.75 8.7 13.6 0.239 845 6 74.75 6.2 0.53 4.44 14.46 0.64 2.89 5.01 0.04 1.33 3.05 1.3 1010 177.2 0.89 2.59 231.2 0.232 0.265

55.05 142 90.75 25.65 11.98 67.45 13 45.5 57.4 114 27.2 196 59.05 1.14 2.09 18.5 0.53 5.64 1.23 0.435 0.93 180.1 1835

0.93 13.4 896 55.75 12.06 3.61 6.9 0.79 1.18 1.19 6.9 8.79 13.5 0.229 860 5.83 74.1 5.7 0.53 4.41 14.7 0.63 2.89 4.99 0.038 1.33 2.87 1.32 1005 177.9 0.86 2.59 241.8 0.23 0.26

55.05 143 92.4 25.7 12.1 67.95 13 45.5 57.4 119.9 27.2 197.9 59.25 1.14 2.09 18.66 0.53 5.64 1.23 0.435 0.93 180.9 1835

0.95 13.4 900 55.75 12.16 3.63 6.9 0.8 1.2 1.19 6.9 8.85 13.6 0.24 861 6 75 6.4 0.56 4.44 14.7 0.66 2.89 5.01 0.039 1.34 2.87 1.32 1010 178 0.94 2.59 241.8 0.232 0.265

55 141.7 90.05 25.5 11.9 67.45 12 44.9 57 114 26.8 195.8 59 1.11 2.09 18.4 0.53 5.39 1.23 0.43 0.93 180.1 1835

0.92 13.02 890 54.55 11.72 3.56 6.9 0.77 1.15 1.17 6.72 8.69 13.48 0.229 845 5.83 74.1 5.2 0.52 4.41 14.46 0.59 2.89 4.93 0.038 1.29 2.87 1.3 993 175.2 0.86 2.59 229 0.229 0.25

55 142.6 91.5 25.5 12.1 67.75 13 44.9 57.4 119.9 26.9 196 59 1.13 2.09 18.66 0.53 5.4 1.23 0.435 0.93 180.9 1835

0.92 13.02 900 54.55 11.86 3.59 6.9 0.78 1.15 1.17 6.72 8.7 13.6 0.24 845 6 74.5 6.4 0.53 4.43 14.46 0.65 2.89 5 0.039 1.33 2.87 1.3 1010 177 0.86 2.59 231.2 0.232 0.265

1180 1070130 1498830 96200 503600 2834870 375500 135900 1440 70 35700 306230 16950 70000 1000 49700 3000 1014700 1000 160000 19000 310 100

10871000 45200 225760 784210 9331900 1744000 1100 384000 3673000 202000 1061400 6597800 50100 20000 143650 73700 499540 73800 727000 166000 1326800 782000 1000 8230000 4300000 492000 21000 7000 588380 63330 2428000 1000 700 100000 3870000

10153090 -349080 591718 -7812 202303670 9981315 42939803.5 -23201661 110876472 -52111476 6260250 3038650 7590 299770 4255820 237530 7195518 -19109 57,807,748( 32,825,808.0002) 677784 4690 122194540 -96928030 438134 -226950 37251149 8222124.5 404128 388410 734330 -75280 19301704 17359178 471980 2890 2890 41094490 -13355810 165400 3900 644890 60270 9180 1320 592575185 517130075 11177212 1945404 2183210 890 2590 2590 161268 -108020 22940 1007550 96200

PROPERTY ARTHALAND CORP 0.92 0.93 0.92 0.94 0.91 0.93 1910000 1758430 2750 48.65 48.95 48.4 48.95 47.25 48.95 3952600 191477565 4659720 AYALA LAND ARANETA PROP 1.82 1.86 1.82 1.87 1.82 1.87 4000 7330 2.12 2.14 2.14 2.19 2.12 2.12 777000 1658100 -1173460 BELLE CORP 0.86 0.88 0.88 0.88 0.86 0.86 1249000 1083910 A BROWN 0.83 0.86 0.84 0.87 0.84 0.86 39000 32940 CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES 0.217 0.225 0.217 0.217 0.217 0.217 40000 8680 -8680 CEBU HLDG 5.96 6.16 6.1 6.15 6.1 6.15 600 3680 4.87 4.88 4.97 4.97 4.85 4.88 214000 1042160 -180440 CEB LANDMASTERS 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.56 7391000 4173530 -121260.0001 CENTURY PROP CYBER BAY 0.395 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.39 0.395 1110000 435850 -392800 DOUBLEDRAGON 20.65 20.7 20.6 20.8 20.6 20.65 75400 1562880 207535 9.7 9.74 9.85 9.85 9.54 9.7 72000 696404 359617 DM WENCESLAO 0.45 0.46 0.455 0.47 0.45 0.45 740000 340300 EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO 0.121 0.13 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.121 110000 13310 1.64 1.65 1.64 1.65 1.63 1.65 12977000 21326040 10484460 FILINVEST LAND 1.2 1.21 1.2 1.2 1.19 1.2 242000 289540 GLOBAL ESTATE 15.14 15.16 15.14 15.14 15.14 15.14 122500 1854650 -1100678 8990 HLDG PHIL INFRADEV 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.49 1.45 1.45 1250000 1821250 182700 CITY AND LAND 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.75 0.74 0.74 36000 26770 4.96 4.97 4.85 4.98 4.84 4.97 16350000 80443110 -23681830 MEGAWORLD 0.31 0.315 0.31 0.315 0.31 0.315 4050000 1267500 3150 MRC ALLIED PHIL ESTATES 0.43 0.46 0.435 0.435 0.43 0.43 220000 94950 2.05 2.07 2.06 2.09 2.05 2.07 39000 80570 PRIMEX CORP 24.8 24.85 24.95 25.05 24.8 24.8 589600 14667065 -3720370 ROBINSONS LAND 0.38 0.395 0.385 0.385 0.385 0.385 80000 30800 PHIL REALTY 2.34 2.37 2.32 2.34 2.32 2.34 84000 195100 -46400 ROCKWELL SHANG PROP 3.27 3.33 3.33 3.34 3.32 3.33 46000 153170 2.5 2.51 2.41 2.5 2.39 2.5 1820000 4469380 -17500 STA LUCIA LAND 36.6 36.7 35.5 36.7 35.5 36.7 103907400 3743486375 7239530 SM PRIME HLDG 5.93 5.94 5.9 5.95 5.86 5.93 44600 263463 593 STARMALLS SUNTRUST HOME 0.88 0.9 0.87 0.9 0.87 0.9 174000 152690 51.5 53.75 51.5 51.5 51.5 51.5 10 515 PTFC REDEV CORP 7.57 7.59 7.52 7.62 7.52 7.57 2906200 22003532 -13905268 VISTA LAND

SERVICES ABS CBN 18.32 18.4 18.7 18.7 18.36 18.36 101700 1877774 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.25 5.22 5.22 204600 1071037 GMA NETWORK GLOBE TELECOM 1826 1833 1892 1892 1826 1826 57960 107285740 -68788480 PLDT 1108 1109 1105 1120 1105 1108 79885 88719720 -44520215 0.046 0.048 0.048 0.048 0.046 0.048 22600000 1066600 APOLLO GLOBAL 5.76 6.17 6.17 6.17 6.17 6.17 200 1234 DFNN INC IMPERIAL 1.79 1.9 1.79 1.79 1.79 1.79 1000 1790 0.112 0.114 0.116 0.116 0.112 0.114 350000 39520 ISLAND INFO 5.16 5.17 5.32 5.34 5.09 5.17 4667200 24091780 -279886 ISM COMM 2.86 2.98 2.87 2.87 2.87 2.87 2000 5740 JACKSTONES NOW CORP 3.14 3.15 3.21 3.27 3.13 3.14 2649000 8423590 -15730 TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.34 0.345 0.345 0.35 0.34 0.34 3900000 1344800 3.1 3.16 3.16 3.16 3.07 3.16 784000 2438500 -22320 PHILWEB 10.14 10.2 10.2 10.2 10.14 10.14 9800 99720 2GO GROUP CHELSEA 7.02 7.03 7.1 7.18 7.02 7.02 937300 6617228 -1643549 CEBU AIR 92.6 92.65 92.9 93 91.6 92.6 84910 7848556 4984995.5 130 130.1 129.2 130.9 129.2 130 1153570 149865544 -2187820 INTL CONTAINER 0.91 0.93 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.91 138000 125580 LORENZO SHIPPNG MACROASIA 19.08 19.2 19.02 19.2 19.02 19.2 59500 1132338 47600 METROALLIANCE A 1.15 1.17 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.18 42000 49560 8 8.12 8 8.09 8 8 10700 85644 PAL HLDG 1.6 1.62 1.62 1.64 1.59 1.62 576000 928720 -121500 HARBOR STAR ACESITE HOTEL 1.74 1.81 1.87 1.87 1.75 1.81 400000 713120 0.055 0.057 0.055 0.057 0.055 0.055 12450000 691780 BOULEVARD HLDG 9.82 10.88 9.86 9.86 9.86 9.86 10600 104516 GRAND PLAZA 0.68 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.68 0.7 1603000 1090870 WATERFRONT 6.56 6.78 6.56 6.56 6.56 6.56 2000 13120 CENTRO ESCOLAR IPEOPLE 9.01 9.44 9.44 9.44 9.44 9.44 100 944 0.71 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.7 0.72 373000 264540 710 STI HLDG 2.32 2.33 2.36 2.36 2.32 2.32 322000 750880 BERJAYA 11.24 11.26 11.1 11.48 11.1 11.26 1530900 17249772 11208288 BLOOMBERRY PACIFIC ONLINE 2.83 2.84 2.85 2.87 2.83 2.83 64000 181860 -56800 LEISURE AND RES 3.11 3.14 3.14 3.14 3.11 3.11 97000 302470 3.4 3.43 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 42000 142800 MANILA JOCKEY 4.78 5.1 5.1 5.14 5.1 5.14 5000 25600 PH RESORTS GRP PREMIUM LEISURE 0.74 0.75 0.73 0.76 0.73 0.74 10492000 7833330 -14810 TRAVELLERS 4.8 5.48 5.48 5.48 5.42 5.42 1100 5968 2.39 2.4 2.45 2.45 2.39 2.39 1224000 2946010 -67560 METRO RETAIL 40.4 40.7 41.5 41.5 40.4 40.4 1023100 41467150 -16496640 PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL 78.25 78.35 78.5 78.5 78.25 78.25 53820 4211480 -368557.5 PHIL SEVEN CORP 137.8 140 137.6 138.9 137.1 138.9 34190 4747372 26134 2.82 2.83 2.83 2.85 2.81 2.82 2155000 6082040 2757720 SSI GROUP 16.18 16.26 16.04 16.3 16 16.26 1767200 28532054 2467894 WILCON DEPOT APC GROUP 0.68 0.69 0.69 0.71 0.66 0.68 61994000 42298680 104040 EASYCALL 9.93 10.2 9.95 10.24 9.9 9.92 56800 565950 420.6 430 420.6 430 420.6 430 810 347758 GOLDEN BRIA 2.76 3 3 3 3 3 1000 3000 3000 PAXYS PRMIERE HORIZON 0.56 0.57 0.57 0.57 0.56 0.57 3377000 1919800 -117920.0001 SBS PHIL CORP 9.11 9.12 9.12 9.12 9.12 9.12 24000 218880

MINING & OIL ATOK 11.5 11.92 12.04 12.04 11.5 11.92 6100 71026 1.16 1.17 1.2 1.2 1.16 1.17 2326000 2726520 1170 APEX MINING ABRA MINING 0.0016 0.0018 0.0017 0.0017 0.0017 0.0017 103000000 175100 -17000 ATLAS MINING 2.5 2.54 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 55000 137500 1.18 1.2 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.18 7000 8260 BENGUET A 0.285 0.295 0.285 0.285 0.28 0.28 200000 56300 COAL ASIA HLDG CENTURY PEAK 2.65 2.68 2.67 2.67 2.65 2.67 550000 1462370 7.74 7.97 7.75 7.9 7.74 7.9 600 4663 DIZON MINES 1.74 1.76 1.76 1.77 1.71 1.76 28431000 49583190 14085000 FERRONICKEL 0.239 0.242 0.255 0.265 0.238 0.242 6430000 1582570 GEOGRACE LEPANTO A 0.108 0.111 0.109 0.111 0.108 0.11 500000 54250 0.106 0.109 0.109 0.109 0.104 0.106 14920000 1567290 -1549270 LEPANTO B 0.01 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 155600000 1756700 MANILA MINING B 1.16 1.2 1.16 1.16 1.16 1.16 17000 19720 MARCVENTURES NIHAO 1.23 1.25 1.22 1.3 1.21 1.23 2052000 2575130 -12810 NICKEL ASIA 4.29 4.3 4.28 4.33 4.18 4.29 3353000 14329280 2890260 0.5 0.54 0.54 0.54 0.5 0.5 177000 89460 540 OMICO CORP 0.91 0.92 0.92 0.92 0.91 0.91 428000 392660 920 ORNTL PENINSULA PX MINING 3.83 3.85 3.82 3.85 3.81 3.83 148000 567160 22.3 22.35 22.65 22.85 22.05 22.35 1128500 25238960 -20397695 SEMIRARA MINING 0.0064 0.0068 0.0068 0.0068 0.0065 0.0066 13000000 87900 6800 UNITED PARAGON 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.011 0.011 700000 7800 ORNTL PETROL A ORNTL PETROL B 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 1600000 19200 -18000 PHILODRILL 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.012 0.011 0.011 9700000 107000 -33000 PHINMA PETRO 8.91 8.92 9.19 9.3 8.91 8.91 959300 8638363 77682.9997 11.96 11.98 12.1 12.2 11.96 11.96 1422900 17119944 -524762 PXP ENERGY

PREFFERED

HOUSE PREF A 97.5 99.65 99.65 99.65 99.65 99.65 150 14947.5 505 513.5 505 505 505 505 7000 3535000 AC PREF B1 AC PREF B2 503.5 504.5 505 505 503.5 503.5 11990 6049290 101.5 101.7 102 102 101.6 101.6 12120 1232240 DD PREF 990 998 990 990 990 990 600 594000 SMC FB PREF 2 107 108.8 108 108.8 108 108.8 6850 741981 FGEN PREF G GLO PREF P 500 505 505 505 505 505 20 10100 980 990 980 980 980 980 1000 980000 GTCAP PREF B 0.98 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.98 0.99 1105000 1093940 LR PREF 101 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 101.5 18620 1889930 MWIDE PREF PNX PREF 3B 108 109 109 109 108 108 310 33490 32400 PCOR PREF 2B 1026 1030 1025 1030 1025 1030 215 220530 1056 1058 1056 1056 1056 1056 1000 1056000 PCOR PREF 3A 1081 1082 1080 1081 1080 1081 3855 4165950 PCOR PREF 3B SMC PREF 2C 77.9 78 78 78 77.9 77.9 10310 804141 30381 SMC PREF 2D 75.1 75.5 75.4 75.4 75.05 75.1 21700 1629150 75.6 77.95 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 10380 794070 SMC PREF 2E 76.5 76.6 76.5 76.5 76.5 76.5 37000 2830500 SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G 75.35 76 76 76 76 76 79150 6015400 75.2 76.4 76 76 76 76 1018080 77374080 SMC PREF 2H 76.5 76.7 76.6 76.6 76.6 76.6 763910 58515506 SMC PREF 2I PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS ABS HLDG PDR GMA HLDG PDR

18.02 5.1

18.2 5.17

18.22 5.1

18.24 5.17

18.2 5.1

18.2 5.17

167600 5100

3,051,210( 26017

WARRANTS LR WARRANT

1.6

SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ITALPINAS 6.82 10.22 KEPWEALTH 0.95 XURPAS

1.7

1.61

1.65

1.6

1.6

104000

166720

-48050

6.85 10.24 0.96

7.4 10.54 0.96

7.41 10.86 0.97

6.85 10.14 0.95

6.85 10.22 0.95

1851600 319100 1601000

13126790 3318022 1529800

-28956 1078 46530

EXHANGE TRADE FUNDS FIRST METRO ETF

118.4

2,686,930.0001) -

119

118

119

117.7

118.4

11840

1402591

-35400

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Europeans side with US over Iran on Saudi strikes, new nuclear deal

I

ran’s key European partners distanced themselves from Tehran amid rising tension with the United States, saying the Islamic Republic was responsible for attacks on Saudi oil facilities on September 14, and calling for an expanded deal to constrain the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

In a joint statement on Monday, France and Germany joined the United Kingdom in saying Iran was behind the attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities, adding that “no other explanation is plausible.”

The statement comes just days after US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia on what he called a mission to build a coalition to respond to the attacks.

While reiterating their support for the 2015 nuclear accord that President Donald J. Trump withdrew from last year, the three nations didn’t repeat their past criticism of his decision. Instead, they said, “The moment has come for Iran to accept negotiations on a long-term framework on its nuclear program, as well as on regional security, including its ballistic missiles.”

But the message of support for the agreement was muddled when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson took Trump’s side, saying he saw faults with the existing accord.

“The reality is, as President Trump rightly said, it was a bad deal,” Johnson told NBC News, in remarks recorded before the European partners met. “It had many defects. Iran was and is behaving disruptively in the region. There’s one guy who can do a better deal and one guy who understands how to get a difficult partner like Iran over the line and that is the president. So I hope that there will be a Trump deal.”

It was unclear to what extent the prime minister’s comments reflected a difference of opinion with Germany and France and to what extent he was simply flattering his American host. Johnson’s office later tried to back away from his words, insisting he continued to support the existing nuclear accord.

Jarrett Blanc, a former coordinator on the nuclear deal under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it was hard to decipher the conflicting comments.

“This is not a clear message,” he said. “The Europeans have sought negotiations with Iran on these issues before. But clearly they’re trying to send a message to link everything together and tie it to this attack.”

Either way, the statement was a diplomatic victory for the US. Brian Hook, the American special representative for Iran, said “we were very pleased” when asked about the comments.

After Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear agreement, the UK, France and Germany tried to help the Iranians find a way around renewed and expanded US sanctions, seeking to create an alternative financial mechanism to facilitate trade.

But Iranian officials repeatedly said the Europeans weren’t doing enough to help Tehran reap the economic benefits expected from the agreement, and in recent months Iran began breaching limits on nuclear enrichment.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, “no new deal before compliance w/ current one.”

The nuclear agreement was long criticized by Trump and his aides for not doing more to address Iran’s ballistic missiles and “malign” behavior in the region, from Syria to Yemen. Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are in New York this week, though both sides have effectively ruled out a meeting to help lower tensions following the Aramco strike, the shooting down of an American drone and a spate of attacks on oil tankers earlier this year.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Rouhani for two hours on Monday and told him, according to Macron’s office, that defusing the crisis was narrowly possible but that the Iranians had to act. Rouhani responded that he was willing to work with the three European countries, and to discuss the civil war in Yemen and other security issues, the French president’s office said.

Trump last week ordered a modest increase of US forces in the Persian Gulf region. Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected involvement in the Aramco attack and Zarif has warned that a mi l itar y str i ke on Iran by Saudi or US forces would turn into “all-out war.” Bloomberg News

China gives new waivers for tariff-free US soy purchases

T

he Chinese government has given new waivers to several domestic state and private companies to buy US soybeans without being subject to retaliatory tariffs, according to people familiar with the situation.

The companies received waivers for between 2 million to 3 million tons, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Some firms already bought at least 20 cargoes, or about 1.2 million tons, from the US Pacific Northwest on Monday, the people said.

Among the companies are stateowned buyers Cofco and Sinograin, as well as five other crushers, the people said. China’s commerce ministry didn’t respond to a fax seeking comment.

The waivers follow a meeting between working level officials last week in the US and before top negotiators meet next month to try to resolve the trade dispute.

China’s commitment to buy more US agricultural products is central to the talks, with President Donald J. Trump looking to shore up support from American farmers, an important political constituency

in next year’s elections.

Soybean futures traded in Chicago gained as much as 0.2 percent on Tuesday, erasing an earlier 0.2-percent decline. Soybean meal prices also reversed losses, adding 0.2 percent.

Looking for signs

Investors have been watching for signs of whether China w i l l boost US far m impor ts, v ie w i n g t he pu rc h a s e s a s a prox y for the outlook on trade talks. Global financial markets were roiled in the past two days after a Chinese delegation’s visit to American farms was called off at the request of the US. The change in schedule has nothing to do with trade talks, China’s Vice Agriculture Minister Han Jun was quoted as saying in a China Business News report.

China is willing to expand farm trade, and the two nations had sufficient and candid communication about agriculture in just-finished ministerial level negotiations, the report said. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He plans to visit Washington next month for trade talks.

Bloomberg News

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

B3

UN opens annual leaders’ meeting amid global strife

U

NITED NATIONS— Navigating a troubled era’s choppy waters, world leaders gather for their annual meeting at the United Nations on Tuesday to grapple with climate change, regional conflicts and a dispute in the Middle East that could ripple across the entire planet.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will open the General Assembly proceedings with a “state of the world” speech. He’ll be followed immediately by the traditional first speaker—Brazil, represented by its new president, Jair Bolsonaro—and the United

States, represented by President Donald J. Trump.

The United Nations, designed to promote a multilateral world, has struggled in the face of increasing unilateralism by the US and other nations that favor going it alone over the brand of

collaboration that the global body advocates.

T he event unfolds against the backdrop of flaring tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, backed by its longtime supporter, the US. The Saudis say Iran was responsible for an attack earlier this month on two oil facilities, which Iran denies.

The Trump administration, no fan of the Iranian government, has been engaged in an escalating series of harsh words and threats with Tehran. The US has imposed increasingly crippling sanctions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is in New York, is scheduled to address world leaders on Wednesday.

This year’s General Assembly session, which starts on Tuesday and ends September 30, has attracted world leaders from 136 of the 193 UN member-nations. That large turnout reflects a growing

global focus on addressing climate change and the perilous state of peace and security.

Other countries will be represented by ministers and vice presidents—except Afghanistan, whose leaders are in a hotly contested presidentia l campaig n ahead of September 28 elections, and North Korea, which downgraded its representation from a minister to, likely, its UN ambassador. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled plans to attend and are sending ministers.

Last week, Guterres repeated warnings that “tensions are boiling over.” The world, he said, “is at a critical moment on several fronts—the climate emergency, rising inequality, an increase in hatred and intolerance, as well as an alarming number of peace and security challenges.” AP

Oil slips on signs of returning Saudi output as doubts linger

O

il edged lower on signs Saud i A rabi a i s m a k i ng progress in restoring lost output even as uncertainty remains about the kingdom’s ability to meet its timeline of a full return by the end of the month.

Fut ures d ropped 0.6 percent in New York a f ter r isi ng 1 percent on Mond ay. Saud i A ra mco is re t u r n i ng most of its domest ic oi l ref i ner ies to f u l l c apac it y a f ter cutting back on processing to meet t he c r ude dem a nd s of c u stomers, accord i ng to people fa m i l i a r w it h the matter. US stockpiles probably dec l i ned by 6 0 0,0 0 0 ba r re l s l a st week, a Bloomberg sur vey showed.

Oil is heading for the biggest monthly gain since June, following the attacks that took out 5 percent of global supply and spurred a record spike in prices. The US, France and the United Kingdom have all blamed Iran for the strikes, with the Americans moving more weapons and troops to Saudi Arabia. While the kingdom has reiterated its commitment to restore output to pre-attack levels by the end of September, some analysts and consultants are skeptical about that target.

“As repairs proceed and optimism starts rising, oil may be pressured downwards again,” said Howie Lee, a Singapore-based economist at OverseaChinese Banking Corp. Still, skepticism about how quickly Saudi Arabia’s production will return is likely to keep prices supported, he said.

West Texas Intermediate for November delivery dropped 37 cents to $58.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:50 a.m. London time, after falling as much as 0.7 percent earlier. The contract gained 55 cents to settle at $58.64 on Monday.

Brent crude for November slipped 45 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $64.32 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. The contract closed at $64.77 on Monday, up 0.8 percent. The global benchmark crude traded at a $6.04 premium to WTI. State-run Saudi Aramco reduced refinery run rates by 1 million barrels a day after the attacks to make more crude available for export. The kingdom’s oil inventories are down 8.4 percent since the strike, according to Orbital Insight.

If Energy Information Administration data on Wednesday confirms the expected decline in US crude stockpiles, it would be the fifth weekly draw in six weeks. Inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels to 417.1 million barrels in the week ended September 13, according to the EIA. Bloomberg News

B4 Wedneday, September 25, 2019

Synergy’s CISC: Getting ahead in the Expectation Economy

‘My Father, the Chief Purpose Officer’

M

Y father, Gil G. Chua, is a son of a Chinese migrant from a middle-class family raised in Catanduanes, Bicol. He was the first in the family to run a multinational company as its brave and visionary Chairman and CEO. A working student and a young father at the age of 19, Papa started his first job as an assistant in the media department of Advertising & Marketing Associates (AMA) in 1977. Throughout his decades-long career, he rose through the ranks and eventually took over what is now DDB Group Philippines.

He catapulted the company to become the country’s first and largest integrated marketing communications and business solutions provider, comprising three agency networks, three specialist agencies, two media companies, and five strategic business units operating in five cities and seven other locations across the country.

He worked very long hours and also had to be away on out-of-town trips very often, yet he was present in my and my siblings’ growing up years. He taught us how to swim, how to drive, how to save, how to argue, and how to thrive. He also encouraged us to consistently desire to learn, which today, is the kind of value that we also inculcate in our employees.

When I joined the company eight years

ago, Papa turned out to be my biggest critic and most trusted ally. Each year, he would raise the bar of excellence for all of us. He loves disrupting our routine, constantly challenging us to find innovative and better ways to accomplish growth.

Papa is one shining example of this brand of leadership with his unwavering commitment to the company and his people.

He’d say: “The one thing I love the most about this organization is that we are able to help talented Filipinos live meaningful lives by having a place to go to each day where they get to contribute, have a sense of purpose, and provide value to the community around them and to the nation. So my wish is for all of you to embrace the gift of work, grow the business to provide more job opportunities for Filipinos.”

Papa has just turned 62. Time goes by so fast. As we approach the peak of our journey together, I shall continue to learn from him and follow his example as I fulfill my role as a business leader and as a parent raising my own children. Most of all, I shall take to heart the most important lesson he has taught me, that is, it’s not about how much you know, but what you do with your knowledge to help others thrive as well.

Happy Birthday to my Chief Purpose Officer and father, GGC. For everything

you are and do for all of us, thank you. We pray for your continued good health and happiness always.

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DDB GROUP PHILIPPINES’ CULTURE Chief Anna Chua-Norbert writes a birthday piece for his dad, advertising icon and DDB Chairman & CEO Gil Chua, from whom she learned her first leadership lessons.

Hyundai PH continues expansion, launches new commercial vehicle dealership in Baliwag

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YUNDAI Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI) formally opened the latest addition to its growing commercial vehicle dealership network in the Philippines, right in the booming first class municipality of Baliwag, Bulacan.

Operated by the LausAutoGroup, it is the seventh inaugurated CV dealership since HARI’s appointment as official distributor of Hyundai commercial vehicles in the Philippines in 2016.

The LausAutoGroup has been a key partner in the past 15 years as Hyundai bolstered its presence in key areas of Central and Northern Luzon. These regions are now hotbeds of major economic and transportation developments, such as the New Clark City, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 7 (MRT-7), and the soon-to-rise New Manila International Airport.

In his speech, Baliwag Mayor Ferdinand V. Estrella, thanked Hyundai and HTB-Baliwag for setting up shop in his beloved town. “Hopefully, Baliwag would be the fourth city to rise in Bulacan. At naniniwala po ako na ang ganitong klase ng negosyo ay napakalaking tulong po sa aming bayan.”

Hyundai Trucks & Buses-Baliwag is now ready to link and elevate business mobility within Baliwag and from Baliwag to the rest of Northern Luzon. On the same note, HTB-Baliwag Dealer Principal

Lisette Laus-Velasco called to mind her father and LausAutoGroup founder, the late Levy Laus’ passion for countryside development. “He committed to create a Metro Central Luzon by sharing resources and opportunities to the region’s seven provinces, including Bulacan, which is part of the growth corridor of this region….

Definitely, with Hyundai Trucks and Buses, we can provide the necessary logistical and business support foreseen for Bulacan as it continues to rise as an investment hub and another beacon of the future.”

Adhering to Hyundai’s Global Dealership Space Identity (HGDSI) standards, Hyundai Trucks & BusesBaliwag is also part of the Philippine Green Building Initiative (PGBI) and is “grEEEn” (Geared for Resiliency and Energy Efficiency for the Environment) certified.

The dealership’s dedicated and customer-

focused Sales and After-Sales professionals are ready to bring expert mobility solutions to entrepreneurs.

HTB-Baliwag also provides Call for Service Inspection (CSI), a network-wide aftersales program that makes it easier to maintain a fleet of Hyundai commercial vehicles. Through this proactive service, customers can call for a Hyundai Service Team to come and assess the condition of their Hyundai Truck and/or Bus vehicle or fleet of vehicles at no added cost.

Learn more at www.hyundai.ph and www.facebook.com/HyundaiPH. For further information, contact: Raffy Ledesma Antonio “Toney” Sevilla Tel: (+632) 813-6788/898 loc. 490 Tel: (+632) 813-6788 to 89 loc 415 Mobile: +639178175271 Mobile: +63917-8015907 reledesma@hyundai-asia.com asevilla@ hyundai-asia.com

Turning back the clock to honor motoring legacy and style

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S the south of England enjoyed a prolonged summer, the motoring world turned back the clock for the Goodwood Revival on the second weekend of September. Racing cars from 1948 to 1966 roared around the 2.38 mile (3.83 km) track to the delight of the drivers behind the wheel and the spectators in the crowded grandstands. The Goodwood Revival is the ultimate time capsule, where the tradition of the automobile and society’s passion for motoring is celebrated. For over 80 years, Rolex has supported motor sport and its drive to continually push boundaries and challenge engineering conventions. Since 2004, the Swiss watch brand has been the Official

Timepiece of the Goodwood Revival and the Title Sponsor of the Rolex Drivers’ Club.

“The Goodwood Revival brings together the most spectacular collection of performance cars,” says Sir Jackie Stewart, Rolex Testimonee and three-time FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ World Champion.

Driving a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C was fellow Rolex Testimonee and nine-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Tom Kristensen. Finishing fourth. Kristensen talked about the magic of the Goodwood Revival: “There really is no better place to be on a summer’s day. It is fantastic to be invited by the Duke of Richmond and to get the chance to drive such a variety of beautiful

cars. The cars tell the rich heritage of motor sport and it is so important to continue to celebrate that.”

The attention to detail and the carefully chosen outfits – recreating the fashions of the 1940s, 50s and 60s – ensure that the Goodwood Revival is an annual tradition not to be missed. This year the event paid homage to the iconic British Mini as over 150 cars celebrated the brand’s 60th birthday.

The Duke of Richmond announced the winner of the Rolex Driver of the Meeting -- Sam Hancock -- who did a display of extraordinary overtakes in multiple races. He said: “This is very special to me, I will cherish this Rolex and enjoy wearing it. To win such a prize is just magical.”

Sir Jackie remarked: "In motor sport, you can take great pride in looking back at the incredible people who wore Rolex watches such as Sir Malcolm Campbell, the World Land Speed Record holder in the 1930s.

To this day, a Rolex watch represents absolute excellence and dedication.”

E now live in the expectation economy wherein customer expectations will be set by the best in class: design, customer experience, service, quality, price etc. We need to anticipate future customer needs.“ Such was the overarching point of the keynote message

by Henry Mason, Managing Director of Trendwatching, a sought-after trend expert who has been quoted in numerous business publications such as The Guardian, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist and more. This keynote address set the tone for this year’s “Consumer Insighting & Storytelling Conference – The Next Frontier”

by Synergy Market Research + Strategic Consultancy*, held on August 28-29 at the Marquis Events Place in BGC. Dubbed as the ‘The Next Frontier’, range of topics covered not only local and international brand stories that showcased best practices, but also approaches from various disciplines that use consumer insighting in order to address the evolving needs and wants of consumers to future-proof brands and businesses.

In line with this year’s theme, a peek into

the present and future consumers through PwC’s Global Consumer Insights Survey 2019 delivered by Benjamin Azada, Consulting Managing Principal, and FEU Institute of Education Dean Harold Culala’s Gen Z and Alpha Gen Study were both shared for the first time here in the Philippines. Jane Basas, President of Cignal TV and TV 5, emphasized the potential of women as content creators and being natural storytellers themselves.

Also, as a future potential state, Sen. Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian catalyzed the idea of the Philippines’ strengths and areas to hone in order to be a future knowledge hub in Asia. Synergy hopes that private and public collaboration dialogues, new/meaningful conversations and further exploration of these will continue even after the conference.

A learning event to anticipate every year, this flagship conference of Synergy is the brainchild of its President/CEO, Ms. Reyes, as part of the company’s advocacy to propagate the value of getting valid and actionable insights from customers especially during the expectation economy. The event will again be back on stage in June 2020.

RUSSIA IN DEEP, TROUBLED WATERS D OHA, Qatar—Russia’s doping troubles are nowhere near over. After a head-snapping day of developments from Moscow to Tokyo to the Middle East, the country has new fears that its status at next year’s Olympics could be in jeopardy—and no doubt about where it stands in track and field.

“It just reinforces everything,” Rune Andersen, the head of track’s task force on Russian doping, said Monday in Qatar after recommending that the country’s federation remain barred during this week’s world championships.

Earlier Monday, the World Anti-Doping Agency had announced during its meeting in Tokyo that it was giving Russia three weeks to explain what looked like manipulation of critical data from its Moscow lab, which was not matching up with data Wada received from a whistle-blower who helped break open the Russian doping scandal in 2016.

The lab data was key to prosecuting cases stemming from Russia’s intricate plot to give its athletes performance enhancers in preparation for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and other big events, while preventing them from getting caught.

Andersen’s report for track’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), offered a detailed accounting of the data case that Wada had made public earlier. It said the discrepancies “are not random. In many cases, they relate to positive findings that appear” in the database provided by the whistle-blower.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Russian officials took a dreary view of the developments, which could lead to the country’s anti-doping agency being suspended again, some 12 months after reinstatement upon delivering the lab data to Wada.

“The situation is very serious,” Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said.

He added that if Russia can’t either rebut the claim or identify potential suspects in the data manipulation, “then the Russian Olympic team’s prospects of taking part in the Games in Tokyo next year could be under threat.”

With the Russian Olympic Committee suspended last year, Russians competed as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” at the Pyeongchang Games—not allowed to wear their country’s colors or bring their country’s flag.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reinstated the Russian Olympic Committee after those Winter Games, and all appeared to be getting back to normal for Tokyo.

Until this.

When asked about the data investigation, the IOC said it “fully respects this process” and Wada’s jurisdiction.

The possibility of data manipulation has potential to threaten dozens of cases that individual sports federations have been pursuing against Russian athletes.

The data already has been used to support suspensions against 12 Russian weightlifters, including 10 former world or European championship medalists, and cases in the winter sport of biathlon.

Though once considered among the most corrupt of sports organizations, the IAAF has taken as tough a stance as any when it comes to Russian doping. The country’s track federation has been suspended since 2015. When worlds open Friday, it will mark the second straight time Russia will bring a truncated team to the championships, and the athletes who do come—30 of them, at this point— will have to compete without their country’s flag or uniform.

Any slim chance of that changing was obliterated by the latest news.

Andersen’s report also included details about banned coaches still allegedly involved in the sport, and the case of high jumper Danil Lysenko, who was supposed to represent Russia’s new, drug-free generation but is under investigation for having documents forged to avoid being suspended for a whereabouts violation.

“It really does not remotely surprise me that the council unanimously endorsed the strongest recommendation that we have...had from the task force that the Russian federation remain suspended,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said.

Beyond giving Russia three weeks to come up with answers, Wada would not put a timeline on the data investigation. Its director general, Olivier Niggli, stood by last year’s decision to reinstate Rusada under lessstringent terms than were initially proposed.

“I believe it was actually a very important decision and absolutely the right decision,” Niggli said. “I’m convinced that we would not have the data if we had not taken that decision, so we would not even be talking about it today. There would still be a cloud of suspicion and nothing would have gone forward.”

Niggli conceded the tampering could force Wada to drop some of the cases against Russian athletes, “but there will be a good number of cases which can still move forward.”

Andersen said he expects to hear more from Wada in November, possibly at its next meeting in Poland.

The clock is ticking.

Next year’s Olympics start July 24—10 months from Tuesday—and it now seems certain that Russia’s status as a rule-following, drug-free sports country is in question again.

“Clearly it’s incredibly concerning and incredibly disappointing,” said Nicole Sapstead, the CEO of the UK Anti-Doping Agency, which led the overhaul of Russia’s anti-doping operation. “A number of obstacles were placed to avoid that data being obtained.

And then when it’s finally obtained and you’re rooting through it and assessing it and assimilating it, you suddenly find that it all doesn’t quite tally.” AP

Sports BusinessMirror

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ednesday, September 25, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS?

St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Carlos Martinez (18) celebrates his team’s 9-7 victory with catcher Yadier Molina after the final out of their Major League Baseball game on Monday in Phoenix. AP

‘Greatest track and field story on Earth no one knows about’

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OHA, Qatar—For 27 years, 400-meter hurdler Kevin Young has followed a similar routine to celebrate his world record: Call some media outlets to drum up interest (usually, not many takers) and perform a few push-ups (just because).

That’s it. No popping of champagne. No special dinners. The American ran 46.78 seconds on August 6, 1992, on his way to Olympic gold at the Barcelona Games.

It remains one of the longeststanding world records on the men’s side and, yet, he lives in anonymity.

Few fans recognize him. Well, sometimes he does get asked about it when he wears a chain with a good-luck charm that reads “46.78.” But most confuse the numbers for a birthday.

His mark will be in the spotlight at the world championships this week, because there’s a good chance it might fall. Maybe Karsten Warholm of Norway breaks it or Rai Benjamin of the US or possibly local favorite Abderrahman Samba of Qatar.

For the record, Young doesn’t want to see his mark broken—ever.

“I want to own the record as long as I can because it makes me relevant,” Young said in a phone interview. “After someone breaks it, I Hurdler Kevin Young is hoping his 27-yearold 400-meter hurdler record stands at worlds. AP

go from world-record holder to simply hurdles fan.”

The 53-year-old Young will skip the action inside the air-conditioned Khalifa Stadium. Sorry, he’s heading back to school with classes starting.

He was awarded a scholarship to Swansea University in Wales, where he will be working on his master’s degree in sports integrity and ethics. He has an eye on possibly working for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

However, if International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe really wants him to be in Doha for the 400 hurdles final on Monday, he might be able to make it.

One condition: “Tell Seb to fly me in on his private jet,” Young cracked. “But remind him I have class the next day.”

The USA Track and Field Hall of Famer remains in a class by himself. He’s charismatic (he’s got stories galore), speaks his mind (feels his record should’ve been more heralded) and loves social media. He wishes Instagram would’ve been around when he broke the mark because he’s convinced it would’ve made him a “household name.”

“The real story is the lack of a story,” Young said. “I guess I shocked the world so much, they couldn’t even speak about it.”

What he did that day in Barcelona was become the first 400 hurdler to eclipse the 47-second barrier, breaking a record that had belonged to IAAF Hall of Famer Edwin Moses (47.02). Young didn’t have company in the under-47 club until Samba went 46.98 on June 30, 2018. At a race in Zurich on August 29, more company was added as Warholm (46.92) and Benjamin (46.98) joined the ranks.

All three will be lining up in Doha.

“Maybe one of us manages to match or break it in the near future,” Warholm wrote in an e-mail. “Time will show.”

Young’s pick to break the mark: Warholm by a slight lean.

Young sure would like to be there in Doha, just in case (he was in Switzerland last month). All he needs is transportation and an excuse from class.

“I’d love to be in the stadium when it goes down. I don’t want to get that elusive phone call,” he said. “But the inevitability of that happening is out there.”

Young has a good movie for you—The Young Story. It stars, well, him, and tells the tale of a kid who grew up in Watts, a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles and attended Jordan High, the same school where the late Florence Griffith-Joyner ran years earlier. He was a walkon at UCLA and became an NCAA champion.

Then, his story really gets good.

Among the favorites to medal at the 1988 Seoul Games, Young developed a knot in his hamstring moments before the final.

Immediately after the race, the knot mysteriously faded. He finished fourth as American André Phillips took gold.

To motivate himself, Young would write the time of “46.89” on paper and stuff it inside his spikes. The “89” was a reference to his No. 1 ranking in ‘89. That’s how bad he wanted the mark.

Leading into the ‘92 Olympics, the ever-confident Young would pretend to win gold—at practices.

“I did the victory laps, celebrated, had the hand wave, all that,” Young recounted. “I had to turn myself into a beast.”

In his record-setting race, he started fast and only built from there.

He powered right over the final hurdle and raised his right arm in celebration well before the finish line.

“I’m walking around the track that day and I’m happy,” Young said.

“But in my head, I didn’t really know what to do.”

No Sports Illustrated cover, though (Gail Devers was on one week and Carl Lewis another). But a friend did give Young that necklace with “46.78” on it as a keepsake. He wears it on the gold chain he wore during that race.

“I’ve got the greatest story on Earth when it comes to track and field dreams,”Young said. “Yet, no one knows about it. I’m proud of it.” AP

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BANNED STAR EYES TONGA S

YDNEY—Banned rugby star Israel Folau is planning on making a return to international rugby league with Tonga, but the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) had denied it gave permission for Folau to play.

Rugby Australia terminated Folau’s five-year contract in May after ruling he breached its code of conduct with his contentious social-media posts. He has been a high-profile absentee from the ongoing Rugby World Cup in Japan.

A statement released by the Tongan National Rugby League (NRL) Chairman George Koloamatangi on Monday indicated the 30-yearold Folau and his younger brother, John Folau, would play in the Oceania Cup in New Zealand against Britain on October 26 and against Australia on November 2.

The statement said the Folau brothers had registered with the Tongan National Rugby League and “are eligible to play international rugby league fixtures.”

But the RLIF said they had not been formally asked to consider Folau’s return.

“The Rugby League International Federation is aware of a media release issued by Tonga National Rugby League stating that Israel Folau has been ‘approved’ by the RLIF to represent

Tonga in international matches,” it said in a statement. “That statement is incorrect. The RLIF has not been formally asked to consider this matter. The RLIF will not be commenting further on this situation at this stage.”

Folau is taking legal action against Rugby Australia, alleging restraint of trade over his ban from Super Rugby and international rugby union, the traditional 15-a-side game.

The National Rugby League, which governs the 13-a-side version of rugby in Australia, has previously said it would not reregister Folau because of his rugby union ban.

Israel Folau played for the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. He represented Australia in rugby league before a stint playing Australian rules football and eventually rugby union.

Tonga Coach Frank Endacott welcomed the potential selection of the Folau brothers for the international matches.

“These guys are great footballers and bring size, pace and skill to the team,” Endacott said.

“They will make a huge impact in the team and provide exciting attack options all over the park.

“This will be great boost to the internationals, and I can’t wait to see the crowd

support that this will generate,” he said.

The Tongan NRL statement sparked immediate headlines in the Australian media, where Folau’s ban has polarized opinion.

In a social-media post, Folau listed gay people among a group of sinners whom he said would face damnation unless they repented.

Folau, who was born in Australia to Tongan parents, had previously been warned after a similar post during Australia’s national debate over the legalization of gay marriage.

Folau, who describes himself as a devout Christian, said he was referencing the bible.

Folau was an undisputed star in his 73 test matches for the Wallabies after joining the rugby union ranks in 2013. He has the record for most tries by any player in the Super Rugby tournament. AP

8 teams vie for last Tokyo 2020 softball spot

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ight teams will battle it out for the last available place in the softball tournament at next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo at the Asia-Oceania qualifier in Shanghai this week.

The winner of the competition at the Shanghai Chongming Sports Training Center, which begins on Wednesday and concludes on Sunday, will qualify for the six-nation Olympic softball event at Tokyo 2020.

Chinese Taipei arrive as the highest-ranked team and will play Australia, Indonesia and Hong Kong in Group B. Group A features China, New Zealand, Philippines and South Korea.

The top 2 sides from each group will

A FAN waits for the start of the Rugby World Cup Pool D game between Wales and Georgia at the Toyota City Stadium on Monday. AP

China Series golf in HK canceled for safety reasons

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Rugby Australia terminates Israel Folau’s contract in May for his contentious social-media posts.

qualify for the super round, to be played on Saturday and Sunday.

The team which finishes first in the super round will join already-qualified hosts Japan, Canada, Mexico, world champions the United States and Italy at Tokyo 2020.

China will start as favorites, despite being ranked two places lower than Chinese Taipei,

and American Head Coach Corey Myers said he was “confident” his team can seal the single Tokyo 2020 berth on offer.

“Besides having had a great preparation playing all over the world against top teams including playing in the League in the States, I am confident we will book the last ticket to the Olympics,” Myers said. Insidethegames

EIJING—The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour Series-China is canceling its tournament in Hong Kong next month because of civil unrest and safety concerns.

The season was supposed to end October 17 to 20, at Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club in Hong Kong. Instead, the 13th and final tournament will be held October 10 to 13 at the Macau Championship.

Hong Kong is in the fourth month of protests that occur every weekend, and some have been violent. The protests started out as opposition to a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include demands for greater democracy. Last weekend, protesters threw gasoline bombs and police responded with tear gas.

Greg Carlson, the executive director of PGA Tour Series-China, said safety was at the forefront of the decision.

“We have analyzed this situation from every angle, and as a group we determined that canceling the 2019 Clearwater Bay Open is the best decision,” he said.

Carlson said the tour looked into an alternate site for the tournament without finding one it deemed suitable. He described Macau as a vibrant part of Asia and the tour had a good experience at Ceasars Golf Macau last year.

Because of the late change, the prize money in Macau will increase by 500 million Renminbi to 2.1 million.

PGA Tour Series-China has played two official events at Clearwater Bay in 2016 and 2018, along with an unofficial event in 2017. Carlson said the tour expects to return.

The leading five players from the China tour earn status on the Korn Ferry Tour, the step below PGA Tour membership. Max McGreevy of the United States leads the money list in China. AP

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TAIWANESE SEEKS REDEMPTION

ANGARA

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IX of the top 12 in the current Professional Golfers Association of Taiwan money rankings banner a full-packed roster seeking to get even with the top guns of Philippine Golf Tour Asia (PGTA) in the $100,000 Nan Pao TPGA Open which blasts off on Thursday in Tainan City.

Song Mengyu, for one, is out for redemption after the sixth-ranked player in the TPGA Order of Merit blew a huge lead in the final round and lost by two to Thai Wisut Artjanawat in Daan TPGA Open, the firstever PGTA event held overseas in Taichung City last May. But Mengyu and the rest of the 85-player strong local contingent are making sure not to play gracious hosts for the PGTA bets this week as they try to cash in on their local knowledge of the tree-lined, hazard-laden layout and avert another embarrassing setback at home.

But the PGTA aces are also coming into the 72-hole championship sponsored by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. brimming with confidence, including Artjanawat along with 15 other Thais, among them Namchok Tantipokhakul, who is also gunning for a second leg win in the third season of the region’s emerging circuit after ruling the kickoff leg at Luisita last April.

Backing Mengyu are No. 7 Xie Donghong, ninth-ranked Yu Yuchen, No. 10 Lin Wenke, and

Angara stresses grassroots program

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EN. Sonny Angara stressed the need to build and maintain an effective sports grassroots program throughout the country as he spoke before the Professional Sports Summit hosted by the Games and Amusements Board on Monday at the PICC. Angara, chairman of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) is the author and sponsor of Republic 10699, or the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act and of RA 11214, or the Philippine Sports Training Center Act. Angara called on everyone in society—from the government to the private sector, schools and companies, teachers and businessmen, families and friends—to be on the lookout for the next Manny Pacquiao or Hidilyn Diaz.

“Every [portion] of our society must be ready to help the next Filipino superstar athlete train and improve their craft,” he said. “Because just as it takes an entire village to raise a child, it takes an entire nation to train an Olympic medalist.”

11th ranked Wang Congjie and No. 12 Huang Wei, who tied for fifth and seventh, respectively, in Daan Open.

The Thais actually dominated the previous PGTA event with six finishing among the top 12 with the Philippines’s perennial regional rivals

all geared up for another strong outing behind the likes of Ratchapol Jantavara, Tawit Polthai, Panuwat Muenlek and Sutijet Kooratapisan.

Filipinos Jay Bayron and Tony Lascuña also try to get into the mix with a strong start with the former out to improve on his tied for 27th finish the first time out and the latter upbeat of his chances after pulling out at the last minute in Daan Open due to hand injury.

Other PGTA campaigners tipped to contend for the top $17,500 purse in the event backed

by PLDT Enterprise, Meralco, BDO and PGT Asia official apparel Pin High are Aussie David Gleeson, winner of the Luisita leg last year, Lindsay Renolds of Canada, Japanese Keisuke Takahashi, Korean Shin Seung Woo and Luke Trocado of South Africa.

Luisita, meanwhile, will host the next PGTA stop from October 16 to 19 for the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open which James Ryan Lam won last year for his first career victory while Summit Point will host the ICTSI World 18 Challenge from October 23 to 26 event where Joenard Rates is the defending champion.

Song Mengyu hopes to erase the stigma of a previous meltdown with a victory this week.

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Go vows to defend funding country’s sports programs

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HE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) proposed budgets for 2020 were approved on committee level during a Senate public hearing on Monday presided by Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, chairman of the Subcommittee F of the Senate Committee on Finance.

Go expressed his support for the PSC and GAB, reiterating that sports development is one of his priorities in the Senate.

“Let me first express my full support for the Philippine Sports Commission. As chairman of the Committee on Sports and a known advocate of Philippine sports, the budget for sports is one of my priorities,” Go said.

Go also mentioned that the “Constitution itself recognizes the vital role of sports in fostering patriotism and nationalism, accelerating social progress, and promoting total human liberation and development.”

Reviewing the budget presented by PSC Chairman William Ramirez, Go asked the reason for the huge disparity between the PSC-proposed budget and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)-proposed budget.

Red Lions rout Stags, capture semifinals berth

“Bakit malaki ang ibinaba sa DBM-proposed budget kumpara sa proposed budget ninyo?” Go asked.

He added, “Napansin ko na sa 2019, may capital outlay kayo. Pero wala sa 2018 at 2020. Ano ang utilization ng capital outlay? Ano ang gamit nito?”

“As far as capital outlay is concerned, bulk of it is the equipment for the SEA Games hosting, although we have some rehabilitation works included in the budget,” a representative from the PSC responded.

Go also led the deliberations of the proposed 2020 budget for GAB. “I have no objections in their proposed budget, but we just have to make sure that government funds are utilized properly and that they are accounted up to the last centavo,” Go told the GAB representatives.

Go also asked the role of GAB in emerging sports.

“There are new emerging sports, such as eSports, which will be in the SEA Games. Is the GAB doing its part in the growth of these industries?” Go said.

“GAB is a regulatory agency, not a promoting agency. But we provide support, such as athletes traveling outside the country,” GAB Chairman Baham Mitra said.

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an Beda University secured the first Final Four seat when it manhandled San Sebastian College, 91-76, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 95 men’s basketball tournament on Tuesday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

The defending champion Red Lions leaned heavily on Filipino-Canadian sophomore guard James Canlas in beating the Stags.

And thanks to Letran’s 87-74 win over College of Saint Benilde in the second game, San Beda

T’S all or nothing for the Philippines when it plays hosts to the 30th Southeast Asian Games in November.

“I want no less than the overall championship,” said Deputy House Speaker Mikee Romero during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Amelie Hotel Manila.

The 47-year-old congressman, sports patron and polo athlete rolled into one said because it’s been done before, it can be done again.

The Philippines will host the SEA Games for the fourth time after 1981, 1991 and 2005. And if the trend continues, the next time the country hosts the biennial event would be after 10 or 12 years.

“It’s a long cycle that’s why we need to make the most out of this hosting. Let’s win the overall title,” Romero said. “We just have to replicate what we did in 2005.

Something less will not be at par with what we achieved 14 years ago.”

“We must win the overall crown or we will fall short of 2005. That’s why I am challenging our sports leaders. It’s championship or bust,” Romero told the weekly forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Braska Restaurant, Amelie Hotel and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Joining the second-term party-list representative were the ladies tasked to run the polo competitions in the coming SEA Games—technical operations Manager Bubbles Bermudez, deputy venue Manager Julia Lastrilla and competition Manager Camila Lastrilla, as well as Erik Arejola, GlobalPort governor in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Romero is neck-deep into basketball but has dipped his hands into shooting, volleyball, baseball, cycling and now polo. He expects the Philippines to win the SEA Games gold in men’s basketball.

“The gold in basketball is a must. At the level of our professional players, the Southeast Asian players are not at par. This is the gold that matters most to us,” Romero said.

MIKEE ROMERO: I want no less than the overall championship.

When the SEA Games is staged from November 30 to December 11, the owner of the GlobalPort team will compete in polo. He said of the two gold medals to be disputed by the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the hosts will be happy to win one gold and one silver.

“Of course the target is to sweep the golds. But the more realistic goal is a gold and a silver. It’s more achievable,” he said.

The Philippine polo team includes Gus Aguirre, Tommy Bitong, Jay de Jesus, Jam Eusebio, Anthony Filamor, Coco Garcia, Santi Juban, Ed Lopez, Marty Romualdez, Tonio Veloso and Noel Vecinal.

As a group, they will undergo intense training from October 27 to November 12 in Argentina, which Romero described as the “mecca of polo.”

U.E. EXTENDS STREAK IN CHESS

U

NHERALDED Lee Roi Palma and University of the East (UE) kept sending shockwaves as the Braves stunned the defending champion Far Eastern University (FEU) Baby Tamaraws, 3-1, in high-school boys action of chess in Season 82 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines over the weekend at the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion.

Palma shone the brightest in the Braves’ stunning triumph as he brought down at the top board highly touted FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri in a 34-move Bishop’s Opening.

John Kenneth Gelva delivered the other victory against Christian Marcelo Olaybal in 33 clinched the semifinals berth with a league-best 13-0 won-lost record.

Canlas had 20 points, four rebounds and five assists. Donald Tankoua added 18 points and seven boards, while Most Valuable Player top candidate Calvin Oftana delivered 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Red Lions.

“I salute my players for this. We’ve been dealing with problems in the first three games of the second round but I’m happy the way our players responded today,” San Beda Head Coach

THAT’S ALL

MVP: It might save the year

Romero: It’s all or nothing in PHL’s SEA Games campaign

SEN. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go (third from left) receives a plaque of appreciation from Games and Amusements Board (GAB) Chairman Baham Mitra (second from left), during the Professional Sports Summit hosted by the GAB at the Philippine International Convention Center. With them are GAB Commissioners Eduardo Trinidad (left) and Mario Masanguid. ROY DOMINGO

Al Mendoza alsol47@yahoo.com

moves of a Scotch on board four, while Noel Geronimo and Francis Roi Parro split the point with Jarvey Labanda and Lorenzo Aaron Cantela on second and third boards, respectively.

After four grueling rounds, UE was wellentrenched on top with 13.5 points, a full two points ahead of National University (NU), which battled UST to a 2-2 standoff for 11.5 points.

FEU slipped to a share of third place with Adamson University, which zoomed back to contention with a 4-0 destruction of Ateneo.

They have 7.0 points each.

Reigning five-peat champion NU, meanwhile, fended off the challenge of last year’s Finals rival University of the Philippines, Boyet Fernandez said.

“Sometimes I’ve been too hard to them. But they really showed what they’re capable of and I’m really happy we won this game,” he added.

Canlas waxed hot as the Red Lions roared to a 30-point first-quarter lead which they hiked to a 35-17 advantage in the second period.

But the Red Lions encountered a mild scare when their lead whittled to nine points entering the fourth quarter.

Evan Nelle found his mark and shot nine of

4-1, to clinch a Final Four berth in men’s badminton on Tuesday at the Centro Atletico Badminton Center. The Bulldogs remained unscathed after 47 consecutive ties.

De La Salle University also fanned its winning streak with a 5-0 shutout of UST to also book their ticket to the playoffs, while Ateneo inched closer to a semifinals berth with a masterful sweep of UE. In men’s basketball, Ateneo guns for its sixth straight win as UP tries to remain in second spot on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Area in Pasay City.

The defending champion Blue Eagles take on the Red Warriors (1-4) at 12:30 p.m., while the second-running Fighting Maroons (4-1) battle the De La Salle Green Archers (2-3) at 4 p.m.

Winless UP hopes to end a five-game skid against FEU (2-3) at 10:30 a.m. his 11 points in the final quarter to put San Beda beyond reach.

AC Soberano finished with 14 points for San Beda, while Clint Doliguez added 10 despite a 3-of7 shooting.

RK Ilagan had 16 points, while Allyn Bulanadi tallied 14 points and five assists for San Sebastian, which dropped to 7-5.

Fran Yu scored 13 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to lead Letran, which claimed its ninth victory in 13 games. Saint Benilde crashed to a 6-6 card.

TWO birds with one stone goes the saying.

If we listened intently, MVP’s main mission when he mentioned the 30th Southeast Asian Games basketball competition set here in November-December was to adhere to that cliché that’s as old as the Pasig River.

For, if we come down to it, MVP’s (Manuel V. Pangilinan) clear take on the soon-to-be-formed cage team—he’d again play a major role in its formation, him being the chairman emeritus of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas—was to shoot for a twin kill.

In his mind, the SEAG basketball squad must win the regional event and next must stay intact to play in the Fiba World Cup comes in 2023.

They are formidable targets but MVP seems bent to go for both nonetheless.

On the SEA Games dream basketball victory, MVP was emphatic.

“We have to win this one,” he said, as if nothing else matters but the SEAG cage trophy.

If that’s not a direct order, what is?

No ifs and buts.

Just do it.

And if he sounded angry even a bit, don’t blame him.

The China crash from the last Fiba worlds was just too painful to take: Gilas finishing dead last in the 32-team field.

But his next statement was way too loaded, if not a bit tinged heavily with optimism.

“It [winning the SEAG basketball title] might save the year,” MVP said.

Dig it?

We are simply too proud a basketball race that we just can’t accept defeat sitting down.

When shame smacks us in the face arising from a horrendous loss on the hard court, we become as inconsolable like parents of a hazing victim that suffered a senseless death at the hands of barbarians.

Thus, if only by way of saving what’s left of our national pride in the sport closest to our heart, MVP is telling us now we must win the SEAG basketball gold at, yes, all costs.

And MVP isn’t stopping there.

He’d next retain the team to train for the 2023 Worlds that we would be cohosting with Japan and Indonesia.

You think he’d stop there? Wrong.

MVP wants the same team to go all the way to the 2027 World Cup. Already, we have players young enough to possibly blossom in time for both the 2023 and 2027 World editions: Still-in-school standouts like Kai Sotto, Kobe Paras, Ricci Rivero, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Dave Ildefonso, Thirdy Ravena, Isaac Go and Justine Baltazar, among others.

If ever, this could be the longest trained team in Philippine history.

Good luck, MVP.

THAT’S IT I could be in the US as you read this. And, if ever, I’ll be away for a while but I’ll do my utmost not to break our covenant as I will still continue to write wherever my winged feet bring me. Technology has virtually made communication faster than sound, right? So, only when I get lost in Lala land will I probably miss a beat here. See you around. Thanks.

Lifesavers in hot start in Superliga Invitational

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enerika-Ayala was off to a flying start as it dominated Marinerang Pilipina, 25-19, 25-23, 25-17, at the start of the Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference on Tuesday at the Bacoor City Strike Gym in Cavite.

Open spikers Fiola Ceballos, Mean Mendrez and Patty Orendain delivered the killer blows for the Lifesavers. Ceballos and Mendrez finished with 12 points apiece while Orendain chipped in 10 points in the Pool B match that lasted only one hour and 25 minutes.

What made the victory more impressive was the absence of skipper Angeli Araneta, who suffered a knee injury in the latter part of the All-Filipino Conference last month.

“It was a good momentum-builder for us,” Ceballos said. “It feels good to kick off the conference with a win and we hope we can continue with this kind of intensity.”

Setter Jamie Lavitoria did a masterful job mapping the plays with 13 excellent sets and 15 digs while former University of Santo Tomas star Ria Meneses took the cudgels at the defensive end with seven points.

By Daniella Matar The Associated Press

M

ILAN—Lionel Messi won his sixth Fifa player of the year award, while Megan Rapinoe won her first at a lavish ceremony at Milan’s iconic Teatro alla Scala on Monday.

Rapinoe was rewarded at the Fifa Best awards for leading the United States to the women’s World Cup title in July, as was Jill Ellis who won the women’s coach award.

Rapinoe scored six goals in the tournament, earning her the Golden Boot for the tournament’s top scorer and the Golden Ball as the top player.

The outspoken star often uses her success as a platform to speak out about issues and the 34-year-old did so again in Milan, pleading for her male and female colleagues to join the likes of Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling in speaking out on racism and other inequalities.

“If we really want to have meaningful change, what I think is most inspiring would be if everybody other than Raheem Sterling and [Kalidou] Koulibaly, if they were as outraged about racism as they were, if everybody was as outraged about homophobia as the LGBTQ players, if everybody was as outraged about the lack of equal pay and investment in the women’s game other than just women, that would be the most inspiring thing to me,” Rapinoe said.

“That’s my ask of everybody. As professional footballers...we have so much success, we have incredible platforms, I ask everybody here to lend your platform, to lift people up, to use this beautiful game to change the world for better.”

Rapinoe finished with 46 ranking points to 42 for teammate Alex Morgan and 29 for England’s Lucy Bronze.

After the ceremony, Rapinoe said being able to speak out about issues is more important to her than the actual award.

“I’ve been very lucky to have this incredibly platform that seems to be growing by the day and I plan to use it to the best of my ability,” she told reporters. “The award’s amazing, of course, but I don’t do this for individual awards, certainly not.

“Even the team awards, the World Cup’s obviously incredible to win but when we sort of all look back on it, it will be the way we’ve changed the game and moved the game forward and really been a part of changing the world, this incredible movement that’s happening right now, that we’ll all be most proud of.”

Messi’s award moved the Barcelona and Argentina forward one ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Juventus forward did not attend the ceremony despite being among the three finalists.

The duo has dominated the award since 2008, with their string of victories only interrupted by Luka Modric last year.

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was the other finalist Messi finished with 46 ranking points to 38 for van Dijk and 36 for Ronaldo.

Aaron Long, given the US captain’s vote because he was among two players who wore the armband twice this year, voted for van Dijk, as did American Coach Gregg Berhalter.

Van Dijk’s club Manager Jürgen Klopp was voted coach of the year after steering Liverpool to the Champions League title in June, while teammate Alisson won the best men’s goalkeeper award.

“I have to thank my team because as coach you can only be as good as your team is,” Klopp said.

Ellis also thanked her players.

“I owe so much to them,” she said.

Ellis resigned in July, shortly after the US beat the Netherlands 2-0 to win its second successive World Cup. The 53-year-old Ellis was hired as coach of the US team in 2014 and led it to eight overall tournament titles, including backto-back World Cup successes. Over the course of her tenure, the United States lost just seven matches.

Her players made up nearly half of the women’s team of the year, with Kelley O’Hara, Julie Ertz, Rose Lavelle and Morgan included in the 11, as well as Rapinoe.

“I think I walked out with Messi and no one noticed me,” Ellis said jokingly to reporters, before adding: “It was such an honor, it really was. Fantastic night...happy for my players to do so well as well on that stage so it was great.”

The award for the best women’s goalkeeper went to van Veenendaal of Atletico Madrid and the Netherlands.

The 29-year-old Van Veenendaal captained the Netherlands to the final of the women’s World Cup.

RAPINOE, MESSI SHARE SPOTLIGHT Sports BusinessMirror

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| Wednesday, September 25, 2019 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Palestinian fans cheer during a World Cup qualifying match between their team, the United Arab Emirates, at the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium in the West Bank town of Al-Ram in September 2015. AP

Israel blockade makes life difficult for Palestinian club

ARGENTINA’S Lionel Messi (from left) is joined by the US’s Women’s World Cup winning Coach Jill Ellis, Liverpool Manager Juergen Klopp and Megan Rapinoe on stage. AP

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UEFA bars fans from 3 Euro 2020 games for racism N YON, Switzerland—UEFA has punished three countries for racist behavior by fans at European Championship qualifying games, ordering them to play in empty stadiums.

Romania, Hungary and Slovakia will all serve the punishments during their next home qualifier in October. The visiting teams will be Norway, Azerbaijan and Wales, respectively.

UEFA says Romania’s federation faces a second stadium closure during a one-year probationary period.

Romania was also charged with other fan disorder during a 2-1 loss against Spain this month, including fans on the pitch stopping play. UEFA imposed a fine of €83,000 ($91,200).

Hungary and Slovakia were sanctioned by

racist behavior by fans when the neighboring countries played in Budapest on September 9.

UEFA fined Hungary €67,125 ($73,750) for a range of other offenses, and ordered Slovakia’s federation to pay €20,000 ($22,000).

Atalanta, meanwhile, issued a statement “disassociating” itself from racist chants by its fans, while several prominent figures in Italy on Monday applauded a decision to halt the club’s Serie A game because of the abuse.

And Fifa President Gianni Infantino called for more action to combat racism in the country.

“Yesterday we had another incident of raci sm in Italian football,” Infantino said in a speech at the Fifa Best Awards ceremony in Milan. “This is not acceptable any more.

We have to say this.

“We have to say no to racism in whatever form. No to racism in football, no to racism in society. But we don’t just have to say it. We have to fight it. We have to kick racism out of football, out of society.”

Atalanta’s 2-2 draw with Fiorentina was suspended briefly during the first half due to chants aimed at Fiorentina fullback Dalbert Henrique, a Brazilian player who is black.

However, the Italian league’s judge announced Monday that he has yet to decide whether Atalanta warrants punishment.

Judge Gerardo Mastrandrea said in his weekly disciplinary report that Dalbert needs to be interviewed before his decision is made.

Referee Daniele Orsato ordered a warning to be read over the stadium’s loudspeaker that the match would not resume until the chants ceased.

“Concerning the suspension of the Atalanta-Fiorentina match, the club disassociates itself from any type of discrimination that might have occurred,” Atalanta said. “Atalanta, along with its supporters and fans, is and will always be a mouthpiece for the values of solidarity and equality. The stupidity of a few needs to be combatted together and we believe that it has neither colors nor jerseys. It needs to be isolated.”

Napoli Coach Carlo Ancelotti applauded Orsato’s decision: “It’s a step forward and others will be needed but this is the way forward.... We need to be tough in applying the rules that are there. And we have the advantage of many TV cameras inside the stadiums.” AP

AZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Israel has denied travel permits to most players on a Gazan soccer team which had hoped to cross through Israel and into the West Bank to play a local championship final against a rival Palestinian club.

Khadamat Rafah is set to play Balata FC in the West Bank on Wednesday. But without the hard-to-obtain Israeli travel permits, the game is unlikely to take place as scheduled.

“We think that this is clear evidence that this Israeli occupation is cruel but from our side we keep raising it at all the levels of Fifa.

We insist that this is our right and we’ll continue exerting every effort to allow this team to do this match,” the head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, told The Associated Press.

The soccer team’s predicament highlights the daily difficulties Gazans face under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Citing security grounds, Israel has greatly restricted movement of Gazans and requires travelers such as students and medical patients to obtain permits to leave.

Critics say these are increasingly harder to come by and are withheld arbitrarily.

Israel disputes this and says it grants tens of thousands of permits for Gazans with no militant ties.

Rajoub said his association has long lobbied Fifa to sanction Israel for what it says are its efforts to restrict the movement of Palestinian players. He slammed the withholding of permits and pledged to hold

the game.

Under the Palestinian Football Association’s terms, the winners of the Gaza league play the West Bank champions in a two-leg final, one in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank. The Gaza game took place earlier this year and this week’s game, which had already been delayed for two months over access to permits, was to take place near the West Bank city of Nablus.

The winner of the final game goes on to compete in the Asian Champions League.

Following the Gaza game, Khadamat Rafah had attempted for two months to obtain permits but its two requests were denied, except for a handful of club members.

“We are a club carrying messages of love and peace, and have no security activities as the occupation [Israel] claims,” said Hozayfa Lafi, Khadamat Rafah’s spokesman.

Gisha, an Israeli rights group that had challenged the move in court, criticized Israel’s permit system.

“The ease with which the state labels Palestinians as a security threat turns out to be time and again an arbitrary and sweeping act, while in the best case ignoring the serious harm that is dealt to the fabric of civilian life in the Palestinian territory,” said Gisha, an Israeli rights group that had challenged the state’s decision along with the players.

A court in Jerusalem upheld the state’s decision on Monday.

In a statement, Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency, which screens permit requests, said a security check turned up information pointing to “most” of the team’s “links to terrorism.” That, coupled with heightened security threats from the Gaza Strip, prompted the agency to recommend the players be prevented entry.

Cogat, an Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said every permit request is examined “individually and thoroughly.”

The Palestine Cup had been suspended for years until 2016 when Fifa reached understandings between Israel and the Palestinians over the movement of athletes.

Tournaments in 2017 and 2018 took place as planned. AP

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God of the covenant

EAR God, we praise Your goodness to us. In company with Mary we pray: Let us rejoice in You, oh God. Lead all people to know Your saving justice. Ease the burden of those who bear financial worries or affliction of mind, body or spirit. Grant everlasting life to all who have died. May all that we do, think and say in Jesus’ name give glory to God, now and always. Amen.

GIVE US THIS DAY SHARED BY LUISA LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life BusinessMirror

‘THRONES,’ ‘FLEABAG’ TOP EMMYS, BILLY PORTER MAKES HISTORY D3

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

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Researchers: AI surveillance is expanding worldwide

BY MATT O’BRIEN | The Associated Press A GROWING number of countries are following China’s lead in deploying artificial intelligence to track citizens, according to a research group’s report published on Tuesday.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says at least 75 countries are actively using AI tools such as facial recognition for surveillance.

The index of countries where some form of AI surveillance is used includes liberal democracies, such as the United States and France, as well as more autocratic regimes.

Relying on a survey of public records and media reports, the report says Chinese tech companies led

by Huawei and Hikvision are supplying much of the AI surveillance technology to countries around the world. Other companies, such as Japan’s NEC and US-based IBM, Palantir and Cisco are also major international providers of AI surveillance tools.

Hikvision declined comment Tuesday. The other companies mentioned in the report didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

The report encompasses a broad range of AI tools that have some public safety component. The group’s index doesn’t distinguish between legitimate public

safety tools and unlawful or harmful uses such as spying on political opponents.

“I hope citizens will ask tougher questions about how this type of technology is used and what type of impacts it will have,” said the report’s author, Steven Feldstein, a Carnegie Endowment fellow and associate professor at Boise State University.

Many of the projects cited in Feldstein’s report are “smart city” systems in which a municipal government installs an array of sensors, cameras and other Internet-connected devices to gather information and communicate with one another.

Huawei is a lead provider of such platforms, which can

be used to manage traffic or save energy, but which are increasingly also used for public surveillance and security, Feldstein said.

Feldstein said he was surprised by how many democratic governments in Europe and elsewhere are racing ahead to install AI surveillance such as facial recognition, automated border controls and algorithmic tools to predict when crimes might occur.

The index shows that just over half of the world’s advanced democracies deploy AI surveillance systems either at the national or local level.

“I thought it would be most centered in the Gulf States or countries in China’s orbit,” Feldstein said.

ALL NEW DOCUMENTARY VIDEOSTREAMING SERVICE LAUNCHED

FACEBOOK says it has suspended tens of thousands of apps made by about 400 developers as part of an investigation following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. AP

Facebook suspends thousands of apps but user impact unclear

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY & FRANK BAJAK The Associated Press

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ACEBOOK said on Friday that it has suspended “tens of thousands” of apps made by about 400 developers as part of an investigation following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The announcement came the same day that unsealed legal documents in Massachusetts disclosed that Facebook had suspended 69,000 apps. In the vast majority of cases, however, the suspensions came not after any kind of serious investigation but because app developers had failed to respond to e-mailed information requests.

Starting in March 2018, Facebook began looking into the apps that have access to its users’ data. The probe came after revelations that data mining firm Cambridge Analytica used ill-gotten data from millions of Facebook users through an app, then used the data to try to influence US elections.

It led to a massive backlash against Facebook that included CEO Mark Zuckerberg being called to testify before Congress. The company is still trying to repair its reputation.

Facebook said Friday its app investigation is ongoing and it has looked at millions of apps so far.

The company said it has banned a few apps

completely and has filed lawsuits against some, including in May against a South Korean data analytics company called Rankwave.

In April, it sued LionMobi, based in Hong Kong, and JediMobi, based in Singapore, which the company says made apps that infected users’ phones with malware.

Facebook settled with the Federal Trade Commission for a record $5 billion this summer over privacy violations that stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The company said the FTC agreement “will bring its own set of requirements for bringing oversight to app developers. It requires developers to annually certify compliance with our policies” and that developers who don’t do this will be “held accountable.”

Also on Friday, a judge unsealed a subpoena by the Massachusetts attorney general demanding that the social network disclose the names of apps and developers that obtained data from its users without their consent. It also asked for all Facebook internal communications about those apps.

The state began investigating Facebook when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. But the company refused to identify any of the apps or developers, and the subpoena would have remained confidential under Massachusetts law had Facebook not insisted on keeping it and related exhibits secret.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s consumer protection division had sought data on apps from prior to 2014, when Facebook announced changes to the platform to restrict access to user data.

Facebook tried to redact the subpoena in negotiations before Friday’s ruling by state Judge Brian A. Davis. But Healey’s office fought to limit the redacted sections.

Facebook did disclose that it had identified more than 10,000 apps that “show characteristics associated with higher risks of data misuse” but did not identify any of them.

The state attorney general noted that Facebook had allowed developers to integrate at least 9 million apps into the platform as of 2014 and had, for many years, allowed developers to access user data, including photos, work history, birthdates and “likes.” This applied not just from people who installed the apps but also to their Facebook friends who did not.

The unsealed subpoena also says that Facebook informed the Massachusetts attorney general’s office that it had identified about 2 million apps “as warranting a closer examination for potential misuses of Facebook user data.”

That suggests that, five years ago, more than one in four apps may have been accessing Facebook users’ data without their knowledge or consent. ■

MOVIE and TV lovers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR will now get to enjoy iwonder, a new and fast-growing videostreaming service sweeping Apac that is dedicated to awardwinning and critically acclaimed documentaries. Already a hit in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand where it launched earlier this year, iwonder.com—founded by former iflix senior management—offers access to over 1,000 of the globe’s best factual entertainment content.

Available with a one-month free trial and then a low $4.99 per month or $49.90 for an annual subscription, viewers can sign up at iwonder.com or by downloading the iOS or Android mobile or tablet app to watch on the move or on big screens via Chromecast or Airplay.

With genres including current affairs, culture, social issues, music, art, technology, politics, sports, climate change, history and more, iwonder’s extensive library features films and series making headlines at the Oscars, Emmys, Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival and more. These include The Kleptocrats, the jaw-dropping investigation into the multibillion-dollar scandal that funded Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie Wolf Of Wall Street, and inspired best-selling book Billion Dollar Whale. Watch exclusive footage of the alleged mastermind fugitive financier Jho Low use proceeds from his global scam to not only finance his luxurious lifestyle but also buy his way into the world of the rich and famous spending money on or hanging out with the likes of Miranda Kerr (whom he dated), Paris Hilton, Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio and many more.

Also available for streaming is Children of the Sex Trade, in which two fearless Filipinos sisters help former Australian police and Special Forces officers rescue underage girls from sex bars.

Keeping viewers up-to-date with global and regional current affairs such as life in the Philippines, Hong Kong protests, Brexit, the “Me Too” movement, climate change and more, news stories are integrated into the iwonder home page and paired with documentary recommendations that explore similar themes and provide deeper context into each topic. iwonder Cofounder and CEO James Bridges said, “iwonder provides great entertainment along with the opportunity to learn something new about our ever-changing world. We work hard to find the best documentaries from all over the world so that our customers don’t have to. And by keeping our finger on the pulse of daily global developments to fill our unique homepage newsfeed, the films we serve up are never far from the headlines. With customers enjoying the service in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, we’re excited to be able to bring iwonder to viewers in the Philippines looking to combine an appetite for entertainment with a thirst for knowledge.”

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Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Pet Corner BusinessMirror

Saving pets: Program lends hand to low-income animal owners Brandon Jordan pets a cat while conducting door-to-door outreach for LifeLine Animal Project’s Pets for Life program in Atlanta. Jordan is a community outreach coordinator who visits mostly low-income neighborhoods to explain the program’s free services, such as pet supplies and vaccinations. AP

A

z

By Andrea Smith The Associated Press

TLANTA—Of all the animals peering sadly through the cage bars of shelters across the country, 25 percent of them once had an owner who gave them up for one reason or another, according to national statistics.

Those who did because they could no longer afford a pet have been getting some help over the past decade from a program operated by The Humane Society United States that provides food, medical care and other support.

Launched in 2010, the Pets for Life program now operates in at least 27 cities and towns, including Atlanta, where it began in 2012. The program provides free or low-cost veterinarian services, supplies and food. It also has provided about 100,000 free surgeries to spay and neuter animals. Animal welfare organizations advocate spaying and neutering to reduce pet overpopulation.

Pets for Life is helping animal owners “by allowing them to keep the pets in their homes even if they’re going through a hard time, and it’s keeping the pets out of the shelters,” said Lizzy Trawick, a program outreach coordinator in Atlanta.

The Shelters Animal Count national database shows that about 25 percent of the US shelter population consists of animals that were formerly owned and later given up, for a variety of reasons: financial struggles, lease problems in housing units, animal behavioral problems or a loss of interest in owning a pet. Strays make up most of the shelters’ populations.

Atlanta’s Pets for Life program, initiated by the Humane Society, has been managed since 2017 by the LifeLine Animal Project, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that conducts door-to-door outreach multiple times a week.

Team members knock on doors and ask residents questions about their pets, including whether they’ve

Animal welfare workers seize 55 dogs, puppies from home

PHILADELPHIA—Animal welfare authorities say 55 dogs and puppies were rescued from a Pennsylvania home after they received a call about unsanitary conditions there.

The officers removed 22 Cane corsos, 16 French bulldogs, 13 Border collies, three Pomeranian-husky mixes and a Doberman pinscher from the property in Lancaster County, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) officials say many of the rescued dogs were suffering from upper respiratory infections.

All the puppies will be quarantined at the PSPCA in Philadelphia for at least two weeks as they recover. AP

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Donald Glover, 36; Catherine Zeta-Jones, 50; Will Smith, 51; Michael Douglas, 75.

Happy Birthday: Express your feelings this year, and set your sights on the journey you want to take.

Dreaming about something and actually making it manifest are two different things. Don’t wait for someone to do things for you. It’s important to take charge and to pick the path that’s best for you. Your lucky numbers are 5, 18, 21, 23, 32, 36, 40.

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Consider your options before letting your emotions take over.

Look for a positive response when dealing with others. Whether you are looking for a job or dealing with someone who is difficult, be efficient and take care of your responsibilities first. HHH

b

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A change will do you good, but it may not please some of the people you work or live with. If you are upfront about your whereabouts and reasons for doing what you do, it will help ward off interference. HHH

c

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Offering to help others is kind, but don’t let anyone take advantage of you. Get the facts before you lend money or help someone looking for a handout. Don’t be too vocal about what you have or what you can do.

HHHH

d

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Stay focused on what you are doing. Let your creativity take over. Do things your way and stay out of discussions that could lead to repercussions with someone at work or at home. HH

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Travel, meetings and educational pursuits are highlighted.

Keep an open mind and learn from what you hear, observe and experience. The best change you can make is one that will encourage better relationships.

HHHHH

been spayed or neutered, and leave information about the program’s services. The program has served 8,801 clients as of August 30, said Atlanta’s Pets for Life Director Andrea Peterson. Dog and cat owners can spend more than $5,000 on health services throughout their pet’s lifetime, according to research

firm NDP Analytics. Carmen Webb-Davis, an Atlanta resident and a regular Pets for Life client, said the program’s support has been necessary for her to keep her pets and maintain their health.

“Your pet is your child,” Webb-Davis said. “It’s your baby, so you want to have things right for them.” n

International All-Breed Dog Shows on October 6

Pennsylvania SPCA shows two dogs that were rescued in Philadelphia on September 4.

Animal welfare authorities say 55 dogs and puppies were rescued from a Pennsylvania home after they received a call about unsanitary conditions there. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

THE Asian Kennel Club Union of the Philippines Inc. (AKCUPI), the purebred dog registering organization which celebrated its 11th anniversary recently, will mount its 70th and 71st International All-Breed Dog Shows on October 6, 1 pm, at Tiendesitas on Ortigas corner E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue, Pasig City.

According to AKCUPI President Lucianne “Penny” Cham, the shows will be adjudged by two seasoned international dog show judges, Ryu Kyongwon of Korea and Michael “Mike” Buenaflor of the Philippines. Ryu is a member of the Korean Kennel Club and has worked as handling instructor, judge and chairman of many events. He is the chairman of the Siberian Husky Club in Korea.

Meanwhile, Buenaflor is a licensed ring steward for both German Shepherd Sieger and All-Breed Shows. He has been involved in the canine world for more than two decades. A certified dog rescuer trained by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Buenaflor is currently the shelter manager and disaster rescue officer for the Network for Animals, an animal welfare group based in the United Kingdom.

The dog shows will be participated in by entries from seven breed groups, namely sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, nonsporting and herding.

The event is being supported by Vitality, Ortigas & Co., Farmbreed, Friends Logistics, UNAHCO, Famous Breed, Bully Kennel Club Philippines Inc.,Land and Rail K9, Rapid Printing Inc., Achilles Serama, Mars Philippines, Shezter Joy Enterprises

Co. and Nelson Uy. Preceding the shows are a Mass at 11 am, pet blessing at 12 noon, fashion show at 1 pm, and dog show tricks with Randy Macalma and Dinky Ang at 2:30 pm. More information about the event is available at www.akcupi.com.

f

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Get out and try something new. It will change your perspective and give you something to consider. A positive change is heading your way, and an improved relationship with someone special looks promising. HHH

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Emotions can hold you back. You have to think clearly about what you should do next. Make choices based on how they will influence your personal finances, not because someone is pleading with you to do something questionable. HHH

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take a moment to figure out what’s best for you.

An emotional situation concerning a friend or someone who depends on you should be handled carefully. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you, and don’t pay for someone else’s mistake. HHH

i

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Refuse to let emotional matters interfere with your productivity. Finish what you start and protect your reputation. A change you make to the way you earn your living or to your arrangement at home will be to your benefit. HHHHH

j

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Listen to instructions and ask questions if something doesn’t make sense. How you handle those in charge will make a difference to the way you are treated. HH

k

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Money matters should be handled smartly.

Emotions and joint ventures can lead to loss.

Don’t feel you have to overdo it to make an impression.

Let experience and knowledge be your guides to successful endeavors. You cannot buy love. HHHH

l

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Concentrate on yourself and how to project your very best into whatever you take on. Working alongside someone with grand ideas can be stimulating but also expensive. Don’t be afraid to forgo a joint venture and do your own thing. HHH Birthday Baby: You are sensitive, caring and intuitive.

You are creative and opportunistic.

‘hit parade’ by saul pink The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS 1 Jackson 5 hairdo 5 Cap edge 9 Catch on a nail, say 13 Use a Kindle 14 Many a Hawkeyes fan 16 Mayor ___ (2020 candidate, informally) 17 Repair 18 Tourist’s leader 19 Exclamation after using a scratch-off, maybe 20 Like some families 23 Note down 26 Roald who wrote Matilda 27 Without principles 28 Covered in flowers 30 Futbol cry 31 Olympic gymnast Raisman 32 Activity for a couple of couples 36 Mysterious Himalayan creature 37 Green prefix 38 & & & 42 Multiskilled talent 47 ___ Wednesday

50 Grasshopper’s counterpart, in an Aesop fable 51 Pooh’s sad pal 52 Poem portion 54 Fly high 56 Basketball rim attachment 57 Toon who loves Lard Lad Donuts 60 “This round’s ___!”

61 Overplay a part 62 “Quickly!”

66 Clarinet, e.g.

67 ^ 68 Worshipper with a turban 69 Blunders 70 Prescriptions, for short 71 Trendy bowl type DOWN 1 White piece of Mr. Potato Head 2 ATM charge 3 Tried to get elected 4 4:1, e.g.

5 Major star 6 Like many drafts 7 Volunteer’s words 8 Cooked up

9 Richard’s veep 10 Post-revolution period 11 Lacking a musical key 12 How to rock a baby 15 Kathmandu resident 21 Worldwide singing franchise, to fans 22 Prayer ending 23 ___ Bird (2017 Saoirse Ronan film) 24 Slender instrument 25 Surplus 29 “In memoriam” bio 30 Nebraska native 33 Agriculture or Energy: Abbr.

34 Knee part that Lindsey Vonn tore, briefly 35 Indiana industrial center 39 Like a crossing guard’s vest 40 Challenge 41 Editor’s “Never mind” 43 Motorola cell phone 44 “Be there soon!”

45 Service groups?

46 Sandwich also known as a hoagie 47 On land 48 Pothead

49 Thor’s weapon 53 Has to have 54 Fireside treat 55 Elected (to) 58 Sunni prayer leader 59 Apollo 11 org.

63 (As originally written) 64 Wanted poster letters 65 ___ Beta Kappa Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

Show BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

D3

blind spot bruce c.

NOT PARIS HILTON

BY this time, show business is already well aware that there is nothing sweet or innocent about this girl. She may seem like it but she really is not. No management agency will touch the young aspirant after the old one dropped her. Anyway, her recent antics have the most jaded observers raising their eyebrows. The girl is studying at a known university and she is doing a Paris Hilton. How? By bringing a nanny and her pet to school while dressed in clothes that would be more appropriate for an entertainment show than a place of learning. And, after all this time, the showbiz aspirant is still bitter over her former friend and now rival who has done well.

Perhaps, the manipulative girl should be reminded that her frenemy is genuinely nice and well-mannered.

TRUE LOVE Billy Porter accepts the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Pose. PHOTOS: AP

Jodie Comer wins the plum for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for Killing Eve.

Tony Shalhoub wins the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Alex Borstein accepts the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

THIS couple has been together for quite some time and people are surprised they are not yet engaged because they should be, right? The actress and the actor are both financially stable individually. They’re both, without sounding ageist, a bit past the age where most people start a family. So what’s stopping them from getting married and having kids (something which they both want, as the actress has told friends)? The thing is that the actor is financially supporting his family and the actress doesn’t want to be the person to hinder him from doing that. The actor is lucky that the actress is very much in love with him and, as such, is quite patient and understanding. How long can she wait though?

JUST A WARNING

WHO is the actor who received a very stern warning from the head of his management that he better shape up and not cause any more scandals or they would kick him out? While this seems admirable on the management’s part, it makes us think hard because this is not the first time the actor’s misadventures have resulted in a scandal. So everyone feels now that management is being too lax with the actor, and that they are playing favorites. He still gets good jobs and juicy roles even when he hasn’t been a bankable star in a while. The scandal he caused has resulted in the freezing of the career of one of the girls he was involved with. She’s getting that while the guy just receives a warning. How unfair is that, right?

SECOND CHANCE

THE cast and crew of Game of Thrones accepts the award for outstanding drama series.

‘Thrones,’ ‘Fleabag’ top Emmys, Billy Porter makes history L

By Lynn Elber The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—Game of Thrones resurrected the Iron Throne at Sunday’s Emmy ceremony, ruling as top drama on a night of surprises in which Pose star Billy Porter made history and the comedy series Fleabag led a British invasion that overturned expectations.

“This all started in the demented mind of George R.R. Martin,” said Game of Thrones producer David Benioff, thanking the author whose novels were the basis of HBO’s fantasy saga.

Porter, who stars in the FX drama set in the LGBTQ ball scene of the late 20th century, became the first openly gay man to win a best drama series acting Emmy. “God bless you all. The category is love, you all, love. I’m so overjoyed and so overwhelmed to have lived to see this day,” said an exuberant Porter, resplendent in a sparkling suit and swooping hat.

Amazon’s Fleabag, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional woman, was honored as best comedy and earned top acting honors for its British creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and a best director trophy. “This is getting ridiculous,” Waller-Bridge said in her third trip to the stage to collect the top trophy.

Her acting win blocked Veep star Julia LouisDreyfus from setting a record as the most-honored performer in Emmy history.

“Nooooo!” a shocked-looking Waller-Bridge said as Louis-Dreyfus smiled for the cameras. “Oh, my God, no. Thank you. I find acting really hard and really painful. But it’s all about this,” she said, her acting trophy firmly in hand.

In accepting the writing award earlier, she called the Emmy recognition proof that “a dirty, pervy, messed-up woman can make it to the Emmys.”

Porter, a Tony and Grammy Award-winning actor, relished his groundbreaking moment. Quoting the

late writer James Baldwin, he said it took him many years to believe he has the right to exist.

“I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right,” he said.

English actress Jodie Comer was honored as best drama actress for Killing Eve. She competed with costar Sandra Oh, who received a Golden Globe for her role and would have been the first actress of Asian descent to win an Emmy in the category.

“My mum and dad are in Liverpool [England] and I didn’t invite them because I didn’t think this was going to be my time. One, I’m sorry, two, I love you,” Comer said after saluting Oh. Bill Hader won his second consecutive best comedy actor award for the hit man comedy Barry.

Peter Dinklage, named best supporting actor for Game of Thrones, set a record for most wins for the same role, four, breaking a tie with Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad. “I count myself so fortunate to be a member of a community that is about nothing but tolerance and diversity, because in no other place I could be standing on a stage like this,” said Dinklage, a little person.

Ozark star Julia Garner won the best supporting drama actress trophy against a field including four actresses from Game of Thrones.

The auditorium erupted in cheers when Jharrel Jerome of When They See Us, about the Central Park Five case, won the best actor award for a limited series movie. “Most important, this is for the men that we know as the Exonerated Five,” said Jerome, naming the five wrongly convicted men who were in the audience. They stood and saluted the actor as the crowd applauded them.

It was the only honor for the acclaimed Netflix series of the evening; Chernobyl won the best limited series honor.

The ceremony was brisk but, without a host, was overly reliant on the hit-and-miss jokes of presenters.

It was ultimately the surprising wins such as Comer’s and the meaningful of Porter and Jerome that made the show.

HBO retained its durable front-runner status, with a total of 34 awards from Sunday and last weekend’s creative arts ceremony.

But streaming hit new Emmy heights, powered

by Amazon Prime winners Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and A Very English Scandal, and Netflix’s Bandersnatch (Black Mirror), honored as best movie.

Netflix collected 27 awards and Amazon nabbed 15.

Michelle Williams, honored as best actress for her portrayal of dancer Gwen Verdon in FX’s limited series Fosse/Verdon, issued a call to arms for gender and ethnic equality.

She thanked the network and studio behind the project for “supporting me completely and paying me equally because they understood...when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value. And where do they put that value, they put it into their work.

“And so the next time a woman and, especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart, tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her,” Williams said.

Patricia Arquette won the trophy best supporting limited-series or movie actress for The Act. She paid emotional tribute to her late trans sister, Alexis Arquette, and called for an end to prejudice against trans people, including in the workplace.

Ben Whishaw took the category’s supporting actor trophy for A Very English Scandal, admitting in charming British fashion to a hangover.

Alex Borstein and Tony Shalhoub of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won best comedy supporting acting awards at the ceremony, which included early and varied messages of female empowerment after the hostless ceremony. n

SO the controversial couple has called it quits, reportedly after a big fight and after the female star had a court issue a restraining order against her estranged partner. The guy has been a problem for the girl and her family because of his love for alcohol and drugs. This has made the girl’s straitlaced family think that he hasn’t given up on his bohemian ways.

Their romance was quite whirlwind that the guy didn’t realize the true character of his partner. Despite her being a free spirit, or so it seems, the girl is really someone who craves love, romance and her own family. She got that from her parents and they were quite disappointed that she hooked up with the actor. The restraining order has since been lifted reportedly, and the girl is giving her partner a second chance.

Let’s see where this goes.

Martin del Rosario wins Best Actor in PPP 2019 Acclaimed GMA Artist Center talent Martin del Rosario should see his stock rise even more after the actor received his first-ever Best Actor award in the Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino 2019 for his exceptional performance as Daniel Panti in the comedy The Panti Sisters.

The 26-year-old actor couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the great turnout of his career this year: “Nakagawa ako ng isang character na kahit na sobrang extreme niya, nabigyan ko siya ng puso. Nakakaoverwhelm, bukod sa top-grosser sa box office eh nanalo pa ng Best Actor, kasabay pa ’yung world premiere of The Gift. Overflowing ’yung blessings, hindi ko na ma-explain ’yung saya na nararamdaman ko.” Martin is part of the cast of the GMA prime-time series The Gift, where he plays Jared, a politician and Sep’s (Alden Richards) half brother.

According to him, his new role is a big shift from his character in The Panti Sisters, but he is up for the challenge.

“Gustung-gusto ko talagang magplay ng iba’t ibang roles. Sa bawat character na ’yan, feel ko nagagawa ko ’yung best ko. Itong mga awards na ito, ito ’yung nakaka-inspire bilang artista. Pag na-recognize ka kasi, parang may affirmation na tama pala ’tong ginagawa ko, nasa tamang

landas ako.”

Furthermore, Martin also shared his preparations for yet another complex role in The Gift. “Physically, nag-palaki ako ng katawan. Two weeks akong nag-gym kasi kontrabida eh, si Alden mas matangkad sa akin, marami kaming confrontation, tapatan. Maganda ’yung believable, maganda ’yung tindig mo in terms of look, pinalitan ko ng mas clean ’yung gupit ko. In terms of character, nagsuot ako ng glasses para magmukha akong karispe-respeto.”

Catch Martin in The Gift, weeknights on prime time after Beautiful Justice on GMA.

MARTIN DEL ROSARIO with his Best Actor trophy.

D4

Image BusinessMirror

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

CIELO ORTEGA-REBOREDO, Okada Manila vice president for sales and marketing, hospitality and entertainment

TAKASHI OYA, co-vice chairman and president of Okada Manila

Okada Manila fetes top accounts, confers first Icon awards TOUTED as the country’s largest integrated resort, Okada Manila recently feted its top corporate accounts with a gala dinner marking the launch of its client recognition program, the Icon Awards, which puts on the spotlight its premier clientele in Events and Room Sales that have contributed significantly to the company’s growth.

The management of the premier entertainment and gaming destination, spearheaded by Co-vice Chairman and President Takashi Oya, came in full force to give support to the event.

According to Cielo Ortega-Reboredo, Okada Manila vice president for sales and marketing, hospitality and entertainment, “This is a milestone occasion as we launch the Icon Awards, through which we honor clients who chose and continue to mount their iconic events in Okada Manila.”

Since Okada Manila opened in 2016, the integrated resort has been expanding its product offerings, further increasing its client base which have chosen the property as their venue for grand corporate and social events, and milestone celebrations.

In the 2019 Icon Awards, Okada Manila presented its top corporate accounts in events and room sales, as well as the first clients under socials and corporate. A special recognition award was also given to its online travel agency partners. The awarding ceremony saw the awardees receiving trophies from the Okada Manila executives.

It was also a night of music and entertainment as Okada Manila’s 2019 Icon Awards adopted the theme “An Evening on Broadway,” which featured performances of popular Broadway musical. The multi-awarded talents of World Championships of Performing Arts Team Philippines gave a sensational number over dinner with their take on Broadway hits.

This was followed with stirring performances by top theater artists Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña who were part of the original UK cast of Miss Saigon. The showstopping presentation culminated with a special number from the Okada Manila Entertainment Group. Other featured artists included the Glass Onion Band, singer Elle Ada and guest performer Keith Martin.

Okada Manila (www.okadamanila.com) is at New Seaside Drive, Entertainment City, Parañaque City.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The lost art of reading SUI GENERIS CARLO ATIENZA

biblisko@gmail.com

I

STARTED reading when I was 12 years old. What started out as a curious venture into the Hardy Boys series blossomed into a love for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and into the creative minds of Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy and John Grisham, among others. These were my childhood heroes—literary masters whose storytelling skills transported me to places as if I was actually there. In the past, in between playing in the rice fields and the beach, you would find me in my bed, with my head buried in the pages of my latest discovery from the school library. Today, you would find me watching the latest episode of my favorite series in Netflix, cocooned in a nest of pillows.

I have missed reading. Probably because I have not discovered any new author I liked or the ones I liked had limited selections to choose from. I used to have a personal quota of one book per month but because of the demands of work, and other responsibilities and priorities, I have set it aside for other activities like series marathons and trying to get fit. But I want to get back to reading. I restarted last year but somehow I lost it, and I think this would be a good time to look for new authors and new adventures. I realized there were so many benefits I got from reading which I can actually use now.

One is reading being a good avenue to get away from stress and anxiety. A good book will distract you from being overly anxious about things you do not have control of. In fact, a study by Dr. David Lewis from the University of Sussex in 2009 revealed that reading can actually reduce stress by as much as 68 percent and was the most effective way of reducing stress compared to taking a walk, listening to music or having a cup of tea. Indeed, when you are engrossed in what you are reading, it takes your mind off your stressors and gives you a chance to breathe. You can read whatever you want to as long as it is enjoyable for you and you are interested in what the author is saying. A quick article or an inspirational story can actually lift you and help get your mind off your apprehensions.

Not only that, you actually exercise your brain when you read. Just like any part of the body, the brain needs to be exercised to be in its optimal state. Reading gives your

Reading will increase your vocabulary and help you become better at communicating. You get to know words you were not familiar with, and use the best word for the right context. This also helps you write better and present your arguments clearly, which will greatly help when you are championing a personal cause or an opportunity for professional development at work. brain a workout, especially when you are reading a novel because your critical thinking skills are put to use. You think of different scenarios or outcomes of the story, and try to figure out the actions of the characters based on how the author has painted them and the circumstances they are put through. It becomes more engaging if the author uses new ideas to thwart preconceived notions which can help you look at things in a new light.

This brings me to another benefit of reading—source of new ideas. Other people’s experiences can help you how to do your work better. You get to choose among the best practices from other people, or customize them based on what you need. Through reading, you can survey available techniques readily and choose which one would most likely have the same effect in your work. You also avoid other people’s mistakes and mitigate the learning curve faster so you can do your work efficiently and effectively.

Reading does not only give you new ideas for work, but it also helps you see the world through another person’s life and experiences. You develop empathy and a better understanding of how other people react to different circumstances and possibly adapt them as your own.

Or, it can rile you up to take action to prevent another person’s mistake from happening to yourself. Either way, reading enriches your life through other people’s lives and experiences.

Reading also enhances your imagination. When you get to know other people’s experiences, you increase your mental library of “what are” and you can combine several parts to come up with “what could be.” You can draw from several sources to come up with a unique solution to a professional or personal problem. You allow your brain to make those connections of your experiences with others’, making it easier for you to formulate solutions based on what

you need. Psychologists use the term cognitive reserve in talking about the brain’s ability to resist damage—either from physical or emotional trauma, or any degenerative brain disease. Studies are not yet conclusive but there is evidence to suggest that reading helps in ensuring the brain develop neural pathways to bypass damaged ones, especially in language. Reading can help in making new neural connections in the brain to help it cope with the normal wear and tear, or even an unexpected trauma.

Which is also related to improving your focus, concentration and memory. Reading helps you develop good habits of focusing on a task for long periods of time and continue to at it even if it becomes tedious. Remembering the names and backgrounds of characters helps you train your brain to focus on details and draw your own conclusions based on what is presented to you—hence the idiom “reading between the lines.” Your ability to deduce the motivations of people is enhanced because the more you understand their background, the easier it is for you to identify and verify your own conclusions.

Of course, reading will increase your vocabulary and help you become better at communicating. You get to know words you were not familiar with, and use the best word for the right context. This also helps you write better and present your arguments clearly, which will greatly help when you are championing a personal cause or an opportunity for professional development at work. Having a good vocabulary will also help you communicate concisely with the greatest impact.

When did you last read a book? Lately, I realized I do not read as much because my work involves looking at different development theories and using them to create interactive and engaging courses. But I would like to go back to reading for fun. What book would you recommend? ■

More than physical illness, mental-health problems hamper productivity among employees

BY PAULINE JOY M. GUTIERREZ THERE are more workers who miss work (absenteeism), and even when at work do not perform optimally (presenteeism), because of depression and mental illness than because of physical illness or injury, a World Health Organization study finds. The same study cites that job burnout, lack of motivation, bullying and psychological harassment, as well as anxiety, are the commonly reported causes of work-related stress.

Risk factors present in the working environment include poor communication and management practices, limited participation in decision-making or low control over one’s area of work and, more important, low levels of support for employees.

Case in point, even with high-profile mental-health campaigns growing in pockets of corporate offices over the last

decade, poor mental health continues to persevere because it is still considered as a taboo subject among organizations which continue to dismiss those struggling with its conditions, as reported in a previous article on BUSINESSMIRROR (bit.ly/2kWg0HK).

As a result, poor mental health costs the global economy $1 trillion each year in lost productivity and increased staff

turnover, which refers to the percentage of workers who leave an organization and are replaced by new employees. Other consequences include increased rates of short-term disability, safety incidents and stress imposed on other team members because of overtime overstaffing to cover sick-day absences.

A core part of improving the mental

well-being of employees, according to public relations practitioner Nana Nadal, is to encourage a growing openness about mental health. Only recently, she partnered with The Mind Museum in organizing a talk tackling mental health in the workplace, titled “Mind at Work.”

The first part of the discussion, led by Dr. Robert Buenaventura of the UERM Department of Psychiatry, touched on how mental-health interventions should be delivered as part of an integrated health and well-being strategy that covers prevention, early identification, support and rehabilitation.

He suggested regular or emergency consultations with mental-health professionals with private office space, annual mental-health checkups and immediate referral to those who need it, inclusion of mental and neurological care in HMO coverage, and involvement of the Department of Labor and Employment

to audit implementation of mentalhealth programs and policies, as well as tax breaks for companies with such programs. Buenaventura stressed that countries need to invest more in mentalhealth services, as every $1 invested in scaling up treatment for depression and anxiety leads to a return of $4 in better health and ability to work.

Meanwhile, Jo Ann Rosary Asetre, a career management consultant and the managing director of Lee Hecht Harrison Philippines, said that maintaining a personal support network, and accessing personal, organizational and community resources can help employees in times of burnout.

Tracking their stressors, practicing meditation and taking time to recharge, in addition to establishing boundaries (setting time for yourself instead of being available 24/7), are also some crucial steps in managing stress.

FROM left: Christer de Silva, Jo Ann Rosary Asetre, Dr. Robert Buenaventura and Nana Nadal

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

Cebu City raises a new generation of digital entrepreneurs

A

MORE pleasant environment and highly competitive salaries are the key attractions of Cebu City to BPOs who are seen to continue driving the southern metropolis’ office market up to the end of the year, according to Phillip Anonuevo, executive director of Leechiu Property Consultants.

A leading real-estate services firm in key Philippine cities, Leechiu Property Consultants is exclusively marketing the 17-story Mabuhay Tower CBP (Cebu Business Park), a sequel to Mabuhay Tower at the Cebu IT Park now fully occupied mostly by BPOs catering to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in key global capitals.

Set for completion in early 2020 and offering gross leasable area of close to 9,100 square meters, Mabu-

hay Tower CBP recently received Philippine Economic Zone Authority accreditation and has received inquiries from more established BPO players, as well as this new generation of nimble outsourcing suppliers with boutique-scale operations that require office spaces up to 500 sq.m.

Some of the latter include Filipino entrepreneurs in software development and Web marketing servicing clients abroad.

Cebu represents a more costeffective business location to these players in the BPO space, says Anonuevo. In addition, they appreciate that Cebu, which is an educational center of the Visayas, also has a highly talented, English-speaking labor pool.

In contrast, the Manila office market has largely been focused on serving the needs of BPOs that operate in a number of countries and mid-sized firms with up to 5,000 seats, according to Anonuevo. Their scale requires office spaces with vast floor plates because they employ thousands.

But regardless of their size, Mabuhay Tower CBP offers BPOs and firms based in Cebu City a superior location within the Cebu Business Park, an established information-technology zone and business hub. Miguel Manipol, LPC associate director, observes that stores and restaurants are open up to the wee hours and transportation is available round the clock in the area. People move about freely and securely at all hours of the day, which makes the area a great setting for work-life balance.

Set for completion in early 2020, Mabuhay Tower CBP recently received Philippine Economic Zone Authority accreditation and has received inquiries from more established BPO players, as well as a new generation of nimble outsourcing suppliers with boutique-scale operations.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 E1

Business

E2 Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Tokyo & Shanghai on my mind Amor Maclang

first dibs in real estate

O

Part One

N my last night in Tokyo, I am reminded of how we will be back to this great city in 2020 not for the Olympics but for the Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific Summit, Tokyo, Japan, May 26 to 28, 2020.

Kei Tiu LaureL-de jesus

Many in the industry have heard of our epic “socials, fraternizing and networking” in the ULI-Philippines but the learning and advancement opportunities simply cannot compare.

Japan may be the world’s thirdlargest real-estate market, but it gets relatively little investment from overseas.

We heard in Shanghai a panel of Japan specialists discussed what makes Tokyo great citing factors such as the depth of the market and the quality of the assets. Jon Tanaka, head of Japan at Angelo, Gordon & Co, cited Tokyo’s “world class infrastructure,” as well as the quality of its design and construction businesses. The panel shared that Japan was less easy to navigate than other developed markets, but Tanaka said this allowed firms like his to add value. Shusaku Watanabe, director of capital transactions, Asia Pacific, at Nuveen Real Estate, noted that while demographics were a macro weakness for Japan, it brought opportunities in such areas as senior housing. For anyone not convinced, Japan’s low interest rates means real estate continues to offer a substantial

yield premium.

What fascinates me about this industry I serve is how humble and agile in its approach to learning the market leaders of the Philippine real-estate industry are. With a dearth of formalized trainings, we have come to rely on our own network and research to find a way to advance ourselves and, therefore, our practice in real estate.

Catching them f resh f rom global learning initiatives, I had a quick chat with some of my favorite thought leaders in real estate and how they’re lifelong learners in this industry.

Kei Tiu Laurel-De Jesus Managing Director of Frabelle Properties Corp.

Our company, Frabelle Properties Corp., focuses on developing good quality boutique office and residential buildings in Makati City and other cities in and around Metro Manila.

As a landlord, we value relationships, which is why we strive to create spaces that our tenants can truly call home. Family is important to us, as such, whether it be in a residential or office space, we make it a point to give them the

quality and service that a member of our family deserves. We put great value in the customer experience, we strive to create nurturing environments that then create better working and living spaces for those that choose to call our properties home. Our most recent completed project, Frabelle Corporate Plaza, a certified as LEED Gold Building in Salcedo Village was specifically designed to answer the needs of our clientele with a great mix of retail space, spacious well planned office floors, as well as an events space for our tenants.

Attending the ULI Asia Pacific Conference held in Shanghai further reinforced our belief that sustainability plays an important role in our future growth. My key conference takeaways were that sustainability and sustainable product positioning will be key in order to future-proof assets, ensuring that developments will stand the test of time. It was interesting to see that more and more cities are undergoing urban regeneration that focus on improving the quality of life and incorporating nature back into the built environment.

The future of real estate is clear-

Jet Yu

Our goal is to provide end-toend real-estate solutions, making our company preferred for any type of real-estate requirement in the full real-estate spectrum, whether that be acquisition of land, research studies, project management and quantity surveying, brokerage, property management, and legal or documentation services. We aim to disrupt the industry by utilizing innovative and game-changing technology as we cater to clients’ needs. What makes us unique is our millennial approach. Our company gives focus and importance to our key projects and we make sure to maximize our network by creating a unique synergy of local and international partners. Moreover, we make sure we deliver on the projects we commit to, and this is greatly because

of the capability and confidence as a team. Our records show that in just five years, we have established a foothold in the industry.

There are three main takeaways for me from ULI 2019: The Philippines, although progressing rapidly, still has a lot to improve when it comes to real-estate opportunities which can attract investors. Most private equity firms are only confident with Tier 1 cities due to their low risk factors. Unfortunately for the Philippines, we are generally considered a very risky market due to the negative perception, or rather misconception. The Philippines is rich in opportunities; the key is to stop red tape processes, encourage a friendlier environment for business opportunities, and finally invest in and execute proper urban planning to attract foreign players to locate here and create more fruitful and better jobs. It was insightful to learn about the WELL building certification. It’s also interesting to look at real estate from a different point of view.

Tier 1 countries look at office development in a more evolved and integrated manner. WELL

certification is not yet practiced in the Philippines. WELL certified developments consider the health and wellness of their locators. It’s a certification that shows how healthy a building is, for the mind, body and soul. I believe this could work in the Philippines because it complements the natural resources we have unmaximized for work productivity. I can imagine a redefined way of working where we can be encouraged to walk outside, enjoy nature, and maximize productivity because our senses are satisfied and taken care of—all due in part of an initiative like WELL certification.

The global real-estate industry is rapidly evolving. You have to keep connecting with industry experts and innovators to keep your knowledge up to date. We are lucky and thankful to be part of this year’s ULI conference. This experience was truly impactful as we got a chance to meet and connect with real-estate practitioners from across the globe. It is also nice to hear their unique insights that we can apply or even innovate on as we practice or implement it to the local industry.

payment methods, such as cash, deferred cash and bank financing are also available.

Amaia continues to serve prospective homeowners with af-

fordable and sustainable developments that aim to elevate the Filipino living experience in a well-secured environment.

For inquiries about Amaia

Scapes Urdaneta, Amaia Scapes Cabanatuan and other Amaia projects, check out www.amaialand.com or like www.facebook.com/ AmaiaLand.

ly moving toward sustainability and creating living and working spaces that uplift the human experience through changing behavior and growth through technology that will stand the test of time.

Jet Yu Founder and CEO of PRIME Philippines

Amaia Scapes homeowners to benefit from vital government infrastructure

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ROSPECTIVE homebuyers aim to live in sleek, well designed, contemporary homes with well-laid-out interior spaces, looking forward to years of comfortable life with their families.

When such dwellings are located in a safe and secure community that provides recreational amenities, too, could they wish for more?

In these times of mobile lifestyles, the answer is yes, they can—and do. Modern Filipino families understandably prefer homes that are near their workplaces, schools and sources of livelihood.

Fortunately for homeowners of Amaia Scapes Urdaneta and Amaia Scapes Cabanatuan, vital government infrastructure being constructed in their respective areas will provide ease of travel upon completion.

For instance, the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway Extension, a 60-kilometer toll

road will be extended from Rosario to San Juan, La Union, thus reducing travel time for locals and visitors who wish to access key destinations in the province and neighboring towns.

Meanwhile, the Clark International Airport Expansion, scheduled for completion in 2020, will raise the facility’s capacity from 4 million to 12 million passengers per year. Being the domestic and international airport closest to the Amaia properties in the North of Luzon, the project is expected to boost business and livelihood opportunities for the residents and the locals of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.

Fi n a l ly, t he Ma n i l a- C l a rk Passenger Railway Project is a 108-kilometer railway project that will connect Central Luzon and Metro Manila, reducing the two-hour travel time between Manila and Clark to just 55 minutes, giving comfort and conve-

nience to a daily average of 350 motorists and public transport passengers.

While these aforementioned projects are ongoing, prospective homeowners may check out Amaia Scapes Urdaneta and Cabanatuan’s house-and-lot packages. At Amaia Scapes Urdaneta, options available are Starter Home, Twin Pod, Single Home, and Twin Home, while Amaia Scapes Cabanatuan offers Starter Home, Twin Home, Twin Pod, Bungalow Pod and Multi Pod. In both Amaia properties, residents enjoy recreational amenities. Families can take a relaxing dip in the pool, hang out in the pavilion and play in the basketball court. Both properties are located close to shopping establishments, schools, universities, hospitals and places of worship.

In line with Amaia’s vision to make contemporary homes accessible for all Filipinos, convenient

sMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

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DTDC builds second mid-rise cluster project in Tagaytay

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

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@brownindio

FTER the success of its Leisure Suites South, Don Tim Development Corp.

(DTDC) recently started construction of Cluster B Leisure Suites North, a contemporary mid-rise cluster home project in the southern city of Tagaytay.

Cluster B Leisure Suites North rendering

Actual photo of Alta Monte Leisure Suites South

DTDC put up its flagship project, A lta Monte Subdivisions, as the first medium-rise, multicluster condominium project in Tagaytay. The 13-hectare development is conveniently located along Magallanes Drive; just a few minutes’ drive from nearby commercial establishments, markets, schools and government offices.

After successfully selling out all units under its 27 buildings from Leisure Suites South, the company said it is now looking toward the development of its new cluster, Alta Monte Leisure Suites North, with another 27 condominium

buildings. With the blessing of its first cluster of low-density condo units and the groundbreaking of its second under way, the company said it is the best time to invest for buyers who are looking for a home that combines modern condo living with the rustic charms of the countryside in Tagaytay City.

According to the company, Cluster B Leisure Suites North’s main product is its Leisure Suites, DTDC’s cluster of low-density condominiums. It added Alta Monte Leisure Suites combines the comforts of contemporary condo living with the alluring ambiance of

DTDC officers led the groundbreaking of Alta Monte Leisure Suites North

countryside living. Its first-rate features and amenities at reasonable prices provide relocators functional premium housing options.

DTDC said they are focused on Tagaytay because it is one of the most visited places by people wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of their everyday city lives.

Moreover, the city is famous for its wide array of must-try food places that people expressly visit just to satisfy cravings for their favorites like Tagaytay’s famous bulalo. “No wonder the city is also a prime real-estate location for permanent, vacation and retirement homes,” the company said.

With just six units in one building, the company said residents can enjoy larger floor areas for their units. DTDC said this assures not only their comfort when it comes to their living arrangements, but it also increases their level of safety and security. With fewer people going in and out of the building, residents can rest more peacefully, and the building’s security will have an easier task of keeping track and watching over the residents and their guests.

The company said medium-rise, low-density condos not only improve the level of security that’s afforded to a resident but it also increases their chances of getting out safely in the event of a fire or an earthquake.

Furthermore, DTDC pointed out that lower number of units per floor means more space between you and your neighbors, and more privacy for the family. It said families don’t have to worry about hearing the household noises of the next-door neighbor. “At Leisure Suites, you can take your time and relax in the comforts of your home in its own peaceful environment.”

DTDC is a high-end subdivision developer that evolved from selling house and lots into creating comfortable low-density condominiums with more innovative projects down the line.

Tagaytay Highlands’ horizon terraces offers a holistic lifestyle in nature

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hat we do, think, and even eat reflect the kind of life we choose to live. Thus, various ways to make the most out of life, which entails taking a break from life’s demands and getting some dose of comfort and respite for your overall well-being, have come about.

But how exactly can that be achieved with people spending most of their day in the hustle and bustle of work and city living?

It is indeed quite a challenge, but the developers behind Tagaytay Highlands, the country’s premier mountain resort development south of the Metro, aim to provide the high life, a life best lived within the bounties of nature, and are doing perfectly so with their wide collection of properties master planned and designed for the upscale and refined market.

Taking note of the ever-changing lifestyle preferences of the affluent, Tagaytay Highlands offers its most refreshing take on holistic living through Horizon Terraces where Asian contemporary garden suites and villas are enveloped in nature’s most breathtaking views—the Midlands Golf Course, Taal Lake and Volcano, Mount Makiling, and a lush central park.

Horizon Terraces provides refined living options in nature that are worry-free and convenient, whether for a weekend home or for everyday living. The Garden Suites are one- and two-bedroom units with large panel windows and an expansive balcony well-sized for small families or indi-

viduals. On the other hand, Garden Villas comprise of expansive living areas in three-bedroom town houses that also come with wide glass windows and sliding doors. Large families can convert the multipurpose den on the ground floor into either an entertainment room or another bedroom, to perfectly suit their living preferences.

Taking care of your health and well-being extends from the confines of your home to your surroundings.

That’s why Horizon Terraces is highlighted by its expansive Central Garden which covers almost 1 hectare of the entire development and where a wide variety of holistic amenities can be found. Take a dip at the resort-style swimming pool or stay active at an outdoor fitness zone, children’s playground, sensory garden and walking path. Meditate and be one with nature at pocket gardens situated amid the lush landscape.

Golf enthusiasts get a worthy investment with each unit purchase at Horizon Terraces, paired with membership rights at the nearby Club.

Furthermore, residents are in for the indulgence of their lives with exclusive access to a multitude of facilities for rest and recreation at the Country Club. After all, Tagaytay Highlands is best known for its indoor and outdoor sports facilities, such as the Aerial Walk, Sporting Arrow, and Pedal Go Kart Racing, and also its well-loved specialty restaurants—Highlander Steakhouse and Highlands China Palace.

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BusinessMirror

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Editor: Tet Andolong

Ayala Corp. to go cashless with GCash

Anthony Thomas (left), President and CEO of GCash and John Philip S. Orbeta, Ayala’s chief human resource officer and group head of corporate resources

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YALA Corp. (Ayala), one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in the Philippines, has adopted GCash’s PowerPay+ disbursement platform to disburse incentives to its employees at the parent company.

PowerPay+ is a bundled funds disbursement facility that allows companies to pay out salaries, commissions and allowances more conveniently and securely to people by crediting funds directly to employees’ GCash accounts. It provides the flexibility to disburse scheduled or recurring payouts and is easily accessible via mobile phone.

GCash is operated by Mynt, a partnership among Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp. and Ant Financial.

“Digital payments within the group was a natural move for us at Ayala. As a 185-year-old company, we are taking advantage of a new digital format that gives our employees ease, convenience and se-

curity. We used to give gift cheques, which later became electronic gift cheques, so the move to e-wallets was a logical next step for us following the increasingly digitally savvy lifestyle of our employees and GCash’s recent exponential growth as the country’s leading mobile wallet,” said John Philip Orbeta, Ayala’s chief human resources officer and corporate resources group head.

Like the rest of GCash’s 20 million users, Ayala employees have been using the platform to accomplish daily tasks like buying prepaid load, paying bills online, booking movie tickets, sending money to other GCash accounts and traditional bank accounts, and transacting with over 50,000 QR-enabled merchant partners nationwide. GCash also offers GSave, which gives the highest savings rate in the country and requires no minimum

balance, and GCredit, which uses alternative credit scoring models to provide microloans.

Orbeta said that using the PowerPay+ platform will simply take their Ayala employees’ GCash use to another level.

At Ayala’s 2019 Annual Stockholders’ Meeting last April, Ayala Chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said the company is undergoing a massive transformation to ramp up the digitalization of its companies, as this was key to propelling the company into the future.

Zobel emphasized that the corporation, with business interests in real estate, banking, telecommunications, water, power, infrastructure, industrial technologies, health care, and education, has started “to participate in digital businesses that we believe are disruptive. These investments are designed to complement our group’s traditional brick-and-mortar operations, future-proof our existing portfolio, and broaden the digital experience of Filipinos.”

“We spend significant time studying other markets that are in the advanced stages of digital maturity and we have teams constantly looking at emerging trends and technologies,” Zobel added.

“Absorbing and learning from these experiences, we have become more deliberate in our own digital transformation journey and have elevated it into a group-wide strategic agenda."

Aside from enjoying the benefits of going digital, Thomas said GCash users also contribute to Philippine environmental sustainability efforts through GCash Forest, a feature within the app that computes how transactions done via GCash help the environment. The app computes one’s carbon credits, which upon hitting a predetermined target will require GCash to plant a tree at the Ipo Watershed, the biggest source of water for Metro Manila.

Life, land and journeys

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S part of its mission to bring the benefits of financial technology to various industries, the Fintech Philippines Association has appointed committees to bring together members from across various industries. Meet the leaders of three of the industry committees: insurance, transportation and real estate.

Melissa Henson Committee Chair for Insurance

Melissa Henson serves as chief marketing officer of Manulife Philippines, the Philippine branch of a century-old multinational pillar of the insurance industry. She brings with her over 15 years of experience across marketing disciplines including branding and advertising; PR and communications; digital marketing and solutions; product development and management; customer experience; loyalty marketing; and events management.

An engaging people manager, Melissa is committed to building dynamic teams and developing talent.

Lalamove promotes ‘Angat ang Maingat’ campaign

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Carousell GM Raffy Montemayor and head of cars Karl Magsuci

Carousell sees high growth for automobile business unit

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O celebrate its seventh anniversary, Carousell, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing classifieds, announced a successful migration from OLX for its Philippine business unit and a fourfold revenue growth in 2018, supported by monetization streams in mid-2017, enhanced product features and improved user experiences.

“We are very encouraged to see most of the OLX users successfully migrated to our Carousell platform. Every day, more and more Filipinos discover that selling on Carousell takes just a matter of seconds,” shared Carousell Philippines General Manager Raffy Montemayor. “We recorded over 250 million listings worldwide with 4X revenue growth, this proves that Carousell is meeting real demands and it’s more relevant than ever in the Philippines.”

Raffy also announced the appointment of Carousell Philippines’s new head of cars, Karl Magsuci.

Karl has more than 17 years of management experience in marketing, brand and product strategy. He has worked with top brands including Honda Cars Philippines Inc., Ramcar Group (Motolite Battery) and BMW Philippines. Karl will manage a team of 25 in the car business units and lead the strategic

planning for the company.

“With the rapid growth of Carousell in the Philippines, we have seen a real need to expand our platform to offer high-value verticals, such as properties and automobiles. With the addition of Karl in our team, I am confident that our automobiles business unit will lead in the online classified space,” Raffy continued.

The company also presented its newly redesigned Carousell app. The updated app has a new look-and-feel that pushes user-generated content to the foreground. The interface has been made cleaner and simpler to put the spotlight on what matters the most: people, their items and their stories. Carousell users can also expect better discoverability with new vibrant category icons within the app.

This visual identity refresh signifies the brand’s progression and growth, while putting a spotlight on its core purpose of enabling shared possibilities among users of the online marketplace. Throughout the years, Carousell has been harnessing mutually beneficial opportunities to empower users, and celebrated numerous success stories of users who turned their passions into livelihoods.

ONSTA NT monsoon rain and floods are heavily affecting the road users of Metro Manila. We aren’t just talking about motor vehicles; this includes pedestrians, day-to-day commuters and PWDs. Everyone, from students to senior citizens, has to deal with bad weather that creates heavy traffic and increases the rate of accidents.

With the rising dependency on on-demand delivery services, business owners and frequent users rely on these delivery apps even more heavily this rainy season.

Lalamove, being the leading on-demand delivery app in the Metro, sees this growing demand as an opportunity to also remind their partner-drivers to prioritize their safety on the road.

In partnership with Honda Safety Driving Center and road-safety advocate James Deakin, Lalamove launches the “Angat ang Maingat” campaign to ensure safety for their growing partner-driver community.

They previously held safety seminars, but it only reaches a handful of people compared to their sizable 35,000 base.

Our goal is to prevent any road acci-

dent for all Lalamove partner-drivers.

We started by conducting safety seminars and realized that safety promotion is a continuous effort that goes beyond training. We needed to promote this through constantly communicating its importance and how everyone contributes to road safety. Through this, we developed a program with Honda Safety Driving Center and James Deakin to send a message that safety is the key to success for our partner-drivers: “Angat ang maingat, partner,” said Dannah Majarocon, managing director of Lalamove Philippines.

According to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, there were 101,428 road crashes in the National Capital Region last year, of which 336 lives were lost. Even though Lalamove provides personal accident insurance for all drivers, Dannah shares that it’s best if there will never be a use for it. Lalamove is optimistic that their safety campaign will reach and reeducate all their partnerdrivers for them to be cautious and to uphold quality services at all times.

George Royeca Committee Chair for Transportation

George Royeca serves as head of regulatory and public affairs for Angkas, the pioneering motorcycle ride-hailing service in the Philippines. George brings with him over 10 years of IT, new media, and business development experience as a top-level executive focused on M&As in consumer facing businesses.

Mikko Barranda Committee Chair for Real Estate

Mikko Barranda serves as associate director for Leechiu Property Consultants, a real-estate services firm specializing in leasing, tenant representation, BPO site selection and sales and acquisition. By profession, he is a licensed real-estate broker who has helped many multinational companies and business-process outsourcing providers find suitable office spaces in the Philippines. He is also the cofounder of Acceler8, a hybrid workspace that offers virtual office plans, private offices, meeting room plans and event spaces.