Manila Standard - 2021 July 10 - Saturday

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RULING PARTY FEUD WORSENS: PACQUIAO KICKS OUT CUSI, DEPUTY

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

ENERGY Secretary Alfonso Cusi has been kicked out of the PDP-Laban for supporting the presidential run of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is

not even a member of the ruling party, a resolution signed by party president Senator Manny Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao, currently in the United States training for a boxing match in August, plans to run for president in

next year’s election.

“Vice Chairman Cusi is already manipulating the party to support the DuterteDuterte tandem, which is a blatant admission of supporting (Davao City Mayor) Sara Duterte-Carpio for president, who is

VOL. XXXV • NO. 145 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P18 • SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Olympic flame now in Tokyo for fan-free Games

COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE

(AS OF 4 PM JULY 9)

1,461,455 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

5,881 51,902

THE Olympic flame arrived in Tokyo on Friday with just two weeks until the Games open, as athletes and fans mourned a “heartbreaking” decision to bar spectators from almost all venues over the virus.

In a taste of what is to come for thousands of athletes who will compete at the pandemic-postponed Games, the public was kept away from the arrival of the flame and a welcoming ceremony was attended only by the media and officials.

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ACTIVE

25,720

70

1,383,833

3,003

DEATHS

RECOVERIES

not a member of the party. He is guilty of having allegiance to a candidate and her political ideals and party,” reads Resolution No. 6 issued on June 12, 2021.

The name of Duterte-Morales, presidential daughter, is being floated as a

possible standard bearer for President Duterte in case he decides to join the vice presidential race.

Resolution No. 6 also noted that the Davao mayor does not even believe in Next page

Swab test on travelers up to LGUs IATF gives local execs option to gauge own risk in protocols

By Willie Casas

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OCAL government units (LGUs) will decide whether or not they will require persons entering their jurisdiction to test negative for COVID-19, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Thursday night.

Duque said this was the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) after some LGUs expressed concern over the national government’s plan to allow fully vaccinated persons to simply present their vaccination cards in-

stead of undergoing testing.

“The final agreement there is to give the LGUs the option... to require RT-PCR testing. That’s the clarification that has been made,” Duque said. “They (LGUs) will make their own risk assessment.”

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BANGLADESH FACTORY INFERNO KILLS 52 WORLD / B2

Kids 5 years old and above allowed to go outdoors in NCR Plus

By Vito Barcelo

THE Inter-Agency Task (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Diseases has allowed children, ages 5 and above, to go outdoors in areas under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) and general community quar-

antine (GCQ).

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who is also the IATF’s spokesman, however said this does not apply to areas under heightened restrictions.

He said outdoor areas will be limited to parks, playgrounds, beaches, biking and hiking trails, outdoor tourist sites

and attractions as may be defined by the Department of Tourism, outdoor non-contact sports courts and venues, and al-fresco dining establishments in the previously mentioned areas.

Malacañang also clarified that children are not allowed inside malls and similar establishments or inside buildings.

“Children must be supervised by adults and observe minimum public health standards, such as wearing of face masks and social distancing,” the IATF said.

Earlier, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said at least 20 million Next page

Sara now‘open’ to presidential bid in 2022 polls DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Friday said she is now “open” to running for president in the 2022 national elections.

“Yes,” the presidential daughter said in a chance interview in Cebu. “[But] what is important now is to know the sentiment of the people and what the people really want,” the mayor added.

She was in Cebu Friday for a meeting with Gov. Gwen Garcia at the Provincial Capitol.

Asked whether they discussed preparations for next year’s polls, DuterteCarpio said: “None yet. But I asked permission from the governor if we can return here in Cebu to talk to the Cebuanos. It is important for us in Hugpong ng Pagbabago to talk to the Cebuanaos and the governor has agreed.”

Romualdez says it’s time to pass disaster dep’t bill

By Maricel V. Cruz and Rio N. Araja HOUSE Majority Leader Martin Romualdez on Friday renewed his appeal to the Senate leadership to pass a bill creating the Department Disaster Resilience (DDR) amid the continued unrest of Taal Volcano.

Romualdez, chairman of the House Committee on Rules, recalled that DDR was among President Rodrigo Duterte’s

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SC OK’S POLICE BODY CAMERAS NEWS / A2

Next page With restive Taal Volcano in the background, a worker carries on his construction task in a park at Picnic Grove in Tagaytay City on Friday, July 9, 2021. About 5 phreatomagmatic eruptions of Taal have been recorded in the past 24 hours. Danny Pata

PH crime data debunks ‘worst ranking’ —PNP chief

Gen. Eleazar

THE actual data on the crime situation in the country disputes the ranking of the Philippines at the bottom of the list of the safest countries by an international magazine, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Friday.

In a statement, PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said they had been consistent in releasing crime data statistics which have seen a decline in the past years.

“Our crime statistics do not jive with this ranking. Our partners in the media can prove this because we always release

data on the crime situation in the country where we see a big decline. If we compare the number of index crimes in the first five years of this administration to the last or even the first five years of the previous administration, it declined by 63 percent nationwide,” he said.

Eleazar, however, recognized that based on the report, peace and order was only one of the factors in the ranking of countries.

“Other factors include natural disasters and the actual effects of COVID-19 on the Next page

CHOCOLATE FAIR. World Chocolate Fair opens at S’Maison in Conrad Manila, featuring the most delectable limited edition iterations of the award-winning Auro Chocolate.

Ongoing until July 11, the fair is a chocolate extravaganza of mouth-watering treats from Lola Café, Overdoughs, Mary Grace, Poison Doughnuts, Half Saints, Serenitea, Bububars, Pinkberry, Conrad Manila and Kultura. Gracing the festival’s opening ceremony are (from left) SM Supermalls President Steven Tan, Auro Chocolate Founders Kelly Go and Mark Ocampo and SM Mall of Asia SAVP for Operations Perkin So.

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Pfizer, BioNtech seek 3rd dose OK P

FIZER and BioNTech said they would seek authorization for a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine to boost its efficacy as the Delta variant drove devastating outbreaks in Asia, including in Thailand where fresh curbs were announced Friday.

The highly-transmissible Delta variant, first detected in India, is sweeping across the globe as countries race to vaccinate their populations to ward off fresh outbreaks.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they expected that a third dose will perform well against the strain, and that they would be seeking authorization in the United States, Europe and other regions in coming weeks.

Initial data from an ongoing trial showed a third shot pushed antibody levels five to 10 times higher against the original coronavirus strain and the Beta variant, first detected in South Af-

SC ok’s police body cameras THE Supreme Court en banc has approved the use of body cameras for policemen when serving arrest, search, and seizure warrants.

In a 16-paged resolution, the High Court a law enforcement personnel should have a body-worn camera and an alternative recording device when implementing arrest warrants.

The person to be arrested should also be informed the procedure is being recorded.

If a body-worn camera is unavailable “for justifiable reasons,” the SC said an officer should file an ex parte motion for the use of at least two alternative camera devices.

The Philippine National Police on June 4 launched the body-worn camera system for the police to ensure transparency and legitimacy of law enforcement operations.

PNP chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar said an initial 2,696 units have been distributed to 171 police stations and offices.

PH crime...

From A1 country. Nevertheless, we will take this as a challenge to do more in terms of further improving the peace and order and security in our country,” he added.

Since the start of the strict implementation of community quarantine in March last year due to the pandemic, the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, then headed by Eleazar, had been releasing crime statistics to show a significant decline in eight focus crimes -- murder, homicide, rape, physical injury, robbery, theft, car theft, and motorcycle theft.

Crime volume declined by more than 50 percent, with theft and robbery posting the most significant decline at over 60 percent.

In its latest report, the international monthly magazine Global Finance said the Philippines ranked at the bottom of the list of safest countries.

The Philippines got a score of 14.8899 in the Global Finance Safety Index, putting it at the bottom of 134 countries included in the ranking. Iceland was listed as the safest country with a score of 3.9724.

rica, compared with the first two doses alone, according to a statement.

The companies said they expected similar results for Delta – but added they were also developing a vaccine specifically tailored to fight the deadly strain.

Medical frontliners to get booster jab

Health workers in coronavirus-hit Indonesia will get a third booster jab using the Moderna vaccine, authorities said Friday, after several fully inoculated medics died from COVID-19.

The Southeast Asian nation, battling

Swab...

From A1 In the meantime, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is working on “digital vaccine certification” for LGUs that will require only vaccination cards.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the DICT is already encoding information of those fully vaccinated into a system as a way of dealing with fake vaccination cards.

Interior Assistant Secretary Odilon Pasaraba added that the government is also looking into having a unified vaccination card to be used by all LGUs. Earlier, the Palace said the policy of not requiring RT-PCR testing for fullyvaccinated people was meant to be an incentive for people to get their jabs.

It was also based on the fact that vaccinated people were unlikely to get sick with COVID-19.

The Philippines has fully vaccinated 4.5 percent or more than 3.2 million of the 70 million target population for COVID-19 jabs, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.

Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, during a briefing, said 12,703,081 doses have been administered nationwide as of July 8, with an average of around 200,000 shots administered daily.

A total of 9,493,839 individuals received at least one dose, accounting

Romualdez...

From A1 State of the Nation Address (SONA) priority measures.

The bill, he said, should be passed before the 2022 national elections.

Meanwhile, Taal Volcano in Batangas maintained its Alert Level 3, following five short phreatomagmatic bursts and 58 volcanic earthquakes recorded in the past 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

High levels of volcanic sulfur dioxide or SO2 gas emissions and steam-rich plumes that rose 1,200 meters before drifting northwest were generated from the Taal main crater.

Sulfur dioxide emission averaged 6,095 tons per day on July 8.

The public is reminded that the entire Taal Volcano Island is a permanent danger zone, and entry into the island as well as into the high-risk barangays of Agon-

its most serious outbreak to date driven by the Delta variant, has relied heavily on the Chinese-made Sinovac jab in its vaccine roll-out.

But out of 1,000 medical workers who have died of COVID-19, more than a dozen were fully inoculated, according to the country’s medical association, raising fresh concerns about Sinovac.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government would give 1.47 million health workers an extra jab using the vaccine made by US biotech company Moderna.

ously been subjected to travel restrictions for a month but infection rates were steadily rising – with more than 9,400 cases registered.

Before the outbreak kicked off in late April, Vietnam had recorded fewer than 3,000 cases across the entire country.

Vietnamese authorities are not using the term lockdown but are calling the measures “social isolation orders.”

Delta variant dominates

Vietnam’s economic hub Ho Chi Minh City began a two-week lockdown Friday in the hope to contain the country’s worst COVID-19 virus outbreak.

The city of nine million had previ-

COVID cases are rising rapidly in the United States as the highly contagious Delta variant dominates and vaccinations stagnate.

The seven-day-average of new cases was 13,859 as of July 6, up 21 percent compared to two weeks earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). AFP

for 13.4 percent of the government’s 70 million target.

Of this number, 3,209,242 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 after receiving both doses.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire backed an OCTA Research earlier projection that Metro Manila may become resilient against the more transmissible Delta coronavirus variant in a few months.

“If we achieve 30 percent [coverage], actually it’s not just the Delta variant.

We will become resilient to the COVID-19 disease and against all of these variants if people will be vaccinated and if we can reach this 30 percent to 50 percent,” Vergeire said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Cabotaje said the government now aims to vaccinate at least 90 percent of the A1 priority group by the end of June, more than 90 percent of senior citizens by the end of July, and at least 90 percent of persons with comorbidities by the end of August.

She also said the government seeks to report daily COVID-19 vaccine coverage and inventory as well as cold chain and logistics management.

The Philippines logged 5,881 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,461,455.

Seventy new fatalities brought the COVID-19 death toll to 25,720.

The DOH also reported 3,003 newlyrecovered patients, bringing the total recoveries to 1,383,833.

There were 51,902 active cases, of which 90.3 percent were mild, 4.4 percent were asymptomatic, 1.5 percent were critical, 2.2 percent were severe, and 1.56 percent were moderate.

Nationwide, 57 percent of ICU beds, 45 percent of isolation beds, 42 percent of ward beds, and 35 percent of ventilators, were in use.

In Metro Manila, 41 percent of ICU beds, 37 percent of isolation beds, 33 percent of ward beds, and 31 percent of ventilators, were in use.

Also on Friday, the OCTA Research group flagged the cities of Davao, Iloilo, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, and Tagum as areas of concern due to a rise in their COVID-19 numbers.

While cases declined in Davao City, it still had the highest average number of daily new cases with around 241 infections recorded per day from July 2 to 8, the OCTA group said.

Davao’s reproduction number also stood at 1, indicating a sustained COVID-19 transmission, while its average daily attack rate was high at 13.26 cases per 100,000 population and its positivity rate was at 15 percent, above the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent.

ICU use was also very high in Davao City, with 95 percent, and in Iloilo City, at 94 percent.

OCTA also noted that Metro Manila averaged 636 new infections daily from July 2 to 8, 7 percent lower than the week before.

cillo and Laurel must be prohibited due to the hazards of pyroclastic density currents and volcanic tsunami should strong eruptions occur. All activities on Taal Lake should not be allowed at this time.

Romualdez said the country needed a department that would focus on rehabilitation efforts and improve the government’s rehabilitation capacity.

“Much work is expected of us in the 18th Congress until the 2022 elections.

But one of the bills that I wish to be enacted into law is DDR. I intend to seek our senators’ help to get this measure approved before our term expires especially now with the continued unrest of Taal Volcano,” said Romualdez, who represents Tacloban City -- the most hit part of Eastern Visayas during the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda on November 8, 2013.

Romualdez and his wife, Tingog party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, chairperson of the House Committee on Welfare of Children, are among the

principal authors of House Bill 5989 pushing for the creation of the DDR. Several bills on DDR are still pending before the Senate Committees on National Defense and Security and Peace, Unification and Reconciliation.

Romualdez, president of the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), said the country needs a primary government institution that would be responsible for ensuring safe, adaptive, and disaster resilient communities.

“We must not mobilize government resources only when a calamity is about to strike or after a disaster has ravaged entire communities. The Department of Disaster Resilience will provide leadership in the continuous development of strategic and systemic approaches to disaster prevention, mitigation preparedness response, recovery, and rehabilitation,” Romualdez said.

“We all saw the horrors brought by Typhoon Yolanda. I witnessed the destruction it wrought to our communities in Eastern

2-week lockdown

Ruling...

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Olympic...

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federalism, a key party platform.

“Her party fielded candidates against and opposed official candidates of PDP-Laban in the 2019 Elections. And she is vehemently opposed to joining the PDP-Laban Party,” Resolution No. 6 also stated.

Also expelled from PDP-Laban based on the same resolution were Deputy Secretary General Melvin Matibag and Membership Committee Head Astra Naik.

The three were booted out of the PDP-Laban for violations of the party constitution by “showing allegiance to a political party apart from PDP Laban.”

Under the party’s Resolution No. 6, the National Executive Committee (NEC) formally removed Cusi, Matibag and Naik from the party for violation of Article VII Section 6 of the party constitution, which specifically prohibits members from maintaining any allegiance to another political party.

With their expulsion, “all rights and privileges of Cusi, Matibag and Naik as members of the Party and all their positions or authorities in the party are likewise immediately terminated.”

Party members were directed to cease and desist from following, supporting or giving legitimacy to any directive, resolution, notices, communications or actions by the three expelled officers.

Cusi and Matibag questioned Pacquiao’s authority to expel them.

“Senator Pacquiao demeans himself by resorting to underhanded tactics,” Cusi said. “Whoever advises him clearly does not care about him and his reputation. I pity Senator Pacquiao.

He is clearly misguided.”

“The PDP Laban activities on July 16 and 17 will push through as scheduled and as confirmed by our party chairman,” he added, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte. “See you then.”

As the final countdown to the July 23 opening ceremony begins, the mood is far from the usual festive Olympic spirit.

Tokyo will be under a virus state of emergency from Sunday until August 22, putting a further dampener on an already unusual Olympics.

The measures, which mostly limit alcohol sales, restaurant opening hours and crowd sizes, come as infections rise in the capital and with authorities concerned about the spread of the Delta variant.

Given the decision, organisers said Thursday they would bar spectators from venues in Tokyo and three surrounding areas, where most competition will happen. A handful of events will be held elsewhere in the country with some fans in attendance.

The move disappointed fans and athletes alike, with Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios saying it tipped the scale as he wavered on whether to compete.

“The thought of playing in front of empty stadiums just doesn’t sit right with me. It never has,” he said on social media, announcing his withdrawal.

But others said they were grateful for the chance to take part, with US swimmer Katie Ledecky saying the Games would still be “a

really beautiful thing.”

In Tokyo, Governor Yuriko Koike received the Olympic flame in a lantern at a ceremony in an empty stadium.

The nationwide torch relay was supposed to stoke excitement about the Games, but almost half the legs have been taken off public roads or otherwise altered because of virus concerns.

Despite the disruptions, Koike said the f lame’s passage offered “hope” that torchbearers would “carry into the Olympic stadium.”

When the cauldron is lit on July 23, only dignitaries and officials will be in the stands at the 68,000-capacity National Stadium in central Tokyo.

On Thursday night, Koike told reporters she felt “heartbreaking grief ” about the decision to bar fans, but organizers said they had no choice given the rise in infections and new emergency measures.

Japan has so far recorded around 14,900 vir us deaths, despite avoiding harsh lockdowns, and organizers had hoped to have up to 10,000 local fans in venues after being forced to bar overseas spectators.

The spread of the more contagious Delta variant, paired with a comparatively low vaccination rate – just 16 percent of the population is fully vaccinated – put paid to those plans.

The financial impact of the decision is

DOH sets ban on ‘TFA- free’ food labelling

By Willie Casas THE Department of Health has issued an administrative order seeking to prohibit, among others, the labeling of food products as “trans-fatty acid (TFA)-free.”

Rodley Carza of the DOH Health Promotion Bureau said the DOH’s AO 2021-0039 aims to reduce Filipinos’ TFA intake to less than one percent of their recommended total energy intake by ridding the food supply of industrially-produced TFA by 2023.

Carza said industrially-produced TFAs were common in pre-packaged goods like chips and cookies, baked goods, as well as in spreads, butter, and shortening.

The AO prohibits front-of-pack labels that claim a food product is “TFAfree” and requires food establishments to properly disclose the nutritional content of their food products.

“This is because of the halo effect where TFA-free labels might lead the public into thinking that a certain food product is healthy where, in fact, it has high amounts of other fats, sugar, salt, or calories,” Carza said.

Carza said the ban on “TFA-free” claims would be enforced once the Food and Drug Administration has issued guidelines and regulations designed to eliminate industrially-produced TFA in the production of food establishments.

The AO also states that the FDA must “determine the appropriate transitory period that shall not be more than two years from the effectivity of this AO in which the FDA will commence regulation of processed food products that have complied with the guidelines set.”

Kids...

From A1 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech will be used for children in the 12-to-15 age bracket.

Galvez made the announcement following the signing of the supply agreement for 40 million Pfizer doses to be delivered by the third and fourth quarter.

Galvez, for his part, said the original plan was to allocate as much as 25 million of the Pfizer jabs for 12 to 15 year olds.

“But considering that we are only opening up the vaccination for children like in Europe and also in the United States and Israel, we are anticipating that we have to program or we have to prepare for that,” Galvez said.

Once the government’s expert panel gives a go signal and guidelines have been issued, Galvez said the government would start vaccinating those in the 12 to 15 year old age bracket.

Sara...

From A1 “I thank my supporters here in Cebu for their trust and confidence in me and that is one of the reasons why we are here because we want to ask the people what they really want,” she added.

HNP is poised to form a super-coalition that counts among its possible members Lakas-CMD, National Unity Party, Nacionalista Party, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and the People’s Reform Party.

comparatively small, with projected revenues for all Olympic and Paralympic tickets accounting for just around $800 million compared to an approximately $15-billion Tokyo 2020 budget.

A decision on Paralympic spectators will be taken after the Olympics end.

The move left a sour taste for Natsuko Kamioka, who had tickets to take her son to the men’s volleyball quarter-finals.

“They’ve avoided canceling the Games but they haven’t been left with a good outcome.

No one is happy,” she told AFP. Olympic “superfan” Kyoko Ishikawa, who has attended every Summer Games in the past three decades, was more sanguine.

“It’s not getting me down,” said Ishikawa, who has become a familiar face at Olympic venues over the years in her traditional Japanese outfit and ‘hachimaki’ headband.

“Now, what I have to do is ask how I can still create an opportunity to connect people around the world through the Olympic Games.”

And French decathlete Kevin Mayer, who won silver in Rio 2016, said the roar of crowds was only one aspect of competition.

“They are taking away part of the joy of sport,” he told a press conference. “But we should not forget why we play sports.”

“I’m being given the opportunity to express myself in a way not given to everyone, in the biggest competition that exists.” AFP

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16 schools act as online Bar test sites—SC

By Rey E. Requejo THE Supreme Court has entered into a memorandum of agreement with 16 schools as testing centers for the 2020 and 2021 bar examinations which will be held online and scheduled for four Sundays in November, The SC through Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, chairman of the Court’s committee on bar examinations, said the SC is eyeing a total of 25 testing sites throughout the country, but it is still in the process of negotiating with several large schools to accommodate more bar examinees.

The public health emergency arising from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted the high court to cancel the 2020 bar examinations and decided to hold them simultaneously with the 2021 tests with more testing sites instead of only in Manila as previously done.

The online examinations and the decision to hold them in many testing sites were conceived by the SC, not only because of the risks due to pandemic, but also to lessen the expenses of bar graduates who, previously, had to go to Manila for the tests.

Besides, the bar examinees will have a choice where to take the examinations preferably near their residents.

Leonen revealed that 16 local testing centers have agreed to the Memorandum of Agreement based on the template approved by the Supreme Court En Banc.

The magistrates said the 16 local testing centers include the Ateneo de Manila University; Manila Adventist College; Saint Louis University Baguio City; Saint Louis College – La Union; Saint Mary’s University; Cagayan State University; De La Salle Lipa in Lipa City; University of Nueva Caceres; University of St. La Salle – Bacolod; Central Philippine University; University of Cebu – Banilad; Mindanao State University – Iligan; Mindanao State University – General Santos City; Ateneo de Davao University; Xavier University – Cagayan de Oro; and Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

Leonen did not identify the other universities or colleges the SC has been negotiating with as possible testing centers.

DEAL SEALED. PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar (left) and PDEA

Director General Wilkins Villanueva bump fists after signing a joint memorandum circular that provides a clear-cut coordination mechanism between PDEA and PNP prior to the conduct of planned anti-drug operation. The signing ceremony was held at Camp Crame, the police headquarters, in Quezon City. Manny Palmero

Gov’t upbeat 50-70 million will sign up for ID by Dec. pine Statistics Authority said that around 37.2 million individuals have registered for step 1 or the demographic data collecHE government is tion. confident of reaching PSA said some 16.2 million individuits 50-70 million target als have also completed their step 2 regregistrations for the national ID istration or biometrics capture. Moreover, 343,742 registrants have received their by yearend, after 37.2 million PhilID cards.

Filipinos signed up for step 1 “The COVID-19 crisis underscores the of the Philippine Identification need to provide unhampered access to System (PhilSys) as of July banking and social services for all Filipi2, Socioeconomic Planning nos, especially the poor.

This is why the President gave the diSecretary Karl Kendrick Chua rective to accelerate the implementation said Friday. of the Philippine Identification System or From zero registration after the pan- PhilSys to provide all Filipinos a unique demic set in last April 2020, the Philip- and digitalized ID,” Chua said in a

By July Rada

T

statement.

To safely roll-out PhilSys amid the pandemic and meet social distancing requirements, the PSA adopted a three-step registration process. The first step is the demographic data collection, which can be done through house-to-house or online registration. The second is the biometrics capture at designated registration centers.

Third is the issuance of the PhilSys Number or PSN and PhilID card.

PhilSys also partnered with the staterun Land Bank of the Philippines to allow registrants to open bank accounts in registration centers. As of July 2, 2021, 4.4 million registrants have applied for an account with the bank.

In a memorandum, the Bangko Sentral

ng Pilipinas said that the PhiIID “should be accepted as official and sufficient proof of identity without the need to present any other identification documents.”

The Department of the Interior and Local Government likewise recently ordered all local government units to recognize the PhilID in public and private transactions.

“We aim to register 50 to 70 million Filipinos with the PhilSys and achieve 100 percent financial inclusion at the family level by the end of the year. This will help the government efficiently identify beneficiaries for social protection programs and spark the widespread use of electronic payments to accelerate the digital economy,” Chua said.

Isko falls victim to pranksters: Pizza deliveries flood his office

By Macon Ramos Araneta

A First Gen employee makes the thumbs-up sign after getting a Covid-19 vaccine inside the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.

Lopez firm starts vaccine rollout for workers, others THE First Philippine Holdings Corporation of the Lopez group has started the rollout this week of its Covid-19 vaccines for employees and dependents as part of the conglomerate’s program to help ensure the health of its workforce and support government’s overall aim to achieve herd immunity against the dreaded virus.

FPH has tapped Reliance United and AC Health as third-party vaccine administration providers to handle the vaccination in its headquarters and in offices and sites of its subsidiaries.

FPH earlier procured the Covid-19 vaccines through multi-party agreements it reached with vaccine manufacturers Astra-Zeneca and Moderna, in partnership with the Philippine Government.

The vaccine acquisitions form part of FPH’s detailed program not only to protect the health of its workforce and their families but also to ensure continued operations, especially of critical subsidiaries.

“Covid-19 vaccines acquired by FPH will go to its employees and dependents,

including those of subsidiaries, such as First Gen Corporation, First Philippine Industrial Park, First Philec, First Balfour and Therma Prime,” said Ricky Carandang, FPH vice president and head of corporate communications group.

“The target vaccine recipients also include our extended workforce, like those who are constructing the liquefied natural gas terminal of First Gen in Batangas City, various projects of First Balfour, and those providing support work such as security, messengerial, and maintenance services,” Carandang added.

Nighttime counterflow traffic on Edsa-North in effect

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has begun enforcing nighttime counterflow traffic scheme on the portion of EDSA-North Avenue southbound to give way for the construction of the Unified Grand Central Station in the area.

In its advisory, the MMDA said that the Department of Transportation will put girder and steel columns for the structure from 11 pm to 5 am beginning

Friday, July 9.

“To give way to this activity, a counter flow scheme will be implemented at EDSA-North Avenue southbound during nighttime for a period of 76 days. Three lanes will be affected,” the MMDA stated.

U-turn slot near West Avenue will be used as by-pass for southbound zipper lane while U-turn slot near MRT North Avenue Station will be utilized as by-pass going back to southbound.

Traffic signage are installed in the area

to guide the motorists.

The Unified Grand Central Station is part of the Build, Build, Build infrastructure project initiated by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The structure, situated at the north end of EDSA, also marks the intersection of the four railway lines – the LRT-1, MRT-7 and the Metro Manila Subway. It aims to provide a seamless transfer of passengers from one rail line to another.

The construction is expected to be finished before the end of the year.

MANILA Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” yesterday exhorted food establishments to reject orders using his office after he was victimized five times by fake food deliveries this week.

The fake food orders consisting of two pizzas arrived separately at the Mayor’s Office Monday afternoon.

On Thursday afternoon, three separate deliveries which included pork dish, drinks and pizza arrived at the Office of Domagoso.

The mayor told his Executive Assistant Weng Santiago to pay for the two orders of pizza since the amount would be charged to the riders.

The pizza orders, amounting to P1,000 each, came from the same food establishment although from separate branches.

The Thursday deliveries came at 12:10

Customs destroys P90-m cigarettes THE Bureau of Customs destroyed smuggled counterfeit cigarettes valued at P90 million seized in Cebu city.

Port of Cebu deputy district collector Marc Anthony Patriarca said the cigarettes bearing “Mighty”, “Marvels” and “Fort” brands were seized last June 2021 along with two separate shipments from China and declared as table panels, cabinets, and chairs.

“We have partnered with Taiheiyo Cement Philippines Inc. (TCPI) for the use of its facilities to dispose of forfeited cigarettes through burning in the furnaces of cement plants”, Patriarca said.

TCPI’s Environment and Safety Officer Dwight Avila said that the condemnation process was strictly monitored to ensure compliance with existing environmental protocols.

Representatives of the brand owners Japan Tobacco International and Phillip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation were also present to witness the destruction of the fake cigarettes.

p.m, 12:33 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. The holder of the fake account that placed the orders even advised the delivery riders to deliver them to the mayor’s office and also told them to ask assistance from the office.

The orders used ‘Isko Domagoso Moreno’ account which turned out to be fake.

Of the three orders, only the pizza delivery boy got paid since the two other delivery riders no longer returned to the mayor’s office after they were investigated.

Domagoso urged unscrupulous persons to stop placing fake food delivery orders using his office, stressing that the riders or delivery boys are the ones actually suffering from the prank.

He reminded food apps and delivery riders not to entertain any transaction using his name to spare themselves from the headache.

Manila

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES Standard COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS

TODAY

ANNOUNCEMENT

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has submitted to the Commission on Appointments (CA) for its consent on the nomination and confirmation of the ad interim appointments of the following: Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Nomination: 1. Mr. EDUARDO ECO KAPUNAN JR. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany, with the salary and emoluments of a Chief of Mission, Class I Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Ad Interim Appointments: 2. DAVID RICHARD G. SARIGA 3. JUDE P. EJERCITO 4. ABRAHAM C. BAYAN 5. ALEXANDER G. ABILO

to the rank of COLONEL, PAF (Res.) to the rank of COLONEL, PAF (Res.) to the rank of COLONEL, MC (Res.) to the rank of CAPTAIN, PN (Res.)

The public may submit any information, written report, or sworn/notarized complaints or oppositions to the above nomination and ad interim appointments in six (6) copies to the CA Secretariat, 6th Floor, PNB Financial Center, D. Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City, Metro Manila.

For the schedule of the public hearings, the CA Secretariat can be reached through telephone numbers 8834-2713, 8831-1824, 8831-0527, 8832-9830, 8834-2706 and 8551-1989.

9 July 2021.

HECTOR A. VILLACORTA Secretary (MS-JULY 10, 2021)

A4

Pag-IBIG Fund releases record P44b in home loans in H1 ‘21

News

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

FULLY VAXXED.

Mandaluyong City Mayor Menchie Abalos places a sticker on a house to indicate that members of the household are all fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Friday. The city health department also held a roadside vaccination along Neptali Gonzales St. in Brgy. Daang Bakal at the same time.

Manny Palmero

20th C-130 crash fatality identified THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Friday announced that it has identified another fatality in the fatal C-130 cargo plane crash in Sulu last July 4, raising the identified remains from the mishap to 20.

The body was identified as that of Airman First Class Fortunate Regidor of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) which is now being prepared for air transport.

Meanwhile, 47 injured military personnel from the crash are being treated at Camp Teodulfo Bautista Station Hospital in Sulu, Zamboanga City Medical Center, Ciudad Medical Center, Doctors Hospital, Camp Navarro General Hospital, and West Metro Hospital in Zamboanga City.

The AFP said those who were killed in action will receive a Command Special Financial Assistance which will include the sum of their base pay, hazard pay and bonuses; a funeral service support amounting to PHP80,000; and monthly pension based on rank and length of service.

Their beneficiaries will also receive support under the Office of the President’s Comprehensive Social Benefits Program which include Special Financial Assistance worth P500,000; and shelter, health, education, and employment assistance.

IATF OKs special flights to fetch stranded Pinoys

By Rio N. Araja and Joel E. Zurbano

T

HE Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has allowed special commercial flights exclusively to bring home stranded Filipinos in Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other countries where travel restrictions are imposed, Malacañang said on Friday.

The special commercial flights are subject to guidelines, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press statement.

He said a Special Working Group (SWG) would be formed to determine the protocols for the special commercial flights, in coordination with the concerned airlines.

The SWG, he said, would be composed of the Department of Health, the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and its One-Stop Shop, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Department of Tourism.

In other developments: * The Quezon City government has started to affix tamper-proof security seals on the vaccination cards of QCitizens following their second doses to ensure that fake cards are not mistaken for authentic ones. * Pasay City Mayor Imelda Rubiano on Friday expressed her support to the proposed unified vaccination card that can be used by fully inoculated individuals need to travel outside Metro Manila.

Pasay has a data base already linked to the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) for tracing and verification. * The global Coca-Cola Foundation donating US$400,000 (P20 million)

to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to help expedite vaccine distribution around the country. The grant is part of a US$20 million total global fund to support nonprofit partners working to stop the spread of COVID-19 through vaccine distribution, personal protective equipment, and public awareness efforts.

“The special commercial flights, which must have prior approval from the SWG, shall likewise be exclusive for Filipinos,” Roque said.

Roque said the guidelines on the repatriation programs by the Philippine government and non-government organizations should also be followed.

The IATF-EID earlier allowed nonPhilippine government repatriation efforts amid the travel ban on India and other countries.

The travel restrictions on travelers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates have been extended until July 15 due to the threat posed by the Delta coronavirus variant.

Exempted from the travel ban are Filipinos who are returning to the country as part of the repatriation programs.

TODAY

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING On the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS) of the proposed SEABED DREDGING AND QUARRYING PROJECT of the AVALAR MINING CORPORATION along MANILA BAY WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF CAVITE CITY, NOVELETA AND ROSARIO, PROVINCE OF CAVITE. Notice is hereby given to all parties who wish to give their opinion regarding the implementation of the proposed SEABED DREDGING AND QUARRYING PROJECT to attend the Public Date

Time

19 July 2021 (Monday)

2:00 PM Registration starts at 1:00 PM

Microsoft Teams Link https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/1 9%3A1fd1b2520ce44c48a4f26da60f96b3c 0%40thread.tacv2/1624931188018?context =%7B%22Tid%22%3A%228446f4a5-e21e47f9-a9dc-4647b76bdf26%22%2C%22Oi d%22%3A%22f918e9cd-2dfb-49e4-862ed315a6b61fcd%22%7D

THE Programs for the Cooperative Sector is currently laid down in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), including the ongoing construction of a two-story Cooperative and Women Multi-purpose Building in Barangay Batulawan, Pikit, North Cotabato.

The project, worth P4.6 million, was included in the 2020 Transitional Development Impact Fund (TDIF) of the Office of Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Member of Parliament Diamila Disimban-Ramos.

The Bangsamoro Ministry of Public Works (MPW) Maguindanao I District Engineering Office is the implementing agency, under the

leadership of Minister Eduard Guerra.

According to MP Diamila Disimban-Ramos, this institutional project will be a great help and opportunity for the livelihood of each Bangsamoro.

“Through this, and with the help of our local government, you now have an institution you can rely on and will open more opportunities for you and your livelihood,” said Disimban-Ramos.

The Bangsamoro Legislator added that the current Bangsamoro Government led by Chief Minister Ahod ‘Al Hajj Murad’ Ebrahim is reaching each and every Bangsamoro for they will be benefiting from the services and programs.

The Public Hearing is being conducted in connection with the review of the EIS of the aforementioned project by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The following is the project information: Project Name Proponent Project Location Project Area Annual Extraction

Seabed Dredging and Quarrying Project Avalar Mining Corporation Manila Bay within the Municipal Waters of Cavite City, Noveleta and Rosario, Cavite 4,810 hectares coastal area 36 million cubic meters

The project’s EIS and Executive Summary for the Public are downloadable at our website: www.eia.emb.gov.ph (kindly access the Notice of Online Public Hearing/ Consultation link found in our website) while copies will be available in the following offices: EMB Region IV-A 6th Floor DENR by the Bay Bldg., 1515 Roxas Blvd., Ermita, Manila Tel. No. (02) 8522-8177

2.

City Planning and Development Office Ground Floor, City Hall Building, Samonte Park, Cavite City

3.

Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO) Office Address: Municipality Hall of Noveleta Municipality Hall of Rosario

For more details, please contact the EIAMD Division at this Office at telephone number (02) 8920- 2240 to 41 through the project casehandlers Engr. Joel Polintan and Engr.

George Silvederio.

(MS-JULY 3 & 10, 2021)

Angeles city hall to get PWD-friendly premises ANGELES CITY—Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr. has instructed members of the City Engineering Office (CEO) to inspect City Government Offices and premises to ensure accessibility to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

He allowed the CEO to use the remaining funds of the Office of the City Mayor to construct necessary structures and promote a PWDfriendly vicinity.

“As the city government works towards making Angeles City friendly and accessible to PWDs, it should start with the offices of the City Hall,” Lazatin reiterated.

In a related development, the CEO in coordination with the Business Permit and Licensing Division were tasked to inspect and ensure accessibility in all establishments in the city.

Butch Gunio

over hog farm closure

FLORIDABLANCA, Pampanga -- A business group engaged in breeding and repopulating hogs for local markets in Central and Northern Luzon assailed Floridablanca Mayor Darwin Manalansan for allegedly blocking the movement of delivery trucks carrying live sows.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) chairman Rosendo So said the move is uncalled for, since the hog industry is still reeling from the effects of African Swine Fever (ASF) that hit the country.

So said Manalansan also padlocked the Evergreen Bioscience Technology Inc., situated at Barangay Gutad here, for alleged sanitation and health complaints by residents in surrounding communities. Jess Malabanan

Defensor: Big QC hospital up for sale

All interested parties who wish to attend or participate in these Public Hearings should preferably confirm their attendance/participation and may give their opinion(s) in a concise position paper to the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT DIVISION (EIAMD) of this Office through mail or through email at eia@emb.gov.ph, at least three (3) days before the Public Hearing schedule. Those who will not be able to register or submit written positions may be given the opportunity to share their issues on the day of the hearing itself.

1.

IN BRIEF

Pampanga mayor hit CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Bangsamoro cooperatives get program boost

Manila

Standard

DESPITE the pandemic, Pag-IBIG Fund achieved another record by releasing over P44 billion in home loans in the first half of 2021, top officials announced on Friday.

From January to June, the agency released home loans worth P44.34 billion – the highest amount ever released during the first half of the year -- and more than double the P20.80 billion it released during the same period in 2020.

Compared with the P37.07 billion released during the pre-pandemic period of January to June 2019, when strict community quarantines in Metro Manila and parts of Luzon had yet to be implemented, disbursement in the first half of 2021 is higher by nearly 20 percent, the agency said.

“This is an indication that the number of Filipino workers who are able to become homeowners via the PagIBIG home loan programs continues to grow,” said Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario, who heads the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).

“In these tough times, we remain steadfast in our commitment to answer President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for government agencies to provide social benefits to more Filipinos,” added Del Rosario, who leads the 11-member PagIBIG Fund Board of Trustees.

Meanwhile, Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti said the P44.34 billion released in the first half of 2021 enabled 43,573 members to acquire their own homes.

Out of the total amount, P4.66 billion was released to finance the acquisition of socialized housing. Of the total number of members who benefited from the agency’s home loan programs in the first half of the year, 10,640 or 24% belong to the minimum-wage and lowincome sectors, Moti said.

With its home loan disbursement reaching a record high over the past six months, Moti expects to exceed by yearend the P86.74 billion home loans released in 2019, which is the highest amount ever released by the agency in a single year.

ENDO PROTEST. Workers and labor activists protest at the head office of the Department of

Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Intramuros, Manila on Friday as they called out Secretary Silvestre Bello III and President Rodrigo Duterte toward their policies on contractualization or ‘endo’, trade union repression, and a just and livable national minimum wage. Norman Cruz

A BIG level-3 or tertiary hospital in Quezon City is up for sale amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor revealed on Friday.

Based on a notice to stockholders he has obtained, Defensor identified the health facility as the 148bed Commonwealth Hospital and Medical Center (CHMC), located at the populous Fairview-NovalichesQuirino Avenue area.

“Are health care establishments struggling due to the raging health crisis? If they are, what help could government agencies like the Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) extend to them?” the lawmaker-health advocate asked. Maricel V. Cruz

Opinion EO 141 to address adolescent pregnancy take this EO seriously.

EO 141 gives crucial and major responsibilities to Sangguniang Kabataan Councils including: educating the youth on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) even in non-formal education setting; providing youth-friendly and rightsMUCH has been said about how big a based measures to support pregnant girls problem teen pregnancy is in the Philip- and young mothers, which may include pines. The issue has been comprehensively vocational training opportunities; followand exhaustively discussed in many forums ing up on pregnant girls or young mothers by government agencies and non-govern- who have dropped out of school, through ment organizations through the years. targeted outreach and support programs; In fact, there are more than ten (10) bills and ensuring the functionality of Barangay languishing in both the House of Representa- Anti-VAWC desks. tives (HOR) and Senate waiting for approval.

These are serious mandates and it will be Each day that the country fails to address this interesting to know if the SKs will rise up problem, 576 babies are born to teen moth- to the challenge. I say this since SKs are not ers, according to the National Demographic really known to have a good track record in and Health Survey in 2017. That’s 17,280 a tackling serious and complex problems. Most month, and 207,360 a year. Most of the ad- probably, SKs also need to understand ASRH olescent mothers are from poor families and especially since they are supposed to provide with less education. And based on the stories “rights-based measures” to support girls and that we know, their young mothers. Conlives have become sidering how contromuch more difficult versial ASRH is as it The order with motherhood. involves topics on sex, Many of them have acknowledges sexuality, relationships, suffered, and continand sexual orientation, that a patriarchal ue to suffer from vargender identity and exand sexist Filipino ious kinds of abuses pression (SOGIE) beand acts of violence. sides teen pregnancy, culture is the Since Congress it will not be surprising biggest root cause is too slow to act on if the SKs themselves this issue, the Comalso need education of teen pregnancy. mission on Populaon these issues. Hopetion and Developfully, POPCOM will ment (POPCOM) strongly move on this. has been working on an Executive Order EO 141 mandates POPCOM to continue (EO) that will address adolescent pregnan- educating leaders, parents, and other comcy even as Congress continues to deliberate munity members about evidence-based on the bills. strategies to address adolescent pregnancy.

POPCOM’s efforts have succeeded as Moreover, POPCOM is tasked to consoliEO No. 141 entitled, “Adopting as a Na- date all efforts by the different government tional Priority the Implementation of Mea- agencies on the problem into a Comprehensures to Address the Root Causes of the sive Action Plan Towards the Prevention Rising Number of Teenage Pregnancies, of Adolescent Pregnancies. Monitoring of and Mobilizing Government Agencies for the implementation of the plan falls in the the Purpose” has been promulgated by the hands of the Human Development and PovOffice of the President last June 25, 2021. erty Reduction (HPDR) Cabinet Cluster This EO makes teen pregnancy as a “na- that will consequently report to the Office tional priority” and adopts a whole-of-gov- of the President (OP) annually. ernment approach in addressing the probOver-all, promulgating EO141 is a wellem. From now on, we should be seeing come development. However, the document intensified efforts by various government does not mention whether or not adolescents offices to make real the battlecry of NGOs: will be provided access to contraception or “No more children having children.” family planning services. This is the elephant The “whereas” clause that caught my in- in the room. We can educate young people all terest is the one saying, “WHEREAS, the we want but if the sexually active youth have State acknowledges that at the root of the no access to RH services, addressing adolesrising number of adolescent pregnancies cent pregnancy will continue to be tough. My are engendered patterns of discrimination, hope is despite the silence, this will be done. deep-seated norms and attitudes that norUnder EO 141, the Department of Health malize and justify violence against women (DOH) does not have any mandate. Considand children, lack of information and edu- ering that the RH law has given the DOH cation, and the vulnerability and exclusion the lead role in its implementation and the of women and children living in remote provision of a modern family program, this and rural areas, and recognizes that it is im- can be regarded as a gap in the EO. The perative to carefully coordinate, rationalize, same is true with the Philippine Commismonitor, and assess the efforts of concerned sion on Women (PCW) that is not even government agencies and instrumentalities mentioned by the EO. While it is underto ensure a whole-of-government approach stood that the EO adopts a whole-of-govin implementing measures to curb the ris- ernment approach in the prevention of teen ing number of teenage pregnancies…” pregnancy, the DOH and PCW are importIn short, EO 141 acknowledges that a pa- ant offices in addressing this problem. triarchal and sexist Filipino culture is the bigDefinitely, EO 141 is important. It will be gest root cause of teen pregnancy. This is a worthwhile to closely follow its implemenbig statement and will require initiatives that tation. Indeed, children should not be having can change the existing mindset of many that children. Girls should be girls first before they regards women and girls as less persons than should be mothers if and when they decide to. men and boys, and that women should be subservient to men. As a feminist, this excites @bethangsioco on Twitter Elizabeth me. Hopefully, government agencies will Angsioco on Facebook

The G20 faces three big tests kill millions more people and delay a global recovery for years.

But while 70 percent of people in some developed counSINCE the start of tries are vaccinated, the COVID-19 panthat figure stands demic, we’ve heard 1 pera lot about global Vaccines, extending atcentlessfor than low-income solidarity.

Unfor-an economic lifeline to countries. Solidarity tunately, words by means delivering on themselves will not the developing world, access to vaccines for end the pandemic – and climate. everyone – fast. or curb the impact Pledges of doses of the climate crisis. and funds are welNow is the moment come. But let’s get to show what solidarity means in practice.

As G20 Finance Ministers meet in Venice, real. We need not one billion, but at least they face three crucial solidarity tests: on eleven billion doses to vaccinate 70 pervaccines, on extending an economic lifeline cent of the world and end this pandemic.

Donations and good intentions will not get to the developing world, and on climate.

First, vaccines. A global vaccination gap us there. This calls for the greatest global threatens us all. While COVID-19 circu- public health effort in history.

The G20, backed by major producing lates among unvaccinated people, it concountries and international financial institutinues to mutate into variants that could be more transmissible, more deadly, or both. tions, must put in place a global vaccination We are in a race between vaccines and vari- plan to reach everybody, everywhere, soonants; if the variants win, the pandemic could er rather than later.

By UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

B1

EDITORIAL

T

World Population Day to 1 billion – then in just another 200 years or so, it grew sevenfold.

Experts have said overpopulation is a major cause of most of the world’s problems. Whether it is a question of food shortage, lack of drinking water or energy shortages, every country in the world

HE Philippines joins other countries in marking Sunday “World Population Day 2021” with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility taking center stage as the main theme for the commemoration.

To mark the day, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, is organizing an online panel discussion of leading demographers and population experts on Wednesday to discuss the impact of the pandemic on fertility preferences and behaviors, the availability and use of family planning, teenage marriage, challenges of data collection and more.

This July, the global population has reached 7.7 billion and is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100.

To think it took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow

The global population has reached 7.7 billion. is affected by it – or will be.

Partly thanks to the import of goods from abroad, any particular country is able to maintain its own welfare. But this cannot go on indefinitely.

In fact, the number of inhabitants is rising in every country. The world population is threatening to rise in the next few decades to nearly 10 billion. There is a good chance that more and more countries will need their own products themselves.

At the same time, the United Nations

Population Fund or the UNFPA, an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity, said research in March this year suggested an estimated 12 million women experienced disruptions in family planning services.

UNFPA also works on population and development, sexual and reproductive health and gender, its goals – achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, promoting reproductive rights, reducing maternal mortality and accelerating progress on the ICPD agenda and the MDGs – inextricably linked.

Today, the International Conference on Population Development, which refers to the global consensus that reproductive health and rights are human rights, said these are a precondition for women’s empowerment, and that women’s equality is a precondition for securing the well-being and prosperity of all people.

It is time to redefine our priorities.

Backdoor or the term ‘palusot’ is not illegal TO MAKE it clear, the term backdoor entry is not illegal. Many of our ambitious politicians are saying that the administration and possibly the President himself may outwit the opposition in this awaited presidential election. They see the 2022 election as their day of reckoning.

All lumped themselves under the umbrella of the opposition, from the leftist group pretending to be nationalist and to the traditional lackeys whose agenda is to keep the Philippines under the clutches of American imperialism. Others include the Islamic separatist, the landlords who are the patrons of feudalism, the ultra-conservative Church and the corrupt politicians who take advantage of our utterly dysfunctional political system. They all see the election as some kind of payback time.

To begin with, the argument raised by Christian Monsod, a one-time operator of the National Movement for Free Election or Namfrel and later commissioner to the Cory Aquino Constitution is arguing that should President Duterte decide to run for vice president only to re-assume the position of President is to circumvent the provision prohibiting the President from seeking a second term.

Nobody really knows who advised Monsod or he may be just fanatical to believe that for the President to stay in office longer than what is contemplated is to have a tinge of dictatorship or authoritarianism. Article VII, Section 4 of the Constitution provides to quote: “The President and the Vice President shall be The second test of solidarity is extending an economic lifeline to countries teetering on the verge of debt default.

Rich countries have poured the equivalent of 28 percent of their GDP into weathering the COVID-19 crisis. In middle-income countries, this figure drops to 6.5 percent; in least developed countries, to less than 2 percent.

Many developing countries now face crippling debt service costs, at a time when their domestic budgets are stretched and their ability to raise taxes is reduced.

The pandemic is set to increase the number of extremely poor people by some 120 million around the world; more than three-quarters of these ‘new poor’ are in middle-income countries.

These countries need a helping hand to avoid financial catastrophe, and to invest in a strong recovery.

The International Monetary Fund has stepped in to allocate $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights – the best way to increase the funds available to cash-strapped economies. Richer countries should channel their unused shares of these funds to low and middle-income countries. That is a meaningful measure of solidarity.

I welcome steps the G20 has already taken, including the Debt Service Suspension Initiative and Common Framework for Debt

elected by direct vote of the people for a term of six years which shall begin at noon on the thirtieth day of June following the next day of the election and shall end at noon at the same date six years thereafter. The President shall not be eligible for any re-election. No person who has succeeded as President and has as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.”

The prohibition is essentially violative of the spirit of a democratic election.

Monsod should bear in mind that his interpretation of the alleged prohibition in the constitution, in effect violates the right of the person to run for office and to the majority who voted for him.

The prohibition is essentially violative of the spirit of a democratic election on which their ideology is anchored.

The sanctimonious drafters of the 1987 Constitution effectively violated the right not only of the person who is seeking re-election and the people who voted for him, for essentially, they nurture a wrong notion of what constitutes a democracy.

Monsod should know that his use of the term “backdoor” or “palusot” is hazy and legally untenable. These can never be prohibited. For the vice president to switch his position with the president can never be said to be illegal or unconstituTreatment. But they are not sufficient. Debt relief must be extended to all middle-income countries that need it. And private lenders must also be brought into the equation.

The third test of solidarity concerns climate change. Most major economies have pledged to cut their emissions to net zero by mid-century, in line with the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement.

If COP26 in Glasgow is to be a turning point, we need the same promise from all G20 countries, and from the developing world.

But developing countries need reassurance that their ambition will be met with financial and technical support, including $100 billion in annual climate finance that was promised to them by developed countries over a decade ago. This is entirely reasonable. From the Caribbean to the Pacific, developing economies have been landed with enormous infrastructure bills

MORE OPINION ONLINE

(www.manilastandard.net)

tional. A provision must clearly state that such an act is illegal and unconstitutional to be meted with punishment. In fact, doubt always favors the accused, such that those making “palusot” or making a backdoor approach can be absolved on the basis of this principle in law.

Moreover, our question as to how long will the person elected as President serve is completely outside our purview. Our only concern is to implement the rights of the people and elect the candidate of their choice. The only safeguard is to ensure that candidates are elected by the majority of the voters who are qualified to vote. Which is the true spirit of democracy. Beyond that, we cannot prejudge the candidate by imposing a weird qualification that imposes a limitation on our freedom. Democracy simply revolves in the holding of elections and to guarantee candidates declared the winner obtained the majority of the votes cast.

A prohibition to one seeking reelection, especially to a different position, is a limitation on his freedom. This explains why the term limit of the president or head of state in Russia and China has altogether been scrapped. The elimination did not make President Vladimir Putin or President Xi Jinping undemocratic, authoritarian or dictatorial. For as long as we see that our President is performing his job well and in accordance with the duty to which he was sworn to perform, he cannot be less democratic. Monsod should instead focus on the possibility of the elected president resigning just to give way to the elected vice president to succeed. That now violates his duty to which he was sworn to serve. full version on www.manilastandard.net because of a century of greenhouse gas emissions they had no part in.

Solidarity begins with delivering on the $100 billion. It should extend to allocating 50 percent of all climate finance to adaptation, including resilient housing, elevated roads and efficient early warning systems that can withstand storms, droughts and other extreme weather events.

All countries have suffered during the pandemic. But nationalist approaches to global public goods like vaccines, sustainability and climate action are a road to ruin.

Instead, the G20 can set us on the road to recovery. The next six months will show whether global solidarity extends beyond words to meaningful action. By meeting these three critical tests with political will and principled leadership, G20 leaders can end the pandemic, strengthen the foundations of the global economy, and prevent climate catastrophe.

Senator De Lima’s view on complementarity

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher ManilaStandard

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SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

52 killed in Bangladesh factory fire, 30 injured

A

MASSIVE blaze in a Bangladesh factory killed at least 52 people as emergency services brought out bodies even as the building was still in flames.

The blaze broke out in the factory in Rupganj, near Dhaka, on Thursday afternoon and was still burning nearly 24 hours later.

At least 30 people were injured including some who jumped from the upper floor after the fire quickly raced through the six-storey factory, police

inspector Sheikh Kabirul Islam said.

Police initially said dozens of workers were still missing but later retracted and said they were unsure how many were unaccounted for.

Firefighters rescued 25 people from the roof of the factory, which produced noodles and drinks, but could not con-

firm further casualties.

“Once the fire is under control, we will conduct a search and rescue operation inside. Then we can confirm any further casualties, if any,” Debashish Bardhan, fire service spokesman, told AFP. Fires are common in Bangladesh due to lax enforcement of safety rules.

In February 2019, at least 70 people died when an inferno ripped through several Dhaka apartment blocks.

Mohammad Saiful, a factory worker who escaped the fire, said there were

Death toll rises to 9 in Sweden plane crash SWEDISH police said Friday that all nine people aboard a small aircraft used for skydiving that crashed near an airport in Sweden a day earlier had died.

The small propeller plane, carrying eight skydivers and its pilot, crashed shortly after 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Thursday, as it was taking off from Orebro airport, some 160 kilometers west of Stockholm.

Initially, police had only referred to “multiple” deaths and said that one person had been taken to hospital with serious injuries.

According to local media, the plane was a DHC-2 Beaver, which the local skydiving club had rented to use for a summer event.

“Normally, most skydiving is done on the weekends, but now they had rented a plane to jump more intensely during the whole week,” Anna Oscarsson, head of communications for the Swedish Skydiving Association, told broadcaster SVT. In 2019, nine people were also killed when a plane carrying skydivers crashed outside the city of Umea, northeast Sweden. AFP

OVERNIGHT WAIT.

People are seen queuing overnight for free COVID-19 swab testing at Wat Phra Sri Mahathat Woramahawihan in Bangkok in the early hours of the morning on July 9, 2021. AFP

11 murder suspects arrested on embassy grounds TAIWAN on Friday said 11 suspected assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moise broke into its embassy in an attempt to flee but were later apprehended by police.

Joanne Ou, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the embassy was closed “for safety reasons” after the brazen murder of Moise on Wednesday.

“At dawn on the 8th (of July), embassy security discovered that a group of armed men had broken into the embassy courtyard. Security staff immediately

notified embassy personnel and Haitian police,” she told AFP. “At the request of the Haitian government and to assist in apprehending the suspects, the embassy granted permission to the Haitian police to enter embassy grounds,” she added.

In a statement posted on its website, Taiwan’s embassy in Port-au-Prince described the men as “mercenaries” and suspects in Moise’s assassination.

“The police launched an operation

around 4 p.m. (2000 GMT, Thursday) and successfully arrested 11 suspects.

The process went smoothly,” the statement said, describing Moise’s assassination as “cruel and barbaric.”

Haiti is one of just 15 nations that diplomatically recognizes Taiwan over China. Most of them are small nations in Latin America and the Pacific.

Taipei’s embassy in Port-au-Prince lies close to the hillside private residence where Moise was gunned down. AFP

THE Taliban said Friday they had captured a key border crossing with Iran, hours after President Joe Biden issued a staunch defence of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The group have captured more than a third of the country’s 400 districts since the US accelerated its final pullout in early May, with the insurgents now holding an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.

A government official said efforts were under way to recapture Islam Qala – the main conduit for trade between Afghanistan and Iran – as the insurgents continue to make sweeping gains across the country.

“All Afghan security forces including the border units are present in the area, and efforts are under way to recapture the site,” interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told AFP. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the crossing was “under our full control.”

Hours earlier, Biden said the US military mission will end on August 31 – nearly 20 years after it began – having “achieved” its goals.

But he also admitted that it was “highly unlikely” Kabul would be able to control the entire country.

“The status quo is not an option,” Biden said of staying in the country.

“I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan.”

After the Taliban routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, the government is holding little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must be largely reinforced and resupplied by air.

Afghanistan’s air force was already under severe strain before the Taliban’s lightning offensive overwhelmed the government’s northern and western positions, which will likely put further pressure on the country’s limited aircraft and pilots.

Biden said the United States “did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build” and that the Afghan people alone should determine their future.

But he acknowledged the uncertainty about what that future would look like. AFP

New York Subways, major roads flooded as Storm Elsa expected to hit

DEADLY BEAUTIFUL.

Belgium’s Crown Princess Elisabeth stands at attention as she attends a tactical military exercise at the Royal Military Academy at the Lagland camp in Arlon on July 9, 2021. AFP

Two ‘Air Cocaine’ pilots acquitted by French court TWO French pilots convicted for their role in a spectacular 2013 drugs bust on a private jet in the Dominican Republic were acquitted on appeal by a French court Thursday.

The two men had been sentenced to six years in prison in what had become known as the “Air Cocaine” case, an attempt to smuggle 680 kilograms of the drug out of the country.

Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos had al-

dozens of people inside when the blaze began.

“On the third floor, gates on both stairwells were closed. Other colleagues are saying there were 48 people inside. I don’t know what happened to them,” he said.

Mamun, another worker, said he and another 13 workers ran to the roof after the fire broke out on the ground floor and black smoke covered the whole factory.

“Fire fighters brought us down by using rope,” he told reporters. AFP

Taliban capture key areas as US troops leave Afghanistan

ways denied they knew the cocaine was on board the flight.

A key figure in the affair, who did not appeal his own conviction, said the two pilots had been “conned.”

The court freed the two pilots, but upheld the sentences of the directors of the aviation company, and Ali Bouchareb, the man accused of being behind the drug trafficking scheme.

In March 2013, Dominican police

found the narcotics packed into 26 suitcases on board a Falcon 50 jet as it prepared to fly from the Dominican beach resort of Punta Cana to Saint-Tropez in the south of France.

While out on bail, the two pilots managed to flee the Dominican Republic to French territory in the Caribbean in mysterious circumstances, but were rearrested upon their return to the French mainland in November 2015. AFP

SEVERAL subway stations were flooded and major roads were cut in New York on Thursday ahead of the expected arrival of Storm Elsa, which has moved up the US East Coast after lashing Florida with wind and rain.

Between 2 and 4 inches of water fell in a series of thunderstorms over the city and surrounding areas on Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, “causing extensive flash flooding in certain places.”

Subway passengers posted video footage on Twitter of flooded platforms at the 157th Street station north of Manhattan.

Commuters could be seen waistdeep in the water, crossing a dark pool to reach the station’s platforms.

“Lines 1 and A have really taken a hit, with a lot of flooding in the stations,” Sarah Feinberg, head of the MTA, New York’s public transport authority, said on Thursday at a press briefing.

Some major roads, including in the Bronx, were temporarily closed, disrupting traffic. New York police tweeted footage of motorists being

stranded by the water.

The NWS warned of possible new flooding by Friday morning, with the expected arrival of heavy rains brought by Storm Elsa, which is moving up from Florida.

Despite work to protect the city against flooding since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 – which killed 44 people and paralyzed the American economic capital for days – New York remains very vulnerable to flooding, with such incidents expected to increase because of climate change.

Several officials, including Eric Adams, president of Brooklyn and the favorite for the November mayoral election in New York after winning the Democratic primary this week, called for urgent investments to fortify the city’s infrastructure.

“Extreme weather episodes like this are not going to go away,” warned one of his primary opponents, Kathryn Garcia, who oversaw the water pumping after Hurricane Sandy.

“We must invest in strategies to protect the city,” she said. AFP

Space, the final frontier for billionaire Richard Branson

Richard Branson

AS FAMOUS for his thrill-seeking lifestyle and publicity stunts as for his vast business empire, Richard Branson has set his sights on the stars as he prepares for liftoff on his first space flight.

Before this weekend’s mission on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity, the avowed Star Trek fan attributed his drive and taste for adventure to his mother Eve, who died from COVID in January.

“I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars,” said the Londonborn 70-year-old.

The Virgin group boss, whose net worth amounts to $5.7 billion (￡4.1 billion, 4.8 billion euros) according to Forbes magazine, made his initial for-

tune in the record industry in the 1970s.

He has since launched a string of successful companies in sectors as diverse as railways and mobile phones, as well as Virgin Atlantic airlines.

But there have been plenty of missteps.

His failures include a short-lived attempt at Formula One racing, a stab at the soft drinks market with Virgin Cola, and a wedding company called Virgin Bride, which some said existed only because of the name.

Branson was said to have been a below-average student who suffered from dyslexia, his headmaster at private school in southern England apparently telling him he would either go to prison or become a millionaire. AFP

GAME-CHANGING CARGO. This handout picture taken and released on July 9, 2021 by the Indonesian military shows officers unloading medical equipment, such as oxygen cylinders, ventilators as well as masks, gloves and gowns on two Singapore air force planes at the air force base in Jakarta. AFP

Manila

Standard

Business

B3

TODAY

PSEi July 9, 2021

TOP GAINERS LAST PRICE

% CHANGE CHANGE

1 2

VMC MACAY

2.45 7.99

0.14 0.44

6.06% 5.83%

3

SFI

0.152

0.007

4.83%

4 5

FOOD EMP

0.66 12.6

0.03 0.5

4.76% 4.13%

6

I

1.34

0.04

3.08%

7

ZHI

0.24

0.007

3.00%

8

ALCO

0.69

0.02

2.99%

9 10

IPO CAT

7.4 14.5

0.2 0.38

2.78% 2.69%

TOP LOSERS LAST PRICE

% CHANGE CHANGE

1 2

MA PRMX

0.01 2.82

-0.001 -0.25

-9.09% -8.14%

3

RLT

0.38

-0.03

-7.32%

4

WIN

0.28

-0.02

-6.67%

5 6

ORE PHES

0.96 0.66

-0.06 -0.04

-5.88% -5.71%

7

ARA

1.17

-0.07

-5.65%

8 9 10

GREEN EVER CEB

3.78 0.47 49.7

-0.22 -0.025 -2.3

-5.50% -5.05% -4.42%

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021 || extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market tumbles on world virus spike

S

TOCKS slumped for the fourth straight day Friday, along with the rest of Asian markets, on renewed concerns over the threat from coronavirus variants to the global economic recovery.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index tumbled 90.07 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,834.92 on a value turnover of P8.4 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 153 to 59, with 43 issues unchanged.

Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fastfood chain, dropped 3.4 percent to P203, while Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the second largest lender in terms of as-

sets, fell 3 percent to P47.45.

International Container Terminal Services Inc., the biggest port operator and owned by tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., shed 2.7 percent to P160, while BDO Unibank Inc., the largest bank, declined 2.4 percent to P111.50.

Most Asian markets were lower Friday on renewed fears over the threat to the global recovery.

Japan’s decision to ban fans from most Olympic events, with Tokyo hosting the pandemic-postponed Games under a virus state of emergency, has heightened fears over the spread of infections from new coronavirus strains.

“COVID-19 resurgences remain a key risk for the region, with Japan being the latest to go under a state of emergency to curb spreads ahead of the Tokyo Olympics,” IG Asia market strategist Jun

Rong Yeap wrote in a note.

“This may suggest a slower recovery ahead with third-quarter GDP growth probably revised lower.”

Tokyo pared most of its losses to close down 0.6 percent after falling as much as 2.5 percent.

Sydney fell 0.9 percent while Seoul and Taipei were down more than one percent. Shanghai recovered its earlier losses to close virtually unchanged.

Hong Kong was a rare bright spot, climbing 0.9 percent on bargain hunting following the previous day’s rout which saw the benchmark index fall 2.9 percent on concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on tech titans.

All three major US indices ended solidly down Thursday, with the Dow shedding 0.8 percent.

“The markets have been supported

NOTICE OF POSTPONEMENT AND AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE STOCKHOLDERS OF SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC.

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TO ALL STOCKHOLDERS: In light of the continuing adverse effect of the COVID 19 pandemic and due to the availability of shareholders, please be advised that the annual meeting of the stockholders of the aforementioned Corporation has been rescheduled from 26 July 2021 to 16 September 2021, Thursday, at 2:00PM via Zoom webinar. Stockholders can register at http://bit. do/SoldivoASM2021. Webinar password will be sent via email after registration.

The Agenda of the Meeting is as follows:

MOST ACTIVE VOLUME 33106200

by expectations on economic growth before ... but now investors question whether the economy will normalize given a new wave of COVID-19 because of new variants and stagnation of economic indications,” Okasan Online Securities said.

On the bond market, the yield on 10year US Treasuries advanced to 1.33 percent, off Thursday’s four-month low of 1.25 percent, while the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds was at 1.96 percent.

“The slide in US 10-year yields this week appears to suggest that bond investors are becoming increasingly concerned about a sharp slowdown in global and US growth prospects, as well as diminishing inflation expectations,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK. With AFP

A gondola passes under the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), a day before G20 finance ministers and central bankers meet, in Venice. AFP

HK’s urban farms sprout gardens in the sky

Global tax reform tops G20 agenda of Venice meeting

Piles of food waste According to government statistics, Hong HONG KONG, China—With their heads in Kong throws out some 3,500 tons of food waste the clouds and their hands in the soil, a group a day—the equivalent weight of 250 doubleVENICE, Italy—G20 finance minof office workers are busy harvesting the fruits decker buses. Less than a quarter is recycled.

And around 90 percent of the food eaten by isters gather Friday in Venice, with of their labor on the roof of a Hong Kong skythe city’s 7.5 million inhabitants is imported, global tax reform top of the agenda as scraper. the world’s biggest economies seek to Invisible to those below, a sprawling garden mostly from mainland China.

But while Hong Kong is one of the most ensure multinational companies pay of radishes, carrots and rhubarb is flourishing at the top of the 150-meter tall Bank of Amer- densely packed places on earth, there is still their fair share.

Under Italy’s Group of 20 presidenica tower, a stark and colorful contrast to the considerable space to grow food locally.

NOTICE OF POSTPONEMENT cy, ministers and central bankers from Tsui said some seven million square meters OF THE monotone shades of concrete, steel and glass AND AGENDA MEETING the 19 ANNUAL richest countries and the Euroof farmable area is currently cultivated.

But STOCKHOLDERS of the city’s financial district.

OF THE OF in person for pean Union are meeting more than six million square meters on the The farm is among more than 60 that have the first time since talks in Riyadh in sprouted across the space-starved city since city’s rooftops remain unused.

SOLDIVO BOND FUND, INC. “So we could have the potential of doubling February 2020, at the start of the coro2015—on decommissioned helipads, shopnavirus pandemic. ping mall rooftops and public terraces— the supply of land for growing food,” he said.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, “The challenge forTOusALL is STOCKHOLDERS: to design urban European Central Bank (ECB) chief thanks to initiatives like Rooftop Republic, a our daily local social enterprise which promotes urban farming as a lifestyle to In integrate light of theinto continuing adverse effect ofLagarde the COVID pandemic and Christine and19Russian finance life,” he added. “Anddue thetofirst for that, of minister the step availability of shareholders, please be advised thatare the annual farming.

Anton Siluanov among meeting of the stockholders of the aforementioned Corporation has been Cofounder Andrew Tsui sees the rooftop course, is to be accessible.” those under2021, tight security rescheduled from 26 July 2021 to gathering 16 September Thursday,in To incorporate urban farms into the bluefarms as a way for people to reconnect with at 2:00PM via Zoom webinar.Venice.

Stockholders can register at http://bit. do/SoldivoASM2021.

Webinar password be sent via email Rooftop Republic how sustainable food can be produced in what prints for office buildings, However,will China and India haveafter optregistration. architects, develop- ed for a virtual presence in the lagoon he calls the current “instant-noodle city life- closely collaborates with ers and property managers. where the Arsenal area has been style” that sees so much waste.

The Agenda of the Meeting is ascity, follows: Major companies are signing up. closed off from tourists and locals for “What we are looking at is really how to Call to Order As well as the Bank of1.

America garden, financed the two-day event. identify underutilized spaces among the city 2.

Certification of Notice and Quorum countries of theMeeting G20 have alJLL, ofSingaporean 3. giant Approval the Minutes of theThe Annual Shareholders held on and mobilize the citizens, the people, to learn by property consultancy 24 August 2020 with Rooftop Re- ready signed up to a framework for reabout food,” the 43-year-old told AFP during banking giant DBS has partnered 4. Management Report form agreed on July 1 among members that runs workshops a blustery site inspection of the skyscraper’s public to set up an academy 5. Presentation of the Audited Financial Statements of the Corporation of the2020 Organization for Economic Cofor the Year Ended 31 December for beginners as well as professional courses. garden.

6. ofRatification of the Corporate Acts of the Board of Directors since the operation and Development (OECD), “In Hong Kong, most the people focus on Tsui believes Hong Kongers need to re-eslast annual stockholders’ meeting notably for a global minimum corporaof the properties.

But we tablish a relationship with what they eat that the commercial value 7.

Election of Directors for the year 2021 to 2022 tion tax rateauthorized of 15 percent.

8.

Approval to increase the Corporation’s capital stock from want to promote the concept of sustainability,” has been broken “since we started outsourcing Seven Hundred Fifty Million Shares at PHP 1.00 per share to upa topolitiTwo But they are now seeking senior director of our food and relying so much on industrialized said Eric Lau, the group’s Billion Five Hundred Million Shares at PHP 1.00 per share cal deal that will help make the agreeproperty management. 9.

AFPAmendment of Article 7 of the Articles of Incorporation and the production.” at ending tax havens and Registration Statement to ment—aimed reflect the increase in authorized capital stopping global companies benefiting stock 10. Amendment of the Articles as of Incorporation to align nations compete to with offerthetheRevised lowest Corporation Code and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the In this picture taken on April 9, 2021, Rooftop Republic rates—become a reality.

Investment Company Act urban farmers harvest vegetables grown on a rooftop farm The minimum is one of two 11. Amendment of the By-laws to align with the rate Revised Corporation at the top of the 150-meter tall Bank of America tower in Code and the Implementingso-called Rules andpillars Regulations of the tax Investment of global reform Company Act Hong Kong. AFP that have been under negotiation for 12. Appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as Primary Custodian and years.

Fund Accountant 13. Appointment of External Auditor for other the year 2021to tax multinationThe aims 14. Other Matters als where they make their profits, not 15. Adjournment where they are headquartered, and is In accordance with the By-Laws, the record date for determination of the particularly aimed at technology giants shareholders entitled to notice of and as to vote at the Amazon, annual shareholders’ such Google, Facebook meeting has been set at 23 July 2021. and Apple, who pay derisory levels of Given the current circumstances in order to to their ensure the safety and taxand compared income. welfare of our stockholders in light of the COVID-19 According to a draftpandemic, obtainedthe by Corporation will dispense with the physical attendance of stockholders at AFP of the final statement, which the meeting and will allow attendance only by remote communication and still the being discussed, finance by voting in absentia or voting is through Chairman of the the meeting as proxy. ministers in Venice will “endorse” the OECD’s “historic agreement on a Stockholders intending to participate by remote communication should more stable and fairer international tax notify the Corporation by email to customercare_mutualfund@atram.com. ph on or before 6 September 2021, Monday. architecture.”

Final agreement on the minimum tax rate is TRANQUIL not expected until the run(Sgd.) ATTY. S. SALVADOR III Secretary up to theCorporate G20 leaders’ summit in Rome in October. AFP

By Celia Cazale

(MS-JULY 9 & 10, 2021)

1. Call to Order 2. Certification of Notice and Quorum 3. Approval of the Minutes of the Annual Shareholders Meeting held on 24 August 2020 4. Management Report 5. Presentation of the Audited Financial Statements of the Corporation for the Year Ended 31 December 2020 6. Ratification of the Corporate Acts of the Board of Directors since the last annual stockholders’ meeting 7. Election of Directors for the year 2021 to 2022 8. Approval to increase the Corporation’s authorized capital stock from Seven Hundred Fifty Million Shares at PHP 1.00 per share to up to Two Billion Five Hundred Million Shares at PHP 1.00 per share 9. Amendment of Article 7 of the Articles of Incorporation and the Registration Statement to reflect the increase in authorized capital stock 10. Amendment of the Articles of Incorporation to align with the Revised Corporation Code and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Investment Company Act 11. Amendment of the By-laws to align with the Revised Corporation Code and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Investment Company Act 12. Appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as Primary Custodian and Fund Accountant 13. Appointment of External Auditor for the year 2021 14. Other Matters 15. Adjournment In accordance with the By-Laws, the record date for determination of the shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at the annual shareholders’ meeting has been set at 23 July 2021.

Given the current circumstances and in order to ensure the safety and welfare of our stockholders in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Corporation will dispense with the physical attendance of stockholders at the meeting and will allow attendance only by remote communication and by voting in absentia or voting through the Chairman of the meeting as proxy.

Stockholders intending to participate by remote communication should notify the Corporation by email to customercare_mutualfund@atram.com. ph on or before 6 September 2021, Monday.

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(Sgd.) ATTY. TRANQUIL S. SALVADOR III Corporate Secretary

(MS-JU

(MS-JULY 9 & 10, 2021)

NOTICE OF POSTPONEMENT AND AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE STOCKHOLDERS OF SOLDIVO STRATEGIC GROWTH FUND, INC. TO ALL STOCKHOLDERS: In light of the continuing adverse effect of the COVID 19 pandemic and due to the availability of shareholders, please be advised that the annual meeting of the stockholders of the aforementioned Corporation has been rescheduled from 26 July 2021 to 16 September 2021, Thursday, at 2:00PM via Zoom webinar. Stockholders can register at http://bit. do/SoldivoASM2021. Webinar password will be sent via email after registration.

The Agenda of the Meeting is as follows: 1. Call to Order 2. Certification of Notice and Quorum 3. Approval of the Minutes of the Annual Shareholders Meeting held on 24 August 2020 4. Management Report 5. Presentation of the Audited Financial Statements of the Corporation for the Year Ended 31 December 2020 6. Ratification of the Corporate Acts of the Board of Directors since the last annual stockholders’ meeting 7. Election of Directors for the year 2021 to 2022 8. Approval to increase the Corporation’s authorized capital stock from One Billion Eight Hundred Million Shares to up to Five Billion Shares at PHP 1.00 per share 9. Amendment of Article 7 of the Articles of Incorporation and Registration Statement to reflect the increase in authorized capital stock 10. Amendment of the Articles of Incorporation to align with the Revised Corporation Code and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Investment Company Act 11. Amendment of the By-laws to align with the Revised Corporation Code and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Investment Company Act 12. Appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as Primary Custodian and Fund Accountant 13. Appointment of External Auditor for the year 2021 14. Other Matters 15. Adjournment In accordance with the By-Laws, the record date for determination of the shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at the annual shareholders’ meeting has been set at 23 July 2021.

Given the current circumstances and in order to ensure the safety and welfare of our stockholders in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Corporation will dispense with the physical attendance of stockholders at the meeting and will allow attendance only by remote communication and by voting in absentia or voting through the Chairman of the meeting as proxy.

Stockholders intending to participate by remote communication should notify the Corporation by email to customercare_mutualfund@atram.com. ph on or before 6 September 2021, Monday.

(Sgd.) ATTY. TRANQUIL S. SALVADOR III Corporate Secretary (MS-JULY 9 & 10, 2021)

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

B4

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

PSE INDEX CLOSING Friday, July 9, 2021

-90.07 PTS. 6,834.92

TOTAL VOLUME TOTAL TRADES TOTAL VALUE ADVANCES DECLINES UNCHANGED

1,771,801,031 100,126 8,419,400,459.07 59 153 43

F oreign e xchange r ate Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas • FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2021

Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

49.8700

Japan

Yen

0.009112

0.4544

UK

Pound

1.378700

68.7558

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128737

6.4201

Switzerland

Franc

1.093135

54.5146

Canada

Dollar

0.797957

39.7941

Singapore

Dollar

0.739590

36.8834

Australia

Dollar

0.742900

37.0484

Bahrain

Dinar

2.655619

132.4357

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266631

13.2969

Brunei

Dollar

0.736865

36.7475

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000069

0.0034

Thailand

Baht

0.030807

1.5363

UAE

Dirham

0.272272

13.5782

Euro

Euro

1.184700

59.0810

Korea

Won

0.000873

0.0435

China

Yuan

0.154059

7.6829

India

Rupee

0.013376

0.6671

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.239234

11.9306

New Zealand

Dollar

0.694300

34.6247

Taiwan

Dollar

0.035709

1.7808 Source: BSP

Expanded Laoag airport to lure more tourists to Ilocos

Business Exports, imports sustained double-digit growth in May

By Julito G. Rada

E

XPORTS and imports rose at a double-digit rate for the third straight month due to the gradual opening of major economies and improving manufacturing sector, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.

The PSA said merchandise exports grew 29.8 percent in May to $5.89 billion from $4.54 billion a year ago while imports jumped 47.7 percent to $8.64 billion from $5.86 billion. This followed the 74.1-percent increase in exports and 152.8-percent rise in imports in April.

This resulted in a trade deficit of $2.75 billion in May, up by 109.7 percent from $1.3-billion shortfall a year ago.

“We are very optimistic that we can sustain this upward exports performance trajectory as our major trading partners continue opening up their borders and easing travel restrictions, giv-

By Darwin G. Amojelar THE Department of Transportation said Friday it expects more domestic and foreign tourists to visit Ilocos Region following the expansion and improvement of the Laoag International Airport in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the improved Laoag International Airport would enhance the region’s connectivity and mobility and boost economic growth, tourism and socio-economic opportunities.

He said the airport is now ready to accommodate at least 200 international passengers and 240 domestic passengers or more than double from the previous 140 combined passengers of the domestic and international areas of the airport.

The completed project included the construction of the powerhouse, expansion and improvement of passenger terminal building, expansion of apron and the rehabilitation of the airport runway.

The agency also expects to complete within the year the asphalt overlay of the runway and site acquisition for further expansion.

Tugade, together with Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines directorgeneral Jim Sydiongco, inaugurated the new CAAP admin building at the Laoag International Airport.

The CAAP admin building development project is another aviation initiative that was completed in December 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tugade emphasized the importance of completing the project for the airport personnel, the agency’s clients and for the operations of the Laoag International Airport.

The DOTr and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) also formally turned over 23 modernized PUJs for the Laoag-Bacarra-Pasuquin Transport Group Inc. (LBPTGI) in Laoag.

Tugade expressed his admiration to the transport group for binding together into one cooperative to ensure quality transport service to Filipinos and their families.

“You have shown that LBPTGI can be with us as a nation in making sure that public transportation is not only safe and comfortable, but more importantly reasonable,” Tugade said.

STARLUX FLIGHT.

Taiwan’s newly-founded airline StarLux Airlines launches its inaugural flight between Manila and Taipei on July 8. The airline goes against the tide during the pandemic by launching a new route to another major Asian destination, based on the current level of cargo flight demand, and hopes to provide travel service to people commuting between Manila and Taiwan for work. StarLux will initially operate two flights per week. The airline operates four Airbus A321neo aircraft, each having 188 seats, including eight in business class and 180 in economy class.

en the success rate in their vaccination drive The same thing here in the country as we rollout the vaccination program and allowed 100-percent operating capacity even during the Enhanced Community Quarantine and Modified ECQ months of March and April of this year,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a statement.

Electronic exports continued to be the Philippines’ top exports with a 61.3-percent share of the total, growing by a hefty 22.3 percent. The fastest growing sectors were medical/industrial instruments (up 240 percent) consumer electronics (216.2 percent) and office equipment (120.5 percent).

Semiconductors managed to grow 11.3 percent to $2.53 billion.

Non-electronics products that performed beyond expectations were travel goods and handbags (up 884.1 percent), Christmas décor (433.6 percent), Basketworks (380.7 percent), ceramic tiles (420.8 percent) and fine jewelry (390.7 percent).

Lopez said this is an indication of the gradual recovery of the consumer market as more people resumed their lives interrupted by the pandemic. Total nonelectronics exports expanded 20 percent from a year earlier.

“As we focus our efforts on the key export sectors of our country, we hope to regain our lost opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic and maintain the momentum of accelerating our export growth,” Lopez said.

Global trade is expected to further rebound in the second quarter according to UNCTAD’s outlook for 2021, largely dependent on subsiding pandemic restrictions.

DMCI VACCINATION. A D.M. Consunji Inc. employee receives a Moderna shot from a Reliance United medical personnel during the kickoff of the DMCI Group’s Employee Vaccination Program in Makati City. More than 4,100 DMCI Group employees and workers received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with various local government units, ICTSI Foundation and Reliance United.

Of the 30,000 doses of Moderna vaccines ordered by the DMCI Group, 420 arrived in late June. Around 7,600 doses will arrive in the third quarter while the rest will become available in the fourth quarter of this year.

Peso weakens to one-year low of 50.08:US$1 THE peso pierced through the 50-perdollar level on Friday, the weakest in more than a year, on higher demand for the greenback as imports surged amid the reopening of global markets.

Trading data showed the local currency settled at 50.08 a dollar Friday, down from 49.875 on Thursday. It was the peso’s lowest finish since it closed at 50.19 on June 23, 2020. Total volume turnover reached $859.7 million, down from $1.127 billion on Thursday.

The peso opened Friday’s trading at 50.1 per dollar, touching 50.17 at one point before settling at 50.08 per dollar at the close.

ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicholas Mapa said a strong dollar coupled with the wider-than-expected trade deficit in May might have helped push the peso past the 50 psychological handle on Friday. He said the peso was now down 1.94 percent “for the relatively young month of July.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority said Friday the country’s tradein-goods deficit in May widened by 109.7 percent to $2.76 billion from the $1.3-billion shortfall in the same month last year, amid the double-digit expansion in both exports and imports.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the direction of the peso-dollar exchange rate would largely hinge on the recovery of the economy and imports, after the quarantine classification in NCR Plus was relaxed to GCQ on May 15, 2021, alongside with additional measures to re-open the economy from lockdowns.

“The peso exchange rate could range 48.00 to 50.00 levels in 2021 to 2022 amid the expected economic recovery during the period...,” Ricafort said.

Ricafort said the strength of the dollar was due to the anticipation for the seasonal increase in importation activities in the third quarter.

Julito G. Rada

IN BRIEF

Converge expands fiber connections

Electricity rates increased by 0.23 per kWh in July on higher demand and tight supply

By Alena Mae S. Flores MANILA Electric Co. said Friday power rates rose by P0.2353 per kilowatt-hour in July to P8.9071 per kWh from P8.6718 per kWh in June, on high charges in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

Meralco said the new rate would be equivalent to an increase of around P47 in the monthly bill of a residential customer with an average consumption of 200 kWh. The company said higher charges at the WESM, the trading floor of electricity, contributed largely to the increase in the generation rates this month.

Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said the largest contributor leading to the July rate adjustment was the persistently high rates at WESM. “Between last month and this month, the charges went up by more than P2 from the spot market especially when we had yellow and red alerts,” Fernandez said.

Generation charges in July went up

to P4.8707 per kWh, an increase of P0.2536 per kWh from last month’s P4.6171 per kWh. WESM charges remained high at P8.7424 per kWh amid tight supply condition in the Luzon grid, aggravated by the Malampaya natural gas supply restriction.

The Luzon grid was placed on red alert from May 31 to June 2 and on yellow alert on June 4 amid the unplanned shutdown of power plants, with 4,000 megawatts of power going offline.

Luzon’s demand reached 11,640 MW on May 28, the highest on record, which resulted in high WESM prices for extended periods, almost doubling the times when the secondary price cap was imposed during the June supply month.

Charges from Meralco’s independent power producer also increased P0.1929 per kWh. With reduced gas supply from Malampaya, affected plants resorted to the use of more expensive liquid fuel to continue operating and avoid more or longer brown outs.

Nickel group sees progress following mining ban lifting

By Jenniffer B. Austria THE Philippine Nickel Industry Association expects the mining industry to maintain its growth trajectory following the government’s move to lift the suspension on new mining agreements, a top executive said Friday.

“We are hopeful to maintain this growth momentum especially after the issuance of EO 130 that lifted the ban on new mineral agreement as it will pave the way for new mining projects and entice more investments in the mining industry,” PNIA president Dante Bravo said in a statement.

Bravo attributed the significant growth in the mining industry largely to higher nickel prices and the robust demand from China’s stainless steel producers.

Citing data from Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Bravo said nickel mining firms supplied half of the 2020 mineral production and 31 percent of total production in the first quarter.

“Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s nickel industry remained resilient with a reported increase of 4 percent in production growth and 22 percent in export value citing a comparison of year-on-year data for 2019 and 2020 as posted in a recent report of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau,” Bravo said.

The MGB data also showed that the industry’s total direct shipping ore production was P38.86 billion in 2020, higher than P31.79 billion in 2019.

Data also revealed that in 2020, the nickel industry produced 27.17 million dry metric tons of nickel ore, higher than the previous year’s total production of 26.21 million DMT. Bravo said the PNIA has collective commitment to industry sustainability efforts. He said the group would release before the end of the year their performance report on alignment with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

CONVERGE ICT Solutions Inc., the country’s first pure end-to-end fiber internet service provider, extensively rolled out its fiber optic network to cover more cities and boost customer service by adding manpower, communications channels and service vehicles.

Converge’s ‘Go Deep’ strategy aims to strengthen its foothold in the South, Central and Northern Luzon to penetrate current markets and expand in untapped provinces, especially in the north.

“We see a significant potential to further penetrate Luzon, where we have already covered 49 percent of households as of first quarter of 2021. There are still areas there that are not well-served and we want to address these coverage gaps with our fiber technology. Our goal is to provide affordable and high-quality internet services that these regions deserve,” said Converge chief operating officer Jesus Romero.

Staying committed to improving the quality of end-to-end fiber services in Luzon, Converge fortified its network to provide high availability for internet services while ensuring low latency. The company officially launched its high-speed fiber broadband services in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan in the second quarter. Jess Malabanan

Globe expands list of 5G-ready partners

GLOBE Telecom Inc. said Friday it expanded its roster of 5G-ready partner companies ahead of the travel industry’s gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The telecom unit of the Ayala group sealed deals with Vivacom in Bulgaria, Viettel of Vietnam and China Mobile of China to give customers travelling in these countries access to 5G roaming services. By August, it will also partner with Tele2 of Sweden and Vivo of Brazil.

Globe said that in Asia, it teamed up with Singapore through Singtel, Thailand through AIS Thailand, Vietnam through Viettel, China through China Mobile and China Unicom, Hong Kong through CSL, South Korea through KT Corp and SK Telecom and Taiwan through Taiwan Mobile.

It said that in the Middle East, it teamed up with Kuwait through STC and Ooredoo, Oman through Omantel, Qatar through Ooredoo, Saudi Arabia through Mobily, Turkey through Turkcell and United Arab Emirates through du and Etisalat. Darwin G. Amojelar

BDO named as top graduate employer

BDO Unibank Inc. emerged as one of the country’s leading graduate employers. The bank was named the Top Graduate Employer in the Banking and Financial Services Sector and ranked fifth in GradPhilippines’Top 100 Graduate Employers List in the Philippines.

The Top 100 Graduate Employers List ranks companies based on their web search popularity and average review scores on top job sites. GradPhilippines undertakes a comprehensive methodology to arrive at its sector and overall rankings, which includes a review and consolidation of data from search engines, page views and employee reviews.

According to GradPhilippines, more than 600 Filipino companies were nominated before arriving at the final list. Criteria include posting career opportunities for fresh graduates on employment sites; posting job or internship openings on any Prosple site in 2020; and having more than five searches on GradPhilippines.com.

“BDO considers its people as its most valuable assets. Thanks to its workforce, the bank is able to find ways for its clients every day,” said Evelyn Salagubang, BDO senior vice president and head of human resources group.

Sports

Riera U. Mallari, Editor; Randy M. Caluag, Assistant Editor

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

Suns move within 2 wins of NBA title

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is hammered

by Devin Booker and Torrey Craig of the Phoenix Suns during the second half in Game Two of the NBA Finals at Phoenix Suns Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. AFP

111 cyclists unbothered

by SEA Games postponement THE postponement of the Hanoi 31st Southeast Asian Games didn’t matter at all to the 111 cyclists vying in the PhilCycling National Trials for Road that hits the road under a bubble set up on Saturday at the Clark Freeport Zone’s well-maintained roads.

“It’s disappointing [SEA Games postponement], but as an athlete, I will still give my best,” said Mark Lexer Galedo, one of the veterans competing in the Trials presented

by Standard Insurance, Smart, MVP Sports Foundation, the Bases Conversion Development Authority and Clark Development Corp.

Galedo, the men’s individual time trial gold medalist in the Myanmar 2013 SEA Games as well as the 2014 Le Tour de Filipinas and 2012 Ronda Pilipinas champion, is entered in both the ITT and men’s criterium of the trials also supported by Go for Gold, Chooks-to-Go, GAC Motor, Gatorade, Versa, 7-Eleven, Le Tour de Filipinas, 7-Eleven, UBE Express Inc., Powerade, Wilkins, Coca-Cola, Shimano, Bike-X and MadCrank.

Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance teammates George Oconer, last year’s Ronda Pilipinas winner, and veteran Ronald Oranza as well as Go For Gold leader Ronnel Hualda also vowed to fight it off in the trials that also feature the women’s ITT and criterium (today) and the road races for both genders tomorrow (Sunday).

“These are the national trials and as national athletes, a lot is expected of us,” Oconer said.

Today’s (Saturday) races start at 8 a.m. with the women’s ITT followed by the men’s race-againstthe-clock contest and at midday the criterium.

C1

PBA season to open with tough restrictions T

By Peter Atencio

OUGH restrictions will be in place when the Philippine Basketball Association begins its 46th season after months of delay

A triple-header of games is slated, starting at 11 a.m. on July 16 at the Ynares Center in Pasig City.

The games will finally happen after the PBA got the much-awaited nod of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said this a day after getting the word from an IATF meeting in Malacanang.

“Nahirapan tayo sa proseso. Pero buti na lang pinayagan,” said Marcial via a Zoom conference.

Restrictions similar to what took place in the 45th season last year will again be imposed.

And spectators will again not be allowed in the venue to watch the action, which will be aired on TV5.

Marcial added that this will be done to the ensure the safety of the players and staff despite decreasing COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila.

“Mas mahirap ito kaysa sa bubble na ginawa sa Clark,” said Marcial, who added the PBA will adopt a closedcircuit setup, which will be almost the same as what was put up during the games that were held inside a bubble at the Angeles University Foundation gymnasium in Angeles, Pampanga.

Plans are now being prepared to have those who have been inoculated to get

tested via an RT-PCR swab test every 10 days.

As for those who are still unvaccinated, they will need to get tested every seven days.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial

PHOENIX—With the stamina to outlast rivals and the determination to keep attacking, Phoenix guard Devin Booker has sparked the Suns to within two wins of an NBA title.

The 24-year-old son of a 1990s NBA journeyman scored 31 points, grabbed five rebounds and passed off six assists over a game-high 44 minutes to lead Phoenix over Milwaukee 118-108 in Thursday’s game two of the NBA Finals.

“I’m excited every day I get to wake up and play in the NBA,” Booker said.

“I try not to lose sight of that.”

After starting 2-of-10, Booker finished shooting 12-of-25 for the game, including 7-of-12 from 3-point range.

“Just slowed it down a bit,” Booker said. “Early in the game just amped, excited and shooting a few things long, rushing a few shots. So just getting back to fundamentals.”

He nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to thwart a rally bid by the Bucks in the fourth quarter.

“Devin wants to prove to everybody he’s one of the best players in the league,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “Not just from a statsnumbers perspective. He wants to prove it by winning and being competitive.

“He wants to separate himself from everyone else to not only put up stats but to show that he can lead a team to win, and he’s getting the chance to do it on the big stage.”

The Suns lead the Bucks 2-0 in the best-of-seven championship showdown with games three and four in Milwaukee on Sunday and Wednesday.

“We’ve seen a lot of different situations and coverages. We feel like we’ve seen it all,” Booker said.

“We’re prepared for this moment.

Milwaukee is going to make it tough on us but we’re prepared as a team.”

Williams has trouble getting Booker to exit the game for a brief rest.

“I get the look when I even ask him about it,” Williams said. “It’s like insulting to him when I ask him about his stamina.”

Booker credits the work he puts in building endurance, saying, “Just preparation, taking care of your body.

There’s a whole list of it. But I think the adrenaline... trying to get after it.

So, I don’t feel tired.”

Together with backcourt partner Chris Paul, in his first NBA Finals at age 36, they have produced the most points of any guard duo to start a finals.

Paul knows why Booker hates being sidelined even for a breather. AFP

Yulo can still train in Japan for 4 years FILIPINO gymnastics’ phenom Carlos Yulo, whose world ranking in the floor exercises dropped to no. 3 last month, will be able to train again in Japan after the Tokyo Olympics.

The 21-year-old Yulo got this assurance following

talks between between Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion and FIG president Morinari Watanabe.

This will give Yulo a chance to get ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The opportunity was granted Yulo two weeks before he seeks action at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Japan for the Olympics.

“He can stay in Japan for another four years. I wrote a letter to Mr. Watanabe if he can continue training in Japan,” said Carrion.

The 4’9” Yulo is in the thick of preparations for the Olympics and has been in Tokyo for more than

four years already.

He used to be the no. 1 in the world rankings of the men’s artistic gymnastics floor exercises.

But Yulo did not participate in a Doha tournament last month, where Israeli Artem Dologpyat and Spain’s Rayderley Zapata took a 1-2 finish for the gold and the silver medal, respectively.

Dologpyat took over the no. 1 spot with 90 points, while Zapata is behind with 70.

Yulo slipped to third with 70, still ahead of Russian Kirill Prokopev, who is fourth with 64.

Peter Atencio

Superal thwarts Avaricio, nails ICTSI Sherwood title PRINCESS Superal overwhelmed Harmie Constantino and Chihiro Ikeda with a birdie-binge at the front but needed to thwart Chanelle Avaricio’s spirited challenge with a clutch birdie on the 17th to fire a 65 and hack out a one-stroke victory in the ICTSI Sherwood Ladies Challenge here yesterday.

Avaricio took up the challenger’s role after Constantino and Ikeda failed to match Superal’s blistering frontside 32 which she did with a brilliant five-birdie, one-bogey start at the Sherwood Hills Golf Club. Playing in a flight ahead, she then forced a tie with Superal at seven-under 209 total after capping a career-best 65 with three straight birdies from No. 15.

But the multi-titled Superal displayed grace under pressure, unleashing a solid drive and a 6-iron approach shot from 160 yards on the 17th then canned in a lead-grabbing birdie from 15 feet before preserving the lead and securing the

victory with a closing routine par.

She totalled 208 that included a 74 and a 69 and pocketed the top purse of P112,000 for her second win in four events. She ruled the first of two bubble tournaments at Riviera late last year, finished second in the next then placed behind Constantino at Eagle Ridge last March before the organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. suspended play due to resurgence of coronavirus cases in NCR Plus.

“I actually had no idea of Chanelle’s surge but I knew there would be one who will go low,” said Superal, who hiked her lead to two with back-toback birdies from No. 14 but slipped into a tie with Avaricio following the latter’s late threebirdie blast. “But I just did what I was supposed to do, stuck to my routine and stayed focused.”

While Superal, the 2019 Ladies PGT Order of Merit champion, basked in the glory of another victory, Avaricio missed the chance to finally hit

paydirt after finishing no higher than fourth in the past four tournaments of the ICTSI-backed circuit in pandemic-hit 2020-21 seasons.

She settled for second at 209 worth P90,000.

It was actually a windup that would’ve defined Avaricio’s career as she kept on pressing her bid for a breakthrough after matching Superal’s frontside 32 marked by five birdies in the first eight holes but marred by a bogey on the ninth.

She recovered the stroke on No. 12, only to yield it again on the next but the comely former Alabama State U mainstay blitzed home with three straight birdies to nurture hopes of forcing a playoff or clinching it outright.

But Superal had other things in mind.

Constantino, who led by one after 36 holes, stayed in the hunt despite a lone birdie after three holes but came undone when she doublebogeyed the par-5 No. 4 and dropped two more strokes on No. 7 after a bogey on the sixth.

Princess Superal holds the trophy after surviving a tough Chanelle Avaricio

She, however, gunned down two birdies at the back to save a 72 for solo third at 214 worth P75,000 while Chihiro Ikeda carded a 73 to end up fourth at 216.

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Tech & Gadgets

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

Mixed reactions to students’ FSL-to-speech gloves invention

Taiwan Excellence empowers via webinar

By John Christopher Aquino, Nijel Matthew Aquino and Jonas Ryan Nitura

T

HE recent viral video of students inventing a Filipino sign language (FSL)-to-speech gloves gained praise for its ingenuity, but organizations supporting deaf and hard of hearing people have mixed reactions.

The gloves, which were part of a thesis project by a group of students from Nabua, Camarines Sur, recently gained traction online with many netizens commending the students. In the deaf community, however, people are conflicted on the current state of technologies being created to assist them.

TerpCap Services (from left to right, clockwise) China Salvo, Sarah Cortez, Jefferson Cortez, Bryan Pepito, Elizabeth Cabida, EJ Erpelo

The invention and inventors

The group of students taking up electrical engineering in Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges was first seen in a video uploaded by student Francis Anthony De Guzman. The video has now over 500k views and over 90k reactions on Facebook as of writing.

They also expressed that their project was inspired by the importance of communication in people’s lives.

In the video, they said that “communication plays an important role in our daily lives. It is a medium in which we can share thoughts and convey messages.”

The students also added that their project could lessen the barriers between differently-abled people as it “gives voice to the deaf and speech-impaired people (...) the communication barrier can be lessened, allowing the deaf and speech-impaired to express themselves and give more opportunity to grow in their respective careers.”

Another member of the group then explained the basics and technical details on how their sign language gloves work, stating that there are multiple sensors inside the gloves that will then transmit data via WiFi to a computer to process the gestures into words.

In the post, the group also thanked their professors for teaching them Filipino sign language, as well as advising them throughout their thesis project. The students also dedicated their achievement to a fellow

Francis Anthony De Guzman | Facebook

group member, who passed away recently.

Feedback

Organizations that support the deaf and hard of hearing had different perspectives on these kinds of inventions, though.

Gippy Palma, an advocate and founder of the Filipino Sign Language for the Filipino Deaf stated that technology like the FSL-to-speech gloves is always helpful to make the world a better place.

But even though Palma said this, he still expressed concern if the invention would help break the communication barrier.

“We have to see it in use in practical settings to find

out,” he said in an interview with the Manila Standard.

When asked whether having more inventions to help the deaf is better than learning sign language, Palma said that nothing would beat learning itself than any mere technology. “The effectiveness of learning the language within the host culture cannot be superseded by an invention or assistive device for communication,” he added.

Palma also expressed that if others would want to help the deaf or hard of hearing community, they should “have a heart for them.”

Representatives from TerpCap Services, a startup company that aims to serve the deaf and hard of hearing communities digitally through sign language interpretation and captioning, also commented on such technology at its current state.

“We’re not comfortable with that (invention), it’s like we lost our natural sign language nature because there’s a lot involved when we sign,” said China Salvo through sign language in a separate interview.

The founders, Jefferson and Sarah Cortez, stated that the video about FSL gloves definitely made a buzz on social media, which helped raise awareness for the deaf communities in the country.

XUMCoin cryptocurrency launched in Philippines XUMCoin, the first cryptocurrency that dared to launch in the Philippines even with its tight regulatory environment, was presented before a huge audience of entrepreneurs to help them grow their financial resources better.

Cryptocurrency has yet to be grasped by the Philippine market but there have been individuals and businesses that have invested with this using their international and digital links.

The difference is that with XUMCoin, this cryptocurrency tries to limit itself to markets that have sufficient knowledge and understanding of blockchain and cryptographic tokens, smart contracts, storage mechanisms (like digital or token wallets), blockchainbased software systems and blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

With the rising popularity of digital Cryptocurrency in the world, XUMCoin was successfully launched at the Cove Area in Okada Manila last June 23, 2021.

Undoubtedly, the Philippines is one of the world’s fastest adopters of cryptocurrency.

According to recent study, the covid pandemic has fuelled the trend, with Filipinos releasing the value of crypto as an investment and income generating currency.

Actress turned beauty queen, Ruffa Gutierrez and Model Actor, Xian Lim hosted the grand event with top ace guest performers Pop Superstar Angeline Quinto, Singer-comedian Mitoy Yonting, Actress-singer Cristina Paner, and multi awarded cost shadow group, El Gamma Penumbra.

Nightscape mode

Shown here are (from left) celebrity hosts Xian Lim and Ruffa Gutierrez, Chairman Jessie Royo and Emma Royo, MMBC CEO Emery Jestine Royo-Alon, JESSEM Security Agency President Venz Francis P. Alon, HERO App’s CEO, Jelyza Chen P. Royo and Operational Manager Ryan Nicko Morales.

The attraction to cryptocurrency is borne of the fact that only a few of them are in circulation, hence those possessing them can sell or buy their coin stocks at the prices prevailing at the time of transaction, which are usually done online only.

Those who want to patronize and sup-

port XUMCoin are advised to make their independent assessment on the merits, the benefits and risks involved before considering to acquire one and to bear the risks thereof, including loss of all amounts paid, their suitability for acquiring any XUMCoin and should consult their accounting,

Take gaming immersion to next level with LG UltraGear UNLEASH your competitive spirit and bring your A-game. Whether you have dreams of playing professionally or are content with having friendly, casual games with colleagues, taking every advantage counts. Upgrading your GPU is the usual first step to take, but a new monitor works wonders as well. A dedicated gaming monitor lets you maximize your hardware by providing a different level of immersion and blazing fast response times.

Elevate your gaming experience with LG’s new line of gaming monitors. LG UltraGear line provides a good entry into the world of hardcore gaming with its impressive features and competitive price point.

LG UltraGear is the powerful gaming display gear integrated with the hi-performing functions which can respond to any blockbuster games. The best value proposition that an UltraGear monitor offers is total immersion. You can experience breath-taking gaming performance that surpasses your expectations through incredibly fast IPS 1ms. An ultra-fast

LG UltraGear

speed of IPS 1ms(GTG) allows immediate action on the screen. Fast-moving objects are rendered more clearly for smoother gameplay and an almost surreal visual fluidity. If speed is crucial to getting the win, having an UltraGear monitor increases your chances of prevailing.

LG’s UltraGear monitors are NVIDIA-tested and officially verified G-Syn® Compatible, eliminating screen tearing and minimizing stutter for a smoother, faster gaming experience. With Adaptive-Sync (FreeSync) technology, gamers can experience seamless, fluid movement in hiresolution and fast-paced games. It eliminates screen tearing and stuttering. They also support HDR 10, enabling realistic visual immersion.

Regardless of the battlefield, gamers experience the sensation of being in the center of it. It also sports an ergonomic design to keep you comfortable even when gaming for a long time. It has a 3-side virtually borderless design while the base can be adjusted to change the tilt, height and pivot of the monitor to help you play game more comfortable. Improve your gaming experience by adding LG UltraGear to your arsenal.

Upgrade your gaming experience today with LG’s Gear Up for Victory Promo. For any purchase of LG UltraGear models from today until June 30, 2021, you will get 10% off SRP and automatically get 2,850 Valorant points added to your RIOT account. A special livestream event will be aired on June 25, Friday, at 11:30AM on Lazada and Facebook which will give a brief rundown on the promotion. Set your calendar reminder and don’t forget to watch it!

legal and tax representatives and advisers to evaluate the economic, legal and tax consequences of acquiring XUMCoin.

XUMCoin is a utility and service-oriented digital currency powered by its own blockchain. As Blockchain technology continues to emerge and develop, an influx of governments, corporations and both public and private sector influencers, continue to spread awareness and champion the practical benefits of Blockchain for efficiently and effectively solving a multitude of complex global challenges.

SPEED XUMCoin will have a primary use as a gas fee or transaction fee for the whole eco-system of XUMChain. Given the speed and the volume of 200 transactions every 5 seconds per block and a cheaper gas fee of 50 XUMCoin (approx. $0.50 at its current value) to execute any transaction, or a premium fee for faster transfer and verification will surely make the demand higher.

XUMCoin is responsibly engaging and providing solutions for global clients, communities and businesses that choose to adopt this new era of technological thinking. The results not only improve the operations of their businesses, but the lives of their clients and future partners.

THE first part of a three-part webisode series from People of Excellence: Achieving Youth Excellence webinar was held recently as it aimed to share best practices and useful life tips from well-respected role models of the society.

Each webisode is intended for a particular audience profile.

Young millennials and Generation Z’s listened and participated with enthusiasm as keynote speakers shared a live open discussion with the audience.

Clement Chen, Director of Taiwan Trade Center, Manila delivered his opening remarks and talked about Achieving Youth Excellence in full detail. This was followed by an introductory video of the topic, an introduction of the speakers—Janina Vela and Darren Espanto by the host Diane Medina. Afterwards, the event was presided by a Question and Answer session with the live attendees present.

Vela, Youtube star, actress, Operation Blessing Ambassador, World Vision Youth and Education Ambassador, tackled the way she started in the industry, how influencing people to do good and put in the work through the organizations she joined is one of her advocacies.

She talked about bouncing back from being burned out especially in a pandemic facing new challenges, how important using her voice is as a youth who speak off her opinions with various issues of our country.

Vela also gave a simple advice to the youth viewers to become their own People of Excellence.

Singer/actor and a youth advocate for UNDP Philippines, Espanto started off by sharing adjustments he made to become a singer in the Philippines, how an undivided support for a child’s dream is very important and how Turn to C3

Scaling new heights: Aguda's journey A LUCKY combination: His love for technology and his passion for education may very well be a good marriage of sorts. It was technology that became the winning anchor in transforming the many ways in which we do our banking these days.

Addressing financial inclusivity in the process, UnionBank’s Henry Aguda helped bring this access to anyone and everyone who has a smart phone to enjoy the service that literally any Juan can attest to the ease of use, with the increasing market share as proof of that.

Henry never left the academe. He always had the role of being a professor apart from being an executive. This led to his involvement with institutions across the country either as a guest speaker, panel or lecturer.

Henry teaches technology at UP Diliman’s Technology Management Center and Global Learning Solutions Singapore’s Asian Institute of Digital Transformation, while doing his own effort in bridging the digital divide say something about the man who envisions a more progressive Philippines through the use of digital and sustaining the access to education. Sure, he may have gone to the US to try things out, but UnionBank came and he ended up doing something meaningful—and to this day continues to do so, but with a bigger and richer perspective now.

These achievements do not come as a surprise since Henry always had this drive to learn and grow. His love for challenges started UnionBank's Henry Aguda when he first went to the University of the

Philippines to take up Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. He then proceeded to further expound his knowledge by pursuing law in UP in 2008, where he graduated Cum Laude and valedictorian of his class. He is currently finishing his Master’s Degree in Applied Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific. In addition, he even participated in programs from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the Asian Institute of Management, among many other institutions, which gave him a high-level rare industry-exposed knowledge in his chosen field.

The typical day for Aguda—UnionBank’s transformational executive leader, who has also been recipients of two awards as of late—as the Privacy Advocate of the Year for 2021 given by the National Privacy Commission and as the CTO of the Year in Southeast Asia 2021 as bestowed by The European Global Banking and Finance Awards—is mostly spent online teaching digital transformation and expanding inclusivity to cover education. And for a good reason. We think all schools and universities may have modernized at this point in time with the availability of technology but there is still a good number of those who need to make the pivot.

“We have the perfect demographics which we can take advantage of. We have a young population and we need to make their access to technology and digital easy,” shares Henry who also forecasts that we may get into an education crisis in the next five years if we don’t do anything about it. The country’s progress is assessed by its Human Capital Index (HCI) and education is a crucial part of it.

Tech & Gadgets

Smart’s distance learning

initiative adoption rises 927%

P

LDT’s wireless arm Smart Communications, Inc (Smart) saw a triple digit increase in the adoption rate among schools of one of its longstanding learning initiatives, providing pandemicresilient inclusive education.

From initially 73 implementing schools for SY 2019-2020, Smart saw a 927% increase in the implementers of the Central Visayan Institute and Foundation - Dynamic Learning Program, or CVIFDLP, during the pandemic. There are now almost 750 formal and informal schools and learning communities implementing the crisis-resilient teaching strategy, proven to hone independent learning to help achieve Smart’s #LearnSmart goal that there will be #NoLearnerLeftBehind.

Smart revealed this today in a web forum featuring CVIF-DLP, preparing teachers, parents, students, and local government units for the coming school year 2021-22.

Advocates of the CVIF-DLP also shared their perspectives on the transition to the CVIF-DLP method, best practices, and how it enabled progress for the community during the COVID-19 lockdown.

With the theme "No Learner Left Be-

hind: Inclusive Education for a #BetterWorld," the web forum streamed live on June 25, 2021 from 1PM-4PM via the Dynamic Learning Program Facebook page.

The forum highlighted the inspirational journey of some of the schools and institutions that implemented the CVIF-DLP in school year 2020-2021.

“We're here to listen to educators and learners on what worked well during the pandemic school year 2020-21, and see what we can do further in the way of innovating education, keeping it resilient and inclusive though the next normal,” said Cathy Yap-Yang, FVP & Group Head, Corporate Communications for PLDT and Smart.

The virtual event echoed Smart’s “Live Smarter for a Better World” campaign, inspiring people to commit to sustainable actions with lasting, positive impact to society. The campaign also encourages everyone to ignite their passions to help

change the world for the better.

“We have been creating programs that enrich education through digital learning, but I believe that now is the time to persistently improve learning strategies and expand our reach to truly ensure that no learner is left behind as we dream and make our way to a better world,” Smart AVP for Community Partnerships Stephanie V. Orlino said.

The CVIF-DLP Web Forum was supported by DepEd Philippines, JCI Quezon Capitol, Now You Know, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Save The Children Philippines, World Vision Philippines, and Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation.

Founded in 2002 by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees Dr. Christopher Bernido and Dr. Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido, CVIF-DLP has proven to be a pandemicresilient and effective teaching strategy that harnesses the student’s ability to learn independently.

This is done through CVIF-DLP Learning Activity Sheets (CVIF-DLP LAS), simplified lessons, and practical exercises that can be accomplished with limited supervision and resources. This tried and tested strategy can also complement any

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

modalities implemented by the Department of Education and was added to their supplementary learning resources starting last year.

The Smart-backed initiative was also recognized at UNESCO's Mobile Learning Week 2020, a testament on its powerful platform that can augment learning beyond the traditional classroom setup.

During the Department of Education’s School Opening Day National Program and World Teachers Day celebration led by Education Secretary Leonor Briones last October 2020, Smart announced the availability of freeto-download CVIF-DLP LAS at www.commons.deped.gov.ph. This DepEd portal can be accessed by Smart, Sun, and TNT subscribers even without data load.

These ready-to-use Junior and Senior High School resources developed by CVIF is one of only three supplemental learning materials that were endorsed by the government agency for academic year 2020-21.

"The CVIF-DLP has proven to be limitless on how it can be flexible for any scenario, especially in unexpected situations such as now. We designed it with not just the students, but also the teachers, parents, and the community in mind. We are grateful that more institutions are implementing and recognizing us, and we hope to reach and transform more lives through our program," said the Bernidos.

Emirates expands IATA Travel Pass implementation DUBAI—Emirates, one of the first global airlines to pilot the IATA Travel Pass in April, now offers the IATA Travel Pass solution to customers flying to 10 cities and plans to extend it to all routes across its network in the coming weeks. In addition, Emirates has also partnered with Alhosn, the official UAE app for COVID-19 related contact tracing and health documentation, to offer its customers greater convenience and smoother journeys.

"Over the past months, we have really accelerated our biometric, contactless, and digital travel verification projects to provide our customers with even greater convenience and assurance when they fly with Emirates. From our biometrics path at Dubai International (DXB) to initiatives like the IATA Travel Pass and integrations with the health authority databases, these projects deliver multiple benefits from better customer experiences to the reduced use of paper, and improved

efficiency and reliability in travel document checks.

We are grateful for the support from the authorities and our industry partners in the successful deployment of these projects which strengthen Emirates and Dubai’s world-leading aviation capabilities," said Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Chief Operating Officer.

Emirates customers flying between Dubai and the following cities: London, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, New York JFK, Moscow, Frankfurt, Charles De Gaulle, and Amsterdam; can now use IATA Travel Pass to access the latest COVID-19 related travel information including the location of PCR test labs, and manage their COVID-19 travel documentation such as vaccination and latest PCR test results. Passengers on these flights will receive an SMS and email with the activation code and instructions on downloading the IATA Travel Pass app.

The airline is progressing on plans to roll-out the IATA

IATA Travel Pass

Travel Pass solution across its global network.

Since trials began, Emirates has worked closely with IATA and its partners to enhance the IATA Travel Pass experience based on customer feedback. The IATA Travel Pass app is now available to both iOS and Android users, and can also be used by customers with non-biometric passports.

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Taiwan..

From C2

his career is steadily growing prepandemic as he even partnered with Disney. Espanto also talked about all the great achievements one could ever think at a young age, but then the pandemic happened so he had to conquer it, saying how honored he is to be part of a prominent organization such as UNDP Philippines.

He also shared his pieces of advice to all the youth viewers to become their own People of Excellence.

The Open Discussion on Youth Empowerment and Adaptability filled the Zoom Webinar with a total of 498 questions from the youth attendees which made the event insightful and pragmatic.

Vela and Espanto made the discussion light and motivating for the youth, highlighting how to overcome and deal with the current struggles amidst the adjustments we are facing every day.

Overall, the webinar gained positive feedback from the audience. They were lively and participative all through-out the webinar.

It even trended on the 9th spot in Twitter with the hashtag, “Darren for YouthExcellence”.

HOME/DESIGN Joel D. Lacsamana, Editor • E-mail: jdlacsamana@gmail.com

LUMINA HOMES BAGS PAG-IBIG AWARDS. Lumina

Arthaland launches Lucima in Cebu

Boutique developer turns challenge into opportunity

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or Jaime González, president of Arthaland Corp., the quarantine challenges of 2020 and 2021, provided the boutique property developer an opportunity to set itself apart from other Philippine developers by meeting delivery targets to buyers, and reinforcing its reputation for focusing on sustainability, wellness, high quality and superior design.

To put emphasis on this claim, the company broke ground early this week for its Lucima project in Cebu — a “sustainable” residential condominium on a 2,245 squaremeter (sq.m.) property.

“With this project, we are expanding our footprint in Southern Philippines and it is envisioned to be the first and only multicertified sustainable high-rise residential condominium in the country,” said Gonzalez during a media briefing after the virtual launch.

On track for five-year plan The Lucima project is a key component of Arthaland’s two-pronged strategy to launch new luxury residential projects, one in each of the districts, central malls of Makati and Cebu. Amidst the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the developer has mapped out a five-year program beginning this year, to double its presence in the country.

González said the Lucima launch in Cebu Business Park which will bring 263 residential units to the market and a gross area of approximately 28,000 square meters. squares.

Meanwhile, a launch is planned in the third quarter for a residential project at Legazpi Village in Makati, offering 37 residential units and a gross total area of approximately 14,600 square meters.

With these projects, Arthaland seeks to meet a goal of increasing its development space five times in five years, a commitment made in 2016 when the company raised new capital from the public offering of preferred shares.

Gateway project Lucima is located in the heart of Cebu Business Park. The company said it

is targeting city dwellers and business executives for the project.

This development that sits on 2,245 square meters of prime real estate at the corner of Cardinal Rosales Avenue and Samar Loop in the business park, is envisioned to be the first quadruple-certified sustainable highrise residential condominium in the country.

It already earned pre-certification for LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is vying for WELLTM (WELL Building Standard), EDGE® (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies), and BERDE (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) certifications.

“Cebu is fast gaining prominence as a leading regional hub and preferred location for some of the most renowned global institutions,” explained Christopher G. Narciso, executive vice president of Arthaland. “Investors and locators alike can look to Lucima to set the standard of luxury living in the city through its timeless design, meticulously executed construction, and thoughtful sustainability features.”

Promoting a safe, contactless environment The project features low-E double-glazed glass, energy recovery ventilators, and a carbon monoxide tracker per unit, among others.

Residents will have access to virtual concierge and “autonomous surveillance” robots, which are said to be used to promote a safer and contactless environment.

It will have 30 residential floors with over 260 units. Its one-bedroom offerings have floor areas

around 38 sq.m. to 54 sq.m., two-bedroom units with 88 sq.m. to 106 sq.m., and three-bedroom units from 125 sq.m. and up. Lucima’s largest unit is said to be over 500 sq.m.

Lucima is slated to be completed by the third quarter of 2025.

Nailing down objectives González told the Manila Standard that his company had always sought to set itself apart from other developers by meeting delivery targets. Phase 1 of the Cebu Exchange office condominium project was successfully delivered to buyers based on its pre-pandemic delivery date, he said.

As of the end of June 2021, Arthaland completed 88 percent of the Cebu Exchange.

All development is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2021.

Phase 2, covering from the 16th floor to the roof deck, is on track to be delivered to buyers by the second quarter of 2022, he added.

The company also has a project in Biñan, Laguna province, Sevina Park, an 8.1-hectare master planned sustainable community.

Construction work for the first phase of Sevina Park Villas is now in full swing. “We are on time to deliver the first batch of villas for the fourth quarter of 2021, Gonzalez revealed.

Homes were among the top developers recently recognized in the Pag-IBIG’s “Stakeholders Accomplishment Report 2020”. Each year, Pag-IBIG recognizes housing developers who contributed to providing home-owning opportunities to its eligible members, in line with the Shelter Program of the National Government through the Building Adequate, Livable, Affordable, and Inclusive (BALAI) Filipino community program. Vista Land launched the Lumina Homes line of affordable housing communities eight years ago, to help address the country’s housing deficit.

A Lumina house and lot costs P500,000 to P1,700,000. If a homebuyer qualifies as a “low-income earner” under Pag-IBIG Fund, he can pay for as little as P1,898 a month at 3% annual interest for a brand new house and lot.

EUROPE’S LARGEST HOMEBUILDER JOINS LAMUDI.

European developer PIK, recently entered the online real estate market in the Philippines, linking with digital property platform Lamudi. PIK’s maiden development in the country, One Sierra, the developer’s first residential complex, will bring 250 units spread across 30 storeys that echo European aesthetic, quality, and expertise. With only 10 units per floor, residents of One Sierra enjoy unparalleled exclusivity. PIK’s partnership with Lamudi will showcase this low-density development to property seekers not just in Mandaluyong, but all over the Philippines. One Sierra features flexible premium space, from studio, onebedroom, and two-bedroom units, as well as Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) units.

Sizes range from 32 to 84 square meters.

BRIA HOMES WINS REAL ESTATE PLUMS. Real estate

company Bria Homes recently bagged the “Affordable Housing Developer of the Year” and “Open Space Development of the Year” at the 2021 Real Estate Asia. Awards, for its efforts in building quality, affordable house and lots in over fifty eco-friendly communities. The trophies were accepted by Red Rosales, COO of BRIA Homes. “To date, we have expanded our product lines in order to serve the millennial market and the OFWs who seek investment-worthy projects for their hard-earned money,” said Rosales. The Real Estate Asia Awards is an annual event that recognizes the most innovative real estate developments in the region. BRIA Homes is a subsidiary of GOLDEN MV Holdings, Inc.

Motoring

Ramon L. Tomeldan Editor

C4

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021

VIOS CUP RETURNS

Toyota Gazoo Racing sets stage for heart-thumping action online A

FTER a break in 2020, Toyota Motor Philippines’ premier motorsports program is making a huge comeback.

Filipino motorsports fans and racing enthusiasts can once again experience the one-make-race series’ trademark wakudoki (heart-pumping) thrill as the country’s leading mobility company kicks off the 2021 Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Cup with the first leg happening today, July 10.

Now headlined by Toyota Gazoo Rac-

ing, Toyota’s global motorsports brand, this season’s Vios Cup promises to deliver racing action to more fans as the event transforms to a bigger and more exciting online spectacle.

While there will be no public spectators at the race venue Clark International Speedway to strictly enforce safety protocols for participants, viewers can join in the fun and watch from anywhere through the Facebook pages of Toyota Motor Philippines and Toyota Gazoo Racing PH. On top of the full coverage of the races, online fans can also expect more exciting games, activities, and heart-racing fun to-

gether with their favorite racers.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Cup will have two racing events – the Circuit Championship and the Autocross Challenge.

The Circuit Championship features the classic format, with drivers racing against each other in their respective race classes. The return of the Super Sporting Class in the Circuit Championship marks the comeback of seasoned local racing stars on the Vios Cup track with 2019 Sporting Class Champion Red Diwa joining the Super Sporting Class this season. Dealer teams Obengers Racing Team, R Rac-

ing, and JBT Racing will also be joining the track action this weekend.

The Sporting Class and the Promotional Class complete the three (3) race classes for this year – to be participated in by a total of 24 circuit racers for the first leg. Vios Cup veterans, celebrity racers Daniel Matsunaga, Troy Montero, and Fabio Ide will be returning to the grid, this time in the Promotional Class, racing against other entrants for the Circuit Championship.

The Autocross Challenge, where individual participants drive across a set obstacle course, aiming to finish the track

perfectly with the shortest possible lap, is also returning to make racing a more inclusive and accessible sport. This season’s Autocross Challenge will be welcoming 24 competitors – 12 media participants and 12 diverse personalities – for this race weekend. Catch beauty queens turned media personalities Winwyn Marquez, Laura Lehmann, and Carla Lizardo, actors and TV stars Alex Diaz, Arron Villaflor, John Manalo, Gab Lagman, and Jacq Yu, social media personalities Lexi Mendiola, Jules Aquino, and Bianca Yao, and radio host Gino Quillamor race under TeamToyota Gazoo Racing PH.

GAC Motor PH partners with Philcycling road trials GAC Motor Philippines has signed a partnership with the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines to become the official mobility partner of the 2021 PhilCycling National Trials for Road on July 10 to 11 at Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in Pampanga.

GAC Motor will be providing its fleet of vehicle line-up — the GA4 1.3 AT sedan, GA8 2.0 GL executive sedan, GS3 1.3 AT sub-compact SUV, GS4 1.5 AT compact SUV, GS4 4x2 Premiere SUV, and the GS8

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4x2 Sport SUV — to service the event marshals and executives of PhilCycling.

Known for its quality, comfort, and performance, the vehicle line-up of GAC Motor provides a premium experience to its occupants. The aggressive yet classy stance reflects the commanding presence of the vehicle line-up. In addition, the interior boasts of its elegance, space partnered with features that exude a luxurious feel.

The GAC Motor vehicle line-up is

FASTLANE

built on a high-strength steel-safe chassis that does a great job in reducing vehicle vibration and protects its participants from an intense collision impact. For better stability at high speeds, the fleet is equipped with Bosch’s latest ESP 9.3 that corrects oversteering at sudden cornering and sudden lane change. The fleet is also equipped with an L-type Mcpherson front suspension that suppresses high-frequency vibration, resulting in better handling, a more stable ride, and better driving comfort.

“We thank PhilCycling for choosing us as the event’s official mobility partner for the 2021 PhilCycling National Trials for Road. We ensure that the executives and marshals of the organization will have a positive experience in our portfolio,” said Wilbert A. Lim, President and CEO of GAC Motor Philippines.

Races will be in Men and Women Individual Time Trial and Criterium on July 10 and Road on July 11. The race will start and end at the Clark Parade Grounds, while the ITT races are set at 24.6 kms for the men and 18 kms for the women, the criterium will be over a 2.3km circuit at the Clark Parade Grounds.

III

Cleanfuel opens premier station in Las Pinas

THE aggressive stance of leading independent oil company Cleanfuel to tap new market is being exercised anew with the recent opening of its premier station in Las Piñas City.

The inauguration of Cleanfuel Alabang-Zapote station has provided easy access to affordable yet quality fuel products to private motorists, public utility, and commercial transport.

The latest location of Cleanfuel serves as one of the gateways in the South Metro Manila, catering to the large volume of vehicles coming to and from Muntinlupa, Las Piñas and Bacoor, Cavite.

Located along the busy stretch of Alabang-Zapote Road in Barangay Pamplona Tres in Las Piñas City, this 2,400-squaremeter retail station will be beneficial to all types of motorists as it offers topnotch fuel products including Clean91, Premium 95, and high-grade diesel as part of the company’s mission to offer outstanding yet affordable products.

Aside from the products at the new station, the company also prides itself with the first-class amenities offered to customers such as clean and spacious air-conditioned restrooms, commercial space leasing, air-and-water services, cashless payment options, and loyalty rewards program.

The newly-opened station in Alabang-Zapote road, which stretches for nine kilometers and connects roads towards Alabang, Muntinlupa, and Las Piñas, will include added amenities from its leasing tenants such as a carwash bay area, food store outlets, and motorcycle stores.

Providing more value to its patrons is one of Cleanfuel’s best offerings and the VIP Rewards card (which is being offered free in all branches) can make the most out of every top-up as customers earn points; redeem exciting items, and discounts from its establishment partners.

“This is such an important occasion for us as we open our first branch in one of the busiest commercial district in the South. We’re excited to provide motorists a new level of

CLEAN CUT. The oil company’s mascot poses beside a toy car within the well-manicured premier station in Las Pinas.

customer service, quality f uel, and world class facilities,” said lawyer Jesus “Bong” Suntay, president of Cleanfuel Group of Companies.

Suntay explained,;“With businesses slowly opening up and our economy recovers, we at Cleanfuel, through our continuously-growing station-network will be ready to provide the most competitive pricing in the market to help motorists. Our vision is to help our customers maximize their earnings by providing quality fuel at the lowest price possible.”

While the threat of the pandemic is still within the horizon, Cleanfuel customers can expect the same safe and riskfree environment as its workforce continuously upholds safety health precautions like wearing face masks and face shields, thermal scanning of personnel, social distancing, disinfection of workstations, and hand washing. Cashless payments are also made available.

Nissan EV360:

Flagship EV hub unveiled NISSAN has unveiled a £1 billion flagship Electric Vehicle Hub creating a world-first EV manufacturing ecosystem.

Centered around the record-breaking plant in Sunderland, UK, Nissan EV36Zero will supercharge the company’s drive to carbon neutrality and establish a new 360-degree solution for zero-emission motoring.

The transformational project has been launched with an initial £1b investment by Nissan and its partners Envision AESC, a global player in world-leading battery technology, and Sunderland City Council.

Comprised of three interconnected initiatives, Nissan EV36Zero brings together electric vehicles, renewable energy and battery production, setting a blueprint for the future of the automotive industry. Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer, Makoto Uchida said: “This project comes as part of Nissan’s pioneering efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the entire lifecycle of our products. Our comprehensive approach includes not only the development and production of EVs, but also the use of on-board batteries as energy storage and their reuse for secondary purposes. “Our announcement today comes out of lengthy discussions held within our teams, and will greatly accelerate our efforts in Europe to achieve carbon neutrality. The experience and know-how gained through the project announced today will be shared globally, enhancing Nissan’s global competitiveness. “Nissan will continue to leverage its strengths in electrification to become a company that continues to provide value to its customers

and society.” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Nissan’s announcement to build its newgeneration all-electric vehicle in Sunderland, alongside a new gigafactory from EnvisionAESC, is a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly-skilled workers in the North East. “Building on over 30 years of history in the area, this is a pivotal moment in our electric vehicle revolution and securing its future for decades to come.

“Commitments like these exemplify our ability to create hundreds of green jobs and boost British industry, whilst also allowing people to travel in an affordable and sustainable way so we can eliminate our contributions to climate change.” Unveiling Nissan EV36Zero at the Sunderland Planty, Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer, Ashwani Gupta, said: “This is a landmark day for Nissan, our partners, the UK and the automotive industry as a whole. Nissan EV36Zero will transform the idea of what is possible for our industry and set a roadmap for the future for all. “We reached a new frontier with the Nissan LEAF, the world’s first mass-market allelectric vehicle. Now, with our partners, Nissan will pioneer the next phase of the automotive industry as we accelerate towards full electrification and carbon neutrality.” Building on Nissan’s historic 35 years of manufacturing excellence in Sunderland, the projects announced today represent 6,200 jobs at Nissan and its UK suppliers, including more than 900 new Nissan jobs and 750 new Envision AESC jobs at its new smart, lowcarbon battery plant. Longerterm, the transformational project modernizes and expands Nissan’s EV production capability in the UK.