BusinessMirror April 19, 2023

By Andrea E. San Juan

President Ferdinand R. Mar -

cos Jr. to revisit the Department of Agriculture’s policy on granting tax and duty-free privilege to importers of palm oil used for animal feeds compounding, following the rampant cases of technical smuggling.

Jesus L. Arranza, Chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and president of the Coconut Oil Refiners Association (CORA), made the appeal in a follow-up letter to the President, who concurrently heads the Agriculture department.

In the follow-up letter, Arranza noted their intention to work with

NDUSTRY groups have askedAgriculture Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban in putting a stop to the illegal use of imported palm oil by some “unscrupulous traders.”

“The DA should also revisit this policy of allowing zero [value-added tax] VAT and duty-free importations of palm olein as this is clearly hurting the local coconut and palm oil farmers and producers,” Arranza said in his letter to the President.

“There should be strict validation relative to such reason given by importers and effective monitoring on where these importations are actually utilized,” he added.

In a previous letter, Arranza informed Marcos that he got hold

of documents that may aid the government in going after traders who managed to get duty- and tax-free privilege from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) but used their importation for purposes other than compounding of animal feeds.

In a statement released on Tuesday, FPI said the imported palm oil reportedly ended up in the market as cooking oil, or was channeled to biodiesel producers as substitute to the more expensive coconut oil.

Arranza added that he and other industry leaders are ready to help the DA in launching an investigation.

In reaction to the letter, FPI said the Office of the President “promptly” directed Panganiban

to act on the matter.

Weeks later, Arranza said he received a letter from the DA updating him on “alleged selling of imported animal grade palm consumption in the country.”

It appears, Arranza noted, that the DA failed to fully grasp the situation, particularly since there is no “animal grade” palm olein, and this is probably because the office of Panganiban “did not bother” to coordinate with him and other industry players to get the necessary inputs.

“The undersigned appreciates the update provided by USec. Panganiban. We understand that this is merely a preliminary update but

See “DA,” A2

n Wednesday, April 19, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 184 www.businessmirror.com.ph P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 28 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

WATER-SUPPLY INFRA, CONSERVATION EFFORTS PRIORITY

Govt preps for worst-case El Niño

MASUNGI’S BEAUTY Senator Nancy Binay, chairperson of the Senate Committees on Tourism, Cultural Communities, and Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, is seen during an ocular inspection and a tour of the Masungi Georeserve, a conservation area situated in the southern Sierra Madre Range in Baras, Rizal, characterized by rugged limestone karst peaks, steep slopes and surrounding lush rainforests. Binay, amazed at the beauty of the area, admitted that it is regrettable if the Bureau of Corrections continues with its plan to construct a prison in the area. ROY DOMINGO

THE government is now bracing for the possible worst impact of El Niño, which is expected to hit the country by the last quarter of the year, by prioritizing the construction of water supply infrastructure in highrisk areas and initiating early water and power conservation efforts.

of Science and Technology (DOST) and its attached agency the Philippine Atmospheric, See

Niño,” A2

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

ORMER ForeignAffairs

The business group Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) announced his passing on Tuesday, April 18. Del Rosario had been a member of the business

No swimming ban in Puerto despite poor water quality

group for 45 years before he became a diplomat.

The DFA said Del Rosario died while en route to San Francisco.

“I extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of Secretary Albert del Rosario. He was a consummate diplomat and an inspiring leader who led the DFA with integrity and unwavering commitment to public service. You will be

In response to a reporter’s question about possible complaints from tourists of skin and respiratory infections after swimming in the popular tourism site, Frasco said, “The Department of Tourism [DOT] is not in possession of any data regarding any such information considering that is not in our primary mandate. Nevertheless, I dove there at Lalaguna, one of the

O, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco hasn’t broken out in blisters or rashes despite scuba diving recently in Puerto Galera, where some of its waters have been reported of poor quality by other government agencies.most beautiful dive sites in Puerto Galera, and I’m still okay.” There have been concerns that the oil spill due to the recent sinking of oil tanker MT Princess Empress off the coast of Oriental Mindoro last February 28, had already reached Puerto Galera.  Frasco told a news briefing in Malacañang that despite the joint findings of the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), “No swimming ban has been indicated, only that the concerns have been expressed on the ingestion of water, and

See “Swimming ban,” A2

Amid furor over EDCA sites, China’s FM coming to PHL

CHINA’S State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang is flying to Manila over the weekend for an official visit, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said.

This will be Qin’s first visit to Manila since he became foreign minister in December 2022, after replacing Wang Yi who was promoted director of China’s Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission.

He was also appointed to one of the most influential positions in China— as state councilor—last March 2023.

Qin’s visit comes on the heels of Beijing’s professed anxiety over re -

unfortunately, he has not responded to my request to meet or dialogue with him so that I can share what I know about the problem as expressed in my letter to His Excellency. Also, his office has not responded to calls made by my office to obtain an appointment with him,” Arranza said.

“ May I respectfully recall to His Excellency that the problem is the apparent laxity on the part of the Bureau of Animal Industry [BAI] in issuing requests to import palm olein on VAT- and duty-free basis,”

invigorated Philippine-US defense relations, with Manila allowing US access to Philippine sites near Taiwan and West Philippine Sea, tagged as areas for exercises under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

A career diplomat, Qin was the Chinese Ambassador to the US at a very tumultuous time of deteriorating bilateral relations between Beijing and Washington DC over trade, Taiwan’s independence and human rights.

During his Manila visit, Qin will meet his counterpart, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo.

This will be their first in-person meeting.

The DFA said the ministers will

Arranza said in his second letter to the President.

Arr anza, who also chairs the Fight Illicit Trade (FightIT), said the investigation should zero in on BAI, which gave permit to import tax and tax-free and all the recipient of BAI exemption “to prove that what they imported VAT-free and duty-free were really used for feeds compounding, and if not they should be put behind bars because they are killing the coconut industry and stealing money from the government. I offer my services to Panganiban, I have faith in him and I hope he will answer my call.”

“ There is no closure yet on this issue; we opened it and we have to close it fairly,

“exchange views on the outcomes of the consultations” between their two ministries on the South China Sea dispute and on overall bilateral relations last March.

It will also be a chance for them to “discuss ways forward” on how to implement the agreements reached during the meeting of Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping last January 4, 2023.

“In particular, both sides will discuss increasing and strengthening cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, energy, infrastructure, and people-to-people relations, among others,” the DFA said.

They will also discuss regional security issues of mutual concern.

expeditiously, and ferret out all illicit acts attendant to this issue, otherwise there’ll be room for other interpretations, and I thank the President for giving importance to my plea,” Arranza noted.

Mean while, Arranza reiterated his “willingness and availability to meet with Panganiban, preferably at the DA’s offices in Quezon City at a time convenient to him, to discuss this problem.”

“I r espectfully request the President to instruct Usec Panganiban to allow the undersigned and some local coconut and palm oil players to have this dialogue and meeting so that the investigation can focus on the issues that I have revealed,” Arranza said.

Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to discuss ways to mitigate the effects of the long dry spell from El Niño. He ordered the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to create a team to coordinate government efforts and create protocols on El Niño response.

Infrastructure projects

OCD administrator Ariel F. Nepomuceno said among the President’s instructions was to fast-track the construction of infrastructures projects to increase water storage capacity in high risk areas.

Citing data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), he said there are currently over 450 such projects nationwide.

“The President wants us to identify which [projects] should be given priority after PAGASA gave the possible [areas] which could immediately suffer the worst effects [of El Niño] namely Bataan, Cavite, and maybe Ilocos Norte,” Nepomuceno said in Filipino in a press conference in Malacañang last Tuesday.  National Irrigation Administration (NIA) acting administrator Eduardo G. Guillen said they are proposing the construction of high dams, which can be used both to address floods, and store water for droughts.

“If we have a series of dams in our major and principal river basins, we will no longer have any problem—when it floods as well as during  El Niño. So, this is what the President is saying as a long-term solution,” Guillen said.

To boost the country’s preparedness for El Niño and future dry spells, he said they are also pushing for their funding to be increased to P100 billion per year, which they can use to reduce the period needed to irrigate 1.2 million hectares of land from 80 year to just 10 years.

He said they will be augmented by the initiatives of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as well as the private sector.

Other mitigation measures

ASIDE from new infrastructure, Nepomuceno said they are also working on a water-sharing arrangement between Metro Manila’s major water concessionaires to minimize the risk of water interruption in the region during El Niño.

The President also wants the launch of a public awareness campaign on water and electricity conservation as soon as possible to ensure the country will still have reliable utilities during El Niño, according to the OCD official.

He said Marcos also tasked the Department of Health (DOH) to prepare for the ailments that can spread during El Niño.

Guillen said interventions to help farmers cope with El Niño were also discussed during their meeting with Marcos.  He said measures include encouraging the affected farmers to plant hybrid rice, which have double outputs during dry season, as well as high-value crops.

Moderate El Niño

PAGASA deputy administrator Esperanza O. Cayanan said they expect the upcoming El Niño by this year will be “moderate.”

She noted it might be similar to El Niño in 2002 to 2003 marked by rainfall during the early parts of the year followed by a drought by November and December.

Based on its forecast this year, PAGASA expects a similar trend, wherein several tropical cyclones will enter the country from  June to September before the dry spell in the last quarter of the year.

“But we are not discounting the possibility we can end up with a strong [El Niño],” Cayanan said.

She noted the last recorded strong El Niño affected the country from 2014 to 2016.

Nepomuceno said they have already taken into consideration the “worst case scenario” in their evidence-based El Niño preparations.

“It is better for us to prepare for the worstcase scenario, but we need it to be a scientific approach so DOST, particularly PAGASA, will play a big role in our actions,” Nepomuceno said.

missed, Mr. Secretary,” DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo tweeted.

Del Rosario served as the foreign secretary of President Benigno S. Aquino III from 2011 to 2016.

During his almost five-year stint as the country’s top diplomat, Del Rosario pushed for a very risky move in questioning the legality of China’s claim over the South China Sea before an international court.

With the imprimatur of then President Aquino, Del Rosario brought together top legal luminaries of the country, including former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and tapped international law experts to bring China before an international tribunal.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippine government in 2016, largely invalidating China’s nine-dash line claim.

“The West Philippine Sea arbitration was very intense, with so much at stake, and so many strong opinions all over. Through it all, Sec. Albert Del Rosario was a level-headed, reasonable, inspiring, and calming influence. Sec. Albert served beyond the call of duty and brought out the best in all of us. The nation owes you,” former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said in his Facebook post.

In 2014, Del Rosario also signed the now-controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) allowing the Americans to preposition their defense equipment.

The DFA said it “mourns” the passing of Del Rosario whom it described as a “staunch advocate of protecting and advancing national security and promoting the rights and welfare of Filipinos both in the Philippines and abroad.”

He is survived by his spouse, Gretchen del Rosario, and his children.

The Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) has also notified the Securities and Exchange Commission on the passing of Del Rosario. Del Rosario served as “nonexecutive” director of MPIC since May 2016.

Protector of OFWs

ASIDE from his legacy on the South China Sea, Del Rosario’s tenure at the DFA came at the height of the Arab Spring. Hours after he was sworn into office, he secretly traveled to Tripoli, Libya to personally oversee the repatriation of Filipino workers. Over 24,000 Filipinos were repatriated during the Arab Spring and other natural disasters.

It was also during his time when the DFA extended its passport or consular offices to malls such as Ayala, Gaisano, Robinsons, SM, and Ali Mall.

Before becoming secretary of foreign affairs, he served as the Philippine ambassador to the US, securing US$1.2 billion from the US in funding assistance, pitching the Philippines as the destination for business process outsourcing (BPO) to American companies, and acquiring greater access to the US market for Philippine exports.

When the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the second largest pension fund in the world, was about to remove the Philippines from its list of investment locations, Del Rosario led the Philippine government and business community to lobby to retain it.

Del Rosario also lobbied the US Congress to refrain from discriminating against the Philippine canned tuna industry, as the US was about to give zero tariff rates for Andean countries in South America.

Before he joined the government, he was already an accomplished corporate executive whose business career spans from insurance, banking, real estate, shipping, telecommunications, consumer products, retail, pharmaceutical and food.

In the Aquino administration, he was considered the wealthiest Cabinet member with more than P765 million in assets.

therefore our perception of this joint statement is that the Puerto Galera tourism continues to be open.”

P5.3-M daily loss if tourist site is closed

BASED on “statistics,” she noted that Puerto Galera’s closure will result in an estimated “loss of P5.3 million a day” for its tourism stakeholders. She noted that 11,000 workers depend on tourism for their livelihood in the municipality.

In a joint news statement, DENR and DOH said, “only 9 sampling stations have met the criteria for water quality guidelines set by DENR Administrative Order 2016-08,” out of the 35 stations sampled in Puerto Galera and its barangays. Those safe from “oil and grease contaminants” include Small and Big Lalaguna shoreline, Balete, Central Sabang Shoreline, Coco Beach, Batangas Channel, Paniquian, Balatero, and West San Isidro Bay. The DOH advised the public not to drink the waters from contaminated areas and to avoid consuming “contaminated fish, shellfish, and other seafood products.”

Both agencies attributed the water contamination in 26 sampling stations to the “presence of economic and human activities.” Exposure to contaminants “may also cause various skin diseases such as rashes and blisters. Oil and grease may also result in aspiration leading to respiratory diseases, while ingestion will cause gastrointestinal irritations, which may manifest acutely as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.”

‘Book your vacations’

FRASCO said she welcomed the report of both agencies, “especially considering that the nine sites identified [as safe from contamination], several of these are actually very prime dive sites for Puerto Galera, one of which I dove in recently…. With regard to the other areas that were not seen to have complied with the threshold set in the water quality test results, we are also pleased to receive the Department of Health position that the public is advised to proceed with caution.”

Last year, Puerto Galera generated over P500 million in visitor receipts, still 50 percent less than the P1.2 billion receipts of 2019, prior to the pandemic. “As far as international tourism is concerned, we want to be able to make sure that the viability of Puerto Galera as a tourism destination continues and that is why the [DENR and DOH] report indicating no direct link to the oil spill is something that we welcome positively.”

The Tourism chief also enjoined the public to travel, especially this “long weekend” as Malacañang has declared Friday, April 21, a regular holiday in observance of Eid al-Fitr, or the end of the  month-long Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. “Any touristic activity that you do within any of our local destinations will ultimately help a Filipino family. Let’s help our fellow citizens in tourism by booking our vacations with our families anywhere across the Philippines.”  Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Laguna rises again with Anilag Festival 2023

FINALLY, here comes the planting season in Laguna— figuratively— with high hopes for an abundant harvest after the long dry spell.

Like anywhere else in the country, this native province of Dr. Jose Rizal rises again from the Covid-19 pandemic with the return of the just-concluded Anilag Festival, short for “Ani ng Laguna,” which means “harvest of Laguna.”

For the first time since this fair, dubbed as the “mother of all festivals,” was put on hold for over three years due to the ensuing health crisis, the provincial government held it once again face-to-face. And what a better way to have it than a weeklong revelry from March 11 to 18, packed with various activities.

The difference is that this year’s festivity is longer. Usually, it starts from Monday to Saturday. But this time, it began on a Saturday and ended the following Saturday, with various events added to the list of activities. This is because we wanted to make up for the lost time,” Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez told the BusinessMirror in mixed Filipino and English during the opening day of the festival.

Back with a vengeance

CELEBRATING its bountiful harvest, Laguna started to observe the Anilag Festival in 2004 during the gubernatorial term of Teresita S. Lazaro. Its name, however, was changed to La Laguna Festival, the so-called Festival of Life, under the tenure of Emilio Ramon Ejercito III in 2011.

“So when Gov. Hernandez [was catapulted in office] in 2014, he opted to return the festival into Anilag Festival because that’s what Laguna is known for. When he came [over], it was institutionalized as the Anilag Festival of Laguna,” said Atty. Dulce H. Rebanal, provincial administrator of Laguna.

Since then, it has been marked yearly with the congregation of all the 24 municipalities and six cities into one celebration, showcasing their rich history, scenic tourist spots, cultural heritage, and abundant agricultural and other locally made products of the province.

This award-winning tourism event, nevertheless, had a hiatus from 2020 to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak . It was supposed to come back in 2022, yet the lockdown had to be enforced anew a month prior.

Last year, we already had plans for Anilag. But it was again suspended because of pandemic, and we didn’t want to sacrifice the safety and the health of our people,” Rebanal recalled.

Fast forward to today, the province spent reasonably to have this highly-anticipated annual occasion bigger and bolder, leveraging on the economy’s reopening and revenge travel amid the improving pandemic situation in the country. In fact, the administrator disclosed that the approved budget for the festival was P50 million.

“Because it was shelved for three years, we really had to appro-

priate a significant amount because we know that it’s not really the value of P50 million, but what you can generate out of the investment,” she explained. “This is not considered an expense, but an investment because we can generate jobs and entice people to come in to Laguna. So I think the investment is really worth it.”

What’s to love in Laguna

THEMED “Love Laguna: Makisaya at Makiisa sa Masiglang Laguna,” the festival offered manifold reasons why more and more local and foreign visitors wanted to go back to the province to witness and savor its allure and grandeur. “ We’d like to show to the world all lovely about and worth coming back to Laguna, from our destinations to amusement parks, culture and the arts, food, and the people,” Governor Hernandez boasted.

Espousing all things about the province, the theme was anchored on the “Love Laguna” campaign, highlighting the six pillars: Love Adventure, Nature, People, Shopping, Culture and Food.

Taking a cue from Sampaguita’s hit song, “Laguna,” Public Information Office Director Christopher R. Sanji cited that through the festival, visitors could imagine how it balances being a green yet progressive. “ While different industries and economic activities do happen in the first and second districts, the third and fourth districts remain agricultural or the food basket of Laguna,” he said.

The town of Bay teems with greeneries, thus, making it the Garden Capital of Laguna. Tourism-wise, for instance, there’s the resort capital of Calamba and Los Baños, the falls of Pagsanjan, and the Seven Lakes of San Pablo City. Heritage sites and churches also abound in Calamba, Pakil, Pangil and Sta. Rosa.

Since Laguna is home to the many must-visit destinations, eventually, some of them are now included in tourism circuits of Southern Tagalog, comprised of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon). Per Department of Tourism (DOT) Calabarzon

Regional Director Marites T. Castro, the city of San Pablo and municipalities of Nagcarlan, Rizal, and Liliw were included in its initial establishment at the onset of Covid-19 in 2020. On the other hand, Biñan, Calamba, San Pedro and Santa Rosa made it to second phase of the tourism circuits in early 2022, she added. Delectable local cuisine and delicacies complete the gastronomy scene here, with the likes of puto latik of Biñan; ube halaya of Calamba; buko pie of Los Baños; biscuits and pastries of Nagcarlan; and kinulog na itik, salted egg and the worldrenown exotic food balut in Victoria. Artistry in this part of Southern Tagalog region, likewise, is vast as shown in the thriving carving and

paper mache industries in Paete, and hand-made hats of Cavinti and Luisiana, among others.

“Other sources of our pride are our beauty queens who competed from Binibining Laguna and, eventually, represented the country in national and international pageants. Of course, our very own, Dr. Jose RIzal, our national hero. He’s one of the inspirations of Lagunenses,” said Sanji. “We want to showcase how will you fall in love with Laguna and keep coming back here.”

Expecting the influx of both local and foreign visitors during and

after the festival, Castro is hopeful that tourism in the province will rise again and help achieve the country’s visitor arrivals for this year.

Based on reports submitted by tourism officers of Region IV-A, she bared that overnight local tourists in Calabarzon reached 5.85 million while same-day or day tour visitors hit 45.96 million last year. Likewise, she revealed that the tourism agency reported that foreign visitor arrivals increased to 2.6 million in 2022 and is targeted at 4.8 million in 2023.

“ The Anilag Festival is a sign that tourism is, indeed, back in the

region, especially in Laguna,” pointed out the regional director of DOT Calabrazon. “That’s why we are very happy and all-out supportive of the identified spots, including here in Laguna, for our tourism circuits.”

Event’s highlights

ANILAG Festival 2023 kicked off with the Heritage Fluvial Parade, which began from Pakil Port and ended at Quezon Bridge. This was followed by the cortége of Virgin Mary’s statues, culminating the festivity’s thanksgiving mass.

For me, what is really very

meaningful were the Marian procession and [the Our Lady of] Turumba of Pakil [during the fluvial parade]. It was a different feeling that Anilag is coming back after three years of pandemic,” Rebanal noted. “It’s also an indication that we’re going back to normal.”

The weeklong affair was highlighted by the Ginoo and Binibining Laguna and trade fair exhibit and contest participated in by all the municipalities and cities. Huge prizes were at stake in these competitions meant to expose not only the many offerings and talents found in the province, but also to promote the local tourism sector. Other activities were hot air balloon and a concert involving local talents.

Sta. Cruz emerged as the big winner in the Anilag Festival as it won the top prizes in the Trade Fair and Land Float competition. The Street Dance competition winner was Victoria.

“After three years, Anilag came back. Everyone is excited. That’s why we noticed the high level of competition as shown in the booth of every local government unit. So we expect in the coming days there will be more exciting events the will happen in the Provincial Capitol,” Pakil Mayor Vincent Ludovico Soriano said in an earlier interview.

“We’re glad to see, first, the excitement and happiness of the people to see again the festival. Then, the return of the trade industry, with the showcase of our One-Town, One Product offerings and, at the same time, the reemergence of our tourist spots. So the business is definitely back,” Sanji added.

Witnessing the bayanihan spirit of Lagunenses and stakeholders alive again to make the success of Anilag Festival 2023 a success, Governor Hernandez expressed his gratitude to them.

All of you were part of the Anilag Festival. It’s not only me and my colleagues in the provincial government, but all of the sectors that worked very hard, including our constituents. We are all parts of this successful event. Thank you very much for all your help and support,” he stressed.

Govt vows to sustain sufficient rice supply despite El Niño risk

We must sustain the needs of our country, which is pegged at 37,000 metric tons [MT] a day,” DA Assistant Secretary and deputy spokesperson Rex Estoperez said.

T he Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has announced the possibility of an El Niño

Southern Oscillation (ENSO) that may occur during the third quarter of 2023 until 2024.

W hile the El Niño Watch raised concerns on rice sufficiency in the Philippines, a study by the Department of Agriculture (DA)–National Rice Program (NRP) estimated that the ending stock of palay for the

first quarter of 2023, which is about 5.66 million metric tons (MMT), is good for 51 days.

T his consists of 1.77 MMT of beginning stock, 3.12 million MT of locally produced rice, and 774,050.44 MT of imported rice, which was based on the Bureau of Customs’ import arrivals record as of March 16 and the DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry arrival report as of March 23.

A surge in the estimated rice supply is also expected upon incorporation of the harvests in March and April.

On the other hand, farm-gate prices for fresh and dry palay (unhusked rice) as of April 3 were at P17.98 and P21.07 per kilo, respectively.

Both experienced an increase as compared to the previous month’s record—P17.29 per kilo of fresh palay and P19.23 for a kilo of dry palay.

From March 3 to April 3, Metro Manila market prices for locally produced special rice remained at P54 per kilo.

Well-milled and regular milled rice experienced a 3.65 and 2.77 percent price increase, while premium rice was sold for a lower price at P44.50 per kilogram.

W hile the dry season provides better conditions for drying newlyharvested palay, the DA said a price increase might happen depending on any situational changes, for instance, the added value due to the high quality of dry palay.

Maybe we’ll see this El Niño [if prices go up]. Maybe we in the national government, we can address that based on the supply, so maybe it won’t work because it’s a projection. But let’s look at it, we have to look at the consumers as

well,” Estoperez said.

In preparation for the El Niño phenomenon, the DA has been providing strengthened and readily available irrigation services, targeting 1.5 million hectares of well-irrigated areas in partnership with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Fertilizer bags will also be purchased by the DA for distribution among farmers’ cooperatives and associations under the clustering and consolidation approach to boost rice production in the country.

M oreover, the agri department also reactivated its National El Niño Task Force and will enforce its enhanced El Niño Mitigation and Adaptation Plan, to include interventions such as cloud seeding over the watersheds of affected reservoirs, provision of production support for crops, livestock

Rep. Villafuerte hails MAP and AmCham support for Cha-cha to boost FDI inflow

THE fresh support of foreign and local business groups for Charter change (Cha-cha) to attract more investors is the latest proof that stripping out the outdated provisions in our Constitution restricting foreign participation in local businesses is the fast way to spell a dramatic jump in foreign direct investments (FDIs) needed to keep the economy on its high growth path and accelerate poverty reduction, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.  Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said

the backing of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) for constitutional reform has shattered the position of other business groups that a makeover of constitutional provisions on the domestic economy has become superfluous because of four new laws designed to enhance the local investment climate.

The full backing of such prominent local and foreign business groups as MAP and AmCham for constitutional reform to attract more investors has buttressed the position of Charter change advocates in the Congress like myself that only a makeover stripping out the antiquated, protectionist economic provisions of our 36-year-old Constitution could

enable the Philippines keep up with, let alone overtake, neighboring economies that have become major FDI hubs way ahead of our country,” Villafuerte, one of the lead proponents in the House of Representatives of Cha- cha via the Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) route, said.

Villafuerte said the Constitution’s 40-percent cap on foreign ownership of certain major Philippine business “explains the nonstop decline in FDI inflows to our country despite its status as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“ Thus, tweaking our Constitution at the soonest to do away with its economic provisions that have apparently spooked overseas investors has become a must, because the President’s economic managers themselves have stressed the importance of investments to stimulate economic activity, creating jobs

and attacking poverty,” said Villafuerte.

M AP and AmCham had separately supported Charter change for so long as such would only cover economic-related constitutional provisions.

Our stand is that we agree, provided that it is limited to the economic provisions,” MAP president Benedicta Du-Baladad told reporters.

A mCham executive director Ebb Hinchliffe said, meanwhile, that his group is, likewise, supportive of the move to amend the Charter’s economic provisions, to help encourage more FDIs into the country.

“ We support the economic changes to the Constitution. That is the best thing we can do to get more FDIs in the country,” Hinchliffe said.

Villafuerte also noted that in last week’s Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Washington, D.C. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that creating more quality jobs is crucial to the Marcos administration’s goal to pull down poverty incidence to a single-digit level by 2028.

Other business groups earlier said they used to support Cha-cha but no longer do now because of recently enacted laws that have already addressed “many of the impediments” to higher FDI inflows.

These investor-friendlier measures that are being cited by the other business groups that believe constitutional reform is no longer necessary include the four laws co-authored by Villafuerte in the 18th Congress—the Corporate Recovery and Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE); and the amendatory laws to the Public Service Act (PSA), Foreign Investments Act (FIA) and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA).

and fisheries sub-sectors from pre to post-El Niño, conduct of information campaigns geared towards water conservation and active community participation, and reinforced coordination with the Pagasa, NIA, Office of Civil Defense, DA regional field offices, and other concerned agencies.

T he DA seeks 100 percent rice self-sufficiency by 2027 through its Masagana Rice Program 2023-2028.

T he said program aims to stabilize the country’s rice supply to 24.99 to 26.86 MMT, lower rice inflation to less than 1 percent annually, increase farmers’ income by 54 percent, and ensure rice availability and safety at all times by maintaining sufficient rice buffer stock at the DA-National Food Authority as mandated by the Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication law.

House Speaker vows to widen PHL-US economic security ties

THE Speaker of the House of Representatives on Tuesday announced that the Philippine government under the Marcos administration would expand its economic security relations with the US.  F ollowing his congressional delegation’s meeting with a US lawmaker in Washington, D.C. Tuesday dawn (Philippine time), Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said expanding the country’s economic security relations would further enhance the Philippines’ trade and investment cooperation and create opportunities for sustainable growth.

R omualdez met with US Representative Young Kim (California-40th congressional district), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, at the US Capitol along with members of his delegation.

T he Speaker said the meeting with Kim centered on defense and security engagement, which remain a key pillar of the PhilippinesUS bilateral relations.

We asked for the continued US congressional support for defense and economic security,” he said in a statement.

“On top of our strong military security with the United States, Rep. Kim has vowed to work with us to further strengthen and expand the country’s economic security with them. This partnership will boost productivity, drive economic growth, and generate new jobs,” Romualdez added. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

THE country’s rice supply remains sufficient amid growing public concern of a rice supply shortage and price increase because of the looming impact of El Niño, an official said.

Sen. Poe: SC to decide on fate of SIM listing law

THE lead author of the SIM registration law now being challenged in the Supreme Court (SC) is deferring to the wisdom of the tribunal, even as she reiterated the need for the law to fight rising incidence of cybercrime.

The fate of the SIM Registration law now rests on the collective wisdom of the magistrates of the Supreme Court,” said Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Services that screen public franchises granted by government.

We worked hard and fought for its passage with the aim to fend off scams and spams preying on our people, and sometimes causing them financial losses and endangering their safety,” she added.

Moreover, the senator stressed the enabling legislation passed by Congress “instituted adequate law with safeguards that will vouch for consumers’ right to privacy while ensuring a safe and secure mobile use.”

T his, even as she assured, “we respect the processes of the High Court in deliberating on the petition.”

I n elevating the case to the High Court, the petitioners are asking the SC to strike down the SIM registry law, for “violating the basic constitutional rights of SIM card users, stressing blatant violation of provision in Republic Act 11934.”

I n its 59-page petition, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and several other individuals also sought the “immediate issuance of a temporary restraining order [TRO] and/ or a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining the implementation of the law pending the resolution of the petition.”

M oreover, the petitioners stressed the “need to immediately enjoin the implementation of the law as more than 106 million other unregistered Filipinos stand to be disfranchised through automatic

deactivation of their SIMs if they fail to comply with the April 26 registration deadline.”

At the same time, the petitioners prayed for the High Court to order public telecommunication entities (PTEs) to cease and desist from using, storing, transferring, and processing all information gathered into the SIM register and to destroy data already gathered.

In assailing the law, the petitioners denounced it as “unconstitutional as it violates the right to freedom of speech by imposing a system of prior restraint; right against unreasonable searches and seizures and to privacy of communication by intruding into the petitioners’ reasonable expectation of privacy and circumventing the requirement of a judicial warrant; and substantive due process by intruding into the life, liberty, and property of petitioners.”

T he implementation of the law, they said, would affect the effort of the Supreme Court to speed up the disposition of cases through the adaption of videoconferencing to conduct court proceedings.

To an extent that is difficult to quantify, this Honorable Court’s technology-driven rules and guidelines have breathed new life into citizen’s rights to the speedy disposition of their cases and to free access to courts. But all these rules and guidelines rely on a foundation built on unimpeded access to SIM cards,” the petitioners said.

Named respondents in the petition were the National Telecommunications Commission, the National Privacy Commission, DICT, the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Education, and telecommunication companies such as Globe Telecom Inc., Smart Communications Inc., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Dito Telecommunity Corporation, Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., Sun Cellular and Cherry Mobile Communications Inc.

Military confirms arrest of leftist leader Eric Jun Casilao in Malaysia

AN alleged member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was arrested early this month in Malaysia by joint Malaysian and Filipino forces, the Philippine military said in a belated report.

Eric Jun Casilao, alias Elian and Wally, who is also the secretary of the communist group’s Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC), was nabbed at the Jeti Point International Clearance Gate, Langkawi, Malaysia on April 1, a statement issued by Lt. Col. Alex Mindalano, spokesman of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said. “Casilao is considered the most wanted communist terrorist group (CTG) leader in Southeastern Mindanao, notorious for staging numerous atrocities in the Davao Region and other neighboring regions under the SMRC. He also has existing arrest warrants for murder, kidnapping, se-

JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla castigated Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. for calling the DOJ chief’s plan to designate the latter as a terrorist “funny.”

R emulla, in a text message to reporters, defended his statement during the Senate hearing on the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and eight others that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is

House reso pushes comprehensive study, assessment on learners’ mental health

ADEPUTY speaker has filed a resolution urging the government to conduct an in-depth assessment and comprehensive study on the state of mental health among students in the wake of a decline in mental health aggravated during the pandemic.

D eputy Speaker and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar has filed House Resolution 900 calling on relevant state agencies to immediately intervene following studies and reports that suicide among students has been on the rise.

There is a need to conduct an in-depth assessment of and comprehensive study by relevant government agencies—such as the Department of Health, Department of Education and the Philippine Statistics Authority—on the

present state of mental health of the country’s education sector in particular and the overall population in general to address immediate needs in a bid to establish more mental health units in schools, hospitals, or rural health units, among other measures,” Villar said.

A side from investing in mental health services, Villar said there is also an “urgent need to have a proactive effort to promote their mental health and well-being and prevent mental health disorders and improve the overall mental health access and therapist services in schools and communities to address the apparent mental health crisis in the education sector.”

Villar presented alarming findings by the education department— more than 400 suicides happened in 2021-2022 academic year.

Of the country’s 28 million young learners in public schools, a total of

Hontiveros renews call for divorce bill passage

SENATORS were prodded to frontload passage of the divorce bill that Sen. Risa Hontiveros said is being awaited by “abused women.”

Hontiveros on Tuesday renewed her call for Congress to pass Senate Bill 147 or the Dissolution of Marriage Act.

Sitting as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, Hontiveros stressed, “Women victim-survivors of domestic abuse need this legal recourse.”

T he lawmaker lamented, “Some Filipino women have almost been killed by their own husbands,” but added “most of them cannot leave their marriages because of the prohibitive costs of filing for an annulment.”

pointed out.

She also recalled that according to the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey by the Philippines Statistics Authority, one in four married women aged 15 to 49 years old has experienced spousal violence, whether physical, sexual, or emotional. Surveys also report that most of those who agree to institute divorce are women.

“When a marriage becomes irreparable, it is incumbent upon the State to not only provide relief to spouses, but also protect children from the pain, anxiety, and trauma of witnessing regular marital clashes. Let us give Filipino families the chance to let go of toxic relationships,” Hontiveros said.

775,962 sought the assistance of guidance counselors during the period, with about 8,000 of those cases that involved bullying.

Two separate surveys conducted by the World Health Organization in 2015 and 2019 separately among teenage students already showed an uptick in suicidal thoughts among learners even before the pandemic.

In the 2015 Global School-based Student Health Survey among Filipino children aged 13 to 17 or those typically on Grade 7 to fourth year, 11.6 percent of the respondents said they “seriously considered” attempting suicide during the 12 months before the survey, while 16.2 percent attempted suicide one or more times in that period.

On the other hand, in the 2019 study, 23.1 percent of respondents have “seriously considered” attempting suicide, while a slightly higher percentage of surveyed students—

at 24.3 percent—attempted suicide “one or more times” during the 12 months before the survey. The percentage of students who said that they “did not have any close friends” also grew to 5.9 percent in 2019 from 4.3 percent in 2015.

Overall, 3.3 percent of the population or some 3.3 million Filipinos live with depression, and suicide mortality rate is 3.2 per 100,000 population. S eparate research by the University of the Philippines Population Institute indicated that close to 1.5 million young Filipinos have tried taking their own life in 2021, compared with 574,000 young people who tried ending their life in a 2013 study.

“

The collective health of citizens greatly affects the success of their overall socioeconomic development, as well as their access to education and other basic services,” Villar added.

DENR chief holds meeting with land-reclamation critics

THE practice of land reclamation, also called dump-andfill, may cause irreversible damage to the coastal ecosystem.

T his was stressed by international nongovernment organization Oceana Philippines and fisherfolk groups under the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) held its first public consultation with leaders of environmental groups that oppose land reclamation in Manila Bay on Friday, April 14 at the DENR Central Office in Quezon City.

That listening will result in what we are trying to actually achieve: changes in the process, changes in the policy, and possibly, changes in the people,” the DENR chief said in the statement.

D uring the meeting, Hicap, however, expressed disappointment over the irreversible damage in Manila Bay caused by land reclamation, its impacts on the livelihoods of people dependent on fishing, and the alleged threats to those who oppose such.

P amalakaya has been demanding for an audience with the DENR for several months now and held at least four pickets last year to press for their demand to stop the land reclamation projects in the area.

rious illegal detention and attempted murder,” Mindalano said.

According to Mindalano, Casilao was boarding a ferry bound for Koh Lipe, Thailand when joint elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police (PNP), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Bureau of Immigration, Department of Foreign Affairs, Royal Malaysian Police and Malaysian Immigration arrested him.

Before his arrest, Casilao was put on the Malaysian Red Notice list through the request of the PNP for falsification of his passport by assuming a fake identity.

A fter his arrest, Casilao was temporarily detained in Malaysia for violating immigration laws before he was deported to the Philippines on Monday, April 17.

Mindalano said that last year, the Eastern Mindanao Command through the 10th Infantry Division released a wanted poster of Casilao to fast track his arrest with the support of civilians.

planning to move for Teves’ designation by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) and to file a proscription case before the Court of Appeals (CA) to declare him as a terrorist.

T he DOJ chief cited the multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, the multiple attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges that Teves is now facing as bases in seeking his designation as a terrorist.

“ That is not funny at all, considering that the highest ranked local official was killed in his own home,

Hontiveros asserted: “Bigyan na natin ang ating mga kababaihan ng pagkakataong makalaya sa masalimuot at abusadong pagsasama. Bigyan natin sila ng oportunidad na mahalin at magmahal muli. Ipasa na ang Divorce Bill.”

I n authoring the remedial legislation, Hontiveros also led discussions on various measures seeking to “end dysfunctional and abusive marriages.”

Hontiveros renewed her call for Congress to promptly pass Senate Bill No. 147 or the Dissolution of Marriage Act, as she reminded that “it is incumbent for the State to not only provide relief to spouses but also protect children from the pain, anxiety, and trauma of witnessing regular marital clashes.”

Let us give the Filipino family a chance, a way out that is straightforward and no fault,” the senator stressed, adding: “Once you realized you made a mistake, the way out should not be traumatizing to the average married Filipino—financially, psychologically, and socially.”

“ We all deserve a second chance in love and in life,” Hontiveros

while serving his constituents, by highly-trained gunmen recruited for that purpose. Was what happened to Governor Degamo funny in any way?” Remulla asked.     Teves is currently undergoing preliminary investigation before the DOJ for illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives that were seized from his property following Degamo’s killing.

T he lawmaker is also facing preliminary investigation before the DOJ in connection with three killings that took place between

At the same time, she also recalled a 2017 Social Weather Station survey, revealing that 53 percent agreed to legalize divorce. Another survey, run by the Catholic Radio Veritas in 2018, showed that 52 percent “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” to the measure.

Hontiveros asserted that the Senate needs to pick up speed, as the House of Representatives has approved, in principle, bills that provide for the dissolution of marriage.

“ Our counterparts in the House have already been making the moves to help our country catch up with the rest of the world. The Senate must do the same. Past surveys have demonstrated that the majority of Filipinos favor divorce to be instituted in the country. We better listen to our people,” Hontiveros said.

She also reminded, “We are the only country, aside from the Vatican, that doesn’t have divorce,” noting “as a secular state, this is not something to be proud of. This only shows how left behind we are in addressing the needs and recognizing the lived experiences of our people. 2023 na, wala pa ring divorce. It’s time to change this,” Hontiveros stressed. Butch Fernandez

March to June 2019 in Negros Oriental.

A lthough he has also been tagged as the mastermind in the Degamo killing, authorities have yet to file a case against him in connection with the case.

“ There is nothing funny about nine people getting killed. The people are/were terrorized and are/were living in fear as long as he is not in legal custody. We are guarding against that capability to wreak havoc and destruction to people’s lives,” Remulla pointed out.

T he consultation, attended by key DENR officials led by Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, was part of the “continuous policy review and outreach to stakeholders on environmentally critical issues.”

J oining Loyzaga were DENR Undersecretaries Jonas Leones, Juan Miguel Cuna, CP David, and Marilou Erni; DENR Technical Adviser to the Secretary Dr. Noralene Uy; Professor Jessica Bercilla; and Atty. Gia Ibay, head of the Climate Change and Energy Programme of World Wildlife Fund Philippines (WWF).

Fernando Hicap, national chairman of Pamalakaya, Narod Eco, member of Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM) and a former researcher at the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Geological Sciences; Atty. Rose-Liza Osorio, Legal and Policy Specialist of Oceana Philippines; Paco Perez, Campaign Officer of NILAD; Jerwin Baure, Public Information Officer of AGHAM; and Jon Bonifacio, National Coordinator of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment attended the event.

I n a statement, Yulo-Loyzaga said inputs from all sectors are valuable for the DENR to deliver its mandate.

T he dialogue enables the gathering of ground-based knowledge and accelerates the collection of data and evidence from affected communities and stakeholders.

T he DENR, Yulo-Loyzaga said, will likewise hold consultations with academic institutions, experts, advocates, and other civil society groups.

“ We are reviewing everything— policies, processes, and the immediate actions that need to be taken in order to address this environmental issue. Your inputs today are valuable for the DENR. I am here to listen. That is the promise I am giving you.

For his part, Eco urged the DENR to make the system and process more participatory rather than just being consultative.

H e also said that the DENR should set a threshold of harm, which should serve as the basis for the denial of environmental compliance certificate application. E co also said a precautionary principle should also be applied at all times.

For her part, Loyzaga appealed to environmental groups to share data and evidence to help the DENR accelerate the reforms that need to be undertaken.

T he DENR chief said the agency is building a constituency for resilient development through continuous consultation. It will hold an Experts Forum on Reclamation in May that will be composed of two sessions: Governance and Technical Issues.

T he former will tackle processes, policies, programs, plans, and actions, while the latter session will focus on the scientific aspect of reclamation. Yulo-Loyzaga also invited Pamalakaya and AGHAM as panelists in the multi-stakeholder forum.

The processes and policies currently being reviewed are part of a larger effort to bring integrity to the Department…we need to understand that we must be fit for our purpose and for the values that we want the Department to represent,” YuloLoyzaga explained.

I nterviewed by the BusinessMirror, Hicap said he was particularly dismayed at how the DENR officials responded to the issues and concerns they have previously raised.

We were able to raise the issue of land reclamation but the DENR asked for data from us,” he said.  Hicap also noted the DENR chief made no promise to stop land reclamation activities.

Remulla reminds Rep. Teves: Death of 9 people is not ‘funny’

NOTICE OF FILING OF APPLICATION/S FOR ALIEN EMPLOYMENT PERMIT/S (AEP/S)

Notice is hereby given that the following companies/employers have filed with this Regional Office application/s for

14 BOJIE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION Lots 1-8, Block 4, Golden Gate Business Park, Buenavista II, City of General Trias, Cavite

15 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

16 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

17 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

18 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

19 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

20 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

21 BROTHER INDUSTRIES (PHILIPPINES), INC.

Lot 1-B-2, Phase 1-B, First Philippine Industrial Park, Ulango, City of Tanauan, Batangas

22 ENOMOTO PHILIPPINE MANUFACTURING INC.

Lot 5-B, Gateway Business Park, Javalera, City of General Trias, Cavite

23 ENOMOTO PHILIPPINE MANUFACTURING INC.

Lot 5-B, Gateway Business Park, Javalera, City of General Trias, Cavite

24 FURUKAWA ELECTRIC THERMAL MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS AND PRODUCTS LAGUNA, INC.

Units 9, 10, 13 & 14 Metrococo Bldg. 1B, 105 Industry Road, Laguna Technopark, Don Jose, City of Santa Rosa, Laguna

25 HINO MOTORS PHILIPPINES CORPORATION Industrial Park Road, Canlubang Industrial Estate, Canlubang, City of Calamba, Laguna

LI, FULIN Section Chief of Warehouse Department

Brief Job Description:

Safeguard warehouse operations and contents by establishing and monitoring security procedures and protocols

SAKAMOTO, DAIGEN Engineering Advisor

Brief Job Description:

Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

YAMAOKA, SOTARO Engineering Advisor

Brief Job Description:

Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

YOSHIOKA, SATOSHI

Parts Quality Control Advisor

Brief Job Description:

Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

TAZAKI, YUHEI

Production Advisor

Brief Job Description:

Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

MATSUSHITA, TAKUMA

Purchasing Production Control Advisor

Brief Job Description: Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

ITO, AKIRA

Purchasing Production Control Manager

Brief Job Description: Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implement technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

NAKAYAMA, DAISUKE

Quality Management Deputy General Manager

Brief Job Description:

Develop and maintain strong human relations as well as implementation technical training of department’s personnel to improve their knowledge and skill

TANINO, RUI

Executive Advisor - Electroplating

Brief Job Description:

Manage program strategy and direction ensuring continuous improvements to the customer experience

KUROKI, HAJIME

Technical Manager - Electroplating

Brief Job Description:

Review and evaluate the effectiveness of techniques, methods and systems implemented

ITO, SHINICHI

Senior Manager

Brief Job Description:

Manage and oversee the overall operation of heat pipe production

Basic Qualification: Excellent problem-solving skills and mechanical ability

Salary Range: Php60,000 - Php89,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range:

Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range:

Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range:

Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range:

Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification: With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

With at least 8-10 years of work experience in printing and solution industries with the same position or above

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification:

A profound knowledge in business planning

Salary Range:

Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification: An innovative Technical Manager with electroplating experience

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

Basic Qualification: With experience as a manager of a company

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

HATASAKI, KAZUTOSHI

VP-Product Development and Engineering

Brief Job Description:

Review, analyze, and verify all product development & Engineering activities for the last 3 years

Basic Qualification: Graduate of Aerospace Engineering or equivalent

Salary Range: Php150,000Php499,999

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Island Cove II, Covelandia Road, Pulvorista, Kawit, Cavite

80 MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Island Cove II, Covelandia Road, Pulvorista, Kawit, Cavite

81 MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. Island Cove II, Covelandia Road, Pulvorista, Kawit, Cavite

NGUYEN THI HIEN

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Manage incoming calls and customer service inquiries

NONG THI HUONG

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description: Manage incoming calls and customer service inquiries

TRIEU, VAN GIONG

Vietnamese Customer Service Representative

Brief Job Description:

Manage incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language

Salary Range: Php30,000 - Php59,999

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language

Salary Range: Php30,000 - Php59,999

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, read and write Chinese language

Salary Range: Php30,000 - Php59,999

Elon Musk company donates broadband internet to SPMC pediatric cancer center

DAVAO CITY—The pediatric cancer center at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) here is the recipient of a high-speed Internet broadband from the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

SPMC announced that its pediatric cancer center called House of Hope and the entire compound of the SPMC were the recipients of two Starlink internet broadband by SpaceX owned by Musk.

T he Space X is joined by nongovernment organization St. Jude Global to install the broadband link to the House of Hope Foundation for Kids with Cancer on Tuesday.

T he SPMC was the first of five chosen St. Jude Global partners from all over the world (including Brazil, Chile, Mozambique and Peru) to receive the Starlink broadband from the Polaris Program, the SPMC said. Two Starlinks were installed at the SPMC; one for the House of Hope foundation and the other for the rest of the SPMC medical compound.

T he turnover of high-speed broadband internet was “geared at providing greater access to online medical conferencing, case and image sharing, and diagnostic assistance for the SPMC.”

Patrick Celis, head of the city

medical assistance program called Lingap para sa Mahihirap, said the local government “is grateful for the donation as good internet access will indubitably improve the efficiency of the operations of the SPMC, especially in information sharing and medical research.”

We are very happy that the SPMC was chosen, especially the House of Hope because a lot of children will surely benefit,” Celis said.

House of Hope founding director Dr. Mae Dolendo and other SPMC doctors welcomed the donors and presided the turnover. St. Jude Global affiliates and patrons to the House of Hope foundation were also present during the event.

The entire crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, including Mission Commander Jared Isaacman, Mission Pilot Scott Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Poteet, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon, personally delivered the Starlinks to the foundation.

T he Polaris Dawn mission is a commercial space program of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or Space X, an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Manuel T. Cayon

CA junks plea for writ of amparo filed by a Cordillera rights group

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed its decision issued last year junking the plea of several officers and members of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) for the issuance of a writ of amparo against the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict-NTF-ELCAC) and other law enforcement agencies.

In a 16-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Angeline Mary Quimpo-Sale, the CA’s Former Seventeenth Division did not give weight to petitioners argument that it set the bar “too high for any aggrieved citizen to seek succor from the courts in times of threats to his life and liberty” when it denied their petition for a writ of amparo.

T he CPA is a corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with the primary purpose of upholding the collective rights and welfare of indigenous peoples (IP) of the Cordillera.

T he petitioners led by CPA chairperson Windel Bolinget claimed that

the respondents that have threatened their liberty that placed safety at risk have individually subjected them to various acts.

T hese acts include the relentless red-tagging and vilification by “state forces” and unknown entities in public place and social media posts, such as Facebook and community meetings; the issuance of Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC) Resolution paving the way for the conduct of house visitations of individuals identified as associated or members of communist front organizations (CFO); and visitations, stalking, surveillance, and harassment allegedly perpetrated by officers of the respondents NTF-ELCAC, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Philippine Army (PA), Department of Interior and Local Government-Cordillera Administrative Region (DILG-CAR).

T he petitioners also assailed the encampment by the AFP in indigenous villages, residential houses and use of civilian facilities or structures and the filing of baseless

charges against some of the petitioners that were eventually dismissed.

I n a ruling issued on October 24, 2022, the CA denied the petition for the failure of the petitioners to present sufficient evidence that would warrant the issuance of a writ of amparo.

“ With all the foregoing, there is no substantial evidence of actual or imminent threat to petitioners’ life, liberty or security,” the CA declared in the said ruling.

Even if the different grounds be taken together for each petitioner, none of the supporting affidavits and documents compellingly show that the threat to petitioners’ rights to life, liberty and security is actual, imminent or continuing,” it added.

In their motion for reconsideration (MR), the petitioners alleged that the sheer volume of screenshots attached to their affidavits proves that the acts of red tagging are real and several posts on Facebook were authored and shared by the respondents.

A lthough the Facebook posts were made two years ago, the petitioners insisted that this does not invalidate

the existence of present, imminent or actual threat to the life, liberty or security of the petitioners.

T he petitioners added that the Facebook posts were made at the height of pandemic lockdowns, thus, they could not immediately seek legal action against the alleged acts of the respondents.

I n a resolution last April 11, 2023 but was made public on Tuesday, the CA denied the petitioners motion, noting that the “sheer volume” of screenshot attached to their affidavits “does not automatically amount to substantial evidence proving that the Facebook posts were made by or under the direction of the respondents.”

“

There is nothing in the screenshots that would support petitioners’ conclusion that the Facebook posts are directly connected with the six respondents,” the CA pointed out.

L ikewise, the CA held that the fact that the Facebook posts were made two years ago is vital to the determination of the existence of present, imminent or actual threat to the life, liberty or security of petitioners.

• Configure the products according to customers’ requirements. • Supervise project management for sales completion. • Guide end-to-end solution of a project for delivery and implementation.

Qualification:

Must have at least 5 years of work experience as a manager for its strategy. • Has a background in managing innovation strategy. • With experience in sales and marketing management of its products

the General Manager, you will be responsible for the overall operations and the P&L of Philippines, Guam and Saipan business. Leading a multi-market team, you will partner closely with country, regional teams and various stakeholders to develop and execute business strategies to meet commercial and organizational growth. As an experienced leader, you will instill a highperformance culture and build an environment where you can attract, retain and develop talent. You will keep abreast of competitive activities and identify potential growth opportunities. You will also need to ensure all

SAS, Python, R & SQL, Google Big Query, Macro development; Knowledge in Banking systems a plus; With proven and progressive analytics experience to spot trends and identify opportunities; Sound understanding of the HSBC customer proposition and products strategy and values; Strong, management, planning, financial, leadership, change management and communications skills; Strong business acumen and ability to continually make trade-off decisions and build consensus; Able to operate effectively in a complex matrix driven environment, result focused and commercially driven; Able to influence, engage and lead in a positive, inspiring manner; Proven adherence to controls and compliance with no significant breaches; Excellent interpersonal skills, with a particular emphasis upon inspiring, influencing and negotiating ; Successfully complete all global mandatory training courses and post course assessments.

Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999 218.

EDWARD, NAOMI SHARON Manager Product Control Business Analyst Brief Job Description: Work within the MSS Finance Change, analyzing business requirements and delivering the target technology toolset required to support P&L control and reporting, accounting and regulatory reporting for PC; Work with the senior PC Business Analyst, Product Control line, Finance Change and the IT teams which support Product Control to effectively support project delivery, resolve issues where required and communicate status; and support the Process Optimization workstream team, being accountable for delivering business analysis outcomes that are compliant with the BTF, Finance Change’s best practice framework, requirement documents, testing plans and evidence, status reporting.

Basic Qualification: Prior working knowledge of Global Banking and Markets via line role experience. Part qualified accountant (desirable) with a strong knowledge of Global Market Products and behaviors. Project Delivery experience of at least a year (either through line role, or as part of project team). A good understanding of Project Lifecycle, preferably with a qualification. Strong analytical skills, problem solving and an attention to detail. Experienced in Microsoft Office – Excel, Word, Access. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate effectively with all stakeholders and produce clear project artefacts. Ability to work both autonomously and to contribute to a team. Selfmotivated with a proven rapid learning capability in a changing environment. Delivery focused with attention to detail, ensuring tasks are completed on time and to a high standard of quality. Can do’ attitude - willing to turn a hand to whatever task is required and support the team. Able to build relationships and influence others, including business heads, senior managers, third party consultants, technical experts and business users. Shows willingness and potential for increasing their responsibilities within the project.

TheWorld

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

China minister lauds Putin for ‘promoting world peace’

CHINA’S defense minister congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for “promoting world peace,” underscoring the warm relations between the two nations more than a year after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sparked Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

A clip posted on the Chinese company NetEase Inc.’s short-video platform appears to show Li Shangfu reading prepared remarks in a meeting with Putin and Li’s Russian counterpart on Sunday.

Calling Putin “an extraordinary state leader,” Li cited his “important contributions to promoting world peace and development.”

The comments highlighted the contrast between Beijing’s approach to the Kremlin leader—who’s wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes—and that of the US and its allies, which have hit Russia with sweeping sanctions and sought to isolate Putin over a war that’s killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

Top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations Tuesday condemned “Russian aggression” and vowed to continue “supporting Ukraine as long as it takes.”

It wasn’t clear what the source of the Li video was. The remarks were not included in Chinese state media’s reporting on the meeting of the three men or in the official Kremlin readout of the event. China’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Li ’s visit to Russia is the first by a Chinese defense minister since the war began. Beijing has been Russia’s biggest supporter since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow in March and has spoken to Putin several times on the phone over the past year. Xi said “China highly values the relationship with Russia” during his trip.

China has tried to cast itself as a peacemaker in the war, and unveiled a vague 12-point peace blueprint in February. Its call for a cease-fire that would freeze Russian forces in Ukraine is a non-starter for Kyiv, the US and Ukraine’s other supporters.

Xi hasn’t spoken with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the fighting started, though there were reports around the time of Xi’s visit to Moscow that a call is planned.

In the meeting with Li on Sunday, Putin highlighted the exchange of intelligence and joint maneuvers in the Far East and Europe, the Interfax news service reported.

Li said China was willing to “further strengthen strategic communication between the two militaries,” according to state broadcaster China Central Television. Bloomberg News

Britain loses three million days to strikes as more protests loom

BRITAIN’S economy has lost more than three million working days since industrial action escalated last summer, with unions planning another wave of protests in the weeks ahead.

The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday that 348,000 days were lost because of labor disputes in February, up from 210,000 in January. It took the total to 3.014 million days since the ONS started collecting the data again last June following a pause due to the Covid pandemic.

Workers have been protesting against real-terms pay cuts, particularly in the public sector, amid doubledigit inflation. It’s the most severe run of strikes since 1990 when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.

February began with a coordinated day of strikes on which almost 500,000 teachers, civil servants and rail workers walked out. A second, bigger day of mass strikes took place in March. Next month the ONS will publish the number of days lost in March.

Three-fifths of the days lost in February were in the education sector.

Teachers, nurses and one ambulance union have announced new strikes in April and May after members were left unimpressed by fresh pay offers from the government, although members of Unison—another health union—voted to accept the deal. Junior doctors have also started to strike.

Further action from nurses and doctors could be coordinated according to comments made by union leaders over the weekend. Education unions are balloting members for the right to schedule more strikes up until Christmas.

There was better progress in the private sector at the weekend as Royal Mail reached an agreement in principle with the Communication Workers Union following a yearlong dispute over pay.

Strikes have been weighing heavily on the UK’s public services, causing a hit to February’s GDP reading. Bloomberg News

Secret Chinese police station in New York leads to arrests

NEW YORK—Two men were arrested Monday on charges that they helped establish a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government, and about three-dozen officers with China’s national police force were charged with using social media to harass dissidents inside the United States, authorities said Monday.

The cases are part of a series of Justice Department prosecutions in recent years aimed at disrupting Chinese government efforts to locate in America pro-democracy activists and others who are openly critical of Beijing’s policies and to suppress their speech.

One of three cases announced Monday concerns a local branch of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security that had operated inside an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood before closing last fall amid an FBI investigation. The two men who were arrested were acting under the direction and control of a Chinese government official and deleted communication with that official from their phones after learning of the FBI’s probe in an apparent effort to obstruct the inquiry, according to the Justice Department.

Though China is believed to be operating secretive police outposts in countries around the globe, Justice Department officials said these arrests were the first of their kind anywhere in the world.

“This is a blatant violation of our national sovereignty,” Michael Driscoll, the head of New York’s FBI field office, said at a news conference announcing the cases.

The men, identified as “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, both US citizens, were arrested at their homes on Monday morning. A lawyer for Lu declined to comment. An e-mail message seeking comment was left with a lawyer for Chen.

At no point did the men register with the Justice Department as agents of a foreign government, US law enforcement officials said. And though the secret police station did perform some basic services, such as helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese driver’s licenses, it also served a more “sinister” function, including helping the Chinese government locate a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California, officials said.

“New York City is home to New York’s finest: the NYPD,” said US Attorney Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, whose office brought the cases. “We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city.”

Justice Department officials in recent years have prioritized prosecutions of what’s known as “transnational repression,” in which foreign governments work to identify, intimidate and silence dissidents in the US.

A signature case concerning China was announced in 2020, when the Justice Department charged more than a half-dozen people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man wanted by Beijing into returning to China to face charges. In January, the Justice Department charged three men in an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses there.

“In America, the law protects all of us equally from persecution, violence and threats of violence,” said David Newman, a top official in the Justice Department’s national security division.

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed to this report.

‘No impunity’: G-7 vows tough, unified stance on Russia’s war

KARUIZAWA, Japan—Top

The G-7 communiqué laying out their commitments also included strong words meant to curb what the ministers see as increasing Chinese and North Korean aggressiveness in Northeast Asia.

But it was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that highlighted the threeday summit in this hot spring resort town.

“There can be no impunity for war crimes and other atrocities such as Russia’s attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure,” the ministers said.

“We remain committed to intensifying sanctions against Russia, coordinating and fully enforcing them,” the communiqué said, and would support “for as long as it takes” Ukraine as it defends itself.

The foreign ministers’ document was prepared as a template for global leaders to use at a G-7 summit that will be held in Hiroshima next month, and included language about Iran, Myanmar, Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation and other “grave threats.”

But two crises stood out: China’s increasing assertiveness against, and military maneuvers around, Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its own, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s current offensive is largely stalled and Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive, but there’s widespread global worry about the Russian leader’s repeated threats to use tactical nuclear weapons.

“Russia’s irresponsible nuclear

rhetoric and its threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus are unacceptable,” the ministers said.

The G-7 envoys from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union have underlined that their meeting in Karuizawa marks a crucial moment in the world’s response to Russian and Chinese aggression, two crises that are seen as challenges to the post-World War II rules-based international order. Global efforts to confront the matters at the United Nations have been stymied by Chinese and Russian intransigence on the Security Council.

Leaders and foreign ministers of G-7 countries, most recently France and Germany, have recently concluded visits to China, and there is growing worry after China recently sent planes and ships to simulate an encirclement of Taiwan. Beijing has also been rapidly adding nuclear warheads, taking a tougher line on its claim to the South China Sea and painting a scenario of impending confrontation.

The G-7 ministers said that peace and stability between China and Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait is “an indispensable element in security and prosperity in the international community,” and they called for “the peaceful resolution of crossStrait issues.”

On Taiwan, “there is clear unanimity in the approach we are taking,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters of his talks with other ministers in Karuizawa.

“What I heard was a remarkable convergence on concerns related to [China] and what we’re doing to address those concerns,” he said.

On stalled discussions with the Chinese, Blinken said the United States placed a premium on keeping communications channels open as President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to last year.

“My expectation would be that we will be able to move forward on that, but it does require China to make clear its own intentions in doing that,” Blinken said.

The communiqué also urged China to “abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation or the use of force. We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas.... There is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, and we oppose China’s militarization activities in the region.”

Despite indications, notably comments from French President Emmanuel Macron, that the G-7 is split over China, US officials said in Karuizawa that there is a shared worry among G-7 nations over China’s actions, and a desire to continue a coordinated approach on working with Beijing even as nations confront Chinese coercion and attempts to water down or circumvent international rules regarding trade and commerce.

Japan’s worry about China can be seen it its efforts to make a major break from its self-defense-only post-World War II principles, which include work to acquire preemp -

Taiwan to buy 400 US anti-ship missiles to repel China invasion

TAIWAN will buy as many as 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles intended to repel a potential Chinese invasion, completing a deal that Congress approved in 2020, according to a trade group’s leader and people familiar with the issue.

Taiwan has previously purchased ship-launched versions of the Harpoon, which is made by Boeing Co. Now, a contract with Boeing issued on Taiwan’s behalf by the US Naval Air Systems Command marks a first for the mobile, land-launched version, according to Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council. Three other people familiar with the deal, including an industry official, confirmed the contract is for Taiwan.

capabilities via Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales, is essential for Taiwan’s security,” Meiners said.

The Harpoon contract has been cited by members of Congress including Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as part of as much $19 billion in “backlogged” US sales to Taiwan that they say need to be accelerated. In addition to the Harpoon, the list includes the F-16 Block 70 fighter, the MK-48 torpedo, the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer and the Stinger missile. The backlog, and the Harpoon sale, are likely to be discussed Tuesday at a hearing of the House Armed Service Committee focusing on the Indo-Pacific.

tive strike capabilities and cruise missiles.

“For the first time as the G-7, we noted in a statement our commitment to a rules-based, free and open international order and our strong objection to unilateral attempts to change the status-quo anywhere in the world,” Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi told reporters.

He said that Japan, as the only G-7 member in Asia, brought a focus to the Indo-Pacific region.

Besides China, a key worry is North Korea, which since the beginning of last year has test-fired around 100 missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that showed the potential of reaching the US mainland and a variety of other shorter-range weapons that threaten South Korea and Japan.

“We demand North Korea refrain from any other destabilizing or provocative actions, including any further nuclear tests or launches that use ballistic missile technology,” the communiqué said, adding that future actions “must be met with a swift, united and robust international response, including further significant measures to be taken by the UN Security Council.”

“It is critical that sanctions be fully and scrupulously implemented by all states and remain in place for as long as North Korea’s WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programs exist,” the ministers said.

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

Saudi-led coalition releases more Yemen war prisoners

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—A Saudi-led military coalition on Monday freed 104 more prisoners captured in Yemen’s war, a unilateral release that followed an organized prisoner swap amid renewed diplomatic efforts to halt the conflict.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it flew two flights carrying a total of 96 released detainees from Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport to Sanaa, Yemen’s capital that has been held for years by the Iranianbacked Houthi rebels. Another flight carried eight freed prisoners from Abha to Aden, a port city held by forces allied to the Saudiled coalition.

A statement from Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, acknowledged the release of 104 Houthi detainees.

A UN-brokered deal saw the release of over 700 detained Houthis, and more than 180 other prisoners, including Saudi and Sudanese troops fighting with the Saudi-led coalition. That three-day operation was overseen by the Red Cross and ended on Sunday.

The prisoner releases come as the Houthis and Saudi Arabia say

they have made progress in negotiations to revive an expired cease-fire and embark on talks to settle the conflict. Monday’s release was to help those efforts, the kingdom said.

Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, said Monday that, “We have not seen such a serious opportunity for making progress towards ending the conflict in eight years. But the tide could still turn unless the parties take bolder steps toward peace.”

“Many aspects of the truce continue to be implemented beyond its lifespan,” Grundberg said. “Yemen is experiencing the longest period of relative calm yet in this ruinous war.... However, this is not enough.”

According to the state-run Saudi Press Agency, al-Maliki said it was part of “efforts to stabilize the cease-fire and create an atmosphere of dialogue between the Yemeni parties to reach a comprehensive and sustainable political solution that ends the Yemeni crisis.”

The Houthis say both sides will continue their talks after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday later this week that marks the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan. AP

The Pentagon announced the $1.7 billion contract with Boeing on April 7 but made no mention of Taiwan as the purchaser. The deal comes as US-China tensions are high, particularly over Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as part of its territory.

China held military drills around Taiwan after its president met in California this month with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners, a Defense Department spokesman, declined to say whether Taiwan will be the recipient of the Harpoon missiles but said  “we will continue to work with industry to provide Taiwan defense equipment in a timely manner.”

“The United States’ provision to Taiwan of defense articles, which includes sustainment to existing

Ground-launched Harpoon missiles used for coastal defense figured prominently in a series of tabletop war games of a potential invasion of Taiwan by China conducted last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Because of their mobility and ability to range the entire strait, these missiles were highly effective against Chinese invasion forces,” said analyst Mark Cancian who managed the exercises. “They also reduced the need to station US forces on the island. However, 400 are not nearly enough. The Taiwanese need many more.”

The $1.7 billion weapons contract was preceded in March 2022 by a $498 million contract to Boeing specifically for Taiwan that ordered Harpoon “Coastal Defense System” launch equipment such as mobile transporters, radar and training equipment. Bloomberg News

Sudan hospitals struggle with casualties, damage in fighting

CAIRO—At the Khartoum Teaching Hospital, people wounded during street battles flowed into the wards. Supplies were running low, with doctors, nurses, patients and their relatives trapped inside for days as the Sudanese capital turned into a war zone.

Then early Monday, one of the wards was heavily damaged by shelling.

“We are running out of everything,” Dr. Amin Saad told The Associated Press. “We are working with the least possible capabilities.…We’re all exhausted, but there is a shortage of physicians.”

Not long afterward, the hospital shut down completely—with staff, patients and relatives stuck inside as clashes raged throughout the neighborhood. It was one of at least 12 hospitals shuttered in the capital area because they were damaged in fighting, were inaccessible because of clashes or had run out of fuel, according to the Doctors’ Syndicate.

Khartoum’s hospitals have been thrown into chaos by the explosion of violence between Sudan’s two top generals. People have been unable to leave their homes since Saturday as the two sides engaged in gun battles and bombarded each other with artillery and airstrikes. More than 180 people have been killed and over 1,800 wounded since the fighting erupted, UN envoy Volker Perthes said.

There are some 20 hospitals in the capital and the neighboring city of Omdurman. Those that still managed to operate were understaffed and overwhelmed, running low on supplies and

struggling with power or water cuts, doctors said.

The sudden outbreak of fighting caught everyone off guard, trapping doctors and nurses inside hospitals, and preventing other staff from reaching the facilities.

“I tried multiple times the past two days but was forced to return [home] because of the battles,” said Dr. Sara Mohi, who has been unable to get to the hospital where she works in central Khartoum.

The situation is “extremely dire,” said Atiya Abdulla Atiya of the Doctors’ Syndicate.

The World Health Organization said many hospitals in Khartoum reported shortages of “blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and other life-saving commodities.”

Along with the Khartoum Teaching Hospital, the Al-Shaab Teaching Hospital shut down Monday after a ward was struck in fighting, said the general manager, Al Nameir Gibril Ibrahim.

Online video Monday showed staff evacuating patients from the Al-Shaheed Salma kidney treatment clinic amid clashes. With gunfire ringing out, staffers ducked and rushed a gurney with a patient across the street. Another facility, the Police Hospital, was evacuated on Sunday, the syndicate said.

Dr. Ossama al-Shazly, head of the International Hospital in Khartoum’s northern Bahri district, took to social media late Sunday to appeal for fuel to keep generators running after power was cut to the neighborhood.

“The situation is very critical. We want people to provide fuel,” he said, adding that many patients needed surgeries and others were in intensive care units, with no place to evacuate them to.

diplomats from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies vowed a unified front against Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, saying at the close of their meetings Tuesday that they were committed to boosting and enforcing tough sanctions against Moscow.

Apple Inc. bets big on India as it opens first flagship store

NEW DELHI—Apple Inc.

opened

The company’s CEO Tim Cook posed for photos with a few of the 100 or so Apple fans who had lined up outside the sprawling 20,000-square-foot store in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, its design inspired by the iconic black-and-yellow cabs unique to the city. A second store will open Thursday in the national capital, New Delhi.

“India has such a beautiful culture and an incredible energy, and we’re excited to build on our long-standing history,” Cook said in a statement earlier.

The tech giant has been operating in India for more than 25 years, selling its products through authorized retailers and the website it launched a few years ago. But regulatory hurdles and the pandemic delayed its plans to open a flagship store.

The new stores are a clear signal of the company’s commitment to invest in India, the second-largest smartphone market in the world where iPhone sales have been ticking up steadily, said Jayanth Kolla, analyst at Convergence Catalyst, a tech consultancy. The stores show “how much India matters to the present and the future of the company,” he added.

For the Cupertino, Californiabased company, India’s sheer size

makes the market especially encouraging.

About 600 million of India’s 1.4 billion people have smartphones, “which means the market is still under-penetrated and the growth prospect is huge,” said Neil Shah, vice president of research at technology market research firm Counterpoint Research.

Between 2020 and 2022, the Silicon Valley company has gained some ground in the smartphone market in the country, going from just about 2 percent to capturing 6 percent, according to Counterpoint data.

Still, the iPhone’s hefty price tag puts it out of reach for the majority of Indians.

Instead, iPhone sales in the country have thrived among the sliver of upper-middle-class and rich Indians with disposable incomes, a segment of buyers that Shah says is rising. According to Counterpoint data, Apple has captured 65 percent of the “premium” smartphone market, where prices range up from 30,000 rupees ($360).

In September, Apple announced it would start making its iPhone 14 in India. The news was hailed as a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has pushed for

ramping up local manufacturing ever since he came to power in 2014.

Apple first began manufacturing from India in 2017 with its iPhone SE and has since continued to assemble a number of iPhone models from the country.

Most of Apple’s smartphones and tablets are assembled by contractors with factories in China, but the company started looking at potentially moving some production to Southeast Asia or other places after repeated shutdowns to fight Covid-19 disrupted its global flow of products.

“Big companies got a jolt, they realized they needed a backup strategy outside of China—they couldn’t risk another lockdown or any geopolitical rift affecting their business,” said Kolla.

Currently, India makes close to 13 million iPhones every year, up from less than 5 million three years ago, according to Counterpoint Research. This is about 6 percent of iPhones made globally—and only a small slice in comparison to China, which still produces around 90 percent

of them.

Last week, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the government was in regular touch with Apple to support their business here and that the company had plans to have 25 percent of their global production come out of India in the next five years.

The challenge for Apple, according to Shah of Counterpoint, is that the raw materials are still coming from outside India so the tech company will need to either find a local supplier or bring their suppliers, based in countries like China, Japan and Taiwan, closer to drive up production.

Still, he’s optimistic this target could be met, especially with labor costs being lower in India and the government wooing companies with attractive subsidies to boost local manufacturing.

“For Apple, everything is about timing. They don’t enter a market with full flow until they feel confident about their prospects. They can see the opportunity here today—it’s a win-win situation,” Shah said.

Lawsuit against Fox for false election claims heads to trial

The Associated Press

WILMINGTON, Del.—Jurors are set to get their first look Tuesday at a voting machine company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in a trial that will test First Amendment protections and expose the network’s role in spreading the lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election.

The scheduled trial start comes after a one-day delay granted by the judge overseeing the case, a reprieve that gave the sides time to see if they could work out a settlement.

Jury selection and opening statements had been scheduled for Monday in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit. The Denver-based company aims to hold Fox accountable for airing false allegations of election fraud that continue to roil US politics.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis gave no explanation for the brief delay. But he suggested the companies try to mediate their dispute, according to a person close to Fox who was not authorized to speak publicly about the lawsuit’s status and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The case will put under scrutiny the libel standard that has guided US media outlets for nearly six decades, reveal behind-the-scenes activity at Fox News in the weeks after the 2020 election and shed light on the flow of misinformation that turned into a tidal wave

after the election, which then-President Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. Fox News stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, as well as company founder Rupert Murdoch, are expected to testify during the six-week trial, but it’s unclear whether any witnesses would be called Tuesday.

Dominion claims New York-based Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., essentially bulldozed the voting company’s business and subjected employees to threats by falsely implicating it in a bogus conspiracy to rig the election against Trump.

In the weeks after Election Day, prominent Fox News hosts brought on Trump allies who falsely claimed that Dominion’s machines were programmed to snatch votes away from the Republican incumbent and pad the Democratic challenger’s total.

Many of Fox’s hosts and executives didn’t believe the claims but allowed them to be aired nevertheless.

“Fox spread and endorsed one of the most damaging lies in this country’s history,” Dominion’s lawyers wrote in a court filing.

Pointing to communications among Fox figures, from executives to fact-checkers, Dominion argues that the network knowingly amplified falsehoods for the sake of ratings.

Fox says it simply reported on Trump’s challenges to the election results and let viewers hear from his lawyers and allies.

“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost would be cherished First Amendment rights,” the network said in a statement last week.

Fox said its hosts sometimes alluded to a need for evidence to back up the allegations and noted that Dominion denied the claims.

Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s own attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the election outcome. Nor did they turn up any credible evidence that the vote was tainted.

Dozens of courts, some with Trumpappointed judges, also rejected his fraud allegations. In the Dominion case, Davis declared it was “CRYSTAL clear” that the claims about the voting machine company weren’t true.

A key question for the jury is whether Fox News acted with “actual malice,” a legal standard that applies when public figures sue news outlets for defamation. The standard, derived from a 1964 Supreme Court case, means knowingly publishing or airing something false or operating with “reckless disregard” for whether it’s true.

Dominion has pointed to text and email messages in which Fox insiders discounted and sometimes overtly mocked the vote manipulation claims. One Fox Corp. vice president called them “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS.”

Carlson, Fox News’ biggest star, even expressed scorn for Trump, whose supporters formed the core of the network’s viewers. Text exchanges revealed as part of the lawsuit show Carlson declaring, “I hate him passionately,” and saying that “we are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights.”

Murdoch, the Fox News founder and Fox

Corp. chairman, found the election claims “really crazy,” according to an email he sent while watching a news conference that Trump lawyers gave on Nov. 19, 2020.

“Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear. Probably hurting us too,” Murdoch told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott in another e-mail that day.

Yet talk of the alleged conspiracy continued to air on Fox for weeks after the voting.

In his deposition for the case, Murdoch acknowledged the 2020 presidential election was fair while also acknowledging that some of Fox’s hosts seemed to endorse the bogus election claims.

The network maintains that Dominion cherry-picked from private messages and broadcast transcripts and depositions of various Fox players, while brushing past other comments and context more favorable to Fox. The network also maintains that Dominion’s claims of lost business are massively inflated.

Fox found itself in hot water with the judge as the trial neared. Davis rapped the network last week for what he saw as “misrepresentations” and belated disclosures of some information in the case. On Friday, a Fox attorney apologized in a letter to the judge for what the attorney described as a misunderstanding about the disclosure of Murdoch’s formal role at Fox News.

Bauder reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

its first flagship store in India in a much-anticipated launch Tuesday that highlights the company’s growing aspirations to expand in the country it also hopes to turn into a potential manufacturing hub.

What caused NFA’s procurement woes

The rice tariffication law or Republic Act 11203 is crystal clear about the manner by which the National Food Authority should procure rice, which will serve as its buffer stock. The implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of RA 11203, which was released a few weeks after the law took effect, also specified that the state-run agency can no longer import the staple for buffer stocking purposes. The law and its IRR unequivocally said that the NFA should buy rice only from local farmers.

The IRR of RA 11203 also specified that the NFA should adopt an “optimal level” of buffer stock, which it would maintain at all times except to make releases in response to emergencies or in support of the government’s disaster relief programs. The IRR mandates the agency to determine the locations and amounts of prepositioned stocks in anticipation of emergency and disaster. To fund the procurement of this buffer stock, the NFA should receive an allocation from the national government and is also allowed to borrow money for its rice purchases.

For the NFA to recommend importation to beef up its buffer stock despite the clear language of the law could only mean that the agency is running out of options. The rice harvest season would conclude in May and most farmers would start planting by June. However, based on pronouncements made by the President, the NFA’s buffer stock is not even enough to supply the rice requirement of the country for a day.

The NFA, according to President Marcos, would need some 330,000 metric tons (MT) of milled rice, which would meet the country’s rice requirement for nine days. The figure seems to pale in comparison to the volume of rice that the country produced in the first semester of 2022. The President himself said, however, that budgetary constraints are making it difficult for the agency to purchase the volume it requires.

The lack of funds and the low buying price are the main ingredients that gave rise to the current procurement woes of the NFA. The agency simply could not compete with private traders who have been offering as much as P21 per kilogram for dried palay, versus the P19 per kg of the NFA (See, “Farmgate prices of dried palay up in Central Luzon,” in the BusinessMirror, March 20, 2023). For those who have the option of selling their produce to the food agency, it does not make sense to sell their crop to the NFA considering the spike in production costs, including the price of fertilizers.

Three years ago, a senatorial candidate and a former senior agriculture official had urged policymakers to carefully study the overhaul of the NFA (See, “Focus on rice import rules, not NFA overhaul,” in the BusinessMirror, February 21, 2019). Lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno also warned against tinkering with the food security functions of the NFA. We earnestly hope that the current administration would be able to find viable options that would allow the food agency to comply with RA 11203 and its IRR, particularly since the country is facing the threat of El Niño.

Bar exam is not the measure of the decency, honesty, integrity and intelligence of a lawyer

Kuwentong peyups

The 3,992 law graduates who successfully passed the 2022 Bar exams should be reminded that membership in the Bar is a privilege bestowed by law through the Supreme Court burdened with conditions.

Bar membership may be withdrawn where circumstances concretely show the lawyer’s lack of essential qualifications, including honesty, fidelity and integrity as enshrined in the lawyer’s oath.

The results of the November 2022 Bar Exams were released on April 14, 2023 where successful examinees comprise 43.47 percent of 9,183 takers.

The Supreme Court issued last January five decisions on disciplin-

Disciplinary proceedings are means of protecting the administration of justice by requiring those who carry out important function in the judicial system to be competent, honorable and reliable men in whom courts and clients may repose confidence.

ary proceedings filed against lawyers, of whom three were disbarred from practice while the other two were suspended. Two cases involved marital infidelity. Disciplinary proceedings are means of protecting the administration of justice by requiring those who carry out important function in the judicial system to be competent, honorable and reliable men in whom courts and clients may repose confidence.

The Pentagon is sounding alarms over Biden administration plans to advance offshore wind projects along the central Atlantic US coast, warning that almost all of the new terrain eyed for development conflicts with military operations.

Maps shared with industry stakeholders and seen by Bloomberg News show vast red areas that the Navy and Air Force have deemed “highly problematic,” covering prime real estate the Interior Department last year earmarked for leasing off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

The Defense Department’s concerns, which come on top of other conflicts identified by the US Coast Guard, have spooked renewable power developers and US East Coast states counting on mid-Atlantic wind farms to meet clean energy and climate goals.

The breadth of the Pentagon’s opposition could imperil President Joe Biden’s bid to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power—equivalent to 30 nuclear reactors—by the end of the decade, newly bolstered state goals for the development and planned manufacturing facilities in Maryland and Virginia tied to the nascent US industry.

The clash represents the latest threat to the fledgling industry that is already grappling with supply chain challenges, inflation-stoked prices and opposition from coastal communities.  Interior’s Bureau of Ocean En-

ergy Management emphasized in an e-mailed statement that the US “is well positioned to satisfy state and federal offshore wind goals as we develop the clean energy economy.”

A senior Defense Department official stressed that the maps represent an initial stage of discussions with the ocean energy bureau and that the Pentagon is committed to finding ways to accommodate leasing in the region.

The Pentagon has identified challenges operating around wind turbines that would be installed into the seabed in Atlantic waters near many of its operations and facilities, including North Carolina’s Dare County bombing range, used for training fighter jet crews, and a weapons station in Yorktown, Virginia. They are documented vividly on a map of Navy and Air Force concerns, dated Oct. 6, 2022, and circulated with industry and state stakeholders this month.

Four of six potential wind lease areas outlined by the ocean energy bureau last November are completely shaded red, including two deep-water parcels that might require floating turbines. The remaining two tracts, in yellow, are identified as requiring further study. The areas

The primary purposes of disciplinary proceedings are to protect the public, to foster public confidence in the Bar, to preserve the integrity of the profession, and to deter other lawyers from similar misconduct.

Erring lawyers may be penalized either by suspension or disbarment, depending on the circumstances of the case.

Disbarment is imposed where the misconduct and unrepentant demeanor of a lawyer shows a serious flaw in his character, the moral indifference to the sanctity of marriage and marital vows, and the outright defiance of established norms.

The Pentagon has identified challenges operating around wind turbines that would be installed into the seabed in Atlantic waters near many of its operations and facilities, including North Carolina’s Dare County bombing range, used for training fighter jet crews, and a weapons station in Yorktown, Virginia. They are documented vividly on a map of Navy and Air Force concerns, dated Oct. 6, 2022, and circulated with industry and state stakeholders this month.

deemed highest priority by the Pentagon span a large portion of potential lease areas off the Maryland and North Carolina coasts.

The Defense Department official said the representations were designed to pinpoint areas that present the most challenges—generally where the Pentagon would be unable to continue its mission as currently conducted in the space. The focus going forward is on finding ways to accommodate wind development, including by adjusting operations to allow the activity, the official said. That could take the form of shifting the location of military exercises and other steps—such as optimizing radar processing systems—to minimize interference from turbines.

The two tracts marked in yellow are the least problematic, with concerns the Pentagon views as solvable,

The conduct complained of must not only be immoral, but must be grossly immoral.

In Atty. Nora Saludares vs  Atty. Reynald Saludares (A.C. No. 10612  January 31, 2023), disbarment was imposed on the erring husband due to “his arrogance and cavalier attitude.” He unabashedly admitted his illicit affair before his wife and children. He even boasted that his paramour is monied. This only shows, the Court added, that “respondent is rotten to the core and no longer deserves to belong to the legal profession.”

The Court further stressed that his intimate relationship with a woman other than his wife showed his “moral indifference to the opinion of the good and respectable members of the community. His actions amount to utter disrespect of the law on the sanctity of marriage, including his vow of fidelity in his marital relations and affairs.”

In Quindoza vs Atty. Ernesto

See “Gorecho,” A19

the Defense Department official said.   Similar Defense Department concerns helped derail plans for offshore oil leasing in waters near Virginia’s coast roughly a decade ago. And after the Pentagon warned the Interior Department against offshore wind leasing near the California coast in 2019, it took roughly three years to resolve the matter. The Interior Department had been on track to sell new offshore wind rights in the mid-Atlantic early next year—and significant delays could make it harder for developers to claim newly expanded tax credits for the multibillion-dollar ventures that can take years to permit and build.

The ocean energy bureau expressed confidence it could resolve the dispute. The agency “has a long working relationship” with the Defense Department “and together we have successfully deconflicted and identified areas that have resulted in 27 leases along the Atlantic coast, covering over 2.1 million acres,” it said in its statement. “We will continue this collaboration as we seek to identify new lease areas in the central Atlantic.”

When asked for comment, JC Sandberg, the American Clean Power Association’s chief advocacy officer, said that the industry is “fully committed to national security” and coexisting with other ocean users.

“Leasing in the central Atlantic is critical to growing the offshore wind industry to meet state and federal clean energy goals,” and to sustaining supply chain investments in the See “Pentagon,” A19

China’s economic growth accelerates with consumption boost

BEIJING—China’s economic growth accelerated in the latest quarter as consumers flocked back to shops and restaurants following the abrupt end of anti-virus controls.

The 4.5 percent growth in gross domestic product from January to March compared to the same period in 2022 was the fastest in the past year, and outpaced the 2.9 percent growth in the previous quarter, according to government data released Tuesday.

But authorities cautioned that China will likely face import and export pressures in the coming months amid an uncertain international economic environment, and also warned of inadequate domestic market demand in the world’s No. 2 economy.

Fu Linghui, the director general of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said Tuesday that authorities will implement various policies to “stabilize growth” and stimulate domestic demand, as well as help support the development of emerging industries.

The higher-than-expected rise in GDP for the quarter comes amid a rebound in consumption, as people flocked to shopping malls and restaurants after “zero-Covid” restrictions were removed at the end of 2022. Analysts initially pegged economic growth at about 4 percent.

Earlier this year, China’s government set this year’s economic growth target at “around 5 percent,” a conservative target that will only be met if GDP grows faster in the months ahead.

In March, total retail sales of consumer goods went up by 10.6 percent year on year, and grew 7.1 percentage points compared to the first two months of the year.

“The combination of a steady uptick in consumer confidence as well as the still-incomplete release of pent-up demand suggest to us that the consumer-led recovery still has room to run,” said Louise Loo, an economist at Oxford Economics in a note.

But while consumption and retail sales have grown, other economic indicators with weaker growth such as industrial output and fixed-asset investments indicate an uneven recovery. Slowing price indices also point toward inadequate demand. Industrial production output,

Gorecho . . .

continued from A18

David delos Santos (A.C. No. 13615 January 31, 2023), the Court imposed suspension for three years to the husband instead of disbarment despite the illicit relations with two other women while he was still married to his legal wife.

The Court took into account the following mitigating circumstances: (1) he provided support for her daughter Veronica; (2) he ended his relationship with the complainant; (3) he was no longer living together with his wife who went to the United States and had contracted another marriage, when he had his extramarital affairs; ( 4) his advanced age; and (5) 11 years have passed since the administrative case was filed against him.

Last year’s Bar exams were the second to be held digitally and across multiple testing sites across the country.

Of the top 30, eleven were from University of the Philippines (UP), eight from the Ateneo de Manila University, three from the University of San Carlos and one each from San Beda College Alabang, Mariano Marcos State University, Ateneo de Zamboanga, Saint Louis University, University of Santo Tomas, Arellano University, Manuel L. Quezon University, Angeles University Foundation, and Ateneo de Davao.

The five topnotchers came from UP, led by its valedictorian

which measures activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors, grew by 3.9 percent in March compared to the same time last year.

Fixed-asset investment—in which China invests in infrastructure and other projects to drive growth—rose by 5.1 percent in the first three months of 2023 compared to the same period last year. The growth was down from 5.5 percent in the first two months of the year. Private investments were also weak, growing just 0.6 percent.

China’s exports surged in March, according to data earlier this week, although this could be the result of suppliers catching up in fulfilling orders disrupted during Covid-19. In the first quarter, exports grew 8.4 percent.

The unemployment rate in urban areas fell to 5.3 percent in March, down 0.3 percent from the month before. But youth unemployment jumped to 19.6 percent, a near-record high.

Investors are expected to scrutinize China’s first-quarter economic data for indicators of recovery following years of harsh lockdowns and a crackdown on the industries such as technology and real estate.

Last year’s growth fell to 3 percent, hampered by anti-virus controls that caused snap lockdowns and kept millions at home, sometimes for weeks on end.

GDP is expected to accelerate on a year-on-year basis given Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdowns last year, which impacted the economy, according to Oxford Economics’ Loo, who said that growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year.

“The fading of consumption momentum, the winding down of fiscal stimulus, and a weaker incoming external demand would put downward pressure on domestic growth in H2,” she said.

On Monday, China’s central bank kept rates on its one-year policy loans unchanged. Last week, it had vowed to step up support for the economy and maintain ample liquidity to support growth. AP

Czar Matthew Dayday with a score of 88.8083 percent. UP is also one of the top three performing schools with an overall passing rate of 94.27 percent, and a 95.02 percent passing rate among firsttime takers.

Among the group of biggest schools or those with over 100 takers, ADMU had the highest passing rate at 96.74 percent, followed by San Beda at 96.67 percent, UP at 94.27 percent, USC at 91.43 percent, and the University of Santo Tomas at 78.09 percent.

The previous batch 2020-2021 yielded 8,241 out of 11,402 (72.28 percent) aspiring lawyers who passed. The highest passing rate was the 1954 Bar, where 75.17 percent passed.

The lowest was in 1999 with 16.59 percent with a total number of 660 successful examinees. My bar buddy and former solicitor general Florin Hilbay was the topnotcher. Lawyers, as professionals, are expected to uphold the ethical and moral values that are said to be essential to the fabric that holds society together.

Ultimately, being a good lawyer is a different thing as passing the bar is not enough. It is never the measure of the decency, honesty, integrity and intelligence of a lawyer.

Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@ sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808 or 09088665786.

Brazil’s welcome of Russian minister prompts US blowback

BRASILIA, Brazil—Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday expressed gratitude to Brazil for its approach in pushing for an end to hostilities in Ukraine—an effort that has irked both Kyiv and the West, and by afternoon prompted an unusually sharp rebuke from the White House.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has refused to provide weapons to Ukraine while proposing a club of nations including Brazil and China to mediate peace.

On Sunday, Lula told reporters in Abu Dhabi that two nations – both Russia and Ukraine – had decided to go to war, and a day earlier in Beijing said the US must stop “stimulating” the continued fighting and start discussing peace. Earlier this month, he suggested Ukraine could cede Crimea to end the war, which the spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, and others rejected.

After meeting Brazil’s foreign minister on Monday, Lavrov told reporters in a short press conference that the West has engaged in “a rather tough struggle” to maintain its dominance in world affairs, including economics and geopolitics.

“As for the process in Ukraine, we are grateful to our Brazilian friends for their excellent understanding of this situation’s genesis. We are grateful (to them) for striving to contribute to finding ways to settle it,” Lavrov said, sitting alongside his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira.

Lula’s recent comments, particularly ascribing any blame to Ukraine for Russia’s invasion in February 2022, run counter to the position held by the European Union, the US and Ukrainian President Volodymyr

Zelenskyy. And any talk of a ceasefire is viewed as an opportunity for Russia to regroup its forces for a new offensive. Zelenskyy told The Associated Press last month that a loss anywhere at this stage in the war could put Ukraine’s hard-fought momentum at risk.

Vieira, for his part, told reporters that Brazil sees sanctions against Russia as causing negative impacts for the global economy, particularly developing nations, and that Brazil supports an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

Following the meeting, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby blasted Brazil’s approach to the war and for its officials having met Lavrov and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in person, while thus far only speaking to Ukrainian officials by phone.

“Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war,” Kirby told reporters in Washington. “In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”

Kirby said the Biden administration hoped Lula and others will urge the Russians “to cease the bombing of Ukrainian cities, hospitals and schools, halt the war crimes and the

atrocities and, quite frankly, to pull back Russian forces from Ukraine.”

Both foreign ministers were meeting with Lula in the afternoon.

As part of his effort to end the war, Lula also has withheld munitions to Ukraine, despite a request from Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Lula has said that sending supplies would mean Brazil entering the war, which he seeks to end.

His administration is seeking to simultaneously develop ties with China, Europe and the US while keeping an open door to Russia. However, his recent remarks may have undermined his effort to secure these competing objectives, said Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

“It’s not a good look, when you have the Russian chancellor side by side, and it’s the Russian position,” Garman said by phone. “The optics do diminish Brazil’s credibility as an independent arbiter, but I think that the import is larger precisely because of the current storms that Lula stoked with his comments in China and the UAE.”

There were already indications that Moscow had appreciated Lula’s stance. One of roughly 50 leaked classified documents on the platform Discord that have been viewed by the AP said that, as of late February, Russia’s foreign affairs ministry supported Lula’s plan to establish a club of supposedly impartial mediators, as it “would reject the West’s ‘aggressorvictim’ paradigm.” The item cited electronic surveillance as the source.

Critics have argued that Brazil’s position aims to avoid confronting a key supplier of fertilizer for

its soybean plantations, exports from which are largely destined for China. Both Russia and China hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, and Brazil for decades has sought to join them. Lavrov told reporters on Monday that Russia is backing Brazil’s bid.

Vinicius Vieira, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank, said Lula’s comments on Ukraine have been “badly calibrated” and that saying Kyiv should cede Crimea would appear to favor Russia.

“The issue of fertilizers is fundamental, but that would be well resolved with Brazil staying neutral, calling all sides to speak, but without saying Ukraine owes something to Russia,” Vieira said.

After his stay in Brazil, Lavrov will travel to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

In an article published on the website of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, as well as in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Lavrov appeared to cast the Latin American countries’ trade relationship—notably that between Russia and Brazil, especially concerning fertilizers—as a backdrop and source of leverage for possible discussions regarding Brazil’s continued refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine, which Moscow would like to ensure.

Brazil’s foreign minister told reporters that Russia accounts for one-quarter of the South American nation’s fertilizer imports, and that he and Lavrov discussed measures to guarantee its influx. Madhani reported from Washington. AP videojournalist Kostya Manenkov contributed from Tallinn, Estonia, and journalist Elise Morton contributed from London.

US tax breaks lure European clean tech companies as EU lags

LONDON—Norwegian startup Freyr will first build batteries to power electric vehicles and store clean energy in a remote town near the Arctic Circle. Up next? An Atlanta suburb.

That’s because a new US clean energy law offers generous tax credits—up to 40 percent of costs—in what is a “massive, massive incentive” for producing in America, CEO Tom Einar Jensen said.

Across Europe, companies seeking to invest in the green energy boom—churning out everything from solar panels to windmills and EV batteries—are making similar calculations, weighing up the US Inflation Reduction Act’s $375 billion in benefits for renewable industries against a fragmented response that European leaders have been scrambling to patch together for months.

The law aims to kick-start the US transition away from climate-changing fossil fuels with tax credits and rebates that favor clean technology made in North America.

It blindsided Europe when it became law in August, putting the US on course to eclipse the continent in the global push to reduce carbon emissions and leaving European leaders fuming over rules that favor American products, threatening to suck green investment from Europe and spark a subsidy race.

The European Union’s executive branch responded with plans aimed at ensuring at least 40 percent of clean technology is produced in Europe by 2030 and limiting the amount of strategic raw materials from any single third country—typi-

Pentagon . . .

continued from A18

region, Sandberg said. “The Department of Defense staff’s maps serve as a stark reminder that there’s work to do. We need a coordinated, all-ofgovernment approach to offshore wind to ensure that the industry can grow while protecting national security interests at the same time.”

The maps have inspired a frenzy of calls and meetings as alarmed offshore wind advocates ask top

cally China— to 65 percent. It also opened negotiations with President Joe Biden on making Europe-sourced minerals for EV battery manufacturing eligible for US tax credits.

Executives, simply looking for the most money they can get to boost their businesses, are hailing the US program’s simplicity. Some complain that the EU plan is underwhelming, confusing and bureaucratic, putting Europe at risk of falling behind in the green energy transition, notably as the auto industry moves to EVs.

“While the United States are catching up thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Europe is more and more lagging behind,” Volkswagen’s board member overseeing technology, Thomas Schmall, posted on LinkedIn. “The conditions of the IRA are so attractive that Europe risks to lose the race for billions of investments that will be decided in the coming months and years.”

Volkswagen said last month that its new PowerCo battery business would build its first gigafactory for EV battery cells outside Europe in St. Thomas, Ontario—following two others under construction in Germany and Spain. The Canadian plant, set to open in 2027, is expected to benefit from the IRA because of provisions for US neighbors and free-trade partners Canada and Mexico.

administration officials to referee the dispute and broker a compromise. Just last week, Maryland lawmakers passed legislation setting a state goal to derive 8.5 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2031 — but under the Pentagon’s vision, the state could struggle to find roughly half of that.

Already, most of Maryland’s congressional delegation had implored the Defense Department, Coast Guard and other government agencies to “maximize the acreage available for offshore wind devel-

Meanwhile, the German auto giant has reportedly put on hold a decision for a battery plant in Eastern Europe while it waits for more information on the EU’s plan. Volkswagen didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Another Scandinavian battery startup, Sweden’s Northvolt, was poised to build a third gigafactory, and the first outside its home country, in northern Germany. The US law led it to hit pause, and it’s looking over the new EU proposals before deciding next month where to put that facility.

The EU keeps a tight rein on state aid for businesses to avoid distorting competition in the 27-nation bloc’s single market, where some countries—like Germany and France— are much larger and richer than others. But to compete with the US, the EU relaxed those restrictions for clean industries, marking a fundamental change for Brussels from its long-held view that government should take a hands-off approach to free markets.

European business leaders say the US incentives could upend the global ways of producing technology.

“We’re building cars in the US but sometimes the engine or other parts come from Europe. The IRA puts this model in question because it requires manufacturing to take place in the US,” said Luisa Santos, deputy director general of BusinessEurope, a Brussels-based lobbying group.

“You might have more proximity, but the cost will be much higher” if global supply lines disappear, she warned. “Will the consumer be willing to pay?”

opment in the central Atlantic” and work to expand the potential areas for leasing.

Robust offshore wind leasing along the US mid-Atlantic is seen as essential to filling a pipeline of projects that can support planned investments in manufacturing facilities in the region, including the planned Sparrows Point Steel factory near Baltimore.

Supporters argue the work is also critical to hitting the nation’s climate targets. Because of its massive scale and high generating ca-

Italian energy giant Enel credited the IRA when it announced plans in November to build a massive solar panel factory in the US.

Enel’s factory initially will be able to churn out 3 gigawatts of solar panels and cells, ultimately expanding to 6 gigawatts. The plant is expected to be operating by the end of 2024.

It’s not just Europe. Companies in Asia also want a piece of the IRA.

South Korean tech giant LG last month unveiled plans to build a $5.5 billion battery manufacturing complex in Arizona, which it called the biggest single investment ever for a standalone battery manufacturing facility in North America. By setting up manufacturing in the US, LG “aims to respond to the fast-growing needs for locally manufactured batteries on the back of the IRA,” the company said.

The factory is scheduled to start making electric car batteries by 2025 and batteries for energy storage systems a year later.

For its part, Freyr is expanding its footprint from its first battery gigafactory being built in Mo i Rana in northern Norway to a second in Coweta County, Georgia, each costing $1.7 billion.

“It’s important for us to produce batteries on both sides of the Atlantic because our customers and our supply chain partners want us to be present in both places,” CEO Jensen said at an opening ceremony for a pilot plant in Mo i Rana.

He said in an interview that the IRA provides up to $45 in tax credits toward the typical cost of making a battery, which is $110 to $115 per kilowatt hour.

pacity, offshore wind is viewed as a particularly important source of renewable power.

And now, offshore wind advocates are throwing the military’s own warnings back at the Pentagon. A shift to renewable power sources helps shrink US reliance on volatile commodities for energy, thereby strengthening national security, they say. The Defense Department and US intelligence agencies also have repeatedly cast climate change as a threat to American military assets and global security.

TRUCKERS PICKET PPA FOR TOP-CRMS RECALL

THE Alliance of Concerned Truck Owners and Organizations (ACTOO) staged a rally in front of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) offices on Tuesday, calling for the revocation of the Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry and Monitoring System (TOP-CRMS).

ACTOO VP Rina Papa called the TOP-CRMS a burden to the Filipino people, claiming that the PPA is only talking to “fake leaders” of maritime and transport stakeholders.

We call for the revocation of the TOP-CRMS as it is only a burden to the Filipino people. Only the PPA wants that policy,” she said. “It is our right to stage this noise barrage to air our concerns against this policy.”

PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago noted that his office welcomes dialogues with all stakeholders, but noted that the protests caused congestion in the already-busy port area in Manila.

“ We already had a hearing at the Senate about this; why don’t we wait for the decision, especially since this policy has been deferred already,” he said.

T he program, he noted, has

yet to be implemented.

The PPA is open to the possibility that the TOP-CRMS will not be implemented. However, we believe that the decades-old problem of importers, truckers, and customs brokers will continue to persist if this does not push through,” he said. The TOP-CRMS is the digital transformation program of the PPA.

Under TOP-CRMS, only container deposit insurance and monitoring fee worth P980 and P3,408 empty container handling service fee must be paid by importers, compared to almost P30,000 container deposit that must be paid in the current existing system.

T he TOP-CRMS was supposed to be pilot-tested at the international ports in the Port of Manila, namely South Harbor and Manila International Container Terminal and only for foreign inbound containers.

S hiptek Solutions won the contract to implement the P980-million TOP-CRMS.

T he program is expected to generate as much as 84 percent savings for importers, shippers, truckers, and customs brokers, Santiago said, noting that if the system was implemented in 2022, they could have only paid P1 billion for 1.1 million inbound containers, instead of P23 billion.

More businesses projected to rely on freelance labor

Monique Avila, country manager of Payoneer for the Philippines, said a “growing number” of businesses are relying on freelancers to support their full-time workforce.

Avila said the growth in the freelance industry may be attributed to “convenience, flexibility, and outstanding quality of work.”

A ccording to the Payoneer official, this “benefits freelancers, too, since we have seen how they can enjoy a good work-life balance while still sustaining themselves, especially with the convenience, and practicality of earning in USD without leaving the country.”

Hence, Avila noted, “we expect this industry to keep growing in the coming year.”

P ayoneer is one of the leading global payments platforms that

partners with freelancers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), marketplaces, and enterprises.

A ccording to Payoneer’s 2023 Freelancer Insights Report, despite the fears of a global economic slowdown, 46 percent of the freelancers saw an increase in demand for their work.

Bulk of this, the platform said, are from digital businesses who are “growing across borders with a need to augment their teams,” adding that 29 percent saw demand at the same level as last year.

T he study noted that over two thirds or 68 percent of the freelancers it surveyed believe demand will continue to grow into 2023, in line with the findings from US-based freelancing platform Upwork report that 45 percent of the companies plan to hire more freelancers in the near future.

T he report, which polled 2,000

freelancers across 122 countries including the Philippines, highlighted how “resilient” the freelancing industry can be in the face of new challenges.

A ccording to Payoneer, 15 percent of the respondents in the survey are based in Bangladesh; 12 percent in Nigeria; 8 percent in India; 8 percent in Pakistan; 5 percent in Kenya; 4 percent in the USA; 4 percent in Indonesia; 3 percent in the Philippines, among others.

I n Asia Pacific, Payoneer said 44 percent those who responded to the survey are within the age group of 25 to 34 years old; 31 percent are within 18 to 24 years old; 18 percent in the 35 to 44 age group and 7 percent are 45 years old and above.

A s to the number of hours these freelancers are clocking in, the report noted, “over half of our survey respondents work less than 30 hours a week as freelancers, and finding new clients is a challenge for 73 percent of them.”

I n response to the rising cost of living, the results of the survey showed that 55 percent of respondents have taken on more work, and 32 percent have expanded their client base to new countries.

W hen asked if they are satisfied with the freelancing life -

style, over 80 percent of the freelancers surveyed are either satisfied or very satisfied. Interestingly, close to one-third of the respondents said they were “very satisfied”, while only 3 percent feel unsatisfied.

I n February 2023, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a measure that provides protection and relief to over 1.5 million Filipino freelance workers who may be victimized by abusive employers due to a lack of grievance system in the digital economy.

W ith 250 votes, the chamber passed House Bill (HB) No. 6718 or the “Freelance Workers Protection Act,” which also mandates the institutionalization of benefits such as night differential and hazard pay for freelance workers whenever they are applicable.

“As the digital economy expands, the number of Filipino freelance workers also increases. And if no laws are in place to protect our gig economy freelancers or to establish a formal grievance system to enforce their rights, they will be susceptible to all kinds of abuse,” Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said in a statement on February 6, 2023 published on the website of the House of Representatives.

Sinag hails NFA move to halt rice importation PRC,

ALARGE coalition of farm groups welcomed the government’s decision to withdraw its proposal to buy imported rice, as it chided the National Food Authority (NFA) for its easy resort to imports at the expense of local producers.

We welcome the decision of the National Food Authority [NFA] to withdraw its anti-farmer proposal to buy imported rice,” Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said on Tuesday.

We were already asking Congress to give zero budget to NFA if they continue to defy the order of the President [Ferdinand Marcos Jr.] and the clamor of the agriculture industry for the NFA to procure palay of our farmers,” he added.

We urge the NFA to start buying palay from our farmers; let us incentivize and support our local farmers for a change,” Cainglet said.

Earlier, rice farmers in Tanauan, Leyte selling their palay (unhusked rice) to the NFA were to get an additional P2 per kilogram on top of the agency’s current buying price of P19.

T he local government has set aside P2 million for the implementation of Palay Marketing Assistance Program for Legislators and Local Government Units (PALLGU).

T he municipal government of Tanauan was the first to implement the PALLGU in Eastern Visayas, a program meant to boost farmers’ productivity.

“ The program seeks to provide opportunities for our rice farmers to maximize their income. This is an opportunity for us to serve our local farmers,” the local government said.

Meanwhile, Cainglet said that RTL (Rice Tariffication Law) is not the urgent problem now and it would need congressional action that will take time.

W ith or without RTL, it is the “neoliberal agenda” of the economic team with its unlimited import mantra that is prevailing, he said.

“ Import as the only recourse! Imports to tame prices! Imports as the only solution! From rice, to onions, to pork and chicken, to sugar; it has failed,” Cainglet added.

I nstead of amending the RTL, the DA should heed the President’s order to support efforts in lowering the costs of farm inputs, he said.

Meanwhile, the NFA’s proposal to import 330,000 metric tons of rice to replenish its buffer stock has been dropped as the government prefers to procure the needed supply locally, DA official said.

I n an interview, DA Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, and Regulations Mercedita Sombilla said she understood where “the NFA is coming from” when it proposed the importation due to concerns of depleting this year’s buffer stock.

H owever, Sombilla said NFA Administrator Robert Bioco understood that the NFA could not import since Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the RTL mandated it to source its emergency buffer stocking of rice from local farmers.

Because of fears, he was proposing to source it outside,” she said, noting that importation was no longer discussed during the DA official’s meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who also sits as Agriculture secretary, to address the lean buffer stock situation.

For his part, DA Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Rex Estoperez said the NFA should increase its procurement price of palay—currently at P19 per kilo—to be competitive with the private sector as it aims to build up its lean buffer stock.

“ If you are building your buffer stock you should be competitive with the private sector. If not competitive, you get no buffer stock,” Estoperez said.

T he DA official said the NFA had the needed funding to increase its procurement price; while the NFA Council, the agency’s governing body, can recommend increasing the buying price of palay.  Raadee S. Sausa

DOLE renew tieup on workplace health, safety

THE Philippine Red Cross (PRC) renewed on Tuesday its partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), to promote health and safety in workplaces.

PRC Chairman Richard J. Gordon signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with DOLE Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma on the first leg of  PRC’s three-day 33rd Biennial National Convention at the Manila Hotel.  This [partnership] will ultimately help and sustain the Department of Labor and Employment’s efforts towards the creation of a workplace culture that advocates a safe, healthy and inclusive work environment,” said the labor chief.  A ccording to him, it’s important to secure the welfare and well-being of the labor sector, particularly those in small-scale businesses, which are considered the lifeblood of the country’s economy yet lacking the capability and resources to espouse sustainable occupational safety and health best practices.

We, at DOLE, recognize the important role of our micro enterprises,” he said, while citing the preliminary results of the nationwide 2021 Updating of the List of Establishments (ELU) of the Philippine Statistics Authority, which shows 977,670 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) out of a total of 1,080,638 establishments in the country. “That’s why our priority target are the the workers of micro enterprises to benefit from this partnership.”

Under the MOA, the PRC will conduct life-saving courses like basic and advanced first aid training for 800,000 MSME employees for the next 12 months. DOLE will finance this P1.2-billion training initiative to hone and develop the response skills of micro enterprise workers in case of emergency at their workplace.

When we sign this, we have to work on it. It’s not going to be easy because at 800,000 in one year, all the chapters will have to train first aiders. They will need at least 2,500 [trainees] a day in the entire country, and they will be re-certified after two years,” Gordon noted. Roderick L. Abad

THE freelance industry is expected to keep growing in the coming year, according to the country manager of Payoneer Philippines.

Companies

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Strong consumer spending lifts 2022 income–Cosco

t he company said consolidated revenues last year rose by 13 percent to P197.1 billion from P174.4 billion in 2021.

“ t he company continued to benefit from the economic recovery amid the prevailing macroeconomic challenges by way of higher revenue growth across all its business segments which indicates the recovering consumer demand.”

t he group’s grocery retailing businesses, Puregold Price Club inc. and S& r Membership Shopping Club, contributed 63 percent of total core net income, followed by the liquor distribution with 25 percent, commercial real estate segment with 11 percent and specialty retail, 1 percent.

t he grocery retailing group’s net sales were higher by 12 percent yearon-year to P184.3 billion, driven by the 6.6 percent full year same store sales growth and the increase in new stores as consumer demand gained momentum due to the reopening of the economy.

even as inflation spiked, Cosco said sentiment was lifted by low unemployment, minimum wage hikes, robust remittances from overseas Filipino workers and the full resumption of face-to-face classes.

t he company still sees continuous growth in its topline in the coming years due to country’s healthy underlying fundamentals, underserved demand and relatively raw retail landscape.”

t h e grocery retail segment also managed a 13 percent yearon-year growth in net income to P9.3 billion.

t he liquor distribution business through t he Keepers Holdings inc. recorded a consolidated revenue of P13.96 billion, 26 percent higher than last year’s level. t his is on the back of a 20 percent growth in volume of cases sold totaling more than 5.3 million cases sold in 2022, driven principally by the continued robust performance of Alfonso brandy, which has already surpassed its prepandemic levels.

Sales performance from other spirits, wines as well as specialty beverages categories also registered growth contributing to the overall revenue growth in 2022. t his, the company said, indicates a recovering demand with the easing of community restrictions.

net income for the liquor segment jumped by 41 percent to P2.23 billion in 2022 resulting from the strong sales performance from all categories, such as imported wine, spirits and specialty beverages.

During the year and pursuant to its strategic plans, Keepers has also completed its acquisition of a 50-percent equity interest in Bodegas Williams & Humbert SA, the producers of Alfonso, the Keepers’ flagship

Oil revenues boost PERC profit

Petro e n ergy r e sources Corp. (PerC) of the yuchengco group saw its net income rise by 30 percent to P863 million last year from P665 million in 2021.

oi l revenues went up by 57 percent to P726 million in 2022 from P461 million in 2021 driven by the significant increase in global crude prices to $106.27 per barrel (bbl) from an average of $69.90 per barrel during the period.

electricity sales in 2022 declined 11 percent from previous year mainly due to the one-month preventive maintenance shutdown of the 20megawatt (MW) Maibarara-1 and the 12MW Maibarara-2 power plants in February.

However, this was offset by the hefty returns from the gabon petroleum operations, leading to a 69-percent surge in net income attributable to PerC ’s equity holders. net income jumped to P549 million in 2022 from the previous year’s P325 million.

PerC is engaged in petroleum production through the etame consortium in gabon, West Africa and

DOE issues TOR for green energy auction

TH e Department of e ne rgy (D o e ) released on t u esday the t e rms of r e ference ( t or ) for the second round of the g r een e n ergy Auction Program ( g e A 2), paving the way for the auction to push through in June.

t h e g e A P was designed to continuously trigger the increase in the country’s renewable energy ( r e ) capacity, which will help realize the government’s target of 35 percent r e in the energy mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

t h e t or supplements the provisions of the g e A 2 guidelines and will govern the rules and procedures of the auction process. Lenie Lectura

in renewable energy ( r e) in the Philippines through its holding firm Petrogreen energy Corp. (PgeC), that owns and runs r e power stations utilizing geothermal, wind, and solar energy.

P e g C currently holds major-

ity stakes in the 32-MW Maibarara g e othermal Power Project in Batangas and the 70-MWdc ta rlac Solar Power Project. t he company also has a 40 percent share in the 50-MW na bas Wind Power Project in Aklan. Lenie Lectura

brand and the number 1 imported brandy in the Philippines.

t he commercial real estate segment posted a 7 percent growth in rental revenue amounting to P1.81 billion last year as business operations improved due to easing mobility restrictions.

t he real estate segment saw its net income fall by more than 7 percent to P845 million from P915 million in 2021 due to higher power and utility costs.

For the specialty retailing business segment, o f fice Warehouse inc.’s revenues grew by 15 percent at P1.79 billion as it continued to see a recovery from its business operations. net income improved by 38 percent to P69 million last year from P50 million in the previous year.

B1

Holcim announces product rebranding

HolCiM Philippines inc. said it has rebranded its flagship blended cement to e x cel eCo planet as it aims to reduce the product’s carbon footprint.

t he company said the blended cement will continue to “provide excellent performance for general construction applications, with concrete made durable due to its high resistance to sulfate and low porosity.”

Using excel eCoPlanet, the company noted, will “also improve workability and minimize shrinkage and cracks in concrete.”

t h rough the company’s continuous improvement initiatives, the product’s carbon footprint is now at least 30 percent lower than o rd inary Portland cement qualifying it to bear the e CoPlanet mark,” Holcim Philippines said in a statement on tuesday.

excel was among the first blended cements produced by Holcim Philip-

pines, which was launched over 20 years ago. t he company said excel cement has become one of the most trusted brands in the market with over two billion bags sold.

For his part, Holcim Philippines President and Ceo Horia Adrian said the excel eCoPlanet is an “important milestone” in the company’s sustainability journey in the Philippines. it combines the strong legacy of excel in the country and the group’s direction of accelerating innovation to decarbonize building. We are proud that excel is classified as an eCoPlanet product and excited to see our customers continue using this in building progress in the country,” Adrian said. Holcim excel, as a general purpose cement, is used for concreting for structural elements, such as foundations, beams, columns and slabs of residential and commercial buildings. Andrea E. San Juan

CosCo Capital Inc., the listed retail holding firm of businessman Lucio L. Co, said its income in 2022 went up by 17 percent to P12.28 billion from P10.5 billion a year ago, despite inflation and other economic headwinds.

BDO income rises 40% in Q1 on loans, deposits

BDO Unibank Inc. on Tuesday said its had a net income of P16.5 billion in the first three months of the year, some 40 percent higher than the previous year’s P11.73 billion, on broad-based growth across its businesses.

Return on average common equity reached 14.45 percent from 11.09 percent last year.

Gross customer loans increased 8 percent to P2.6 trillion, while total deposits expanded 14 percent to P3.2 trillion.

Given the uncertainty, the bank has maintained a healthy balance between loan growth and sufficient liquidity for unforeseen events, maintaining its liquidity ratio at 35 percent.

Net interest income grew to P43.4 billion while non-interest income rose to P18.9 billion, bolstered by solid growth in the various fee-based as well as treasury and foreign exchange businesses.

Operating expenses went up by 17 percent, mainly from volume-related costs such as credit card interchange fees, documentary stamp taxes and gross receipts taxes, consistent with increased activity.

The bank also sustained its information technology investments and branch expansion with 97 new branches opened since last year.

“Revenue growth continued to outpace opex growth, resulting in pre-provision operating profit accelerating to P24.9 billion,” the lender said.

Non-performing loan ratio improved to 1.98 percent from 2.72 percent last year, while NPL coverage increased from 120 percent to 170 percent year-on-year, as the bank maintained its conservative credit and provisioning policies.

Capital base strengthened to P475.9 billion, with capital adequacy ratio and common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio at 14.8 percent and 13.7 percent, respectively, both above regulatory minimum levels. Book value per share rose by 10.5 percent to P88.81.

“While macroeconomic challenges persist with still elevated inflation and interest rates, the Bank believes it is in a good position to weather short-term volatility and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities given its sound balance sheet, established business franchise and strong and diversified earnings streams,” the bank said.

PHL banks give ‘dirty’ energy $1.8B

the total amount financed by Philippine banks for coal-related activities and projects reached $867.08 million for April 2022 to March 2023, with the majority through bonds underwriting of around $594 million while the rest are from loans.

Meanwhile, financing for the expansion of new fossil gas projects registered $930 million for this scorecard period, the report, which was released on Tuesday, stated.

The 2023 scorecard took into account, for the first time, the exposure of domestic banks to the fossil gas industry.

for fossil-fuel power projects have shifted from loans to bonds from 2020 up to the first quarter of 2023.

Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) Deputy Executive Director Avril de Torres said “banks must realize that every time they underwrite or facilitate a toxic bond, they have a direct hand in the worsening impacts of the climate crisis.”

With no time left to waste, Alminaza urged banks “to abandon fossil gas and coal plans, develop and fully implement policies and mechanisms to reach climate ambitions, and intensify their renewable energy investments.”

EXECUTIVES of BDO Life As-

surance Co. Inc. said there is wisdom in having a “Plan B,” especially during economic uncertainties as a means to fill in the gap in case the provider of the family dies.

BDO Life President and CEO

Renato A. Vergel de Dios said in an online briefing with reporters that during recessionary periods, people’s financial plans and goals or “Plan A” are under a more severe threat.

“By ‘Plan A,’ we refer to [a] program of savings and investment, which is funded by income savings from one’s salaried job, professional practice or business,” Vergel de Dios said.

“For a responsible head of a family, having a ‘Plan A’ in place is indispensable. The cornerstone of every

The banks identified in the report are Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Me-

Goods

trobank), Security Bank Corp. (SBC), Philippine National Bank (PNB) and China Banking Corp. (PSE: CHIB).

The report said that as of March,

“The new criteria greatly affected BPI, the top coal financier, which has now doubled its dirty-energy exposure while BDO emerged as the top fossil gas financier,” WFC-ECC said.

The group noted that financing

seized by BOC in Q1 hit ₧19.22B

THE Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) has seized smuggled goods worth P19.22 billion in the first quarter, Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio announced last Tuesday.

A statement issued by Rubio’s office stated that the top-seized goods in the January-March period were counterfeit goods worth more than P13.249 billion, agricultural products worth over P2.552 billion, cigarettes and tobacco products worth over P1.748 billion and illegal drugs worth P849 million.

Other items seized were general merchandise, steel products, electronics, medical supplies, jewelry, food, chemicals, currency, fuel and oil, the BOC statement read.

According to the BOC, the seizure of these goods resulted from 123

Alert Orders (AOs) issued against suspected shipments at ports as well as 19 Letters of Authority (LOAs) served against various warehouses, storage facilities and stores with derogatory reports.

Just days ago, the BOC announced its personnel temporarily padlocked and blocked access to six warehouses storing P150 million worth of alleged smuggled agricultural products, including frozen meat and fresh fruits.

Juvymax R. Uy, deputy commissioner for Intelligence Group, was quoted in a statement as saying that the LOAs issued by Rubio allowed them to act on the derogatory information they received on the warehouses located in Caloocan, Manila and Navotas.

On April 18, the BOC said it has also revoked the accreditation of 48 importers and 19 customs brokers

for violating Customs laws, rules and regulations.

Rubio said these accomplishments demonstrate his agency’s “commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity and accountability in its operations.”

Throughout its operations in the first quarter, the BOC said it worked closely with other government agencies and international organizations to improve border security and combat transnational smuggling syndicates.

Rubio vowed the BOC will remain vigilant in its efforts to combat smuggling “and protect our nation’s interests.”

“We will continue to work with our partners in government and the private sector to ensure that our borders are secure and our local industries thrive,” he added.

Security Bank offers two loan products to MSMEs

SECURITY Bank Corp. (PSE: SECB) revealed last Tuesday a financial package targeting micro-sized, small-scale and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) the lender calls “Business Banking Segment,” or “BBS.”

A statement said that through the BBS, MSMEs would be offered either a Business Mortgage Loan (BML) or a Business Express Loan (BEL).

The country’s eighth-largest lender in terms of assets said the BML “allows customers to loan up to 80 percent of the appraised value of their collateral.”

“Clients can loan up to P30 million

family provider’s ‘Plan A’ is life insurance protection. We refer to this as ‘Plan B,’ which springs into action when the family provider dies prematurely,” he explained. “By injecting cash into the family’s account, ‘Plan B’ narrows the gap left behind by an aborted “Plan A.’”

“Without a ‘Plan B,’ one can only imagine how much harder life will be for a family that just lost their financial provider especially in times of high inflation,” de Dios added.

He said spending for life insurance protection is a smart decision, even during periods of economic uncertainty. It addresses the uncertainty of death, and its threat on the remaining family’s quality of life.

Losing the family’s main income

and pay up to 20 years in monthly installments,” SECB said. “For clients looking for more flexibility in their fund use for their shorter business cycles, they may choose a revolving-credit line version of BML where it gives them access short term funds from ranging 6 months to 12 months.”

The BEL, on the other hand, are for those needing a collateral-free loan, the lender said. The BEL, it added, “allows clients to get up to P5 million to help grow their business.”

“Every MSME has unique business goals and challenges that entail customized services and solu-

earner is challenging enough in normal times, what more if it happens during an economically uncertain environment.

“From one’s life insurance proceeds, a family can fund their everyday needs, keep the children in school, pay for monthly utility bills, and in some cases, even provide a modest capital for a small business. As the saying goes, there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes,” de Dios said. “No matter what state the economy is in, whether in a robust upswing or entering into a creeping recession, failing health and premature death represent lingering risks to our family’s financial security.”

BDO Unibank Senior Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer

tions. BBS’s non-lending and lending products can help them meet their objectives through financial inclusion, holistic support and tailor-fit products and services,” First Vice President Marjorie T. Esplana said.

The lender said it expects the BBS to capture 20 percent of MSMEs in the next three years to five years. It didn’t cite a target after this period.

SECB said it hopes to achieve this goal by “enhancing” its “various customer touchpoints such as branch banking, telesales, social media, client support and business development.”

Frederico Rafael D. Ocampo said that for “Plan A,” individuals will need to re-assess their investments, especially around the riskier types, such as equities, to ensure they match with one’s investment horizon and risk profile.

“One instrument that many often dismiss as unnecessary, but in fact remains essential to enhance one’s family’s financial security and survival especially during challenging economic times is life insurance,” Ocampo said. “The more difficult the economic environment, the more an individual needs financial protection in place, one that ensures the family’s financial dignity in the event of the breadwinner’s premature death.”

VG Cabuag

WFC-EFF Convener and San Carlos Bishop Gerry A. Alminaza said the need to phase out all fossil fuels has become even starker after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, which reveals that “the window of time we still have to keep alive the 1.5-degree-Celsius Paris goal and the chance of generations to come to fight for a livable future is rapidly closing by the second.”

The Communications and Partnerships and National Ecology office of Caritas Philippines commented that it is never too late for the banks to stop financing power projects that will utilize fossil fuels.

“The scorecard is a reflection of the financial environment in which fossil fuels thrive. Philippine banks can expect that they will continue to take the brunt of the growing global campaign pressuring banks to end their massive and ongoing financing of fossil fuels,” said Jing Henderson of Caritas Philippines.

Priority management

IN the book by my favorite author

Stephen Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” he wrote a story about the rock-pebble-sandwater-in-a jar. You probably guess it right that the rock represents the important things in our lives such as our religious beliefs, marriage, family, children, work and what have you— whatever is of value and of importance to you.

The less important but also necessary things in our life that we have to do on a regular basis; such as going to the grocery, answering phone calls and emails, driving, etc are represented by the pebble, sand and water.

The more sand, pebbles and water we place in our jar the lesser space for the rocks. Thus, it is important that we should fill our jar first with the rocks before we fill it with the rest. This is a perfect illustration on how we should plan our life. What are the goals we want to achieve? If it is material gain, then we should be ready to sacrifice our time with the secondary goals. Moreover, we should be ready to reap the consequences.

One classic example is that of an executive whose goal is to buy a property and build a house in one of the high-end villages in the country. He travels several times in a month because of his work, hardly having enough time for his family because, even when in Manila, he works long hours. Before he realized it, his wife and children left him one day, and there is nobody left in his luxury home except him and his helpers.

Work-life interface is bidirectional as work can interfere with private life and private life can interfere with work. That is why there is such a thing as work-life balance.

However, work-life balance is not easy since our work or our businesses ensure that there is food in our tables; that when “rainy days” come, we have reserves as buffers.

But in a statistic by Aviva statistics dated August 24, 2022, it shows “that more workers are more attracted to the work-life balance (41 percent) than the salary (36 percent)—a switch in rankings compared to 2019, before the pandemic.” The pandemic made people realize more the importance of family, health, relationships and so on.

Everybody agrees that work-life balance is important but achieving it is easier said than done. Nevertheless, it is not impossible. It is a matter of how you juggle work and personal life and setting the right priorities.

People in the workplace, even business owners, are now looking beyond salaries and/or profits and are considering non-monetary benefits in gauging their satisfaction in their

workplaces or in their businesses. Consequently, people are looking for more ways to manage their time wisely, placing due consideration in the time they spent on work and personal life.

However, it is not only work that can affect your personal life. The other things—pebbles, stones and water—can be the time you spend on social media, in hobbies such as playing computer games, in socializing and many other “time-robbers” that we are not even aware of.

Social media can take a huge trunk of your hours. This is one area that you should learn to control. I observed that when I started to check my social media accounts first thing in the morning, my time is spent the whole morning replying to comments or scrolling on what other people do with their lives, or replying to messages; which we realized later are not on top of our to-do list for the day.

Instead of spending the early hours of the morning in a quiet time by reading or writing in my journal or working out, the rest of my schedule for the day went crazy because I failed to control my time in social media.

I also know of many people both young and old who were hooked on computer games or Korean movies or soap dramas that, before they knew it, they were already addicted to these activities.

Achieving a work-life balance results to fewer health problems, more engagement levels in work resulting to higher productivity and other benefits for the business. A person who experiences “burnout” cannot reach his full creativity potential and will not be efficient in his work.

On the other hand, we should also be conscious of what we do with our time, that we are not wasting it on non-productive activities. Our priorities are a result of our goals— we can only set the right priorities if we know what our goals in life are.

Wilma Miranda is the chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, a managing partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, a member of the Board of Directors of KPS Outsourcing Inc. and Treasurer of the Negros Outsourcing Services Inc. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions and the BusinessMirror

SSS runs after 10 employers for nonpayment of employee contributions

THE Social Security System (SSS) announced it recently conducted its “Run After Contribution Evaders,” “Race,” campaign in Caloocan City by issuing written orders to 10 employers for not registering and remitting their employees’ contributions to the pension-fund manager.

“Said employers are those with busi-

nesses involving trucking, wholesale of various consumer goods, and management consultancy services with a total SSS contribution delinquency of around P7.03 million, affecting 127 employees,” the SSS said. Employers who received show cause orders were given 15 days to coordinate with the SSS’s Caloocan

Branch for appropriate and immediate compliance.

A statement from the SSS said the agency currently offers two programs for delinquent business and household employers. One is the “Contribution Penalty Condonation, Delinquency Management and Restructuring” program, which the SSS said “covers all single

proprietorships, corporations, partnerships, cooperatives and associations. The other program is called by the SSS as the “Contribution Penalty Condonation and Restructuring” program, which is for household employers. Through these programs, delinquent employers can pay the unremitted contributions of their employees, less pen-

alties, through a one-time payment or installment term.

SSS Vice President for NCR North Division Fernando F. Nicolas was quoted in the statement as saying he is emphasizing the importance of employers’ compliance in fulfilling their legal obligations.

“As our constant partners in providing social security protection to all

Filipino workers in the private sector, this ‘Race’ activity is our commitment in obliging employers to comply with their primary responsibility of reporting and remitting their employee’s contributions to SSS for their respective employees to enjoy various benefits and loan privileges in times of uncertainties,” Nicolas said.

A number of Philippine banks have provided nearly $1.8 billion in financial assistance to coal and gas-fired power projects, the latest report of energy advocacy and bank watchdog group Withdraw from Coal: end Fossil Fuels (WFCeCC) revealed.

‘Amid uncertainties, it is wise to buy insurance’

LOOK WHO’S TALKING

THE ex-husband of the socialite seems to be taunting her on social media when, in fact, it was she who wanted the separation because she was the aggrieved party. The ex-husband seems to have forgotten that he is banned in a certain club because he allegedly made unwelcome advances to female employees there. Most of the former couple’s friends took the wife’s side and even public sympathy is with her. Many people know that the husband is shady when it comes to how he treats women. The wife is not exactly Miss Congeniality but she is generally liked and people know that she has good values.

SHE’S IN LOVE AGAIN

WHEN the actress and her baby daddy split, the starlet was named by fans as the third party. The starlet denied this, of course, and to this day nothing has been proven. But the starlet is said to be the new girlfriend of the actress, who has long rumored to be bisexual. It was actually a big surprise to everyone when she became pregnant. Since she and her baby daddy separated, this is the first time that she’s been linked to anyone. She didn’t date anyone since the separation and just worked and stayed home with her kid.

EXCHANGE OF STARS

IN the coming weeks, the country’s top networks might have an exchange of stars. On one hand is the actress who took a leave from her TV show. She used to be with the other network and she was happy to work with the current one. However, there have been upheavals that caused her to change her mind. So now, the actress is looking at her options, including a return to her original home studio. On the other hand is an actor who is not young but still very marketable. He wants to transfer to the other network because he feels that his career is at a dead end.

SHE’S FOUND TRUE LOVE

THE starlet came from a family that was rich but eventually ran into financial problems. She joined show business but sadly, her career didn’t take off. So she tried to find a rich man and she did—only to find out that he had a fiancé. Eventually, the starlet met a rich old man who is even older than her father. The old man, as expected, became besotted with the starlet and she went along for the ride because she needed the money. No one thought that the man would marry the starlet, who eventually grew to love him. Now, the starlet is rich and powerful. People might call her a gold-digger but she and her husband are happy.

In ‘Florida Man,’ Edgar Ramirez ‘has fun with’ popular meme

EDGAR RAMIREZ says his new series Florida Man, now on Netflix, may share a name with the popular meme of the same name, but it is not making fun of the state or its residents.

“It does not make fun of that, it has fun with it, which is completely different,” said Ramirez in an interview.

In Florida Man—the TV show—Ramirez plays Mike Valentine, an ex-cop in Philadelphia who falls from grace because of a gambling addiction. He also still owes a big debt to a local mob boss (Emory Cohen) so he often has to do his dirty work. On his orders, Ramirez’s character begrudgingly returns to his

TODAY’S HOROSCOPE

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS

DAY: Hayden Christensen, 42; Kate Hudson, 44; James Franco, 45; Kim Hawthorne, 55.

The actor whose past roles include Zero Dark Thirty, Carlos and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, says the fun of Florida Man set him up mentally to go into his next job, now filming: season two of Peacock’s anthology series Dr. Death. It’s based on the podcast of the same name. Ramirez will play the con man masked as a world-renowned surgeon whom a TV producer falls for, based on a true story. He says that role is “one of the darkest” he’s ever had.

“We see it a lot, especially when women are conned. ‘How could she fall for that? Oh, my gosh. She’s so naive’ and all of that. It’s almost like they’re being blamed,” he said. “The reality is they’re people who dedicate their entire life to con other people, so it’s not the victim’s fault.” ■

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Good fortune awaits. Recognizing an opportunity, taking the time and making an effort will be worthwhile. Refuse to let the little things get to you. Assess your situation and what’s entailed to remain on track, then turn your hard work into something you are proud to present to the world. Personal growth and taking better care of your health and finances are recommended. Commitment is favored. Your numbers are 4, 12, 19, 26, 33, 42, 46.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Stand your ground, make your intentions clear and do what feels right. Don’t overload your to-do list with favors for others when you must look out for yourself and take care of your interests first. ★★★

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Emotions will be difficult to control when dealing with friends, relatives or colleagues. Choose your words wisely; sending a mixed message will confuse a situation that needs practical help and understanding. Self-improvement will offer better results than trying to change others. ★★★

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You’ll experience problems expressing your feelings and dealing with sensitive issues at work. Keep busy, and don’t share personal information. Distance yourself from anyone trying to talk you into taking on more than you can handle. Take better care of your health. ★★★★

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don’t take anything for granted; if you want something done, do it yourself. You’ll be in emotional overdrive when helping others or involved in joint ventures. Don’t promise or take on too much. Live within your budget, and don’t embellish information. ★★

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Your actions have more clout than your words. Take the initiative, set goals, test your plans and don’t share your ideas with others until you have everything in place. Don’t let demanding individuals dominate your time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Adjust what’s necessary, but stick to your plans. Trying to accommodate others will leave you feeling tired and limit what you can do to achieve your goal. If you call on reliable people who owe you, you’ll meet your deadline. ★★★

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Experience will help hone your skills. Test how good you are, but don’t expect to be perfect. Having patience will ease tension and help you enjoy what you are doing. Mastering the art of something that makes you happy is the richest reward. ★★★

not only as an actor, but in other interests that I have.”

Visually impaired film student bags Best Screenplay in HK film tilt

CHARLIE VITUG was diagnosed with bilateral optic neuropathy, the permanent damage to the optic nerves of both eyes, when she was only 10 years old.

From being a consistent honor student, she started failing one class after another. With blurred vision and blind spots, she also had to let go of her hobbies such as drawing and playing tennis.

“Everyone around me thought that it was the sudden loss in vision but a part of me knew that it was also loss of motivation,” she admitted.

Vitug opted out of a school for the blind. But with the help of family, she turned to low-vision gadgets and its accessibility features. She waded all the way to high school zooming in through an iPad camera to read and write.

During college, she not only found a safe space, but also a renewed inspiration at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.

“Things are turning out well in terms of academics and extracurriculars,” the Digital Filmmaking student beamed. “I finally got back on the honors roll despite not having much improvement in vision.”

Occasional challenges were inevitable, particularly

under a program that is highly dependent on visuals. With dedication, Vitug focused on and pushed towards screenwriting—a skill that required less eyesight.

“I love being a screenwriter. It allows me to write what I want to see with the production team bringing that sight to me—a sight that would have been difficult for me to experience and appreciate outside of a movie set,” she elaborated. “Being so dependent on cameras back then makes becoming a film student a full-circle moment. Now, cameras empower me and allow me to bring stories to life.”

At 19, Vitug’s Romuelda internationally debuted and nabbed the Best Screenplay recognition at the 2022 Hong Kong Super Short Film Festival.

It was also an Official Selection and Best Student Short Film nominee at the 9th Pambujan International Film Festival, and Official Selection for the 2023 Pasinaya Open House Festival.

The two-minute political commentary follows the titular character set to attend a press conference with her husband Ferdie.

Driven to encourage viewers to learn more

about history without overwhelming them with information, Vitug released Romuelda a few months after elections in time for National Heroes Day.

“Philippine cinema is known for telling stories that hold stronger meaning than what is shown on surface level,” she noted. “It makes films a powerful tool for empowerment and speaking out.”

Taking inspiration from culture and politics, Vitug was a fellow of the Writer’s Block Screenwriting Workshop where she was among the chosen participants to develop a screenplay as part of the program. Through her journey, the young artist highlighted the significance of a strong support system.

“It was passion and support for that passion that drove me,” she explained. “Benilde has been so inclusive, never treating me different from others but still being accommodating whenever necessary.”

Vitug shared how inclusivity goes beyond classrooms, from professors and students to the staff and officers. “It felt unbelievable at first, formerly coming from a school that tried to convince me into transferring to an institution for the blind,” she added.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Make up your mind; if you take too much time to ponder over what you are doing, you’ll overthink the process. Learn all you can and meet with people who have something to contribute. Don’t put time or money into personal situations. ★★★

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Have some fun, expand your interests and meet new people. Don’t feel the need to be overly generous. Let your charm lead the way, and you won’t feel the need to buy love. Put more thought into investments, contracts and due dates.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Listen to requests, but don’t buy into something for the wrong reason or to impress someone. An interest in someone quite unlike you will lead to negative and positive results. ★★

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A levelheaded approach to money, work and relationships will spare you from getting involved in a messy situation that affects your emotional well-being. Pay attention to how you look and where you live. ★★★★

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Focus on health. Join a fitness group, improve your eating habits or update your look. Dress for success; it will make you feel confident and eager to succeed. Don’t let a lousy relationship bring you down; deal with it and walk away. ★★★

BIRTHDAY BABY:

You are adaptable, diligent and impatient. You are emotional and big-hearted.

‘you’ve got a friend in me’ BY GARRETT CHALFIN

RECOGNIZING TOP ‘RE AL LE AdERS’ Of 2023

ReAl leaders has released its latest list of the world’s most impactful companies that are leading purposeful change, and two Philippine-based companies—Generation HOPe and Plastic Credit exchange (PCX)—have been recognized for their exceptional contributions to social and environmental change. These companies have been ranked at 232nd and 257th place, respectively, joining the ranks of other winners such as Tesla, Ben & Jerry’s, and Crocs.

“This is our fifth annual ranking, and the number of award winners has tripled. It’s encouraging to see how this movement is going mainstream with businesses all over the world,” said Mark Van Ness, founder of Real leaders. “We are excited to welcome new and past company winners to the impact movement, and into the Real leaders Impact Awards community.”

Founded in 2010, Real leaders is a membership community for impact leaders with a global media platform dedicated to driving positive change.

In its fifth year, the magazine reveals its Impact Awards which ranks 300 Impact Companies solving existential problems through innovative and sustainable market-based solutions. Calculated by the Real leaders “Force for Good” score, it takes into account the company’s five-year sales growth, revenue, and B Impact Assessment to objectively rank the companies.

Respected brands from a variety of industries globally, such as Toms, Vita Coco, Tetra Pak, and lego Group also made it to this year’s list.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by Real leaders among many other values-aligned companies,” said Nanette Medved-Po, founder and executive chairperson at HOPe and PCX. “We aspire to continue to build out effective marketbased solutions to address important environmental and social issues in the Philippines and beyond.”

Generation HOPe (www.generationhope.ph) has made a significant impact since its establishment in 2012, with 122 public school classrooms built in areas where they are needed the most. Additionally, the organization’s agricultural interventions have benefited over 21,000 smallholder coconut farmers in Mindanao, resulting in the planting of more than a million coconut trees in the region last year. Generation HOPe is also actively contributing to environmental conservation by diverting plastic away from nature and collecting approximately 551 kilograms of plastic in 2022 alone.

Plastic Credit exchange’s (www.plasticcreditexchange. com) mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy and build a future where no plastic ends up in nature. PCX is addressing the plastic waste problem by collecting, tracking, monetizing and repurposing plastic with the power of blockchain technology while supporting communities on the ground. It is the only fully transparent global marketplace for audited plastic waste reduction.

To date, PCX and its partners have diverted more than 42 million kilograms of plastic waste from nature, invested over $3 million into the historically underfunded circular plastic economy, and its waste-to-energy programs have driven more than 70K tons of carbon reduction from coal replacement.

Going solo

a week, I got to know the different groups in the organization and had a better understanding of my role.

Another benefit of individual work is that it develops your decision-making skills. Being independent helps you to look at an issue from different perspectives to help you arrive at different options on how to proceed.

because she knew that I expected her to attend to issues that might come up in her project. That added empowerment allowed her to make decisions on the spot, which helped her develop the right attitude when she encountered roadblocks and challenges. When she received requests for adding improvements and features to the learning portals, she rose to the challenge and discovered out-of-the-box solutions that impressed our clients.

WHEN I was still in school, I always hated group work because the distribution of work was not always equal. Some just rode on the coattails of the team, while others did all the pulling and pushing to succeed. In an office environment, this can still happen because not everyone is equally skilled or competent to do the work. People managers also need to put their teams in small groups to develop teamwork and collaboration which are necessary elements for a group to move in a common

You can then make recommendations to your immediate manager and learn how they decide so you can fine tune your recommendations for future projects. Your manager expects you to alert them to issues that might arise from your projects, but they also expect you to provide recommendations on how to proceed. Working alone will help you hone that skill while getting insight into how your manager decides.

organization. In a previous company, I was asked in my first week of work to interview several leaders on how a program was run in their department. After

Working alone also reduces confusion because you will be forced to clarify instructions and there will be less people to work with and appease. You work at your own pace and since you do not work with anyone, conflict and politicking are significantly reduced. Distractions from others are also minimized giving you more time to focus on your work. You then become less dependent on others and work on the In a previous organization, I used to work with two website developers who were tasked to make a learning portal for one of our clients. After the clients had briefed them on what they wanted to see in the portal, I sat down with them to create the project timelines. When they started working on the portal, I realized they had different styles in coding it and they ended up frustrating each other. I talked to them, and we decided that only one of them will develop the portal, while the other one will take up the other person’s workload. Kim, the one who did the portal, was so good that other groups also wanted their own One of the best things Kim learned from working alone was to develop her skills to develop creative solutions. Since she did not rely on others, she became more attuned to what was happening in her project

Why ChatGPT and other language AIs don’t know what they’re saying

WHEN we asked GPT-3, an extremely powerful and popular artificial intelligence language system, whether you’d be more likely to use a paper map or a stone to fan life into coals for a barbecue, it preferred the stone. To smooth your wrinkled skirt, would you grab a warm thermos or a hairpin? GPT-3 suggested the hairpin.

And if you need to cover your hair for work in a fast-food restaurant, which would work better, a paper sandwich wrapper or a hamburger bun? GPT-3 went for the bun. Why does GPT-3 make those choices when most people choose the alternative? Because GPT-3 does not understand language the way humans do.

BODILESS WORDS

ONE of us is a psychology researcher who over 20 years ago presented a series of scenarios like those above to test the understanding of a computer model of language from that time. The model did not accurately choose between using rocks and maps to fan coals, whereas humans did so easily.

The other of us is a doctoral student in cognitive science who was part of a team of researchers that more recently used the same scenarios to test GPT-3. Although GPT-3 did better than the older model, it

was significantly worse than humans. It got the three scenarios mentioned above completely wrong.

GPT-3, the engine that powered the initial release of ChatGPT, learns about language by noting, from a trillion instances, which words tend to follow which other words. The strong statistical regularities in language sequences allow GPT-3 to learn a lot about language. And that sequential knowledge often allows ChatGPT to produce reasonable sentences, essays, poems and computer code. Although GPT-3 is extremely good at learning the rules of what follows what in human language, it doesn’t have the foggiest idea what any of those words mean to a human being. And how could it?

Humans are biological entities that evolved with bodies that need to operate in the physical and social worlds to get things done. Language is a tool that helps people do that. GPT-3 is an artificial software system that predicts the next word. It does not need to get anything done with those predictions in the real world.

I AM, THEREFORE I UNDERSTAND

THE meaning of a word or sentence is intimately related to the human body: people’s abilities to act, to perceive and to have emotions. Human cognition is empowered by being embodied. People’s understanding of a term like “paper sandwich wrapper,” for example, includes the wrapper’s appearance, its feel, its weight, and, consequently,

how we can use it: for wrapping a sandwich. People’s understanding also includes how someone can use it for myriad other opportunities it affords, such as scrunching it into a ball for a game of hoops, or covering one’s hair.

All of these uses arise because of the nature of human bodies and needs: People have hands that can fold paper, a head of hair that is about the same size as a sandwich wrapper, and a need to be employed and thus follow rules like covering hair. That is, people understand how to make use of stuff in ways that are not captured in language-use statistics.

GPT-3, its successor GPT-4, and its cousins Bard, Chinchilla and LLaMA do not have bodies, and so they cannot determine, on their own, which objects are foldable, or the many other properties that the psychologist J.J. Gibson called affordances. Given people’s hands and arms, paper maps afford fanning a flame, and a thermos affords rolling out wrinkles.

Without arms and hands, let alone the need to wear unwrinkled clothes for a job, GPT-3 cannot determine these affordances. It can only fake them if it has run across something similar in the stream of words on the internet. Will a large-language-model AI ever understand language the way humans do? In our view, not without having a humanlike body, senses, purposes and ways of life.

In all of these, working alone helps you develop your self-confidence and being less dependent on other people to do what you need to do. This allows you to be more self-reliant because your focus is on how to become better at what you do rather than in looking for other people to do it for you. There are so many people in the workplace who have been accustomed to passing on their work to others that they have not improved at all. When you become selfreliant, you can do your work faster because you do not have to depend on others to do it for you.

There are also people who work better alone because they find it hard to manage other people. This is true for highly technical and specialized work where someone is the only one who can do the work. Someone in this position can feel increased pressure to perform since they are responsible for their own results. However, the rewards are also great considering they have made themselves an invaluable asset to their team.

And of course, one of the best benefits of working alone is you get full credit for your work. In a group setting, you need to document whatever you have done for the project, and you have to ensure that your manager notices those contributions. When you work alone, the work speaks for itself. Whether you prefer to work alone or in a team, your main consideration should be how the work supports your personal and professional aspirations. There are cases when you have to go at it alone, and there are cases when you need someone to help you be successful. In the end, what matters are the lessons you learn in order to move your personal and professional goals forward. n

permitting it to learn statistical relationships between words and pixels. While we can’t perform our original analysis on GPT-4 because it currently doesn’t output the probability it assigns to words, when we asked GPT-4 the three questions, it answered them correctly. This could be due to the model’s learning from previous inputs, or its increased size and visual input. However, you can continue to construct new examples to trip it up by thinking of objects that have surprising affordances that the model likely hasn’t encountered. For example, GPT-4 says that a cup with the bottom cut off would be better for holding water than a lightbulb with the bottom cut off.

A model with access to images might be something like a child who learns about language—and the world—from the television: It’s easier than learning from the radio, but humanlike understanding will require the crucial opportunity to interact with the world. Recent research has taken this approach, training language models to generate physics simulations, interact with physical environments and even generate robotic action plans. Embodied language understanding might still be a long way off, but these kinds of multisensory interactive projects are crucial steps on the way there.

ChatGPT is a fascinating tool that will undoubtedly be used for good—and not-so-good—purposes. But don’t be fooled into thinking that it understands the words it spews, let alone that it’s sentient.

Horizon Terraces Garden Villas’ Scottsdale: mountainside homes for the whole family

UP Women‘s Volleyball team has a new sponsor in Eurotel, Hotel Sogo

GLOBAL Comfort Group Corporation (GCGC), the management company behind Eurotel and Hotel Sogo, have pledged their unwavering support to the University of the Philippines Women's Volleyball Team (UPWVT) in a press conference held at Eurotel Vivaldi last March 28, 2023,

The press conference was attended by media representatives from various outlets, as well as UP representative Prof. Francis Carlos Diaz, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the UP CHK Foundation, Inc. Also in attendance were Mozzy Ravena, Team Consultant/ Team Manager of the UPWVT, Shaq Delos Santos, UPWVT Coach and the GCGC team, including Sue Geminiano, Corporate Marketing Manager, Mariel Quinto, Eurotel Ads and Promo Manager, and Francis Bernardino, Hotel Sogo Ads, and Promo Manager.

During the press conference, GCGC expressed its commitment to support the UP Women‘s Volleyball team in their upcoming games and tournaments. The two popular hotel chains have pledged to provide a substantial donation to the team, demonstrating their commitment to supporting sports development and gender equality in athletics.

The UP Women's Volleyball team is widely regarded as one of the country's most exceptional college volleyball programs, producing highly skilled players over the years. The team's advocacy for gender equality in sports has also made it a respected institution among many.

This recent commitment from Eurotel and Hotel Sogo will aid the team in their travel expenses, training facilities, and equipment needs, allowing them to continue competing at the highest levels of college volleyball.

The UP community expressed their gratitude for the collective effort of their coaches, the perseverance of all their athletes, and the support of Eurotel and Hotel Sogo.

According to Geminiano, GCGC is committed to providing the team with the necessary resources to help them achieve their goals. “We consider ourselves as the first brand who sponsored such a team considering na UP ito. Unibersidad ng Pilipinas so sobrang proud kami na nagsponsor kami sa inyo. I understand everybody knows about our standing, pero wag niyo isipin iyon dahil ang mas mahalaga samin yung perseverance ninyo, and yung willingness niyong manalo. Nakita ko kasi ang UP players, they are

so daring, their drive to give the best. Hindi kayo yung tipong pag nalalamangan na eh parang nawawalan na ng gana. That is really something to be admired. I really find you guys still humahabol, and that’s the spirit of it”. she said.

Diaz expressed his gratitude to Hotel Sogo and Eurotel for their support, saying that it will go a long way in helping the UP Women‘s Volleyball team achieve its goals.

“Kami sa UP ay sobrang natutuwa dahil tayo ay narito ngayong hapon upang ilungsad formally ang commitment to support ng GCGC sa ating UP Women’s Volleyball Team. The finer points of the sponsorship would come in eventually but it is really what we’re celebrating this afternoon for the context is the strengthened and formal show of support for the Women’s Volleyball Team of the Eurotel and Sogo Hotel with the collective effort of our coaches, the perseverance of all our athletes, and the support now of these two brand hotels, we think that this is the missing link para magpatuloy doon sa isang successful program, ang ating UP Women’s Volleyball Team”.

With this partnership, the UP Women's Volleyball Team will have the necessary resources to continue its success and compete at the highest level of college volleyball. The UP community is confident that this collaboration with Eurotel and Hotel Sogo is the missing link that will help propel the team to even greater heights.

“There are always challenges, hurdles, and humps, but the team that cares together gives so much respect to one another and perseveres and tries to do everything they can to help the team, in the end, would be given a successful outcome. So that is always in our prayers, and that is always in our commitment to support and help all of our players here today. So with that, thank

you again for allowing us to be with you this afternoon, and lagi nating sinasabi sa UP, UP Fight girls. Thank you! “ added by Diaz.

Ravena also expressed her appreciation for GCGC's commitment to the team, saying that it will positively impact the players‘ morale and motivation. “On behalf of our coaches and players, we thank you for supporting the team. You know, sometimes, it helps when someone believes in you.

Lalo na pag player ka, pag may naniniwala sa kakayahan mo, tsaka ability mo, potential mo, tingin ko doon nagsisimula lahat eh. Hardwork na lang ang susunod. So sana masuklian namin ang kabaitan na pinakita niyo samin at support. And also, is this just the beginning diba? Of a long term relationship. So thank you everyone”.

Delos Santos also expressed his appreciation for the partnership. “This partnership will provide a great opportunity for the team to improve and develop as athletes, kailangan makilala rin muna namin sila isa-isa, and then yung kaya nilang gawin, though right now sa UAAP, ano lang kami fight lang nang fight. Kase yun lang ang kailangan namin. Di kami magstop especially meron na kaming sponsor na 100% susupport sa amin so maraming maraming salamat po, and we look forward to working with GCGC towards our shared goals.” he said.

The partnership between GCGC, Eurotel, and Hotel Sogo and the UP Women's Volleyball Team is a testament to the importance of community support in achieving success. With this commitment, the team is set to achieve great things in the upcoming season.

The UP Women‘s Volleyball Team will now be able to focus on honing their skills and perfecting their strategy, knowing that they have the support of their community behind them.

Park Inn by Radisson Bacolod offers golden experience for guests through Jojo Vito’s ‘Gilded Expressions’

PARK Inn by Radisson Bacolod proudly presents “Gilded Expressions,” a oneman show by renowned installation artist Jojo Vito.

“Gilded Expressions” is the first installation art exhibit hosted by Art Cove, featuring Jojo Vito‘s sculptural pieces made of fiberglass and rendered metallic. The exhibit showcases purely decorative art pieces and other functional arts like huge laminated mirrors, lampshades, vases, and more, using classy natural materials like

golden capiz shells and other glittery shells abundant in Negros.

Launched on March 22, 2023 on the birthday of the artist himself, “Gilded Expression” serves as a celebratory exhibit with Vito’s limited edition works, which explore the intricate relationships between light, space, and texture, while highlighting a series of immersive installations that invite the viewer to experience the interplay between materiality and meaning.

“Gilded connotes something beautiful,

something shimmering. Something that is luxurious. All of us have the desires and dreams to own gilded things – to make our lives better. By creating these masterpieces, I want to remind people to always go for that dream. For me, gilded means reinvention, people should always reinvent themselves, to remain relevant. If there’s such thing as seeing things with a silver lining, or perhaps a golden lining,” Vito shares in his speech.

“We are excited to showcase Jojo Vito‘s ‘Gilded Expression’ at Park Inn by Radisson Bacolod,” said the hotel's Rooms Division Manager, Archie Javellana. “His works are a testament to the transformative power of art, and we believe that this exhibition will provide an unforgettable experience for our guests and visitors alike.”

The event was also visited by Vito's professor friends, local media, and comembers of the Negrense Bloggers Society.

“Gilded Expression” will run until June 30, 2023, and promises to provide a unique and exciting visual experience for art enthusiasts and the public. For sales inquiries and artwork purchases, guests may approach the hotel front desk or call +63 34 706 8888.

To view the online catalogue, guests may visit: https://tinyurl.com/4u6rby2x

FILIPINO home seekers are increasingly dreaming of alternative primary residences situated amid sweeping, lush naturescapes under a clear blue sky. Imagine waking up to a generous dose of mountain views, chilling on a spacious balcony, and enjoying the fresh breeze without the unwelcome chaos of the metro.

On any clear day, heralded by a spectacular sunrise, these are yours for the taking at Scottsdale, Horizon Terraces Garden Villas’ newest cluster of townhouses. Completing the Garden Villa clusters, Scottsdale is nestled at the highest point within Horizon Terraces, a prime residential location which makes it a cut above the rest. Here, surrounding vistas of Taal Lake, the Highlands’ own peaks, and Mt. Makiling are sure to take your breath away.

At the Horizon Terraces Garden Villas, part of Tagaytay Highlands’ vast estate, Scottsdale features well-appointed threebedroom townhomes of 140 to 172 square meters each in total floor area, making it an ideal home for growing families. Each townhouse unit comes with a ground-floor den, a multifunctional space that may be converted into a separate bedroom for extended family members and visiting friends.

The second floor serves as a convergence point for family and guests to appreciate nature’s view—a unique home living feature at Scottsdale. Upper levels, on the other hand, are for owners to enjoy their own private space. Situated at the highest point of the Horizon Terraces Garden Villas, Scottsdale offers an even better vantage point for enjoying nature’s bounty.

Perched at the heart of this enclave is the Central Garden, an expansive hectare of recreational and open garden space exclusively for residents of Horizon Terraces. They can relax or do stretches at the Garden Courtyard with Sundial, or let their children frolic and play at the Sensory Garden. At any time of the day, seniors may spend quiet moments at the Pocket Gardens, while those so inclined may take dips in the Central Garden’s resort-inspired pools. Residents who have known the metro’s polluted atmosphere will find Horizon Terraces Garden Villas’ clean and fresh mountain air to be a revitalizing welcome change.

COMPLETING the Garden Villa clusters, Scottsdale is located at the highest point within Horizon Terraces, offering panoramic views of stunning sceneries enjoyed from its balconies and terraces, while serving as a safe alternative primary home.

Horizon Terraces Garden Villas is also close to the Midlands Golf Course that offers myriad challenges for resident golfers, and unobstructed vistas of Taal Lake and Mt. Makiling.

Allowing for a dynamic and well-rounded lifestyle, homeownership at Horizon Terraces Garden Villas also comes with membership rights to The Country Club at Tagaytay Highlands (TCCATH), which means access to top-notch sports and leisure facilities. Casual and fine-dining restaurants are within reach for families who like bonding over food and drinks.

For the convenience of Garden Villas residents and homeowners, the surrounding locale of Tagaytay City is likewise just a quick driving distance away. Essential services and support facilities abound, such as hospitals, schools, shopping areas, industrial and technological parks, churches, banks, and gasoline stations.

Interested buyers and property investors will be glad to note that flexible payment terms are available, bringing individuals and families a step closer to an idyllic lifestyle in safer and healthier environs.

Because Tagaytay Highlands is committed to providing safe and secure facilities for all its residents, guests and staff, it has been awarded the Safety Seal of the City Government of Tagaytay.

Likewise, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development has named Tagaytay Highlands developer Highlands Prime, Inc., a subsidiary of SM Prime Holdings, as one of CALABARZON’s 2021 Outstanding Developers for Open Market Projects.

Klook, Mandai Wildlife Group join forces to drive visitorship to Singapore’s Wildlife Parks

reflects our shared values and commitment to responsible tourism and protecting the planet and its wildlife. With social content being the perfect medium to showcase the amazing experiences at Mandai, we aim to attract a younger demographic of travellers to explore new adventures and create meaningful memories.”

The partnership, which begins in April 2023, will kick off with an integrated panregion digital campaign, a series of onlineto-offline (O2O) activations, original social content as well as new offerings sold exclusively on Klook’s platform. Park-goers can look forward to a new Mandai Klook Pass and other customised bundles that pair admission tickets with food, wildlife experiences, transportation and SIM cards for connectivity. These bundles will create convenient and seamless experiences for different travellers.

KLOOK , Asia’s leading travel and experiences platform, and Mandai Wildlife Group recently announced a three-year strategic partnership to boost international visitorship to The Mandai Wildlife Reserve, the integrated wildlife and nature precinct home to Singapore’s wildlife parks. Leveraging Klook’s digital marketing and social content capabilities and strength in Asia-Pacific, the collaboration targets the growing millennial and Gen-Z segment in six key markets namely Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea.

This marks the first time Mandai Wildlife Group is embarking on a multiyear, multi-market partnership with Klook, one of the largest online travel agencies, a go-to app for travel and leisure experiences in Asia Pacific. Together, Mandai Wildlife Group and Klook will co-develop regional marketing campaigns as well as curate bundles and activities for discerning international visitors and position the precinct of The Mandai Wildlife Reserve as a top-of-mind destination in Singapore.

Eric Gnock Fah, Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder at Klook said, “We are thrilled to partner with The Mandai Wildlife Group, furthering their ambitions of establishing The Mandai Wildlife Reserve as the region’s go-to destination. Our collaboration

Jean Choi, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Mandai Wildlife Group said, “With travel rebounding, Mandai Wildlife Group is looking at new ways to engage travellers in the region, especially from our top markets. We want to be culturally relevant and in the minds of the young working adults and youth segments who are always on the lookout for new experiences. With this group being the key demographic users of Klook, there is a lot of synergy to fuel our partnership. Our jointly developed campaigns will showcase a different side to our upcoming destination, The Mandai Wildlife Reserve, and in line with Klook’s purpose, inspire and enable more moments of joy. Overall, Mandai Wildlife Group remains committed to providing meaningful experiences as we progressively launch new wildlife parks and nature-based offerings in the next three years.”

As part of both companies’ commitment to sustainability, a core focus of the partnership will be on raising awareness of wildlife conservation efforts and taking actions towards living sustainably for the benefit of people, wildlife, nature and the planet that we all share. Users can also opt for “Choose Good, Do Good” bundles where a portion of the proceeds will go towards Mandai Wildlife Group’s conservation efforts across Southeast Asia.

Hann group to develop ultra luxurious golfing Hub in new Clark City

Dae Sik Han, chairman of the Hann group of companies, told reporters that the three golf courses will put the Philippines as a special destination for both local and foreign golfers.

Hann Reserve, developed under Hann Philippines subsidiary Hann Development Corp., is a 450-hectare integrated luxury mountain resort development at New Clark City, Tarlac. It will feature three 18-hole championship golf courses and PGA-affiliated player development facilities, along with ultra-luxury hotels and resorts by Accor and Marriott International, clubhouses, a mixed-use commercial center, premium villas and residences, an international school and a 10-hectare curated public park.

“We are excited and proud to create a truly world-class golfing experience befitting Clark as an equally world-class leisure and entertainment destination,” said Dae Sik Han.

No less than world-famous Korean golfer KJ Choi has been tapped by Hann Reserve to

design the three golf courses. The first golf course is a mountain course by world-renowned Nicklaus Design, which forms part of the first phase of Hann Reserve targeted for completion by 2026 along with a clubhouse and Banyan Tree hotel and residences. The third golf course is a river course designed by legendary former World Number 1 golfer Sir Nick Faldo, which broke ground last November 2022 and is slated for completion in the latter part of Hann Reserve’s second phase by 2028.

Dae Sik Han said he decided to partner with Choi because of his exploits on the golf course proving that Asians can also compete with the taller Americans. “Aside from knowing him personally, I also found out he’s a great human being.”

He said the world-class project is an indication of the huge potential of New Clark City as businesses try to avoid the congestion in Metro Manila. “It’s very rational for me to believe in the viability of New Clark City as

the next growth center in the country, especially with the opening of the Clark International Airport.”

Choi said the design of the golf courses would be environment-friendly, sustainable and female golfers-friendly as well. Based on his tours, he said that the Philippines has good golf infrastructure. “I expect a lot of golfers to come to the Philippines once this is done.”

“It is my utmost pleasure to be a part of this landmark integrated resort development in the Philippines and to offer a memorable golfing experience for Filipino golf enthusiasts and visiting players alike,” said Choi.

Choi said players can expect a challenging but enjoyable and rewarding course that is designed with utmost attention to detail, working with the unique lay of the land and

Mantawi Residences: Where progress and luxury meet

MANDAUE, CEBU—RLC Residences, the housing unit of Robinsons Land Corp.’s (RLC), has returned to its roots—this time with a bigger offering that is the high-end development called Mantawi Residences—on the back of the growing market demand.

“We are happy to come back here in Cebu with another promising project that is Mantawi Residences. We are very proud to finally unveil this development that we envisioned for our future residents who are on the lookout for a home and investment that they can proudly call theirs,” RLC Residences Senior Vice President and Business Unit General Manager John Richard B. Sotelo said during the grand launch event held at the NUSTAR Resort and Casino in Cebu City last Friday.

According to him, this project best represents the outlook of the Gokongwei Group founder, the late John L. Gokongwei Jr., who grew up in Cebu with his family. The peddlerturned-successful business tycoon’s vision is to constantly look for opportunities and victorious in life.

“That’s why we designed this condo development with unique and high-quality features that can support our future residents’ quest for success,” he explained.

Next frontier of progress in Cebu

THE master-planned vertical community of Mantawi Residences sits on the 20,328 square meters of property. When it’s finished, it will have four condominiums, each rising at 40-story and housing penthouse units worth P60 million each and one- to three-bedroom units at a price range starting at P15 million.

Capturing RLC Residences’ “Raise, Live, Connect” vision, this upscale project boasts of a 1.3-hectare amenity area, where hyper-sized and above-standard facilities will soon be made available. It is set to feature a variety of landscaped areas, beach-inspired swimming pools, a cascading water wall, a pet park, an outdoor play area, etc. It will also offer curated global retail brands at the ground floor.

The upscale property is designed to provide spacious living spaces and built-in smart home devices to its residents. It will have exclusive and roomy penthouses with multiple loggias, so owners can enjoy the city’s skyline.

With its strategic location at the heart of Ouano Avenue in Mandaue City, Mantawi Residences is near academic institutions, shopping hubs, and hospitals. Soon, it will also be just a stone thrown away from future developments in the pipeline, as the Mandaue government plans to develop the Metro Cebu Expressway and the Cebu Bus Transit, turning the Cebu International Port into an international cruise docking area, and the establishment of a premier waterfront development featuring a commercial space and a luxury district.

“The target market for this is really the growing professionals. They are at the age bracket of 35 to 45. They are more of like when you are investing for your life, wherein you feel like you’re fighting so much, and then you’re finding to outgrow your current environment and life, and just feel you need to spread your wings at this time,” noted RLC Residences Senior Director Marketing Head and Chief Integration Officer Karen Cesario.

“It really is an exciting time to RLC Residences because we really put the needs and the demands of our customers. And when we designed it, we made sure that we looked at what our target market is. So we are offering the frontier of progress to our homeowners,”

RLC Residences Assistant Vice President and Business Development and Design Head Stephanie Anne Go added.

a combined inventory

that two of the four

units,

penthouses of Tower 1 have been already sold. Following the kick off, the top executive expects more units to be taken up given the quality and sales performance of their other three residential projects in the province, namely, Azalea Place, Amisa Private Residences, and Galleria Residences Cebu.

In fact, he revealed that the last two condo projects have so far been already sold at 96 percent and 99 percent, respectively.

“I think what the pandemic has generally done is that casual investors have kinda pushed pack. So the people who are intending to buy a condo are the ones who really are ready to spend, except that, I think, we probably made a couple of right decision choices that appeal to what people are looking for post-pandemic,” Sotelo said, referring to some tweaks they had in terms of the project’s design.

Moving forward, he shared that they will prepare the property floor planning at the latter part of this year. For the first tower, he noted that they will begin the board filing, with half of the podium built by October of this year, as unit turnover is set in the first quarter of 2029.

“We normally do not start selling a new tower until we’re 80 percent or 90 percent sold on the first tower. So if I look at our sales progress for the last couple of years [with our other three preceding projects here], we’ll probably launch maybe about a year or a year-and-ahalf for [the remaining] three towers,” Sotelo disclosed, while hinting the launch of two to four more projects in Metro Manila this year.

“We’re pretty confident that the market for real estate condominium will continue to grow.”

highlighting the locale’s natural strengths and features.

Han said the project will use top of the line materials such a special grass that is 20 times more expensive than the grass used in other golf courses. “Our project will cost twice compared to the expenses of other golf courses because we’re using higher-end technology.”

“We’re willing to spend to acquire the technologies needed to make this project possible,” Han added.

Hann Reserve is the first of its kind in Clark and in the Philippines as an integrated leisure lifestyle development with a unique golf resort concept, designed to be the most luxurious and preeminent in the region.

It is complemented with sought-after international luxury hotel brands Banyan Tree

and Angsana Resort, Sofitel and Emblems by Accor, and The Luxury Collection and Westin by Marriott International; as well as a mixeduse commercial center and casino, along with exclusive residences supported by establishments such as an international school and a public park.

Apart from the designer golf courses, the master plan also includes the first Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA)affiliated player development facilities in the Philippines.

“Hann Reserve is truly envisioned as being one of a kind and a model for sustainability and eco-tourism that celebrates the local environment, culture, heritage and community,” explained Hann Philippines Inc. vice president for corporate planning, development and compliance Neki Liwanag.

The entire Hann Reserve development cost is approximately $3 billion, with its first phase already underway with an initial cost of P9 billion.

Ortigas Land sees bull run with The Galleon

PASIG, Philippines—After recuperating from the pandemic-induced economic challenges, the luxury property market is seen to sustain its recovery this 2023. Experts predict that momentum for the market will be maintained as demand will likely remain robust for the sector, with investors presented with opportunities for stable returns.

“Now is the time to explore more real estate investment options, especially seeing the overall positive outlook on the luxury property market in the near future,” said Ortigas Land AVP and Residential Business Unit Head, Jenna J. Belardo. “As the economy continues its recovery to pre-pandemic levels, individuals looking for a stream of stable, passive income can maximize the growth potential of luxury developments.”

Real estate recovery is slow but sure

R E AL e state experts at Colliers Philippines share optimistic growth projections for the Philippine residential market following substantial recovery rates in 2022. Findings indicate that in the previous year, about 20,000 condominium units were sold in the pre-selling sector alone. This led to a 17.6% drop in vacancies which is also expected to improve until 2025 steadily. The numbers shared prove that increased latency and sustained market growth are evident throughout the different property segments in the country. Although the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts a slightly slower pace in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) upturn, from 6.5% last year to 6.3% in 2023, experts expect a bull run in the overall property market after its recovery in 2023— spelling positive forecasts in the coming years.

Good news for Luxury Residentials and Office Spaces

F IN DINGS f rom Colliers state that the luxury residential segment made up 28% of total take-up in September 2022, up from—1.6% during the same period in 2021. This suggests growing investor confidence in luxury real estate in the past year.

“This market will remain resilient amid the rising interest and mortgage rates,” said Colliers in its Philippine Property Outlook report for 2023. Based on the numbers, Colliers projects that the demand for luxury developments will likely remain due to investors anchoring on these properties for capital appreciation.

Zeroing in on the office segment, Colliers projects further recovery in 2023. This will be buoyed by take-up from IT-BPM firms and traditional corporate occupiers in the legal, engineering,

construction, and government fields. Investing in a prime address

O NE o f Ortigas Land’s luxury offerings is The Galleon, a two-tower, mixed-use project anchored at the heart of the Ortigas Central Business District. The Galleon is of a modern and sophisticated design inspired by a ship, highlighting elegance from every angle.

Its two towers consist of Offices at The Galleon, a 38-level premier office tower that is able to cater to various organizations, from start-up companies to large-scale corporations. The development also offers residential spaces at Residences at The Galleon, which boasts 51 floors of high-end interiors and amenities.

The Galleon is the prime location for various target markets, such as C-level employees working within the Ortigas CBD or families looking to embrace an urban lifestyle, because of the convenience and accessibility it brings. Moreover, The Galleon maximizes the luxury of space with its upscale amenities for residential, office, and retail spaces, as well as modern living with eco-conscious features, built-in smart home systems, and high-speed fiber connectivity.

Ortigas Land sees The Galleon as a viable investment, “The Galleon has a strong location in the heart of the Ortigas Central Business District,” said Belardo.

“The Galleon also has numerous surrounding infrastructure projects underway such as the BGCOrtigas Center Link Road Project, Metro Manila Subway Project, and MRT-4 that will push the value appreciation of the property even more. These factors working together show that in the coming years, with The Galleon, you can expect a good return on investment,” she added.

The development’s strategic location connects its tenants to major metropolitan locations and ongoing infrastructure projects that cement The Galleon’s growing appreciation and returns in the coming years. Investors are treated with endless opportunities supporting a live, work, play balanced lifestyle, as the property can also be an income-generating investment. With this, Ortigas Land has been able to integrate its tenants into its commitment to maintaining well-built developments and master-planned communities.

The expected turnover of Offices at The Galleon is by the fourth

The best things are expected to come to New Clark City in Tarlac when hann Resorts recently announced the second in its trio of world-class designer golf courses described by Bases Conversion and Development Authority President Aileen Zosa not just a luxury but an ultra luxury development in its master-planned 450-hectare hann Reserve luxury integrated resort development.

Lascuña, 3 others ahead by 2 shots in Caliraya Springs

TONY LASCU Ñ A charged back from a three-putt miscue on No. 17 with a birdie from short range on the last hole for a four-under 68 that forced a fourway tie at the helm in the first round of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI)

Caliraya Springs Championship in Cavinti, Laguna, on Tuesday.

A h appy mix of young guns and seasoned campaigners, including Sean Ramos and Elmer Salvador, matched 69s at the well-kept Caliraya Springs Golf Club, while seven others, led by recent Bacolod leg winner Ira Alido, produced identical 70s to make it a crowded leaderboard in the early going of the P2.5 million championship put up by ICTSI.

L ascuña worked his way up in conventional fashion, targeting the long holes and birdying all but one of the four par-5s. He then rebounded from his lone mishap with a closing birdie on the par-four 18th for a pair of 34s.

“ I focused on holes where my chances for birdies are good,” said Lascuña, who gained on No. 4, 12 and 16, (all par-5s) to go with his other birdie on No. 8. “My driving, irons and putting were okay but the greens are a little bit tough.”

My target is to shoot fourunder in four days to earn a shot at the title,” added the ace Davaoeño shotmaker, eyeing a top podium finish after placing second in Bacolod and Iloilo last month.

Multi-titled Angelo Que missed joining the two-under par group with a bogey on the penultimate hole but his 71 tied him with four others at 18th, well within striking distance of Lascuña, Lloyd Go, Clyde Mondilla and red-hot Rupert Zaragosa.

Unlike Que, Go sizzled despite the absence of a practice round following their stint in International Series Vietnam over the weekend, posting one of the two bogey-free cards in a day that started in gray skies and drizzle and ended under scorching sun.

It took Go, a full-card holder on the Asian Tour, practically three holes to figure out the up-and-down Arnold Palmer-designed layout which demands consistency off the tee. Like Lascuña, he birdied three par-5s (Nos. 4, 6 and 12) and though he missed completing his domination of the long holes on No. 16, the Cebuano ace and former national champion matched Lascuña’s birdie on the 18th and a pair of 34s.

I played very well, hit all the fairways. Pretty much, I didn’t miss today and I had few lucky birdies,” said Go, seeking his first Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) victory. “The key here is to hit the fairways and hit my wedge closer to the hole. Hopefully, I’d get to win this week.”

So does Mondilla, who lost by four to Zanieboy Gialon here last year. With five birdies against a lone bogey, the former Philippine Open champion and winner of PGT and PGT Asia titles tied up some loose ends of a failed title bid and took the first step to connecting the pieces together with a 35-33.

Sports

B8

Wednesday april 19, 2023

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Editor: Jun Lomibao

COACH JOLAS: ‘NEXT MAN UP’

TNT head coach Jojo Lastimosa’s not about to embrace momentum as an advantage in Game 5 of the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup Finals series set Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

It’s hard to keep momentum when you think you have momentum…when you don’t,” Lastimosa told BusinessMirror on Tuesday.

“Whatever happens just happens. We will just prepare the hardest we can.”

Instead, Lastimosa’s on to a “next man up” mantra, one that obviously helped the Tropang Giga win Game 4 by a mile, 116-104 on Sunday night when the team didn’t get double-digit contributions from Roger Pogoy, who sat on the bench nursing a fractured hand.

“ Bank on who you got. If somebody goes down with an injury, we rely on the next man up mentality,” he said. “We use that as our rallying point, like motivating the next players to play for those who are not there

for us because we have players who are capable of stepping up.”

Players capable of stepping up Lastimosa had plenty of on Sunday night when TNT jumped the gun on Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and babied doubledigit advantages the rest of the way to get the pendulum swinging back to their side in the series.

B est Import winner Rondae Hollis-Jefferson again led the Tropang Giga in Game 4 with 36 points and 19 rebounds, but it was a tremendous local support that not only scored big time, but shattered all defensive plans Ginebra coach Tim Cone prepared in his arsenal.

Veteran guard Jayson Castro had 17 points, Mikey Williams and Kib Montalbo made 16 each and Calvin Oftana 16 for the Tropang Giga who are targeting the franchise’s first-ever Governors’ Cup crown.

Hollis-Jefferson, the certified National Basketball Association player who’s playing inspired as he eyes his first professional title, credits preparation as a key to winning.

As long as these guys do what

they have to do these next two days, coaches included, locked in and focused on game plan and adjustments on what we need to do,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s win by any means necessary and I’m sure we’ll be there.” L astimosa also commended his defensive players—Matt RosserGanuelas, JP Erram, Paul Varilla and Glenn Khobunting—for stepping up and puzzling the Gin Kings on what defensive effort they had to put up in Game 4. Cone? He’s no 25-time PBA champion and two-time grand slam coach for nothing.

We will get ready for them on Wednesday,” Cone said. Game 5 starts at 5:45 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Del Rosario survives poor start to post 1-stroke lead

AULINE DEL ROSARIO marred

her return to the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) with a three-putt mishap but marked it with a big finish of two birdies in the last three holes for a 69 and a onestroke lead over Korean Kim Seoyun in the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Caliraya Springs Championships Tuesday in Cavinti, Laguna.

Del Rosario quickly settled down after an early struggle with her putter, gaining strokes Nos. 4, 7 and 10 then rebounding from a missedgreen bogey on the 12th with birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 of the Caliraya Springs Golf Club, thus fueling her drive for an LPGT victory while on a break from the Epson Tour.

“ I actually three-putted the first hole but birdied the last, so I liked how I finished strong,” said del Rosario, who racked up four victories in running away with the LPGT Order of Merit title in her rookie season in 2017.

B ut to score a follow-up to her last local victory in 2020 in bubble setup at Riviera, the lone Filipina to

Electoral committee sets PSI elections on June 15

ELECTIONS for the new board of trustees of the Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI) are scheduled on June 15 under stringent guidelines and precise timelines. World Aquatics approved of the election proceedings formulated by an Electoral Committee which the international federation (IF) itself created to establish guidelines for the exercise.

The guidelines and policies for the elections are publicly available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ml604Z2GZ wxGGXASjGY9xzv173KDPnoN/edit

The Electoral Committee is composed of POC secretarygeneral Atty. Edwin Gastanes as chairman and POC legal chief Atty. Wharton Chan, Atty. Avelino Sumagui and Atty. Marcus Antonius Andaya as members. Their appointment to the committee was approved by the World Aquatics through its Executive Director Brent Nowicki.

The guidelines and policies have been established in such a way that they adhere to IF policies and certified instructions and are comprehensively inclusive of all stakeholders—regional representation and the sport’s disciplines,” Chan said.

To be elected are 11 members of the board of trustees based on geographical sector with—plus one member from among the representatives of diving, open water swimming, water polo and artistic swimming.

The geographical sector covers two each from the Area 1 (National Capital Region), Area 2 (Regions 1, 2, 3 and Cordillera Autonomous Region), Area 3 (Regions 4-A, 4-B and 5), Area 4 (Regions 6, 7 and 8) and Area 5 (Regions 9, 10, 11, 12, CARAGA Region and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao).

A ll clubs (new and old) are required to register through the Electoral Committee e-mail philaquatics. elecom2023@gmail.com

A s instructed by the World Aquatics, the Electoral Committee is suspending the requirement of active membership because of the pandemic when compliance was difficult for all clubs.

P articipation in the National Qualifying event for the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games at the New Clark City (NCC) last February will be one of the bases for club membership. The Electoral Committee said that the clubs which sent athletes to the NCC qualifiers “showed their strong support to the sport” and also solidly indicated that they are able to compete at the highest level in the Philippines.

C lubs which did not participate in the qualifiers will be subjected to validation by the Electoral Committee, while member Clubs of the PSI will be automatically considered.

Details—time and venue—of the June 15 elections will be announced later.

Defense momentum killer?

MOMENTUM is one weapon worth clinging on in any human activity. That’s what TNT is going to brandish in its Wednesday Game Five clash against Barangay Ginebra at the Smart Araneta Coliseum beginning 5:45 p.m.

It stems from TNT’s 116-104 Game Four win over Ginebra on Sunday that leveled their best-of-seven series at

have won on the LPGA of Taiwan, also in 2017, stressed the need to keep the ball in play all throughout the remaining 36 holes of the P1 million championship.

The roughs are a bit tough, there’s not much spin coming to the greens, which are pretty hard. So emphasis should be hitting it on the fairways,” added del Rosario, who will be as much as tested as Kim in a second round showdown with Harmie Constantino after the Korean likewise bounced back from a misfortune on the first hole with four birdies against one more bogey for a 70.

K im was practically on target from tee to green, hitting all but one fairway and reaching regulation 17 times. But she wrestled with her putter and flubbed a couple of birdie opportunities.

I hardly missed the fairways but the most important thing here is to hit the greens. (Greens) not super fast but you need to be careful,” said Kim, who placed runner-up to Rianne Malixi at Riviera last year.

Constantino, winner of the last two LPGT events last year, overcame a two-over card after seven holes with four birdies against another bogey for a 71 as she seized solo third, just a couple of strokes off del Rosario.

A fter hitting back-to-back birdies from No. 8 to draw level par, Constantino came through with a birdie-blast on the par-5 12th then negated her bogey on No. 15 with a birdie on the last long hole (No. 16) to put herself back in contention.

The birdie-blast kind of got me going,” said Constantino, who expects to crowd del Rosario and Kim in the last 36 holes for a crack at another championship after a pair of forgettable finishes in Bacolod and Iloilo ruled by Chanelle Avaricio and Malixi.

THE results of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games that starts in 16 days in Cambodia will determine how much in terms of financial assistance national sports associations (NSAs) could receive in the immediate future from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

PSC Chairman Richard Bachmann made the declaration on Tuesday stressing that under his watch, the government sports funding agency will use a different approach in allocating funds for close to 70 NSAs under its care.

How do you allocate the budget for all these sports? In 2018 and 2019, we only had 40 NSAs. Right now we have 70 and the budget is basically the same,” Bachmann said in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

The PSC sources its funds from general appropriations for its operations and the National Sports Development Fund for assistance to NSAs and other organizations.

The GAA for this year was pegged at P2.3 billion, most of which are intended for participation in major international and the country’s co-hosting of the FIBA 2023 World Cup later this year. The NSDF, on the other hand, draws support primarily from the income of government casinos that are set roughly at P100 million a month.

Bachmann said the PSC will no longer rely solely on historical data (past performances) as it evaluates and approves the NSAs budget requests through a matrix designed by his think tank.

Under the matrix, there will be certain points for certain criteria for Olympic sports and non-Olympic sports,” he said. “Are the NSAs selfsufficient because some of them have sponsors? For individual and team sports, there will be certain points.”

“And for medals in the Olympics, Asian Games or SEA Games there will be certain points. Do they have good governance, grassroots? They earn certain points totaling 100 percent,” Bachmann added in the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., PSC, Milo, Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

“ There are some minor details to work on and there are some sides of the greens that shouldn’t be missed,” said Constantino.

Avaricio also fought back from a double-bogey start with birdies on Nos. 4 and 7 but she dropped another stroke on No. 13 and finished with a 73 for joint fourth with Pamela Mariano, while Marvi Monsalve blew a one-under card with a triple-bogey 7 on her closing No. 9.

S he ended up with 74 and slipped to joint sixth with Sarah Ababa and Daniella Uy, who is out to redeem herself from squandering a six-stroke lead in the final round in Iloilo that had her finishing at joint fourth instead.

F lorence Bisera and amateur Lois Kaye Go matched 75s while amateur Mafy Singson wavered with four bogeys in the last seven holes and tumbled to joint 11th with eight others at 76.

O ther four-over par scorers were Rev Alcantara, Kristine Fleetwood, Apple Fudolin, Chihiro Ikeda, Gretchen Villacencio, Koreans Jane Jeong and Yang Ju Young and amateur Laurea Duque.

PAULINE DEL ROSARIO studies the line of her putt. NONIE REYES

2-2, thanks mainly to TNT’s voraciousness for threes.

Mocking Ginebra’s seemingly ludicrous defenses all night, TNT totaled 21 triples made for a Finals league record, reducing the duel for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup into a race-to-two affair.

So consumed by his wards’ heroic efforts that TNT coach Jojo Lastimosa lost all shades of humility.

I’m not surprised,” said Lastimosa, also smarting from the absence of his prolific scorer RR Pogoy even as he said, “We are gonna miss Roger in this series.”

Oh, yeah?

Pogoy hurt a finger during TNT’s 117-103 loss to Ginebra in Game Three, bidding farewell in the season-ending conference.

W hat also added momentum manna for TNT was the stunning win by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson over Ginebra’s eminent Justin Brownlee for the Best Import award just minutes before Game Four had begun.

Inspired obviously by the accolade at the expense of six-forsix Finals champion Brownlee, Hollis-Jefferson fired 36 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, issued five assists and swiped three steals. Brownlee managed a decent 28-point output, but his

He said that for NSAs which want bigger financial assistance from the government, they have to deliver medals especially in the international arena. “ They have to perform. If they perform they get more money from the (overall PSC) budget for next year,” he said.

B achmann said the PSC is now focused on the Cambodia SEA Games scheduled May 5 to 17 but refused to make any medal projection.

I don’t want to project. The PSC is here trying to take care of the athletes and their allowances and just to support them,” he said. “If you were fourth last year, maybe you can improve this year. And our athletes have been winning abroad. Hopefully that carries over to Cambodia.”

Bachmann said he and his four commissioners will be in Cambodia to support the 840-athlete delegation.

A send off party for Team Philippines, meanwhile, is set on April 24 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City with no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos gracing the event.

Josef Ramos

teammate Christian Standhardinger was a power failure with only 10 points to his name after being named Best Player of the Conference.

“ Sometimes, you can’t have everything you want,” Standhardinger said.

O f the 21 Game Four triples buried by TNT, 16 came from Calvin Oftana, Mikey Williams, Jayson Castro and Bacolod boy Kib Montalbo.  All four had four threes each in a massive back-up for Hollis-Jefferson.

W hat’s the antidote to TNT’s momentum?

O nly Ginebra coach Tim Cone knows.

He gave us a hint.

“ We also hit our threes in Game Four,” said Cone.  “But we didn’t defend.”

G ot the drift?

T HAT’S IT Happy birthday to Ricky-Malaya’s beloved son, Ikap M. Sadiwa (April 19), who is MayaSoh’s lone sibling.  Ikap’s Grandpa also happens to turn a new leaf today for a rare twin feast in the family steeped in tradition.  Sure, one can skip the party, but at the risk of absorbing the wrath of Granny Sol Juvida.  Here’s to happiness. Cheers!