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‘Hot money’ reverses to net outflow in August

MORE FOREIGN FUNDS left the country in August as investors abroad lost appetite for risky emerging market assets due to increased worries about the global economy and the Philippines disappointing economic performance last semester, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Thursday.

August saw foreign portfolio investments — also known as “hot money” due to the ease by which these funds enter and leave the economy — posting a $391.74-million net outflow that reversed from net inflows of $225.85 million a year ago and $15.02 million in July.

Gross outflows in August hit $1.605 billion, higher than the $895.31 million figure recorded in the same million last year, though smaller than the $1.666 billion that left the country in July.

This offset the $1.214 billion that came in last month, which is an improvement from the $1.121 billion that foreigners invested in August 2018, but smaller than the $1.680 billion recorded in July.

BSP attributed hot money’s net outflow in August to “ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, the devaluation of the Chinese yuan, the inversion of the US Treasury bond yield curve [signalling a potential recession ahead], heightened protests in Hong Kong and the lower [four-year-low 5.5%] gross domestic product outturn for the second quarter of 2019” that led to a first-half expansion of the same pace and compared to the government’s 6-7% target for the entire year.

Analysts also blamed the net outflow on the escalating US-China trade war and the “ghost month” observed across East Asian markets.

“The August net outflows of foreign portfolio investments transactions is largely due to a confluence of local and external events contributing to a lot of uncertainties in markets and the general economy,” UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said in an e-mail when sought for comment.

“The biggest contributor so far is the protracted trade war between the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the US. Any news about progress and/or regression of trade agreement and resolution prospects moves and impacts market sentiments and perception.”

For Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., “other external factors include the ghost month in East Asian markets and the vacation season in the US/Northern hemisphere that resulted in lower volumes and greater volatility in the financial markets.” — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Trump is biggest risk to world economy, says central bank governor

SINGAPORE/MANILA — What’s the biggest risk to the world economy today?

It’s the US president, Philippine central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno told a panel discussion in Singapore, with the audience bursting into laughter at his candid answer.

A former economics professor who took the helm of the central bank in March, Mr. Diokno said the US economy is growing due to the tax cut enacted under President Donald Trump, but the policy will exacerbate debt in the long run.

WHEN THE US SNEEZES…
The Filipino central banker may have a reason for his quip: When the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold, as the saying goes.

The US-China trade war — with Mr. Trump objecting to many of the policies that have driven China’s rapid rise to become the world’s second-largest economy — has rippled through emerging Asia and threatens to start a global recession.

“Whatever Trump does is really driving the markets. It affects everyone else,” said Michael L. Ricafort, an economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Manila.

TRUMPIAN TWEET
Mr. Trump, who wants to see stronger US economic growth ahead of his re-election bid next year, has been outspoken in favoring more aggressive monetary-policy easing.

Last week he tweeted that the US Federal Reserve should cut rates to zero or less.

On Wednesday, after the Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate for a second meeting in a row, cutting by a quarter-point to 1.75-2%, Mr. Trump was unimpressed. “No ‘guts,’ no sense, no vision!” he tweeted.

Fed chief Jerome Powell has stressed the need for the US central bank to remain independent from government pressure. Analysts have described Wednesday’s move as a “hawkish cut,” emphasizing that the Fed essentially sees these moves as insurance for an economy that remains basically healthy. Three Fed members dissented from the decision to cut, suggesting an unusual amount of discord on the policy board.

Speaking on a panel at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore, Mr. Diokno said Mr. Trump’s pressure on Mr. Powell is “unfair” and that governments should respect central bank independence. — Bloomberg

Lola Igna bags top PPP prize

A FILM about a cranky old woman who wants to die but whose neighbors wouldn’t let her won the top prize at the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino awards night on Sept. 15 at One Esplanade in Pasay City.

Aside from winning Best Picture, Eduardo Roy, Jr.’s Lola Igna also took home the trophies for Best Actress for 70-year-old character actress Angelica “Angie” Ferro, Best Screenplay, and Best Musical Score.

Another of the night’s big winners was Tyrone Acierto’s thriller Watch Me Kill which won Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.

Jun Lana’s The Panti Sisters took home the Best Actor trophy for Martin del Rosario along with the Audience Choice Award. The film was also the festival’s biggest earner as it took in P36 million in its first two days.

The third Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino ran until Sept. 19 in select cinemas nationwide.

Below is the full list of winners:

• Best Picture: Lola Igna

• Jury Prize: Last Song Syndrome (LSS)

• Best Director: Tyrone Acierto, Watch Me Kill

• Best Actress: Angelica “Angie” Ferro, Lola Igna

• Best Actor: Martin del Rosario, The Panti Sisters

• Best Supporting Actress: Tuesday Vargas, The Panti Sisters

• Best Supporting Actor: Gio Alvarez, I’m Ellenya L

• Best Editing: Watch Me Kill

• Best Screenplay: Lola Igna

• Best Cinematography: Watch Me Kill

• Best Production Design: The Panti Sisters

• Best Musical Score: Lola Igna

• Best Theme Song: “Araw-araw” by Ben&Ben for Last Song Syndrome (LSS)

• Audience Choice Award: The Panti Sisters — ZBC

Gently go into that good night

By Carmen Aquino Sarmiento

Movie Review
Lola Igna
Directed by Eduardo Roy, Jr.

LOLA IGNA by the acclaimed filmmaker Eduardo Roy, Jr. got the Best Picture and Best Screenplay (with Margarette Labrador as co-writer) awards for this year’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino. Its lead, the theater stalwart Angie Ferro, as the eponymous Lola Igna, won for Best Actress. Ms. Ferro, age 82, plays a 118-year-old woman who lives alone in a bamboo hovel without any indoor plumbing, amidst the rice fields of a fictitious rural barrio. Despite its deceptively bucolic setting, the film deals with such sobering topics as aging alone (because you have outlived most of your loved ones and friends), death, abandonment, and the narcissism of today’s youth.

There is a good naturedly fantastical air to the whole enterprise. Lola Igna’s granddaughter Nida (Maribel Lopez — herself in her 60s) pushes her grandmother to try for the title of the World’s Oldest Living Grandmother, which is part of a Guinesss Book of Records type competition called Amazing People. The title comes with a cash prize of $50,000 for every year of the record-holder’s life. In Lola Igna’s case, that would come to $5.9 million or around P310 million — not too shabby, and enough incentive for her relatives to keep her alive and well. Lola Igna continues to indulge in a glass of tuba (coconut wine), one of the factors to which she attributes her extraordinary longevity. Nida begins bringing her grandmother dinner, although providing her with proper sanitation appears not to be a consideration. The hovel is within range of a cellular tower and Wi-Fi though.

Easy laughs are milked from several scenes of Lola Igna sitting on her chipped and filth-encrusted orinola (chamber pot). An especially memorable one has her impishly dumping its contents upon the handful of tourists who disturb her peace. Another unfortunate scene has Lola Igna having an “accident” during a press conference, because pushy, over-eager Nida refuses to heed the old lady’s plea to let her use the bathroom before having to take the media folks’ questions. Other interview scenes recall the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest.

Nida quickly parlays her grandmother’s proverbial 15 minutes of fame into merchandise for the tourists who trickle in. Lola Igna’s smiling face is emblazoned on T-shirts, mugs, fans. It’s a sly dig at the cult of celebrityhood. Nida’s son Bok (Royce Cabrera) takes the tourists trekking through the rice fields to view his great-grandmother in the wrinkled flesh, much like a carnival sideshow curiosity. Selfies cost extra. Lola Igna initially resists these intrusions, but the arrival of Tim (Yves Flores), a long-lost great-great grandson, who intends to vlog about her, softens her. Soon she’s playing along like a pro. Few elderly persons continue to have financial utility. If she’s going to be taken advantage of, it might as well be by her family.

Lola Igna pines for those who have gone ahead, particularly for her husband Carias (Rener Concepcion). She keeps a shrine in their memory. However, when these dear departed appear to her in an ominously dark rice field in the dead of night, they look downright menacing, more like the walking dead rather than ascended souls illuminating one’s passing on. Unperturbed, she takes this grim encounter as a sign for her to get ready, and borrows carpentry tools from her neighbor Gusting (Armand Reyes). He confides how he worries that as a gay old bachelor, no one will be waiting for him (walang taga-sundo) on the other side. This is one of the film’s most poignant and genuinely touching moments. It is so Filipino, after all, to always want to have company whether at mealtimes or while sleeping. The rest of the ensemble such as Senyang the perky storekeeper, play the benign regular folk one hopes to find in a small Filipino town. Thus, the creepy, pod-people quality of the taga-sundo makes one wonder why death seems to have transformed these good citizens, and not for the better. It may reflect the director’s ambivalence and doubt about death and the afterlife.

The director was said to have been inspired by the 102-year old Kalinga tattoo artist Apo Whang-od Oggay. Roy’s maternal grandparents were also from the Mountain Province but he never knew them. Lola Igna is his whimsical, occasionally fleetingly dark, take on how it might have been if his grandmother had lived long enough for them to meet. Its tone is much lighter than his more recent work — Quick change (2013); Pamilya Ordinario (2016); and F#*@BOIS (2019). The title character might also recall the harmonica-playing Francisca Susano who claimed to have been born on Sept. 11, 1897 (20 years before Ferdinand E. Marcos), in Barangay Oringao, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental. When she was in the news in 2016, Susano’s eldest daughter Magdalena Ortega, supposedly born in 1914, was already 102 years old. However, neither the Gerontology Research Group nor the Guinness World Records, verified her claims. The last news about Susano was of her turning 119 in 2017, then nothing further appears about her. She’s probably dead by now.

Phinma to invest $50 million into unit of Vietnamese cement firm

By Arra B. Francia, Senior Reporter

PHINMA CORP. is investing $50 million into a unit of Vietnamese cement manufacturer Vissai to finance the expansion of its cement plant.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday, Phinma said it signed a term sheet with Vissai’s subsidiary Song Lam Cement Joint Stock Company and Vissai Chairman Hoang Minh Truong for the investment via preferred shares.

The number of shares, as well as the percentage stake Phinma will have in Song Lam following the investment, is yet to be determined.

The investment entitles Phinma to nominate one member to Song Lam’s board of directors, as well as the chief financial officer of the company.

Under the deal, Phinma will get annual and fixed cumulative dividends of 7.5% from the preferred shares, which can then be converted to common shares.

The listed firm described Vissai as the largest privately owned cement manufacturer in Vietnam which exports to 37 countries, including the Philippines. Its unit Song Lam owns the largest cement plant in Vietnam. It is seen to be a major supplier for Phinma’s 60%-owned unit, Philcement Corp.

Vissai also owns a 30% stake in Philcement.

“The investment proceeds will be used to construct Phase 2 of the Song Lam Cement Plant which will expand manufacturing capacity to 24,000 tons of clinker per day,” Phinma said.

This expansion will double Song Lam’s production capacity, which is mainly focused on exports.

Phinma expects the deal to close within the year following the execution of share subscription agreement and shareholders’ agreement. This is in addition to additional regulatory, government, or corporate approvals.

The company will pay 10% of the investment in advance, while the remaining 90% will be paid upon closing.

The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. suspended trading of Phinma shares on Thursday after ruling that the transaction is covered by the Disclosure for Substantial Acquisitions and Reverse Takeovers of the Disclosure Rules. The trading suspension will be lifted on Sept. 20 at 10 a.m.

Shares in Phinma closed at P9.18 each on Wednesday.

Phinma’s net income attributable to the parent dropped 35% to P27.84 million in the first half of 2019, even as gross revenues jumped 26% to P5.64 billion.

Film industry celebrates 100 years of PHL Cinema

By Susan Claire Agbayani

PHILIPPINE CINEMA is 100 years old and despite challenges in the industry, it is time to celebrate.

“We are entering a very, very global market and it’s inevitable that a lot of these foreign films are going to enter the country, and they will continuously dominate,” said Mary Liza Dino-Seguerra, Chair of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in her opening remarks at Sine Sandaan: Celebrating the Luminaries of Philippine Cinema’s 100 Years, held late last week at the New Frontier Theater in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

“Let us unite for this industry (that) we love, because the next 100 years of Philippine Cinema is going to be about unity, understanding, what we need to do together as an industry to further elevate our craft. We just have to understand how we can champion and empower the rest of the sectors in the industry who need support. It’s a call of action for all of us to be more giving, to collaborate, to respect each other’s spaces, find commonalities, so we can all work better together. I can see a brighter future for the next 100 years of Philippine cinema,” Ms. Dino-Seguerra said.

Almost 400 luminaries and icons of Philippine Cinema — as well as ambassadors and representatives of government agencies — walked the red carpet, and were honored during the program — which ran over four hours — to mark the industry’s centennial year.

Honored at the rites were “luminaries” such as directors, independent and regional filmmakers, leading ladies/men, action stars, bold stars, producers, film studios, film-related organizations, movie fans, even the movie press. It is noteworthy that not just screenwriters or music scorers were recognized; even those who are almost never mentioned except in closing film credits were honored that night.

The most prominent of the luminaries were billed as “icons,” the likes of screenwriter Ricky Lee, actresses Lorli Villanueva, Boots Anson Roa, Angie Ferro, Divina Valencia, Jaclyn Jose, and Fides Cuyugan-Asensio; composer (and National Artist for Music) Ryan Cayabyab; indie filmmaker Raymond Red, and filmmaker and UP professor Dr. Nick Deocampo.

For a complete list of luminaries and icons honored by FDCP, check out its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FDCP.ph/

A tribute was also given to Jose Nepomuceno, the father of Philippine Cinema.

The theater was transformed into an Art Deco Cinema “as an homage to standalone theaters during the Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.” An FDCP press release said, “Remembered for its intricate structure and viewed as a symbol of the first rise of film as a staple of Filipino culture, Art Deco cinemas in the Philippines were prolific in the 1930s and 1950s and (is) an apt visual theme in the celebration of the 100 years of Philippine Cinema.”

“The dream was to give back, to give the best we can offer to serve this industry. We wanted to bring back the glitz, the glamour, because we all deserve it,” Ms. Dino-Seguerra said.

“The past 100 years of Philippine Cinema has brought us a lot of successes and failures. You deserve nothing less but the best. Our cinema is so diverse, and it’s composed of so many people, and it’s not just icons, living legends, artists, directors who are part of this. There’s no big or small (player) in the industry. We’re all on equal footing,” she said in Filipino, which was met with hearty applause. “You are all luminaries of Philippine cinema,” she said.

Sine Sandaan was followed by Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) 2019, a week-long exclusive screening of Filipino genre films.

Interestingly, it may be that the actual 100th year of Philippine Cinema was in 2017.

In a Facebook comment to a post made by Mr. Red, Dr. Deocampo remarked, “My research shows that Jose Nepomuceno made a short film, a newsreel, first in 1918 before making his first full-length film, Dalagang Bukid… one year after he set up his Malayan Movies studio in 1917. And the newsreel he first made was shot in Cebu, not in Manila. So the first locally shot film by a native was shot in Cebu, after all! I have several documents — all primary documents — to prove this claim: publications that were contemporaneous to the release of both films (one in 1918, the other 1919); publications showing that the ‘golden age’ (50 years) of PH cinema was in 1967 as celebrated by [then city of Manila] Mayor Antonio Villegas when he announced the holding of the Manila Film Festival to celebrate the ‘golden anniversary’ of Tagalog movies. This effectively made 1917 as the year of its birth. In addition, I have a video interview of Luis Nepomuceno, Jose’s only living son (aged 94 at the time of the interview), who claimed that his father marked 1917 as the year when he established the local cinema after setting up his Malayan Movies studio and the first film he did was a short film shot in 1918!”

Whether 2017 or 2019, we have cause to celebrate, indeed.

LOTR series in NZ

WELLINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO — New Zealand will be home again to hairy feet and pointed-ear Hobbits after Amazon Studios confirmed the Pacific country will be the location for its new The Lord of the Rings series, a TV show widely tipped to be the most expensive ever made. The Amazon.com Inc. unit said the multi-series adaptation will explore new storylines preceding author J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the famed fantasy trilogy set in the fictional land of “Middle-earth.” Amazon bought the TV rights to Tolkien’s literary classic two years ago when screens were ruled by HBO’s blockbuster fantasy series, Game of Thrones. Unlike HBO and others such as Netflix Inc., a hit for Amazon could not only draw in viewers but also shoppers to its Prime subscription service. Three movies made of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s were filmed in New Zealand by director Peter Jackson. They garnered nearly $3 billion at the box office and 17 Academy Awards. Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, was also made into a movie trilogy by Jackson in New Zealand. Pre-production for the series has started, and production on the series will begin in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, in the coming months, the statement showed. The new series is likely to boost the economy of the tiny country and create several jobs, having been widely hyped in the media as likely one of the most expensive TV shows of all time. — Reuters

LNG demand from smaller markets seen growing

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — China, India and Europe will remain the main demand growth drivers for liquefied natural gas (LNG) but smaller markets are emerging to receive the new fuel capacity in the US, an integrated global gas business with a new business model predicts.

“There’s a number of new markets that are opening up, facilitated by new technology called floating storage and regasification units or FSRUs,” said Renee Pirrong, research and analysis manager of Tellurian, Inc.

Based in Houston, Texas, the company she represents has presented a new business model that departs from the traditional set up for gas businesses in the US.

“Traditionally, you’d have to build a rather large land-based import facility, but now we’ve actually started converting LNG carriers into regasification facilities, which makes it a lot faster to build infrastructure. All you really have to do is build a port and hook up an FSRU to that port,” Ms. Pirrong told reporters from Asia and Europe, or regions where the company expects LNG demand to come from.

Tellurian’s business model promises natural gas prices at the lift cost, or the price it takes to extract the fuel from the ground. But to be able to do that, the customer is required to be an equity investor.

“Essentially you’d purchase 1 million tons of LNG for an upfront cost of $500 million. So an equity cost of $500 per ton, and for that cost you are entitled to lift LNG at the facility at cost, so you’re not paying a premium every month for your long-term contract,” Ms. Pirrong said.

Tellurian subsidiary Driftwood LNG LLC is developing the production and export terminal in Louisiana. Once completed, the facility will be able to export up to 27.6 million tons of LNG a year to customers anywhere in the world.

Joi Lecznar, Tellurian senior vice-president-public affairs and communication, said Driftwood has secured all the required permits from the US government.

“We have secured one partner so far — Total. They have invested enough,” she said.

Of Driftwood’s capacity, she said Tellurian would be retaining 14 million tons for its own trading portfolio. The group plans to trade in London apart from its existing trading activities in Singapore.

Ms. Pirrong said at least 100 million tons and potentially up to 250 million tons of capacity is required to satisfy demand growth on a global basis.

That demand makes the US well-positioned to export its LNG. The country has emerged as the largest producer of oil and gas in the world largely because of the shale revolution, which started before around 2010 as private exploration and production companies started experimenting with ways to extract resources from shale.

Ms. Pirrong said the US in 2018 had the largest year-on-year growth of oil production in the world. The dramatic growth in natural gas and oil production in the country has had an impact on the prices of the commodities.

“It was the largest not only in the United States but on a global basis. And that was entirely driven from the shale revolution,” she added. “What that has done, it has a corresponding downward impact on global oil prices.”

Ms. Pirrong pointed to a “synergistic relationship” where the US needs global markets as an outlet for its excess production, and global markets need the US for gas supply. Asia, for instance, needs gas for power generation.

“We’re seeing a lot of emerging markets such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Lithuania using FSRUs as a way to provide greater optionality for fuel imports, and as a low-cost way and a fast way to do so,” she said.

With the assets Tellurian is developing — from production, developing pipelines and the plant itself, it anticipates to build energy infrastructure worth about $30 billion from the Driftwood project alone.

“We believe that we can produce LNG at $3 per mmBtu (million British thermal unit),” Ms. Pirrong said, adding even assuming a shipping cost of about $1.50 a destination in Asia could mean a total cost of $4.50 per mmBtu, the benchmark in pricing the fuel. — Victor V. Saulon

DTI’s Lopez backs separation pay for resigning employee

TRADE SECRETARY Ramon M. Lopez said he supports a separation pay provision in the proposed Security of Tenure (SoT) bill even in case of resignation, expanding the benefit to cover more forms of worker departure.

Mr. Lopez told BusinessWorld that employees who leave their companies regardless due to resignation should be entitled to such payments, saying they enhance worker security.

“We can consider giving automatic granting of separation pay,” he said.

Under the law, only certain forms of worker departure trigger the payment of separation benefits, including involuntarily dismissal or illegal retrenchment.

Resigning workers are not entitled to separation pay unless the payout is provided for in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or company policy. “In a way may security of tenure siya (a worker has security of tenure) ‘pag maganda ang separation pay (if he can look forward to separation pay),” he said.

Other provisions Mr. Lopez has proposed for the SoT include making pensions portable for workers who change jobs — Gillian M. Cortez

HBO Max to stream Big Bang

HBO Max, the upcoming streaming service from AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, has secured exclusive five-year streaming rights in the United States to all 12 seasons of comedy hit The Big Bang Theory. Ranked as the No. 1 comedy on US television for the past seven years, the show has garnered an audience of some 20 million people. The rights for the show cost HBO Max between $500 million and $600 million, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. All 279 episodes will be available on HBO Max when it launches in the spring of 2020, WarnerMedia said in a statement. Winning rights to hit shows has become expensive in a crowded streaming industry dominated by Netflix Inc., Hulu and Amazon.com’s Prime Video. Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. have also announced their own streaming services. Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal said on Tuesday it would name its upcoming streaming service “Peacock” and offer a broad slate of original content, including Dr. Death starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin. Peacock will also offer classic sitcoms The Office and Parks and Recreation and is scheduled to be launched in 2020, NBCUniversal said. The company owns traditional television network NBC, which features a peacock in its logo. Netflix Inc., poised to lose The Office to Peacock in 2021, said on Monday it had landed the global streaming rights for classic TV sitcom Seinfeld. The Office was the most-watched show on Netflix in the United States, followed by Friends, when measured by minutes streamed, according to Nielsen data for 2018. — Reuters

Seedwork Philippines eyes propagation of premium rice in Davao

DAVAO CITY — Seedwork Philippines is pushing for the propagation of its premium rice variety in the Davao Region as a way for local farmers to increase their incomes as the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) looks to export these varieties.

In a forum here Wednesday, Carlos Miguel L. Saplala, president of the Seedwork Philippines, said its premium rice variety US 88 is among those that can be marketed both locally and abroad as it commands better prices.

Mr. Saplala said he is confident this “is the right seed variety that our farmers in Mindanao need to bolster their yields.”

Aside from a farm trial in Nueva Ecija, the variety also underwent a trial in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur where the resulting yield was about 10 metric tons a hectare, way above the average rice production of four metric tons a hectare.

Its genetic potential is 14 metric tons per hectare, which can be achieved in optimal conditions, Mr. Saplala said.

If milled, the rice variety is of long grain quality, soft even if not hot and better tasting compared with some premium varieties, the official said.

In Mindoro, Mr. Saplala said the milled rice variety sells for about P2 higher than the average per-kilogram price.

Millers market it as specialty rice of hybrid variety as the US and its name stands for “Ubod ng Sarap.”

Mr. Saplala said the variety is tolerant to some rice diseases, including the Bacterial Leaf Blight, which usually reduces production.

In Tagum City Wednesday night, the company launched its “Ang Hari ng Ani” contest for farmers using US 88 to motivate them to adopt the variety. The contest will run between November and December.

The company added it is collaborating with MinDA to produce premium rice for export.

Remus C. Morandante, Seedwork Philippines vice- president for sales and public affairs, said a top official of the company, Franklin Y. Aguda, was among those who joined former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol during a visit to Papua New Guinea in a bid to export premium rice to the country.

“We are collaborating with MinDA (on propagating the variety either for local and export markets),” said Mr. Morandante.

He said there is demand for the variety among farmers in the Davao Region, particularly those in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley.

“There were demands from the farmers…if it is not US 88, they better not be given (seeds),” he said.

He added that aside from the possibility of exporting the variety, the plan is to teach farmers of Papua New Guinea to propagate it.

“There are potential areas (in the country where they can grow rice),” Mr. Morandante added.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will be distributing about two million bags of certified seeds under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEP) to rice farmers within the year, in a bid to increase yields by 2024.

The Agriculture department said in a statement that farmer beneficiaries listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBA) will receive seeds for two consecutive cropping seasons until December 2020.

They will also be entitled to up to four bags of inbred seeds depending on farm size for the October to December planting season. Rice seed varieties include NSIC Rc 160, Rc 216, Rc 222, and two location-specific inbred varieties.

The seeds are equivalent to planting about one million hectares of rice land, which the DA expects will boost yields by up to six tons per hectare in high-yielding provinces by 2024.

“So far, we have identified 57 provinces based on the size of area harvested, yield level, cost of production, and share of irrigated area. These municipalities and cities must also have an annual area planted of more than 500-ha for dry season 2019-2020,” DA Secretary William D. Dar said in a statement.

The DA will also provide farmers with technical briefings on seed preparation and other interventions and technologies from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI) to achieve their yield targets.

The department tapped local government units to help it validate the farmer beneficiaries listed in the RSBA. The LGUs will further assist in seed delivery inspection and seed distributions.

The distribution of the better seeds is part of Republic Act No. 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Act. It states that the government should allot a P3-billion fund or 30% of the RCEP for the PRRI for the production and distribution of high-yielding rice over a six-year period. — Carmelito Q. Francisco and Arra B. Francia

Walmart found to have discriminated against female personnel

WALMART Inc. likely discriminated against 178 female workers by paying them less, denying them promotions or both, because of their gender, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in memos seen by Reuters.

The agency urged Walmart and the women who filed complaints to come to a “just resolution,” which could include a settlement and changes to Walmart’s employment practices, after finding “reasonable cause” to believe there was gender discrimination. The memos were issued in July and viewed by Reuters on Tuesday after they were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and the largest private employer in the US with a workforce of 1.5 million.

Walmart told the EEOC it was willing to engage in a “conciliatory process,” though in most cases the agency’s reasonable cause findings were “vague and non-specific,” said Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman.

The cases involved allegations that were more than 15 years old, he said, and were “not representative of the positive experiences millions of women have had working at Walmart.”

Joseph Sellers, a lawyer for the women, said there were at least 1,600 similar complaints pending at the EEOC, accusing Walmart of discriminating against women in pay and promotions between 1999 and 2011. About 150 lawsuits against Walmart, covering the same time period, were pending in federal courts across the country, he said.

In 2011, Walmart convinced the US Supreme Court not to let about 1.5 million female workers complaining about pay and promotions sue in a class action, with a majority of justices concluding the women had too little in common to sue as a group.

Sellers, who represented Walmart workers in that case, said the memos issued in July involve women who worked at Walmart stores in over 30 states. That suggests a broad pattern of pay discrimination rather than isolated instances that could be attributed to local managers, Sellers said.

The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If Walmart cannot reach a settlement with the women, the EEOC could file a lawsuit against the company or authorize the women to bring their own. — Reuters

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