Manila Standard - 2023 January 26 - Thursday

2 PAF pilots die in Bataan crash, plane with 6 on board missing

By Joel E. Zurbano

TWO Philippine Air Force aviators were killed in a crash Wednesday, while rescuers were searching for another plane that went missing the previous day with 6 people on board, authorities said.

During a training exercise, the military’s SF260 Marchetti plane plummeted onto a rice paddy in Pilar town near Manila, killing the pilot and another aviator, Bataan province’s police chief Col. Romell Velasco said.

“It’s a total wreck. The wings were Next page

High operation cost main trigger of egg price spike

LOCAL egg producers on Wednesday reiterated their reasons for raising prices a day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. questioned why prices for the commodity have surged despite ample supply in the market.

Increasing transport and fuel costs

and losses due to overproduction and avian influenza or bird flu are among those reasons, Philippine Egg Board Chairman Gregorio San Diego said after Mr. Marcos sought an explanation for the “wide gap” between the farmgate and retail prices of eggs.

WHO chief worried over COVID deaths

By Willie Casas

THE World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday expressed concern over the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said more than 170,000 people died from COVID-19 in the past eight weeks, and said the actual number could be much higher.

“I remain very concerned by the situation in many countries and the rising number of deaths,” he said. “While we are clearly in better shape than three years ago when this pandemic first hit, the global collective response is once again under strain.”

Dolly de Leon fails bid in Oscars nominee list

By Nickie Wang

IT WAS a record-setting year for Asian actors in the Academy Awards – also known as the Oscars – with Chinese-American Michelle Yeoh and the sci-fi hit Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the nominations. But film critics were surprised when Filipina actress Dolly de Leon, who exhibited a powerful performance in Triangle of Sadness, failed to become one of the five main contenders for the best supporting actress race.

Triangle of Sadness is up for the coveted best picture and original screenplay awards. It is a satirical black comedy film written and directed by Ruben Östlund who scored the best director nomination for his English-language feature film debut.

“Those who get eggs from the farm, especially if the farm is far away, of course oil prices have increased, same with other expenses like the toll fees also have an impact. During transport, if some eggs break, I think that

By Maricel V. Cruz and Othel V. Campos

ONION prices which recently shot up to more than P600 per kilo are expected to drop to P100 to P150 a kilo with the importation of more than 5,000 metric tons (MT) of the commodity, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Wednesday.

In a statement, the Palace said the DA has deferred the extension of the P250 suggested retail price (SRP) for red onions due to the forecasted lower price range following the harvest season.

Meanwhile, a DA official came under fire at a congressional hearing when he was unable to explain whether a cartel in the local onion industry was behind the high prices.

At a hearing of the House committee on agriculture and food, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo admonished Bureau of Plant Industry Director Glenn Panganiban, who balked at saying whether such

a cartel existed.

“Director, do you believe that there is a cartel in this industry?” Quimbo asked the director of the bureau, an attached agency of the DA.

“Ma’am, I can’t say if there’s a cartel, but it seems that it seems that aside from production and importation, there’s something else that is exerting some kind of control,” he replied, also in Filipino. “I don’t know if that’s the word you call it, madame.”

Quimbo, senior vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations,

Ex-PSG chief, 6 soldiers tagged in Yvonette Plaza killing

POLICE on Wednesday tagged Army Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III as the mastermind in the killing of businesswoman Yvonette Plaza last December.

The Special Investigation Task Force Plaza, which held a press conference in Davao City, identified six more soldiers as suspects in the killing.

Region XI Police chief Brig. Gen. Benjamin Silo said the killing was a “crime of passion,” as Durante – a former head of the Presidential Security Group -- was reported to be in a relationship with Plaza, whom he said was only a “friend.”

Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said Durante, who led the PSG under President Rodrigo Duterte, has been relieved as commander of the 1001st Brigade “to give way to an impartial and thorough investigation.

“The Philippine Army will not condone any criminal act committed by its personnel,” Brawner said.

“The Army ensures the public that this incident is not service related.”

Durante earlier denied involvement in the killing of Plaza, saying his name was being dragged because of a Facebook post made by Plaza in April last year.

“Yvonne was a friend. My name is being

dragged based on an FB post made last April 2022 wherein I allegedly hurt her. She later retracted the post and issued a statement that I did not in any way harm her,” Durante had said.

Senator links Chinese mafia to human traffic

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SENATOR Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday called for a thorough investigation of Immigration officials, saying the Chinese mafia may have more connections inside the bureau due to the persistent reports of outbound human trafficking of Filipinos forced to work as cryptocurrency scammers.

The senator then called for the overhaul of the Bureau of Immigration “to ensure the protection of every Filipino leaving our borders.”

NEW YEAR’S CALL. Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Acosta (center, seated)

and PAO forensics director Dr. Erwin Erfe (left, seated) visited Manila Standard on Jan. 16, 2023 as part of her media rounds for the start of the year.

Shown in photo are (clockwise) reporter Rio Araja, Manila Standard Publisher Mr. Rolando Estabillo, Webcast Head

Randy Caluag, City Editor Jimbo Gulle, and News Editor Joyce Pañares.

Slain Davao-based businesswoman Yvonette Plaza

Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III

Dolly de Leon

ILL-FATED TRAINING AIRCRAFT. A handout photo from the Bureau of Fire Protection Region III taken and released on January 25, 2023 shows rescuers retrieving a body from a crashed plane in Pilar, Bataan where two Philippine Air Force aviators were killed. AFP / Bureau of Fire Protection Region III

Solons move to guard WPS areas

THE proposed measure aimed at declaring certain areas in the Kalayaan Group of Islands (KGI) in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) as protected areas is now ready for transmission to the House plenary for sponsorship and debate.

This was after the House Committee on Natural Resources approved on Wednesday House Bill No. 6373, which seeks to declare the area 3-nautical miles (around 10 square kilometers) surrounding the KGI and Scarborough Shoal as Marine Protected Areas (MPA) to protect the country’s marine resources.

HB 6373 was authored by Palawan Rep. Edward Hagedorn and sponsored by CIBAC Party-List Rep. Eddie Villanueva.

This developed as Sen. Risa Hontiveros expressed hope that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will not wish for a compromise with China on Ayungin Shoal and instead make a categorical statement on the issue after fresh reports of Filipino fishermen being chased away by the Chinese Coast Guard in the area.

Hontiveros noted that Ayungin Shoal is part of our Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) “with no compromise.”

“That is an exclusive home to the Philippines,” she said. “I hope the President will not surrender one square unit of our territory.”

A compromise, she said, can be made in common areas, but not in the EEZ.

“What compromise is there? Our national interest is at stake here,” she emphasized.

Earlier, Hagedorn thanked House Speaker Martin Romualdez for prioritizing the hearing of his proposed bill.

Hagedorn cited in his proposed measure the Republic Act No. 11038 or the “Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018” and the Arbitral Ruling in seeking to declare the areas as MPA.

According to the bill, local studies showed the 3-nautical mile protected area is preferable as it will give the protected habitat enough and safe space for young marine organisms to grow.

separated,” Velasco said after visiting the crash site.

“No one could survive this,” he said, adding that the bodies have been recovered.

An investigation to determine the cause of the crash is under way, PAF spokesperson Col. Consuelo Castillo told reporters.

Witnesses said they saw the plane descend fast and rash into a rice field at about 10:42 a.m.

Castillo said the ill-fated aircraft was assigned to the 15th Strike Wing, which is based at the Danilo Atienza Air Base in Sangley Point, Cavite.

In line with standard operating procedure, all SF-260TP aircraft in PAF service are grounded while the investigation into the crash is ongoing.

The SF260TP is a highly maneuverable and fully aerobatic basic trainer aircraft of the PAF that serves as a light attack combat aircraft.

It was used during the Marawi siege and various combat missions.

In June 2021, the military temporarily grounded its entire Black Hawk fleet after an S-70i helicopter crashed during a night-time training, killing all six on board.

In a separate incident in the country’s mountainous north, a Cessna 206 plane carrying a pilot and five passengers failed to arrive at Maconacon Airport in Isabela Province Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.

The missing plane had taken off from Cauayan airport on a route that would have taken it across the Sierra Madre mountain range, said Eric Apolonio, spokesperson for the industry regulator.

Air traffic controllers initiated a “communication search” after the plane did not respond half an hour after it was supposed to land, he said in a statement.

The search and rescue operation was temporarily halted by poor weather on Wednesday, he added. With AFP

expressed dismay at her difficulty in getting answers from the DA.

“You’re correct when you said control. The supply is being controlled. That’s why I said earlier that there’s a mystery. The prices are so high and yet, you said that you thought the supply was enough,” she said.

The House committee on agriculture and food conducted the hearing to provide answers on why the price of onions has reached as high as P700 a kilo.

On Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. convened a sectoral meeting where he said the government is carrying out a program aimed at helping onion farmers increase their yield to stabilize the supply and bring down the commodity’s price.

“We’ll do this by increasing the area that is being planted to onions, number one,” President Marcos said.

“And secondly, we will help by – the DA (Department of Agriculture) will help by providing inputs. So the first part of that is we are going to the seed producers so that they will produce good seed that we can give to the farmers at some point,” the President said.

During the Malacañang meeting, the President pointed to the lack of cold chain facilities that affects onion supply and prices.

“We need more cold storage, we need

Villanueva said the bill is only for the protection of the marine environment -- particularly in the Kalayaan Islands, which is situated within the country’s exclusive economic zones -- and nothing about territorial disputes in the WPS.

He said a study by the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute in 2019 found out that coral reefs in Kalayaan Islands – particularly in the Pag-asa Island, Panata Island and Sabina Shoal – were damaged by apparent illegal activities such as blast fishing.

The bill is an operationalization of proposals from local marine experts to declare the Kalayaan Islands as MPAs to protect the coral reefs therein, Hagedorn said.

A 2014 study by the Asian Development Bank showed that the Kalayaan Islands comprise 30 percent of the country’s total coral reefs and serve as breeding ground of fishes and marine species in the country.

“Fishes and marine life breed in the coral reefs of Kalayaan Islands and the eggs and fingerlings are carried by sea currents to other parts of the country’s

a better, stronger cold chain so that we can maintain and preserve agricultural products,” Marcos said.

“So that’s the plan. That’s what we will do to address the rising prices of agricultural products,” he added in a mix of Filipino and English.

The DA’s 2022 supply and demand outlook data indicated that the country had a 120 percent sufficiency level with 312,830 MT of onions. Per capita consumption for onion is at 2.341 kg a year according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, with an estimated demand of 21,000 MT per month.

As of Dec. 15 last year, the total stock inventory of locally produced red onions in cold storage nationwide was at 2,209.45 MT. There were no stocks of yellow onions and imported red onions in cold storage.

To provide more affordable onions, state-run Kadiwa stores offered native red and white onions for P170 a kilo, with each customer being allowed to buy a maximum of three kilos.

The DA on Jan. 10, announced the importation of about 22,000 MT of onions to address high prices and supply shortage.

Also on Wednesday, Trade and Industry Secretary Fred Pacual called a meeting of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) that he heads, to discuss measures to mitigate the effects of the rising prices of onions and to improve its supply.

Under Republic Act No. 7581 (RA7581), or the Price Act, as amended,

trafficked Filipinos still in Cambodia and Myanmar, the BI, as our last line of defense against trafficking, clearly has some shaping up to do,” the senator said.

Amid reports that many Immigration officials were already dismissed from the service, the recruitment of Filipinos to engage in scamming has been continuing, Hontiveros said.

“Does the syndicate have contacts inside BI? Why is it this would not stop?” she asked during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality.

“I had already urged a BI overhaul in the wake of the ‘pastillas scam’ investigation two years ago, but nothing seems to have changed. With the volume of

The BI must “regroup and repair the entirety of their agency,” Hontiveros added.

The senator said the Immigration Modernization bill must also be revisited to enhance the efficacy of the bureau through salary grade increases and immigration system updates, among others.

During the hearing, one witness, alias “Ron” -- one of the Filipinos trafficked to Cambodia -- said that his Chinese employers coerced him to recruit other

tion,” Ghebreyesus said.

seascapes where they thrive, grow, and are eventually caught by fishermen,” the CIBAC solon said in his sponsorship speech.

“Coral reefs are the breeding ground or the “nursery” of marine life. If reefs are destroyed, we nip marine life at its bud. Thus, to allow the destruction of the coral reefs in Kalayaan Islands will adversely impact fish production in the country and in several adjacent countries,” Villanueva said.

The bill will prohibit and penalize certain acts and activities within the waters of the 3-nautical mile area to guarantee protection of marine habitat.

Villanueva, however, said it will still allow traditional fishing as it is considered generally harmless to the marine ecosystem.

The bill will also create a Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal Protected Area Management Office (KIGSS-PAMO) and a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee to ensure effective implementation of the provisions of the proposed measure. Macon Ramos-Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz

the Department of Agriculture (DA) has jurisdiction over agricultural basic necessities and prime commodities (BNPCs) such as rice, corn, cooking oil, and all agricultural and other marine products, fresh eggs, fresh pork, beef and poultry meat, fresh milk, fresh vegetables, root crops, sugar, fresh fruits, onion, garlic, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, poultry, swine and cattle feeds, among others.

“Given this crucial situation, we are to deliver immediate results to temper the prices of goods and ensure the availability of affordable basic necessities and prime commodities for consumers. We must tap other agencies who can be our allies in this endeavor”, Pascual told members of the council.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), as one of the implementing agencies of the Price Act, has been assisting the DA in monitoring prices of some agricultural products.

Upon the publication of the suggested retail price (SRP) for red onions, Pascual deployed price monitoring teams across the country to check its prices and supply in wet markets and supermarkets.

The DTI said it is committed to assist DA in ensuring the availability of affordable red onions in the market and to stabilize market prices.

The DTI also reminded retailers and business establishments to observe the price freeze protocol in areas still in a state of calamity, particularly in regions affected by incessant and heavy rains.

Filipinos to work for the crypto scam operations.

Ron shared that their head of recruitment, a certain Rachel Almendra Luna, has contacts with immigration officers at the Clark airport in Pampanga.

Luna, according to Ron, said they gave money to an immigration officer for Filipinos to be able to leave the country, but did not divulge the name of the BI official.

Rom also revealed that all his employers’ recruitment happens on Facebook groups. They would post job ads that call on Filipinos to apply for a customer service agent job in Cambodia, promising a salary of at least $600 (P30,000) per month.

ble diseases, a trend that was observable before the onset of the pandemic.

is factored in, too,” San Diego said in Filipino in a television interview.

Egg producers previously said the rise in feed prices as well as bird flu culling have caused a drop in egg production.

Asked if egg prices may increase further, San Diego said: “That depends on the economy. That’s because we can’t store eggs, because they will rot. So, prices will only increase up to the level that people can buy them.”

Several egg producers with limited capital suspended their operations after suffering losses due to overproduction last year, San Diego also noted, as inventory exceeded the demand even as fuel and feed prices climbed.

“If we overproduce, we lose a lot of money... So a lot of farms, small and medium producers stopped their operation, the big ones reduced their volume,” San Diego told ANC.

“Those who don’t have capital are now scared to invest. First is there’s a disease going on, second is the (feed) prices,” he said. “They don’t want to go into (the poultry) business anymore, while others are wait and see if the situation will stabilize before diving in again.”

San Diego said there is a vaccine against bird flu but it needs to be approved by the Department of Agriculture, after which the agency would recommend the vaccine be imported.

He said the DA should also produce data to help match the egg production with the demand.

“The problem here really is there is no data. We have been asking the Department of Agriculture to do a database on chicken, eggs, because our production is not matching the demand,” the Egg Board chief added.

Mr. Marcos, who also heads the DA as its concurrent secretary, issued the order to Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban during a Cabinet meeting.

“We determined that the increase in the price of eggs is not commensurate to the increase in production cost,” the President said.

“So, we will have to have a look to see how to control that because we cannot explain almost one-half of the profit margin that we are seeing. We cannot attribute it to cost,” Mr. Marcos said.

Based on the DA’s price watch as of Jan. 13, medium-sized eggs retail at P9 each, compared to P6.90 in December 2022.

The DA said eggs should just retail between P7 and P7.50 per piece, given its farm gate prices. Reports show that eggs are being sold as high as P9.60 per piece.

To address the situation, the DA earlier reconvened the Price and Volume Watch Committee and Advisory Groups for Livestock and Poultry to closely watch the prices of eggs across the country.

The film, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May last year, follows the story of a cruise for the super-rich. The luxury yacht sinks, leaving survivors, including a fashion model, a celebrity couple, and some members of the crew, trapped on an island.

De Leon plays the soft-spoken Abigail, a cleaner and “toilet manager” from the yacht. In the turn of events, Abigail who works for powerful, rich people –who underestimate and overlook her –becomes the key to their survival.

The 55-year-old film, television, and theater actress has not issued any statement regarding her exclusion in the best supporting actress category but she took to Instagram to share the nods Triangle of Sadness got from the 95th edition of the annual film event.

As soon as the nominations were announced, De Leon trended on Twitter with film critics and international media tagging the omission of the Filipina actress as one of the “biggest snubs” in this year’s Oscar nominations.

Ghebreyesus said “too few people – especially older people and health workers – are adequately vaccinated.”

Surveillance and genetic systems have also declined drastically, which poses a challenge in terms of tracking the virus and detecting new variants.

“Fragile health systems are struggling to cope with the burden of COVID-19, on top of caring for patients with other diseases including flu and RSV,” he said.

The WHO also said that misinformation and “pseudo-science” continue to spread, affecting public trust in safe and effective tools that can be used against the disease.

“My message is clear – do not underestimate this virus. It has and will continue to surprise us and it will continue to kill, unless we do more to get health tools to people that need them and to comprehensively tackle misinforma-

Despite the WHO warning, the Department of Health (DOH) welcomed a recent report showing that COVID-19 had a “significant” drop among the top causes of death among Filipinos in 2022.

The Philippine Statistics Office (PSA) said COVID-19 was in the 11th spot of the leading causes of death in the Philippines, with lifestyle-related diseases such as heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes topped the list.

During the height of the pandemic in 2021, COVID-19 was in third spot, said DOH officer-in-charge Ma. Rosario Vergeire.

She said this was an indicator that the country’s health care system managed to prevent further deaths from the coronavirus.

Increased immunity has kept the country’s health care utilization rates low and deaths due to the COVID-19 manageable, Vergeire said.

Vergeire said all five top causes of death in the Philippines were non-communica-

Because of this, Vergeire said the DOH is now strengthening its programs promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyles.

Meanwhile, the DOH said the Office of the President (OP) has not given any response to its proposal to extend the state of calamity in the Philippines due to COVID-19.

Earlier, Vergeire said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was hesitant to prolong the state of calamity, which ended on Dec. 31, 2022.

“No categorical and no official response to this request for the extension of the state of calamity. But indirectly, the President already has verbalized in one of his media outings that he is very hesitant to extend the state of calamity,” Vergeire said during a press briefing.

Before the year 2022 ended, Vergeire said the DOH submitted a memorandum to the OP, recommending a further extension of the state of calamity in the country.

On Dec. 23, the DOH and other government agencies met to discuss the im-

“I am deeply saddened by her demise and condole with her family and friends. I, myself, demand justice for Yvonne,” he added.

Plaza was found bloodied and lifeless outside her residence on December 28, 2022.

A screenshot of CCTV footage showed one of the suspects pointing a gun at her while the other was waiting on their getaway motorcycle.

plications and options that the government can take if the state of calamity is not extended, she said.

But in December, Marcos said he was not keen to prolong the state of calamity, adding that it was the “wrong mindset” with which to welcome the New Year.

The DOH has therefore begun exploring alternatives to continue the COVID-19 response even without the state of calamity.

Vergeire said the government can still continue with its vaccination program because vaccines with emergency use authorization (EUA) are granted a one year validity after the ceasing of the state of calamity.

Vergeire said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) is set to meet on Feb. 1 to discuss the decoupling of the restrictions from the alert levels.

Last year, Malacañang said Marcos was seeking the reclassification of restrictions which would be more compatible with the current milder strains of the coronavirus.

Police sergeant faces dismissal for alleged link to illegal drugs

THE internal cleansing process at the Philippine National Police (PNP) continues to grind, and another police officer allegedly linked to drug trafficking is about to lose his job, along with his economic benefits, eligibility, and right to work in the government in any capacity.

The PNP Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS) recommended last Jan. 9 the summary dismissal of MSgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., a member of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group Special Operations Unit in the National Capital Region.

Mayo was arrested in an operation that yielded P6.7 billion worth of shabu in Manila in October last year.

IAS Inspector General Alfegar Triambulo said they have submitted to the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management the recommendation to dismiss Mayo.

“It is now upon the discretion of the Chief PNP (Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr.), whether he will uphold or reverse the decision. We respect that,” Triambulo told reporters.

He said Mayo’s benefits would be forfeited, his eligibility will be revoked and he will be perpetually disqualified from holding any other government posts once he is dismissed from the service.

PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said he has yet to read the IAS recommendation to dismiss Mayo.

Comelec eyes poll booths in shopping malls for BSKE

THERE is a big possibility that voters can do their shopping and, at the same time, cast their ballots in the forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chief George Garcia said mall operators appeared receptive to the idea of setting up polling booths in their shopping centers during the BSKE.

“Patuloy po at napakainit talaga ng pagtanggap po ng mga mall sa atin pong idea na yan, sapagkat sa kasalukuyan po ay binibigyan din po niya tayo ng mga espasyo para sa ating satellite registration registration anywhere project,” Garcia said in a TeleRadyo interview.

Commissioner Garcia clarified however, that only residents of communities close to the shopping malls might be allowed to vote at the business facilities as provided by law.

“Ang nakalagay lamang po, kinakailangan yung kung saan sila boboto, ay doon sa kung saan yung pinakamalapit sa lahat,” he noted.

“So ang gagawin po namin, kung ano yung mga presinto o barangays na nandoon mismo sa vicinity ng mall, yun po yung aming ilalagay na, o ililipat ng botohan sa mall, so meaning to say wala pong mava-violate na batas sapagkat ang tawag po dito ay transfer lang of polling place,” he explained.

Garcia hinted at pilot testing the scheme during the BSKE in Metro Manila.

He also cited the inherent advantage of security for the voters since the shopping malls already have their respective security forces, not to mention the cost-

MMDA-TWG set to present single ticketing code to MMC on Feb. 1st

efficient factor of the setup.

“At the same time, mas mabibigyan tayo ng malawak na espasyo at mas masisigurado ang seguridad ng mga kababayan natin habang bumoboto,” he explained.

Garcia also lauded the mall operators for providing spaces to serve as satellite registration centers of the voters under the Comelec’s Register Anywhere Project.

Garcia said mall voting is not expected to cost more on the part of the Comelec.

He noted that malls may be willing to provide voting spaces for free in exchange for the foot traffic that elections will bring.

“Kahit paano, siguradong-sigurado naman, na yung ating mga kababayan kapagka pumupunta dyan katulad din kapagka pumupunta sa mga paaralan, maaaring mag-softdrinks man lang o uminom, siyempre kahit papaano, ang iba dyan nagwi-window shopping pag katapos bumoto,” he said.

Member of ‘notorious’ drug ring falls in Taguig police raid

THE Taguig City Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of an alleged member of a “notorious” drug syndicate.

The local government of Taguig commended the local police force for the arrest of Bernardo Tinga, reputedly a member of the Tinga drug syndicate.

In a statement, Taguig police chief Col. Robert Baesa said Tinga, 56, was apprehended in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Ususan, Taguig City last Jan. 20.

Operatives of the Taguig Police

substation-4 conducted the raid by virtue of a search warrant issued by Taguig City Regional Trial Court Branch 15-FC Judge Byron San Pedro.

A search on Tinga reportedly yielded some P95,000 worth of shabu, an unlicensed .45 caliber pistol, six .45 caliber ammunition and an empty .45 caliber magazine.

Police said Tiñga has a standing arrest warrant on drug charges issued by the Taguig City Regional Trial

Court Branch 15.

“Taguig has a very strong antiillegal drugs stance. In fact, Mayor Lani Cayetano herself has a marching order for the city to be rid of these illegal substances. We assure the public that the Taguig police will not rest until we achieve this goal,” Baesa said.

The city police force has been credited for arresting members of the Tiñga drug ring and other high-value drug targets. Joel Zurbano s

THE planned single ticketing system being spearheaded by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has moved another step closer to implementation after a technical working group (TWG) doing the spadework on the project approved the final draft of the implementing rules called Metro Manila Traffic Code.

MMDA chair Romando Artes said the TWG would present the final draft of the code on Feb. 1 to the Metro Manila Council (MMC) consisting of 17 mayors in the National Capital Region (NCR) and currently headed by San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora.

“We will present this to the MMC on February 1. Once it is approved, each council of the 17 LGUs will pass an ordinance adopting this Metro Manila Traffic Code. This can be implemented after publication,” Artes said.

He added that they were looking to implement it in the first quarter of 2023.

“So we are looking at the first quarter if it can be implemented. Although, the interconnectivity between LTO (Land Transportation Office and LGUs (local government units), we are hoping to immediately procure the ICT equipment for the said interconnectivity,” Artes said.

“I think we are still on track with its full implementation including interconnectivity within the first quarter of this year,” he added.

The project proponents said under the single ticketing system, it would be easier for traffic violators in Metro Manila to settle the penalties through Bayad Centers or through mobile apps.

THE president, justifying his staying on as agriculture secretary, said: “For me in the DA, there really are things that I can do that it would take (another) a long time.”

“The president, they cannot say no to. And if they don’t fulfill my order, I can chastise them,” he continued.

Very true, Mr. President.

That is the reason why most of us supported your taking over the agriculture portfolio, knowing how troubled the agency is, and how imperiled the food security of the nation is.

Because you are the agriculture secretary, both the DBCC and Congress gave in, almost without question, to the hefty increase in the budget of the Department of Agriculture.

And because you are president and concurrent agriculture secretary, both your free market economic advisers recommended, and your Congress approved an outlay of P184.1 billion for 2023.

This was an almost 40 percent increase year-on-year over the 2022 budget.

To be fair, policymakers saw merit in William Dar’s ministrations for a bigger budget, because there were valid reasons; there were doable directions. They gave DA P132 billion for 2022, and P102.1 for 2021.

They “starved” Manny Pinol in 2020 at P64.7 billion, and P49.7 billion in 2019. It was even lower during PNoy’s DA secretary Procy Alcala’s tenure. Ask your economic managers why. Some of them served both PNoy and Duterte.

But is the owner of the corporation that sold the laptops untouchable?

As I understand, Willy Dar asked for a certain amount for cold chain facilities, both for fisheries and soilbased products like vegetables and onions. Has the DA implemented these in 2022?

Yes, Mr. President, you are correct -- in theory. Nobody says “no” to the agriculture secretary who is also the president of the land, more especially someone with an electoral mandate as huge as yours.

The question is whether your subalterns, from undersecretary to the more knowledgeable assistant secretaries, to the regional directors and bureau heads, are talking.

Do they report the realities on the ground that they should be doing? Do they report to your 83-year old OIC/ Senior USec, the highly experienced Doming Panganiban?

And, also, are those realities reported actual, or are they “manufactured” data?

Sometime in the past, a performance audit showed the NIA reported great performance, having completed thousands of kilometers of irrigation canals dug.

But when field audits were done, many of these ribbons of canals had no source of water.

Naghihintay ng ulan. Canal nga naman. The report is good on paper, until you see the reality on the ground.

A brash Benny Antiporda saw the problems, but he was thrashed by the

By Ambassador Albert del Rosario

LAST week on January 19, 2023, during his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. remarked the South China Sea Dispute “keeps you up at night, keeps you up most of the time…It’s very dynamic, it’s constantly in flux so you have to pay attention to it.”

On the other hand, on January 9, 2023, the Philippine Coast Guard reported a Chinese Coast Guard vessel drove away a Filipino fishing boat at Ayungin Shoal, despite the “agreement” earlier mentioned by President Marcos, Jr. “that China will not stop our fishermen from fishing.”

As chief protector of our national territory, we are thankful that the challenges to our country’s sovereignty and sovereign rights are foremost in the mind of our President.

Ombudsman, later the Office of the President, for conduct unbecoming over a bureaucracy riddled with the ineffectively corrupt.

Are the president’s executives in the sprawling, multi-tasked department now silenced, paralyzed even, after the Leocadio Syndrome?

No decisions are made; nothing acted on fast; no urgent recommendations sent, “baka ma-Sebastian na naman.”

In fairness, Mr. President, you have done your most important task as agriculture secretary -- there is an ample budget for 2023.

If you were not the DA secretary, your economic managers would have been niggardly in allocating a hefty increase for agriculture, preferring to import cheaper produce to satisfy the consumers.

But with your multifarious and no less urgent tasks dealing with other national issues, can you preside over the speedy and proper implementation of those funds?

Or will they go again to useless farmto-pocket roads, irrigation systems where the end of the line has no water, made-in-a-neighboring country machineries and equipment that conk out after a few months of use, seeds that do not germinate well enough, etc., etc., etc?

And pardon our impertinence, may we ask who have been rightly “chastised”?

The last time someone was chastised was when Leocadio and the SRA officials were fed to the lions. It turns out they were right all along, and acted with urgency.

Will there be a second coming for the upright and knowledgeable Leo Sebastian?

***

The Blue Ribbon Committee, after several hearings where layers and layers of layered conspiracy were uncovered in the PS-DBM cum DepEd’s overpriced and underspecified purchase of laptops, finally came up with its findings and recommendations.

Systems-wise, it recommends the abolition of the Procurement Service division of the Department of Budget and Management.

That may or may not be a good idea, because while theoretically, bulk purchases of commonly-used items are cost-efficient, it is in the practice by the PS-DBM where anomalies can be done.

When there was a General Services Department and budgeting was just an office under the Office of the President prior to martial law, and we had officials like the late Vicente Duterte and Constancio Castaneda, and Faustino Sychangco doing the numbers of the budget, there were hardly any scandals.

The Blue Ribbon Committee also recommended the prosecution of officials of PS-DBM and DepEd.

But pray tell us, what about the supplier/s who obviously conspired with the government bureaucrats?

If, as the Blue Ribbon report concluded, there was malfeasance, implying therefore bribery of government officials, who bribed them?

Obviously the seller.

But is the owner of the corporation that sold the laptops untouchable?

EDITORIAL

Dexterous digits at DepEd/DBM

interest and damages.

If the Senate Blue Ribbon committee is to be believed, these officials worked furiously in front of their computers crunching the numbers and figuring out how to cover their tracks and laugh all the way to the bank when no one was looking.

The Senate probe focused on the alleged overprice by at least P979 million—that’s nearly P1 billion— of laptop computers supposed to be distributed to public school teachers for online instruction at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It turns out the purchased laptops were of inferior quality as they were underpowered and too slow to be of any use for online teaching.

And instead of a certain number of teachers given the laptops, only about half of the supposed thousands of recipients of the teaching tool actually got what were really next-to-useless laptops.

The Senate committee said the former DepEd and PS-DBM officials should be charged for violating Sections 3(e) and 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

DepEd is supposed to instill honesty and good conduct in the youth of the land

The charges against them include— hold your breath—falsification of public documents, multiple counts of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and multiple counts of perjury.

The Senate panel also recommended the Commission on Audit issue notices of disallowance for the overpriced laptops against three of the officials.

The report also recommended the filing of complaints against the DepEd and DBM officials involved in the procurement of the laptops to collect and recover the excess amount, including

Meanwhile, the committee absolved former Education Secretary Leonor Briones as chairperson Francis Tolentino said she was just “used” by one of her undersecretaries who was found to have “cleverly disguised the reduced number of units by breaking the number down in lots without providing a total, and stated the aggregate estimated cost, without specifying the increased unit cost.”

This, the report said, “was clearly a ploy to downplay the adjustments which would have alerted Secretary Briones to direct a full review of the supporting documents, seek further advice, and/or withhold approval.”

Aside from charges, the Senate panel also recommended the P979 million that should be recovered be placed in a special National Teachers Trust Fund to support the health and medical needs of public school teachers and the educational needs of their children.

The committee also wants the PS-DBM to be abolished and for amendments to be made to the anti-graft law.

DepEd is supposed to instill honesty and good conduct in the youth of the land.

But some of its officials appeared to have surreptitiously colluded with the DBM to steal nearly P1 billion from the national treasury. They should be made to face the full force of the law.

Onions and the Department of Agriculture

The problem, however, is it increased the production cost of salt making.

There is now an effort in Congress to amend this law to spur salt production in the country and bring it back to where it was before the passage of RA 8172 in order that the importation of salt will stop.

As I have written in a previous article, this problem has become more of an intelligence and a law enforcement problem because it involves the identification and arrest of smugglers, unscrupulous middlemen, price manipulators and corrupt government officials in cahoots with them.

WITH the price of a kilo of onions still extremely high, the price of eggs per kilo is now about 60 percent higher.

This is demonstrating the total inability of the DA to anticipate this problems or do something about them.

With all these problems, how can PBBM fully convince prospective investors the country is the next best thing when it comes to investment opportunities when we are currently gripped with an apparent unsolvable onion problem?

Those responsible for this mess, whether they are smugglers or corrupt government officials, are running circles around the DA.

Now, we can add another dubious distinction to the many we already have of having the most expensive onion in the world.

If this were Japan, those DA officials responsible for all these problems should have resigned or have committed seppuku or hara-kiri.

For all intents and purposes, the DA has completely lost its credibility with the public. After onions and eggs, what is next?

Salt apparently is the next commodity that will increase in price if the government fails to do something about the current state of the salt industry.

Salt production in the country has gone down tremendously because of high production costs.

From about 240,000 tons of salt in the 1970s, this is now down to about 25,000 tons a year.

The reason being given is RA 8172 or the iodized salt law of 1995.

This law mandates all salts produced in the country must be iodized as a measure to solve the prevalence of goiter among Filipinos.

In effect, RA 8172 was passed as a health measure.

The inability of the DA to do anything to stop the smuggling of onions and other agricultural products flooding the country is only showing how difficult it is to market the country as an investment hub.

If we cannot solve this onion problem which is not even our staple food, how can we be expected to solve more complex problems?

Sometimes, it is shocking to know there are people willing to inflict irreparable damage on the country’s environment for 30 pieces of silver

Would the DA even know how many metric tons of onions are being produced in the whole country and which provinces are producing them?

Perhaps it’s time DA did what the PNP had done: ask for the courtesy resignation of senior DA officials.

After all, if this cleansing solution can be done to the PNP, it can also be done to the DA.

Smuggling of agricultural products is a curse in the DA.

Every administration has tried solving the smuggling of rice, sugar and other agricultural products.

Perhaps when there is big money to be made, it is not really that hard to recruit willing participants.

Most important of all is the political will to do it.

One example--although not involving the DA – is the aborted transport of nickel ore mined from Zambales.

The report mentioned millions exchanging hands between a Chinese company and certain government officials for clearance to transport about 240,000 tons of nickel ore. Even without deeper investigations, it is apparent this could not have been done without the involvement of people from several government agencies.

Good thing everything was not ironed out and someone made a report that eventually stopped the departure of the ship containing the ore. And this is just one illegal operation that was stopped.

Were there previous shipments allowed? How many more such operations go on every day without the public knowing about them?

At least one outcome of this sordid episode resulted is the reported resignation of the DENR Region 3 Director and is now public knowledge.

This should be investigated thoroughly to unravel and identify those involved. I suspect that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sometimes, it is shocking to know there are people willing to inflict irreparable damage on the country’s environment for 30 pieces of silver.

There are reports that some mountains in Zambales have already been so degraded because of mining.

This only goes to show there are problems that need PBMM’s full attention.

With due respect to him, he should consider appointing a permanent DA Secretary at the soonest possible time.

It will undoubtedly make his job of marketing the country in the international community easier if all the shenanigans in the government bureaucracy are eliminated first or reduced tremendously.

The clear path to resolve the SCS dispute

We understand the South China Sea Dispute may be a complex and dynamic set of issues, politically, economically and diplomatically.

However, there is one anchor that will bring much clarity to this dispute, and that is the Rule of Law.

Without the Rule of Law as an anchor, one can get lost in the sea of countless interests and pressures from various individuals, groups and states.

One can be accused of treason by making the wrong choice that prejudices national interest.

By faithfully abiding by the Rule of Law, Mr. President, you can only do right because a choice pursuant to the Rule of Law is supported by your people, the international community and advances our national interest.

In the South China Sea Dispute, the Rule of Law is embodied in the 2016 Arbitral

Award won by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In this regard, the President is correct when he also said in Davos that “We have no conflicting claims with China” in terms of our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea, given that the UNCLOS Award already settled that the West Philippine Sea exclusively belongs to Filipinos.

Nonetheless, China is persisting in its illegal claim in our waters, like a thief who was already ordered by a court to return the

stolen property to the owner. Thus, the action to be undertaken at this point is the enforcement of the UNCLOS Award.

Among the ways to enforce the UNCLOS Award are: consistently raising the Award at the United Nations General Assembly and other international fora; engaging in joint patrols and military exercises in our waters and further consolidating the support of countries which believe in the UNCLOS Award and the Rule of Law; making China accountable for the environmental crimes it

committed in the West Philippine Sea; and building a minimum credible defense posture to protect our national territory.

Keeping faith in the Rule of Law allows us to treat each other fairly and in the spirit of sovereign equality.

It provides the rules with which nations can relate and work together. It reduces arbitrariness and unilateralism.

Fidelity to the Rule of Law allows us not only the means to resolve differences, but also the substance on which to build better understanding to resolve disputes such as those in the South China Sea.

Follow the Rule of Law, Mr. President. You can be sure that the Filipinos will be with you.

(ADR IS Chair, Stratbase ADR Institute; Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs; and Former Philippine Ambassador to the United States).

YOU can’t say certain officials of the Department of Education and the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) during the previous administration spent their working hours twiddling their thumbs for want of anything to do.

Keeping faith in the Rule of Law allows us to treat each other fairly and in the spirit of sovereign equality

Gov’t lifts OFW deployment ban in India

THE Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has lifted the country’s deployment ban on overseas migrant workers in India and the processing of both new hires and rehires may proceed.

Based on the Advisory No. 2 series of 2023 dated Jan. 19 signed by Undersecretary Bernard Olalia, the DMW sought the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) based on the numerous requests for consideration from concerned workers.

The advisory said that based on the DMW’s request, the DFA provided the following as bases to consider the appeals.

First, India has passed labor and social laws protecting workers’ rights that include migrants. Second is that India is a party to core labor conventions; and the third consideration states that “although there is no bilateral labor agreement between the Philippines and India, there is already an ongoing negotiation on providing Filipino migrant workers social security coverage.”

DOJ recommends criminal raps against foreigner over trafficking of POGO workers

By Rey E. Requejo

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended the criminal indictment of a foreigner for the trafficking of other foreigners who were allegedly forced to work as online scammers.

In an 18-page resolution, the DOJ’s panel of prosecutors has found probable cause to indict Chue Thiri Ngone, also known as “Christine Chue Ni Quian” and “Christine,” for qualified trafficking in persons under Section 4(j) in relation to Section 6(c) of Republic Act (RA) No. 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, as amended.

“Trafficking in human beings, if only to emphasize the gravity of its hideousness, is tantamount to modern-day slavery at work. It is a manifestation of one of the most flagrant forms of violence against human beings,” the panel stressed.

The DOJ prosecutors ruled that “all the elements of the offense were established by the acts of one respondent only, Christine.

“As a matter fact, the trafficking offense should be qualified as it is committed in a large scale,” the DOJ prosecutors said.

The panel dismissed the charges against Christine’s co-respondents — Chinese nationals Hu Xian Jie, Sai Sai Kyein, Aeint Shwe Yi Htut, a certain Angeline, and a certain Chinese boss, and the owners, managers and supervisors of MOA Cloudzone Corporation, Oriental Group Company and Shuang Ma Company.

The resolution, which was dated Nov. 15, 2022 but made public on Wednesday, Jan. 25, was issued after a preliminary investigation on the complaint filed by 13 persons who were among 29 foreigners–23 Myanmar nationals

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. promoted his Presidential Security Group Commander, Col. Ramon Zagala, to Brig. General.

Zagala was appointed PSG head in July 4, replacing then outgoing commander, Brig. Gen. Randolph Cabangbang.

In a social media post from the Radio Television Malacañang (RTVM), President Marcos led the donning of rank on Zagala in Malacañan Palace on January 25.

Bgen. Zagala holds a degree in AB Political Science at the De La Salle University in Manila graduating in 1990.

The 52-year-old Army officer was commissioned to the Regular Force on August 9, 1994 and was assigned to different Army units covering Luzon,

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

DEPARTMENT of National Defense (DND) Undersecretary Franco Gacal described as “enormous” the government’s requirements to run the ROTC program which Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has been pushing.

“Let’s say we have about 2,400 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) right now. If you will place four people per HEI to run this mandatory ROTC program, immediately you need about 9,000 to 10,000 people. You need 10,000 military personnel to run this program, for the 2,400 HIEs,” Gacal, during a hearing by the Senate Subcommittee on “Revitalized Reserve Officers Training Act” pushing for the mandatory ROTC, said.

The National Youth Commission (NYC) projected that around 13.9 million Filipinos aged 18-24 will be under the government’s mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Course ( ROTC) by July.

He said this does not also include TESDA and out-of-school youths.

and six Chinese.

The complainants were alleged workers of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and were reportedly rescued by the Philippine National Police AntiKidnapping Group (PNP AKG) on Sept. 27, 2022 in Concorde Village in Paranaque City.

The PNP-AKG’s operation was conducted on a report of kidnap victims, spouses Htet Htet Moe Khaing and Thina Tun, who said that Thina Tun’s sister, Kay Thi Aung Thinn, was being held.

“All of the complaining witnesses aver that they were lured by job opportunities in the Philippines being offered by respondent Christine. Using her Facebook profile as an advertising platform, and the Telegram app to interview applicants, all thirteen (13) complainants were hired by respondent Christine,” the resolution stated.

Visayas and Mindanao, holding various command and staff positions.

The PSG chief has completed various career and specialization courses in the country and abroad such as VIP Protection Course, UN Peacekeeping Operations Pre-Deployment Training, Armor Officer Advanced Course, the Public Affairs Officer Qualifying Course at Fort Meade, Maryland, USA, and Master’s degree in Military and Defense Studies in Australia among others.

BGen. Zagala is a recipient of various awards and commendations in both administrative and combat duties including the Distinguished Service Star, a Gold Cross Medal for gallantry in combat, and Gawad sa Kaunlaran Medal, among other awards and decorations.

Vince Lopez

The DMW said in lifting the deployment ban, processing of employment contracts may proceed provided that these are duly authenticated by the Philippine Embassy in India.

However, the advisory clarifies that the lifting of the deployment ban does not include household service workers until India is fully certified as a compliant country under Republic Act 8402

or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as amended by Republic Act 10022.

The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait meanwhile is working on the release of Jullebee Cabilis Ranara’s remains, which were found charred with the victim’s skull smashed in the desert over the weekend.

The burnt corpse recovered by the Kuwaiti police at Salmi, Al-Jarah Governorate on Jan. 21 has been identified as the remains of Ranara, a 35-year-old Filipino national employed as a household service worker in the Gulf state.

In a statement Wednesday, the embassy confirmed that the suspect has also been arrested and detained by the local police.

The embassy said it will coordinate with the Kuwaiti government for the release of the body to be repatriated soon.

“The Embassy and the Filipino community in Kuwait extend their deepest condolences to the family of the late Ms. Ranara as they mourn the loss of their loved one,” it said.

Investigations are ongoing, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior said.

REWARD

INFORMATION MAY BE RELAYED TO: MPD – 0919 995 0976 MPD Warrant Section – 8244 5136 / 8524 7206 NBI 8523 8282

Counsel of the Family 0917 801 8040

Any information provided will be treated with strict confidentiality.

STORYTELLING. Preschoolers listen intently as a student of Bachelor of Culture and Arts Education from the Philippine Normal University (PNU) presents a book storytelling of “Narinig Mo Na Ba Ang Agong?” and “Ako si Dumay Gawid, Hanunuo Mangyan,” during a creative book reading at the Nayong Pilipino Foundation. Danny Pata

CYAN MAGENTA

Pyongyang over ‘respiratory illness’—media

NORTH Korea has ordered a five-day lockdown in the capital over “respiratory illness,” a report said Wednesday, in what appears to be the first citywide restrictions since the country declared victory over COVID-19 in August 2022.

Residents of Pyongyang have been ordered to stay in their homes from Wednesday to Sunday and must submit to multiple temperature checks each day, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported, citing a government notice.

The notice did not mention COVID but said that the illnesses currently spreading in the capital included the common cold, the report said.

The government order comes a day after NK News, citing sources in Pyongyang, reported that people in the city appeared to be stocking up on goods in anticipation of a lockdown.

It is unclear if other areas have imposed similar lockdowns and state media has not announced any new measures.

Experts suggested that North Korea’s

largest city is likely dealing with the reemergence of COVID.

“COVID is disappearing and reappearing depending on the temperature, not just in North Korea but around the world,” said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

The Korean peninsula is currently in the grip of what weather forecasters have described as a Siberian cold snap, with temperatures in Pyongyang dropping as low as -22 degrees Celsius (-7.6 Fahrenheit).

“It was quite premature for North Korea to celebrate its victory over the virus... with the drop in temperature, COVID has re-emerged,” Go told AFP.

“North Korea must have prepared for it to some extent, but it seems that the virus reappeared a little sooner than they thought.”

North Korea’s neighbour and key trading partner China recently abandoned its zero-COVID policies, and battled a wave of infections that overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums. AFP

AFTER CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTINGS

ASIAN Americans were reeling Tuesday after two mass shootings in California targeting members of their community left 18 people dead – with the alleged gunmen in both cases being older men of Asian descent.

The killings came in a span of just 48 hours – so close together that California Governor Gavin Newsom was at a

hospital meeting with victims of the first attack when he was pulled away to be briefed about the second.

“It is said all the time: only in America,” a clearly exasperated Newsom told reporters Tuesday in Half Moon Bay.

“Only in America. Number one in gun ownership. Number one in gun deaths. It’s not even complicated,” he said.

“What the hell is wrong with us, that we allow these weapons of war and large capacity clips out on the streets and sidewalks?”

Another shooting occurred overnight in Washington state, where a gunman

scene.

PERU’S President Dina Boluarte called Tuesday for a “national truce” to end weeks of nationwide unrest, while a major march in the capital calling for her resignation and fresh elections again resulted in violent clashes with police.

Thousands of Peruvians from Andean regions, many in traditional dress, marched in central Lima chanting “Dina assassin,” blaming her for the deaths of 46 people, mainly demonstrators, since protests broke out last month.

The march turned violent Tuesday evening when protesters, some carrying metal shields, threw stones while police responded with tear gas, according to AFP journalists on the

killed three people at a convenience store, in an act police said appeared to be random.

The carnage prompted President Joe Biden to renew calls for Congress to act quickly on an assault weapons ban.

A group of senators on Monday reintroduced a federal assault weapons ban and legislation that would raise the minimum purchase age for assault weapons to 21.

Biden also said he would be dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris to California in the wake of the shootings.

“Our hearts are with the people of

California,” he said, calling the massacres “devastating.”

Investigators were still probing the motives behind the two incidents, which stood out among the scourge of mass shootings in America both for the community impacted – gun violence is usually seen as rare among Asians and Asian Americans – and for the age of the suspects, 67 and 72.

The nonpartisan Violence Project says 79 percent of mass shooters from 1966 to 2020 were under age 45. It says a mere 6.4 percent of mass shooters in that time were Asian. AFP

Multiple people were arrested and several were injured, including two photographers, one with AFP, who were hit by pellets and stones.

Many Peruvians remain angry at the December 7 ouster of then-president Pedro Castillo, who was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Boluarte, the vice president under Castillo, immediately assumed power.

Protests quickly broke out, largely fueled by anger in poor rural regions in the south where inhabitants – mainly Indigenous – felt that Castillo, who has Indigenous roots himself, represented their interests rather than those of the Lima elite.

Demonstrators have kept up weeks of protests and roadblocks and are also demanding the dissolution of Congress and the rewriting of the constitution. AFP

VACCINE skeptics blocking transfusions for life-saving surgeries, Facebook groups inciting violence against doctors and a global search for unvaccinated donors – COVID-19 misinformation has bred a so-called “pure blood” movement.

The movement spins anti-vaccine narratives focused on unfounded claims that receiving blood from people inoculated against the coronavirus “contaminates” the body.

Some have advocated for blood banks that draw from “pure” unvaccinated people, while medics in North America say they have fielded requests from people demanding transfusions from donors who have not received the jab.

In closed social media groups, vaccine skeptics – who brand themselves as “pure bloods” – promote violence against doctors administering coronavirus jabs alongside false claims of mass deaths of vaccinated people.

Taking the hysteria to the next level was the recent high-profile case of a New Zealand couple, who sought to block life-saving heart surgery of their infant on the grounds that any

blood transfused could have come from a vaccinated donor.

Their stance prompted a New Zealand court to take temporary custody of the baby to allow the procedure, but the case became a cause celebre among vaccine skeptics around the world.

“Cases like this spread like wildfire on both fringe and mainstream news sites and then social media, providing attention for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories,” Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, told AFP. AFP

JAPAN’S Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose country is hosting this year’s Group of Seven meeting, said Wednesday he is considering visiting Ukraine, after an invitation from President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Nothing has been decided at this time regarding my visit to Ukraine,” he told parliament.

“I will consider this in light of various circumstances and conditions,” he added, without specifying further.

Tokyo has worked in lockstep with its G7 allies to sanction Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and boost support to Kyiv, even taking the rare step of offering refuge to those fleeing the conflict.

25, 2023. The

opposes civet farms which produce “kopi luwak” or civet coffee by force-feeding coffee beans to civets before recollecting the beans that

While Kishida has spoken to Zelensky several times, they have not met in

JAPAN and South Korea’s coast guards were searching Wednesday for eight crew from a cargo ship that sank between the two countries, after 14 others were rescued.

“A total of 14 have been rescued,” a spokesman for the Japanese coast guard told AFP.

“We don’t know their condition and nationalities yet,” he added, declining to be named.

He said six of the crew had been rescued by South Korea’s coast guard, which was assisting the operation.

Eleven of those rescued so far were “unconscious,” the Jeju Coast Guard told AFP, adding that the rescued crew members were being transported to Japan’s southwestern Nagasaki.

The Jin Tian sent a distress signal late on Tuesday evening from a position around 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of the remote and uninhabited Danjo islands in far southwestern Japan.

Three private ships were in the area and helped pick up several of the stranded crew members, Japan’s coast guard said.

A Japanese coast guard plane and two ships were at the scene, with additional Japanese and South Korean vessels en route, officials from both countries said.

The ship’s captain used a satellite phone to tell South Korean coast guard officials that he and the crew would abandon the sinking ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Jeju Coast Guard said.

Contact with the crew was then lost.

Japan’s government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno confirmed that the country’s coast guard was cooperating with South Korean authorities in the rescue mission. AFP

person. The Ukrainian leader invited his Japanese counterpart to visit during a call on January 6.

The trip would be the first time in the post-war period that a Japanese prime minister has visited a country during an active conflict.

Leaders of other G7 countries –the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Britain -- have met Zelensky in Kyiv or elsewhere, with the exception of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose predecessor met the Ukrainian leader.

She has said she expects to visit Ukraine soon.

Japan will host the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May, and the conflict in Ukraine is expected to be high on the agenda. AFP

WHITE AND GOLD. The grounds of Kinkakuji temple – the Golden Pavilion– are covered with snow in Kyoto on January 25, 2023, after heavy snow and strong winds overnight affected wide areas of the country. AFP

REMEMBRANCE. A woman is comforted while grieving as she reads the names of eleven people killed in a mass shooting written on crosses and displayed during a candlelight vigil in front of the City Hall in Monterey Park, California on January 24, 2023. Huu Can Tran, the 72-year-old Asian immigrant who killed 11 people before shooting himself as police moved in on him, was once a regular at the California dance club where a tragic gun massacre unfolded. AFP

FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS. An activist from the PETA Asia animal protection organization locks herself up during a protest in front of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in Jakarta, Indonesia on January

rally

come out with the animals’ feces. AFP

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By Nathalie Olof-Ors

Stock market advances; Cemex, RLC top gainers

STOCKS rebounded Wednesday, as traders in several countries returned from the Lunar New Year break to a soft lead out of Wall Street with recession fears still causing concern.

The PSE index, the 30-company benchmark of the Philippine Stock Exchange, gained 39 points, or 0.57 percent, to close at 7,081.36, as five of the six subsectors advanced.

The broader all-share index also went up by 16 points, or 0.44 percent, to settle at 3,702.76 on a value turnover of P5.75 billion. Gainers outnumbered losers, 100 to 89, while 48 issues were unchanged.

Seven of the 10 most active stocks ended in the green, led by Cemex Hold-

ings Philippines Inc. which jumped 13.73 percent to P1.16 and Robinsons Land Corp. which rose 4.30 percent to P16.50.

While equities have enjoyed a strong start to the year as a slowdown in inflation gives central banks room to temper their interest rate hikes, focus is now turning to the impact of last year’s increases on the economy.

Worries about the growth outlook, and the impact of higher rates on company profits, are also offsetting optimism over China’s reopening from years of zero-Covid measures.

Data showing a slight improvement in US factory and services activity was unable to settle nerves, with figures still showing the sectors in contraction.

Focus is now turning to next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting, with speculation growing that it will lift rates by 25 basis points.

Traders will also be poring over the bank’s statement for an idea about fu-

US files new anti-trust suit vs. Google over ad dominance

ture moves. A mixed bag of US earnings reports failed to ease concerns, and there is talk that the gains across markets since the turn of the year may have run too far for now.

“As we leg further into earnings season with news from a broader swath of the economy, investors will focus intently on the nuts and bolts of the economy and pay more attention to what Corporate America is saying before making their next directional move,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

In Asian trade, Tokyo ended slightly higher after rallying more than three percent over the previous three trading days.

Seoul and Singapore each jumped more than one percent as investors returned from the break to play catch-up with a regional advance, while Bangkok and Wellington were also up. Sydney, Mumbai and Jakarta fell. With AFP

WASHINGTON—The US Justice Department sued Google on Tuesday for its dominance of the online advertising market, launching a fresh legal battle against the California-based tech giant.

The case was the second federal lawsuit against Google over alleged antitrust violations and the first since US President Joe Biden took office two years ago.

The earlier case targeted Google’s world-dominating search engine and is expected to go to trial later this year.

In this latest suit, prosecutors took aim at Google’s extremely profitable advertising business, asking that it be broken up to level the playing field for other companies.

Google’s ad dealings generated more than $200 billion in sales in 2021 and is parent company Alphabet’s biggest moneymaker by a wide margin.

The US said the revenue was unlawfully maintained by a monopoly that had “corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry.”

“Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the suit added.

The case was launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in conjunction with eight US states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

‘Be worried’

Central to the case is Google’s dominance of the ad tech business, the technology that companies rely on for their online advertising needs.

The prosecutors said Google “now controls” both the buy and the sell side of the crucial sector, meaning website creators earn less and advertisers pay more, all while innovation is choked by the lack of rivals.

“In pursuit of outsized profits, Google has caused great harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers,” said Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement.

watches new is getting harder, as the booming market means longer waiting lists.

watches could be found,” said Jon

The federal case follows state lawsuits against Google that have alleged it illegally dominates the markets for online search, advertising technology and apps on the Android mobile platform. AFP

ZURICH, Switzerland—Swiss watches are in high demand these days, but sales of second-hand timepieces are also booming, driven by Generation Z buyers who want luxury goods but are also sustainability-minded.

The global second-hand watch market is estimated at nearly 20 billion Swiss francs ($21.7 billion) and could reach 35 billion francs by 2030, according to a study out in October by the auditing and consulting giant Deloitte.

Historically the province of collectors scouting for rare watches at auction, the second-hand market is turning increasingly professional with the proliferation of online sales sites that verify authenticity —with even the watch manufacturers themselves getting involved.

“Nowadays, there is a realization that we need to consume more responsibly,” said Fabienne Lupo, the former head of the Foundation High Horology, who organized a second-hand luxury watch salon in Geneva in November.

The event was attended by the online auction giant eBay, the watch sales platform Watchbox, and Swiss brands such as Zenith.

Never say new again

Lupo said the craze for second-hand watches could be explained by the consumer choices of Millennials (born between 1980 and the late 1990s) and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) who are “very concerned about the future of the planet, and no longer want to buy new”.

There is also the fashion for vintage objects “that you can’t find everywhere”, she said.

And furthermore, buying certain Swiss luxury

NEW YORK—3M announced Tuesday it will cut 2,500 manufacturing jobs as the industrial giant reported lower profits and offered a lackluster 2023 outlook based on weakening demand.

The move comes as 3M, which operates in several sectors including health care, transportation and electronics, contends with a drop in pandemic-related sales of face masks or “respirators,” and “rapid declines” in consumer-facing businesses.

The company also expects very low US growth in 2023 of about one percent, under the global average of 1.5 percent, Chief Executive Mike Roman said on a conference call with analysts.

Swiss watch exports hit a new record in 2022, climbing 11.4 percent year-on-year to 24.8 billion Swiss francs, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry announced Tuesday.

“And then there is the digitalization which has accelerated with the pandemic,” Lupo told AFP.

The growth in the pre-owned watch market is such that the British online platform Subdial has developed an index tracking the 50 most-traded models.

The average price fell from a record 45,000 Swiss francs in February 2022 to 35,000 francs in September, which Deloitte called a “correction” rather than a sign that the market was shrinking.

Sales platforms for certified pre-owned (CPO) watches are multiplying online, with the sector still attracting new entrants, including the US site Bezel, which counts former Disney president Michael Ovitz, comedian Kevin Hart and singer John Legend among its investors.

The luxury giant Richemont—which owns the Cartier, IWC and Piaget brands—entered the field as early as 2018, buying the British platform Watchfinder.

Rolex also took the plunge in December, pulling the rug from beneath the counterfeiters by launching a CPO program with the Swiss retailer Bucherer, which authenticates the watches.

The program is set up in six countries, including Britain and France, with the aim of extending it to the United States in the future.

Watch your image

“Watch manufacturers typically have been worried about the secondary market as it was closely associated with the grey market, where discounted

“We expect macroeconomic challenges to persist in 2023,” Roman added in an earnings press release.

“Based on what we see in our end markets, we will reduce approximately 2,500 global manufacturing roles—a necessary decision to align with adjusted production volumes,” he said.

A company spokesperson said there were no additional details on where the jobs are located, or in which sectors.

Net profit in the fourth quarter was $541 million compared with $1.4 billion in the year-ago period, while revenues fell 6.2 percent to $8.1 billion.

The latest quarter included a drop of

es company.

“However, they realize there is a halo effect of having strong secondary prices, enhancing the brand value of the primary watches,” he told AFP.

For top-end luxury brands like Richard Mille, where average watch prices exceed 260,000 Swiss francs, second-hand timepieces are even a way of enhancing their image.

“We might have a client who tells us, ‘there was a limited edition of 100 watches; it was always my dream to buy one and now I have the money -- but you no longer make them and they are almost impossible to find’,” said Alexandre Mille, who took over from his father who founded the brand.

Mille said his teams can seek out the soughtafter timepiece.

Deloitte’s study found that buying a cheaper watch was the main motivation for 44 percent of respondents. AFP

$165 million in face mask sales from the same period a year ago, as the measures taken against Covid-19 shifted. The company’s results were also dented by its exit from Russia.

Executives described mixed conditions across their markets, with automotive electrification remaining a strong source of demand, but consumer electronics falling hard due to weak demand for televisions, tablets and smartphones.

The company projected a drop of two percent to six percent in revenues this year, and lower profits per share compared with last year.

Shares of 3M tumbled 5.5 percent to $115.88 in early-afternoon trading. AFP

resolution authorizing the said corporate officer(s) to execute the said proxy.

Per SEC Memorandum No. 06-2020, stockholders may attend and participate in the Special Stockholders’ Meeting through teleconferencing, videoconferencing and other remote or electronic means of communication. If you wish to attend through videoconferencing, kindly inform the Corporate Secretary not later than 6:00 p.m. on 26 January 2023 so that the proper link may be sent to you. The Stock and Transfers Books of the Corporation shall be closed for transfer from 26 January 2023 to 2 February 2023.

. . . [A] sample of the ballot to be used for voting on the matters to be taken up during the meeting [is available upon request]. Stockholders participating in the meeting shall cast their votes by accomplishing and sending the ballots to the following email address during the 2 February 2023 Special Stockholders’ Meeting: chemicalindustriesphils@gmail.com

Thank you.

Sincerely, (sgd.) ATTY. ZHANIKA MARIE O. CARBONELL Corporate Secretary

P.S. The Definitive Information Statement (“IS”) and pertinent documents may be accessed through any of the following: 1. Go to the CIP website via this link: http://www.chemphil.com.ph/ main_cip.htm; and 2. Go to PSE EDGE portal via https://edge.pse.com.ph/

Gen Z buyers boost sales of second-hand luxury watches

3M to slash 2,500 manufacturing jobs as it prepares for low US economic growth

Cox, an industry analyst with the Kepler Cheuvreux financial servic

NEW YORK CONSTRUCTION. A general view shows construction workers standing before the Manhattan skyline and Empire State Building, in Brooklyn on Jan. 24, 2023. AFP

Roderick

Business

NEW SBC BRANCH.

By Julito G. Rada

AGRICULTURE and fisheries production, which accounts for about a tenth of the gross domestic product, contracted by 1 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago, on lower crop harvests and fisheries output, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Wednesday.

The PSA said while livestock and poultry output grew based on the constant 2018 prices in the fourth quarter, lower production in crops and fisheries fell in the period covering the months of October to December.

“At current prices, the value of production in agriculture and fisheries amounted to P611.52 billion or 9.4 percent higher compared to the level in the same period last year,” the PSA said. The growth in current prices reflected the higher inflation in the fourth quarter.

“From January to December 2022, the value of production in agriculture and fisheries at constant 2018 prices dropped by -0.1 percent,” the PSA said.

Data showed that crop harvests, which accounted for 59.1 percent of the total value of production in agriculture and fisheries, fell 1.0 percent in the fourth quarter, as rice and corn output went down by 2.5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Livestock, with a 14.3 percent share to the total value of the sector’s production, grew by 2.5 percent while poultry production picked up 1.8 percent.

Fisheries, with 13.8-percent share in the total value of the sector, saw a 6.6-percent decline.

Meanwhile, the PSA maintained the third-quarter gross domestic product growth of 7.6 percent despite some changes in all industries except public administration and defense and compulsory social activities.

ACEN begins construction of P16-b solar farm

ACEN Corp., the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, said Wednesday it started the construction of the P16-billion 300-megawatt Palauig 2 Solar Farm in Zambales province.

“This expansion of our Palauig solar assets comes at an exciting time for ACEN’s Philippine operations as we are relying on our core market to boost our energy transition efforts in the region,” ACEN chief development officer Jose Maria Zabaleta said.

“Palauig 2 Solar is the first of several new plants to commence with major construction works this year, and the need to sustain this accelerated pace towards the exponential growth of the renewables space is on top of our agenda,” Zabaleta said.

The project is close to the company’s operating 63-MW Palauig 1 Solar project. The estimated project cost, including the construction of the 1,200 MW transmission line, would be about P16 billion, ACEN said.

Module manufacturer Seraphim will supply the 540-MW peak highefficiency solar panels. ERS Energy Pte. Ltd. and Global Electric Power Development Corp. are the engineering procurement and construction contractors. ERS is the offshore supplier and GEC is the onshore construction contractor.

Palauig 2 Solar is expected to produce over 450 gigawatt-hours of clean energy a year, and together with Palauig 1 Solar’s 90 GWh output, can sustainably power the equivalent of around 139,000 homes and avoid 350,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.

ACEN said it created around 2,200 green energy jobs in Zambales since the start of the development of Palauig 1 Solar in 2020, helping stir the local economy and improve national prosperity as the country gears up for a post-pandemic era.

PSE

INDEX CLOSING

F oreign e xchange r ate Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas • TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023 Currency Unit US Dollar Peso United States Dollar

1.000000 54.5210

1.233200 67.2353

0.127719 6.9634

1.083893 59.0949

Security Bank Corp. unveils its Uptown IT Hub branch, one of the most exciting commercial districts in Tagbilaran City, affirming the bank’s commitment to customer-centricity as it expands its footprint in the country. Joining the ribbon-cutting ceremony are (from left) CPG Tagbilaran Branch manager Ma. Elena Deligero, SBC executive vice president and branch banking group head Leslie Cham, Tagbilaran Uptown Realty Corp. president Albert Uy, secretary Josephine Uy, Office of the Mayor chief of staff John Gessnell Yap, Mayor Jane Censoria CajesYap, Uptown IT Hub Branch manager Franklen Maslog, area head Terry Sy and region head Jason Ang.

BYD Auto plans to build e-vehicle facility in PH

By Othel V. Campos

BYD Auto Co. Ltd., one of largest electric vehicle manufacturers in the world, is scouting for the perfect location for its electric vehicle assembly facility in the Philippines, industry sources said Wednesday.

Sources said the Board of Investments was actively assisting BYD in its search for an economic zone to house the multi-billion-peso project.

The Board of Investments confirmed that representatives of a Chinese automotive company were in the Philippines in the fourth quarter

CONTRABAND.

Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. leads the agency’s first simultaneous nationwide trade enforcements against perpetrators of illicit cigarette trade, placing all regional enforcers on alert and in action while conducting operations in 378 stores in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

A CONSUMER group warned the public against the proliferation of unregistered and untaxed cigarettes, heated tobacco and vapor products on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada which could be harmful to consumers and deprive government of revenues.

The National Consumers Union of the Philippines Inc. said in separate letters to Shopee Philippines and Lazada Philippines that online merchants should not be allowed to sell illicit products to “protect consumer rights and welfare.”

NCUP president Antonio Israel noted the proliferation of illicit or unregistered tobacco products and vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products displayed and

POWER retailer Manila Electric Co. said Wednesday it would start procuring supply from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market after its 30-day emergency agreement with Aboitiz Power Corp.controlled GNPower Dinginin Ltd. for 300-megawatt baseload capacity ended Wednesday, thus exposing consumers to higher electricity rates.

“For now, [there is] no other choice but [to procure from] WESM [Wholesale Electricity Spot Market]. We are working with DOE [Department of Energy] and other gencos [generation companies] to mitigate the impact to consumers,” Meralco first vice president

of 2022 to apprise the government of their plans for an EV assembly project. The BOI, however, did not identify the company.

The BOI said it approved the registration of three other Chinese EV companies with local partners that plan to put up 1,000 charging stations, assemble 10,000 passenger cars for lease and 10,000 units for transport network vehicle services.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order No. 12, providing for the removal of tariff on imported evehicles and the reduction in tariff for e-vehicle parts and components for a five-year period.

The BOI said e-vehicle assembly would qualify for fiscal incentives under the Tier II of the Strategic Investment Priority Plan. Tier II provides tax perks on investments in energy efficiency and establishment and op-

eration of e-vehicle infrastructure like charging stations.

Filipino company Solar Transport and Automotive Resources Corp. is the authorized distributor of BYD Auto in the Philippines.

BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is a global automotive brand present in more than 200 countries. The firm has the capability to match its EV technology from the design, battery raw material sourcing, battery manufacturing, AC motor production, charging technology, controllers, vehicle design, production and proprietary lithium ion technology to extend the life cycle of its EVs.

BYD e-vehicles are designed and built from the ground up by the BYD Design team which includes world renowned vehicle designers such as Wolfgang Egger, Michele Jauch-Paganetti and JuanMa Lopez.

Canada

Singapore Dollar

Australia

Bahrain Dinar

Rial

Dollar

0.000067 0.0037

Baht 0.030534 1.6647

Won

Yuan

Rupee

Ringgit 0.233481 12.7296

Zealand Dollar 0.650200 35.4496

Dollar 0.033097 1.8045 Source: BSP

Cemex main shareholder launches P1.2-b tender offer

CEMENT manufacturer Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. said Wednesday its majority shareholder Cemex Asian South East Corp. will launch a P2.1billion tender offer as part of its portfolio rebalancing strategy.

CHP said in a stock exchange filing CASEC planned to acquire 1.614 billion common shares in the company held by minority investors at P1.30 apiece. The shares represent 12 percent of the company’s total outstanding capital stock.

Assuming it successfully acquired the entire 1.614 billion shares, CHP said its public float would remain slightly above the 10-percent minimum public float required for listed firms.

CHP said the purpose of the tender offer is not to delist its shares from the local bourse but to enable its majority shareholder to increase and consolidate its stake in the company.

Post the tender offer, CHP said CASEC aimed to continue taking steps to optimize and rebalance the group’s asset portfolio in the region where CHP operates, which may include an evaluation of strategic investments or divestments.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Cebu Pacific expects profit in first quarter

CEBU Air Inc. said Wednesday it expects to return to profitability in the first quarter of 2023 following three-year losses amid to COVID-19 pandemic.

“By first quarter, we aim and we hope to be profitable. That will be the first quarter [of profitability] since the first quarter of 2020. We had a loss for the first quarter of 2020,” Cebu Pacific president and chief commercial officer Xander Lao told reporters.

“We are also hoping for a full-year net income,” he said.

The airline unit of the Gokongwei Group posted a net loss of P12.04 billion from January to September last year, down by 45.2 percent from P21.99billion loss it booked in the same period in 2021.

CEB said revenues surged 310.2 percent to P37.53 billion in the first nine months of 2022 from P9.15 billion a year earlier. The airline is allotting P42 billion in capital expenditures this year, higher than the P32.8-billion capex in 2022.

Darwin G. Amojelar

GCash, CIMB Bank offer

highest interest rate of 8%

GCASH and CIMB Bank, the country’s leading digital banking services provider, are offering users up to 8 percent interest rate per annum on GSave until Jan. 31, 2023.

The offer, the highest interest rate available in the market, will be available for existing customers of the bank who opened their accounts for more than 60 calendar days at the start of the qualifying month. It will be applicable to the difference in total average daily balance from the previous month.

sold on both Shopee and Lazada.

He said while the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the use of and reliance on e-commerce platforms, “there has also been a marked increase in illicit products in e-commerce platforms that ultimately harm the rights and welfare of consumers.”

Israel said all sellers, both online and at physical stores, importers and distributors of cigarettes, heated tobacco and vapor products should observe the rules and laws to combat the unintended use of these products and ensure the fair collection of correct government taxes.

This is because illicit and unregistered products evade regulatory oversight,

and head of regulatory management Jose Ronald Valles said.

Meralco said it was working closely with the Department of Energy and other industry players to ensure adequate supply and protect customers from volatile and higher WESM prices, which would be crucial with the anticipated increase in demand during the dry months. The move will affect consumers who are already facing higher rates next month with the completion of Meralco’s distribution refund of P0.1923 per kilowatt-hour for residential consumers.

leaving the public in danger of consuming substandard products, he said.

Israel said the Shopee and Lazada platforms play a crucial role in curbing the presence of unauthorized sellers and products.

Copies of the letters were also sent to Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means; Department of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno; Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual; Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr.; Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr.; and Bureau of Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz.

Valles said Meralco would announce details once they finalized any arrangement.

WESM is the trading floor of electricity where prices are driven by demand and supply, resulting in the volatility of electricity prices. WESM prices are generally higher than those charged under power supply agreements.

Meralco’s supply agreement with GNPower Dinginin Ltd. for its 1,336MW GNPower Dinginin Plant in Mariveles, Bataan, with a fixed price of P5.95 per kilowatt-hour, became effective on Dec. 15, 2022 and ended

GCash said the promo is also inclusive of other promo and base rates for ADB growth including the 2.6 percent p.a. for GSave accounts. This is also inclusive of the 4 percent p.a. promo rate applicable to the first P200,000 ADB. Any incremental ADB growth will receive 8 percent per annum.

It said to calculate the average daily balance, customers need to get the total of their daily balance at the end of each day for the qualifying month and divide them by the total number of days in the qualifying month.

on Jan. 25, 2023.

The EPSA partially replaced the 670-MW capacity under Meralco’s 2019 power supply agreement with SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. subsidiary South Premiere Power Corp., which was subjected to a 60-day temporary restraining order issued by the Court of Appeals.

GNPower Dinginin’s offer is higher than SPPC’s contract of P4.30 per kWh under the 2019 PSA. It is also higher than if the Energy Regulatory Commission approved the SPPC application for a rate hike. Alena Mae S. Flores

By Alena Mae S. Flores and Jenniffer B. Austria

Growing trade ties

Australia is one of the Philippines’ top sources of beef and lamb, wines, dairy, and fresh fruits like table grapes, citrus, and stone fruits. A range of Australian healthy breakfast and grocery items, health and beauty products are also available in the market. With clean and pristine environment, strict health and food safety protocols, consumers are assured that Australian-made products are safe and high-quality.

Australian companies in the Philippines also cover a wide range of sectors, employing around 44,000 Filipinos across the country. Somce of these include:

ACCOLADE WINES. Accolade Wines is one of the world’s biggest wine companies. Their international reach and unparalleled expertise enables them to deliver industryleading performance and outstanding quality to customers. With an extraordinary collection of over 50 brands, Accolade Wines’ portfolio is diverse and is made up of distinguished wine brands such as Hardys, Grant Burge, St Hallett and Banrock Station; and modern brands including House of Arras and Jam Shed.

BANKTECH GROUP. In 2015, Banktech established BTI in the Philippines as an independent diversified payments technology business. BTI operates nationwide as an Operator for Payment System (OPS) and as an Independent ATM Deployer (IAD). BTI’s Pay&Go machines enable digital service providers, retailers, financial institutions and banks to provide more access points for their customers.

BTI Payment is owned by Banktech Group which owns and operates its ATMs and payments business globally. It has a network of over 1,000 Pay&Go self-service kiosks for cash-in to digital accounts and a growing base of Cash Connect ATMs for cash out services.

CCL SECURE. CCL Secure was born of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to build a better banknote which resulted in launching the first polymer banknote in 1988. CCL Secure is exclusively focused on improving, designing, developing, and producing polymer banknotes.

Drawing on its industry leading expertise CCL Secure has supported more than 40 central banks to issue over 80 billion polymer banknotes over the past 35 years. Throughout this period of innovation, CCL Secure has launched advanced new generations of Guardian™ substrate technology, state of the art security features and Spartan™ banknotes to help central banks realise their currency goals.

GHD. This year, GHD celebrates 25 years of creating lasting community benefit in the Philippines. During this time, the company employs more than 900 people across its Makati City, Quezon City and Cebu City offices. GHD has a connected global network of over 10,000 professionals to deliver integrated planning, design, environmental, construction management, advisory, and digital services, to support an extensive range of market sectors including water, power, heavy industries, real estate, and transportation.

As a global professional services company that leads through its engineering and architectural skills and experience, GHD is committed to solving the world’s biggest challenges to make water, energy, and urbanization sustainable for generations to come.

IDP EDUCATION. IDP is a leader in global education services. As an Australian listed company, IDP has operations in 65 countries and its websites attract 100 million visits a year.

IDP specialises in combining human expertise with its leading digital platform to help people get accepted into their ideal course, take an English language test or learn English in schools. IDP data insights are relied upon by organisations around the world to help ensure decisions are informed by the diverse needs, challenges and motivations of students.

Turn to C2

Ambassador’s Message

EVERY country celebrates its national day in its own way. For Australia, it is a time to remember the stories that have helped shape us into the modern country we are today. We think about what has come before, and the challenges and opportunities that may lie ahead.

Our story began a long time ago. For at least 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived in the great southern continent now called Australia. For millennia, Indigenous Australians have been the land’s traditional owners and custodians of a vibrant culture. In the twentyfirst century, Australia is a multicultural nation.

Just like me, one in four Australians are migrants, and almost half of all Aussies have a parent born overseas.

And it would not be possible to tell the story of Australia without also mentioning the Philippines.

Filipino migration to Australia can be traced back to the 1880s, when pioneering ‘Manila Men’ arrived in northern Australia to work in the pearling industry. Many of these first Filipinos settled in remote coastal towns like Broome, Cooktown, and Thursday Island. Here, they built new lives, bringing with them their traditions, culture, language, food, and religion.

From these humble roots, the Filipino community in Australia has grown to become one of our largest and most important. Today, more than 400,000 Australians were either born in the Philippines or are of Filipino ancestry, making it our fifth largest ethnic group.

Quite apart from permanent migrants, the people-to-people links between Australia and the Philippines are strong. In 2019, Australia was the top international destination for Filipino university students. On my recent visits to Cebu and Davao, I have greatly enjoyed meeting some of our alumni and hearing of how their studies in Australia have enriched them both personally and professionally.

Having now been in the Philippines for six months, I can see that the depth of ties between our two peoples is due to our similar national characters. While there are obvious points of difference (I have yet to meet a Filipino who liked the taste of Vegemite or was interested in cricket!), I see that both Filipinos and Australians value humour, adaptability, openness, and are ‘down-to-earth’ people. Perhaps most significantly, we value true friends and share a willingness to band together, including in times of adversity.

This strong connection underpins our excellent bilateral cooperation across the important areas of inclusive development, security and trade relations. Yet, there is so much more we can and must do together. And I am committed to driving and raising our bilateral relationship to that of a Strategic Partnership this year. We have an exciting 2023 ahead!

and Happy Australia Day!

Mabuhay

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines

Her Excellency HK Yu PSM

AS WE bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, trade ties between Australia and the Philippines continue to grow. The Philippines is a priority partner for Australia, and more Philippine companies are looking to do business in Australia, furthering our links.

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Her Excellency HK Yu PSM, presented her credentials to President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr in Malacañang Palace, October 2022.

Ambassador Yu meets with Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte, November 2022. The two discussed opportunities for further cooperation including in areas of education, social protection and disaster response and resilience.

The Ambassador saw how Australia-Philippines business links in Cebu continue to grow through Surface Technology International Philippines, a Filipino company that exports electronic boards to Australia from Lapu Lapu.

Sabalenka sets up Aussie Open semis showdown with Linette

MELBOURNE—

Aryna Sabalenka set up a semifinal with surprise-package Magda Linette on Wednesday at the Australian Open, while Tommy Paul ended Ben Shelton’s fairytale run.

Belarusian Sabalenka looks red-hot fa-

vourite to win her first major crown after a gritty display in defeating Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena.

Fifth-seeded Sabalenka is the highest remaining seed left in a women’s draw that has been upended by shocks.

The match was closer than the score suggested, but Sabalenka is in scintillating form— she is yet to drop a set in Melbourne and has won all nine matches in 2023.

It is a far cry from a year ago, when she struggled badly with her serve and was reduced to tears at an Australian Open warm-up tournament.

“It feels really special to be in the semifinals here, it was a tough match,” said Sabalenka, 24, who was competing in her first Australian Open quarter-final.

“I’m super happy with the win and it was so great to play here today, the atmo-

sphere was unbelievable.”

Sabalenka will play unseeded Linette for a place in Saturday’s

after she marched into her first major semi-final at the age of 30.

one Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 to continue flying the flag for Poland after the shock exit of world number one Iga Swiatek.

“I’m so emotional, I can’t really believe it,” said Linette, ranked 45 in the world.

“It’s a dream come true. I’m super grateful and happy. Thank you for cheering and supporting, I really needed this.

“So we keep going. I don’t want to get too excited because we are still in the tournament,” added the Pole, who will break into the top 30 for the first time.

Two-time Melbourne champion Victoria Azarenka will face Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the other semi-final. Shelton fairytale over In the men’s quarter-finals, Paul defeated his fellow unseeded American Shelton 7-6 (8/6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

The 35th-ranked Paul, who has never gotten this far at a major, will play Novak Djokovic or Andrey Rublev for a place in Sunday’s final.

The 20-year-old Shelton has been one of the stories of the tournament. Just a year ago he was ranked 569 in the world and this was his first time outside the United States. AFP

10 LGUs to host Langoy Pilipinas for young bets

NEW national swimming competitions for children aged 6- to 17-year-old participants is set for launch next month, involving 10 local government units in key cities of Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.

Dubbed ‘Langoy Pilipinas’, the event conceptualized by swimming coach and event organizer Darren Evangelista, targets not only school-based teams and established swimming clubs, but also the less fortunate children and out-of-school youth.

“The tournament is open to all Filipino young swimmers, regardless of their affiliations and religions. Everybody is welcome. We’re currently in close coordination with partner LGUs so we can identify those less fortunate swimmers

LEIGHTON ASIA. Established in 1975, headquartered in Hong Kong, Leighton Asia delivers a portfolio of high-profile infrastructure projects throughout Asia. As a proven leader in the delivery of complex tunnel, rail and road networks, Leighton Asia also delivers turnkey renewable energy infrastructure including utility-scale wind, geothermal energy and wasteto-power installations. Its building projects range from schools, embassies and luxury highrise residential towers to large scale leisure complexes, a growing number of which are built to international green building and energy efficiency standards.

Leighton Asia currently operates in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. Leighton Asia is a member of the CIMIC Group, an engineeringled construction, mining, services and public private partnerships leader with a history dating back to 1899.

MACQUARIE. Macquarie Group Limited (Macquarie) is a diversified financial group providing clients with asset management and finance, banking, advisory and risk and capital solutions across debt, equity and commodities. Founded in 1969, Macquarie employs 17,209 people in 33 markets.

With over 16 years of commitment in the Philippines, Macquarie has over 1,000 employees in Manila supporting the organisation’s global operations across operations, finance, human resources, legal, technology and risk. Macquarie is one of the country’s leading infrastructure asset managers and energy advisors, and among the top five foreign brokers in the country.

OCEANAGOLD. OceanaGold (Philippines), Inc. operates the Didipio Mine as the Government’s mining contractor under the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement No.001 and Addendum and Renewal Agreement with areas in the Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.

It is a subsidiary of OceanaGold Corporation, a multinational gold producer headquartered in Brisbane and Melbourne, with operations based in New Zealand, the Philippines and the United States.

OceanaGold is committed to the highest standards of technical, environmental, and social performance and continuously innovate and improve the way they explore, extract and process minerals.

ORICA. Orica was founded in 1874 as a supplier of explosives to the Victorian gold fields in Australia. Since then, the company has grown to become one of the world’s leading mining and infrastructure solutions providers.

From the production and supply of explosives, blasting systems, mining chemicals and geotechnical monitoring to its cutting-edge digital solutions and comprehensive range of services, the company sustainably mobilises the earth’s resources.

Aoki ies to PH to train with Lakay rivals

FORMER ONE Lightweight World Champion Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki shares a competitive history with Team Lakay, having faced and beaten Eduard “Landslide” Folayang and Honorio Banario.

Now he’s out to share the mats with them again, not as opponents, but as friends and training partners at the fabled Team Lakay gym in Benguet.

Aoki flew to the Philippines, then made the nearly six-hour drive from Manila to Benguet province to spend time with the warriors of the north.

It was a nice gesture considering that Aoki has faced Folayang thrice in their legendary careers, with the Japanese submission wizard winning two of those three fights convincingly.

in their respective communities to join the event,” said Evangelista, head of the organizing GoldenEast Ads Promo and Events.

Evangelista, a former member of Mapua Cardinals that won the NCAA title in the 90s, and a 5-time NCAA champion coach in Swimming, said that the conceptualization of the competitions is based on six important objectives, namely strengthen grassroots development, improve tourism through sports, create a wave of livelihood opportunities, enhance positive values and sportsmanship, and promote family togetherness.

Included in the program as partners are Manila, Tarlac, Cavite and Laguna

in Luzon, Bohol, Roxas and Bacolod in Visayas and Saranggani and Cagayan in Mindanao.

Evangelista added that the event is also in close coordination with the Swimming League Philippines, Philippine Swimming League and Congress of Philippine Aquatics, Inc.

“For the Manila event, preparation is ongoing with the Office of Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna as well as the Manila Sports Council,” said Evangelista.

He added that all is set for the Saranggani event tentatively slated on Feb. 24 as Gov. Rogelio ‘Ruel’ Pacquiao already gave his full support during a lengthy meeting with the organizers.

Aoki also scored a quick submission win over former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio Banario.

The idea came after Folayang suffered yet another loss last December to Aoki, with the latter then announcing his plans to visit and train with him and talk about their respective futures.

Aoki has fulfilled that promise, and he’s enjoying his stay so far.

The 39-year-old bared that the trip has been fulfilling, as not many Japanese people make the trip up north to the mountains to train.

He has also enjoyed the food so far, praising the sisig and rice from the restaurant near his hotel and enjoying the local delicacies like strawberry ice cream.

services such as Finance, Technology, HR Delivery, Data Analytics and Reporting to QBE businesses globally.

TELSTRA. Telstra is a global technology company that empowers businesses to thrive in a connected world. Telstra delivers transformational experiences through innovative connectivity, collaboration and IT solutions, via one of the world’s most advanced networks.

Telstra’s heritage is proudly Australian but has a longstanding international business with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Today, they have approximately 3,500 employees based in 20 countries outside of Australia, with a significant headcount in Asia, providing services to thousands of business, government, carrier and OTT customers.

Sustainability is integral to Orica’s operations. Their approach to sustainability begins with ensuring they operate business responsibly, and by prioritising the safety of its people, customers, and communities.

PRIVASEC. Privasec is a leading cyber security and digital transformation partner. Privasec’s vision is to enable organisations to pursue fearless innovation through world-class risk management and the building of business resilience. Privasec’s capabilities are focused around five key pillars: Governance, Risk, and Compliance, Offensive Security, Technology and Platform, Managed Security Services and Team Augmentation.

Privasec works with a market-leading ecosystem of partners, covering protection from Endpoints and Devices, Identity and Access, Intelligence and Analytics to Cloud Security, People Security and Data Resiliency.

QANTAS. Founded in regional Queensland in 1920 – as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Qantas has played a central role in the development of the Australian and international

From Manila, Qantas offers Business and Economy on direct services to Sydney on its daily A330 service with onward connections across Australia and New Zealand.

QBE. QBE Insurance Group is an international insurer and reinsurer with local presence in 27 countries and with operations in all the key insurance markets. QBE is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and is headquartered in Sydney.

In the Philippines, QBE’s Group Shared Services Centre (GSSC) was established in February 2013, with locations in Manila and Cebu. The GSSC provides a comprehensive range of Insurance Services to QBE’s customers and brokers across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, such as underwriting support, policy servicing, claims, credit control and customer service. Over the years, the GSSC continues to provide more knowledge processing

WESTERN AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT. The Government of Western Australia, through Invest and Trade Western Australia, provide a ‘front door’ to assist investors and customers to do business with WA’s world-leading industries. Western Australia is an ancient, energetic land, and a highly rated investment destination, full of opportunity for you to discover.

WINE BROTHERS. Woomera wines are authentic Australian Wines specifically crafted for the Filipinos. Currently, Woomera Wines has its commercial and mid-range wines. There are 5 varieties to under the commercial line: Cabernet Merlot, is the medium-bodied red wine; Sauvignon Blanc, a light dry white wine; Rosé, a semi-sweet wine spritz; Sweet Red, the vibrantly juicy wine: and the White Moscato, a refreshingly sweet spritz.

WORLEY POWER SERVICES ASIA. Worley is a professional services company of energy, chemicals and resources experts helping customers shift their operations towards a more sustainable future. Worley employs 51,000 people across 46 countries, all driven by common purpose, delivering a more sustainable world.

Australian Festival

In celebration of Australia Day on 26 January, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, and the Victorian Government bring you the Australian Festival available across all supermarket and online stores of the Robinsons Retail Group until 31 January 2023.

This year’s Australian Festival highlights over 600 Australian products, including iconic Australian brands and premium items from Woolworths available in Robinsons Retail Group’s supermarkets – The Marketplace, Robinsons Supermarket, Shopwise, and online stores like GoCartPH.

Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki

Darren Evangelista

final

Linette stunned former world number

Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka celebrates a point against Croatia’s Donna Vekic during their women’s singles quarternal match on Day 10 of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. AFP

Australian Ambassador HK Yu PSM with student players at Ricardo P Cruz Sr Elementary School (RPCES) in Taguig on 14 November 2022. Australia has supported the Football for Humanity Foundation program which uses sports to educate and empower children about the dangers of online sexual abuse and exploitation.

aviation industry. Today the Qantas Group is a diverse global aviation business, comprising Qantas Domestic, Qantas International, the Jetstar low-cost carrier group and Qantas Loyalty. Qantas is ranked the world’s safest airline by AirlineRatings.com, and holds many awards for service, food and wine, technology and innovation.

PH powerlifter Reboton tries to break Guinness world record

By Randy Caluag

PHILIPPINE national team powerlifter Joyce Gail Reboton will try to break the Guinness Book of World Record for the most number of bodyweight squat lifts in one minute.

Her attempt for a new record by a female lifter will take place on Feb. 4 at the Ayala Malls Circuit’s Activity Center in Makati.

The world record is currently held by United Kingdom’s Karenjeet Kaur Bains, who lifted 42 times on March 7 last year in Warwick, U.K.

The most times to squat lift one’s own body weight in one minute by a male lifter was at 42, achieved by Erikas Dovydėnas of Lithuania in October of last year.

The organizing Equinox Athletes Management team and the Powerlifting Association of the Philippines are inviting powerlifting enthusiasts and supporters to witness the worldrecord attempt.

Invited to grace the event is Sports Hall of Famer Olivia “Bong” Coo, Philippine Sports Commissioner, who will be the guest of honor and the main witness up to the official declaration ceremony.

The 30-year-old Reboton raised 150 kilograms in the bench press to erase her own Asian record of 147.5 kgs set at the World Games last July.

PBA: Simmons, Alas power Warriors past Bossings five

By Peter Atencio

NEW import and NBA veteran Jonathan Simmons quickly got comfortable with the NLEX Road Warriors as they repulsed the Blackwater Elite Bossings, 124-102, for their first win in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum.

The 6’6” Simmons, an NBA journeyman, who last played for the Shanxi Loongs in the Chinese Basketball Association, complemented Kevin Alas’ game, and their partnership

in the last period allowed the Road Warriors to finish with a 22-point blowout.

The 33-year-old Simmons, who was cleared to play for the league only last Tuesday, had 32 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.

He also let Alas take over in the

Reboton represented the Philippines in the World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships in Viborg, Denmark in November last year and brought home three bronze medals and broke an Asian Games’ record in the women’s 76-kg category.

She competed the following month in Dubai for the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championships and bagged three gold medals and a silver.

TNT eyes 2nd straight 3x3 crown

OFF and running again, TNT eyes to make it two straight when the PBA 3x3 Third Conference Season 2 resumes on Thursday at Robinsons Place Antipolo.

The Tropang Giga welcomed back main man Almond Vosotros by claiming last week’s leg title behind a 20-14 beating of Barangay Ginebra to take home the top prize of P100,000.

And the telecommunication franchise certainly has no plans of slowing down as coach Mau Belen tweaked his roster anew for the Leg 3 competition.

Vosotros will still have big man Lervin Flores in the middle, but will be joined this time by wingmen Samboy De Leon and Gryann Mendoza.

Opening leg champion San Miguel is not to be outdone though, as it activated James Mangahas in lieu of Dariel Bayla.

Mangahas will be playing alongside Ken Bono, Leo de Vera, and Tonino Gonzaga as the Beermen seek to reclaim the top spot in the team standings after being toppled by the Tropang Giga at the conclusion of Leg 2.

TNT leads Pool A, Barangay Ginebra in Pool B, while Meralco and Cavitex are on Pools C and D, respectively.

The rest of the teams drawn were Purefoods and Pioneer Elastoseal in Pool A,, Blackwater and Platinum Karaoke in Pool B, J&T Express and NorthPort in Pool C, and San Miguel, and Terrafirma in Pool D.

payoff fourth as the former Letran Knight finished with a career-high 31 markers, to go with eight rebounds and four assists.

Simmons’ presence drew praises from coach Frankie Lim, who said the American cager from Houston, Texas and was a former San Antonio Spur, is a great one.

“I was really confident that he will play. It was a big push for us. Simmons is not a good player, but a great player. He knows how to play, he knows how to pass, and when to make his shots. Suwerte kami sa kanya,” said Lim.

Alas’ great showing eclipsed his previous high of 30, which he did when the Road Warriors played Magnolia last year in Game 2 of their best-of-3 quarterfinals finals

in 2022 Philippine Cup.

The 6’2” Alas was at his best in the fourth period, knocking in 19 points.

Alas hit nine points in the last 3:53, allowing the Road Warriors to move away after the Bossings, closed in at 96-100. His baskets touched off a 15-4 blast, handing NLEX a 115-100 spread.

The Scores: NLEX 124 – Simmons 32, Alas 31, Ganuelas-Rosser 21, Semerad 15, Nieto 12, Gabo, Pascual 3, Trollano 3, Anthony 2, Miranda 0 BLACKWATER 102 – Glover 26, Ular 14, Amer 13, Taha 13, Suerte 9, Ilagan 8, McCarthy 5, Banal 4, Casio 3, Sena 3, Escoto 2, Torralba 2, Hill 0, DiGregorio 0

QUARTERS: 26-22, 58-56, 84-81, 124-102

Scheduling mix-ups worry SEAG countries

calendar and those posted in the technical handbook.

Loyzaga was joined by his deputy Paolo Tancontian in their bid to get a better understanding on the final procedures, rules and other pertinent information about the games.

According to the games’ calendar, events will commence starting on April 29 with football.

Numerous national sports association took note on the differences in the dates of events indicated on the games

For one, officials of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association noted that the date of events in athletics was slated at May 8 in the official calendar of events.

But competitions were listed to start on May 6, according to

go

D’Navigators outsmart Airmen to grab piece of lead

YOUTH prevailed over experience as Iloilo marked its Spikers’ Turf debut in style, grounding a returning Air Force side, 25-21, 25-23, 25-19, yesterday to join Army and Imus in the early lead in the Open Conferende at the Paco Arena.

Skipper Jerome Cordez unloaded 15 points and finished with seven digs while Jade Disquitado, a former Santa Rosa standout, added 14 points, seven excellent receptions and six digs to help anchor the D’Navigators’ straight-set romp.

“Credit sa mga players namin kasi syempre naglaro sila nang maayos at nakikinig naman. Sabi ko lang tandaan na beterano ‘yung kalaban nila, sila mas bata, mas kundisyon sabi ko alam niyo na ano ang advantage natin,” said Iloilo head coach John Kenneth Panes.

A late blast by Disquitado, Rash Nursiddik, and Nas Gwaza netted the D’Navigators the first set as they shattered a 20-all count to pound out the four-point win.

Iloilo kept pounding the net with strong attacks while pouncing on their rivals’ lapses in the second frame, putting the D’Navigators away at 20-11. But the Airmen, with Ranran Abdilla on the firing end, regrouped and mounted a rally to threaten within, 23-24. But Abdilla’s service miscue stymied their charge, enabling the former to post a 2-0 set lead.

Cordez then took over in the third frame then capped his set-long brilliance with three hits to finish off the Airmen and cap the team’s inspiring start.

Abdilla tallied 18 points on 17 attacks and an ace for Air Force, which also drew 10 points from Edwin Tolentino.

Iloilo thus joined Imus-Ivy Tuason Photography, which toppled Santa Rosa in four, and Philippine Army, which stunned Navy in five in Sunday’s inaugurals, in the lead of the 11-team field of the season-opening conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.

OFFICIALS of the Philippine delegation to the 32nd Southeast Asian Games will seek clarifications on the schedules of events.

Team Philippines Chef de Mission Chito Loyzaga is now in Phnom Penh for the first CDM Meeting of the biennial meet.

the technical handbook that was provided them. Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino said schedules and some information posted on the technical handbooks given to the NSAs have been changing.

The clarifications will be done, with 100 days to

before SEA Games begins on May 5. Cambodia is playing host for the first time and has calendared 608 events.

Peter Atencio

NBA journey Jonathan Simmons of NLEX soars for a layup against a phalanx of Blackwater defenders in a PBA game won by the Road Warriors, 104-102.

Joyce Gail Reboton (Powerlifting Association of the Philippines)

Chito Loyzaga

Iloilo’s Rash Nursiddik smashes one in.

Games tomorrow Friday 4 p.m. – Santa Rosa vs Cignal 6 p.m. – Cotabato vs VNS Volleyball Club

How Pia Wurtzbach prepares for her wedding day this year

ing: fibroblasts that secrete collagen, immune cells that improve skin healing and regeneration, hyaluronic acid for hydration, glutathione for skin brightening, and other vitamins, minerals, peptides, and growth factors that transform the skin. The result is exponentially youthful and vibrant skin, as famously sported by Pia herself.

The couple got engaged in May last year and are looking at a wedding to happen this year.

The Belo Exosomes treatment uses the revolutionary ASCE+ cell-signaling system that plays the role of skin-saving messengers that deliver information and instructions to regenerate cells, making it a breakthrough in anti-aging technology.

It is first brought to the country by the Belo Medical Group.

Available in all Belo clinics, Belo Exosomes is a topical or injected treatment that may be done as an add-on to a basic Belo facial or incorporated into RF micro-needling treatment for faster skin replenishment and regeneration. The effective nutrients our skin knows and loves are the follow-

“I’m confident facing the world in my natural self and in my own skin,” Pia shares. Veering from the curated, glamorous world of beauty pageants, Pia has come to reveal the raw parts of herself—from meaningful experiences with her family, personal time with her fiancé, to off-duty barefaced moments while traveling or working out. Indeed, being comfortable with your own skin is an X-factor in itself, and it’s because of this outstanding trait that Belo handpicked Pia Wurtzbach to be the face of its newest skin solution, Belo Exomes.

The Belo and Pia Wurtzbach relationship is a collaboration that was always bound to happen—after all, why wouldn’t the Philippines’ premier beauty authority and one of the premier beauty queens of the country come together? Being ‘confidently beautiful’ plays on both of these beauty behemoths’ strengths, and with Belo Exosomes, now everyone can have skin they’re confident in.

Belo Exosomes is a progressive skin solution that continuously improves skin without the need for surgery or invasive

On why I take short breaks

procedures, helping the skin look visibly younger and healthier instantly and over time. This is what makes Pia Wurtzbach the perfect face for the product.

and so should you ]

ITOOK a short break from writing and permitted myself to rest whenever possible for the past weeks. For many, it can be difficult to do, so, I understand. Responsibilities and obligations bind us. But whenever I can, and however short that break is, I’d take it. I like to take my rest seriously.

A special report on mental health first published on Gulfnews on July 4, 2022, explored the “ultimate wellness philosophy of doing nothing” as shared by many cultures that believe in ‘timeout’ for the self.

Writer Sraddha Sabu talked about Netherlands’ ‘Niksen,’ the Dutch term that literally means to do nothing. It also means being idle or doing actions that have no particular use such as sitting in a chair or looking out of the window. To the Dutch, the key to Niksen is hitting the pause button without guilt. In the Netherlands, one of the happiest nations in the world, doing this in moderation is an acceptable and cherished idea.

And then, there is Italy’s il dolce far niente—the sweetness of doing nothing, which means taking your time to relax and enjoy nature, celebrating a calm at-

mosphere, or detaching from any form of stress. In her article, she also mentioned the benefits of ‘mind wanderings’ as practiced in moderation, which can reduce anxiety and strengthen the ability to handle stressful time periods.

A break can mean getting a full night’s sleep, a day off the screen, a quick out-of-town trip, a long walk in the park, or time to rekindle the love for your creative hobbies. As they say, whatever floats your boat. Even micro-breaks can do wonders for your body. Science has been telling us about the many benefits of taking breaks— it can “reduce and prevent stress, help maintain performance throughout the day, and cut short the need for a long recovery at the end of the day,” making you more productive and efficient. It will also give you more time to spend with your loved ones. The responsibility of doing this, of course, falls upon ourselves.

French-Cuban diarist Anaïs Nin once reminded us that “We cannot always place responsibility outside of ourselves, on parents, nations, the world, society, race, religion. Long ago it was the gods. If we accepted a part of this responsibility we would simultaneously discover our strength.”

The prolific journalist Joan Didion wrote: “Character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life —is the source from which self-respect springs.” You cannot expect others to know when you need to take a break. A doctor once told me to “learn how to listen, and listen well to your body as it tells you what it needs.” I never forgot that.

How do you take a break? How important is it to you? As for me, a weekend out-of-town trip to my favorite beach town to lie on the sand and watch the sunset is one of the best ways to rest and recover from stress. I can list a hundred things but I don’t want to bore you further. So instead, I asked some individuals from all walks of life and from different parts of the world how they take their breaks or handle stress, and here are their words:

I’m a working mom with two toddlers, and really, there are many days when all I want is a little break. The stress from work and running a household can be overwhelming. It’s important to me that I

get to compartmentalize. I take a pause, pray, and make a list of the important things I need to do or urgent matters I need to attend to. Once I know what to do, I allow myself to rest.

Divine Catipay, 39, Architect Hong kong

When I’m super stressed, I light a candle in my room and listen to Yiruma or any soothing music. I also find long drives therapeutic, as it helps clear my mind. I also have this soulsearching moment that I do ever since college, like watching a movie or eating out in a good restaurant alone. It’s like my form of decompression when things get chaotic.

Jellyboks, 35, Asst.Business Operations / Performing Artist San Francisco, CA

How I handle stress is to pull back from the stressful situation and take time to rest—it can be taking a nap, praying, going for a walk, or making time to do something that makes me smile.

Cielo Maaliw, 39, Business Analyst Mandaluyong, Philippines

I’m an outdoorsy person, so whenever I feel like I need a break from stressful work situations, I go to an open space like a nature park to breathe. Sometimes going to a bustling place teeming with people who seem happy and just observing them seems to help relieve my stress as it diverts my attention and focus from my own predicament. Most of the time, exercising is enough. I do take time also to pray and meditate to sort of find my balance.

Joana Salcedo, 38, Sales Manager Singapore

I mostly play video games or bingewatch anime. On some days I either holed up at home or at a café with some really nice iced long black. Basically, I avoid interacting with people especially when I feel ‘peopled out’ since that’s what normally stresses me out.

Che, 39, Luxury leather repair technician, Singapore

For feedback, I’m at joba.botana@ gmail.com.

As she prepares for married life, Pia has again found ways to transform herself with Belo Exosomes. And in her words, Pia reflects on her Belo Exosomes ambassadorship by tying it back to her recent athletic success finishing with a medal at the renowned New York City Marathon last November 2022.

She ends, “Belo Exosomes is like training for a marathon—it gets better and better the more you do it.”

Click on the link to book a consultation: https://belomed.com/contact-us/ book-an-appointment/

10 healthier mental well-being tips for the Lunar New Year

THE Lunar New Year is an ideal time to become better versions of ourselves. This may manifest through exercise, a healthy diet, thriftiness, or spending more time with family and friends.

Myrlinda Rose A. Ngo, RGC, RPsy, counselor of the Benilde Well-Being Center (BWC) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, understands that it may be challenging to stay on track with these. “In order for us to be able to keep our resolve, it would be helpful to just think of one goal that would be doable and keep it simple,” she said.

Psychotherapist Noel McDermott, who is equipped with 25 years of experience in health, social care, and education, stressed the significance of setting realistic aspirations. “Don’t rely on motivation alone. Ask for support from others,” he advised. “Build from small change to bigger change, just keep going until it becomes a habit. Once you have mastered it, add the next one to lead to your bigger end goals.”

“We need to come up with specific action steps that will help us achieve this,” Ngo added. “If we are able to do these for 21 days without skipping a beat, then our goal becomes a habit which leads to personal growth.”

Both experts likewise highlighted the importance of prioritizing mental health for overall well-being. To guide the general public, Channel Eye Media content editor Sue Fitzgerald listed down several psychological resolutions suggested by McDermott.

Here are some reminders for a better you this 2023:

Stop panicking

There is often little you can do about big events around you. Focus on what you have influence over. These may be yourself and your loved ones.

Live in the moment

Don’t dwell on the future. Be mindful of what you nurture.

Build better financial habits

Good money management helps ease anxiety. This puts you in a better position to deal with financial pressure. Make a budget, cut costs, and clear debts. Make an emergency fund.

Live more healthily

Implement routines. Eat nutritious food. Sleep properly. Stay hydrated. Exercise regularly. Engage in yoga and

Build your network Reconnect with old friends and family. Take the time to make new connections. This will help you feel more balanced.

Own your personal power

You control your responses to life events. You can be your own internal child, adult, or parent. The child may be emotional, spontaneous, and creative. The adult sees reality and learns from it. The parent can make difficult choices.

Don’t rely on motivation alone

Motivation is a feeling that comes and goes. It tends to be more useful for short-term gain.

Develop habit-forming behaviors

Repeated action is viewed by the brain as important. Keep a new behavior in place for three months. It will then be a habit.

Start small

For example, you aim to be fit next year. Set yourself to be more active every day. Target up to 10,000 steps a day. Once you have mastered it, set a new one such as attending the local gym.

Hold yourself accountable

Peer pressure is key. Join a group of people with the same objectives. The cheer and the positive feedback—is a reward in itself.

Nickie

DISCOVERING the skin-nourishing elixir that allows her and a million other ladies to show off their skin at its barest and healthiest, Pia Wurtzbach’s partnership with Belo Exosomes, the most advanced skin solutions in the market today, signals her meticulous preparation for her upcoming wedding day with fiancé Jeremy Jauncey

DISCOVERING are a through in anti-aging technology.

RF micro-needling treatment for faster skin

Pia Wurtzbach aunts her sensational curves with the help of the popular celebrity clinic

Pia with Dr. Vicki Belo