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Cine Europa adds Bohol to its run

CINE EUROPA opens its 22nd edition in Metro Manila on Sept. 20 at its new venue at Cinema 1, Greenbelt 3 in Makati City. It runs until Sept. 24.

This year, the festival showcases 12 films presented by the embassies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

“Cine Europa is a distinctive way to showcase European cultural diversity and to open up opportunities in the cultural and creative industries,” the Chargé d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to the Philippines Thomas Wiersing was quoted as saying in a press release.

Cine Europa is also expanding its regional presence for the second year in a row by presenting the festival films for the first time in Bohol from Oct. 11 and 12.

At the press launch on Sept. 5 at Greenbelt 3’s My Cinema in Makati City, Mr. Wiersing said that adding new cities is an opportunity “to increase their footprint in the Visayas.”

After the Manila leg, the festival will be held at SM City in Cebu; SM in Iloilo City; Ateneo de Naga University and SM in Naga; the Palawan State University and SM in Palawan; and the Visayas State University in Baybay, Leyte. And of course, in Bohol. It will return to Metro Manila for its last leg at the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) offices in November.

“Cultural and creative sectors including the film industry play a significant role in ensuring the continuing development of societies, strengthening identity, creating jobs, and driving inclusive and sustainable growth,” Mr. Wiersing said. “I wish that somehow Cine Europa can provide a very good opening to enhance the bilateral relationship between the EU and the Philippines.”

The films to be shown are:

• Belgium’s Achter De Wolken (Behind the Clouds), directed by Cecilia Verheyden, about two people who meet after 40 years and question the possibility of a second chance at love.

• Czech Republic’s Teorie Tygra (The Tiger Theory), directed by Radek Bajgar, about a veterinarian who breaks free from his marriage to start a new life.

• Denmark’s Vinterbrødre (Winter Brothers), directed by Hylnur Pálmason, is about a feud between brothers and another family.

• France’s Tour De France, directed by Rachid Djaidani, follows a rapper who leaves Paris after a dispute with his rival, who then finds a friendship with a music producer.

• Germany’s Grüße Aus Fukushima (Greetings from Fukushima), directed by Doris Dorrie, follows an old geisha and a young women who become friends as they go through their own struggles amidst the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

• Hungary’s Búék (Happy New Year), directed by Krisztina Goda, follows a group of friends who regularly celebrate New Year’s Eve and catch up.

• Italy’s Essere Leonardo da Vinci, un’intervista impossibile (Being Leonardo da Vinci, an impossible interview), directed by Massimiliano Finazzer Florry, follows two journalists who find themselves at the polymath’s final resting place, unexpectedly meet him, and are granted an interview.

• The Netherlands’ De Marathon (The Marathon), directed by Diederick Koopal, follows four out-of-shape men who start training for a marathon, hoping to win enough money to pay a debt.

• Norway’s Kongens nei (The King’s Choice), directed by Erik Poppe, is based on true events from 1940 when the German army presented king of Norway with the choice to either surrender or die.

• Spain’s 10.000 km (Long Distance), directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet, follows a couple whose plans to start a family are imperiled when the wife is offered an artistic residency in Los Angeles.

• Sweden’s Tjuvheder (Drifters), directed by Peter Grönlund, follows a drug pusher who steals some money and travels with a friend out of town.

• United Kingdom’s Mary Shelley, directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, centers on the love affair between poet Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft, that led to the creation of the first sci-fi novel, Frankenstein.

For more information and screening schedules, visit www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/philippines or the official Facebook page of the EU Delegation to the Philippines. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Axelum lowers maximum offer price for IPO to attract investors

COCONUT PRODUCTS manufacturer Axelum Resources Corp. reduced the maximum offer price for its initial public offering (IPO) to P5.72 per share, in a bid to attract more investors.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Monday, the company said the lower price was made in consultation with First Metro Investment Corp., the issue manager, bookrunner, and joint lead underwriter for the IPO.

The price is 16% lower than its earlier target of up to P6.81 per share. Axelum will announce the final offer price on Sept. 20.

“By updating the maximum offer price, we aim to optimize investors’ interest and appetite in our local stock market, include more investors while still maintaining funding for our strategic plans,” Axelum President and Chief Operating Officer Henry J. Raperoga said in a statement.

With this, the company can raise up to P6.463 billion in fresh capital from the sale of 1.13 billion common shares. This consists of 400 million treasury shares, 300 million new common shares, and 430 million existing common shares held by CP Compass Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Axelum will have a public float of about 28.25% after listing.

The company’s offer period will run from Sept. 24 to 30, in time for listing at the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange on Oct. 7. It will list under the ticker “AXLM.”

Axelum plans to use the proceeds from the offering for the expansion of its domestic and international distribution networks, installation of new manufacturing facilities for new products, and improvements for existing manufacturing facilities.

It will also use a portion of the capital for acquisitions. Mr. Raperoga said in an earlier interview that they have offers from companies in Vietnam and in the Philippines for potential deals.

Part of the proceeds will also be used to pay existing debt and other capital expenditure requirements.

The company currently has its main production facility in Medina, Misamis Oriental, with two distribution facilities in the United States and Australia. Its customers include international brands such as Vita Coco, The Hershey Co., Nestlé, Unilever, Ferrero, General Mills, Campbell’s, Quaker, and ConAgra Foods, among others.

Its products include desiccated coconut, coconut milk powder, coconut milk or cream, and reduced fat coconut, as well as other coconut products.

Axelum expects sales volume of coconut water to increase this year, although overall revenues may slump due to lower global prices for coconut oil, an official said last week.

Coconut water accounts for about 20% to 30% of the company’s business.

Axelum will be the second firm to go public this year after property asset management company Kepwealth Property Phils., Inc. last August. It will be followed by Villar-led home improvement supplies retailer AllHome Corp., which plans to raise P20.7 billion.

Also pending with the Securities and Exchange Commission are the IPO applications of Cal-Comp Technology (Philippines), Inc., Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc., and Fruitas Holdings, Inc. — Arra B. Francia

How a ‘crazy’ man brought Dusit kind of luxury to Davao

By Marifi S. Jara
Mindanao Bureau Chief

TORRE LORENZO Development Corp. (TLDC) President and Chief Executive Officer Tomas P. Lorenzo likes to tell the story of how most everyone thought him “buang,” meaning crazy in Visayan, when he first started talking about developing top-end facilities in Davao City for business and leisure travelers.

That was about six years ago, before the city came into the spotlight being the President’s hometown.

At that time, several of the country’s major developers have set foot in Davao, doing mainly condominium and commercial projects.

Mr. Lorenzo’s inkling on the potential of an upscale development came from frequent trips between Manila and Davao, where the Lorenzo family has roots and diverse business interests.

“Flights were always full, and I was thinking, I don’t know these people, who are all these people?” he said in an interview at the new Dusit D2 Davao before the launching ceremony on Sept. 6.

Mr. Lorenzo said an informal market review indicated it was mostly businessmen who have taken on the investment opportunities in the country’s south as well as professional Filipinos working overseas who have the money to purchase property and spend for holidays.

“That’s where this came out,” he narrates.

TLDC, after exploring various options, forged a partnership with Dusit International.

The joint venture has borne not just the 120-room Dusit D2 Hotel, but also a linked 174-unit Dusit Thani Residences, a serviced condominium-hotel now in the final stages of completion, and the soon-to-be branded Dusit Thani at Lubi Plantation Resort on a private island in nearby Compostela Valley province.

A fourth hotel, a Dusit Princess brand, is also in the pipeline.

Dusit International Chief Operating Officer Lim Boon Kwee said working with the TLDC team has been “a pleasure” because their captain is a “very passionate developer.”

Torre Lorenzo Development Corp. President and CEO Tomas P. Lorenzo — BW PHOTO

Davao City Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta, delivering the mayor’s message during the Dusit D2 launch, said having another international hotel brand strengthens the city’s campaign to become a “major hub” for the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions segment.

“You are not buang after all,” she tells Mr. Lorenzo.

Compostela Valley Governor Jayvee Tyron L. Uy said the Lubi resort, which is under his jurisdiction, is a “trendsetter” for the province that is also in the midst of rebranding as Davao de Oro in line with its program to attract investors and tourists.

“It means a lot to us, especially when you talk about creating economies, it will bring economic growth… and at the same time promoting tourism in the province,” he said in an interview with BusinessWorld at the Lubi resort.

The Dusit Thani, which is on the site of a former coconut island plantation, is still a work in progress but several villas are now ready for occupancy alongside The Beach Club, which is open for day-trippers.

“This is not your P50 (per person entrance fee) type of resort, which I am sure we have all experienced,” Mr. Lorenzo said. “Think Dusit Maldives.”

Christopher Wichlan, general manager of the Dusit properties in the Davao Region, said what they have now is a unique product cluster consisting of an “exclusive destination” and “value for money.”

The Beach Club, when fully completed before the end of the year, will include a dive center that would allow guests to explore the waters around the island that has been kept as a marine sanctuary for 30 years.

For staying guests, “natural barriers” will be set up to create a private space with exclusive facilities.

“The way we’ve invested here (all the Davao properties), with all the technologies and security is to make sure that everyone has the confidence to come here,” Mr. Wichlan said.

Mr. Lorenzo said the bigger commitment behind the Davao ventures has been to contribute to the growth of Mindanao, the Philippine’s vast southern islands that continue to address both real and perceived concerns on peace and security.

“I am from Mindanao… the idea here is developing Mindanao.”

CHNDTR specializes in hugot-core

CHNDTR sometimes find themselves sidelining as relationship counselors on their Facebook page.

WITH SO MANY bands trying to make it into the music scene, the goal has always been about making an impact — and for three-year-old band CHNDTR, it meant creating their own musical genre.

Named after lead singer Chin Detera, the band got together in 2016 when it won the top prize at the Robinsons Supermarket Deli Music Battle of the Bands. With their penchant for “songs [that] have so much feels to it (sic),” the band members decided to call their music “hugot-core.”

Hugot is a popular slang term used to describe words and sentences inspire great emotion — usually sadness and heartbreak — from a person.

“The term hugot-core was coined by our fans. They were the ones who started calling our music that and we decided to run with it,” Ms. Detera told BusinessWorld in the vernacular during a press conference to launch the band’s latest single on Sept. 3 at The 70s Bistro in Quezon City.

The new single, “Sulat,” is a follow-up to the 2018 single “Kulang,” which was part of their debut album Habang Umuulan. Both are songs of heartbreak.

But the focus on emotional love songs was not something they started out doing on purpose.

“When we write our music, that’s what comes out. Maybe it’s because of our influences. But the lyrics always come from Chin,” Benjo Criste, the band’s drummer, said at the press conference.

Ms. Detera explained that her lyrics come from all sorts of experiences — she wrote one song when her bandmates hung up on her when they were talking.

“Oh okay, they hung up on me. We now have a new song,” she said while laughing.

Aside from Ms. Detera and Mr. Criste, the other band members are Sean de Leon on bass and Niko Bacani on lead guitar.

CHNDTR, which is pronounced as “Chin Detera,” also plays on the idiosyncrasies of a generation who grew up texting messages without vowels to fit in the character limits of pre-smartphone cellphones.

“We were really called Chin Detera before, but Chin felt that she really wanted to make it feel like a band and not like a solo act so we played with changing our names. But our previous manager didn’t want us to change our names so as a compromise, we decided to just take out all the vowels,” Mr. Bacani said.

Three years in (though Ms. Detera said she has been singing and writing since she was nine years old) the band is focusing on strengthening its presence and amassing a dedicated following from the same millennial (or younger) age group.

To keep them involved with the fans beyond their gigs, Ms. Detera said that they have a Facebook group where they communicate with fans — which at times some fans use to ask for relationship advice.

“So we’re not only a band, we’re also sidelining as relationship counselors,” Ms. Detera said. — ZBC

Damosa Land tops off Seawind’s 5th tower

DAVAO CITY — Damosa Land Inc. (DLI) is aiming to complete its six-building Seawind condominium project by next year, with construction currently ahead of schedule.

“All six towers should be finished already by the end of 2020, which is actually our original construction schedule. Our original plan was to finish it in six years. We are sticking to that schedule,” DLI Vice President Ricardo F. Lagdameo told BusinessWorld during a company event last week.

Seawind’s fifth tower was originally targeted for completion by May 2020.

“So the construction has been ahead of schedule, even for Tower 6 wherein we are also few months ahead of schedule,” Mr. Lagdameo said.

“The topping off shows that we are sticking to our timetable and our commitment to our customers,” he added.

Seawind, DLI’s first condominium project launched in August 2015, is within a 2.7 hectare property in Davao City’s Sasa area.

Its amenities include a swimming pool, clubhouse, pocket parks, walkways, commercial complex and a public transport terminal.

Mr. Lagdameo said they aim to finish the whole project by the end of next year.

Of the 1,161 total units in the six buildings, about 97% are already sold, according to Mr. Lagdameo.

“Majority of our buyers are mostly of working age about 25 years old to 45 years old and employed by various companies. We also have some executives and a lot of Anflocor employees,” he said.

DLI is the property development arm of the Floirendo-owned Anflo Management and Investment Corp. (Anflocor). — Maya M. Padillo

Hijo’s township seen to boost economic activity in Mindanao

By Maya M. Padillo, Correspondent

TAGUM CITY — Hijo Central, a smart and sustainable township project by Hijo Resources Corp. (HRC), is expected to generate around $10 billion in economic activity in Mindanao.

Launched Sunday, Hijo Central will be developed in 132 hectares of the 1,054-hectare HRC property in Madaum, Tagum, Davao del Norte.

HRC Vice Chair and Chief Executive Officer Rosanna Tuason-Fores told media they see huge potential from the project on the back of the economic activity to be generated, such as port usage and logistics, leisure and tourism, agribusiness, property development, and the renewable energy components of the project.

Ms. Fores added that they are currently looking for locators and boutique investors to locate in Hijo Central.

She said they are partnering with sustainable partners for power, water provider and telecommunications.

They will also establish a smart city, a hub for food technology, biotech, and agritech, she said.

“Smart cities are not just for technology. It is about building an ecosystem of smart people, smart place and smart planet. From a farm to a smart city with Hijo Central at the core of it all,” Ms. Fores said.

She added that Hijo Central will include a digital agricultural marketplace, which is a platform that connects farmers to global customers.

In partnership with Kitchen Israel, Ms. Fores said Hijo Central will establish a food innovation hub where entrepreneurial ideas are exchanged, laboratories are available to test these ideas, and where interested proponents can get support from the academe and private sector for commercialization to maximize the value of a growing food market.

In his speech during the launch, Ramon B. Segismundo, president and chief operating officer of HRC, said Hijo Central will support agricultural modernization with farm initiatives and agricultural industrialization with a state-of-the-art banana and coco sugar manufacturing facility worth more than P600 million.

Mr. Segismundo said they will also establish a digital agriculture platform in partnership with indigenous peoples farmers to boost their livelihood.

Through a grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), HRC will come up with an app that will help farmers to get enough yield and improve the quality of bananas, he said.

Mr. Segismundo said with the help of Israeli experts and in partnership with DoST, they will also be forming a start-up that will incubate ideas and commercialize practices in agriculture.

“If there is a Silicon Valley, there will be a DavNor Valley in agriculture. Hijo Central is the first smart and sustainability city in Tagum and part of the vast growing region in the Philippines, Metro Davao. We contribute to restore and rebuild the corals and mangrove in our ecosystem and all of these would not be possible without our pro-God, pro-poor, pro-environment leader Rossana Fores,” Mr. Segismundo said.

With a master plan of 10 years, the development of Hijo Central will be done in four phases.

Sujata S. Govada, CEO and managing director of Urban Design Planning International, the master plan partner of HRC for the project, said they have ye to finalize what will be done in the first phase of the project’s development.

“But land development has already started,” Ms. Fores noted.

Ms. Fores also assured that the environment will be protected, with 49% of the development to be devoted to green spaces and 51% for saleable spaces.

“People, place, and planet concept is a smart city framework. Hijo Central will have a lot of space,” Ms. Govada assured.

The HRC site is classified as a Planned Unit Development Zone by the City of Tagum Comprehensive Development Zoning Ordinance. HRC was founded by the late Jose “Boy” Tuason, Jr. who acquired Hijo Plantation, Inc.

’Tis a pity she’s a whore

By Maria Carmen Aquino Sarmiento

Movie Review
Cuddle Weather
Written and directed by Rod Cabatana-Marmol

HERE’S THE TWIST: this romcom deals, not with the usual BPO agents, medical professionals, corporate drones, teacher-trainers, restaurant waitstaff, or OFWs — any of the jobs most upwardly mobile millennials inevitably gravitate to — but with sex industry workers, colloquially known as pokpok. For those in the upper tiers, compensation runs into the low five figures per hour, which is the usual call center agent’s or bank teller’s starting monthly salary. At their peak, the pokpok might become tax-free millionaires many times over — within the four short years that might have been spent getting a college degree — which is something that most college-degree holder retirees with decades of service never get to.

The male sex worker’s physical stamina is a limitation to his earning power, but the woman can always fake it. And after nine years in the industry, faking it is what the veteran Adela (Sue Ramirez) does best. As though shot through rose-colored lenses, the soft-focus opening sequences, show her as a human sushi platter, a dirty uncle’s jailbait pretend niece and a fuschia-haired cosplay cutie. The latter is how Ram (for Ramoncito, played by RK Bagatsing) first encounters her, in a cheap Burgosian motel in the sleazy heart of the hip Makati Poblacion district. He delightedly renames her “Senpai,” an anime or manga term for mentor.

Adela is an independent contractor in this day and age when social media have eliminated the sinister pimp or grasping mama-san. Her business name is Angels-for-Hire. She has more than one persona and name for every client’s taste. Ram is a newbie pokpok himself, whose hourly rate of P1,000 is just 10% of the friendly 50% off P10,000 which Adela charges their grumpy barangay captain (Niño Muhlach). The Kap knows all the practicing whores in his domain by name, and also in the Biblical sense. He gets a discount, and occasionally makes a show of rounding them up and throwing them into the city jail. Like the PG sex scenes, it’s all done in fun, without eliciting an erotic rise from those with normative sexual tastes.

The sugar coating is a little soured by Adela’s early whining that she has no choice but to practice the world’s oldest profession since she wasn’t born rich, nor had the benefits of higher education. Ram decides selling his body as his most viable recourse after an illegal recruiter gyps him. Incredibly, the worldly Adela agrees to perpetually perky Ram’s proposition that he move in with her so that she can mentor him, for a percentage of his callboy earnings and a nominal rent. In return, all she asks of him is that they share a chaste bed with a fat, well-worn bolster as a barrier in between them. It’s obviously a playful fantasy, and nostalgically entertaining in the manner of those pakipot “no-touch” love teams of half a century ago.

Bagatsing plays along as the harmless grinning dork, much like the Jack McBrayer character Kenneth Parcell, the eternally sweet though put-upon NBC page in the sitcom Thirty Rock. Despite his being the 180° opposite of a stud muffin, Ram, with his innocuously wholesome good looks, is surprisingly in-demand for threesomes and orgies amongst the wealthy, bored, long-married couples and desiccated, society matrons looking for new thrills. The only time he asserts his dignity is when Melba (Dexter Doria) and her amigas amuse themselves with trying to see how much vodka and pills he can chug-a-lug at a yacht party.

Much is made of Adela’s determination to legally change her name, although, as her favorite married john, a medical doctor at that, points out, this might cause legal complications as he has already registered the condominium she lives in under her original name. The poor girl doesn’t seem to realize how lucky she is. These plot points are baffling, and less than compelling. Adela’s estranged mother also gets on her case about the name-change. She is a street vendor who reads the English broadsheets, which is how she finds the announcement about her daughter’s legal change of name. One wonders what all the fuss is about since Adela is a bastard anyway, and it was her mother who got her started in the business where she’s prospering.

When Adela wasn’t earning as much, she did build her Nanay a narrow two-story concrete shanty, where she lives with her husband — not Adela’s Caucasian father, presumably one of the Poblacion’s tourist galis or white trash, and Adela’s younger half-siblings. These glimpses of the tawdrier, more painful side of sex work and its sad, complicated human consequences are discordant with the film’s general, feel-good, marshmallow flavor.

Now that she’s raking in the big bucks, Adela surreptitiously buys two trays of eggs every month from her mother’s humble stand. That’s around P350 worth of business that she throws her mother’s way every month, or approximately what she herself makes per minute with one of her clients. One wonders if Adela’s secrecy is out of shame that this is all she’s willing to spare for the mother who got her started in what was a family business in a sense, where she has undeniably done better than her mentor.

When Adela, with her worried puppy-dog eyes, increasingly talks of retiring from the business, and sending herself to college, Ram who’s just beginning to get a taste of the big bucks himself and liking it, urges her to be pragmatic: they can go on working while they’re still able, even be a team. The torero of the euphemistically termed live shows of yesteryear were also said to often be married couples. It’s just a matter of maximizing their literally human capital. Keep it in the family, so to speak.

RedDoorz to open 4 properties in Davao in 2 months

DAVAO CITY — Hotel management start-up RedDoorz is eyeing to open four properties in Davao City in the next two months.

“We have four partners scheduled to open this September and October this year with locations within the city and along Lanang,” Stephanie Irma, RedDoorz country head, said during the launch event here on Thursday.

RedDoorz entered Davao City four months ago, but it was during Kadayawan festival that it really took off. In just two months, it opened 26 properties in Matina, Poblacion, and near the airport.

Ms. Irma said they consider a property’s proximity to the hospital, airport, and malls.

“These kinds of public demands where traffic is in and out. We are okay with any kind of location as long as the business model wherein hotel as a partner get our standards. We do not exactly really mind with a lot of location because we go even to the smaller cities like Tacloban which is very far,” she said.

Raenald P. De Jesus, country marketing manager of RedDoorz, said they have captured the market for “practical” travellers in Davao City. He described them as travellers who want to stay near a school or busy area.

Mr. De Jesus said that after Kadayawan and until now, the occupancy rate of its Davao properties has not fallen lower than 70 percent.

“The growth has been consistent. For example, the Kadayawan last month pero even now na hindi Kadayawan the occupancy rate has been consistent. We are always on the growth trajectory,” Mr. De Jesus said.

Tagged as the Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest-growing hotel management and booking platform, RedDoorz continues to expand across the Philippines by adding 5,000 additional room nights from now until the end of the year. — Maya M. Padillo

Dwell Lifestyle to open boutique hotel in 2021

DAVAO CITY — Dwell Lifestyle is investing about P100 million for a boutique hotel here to cater to the growing tourist market.

Stifanny Guira-Falconi, business development officer of Dwell Lifestyle, told BusinessWorld last week that her family is building a five-floor hotel with the first two floors to be opened in 2021.

“The concept, in terms of design, is more of modern yet minimalist,” Ms. Guira-Falconi said, noting that they want customers “to experience Dabawenyo feel of hospitality,” with the hotel set to offer a family-oriented vibe to clients.

Ms. Guira-Falconi said when the project was conceptualized, there was a proposal to have the property managed by another group, but they decided against this as it could “compromise the personal touch of the service that it will offer.”

On the funding for the hotel, Ms. Guira-Falconi, whose family also has restaurants and hair salons, said there will be a loan component in the planned P100-million investment.

The hotel, she added, will also have serviced apartments and commercial spaces where a second branch of the family’s restaurant Mossa Restaurant and Bakery will also be located. The first branch was opened in August in Damosa Land, Inc.’s compound in Lanang.

She added that the plan for the project is to target middle-income visitors who want to enjoy the city.

She said she hopes to open at least the first two floors of the hotel by its target date.

At present, the company is finalizing the permit for the project.

Ms. Guira-Falconi said they are targeting to start construction within the last quarter of the year.

Jose Raymond R. dela Paz of the Davao Tourism Association said the entry of new players in the hospitality industry is necessary because of the growing number of local and foreign visitors.

“We need more rooms to serve the growing market and that we in the industry also need to upgrade our offerings,” Mr. Dela Paz said. His family also owns hotels, a resort and restaurants in the city.

Based on the report of the City Tourism Operations Office, there were about 1.2 million visitors to the city in the first half of the year, 8.6% higher than the previous year. The city government’s target for the year is three million visitors.

Based on projections from property consultant Prime Philippines, the number of rooms in the city will grow by about 1,400 next year from about 8,000 at present. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

Gov’t partially awards T-bills on rate cut bets

THE GOVERNMENT made a partial award of the Treasury bills (T-bill) it auctioned off yesterday as investors shied away from the longest tenor, awaiting monetary policy decisions in the United States and at home.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Monday raised just P12.983 billion out of the P15 billion it wanted to borrow via the T-bills even as it received bids totalling P35.1 billion, more than twice the program.

Broken down, the BTr awarded P4 billion as planned via the 91-day T-bills with tenders amounting to P11.9 billion. The papers fetched an average yield of 3.037%, 11.2 basis points (bp) lower than the 3.149% quoted at the Sept. 2 auction.

The Treasury also borrowed P5 billion as programmed through the 182-day papers, with the tenor attracting bids worth P12.75 billion. The six-month securities fetched an average rate of 3.42%, a tad lower than the 3.429% seen in the previous offering.

Meanwhile, the government only raised P3.983 billion via the 364-day T-bills out of a P6-billion program and even as total bids reached P10.403 billion. The yield on the one-year tenor averaged at 3.666%, inching up 0.7 bp from the previous’ 3.659%.

Had the Treasury made a full award, the one-year securities would have fetched an average rate of 3.7%

At the secondary market, three- and six-month papers were quoted at 3.278% and 3.516%, respectively, while the one-year securities fetched a yield of 3.699%, based on the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said Monday’s auction saw “very healthy” participation with the offer more than twice oversubscribed, with rate continuing to decline as the market awaits the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy review next week, where it is expected to cut benchmark interest rates and big banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) anew.

“The offers from our dealers, they are more than our offer amount. We also saw that in terms of rates, they’re even lower than the current secondary, except for the one-year. That’s why we also made a partial award. We don’t want that it (the rate) would also trend higher than the secondary (market),” Ms. De Leon told reporters.

“Of course, given the two [other] tenors, they are all going down following the pronouncements of [BSP] Governor [Benjamin E.] Diokno that there is also room for the Monetary Board to cut policy rates and also even the RRR,” Ms. De Leon added.

Mr. Diokno told reporters on Friday that the central bank’s plan to cut benchmark interest rates anew “won’t reach November.”

“Could be October or September,” Mr. Diokno said.

The BSP chief added that they are still studying whether they will announce and implement the planned cuts to policy rates and big banks’ RRR in one go or in different events.

The central bank’s Monetary Board holds policy-setting meetings every six weeks. Its remaining reviews for the year are scheduled on Sept. 26, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12.

The BSP has cut rates by a total of 50 bps this year — by 25 bps each last May 9 and Aug. 8 — to 4.25% for the overnight reverse repurchase rate, 4.75% for overnight lending and 3.75% for overnight deposit, partially dialing back the 175-bp cumulative hikes triggered last year by successive multi-year high inflation that peaked at a nine-year high.

Mr. Diokno earlier said the central bank is looking to cut policy rates by another 25 bps as well as slash big banks’ reserve ratios before the year ends.

He said the Monetary Board plans to “pre-announce” RRR moves on a quarterly basis to prepare the markets.

Currently, the RRR is at 16% for big banks and six percent for thrift banks following the phased 200-bp cut implemented after an off-cycle meeting last May. The reserve ratio of rural and cooperative lenders was also cut to four percent from five percent effective May 31.

Mr. Diokno has said he is committed to trim universal and commercial banks’ RRR to single digit before his term ends in 2023.

LIQUIDITY
Ms. De Leon said yesterday that the central bank’s expected RRR cut and the BTr’s redemption of around P12 billion worth of maturing securities will unleash additional liquidity into the market.

“In terms of additional liquidity that will be flushed into the system, if ever they cut the RRR again sometime in the fourth quarter, and of course we have a maturity — we have a redemption of about P12 billion — so that’s additional liquidity flow,” she added.

Robinsons Bank Corp. peso debt trader Kevin S. Palma said aside from the BSP policy decision, investors are also waiting for catalysts ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day review this week.

“Demand for T-bills waned a bit as some investors chose to sit on the fence and wait for fresh catalysts such as the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 19, just a week ahead of the BSP’s Monetary Board meeting,” Mr. Palma said in a phone message.

With US-China trade tensions roiling markets, investors are counting on support for stocks coming from a Federal Reserve willing to keep cutting interest rates to help the US economy avoid a severe downturn.

A quarter-point rate reduction is widely expected when the Fed issues its next policy statement on Wednesday, which would be the central bank’s second such cut after lowering rates in July for the first time since 2008. That puts the greater focus on clues about how much further the Fed will go.

The central bank in July cited signs of a global slowdown, simmering US-China trade tensions and a desire to boost too-low inflation as it lowered borrowing costs.

Markets are pricing in a near 90% probability that the Fed will shave another quarter point from its current overnight lending rate of 2.00% to 2.25%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. There is a roughly 65% probability that the Fed makes at least one more quarter-point cut by the end of the year, according to FedWatch.

Meanwhile, Mr. Palma said investors might have also considered the recent attack on oil facilities of the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia over the weekend, which shut down 5% of global supply.

“Compounding investors’ divergence in sentiment are the possibility of a trade truce coupled and the weekend attack in Saudi Arabian oil facilities,” he said.

The government is set to borrow P230 billion from the domestic market this quarter through T-bills and Treasury bonds.

It wants to raise P1.189 trillion this year from local and foreign sources to fund its budget deficit, which is expected to widen to as much as 3.2% of gross domestic product. — Beatrice M. Laforga with Reuters

Messing around

By Maria Carmen Aquino Sarmiento

Movie Review
OPEN
Directed by Andoy Ranay

ALL OF THE actors on-screen in this sophisticated millennial relationship melodrama where most of the dialogue is in Filipino English, are extraordinarily good-looking and upwardly mobile, starting with the leads Arci Muñoz as Romina or Rome, an advertising creative, and JC Santos as Ethan, her boyfriend who appears to be in logistics. It’s not clear exactly what he does, except that he just made General Manager and his hot lady superior Erika (Ina Raymundo) is very pleased with him. However, scene after scene of gorgeous twenty-somethings with perfectly made up and lighted features, costumed in well-put together outfits, sipping wine, clubbing, or even getting it on in their spacious townhouse units, may not be enough to hold one’s interest. The audience was disturbingly silent throughout most of OPEN, directed by Andoy Ranay, in a Makati cinema, one of 200 where this film is being screened as part of the National Film Development Board’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.

The plot revolves around the proverbial Seven Year Itch which in popular psychology refers to the time in a relationship when one or both of the partners gets restless and looks for his/her romantic or sexual thrills elsewhere. It is also the title of the classic 1955 Hollywood film by Billy Wilder, with that famous image of the blonde goddess Marilyn Monroe in a halter top and stilettos, standing with eyes shut and lips half-parted in orgasmic ecstasy, as her white dress blows upwards about her thighs.

In OPEN, it is a twice times seven-year itch as Ethan and Rome have been in a relationship for the last 14 years. They were high school sweethearts. Through it all, Ethan has never popped the question, although they have been living-in as we call it, and have even invested together in a condominium. He has already strayed at least once before, but Rome has forgiven him for that one instance of infidelity which she knew about. Such relationship transgressions are like cockroaches or mice: when you glimpse one in your kitchen, expect there to be scores or hundreds more hidden away out of sight. On the other hand, virtuous Rome claims that she has never been with another man except for Ethan.

At the film’s start, Rome is angling for Ethan to make a commitment to her greater than their co-owning pricey real estate. As Beyoncé sang, “If he likes it then he should put a ring on it.” Instead, he just laughs at her. She looks pained, which is the expression she has on throughout most of the film. When Ethan suggests that he and Rome also adopt an “open relationship,” just as their best friends have done, she agonizes but agrees, believing that this is the only way for them to save their relationship.

Rome does set the condition that all their “open” encounters must be of a purely sexual nature with absolute strangers. She doesn’t qualify though whether these new sex partners must remain strangers, and whether something like normal friendship might be allowed to develop should there conceivably be seconds or thirds in the near future. Neither seem especially concerned about the prospect of STDs or criminal behavior from a series of one-night stands. If satisfying one’s sexual needs were the sole purpose of having an open relationship, then hiring a vetted professional might be the more practical and straightforward course of action. It would probably be cheaper than having to spend for dinner while trying to hold a civilized conversation, or getting all gussied up to hit the clubs and compete with the herd.

Ethan goes for low-hanging fruit: his co-worker Erika, an older woman. Ina Raymundo has the cloyingly infantile voice of a daddy’s-dirty-little-girl, but her Erika has the impermeable hardness of a praying mantis. “I don’t like drama,” she makes it clear, before she grimly grabs Ethan, and pulls him towards her, the better to suck his little face. But regrettably, there is little humor in OPEN to lighten up all the personal human drama which doggedly wends its turbid way throughout.

Even when Rome uses her creative copywriter’s skills to weave a steamy story about how the stranger she picked up on her first “open” night had his way with her, Ethan’s supposed arousal as he listens to her is dully perfunctory and choreographed. The film is PG-13. Chemistry is not something one can command or switch on at will, and between them, these two gorgeous kids just ain’t got it. Neither do we feel invested in their emotional loss should their 14-year long relationship fall apart. Maybe that was already it’s natural lifespan, and now it is really time that they both move on. Hey, they’re both young, good-looking, with dream jobs, supportive friends and families — they’ll probably find someone else soon. The stakes are just not that high. To paraphrase Miley Cyrus in “Wrecking Ball”: “They clawed, they chained their hearts in vain, they jumped, never asking why…” But in the end, who really wants to know, or even cares? Pass the popcorn please.

Amaia Steps Altaraza targets Bulacan residents

AMAIA LAND Corp. has launched a mid-rise residential condominium in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.

In a statement, the economic housing unit of Ayala Land, Inc. said Amaia Steps Altaraza will rise on a 1.9-hectare property as part of a masterplanned urban community.

“With Bulacan keeping in step with property developments in Metro Manila, Amaia Steps Altaraza fulfills Ayala Land’s vision of building affordable homes for Bulacan residents who want to update their lifestyles,” the company said.

Amaia Steps Altaraza offers studio units (22–26 square meters), deluxe units (31–33 sq.m.), and premier units (39–42 sq.m.).

It is located along Quirino Highway corner Governor F. Halili Road in Brgy. Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte City. The project is near schools, hospitals, retail establishments and malls, as well as the Metro Rail Transit-7 (MRT-7), which is expected to be operating by 2022.

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