BusinessWeek M I N DA N A O CREDIBLE
Volume XII, No. 22
Market Indicators
AS OF 6:00 PM JULY 29, 2021 (THURSDAY)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P 50.305
6,496.53
X X Briefly
0.65
23.50
cents
points
Zero growth THE GROWTH of the agriculture sector is expected to be flat to lower over the remainder of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s term, according to industry groups and experts. Mr. Duterte will deliver his sixth and final State of the Nation Address on July 26 and is due to end his term in June 2022. Calixto V. Chikiamco, Foundation for Economic Freedom president, estimated that “for 2021, (agriculture output) might be flat or even negative, depending on further disruptions caused by the pandemic lockdowns, control of the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) and adverse weather. In the first quarter, agricultural production dropped 3.3%, so positive growth for the year would be optimistic,” Mr. Chikiamco said via mobile phone.
Real estate push THE PROPERTY sector’s recovery is hinged on how quickly the government can build the infrastructure it promised, according to industry heads. Some segments of the industry are somewhat looking up after pandemicrelated contractions in 2020, with Leechiu Property Philippines indicating the return of office space demand on the back of a vaccination rollout. “If we want to transform the country, there’s no other choice but to build more infrastructure at a faster pace,” DMCI Holdings Chairman and President Isidro A. Consunji said.
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Normin's reg'l hospital back under 'Code Red' www.businessweekmindanao.com
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By FROILAN GALLARDO, MindaNews
HE Northern Mindanao Medical C enter (NMMC), the main government hospital in the region attending to COVID-19 cases, declared a “Code Red” as cases here continue to rise at over 100 a day in the past few weeks.
Dr. Jose Bernard Julius Rocha, liaison officer of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, said the surge in COVID-19 cases is aggravated by the detection of seven of the highly infectious Delta variant in Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. LIFE-SIZE TRIBUTE. Hidilyn Diaz’s life-size picture is displayed at the gym she built using incentives from her 2016 Olympics silver medal win. photographed 27 july 2021 by frencie l . carreon / mindanews .
Govt's electrification of sitios falls short of target By MYRNA M. VELASCO, Contributor
THE goal of the Duterte administration to complete electrification of all sitios within the service domain of the electric cooperatives (ECs) would fall short of target because of deficient budget allocation by the national government. In a briefing with reporters, Sonia B. San Diego,
deputy administrator for Corporate Resources and Financial Services of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), indicated that the allocation of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for sitio electrification this year was at P1.627 billion and that could just energize
1,085 sitios. N E A Ad m i n i s t r at o r Edgardo R. Masongsong qualified that if the 12,000 targeted sitios will have to be completely electrified next year, the required funding will be as much as P18 billion; hence, the DBM-earmarked budget would be way below the total amount needed. F o r n e x t y e a r, t h e SHORT/PAGE 10
Rocha said the NMMC went from Code Yellow to Code Red on Tuesday. “It will be naive to think that the Delta variant did not cause the recent surge,” Rocha told reporters during a daily news briefing here Wednesday. HOSPITAL/PAGE 11
OPINION
Pandemic trade-off: losing a media friend
(Editor’s note: This piece is a tribute to MDN Managing Editor Roel V. Pelone, a media colleague who succumed to the deadly Covid-19 virus, July 28).
WITH the onset of the Delta variant, it seems we are not seeing even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. This metaphor exactly fits to where we are now—still at war with the pandemic that has become potent and deadlier more than ever.
UNRUFFLED
RUFFY MAGBANUA We struggled no end, and the trade-of fs are overwhelming like losing FULL ARTICLE/PAGE 4
8 CDO Delta variant patients recover By ERCEL MAANDIG, Reporter
EIGHT patients of the Delta variant of the coronavirus here have recovered and their close contacts contained. The eight were confirmed after the Department of Health (DOH) informed the city government of the report of samples taken by the Philippine Genome
Center (PGC), Mayor Oscar Moreno said in an online press briefing on Thursday. They are seven family m e m b e r s i n B a r a n g ay Balulang, all recovered on July 15; and a Barangay Canitoan resident, who recovered on July 18. RECOVER/PAGE 10
BTA EXTENSION. Tarpaulins with the words “Extend BTA 2025” dot the Cotabato-Isulan highway somewhere in Maguindanao. mindanews photo by bong s . sarmiento
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