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Winners of the 6th QCinema International Film Festival

• Circle Competition Audience Choice Award: Hintayan ng Langit by Dan Villegas
• Circle Competition NETPAC Jury Prize: Dog Days by Timmy Harn
• Circle Competition Best Film: Oda sa Wala by Dwein Baltazar
• Best Artistic Achievement Award: Neil Daza for Oda sa Wala
• Best Supporting Actress: Cielo Aquino for Billie & Emma
• Best Supporting Actor: Marcus Adoro for Dog Days
• Best Screenplay: Dwein Baltazar for Oda sa Wala
• Best Actress: Marietta Subong for Oda sa Wala
• Best Actor: Eddie Garcia for Hintayan ng Langit
• Best Director: Dwein Baltazar for Oda sa Wala
• Gender Sensitivity Award: Billie & Emma by Samantha Lee
• Rainbow QC Jury Prize: Hard Paint by Felipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon
• Rainbow QC Best Film: Sorry Angel by Christophe Honoré
• Asian Next Wave Jury Prize: The Seen and Unseen by Kamila Andini
• Asian Next Wave Best Film: A Land Imagined by Yeo Siew Hua

Calum Scott live in Manila


By Michelle Anne P. Soliman, Reporter
BRITISH singer Calum Scott arrived at a press conference Monday at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila unaware that his debut album Only Human, which was released in March, has turned two times platinum in the Philippines.
“These things do still blow me away,” the singer said after receiving the platinum award plaque at the press conference.
Mr. Scott auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent in 2015 with the song “Dancing On My Own” (originally by Swedish singer Robyn). The popularity of his renditon gave him the opportunity to launch his career as a musician.
Mr. Scott released the song as the lead single in his debut album.
The track has had more than 6.5 million worldwide sales, reached five times platinum in Australia, and earned a Brit Award nomination for British Single of the Year.
Mr. Scott is in Manila for his first concert under the Only Human Asia Tour at the New Frontier Theater (formerly Kia Theater) in Quezon City on Oct. 30.
“I am so excited. I would like to go there (the concert venue) now and start singing already,” Mr. Scott told the press.
“I’m so happy to be back in the Philippines. I had such an amazing crowd the last time when we played at the shopping center,” he said, referring to a mall show he performed in March this year, “and to come and play my very own show, to have the opportunity is just a dream come true.”
Mr. Scott said that the show will be his first concert with his band, and that he will be playing songs from the album and songs that are yet to be released.
“I am definitely inspired by life. That means there’s ups, there’s downs, there’s romance, and heartbreak. I’m inspired by all these events,” Mr. Scott said about the inspiration for his first album.
“My wish is to do this for the rest of my life… My wish would be to make people smile, to relate to people,” Mr. Scott said of his hopes for his career.
“When somebody puts their earphones in, and they play a Calum song, I would love to feel connected to them in a way that they can connect to their friends and family. I want to have that relationship with my fans for the rest of my career,” he said.
Mr. Scott is set to release a special edition of Only Human in November.
For concert tickets, visit ticketnet.com.ph or call (911-5555 or 02-532-8883).

FamilyMart to upgrade stores

By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
THE local operator of FamilyMart convenience stores refurbished the very first store it opened in the country, as it plans to upgrade 14 more outlets next year.
Philippine FamilyMart CVS, Inc. relaunched on Monday its store at the ground level of Glorietta 3 in Makati City, featuring its new Generation 2 design. The relaunch comes five years after the store opened in April 2013.
“We really find it a good time to reopen this store and introduce the Generation 2 concept. The changes you’ll see here is the food that we offer…. We have close to 200 to 300 products that cater to anyone who needs a food fix,” FamilyMart General Manager Roald Johann L. Yap said in an interview during the store’s reopening.
The Generation 2 store will offer new products such as Japan’s crispy chicken fillet brand Fami-Chicky, hotdog sandwiches, Japanese treats, and Filipino merienda treats.
“We’re trying to provide more food-for-now and food-for-later for our customer…. We want to provide them a wider selection of food offerings which they can either consume in store… or they can take it in the bus with them and then eat it along the way,” FamilyMart President Henry Albert R. Fadullon said in a separate interview.
Mr. Fadullon also noted that they will be able to cater to commuters, since the store stands next to the station for point-to-point bus services.
Aside from more food choices, the store will also feature expanded dining areas and new service crew uniforms designed by renowned Filipino designer Rajo Laurel.
Mr. Yap said they target to refurbish 14 more stores next year, upgrading them to the Generation 2 design.
“We want them to know that we’re investing in them, we’re investing in the brand, and that they can be really proud of the Family Mart brand,” Mr. Yap said.
FamilyMart currently operates 71 outlets in Luzon. The operator of the Japan-based convenience store was purchased by businessman Dennis A. Uy’s Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. last year.
The brand was originally brought to the country by SIAL CVS Retailers, Inc., a joint venture between Ayala Land, Inc.’s ALI Capital Corp. and SSI Group, Inc., along with Japanese partners FamilyMart Co., Ltd., and Itochu Corp.
Phoenix Petroleum’s acquisition is seen to fast-track FamilyMart’s expansion in the country, as it could complement the growing number of the independent oil firm’s stations nationwide. By end-June, the company operated a total of 545 stations in the country.
FamilyMart registered a seven percent average daily sales growth during the first six months of the year. Phoenix Petroleum earlier said it is working on making the business profitable by 2019.

Movie reviews of QCinema films

Twisted sister

Movie Review
Oda sa Wala
Directed by Dwein Baltazar
THIS IS the realism of dreams, not of mundane reality. In the humble life of Sonya (Marietta Subong a.k.a. Pokwang) these fears, desires, longing, and rage which make up the human condition are oddly manifest: she is bereft of her parents’ love, without friends, unworthy of anyone’s lust.
Sonya makes a sparse living running a discount mortuary all by her lonesome in her moldering ancestral home. Her busy hands also cook for her distant father Mang Rudy (Joonee Gamboa) who ignores her. She might as well be dead to her father and to the rest of the world as well. It has passed her by, an apathetic spectator at her window, seeing but unseen.
Marietta Subong gives a tour de force performance, self-aware of how painfully ridiculous Sonya is, but imbuing her with innate dignity nonetheless. When the object of her unrequited affections, Elmer (Anthony Falcon) the magtataho turns his back and walks away from her, Sonya’s bravely insistent but futile cries of Taho! fail to bring him back. It is pathos without bathos, a very hard thing to do, but Subong manages to do this and much more throughout the film.
The coming of a nameless old woman’s corpse is transformative. Sonya finds companionship. Mang Rudy rouses himself to enshrine the strange visitor with her place of honor at the head of their dining table then talks to his daughter once more.
In Sonya’s psychic stew of mixed emotions we sense bits and pieces of our selves or of those whom we know too. What could be more terrible and yet more usual, than to have the ones whom you love and who love you best die on you? That’s life, but then, there’s death too. It’s enough to drive one mad, and yet it is what makes us most fully human. We can relate to Sonya. She could be us. We could be her. She is family.— Menchu Aquino Sarmiento

Read the full review here.

Second chances

Movie review
Hintayan ng Langit
Directed by Dan Villegas
THE HOLLYWOOD film genre of the too-soon departed and basically decent soul, on a temporary reprieve to take care of unfinished business back on earth is a favorite since many of us pass on with an uncertain peace. Closely allied to this, is the deux ex mundi (not machina) variant where God or guardian angels (even Santa Claus) take on ordinary human form and mingle with mere mortals for the express purpose of helping out a deserving but clueless individual with a celestial fix that guarantees a miraculously happy ending.
Its latest local iteration is Hintayan ng Langit, an adaptation by Juan Miguel Severo of his award-winning 45-minute one-act play with two characters, the former lovers: Lisang and Manolo.
Lisang is a potty-mouthed, prickly, snarky, snarly Gina Pareño whose many mild misbehaviors have caused her to remain stranded in the Hintayan — it is a welcome conceit that the waiting area for heaven is wonderfully, cheesily secular — where her punishment requires her to serve refreshments at support group meetings to help the newly deceased adjust to being dead. Eddie Garcia as a lumbering Manolo reprises his familiar “manay” shtick.
Pareño’s pacing is staccato while Garcia is adagio molto. Although they are former lovers who’ve supposedly kept the fires burning for decades, their continuous back and forth grows tiresome after the third repetition. There is a surprising lack of sexual frisson now that they share a room. Their respective, reliable spouses are only known to the audience as invisible, inaudible phone callers. Perhaps this is why the choices they make at the film’s end, have little emotional resonance. — Menchu Aquino Sarmiento
Read the full review here.

Rainbow bright

Movie Review
Billie and Emma
Directed by Samantha Lee
HOW refreshing it is to encounter a coming of age film without the usual adolescent angst and anger! More so when the teen protagonists, both high school seniors, are one committed butch lesbian (Billie, played by Zar Donato) and the bi-curious, and very accomplished flirt Emma (Gabby Padilla) who cope with their respective personal crisis with humor and grace.
Billie has been exiled to provincial San Isidro, until the minor scandal in her old school in Manila, and her father’s subsequent rejection of her, blow over. She is temporarily under the care of her maternal aunt Kate Castro (Cielo Aquino), the religion teacher at an exclusive girls’ school where Billie is now a transferee. This creates the opportunity for snarkily pointed classroom exchanges, more like a gay rights debate, between the aunt and her headstrong niece about Gospel teachings on homosexuality and the like.
Filmmaker Samantha Lee wears her queer advocacy with pride. Niece and aunt end up bonding over a seminal lesbian text, with the closeted having an epiphany about acknowledging her own queerness, and her niece’s as well, which deepens their familial bond. Even her classmates’ anxiety over Billie’s lesbianism being contagious is only annoying, even amusing, rather than threatening.
The book-smart Emma and her feckless teenage boyfriend Miguel (Ryle Santiago) are too dumb to use condoms, the most easily available contraceptive device, or even to practice natural contraception. Emma is the only child of a teenage mother (Beauty Gonzales) who cares more about using her daughter to sell lip gloss than making sure she doesn’t make the same mistakes. If this is the film’s way of conveying the message that becoming a teenage mother is plain stupid, then this mother and daughter tandem succeed. Then the mother has the “brilliant” idea of subjecting her young daughter to the dubious pampa-regla (abortifacient) herbal remedies available in Quiapo. The film ends with them on a bus bound for Manila.
Given the film’s worthy advocacy of the right to determine one’s own sexuality and to be left in peace, it is unfortunate that the opportunity was not taken to present a much needed, sobering view of the very real problems which it also depicts, of teen pregnancy, and unprotected sex — both matters which have definitely unfunny consequences. — Menchu Aquino Sarmiento
Read the full review here.

Chelsea Parkplace brings NYC feel to Pampanga township

By Mark Louis F. Ferrolino
Special Features Writer
MEGAWORLD Corp. has officially launched Chelsea Parkplace, its first residential project within its Pampanga township, as part of the company’s plan to bring the live-work-play lifestyle to northern Luzon.
The 12-storey Chelsea Parkplace is a condominium development inspired by the distinctive Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City.
The residential project is set to rise on a 1,858-square-meter (sq.m) lot in Capital Town — Megaworld’s 35.6-hectare integrated urban township in San Fernando City.
Eugene Em Lozano, Megaworld Pampanga’s first vice-president for sales and marketing, said Chelsea Parkplace will be ideally located in the center of the township.
“As a future resident of Chelsea Parkplace, one has the front row seat advantage of seeing the growth and development in this area,” Mr. Lozano said in a press briefing last week.
The condominium has a total of 193 units, all designed with a balcony to give residents a view of the township. At present, nearly 30% of the units have been sold.
Studio units are sized from 29 sq.m to 31 sq.m, while one-bedroom units range from 41 sq.m to 45.5 sq.m, and two-bedroom units span from 67 sq.m to 88 sq.m. The rate per square meter is at P140,000.
Amenities include a retail area on the upper ground floor, swimming pool, events hall, daycare, and fitness center. It will also have a first-of-its-kind speakeasy bar, “The Other Room,” which will serve as an ideal venue for residents to celebrate special occasions.
The Andrew L. Tan-led company is targeting working professionals in their mid-30s to mid-40s as the primary market for this residential project.
“Most of them are based in Makati but they have roots in Pampanga, and also those who live within the Pampanga but wanted to explore different kind of lifestyle. We are bringing a unique lifestyle concept that is not available yet in Central Luzon,” Mr. Lozano said.
“I think we are offering something unique du’n sa mga anak ng mga families na nandu’n sa Pampanga, so they might consider staying there other than living abroad or working in Metro Manila,” he added.

Chelsea Park Place 2
An artist’s rendering of a condo unit at Chelsea Parkplace. — MEGAWORLD CORP.

Megaworld expects to complete the project by 2022. The company might launch another tower next year, depending on the market’s demand.
Mr. Lozano said that living in Chelsea Parkplace, located within Capital Town, will bring the convenience of having well-suited amenities, recreational spaces, unique dining destinations, world-class retail establishments, prime working hubs, and an overall safe and dynamic neighborhood within reach.
Across the condominium will rise the Central Square, where the Casa de Emperador and BPO offices will be located.
A few blocks down will be the Shophouse District, a six-hectare retail space set to become the center of the city’s entrepreneurial ventures.
Megaworld started selling shophouse lots a year ago, and has already sold 99%, according to Mr. Lozano.
“The lots are set to be turned over next year. And we expect the property prices to soar even higher once we are near the completion of the Shophouse District,” Mr. Lozano said.
Events trade hall, outdoor amphitheater, museum, mall, cinema complex, and transportation hub are also set to rise within the township.
Anticipating Capital Town to be a busy township, a 30-meter wide San Fernando Boulevard will be built. This main township road will be equivalent to six lanes, traversing Capitol Boulevard all the way to Jose Abad Santos Avenue (Olongapo-Gapan Road).
Mr. Lozano said that land developments within Capital Town already started last year and construction is already in full swing.
Last year, Megaworld said that it will be investing around P30 billion over the next 10 years to develop the township.

Robinsons Retail posts flat Q3 income

ROBINSONS Retail Holdings, Inc. (RRHI) recorded flat earnings for the third quarter of 2018, amid a double-digit growth in sales during the period.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Monday, the Gokongwei-led retail operator said net income attributable to equity holders of the parent stood at P1.21 billion for the July to September period, just 0.1% higher than what it generated in the same period a year ago.
The company’s net sales delivered a 13.2% increase to P31.36 billion for the quarter, while operating income rose by 7.9% to P1.63 billion.
On a nine-month basis, RRHI’s attributable profit went up by 9.8% to P3.83 billion, following a 10.2% increase in operating income to P4.66 billion during the period.
The company also improved its net sales by 13.1% to P91.82 billion. RRHI’s supermarket segment accounted for bulk of the consolidated net sales at 46.5%, after recording a same-store sales growth (SSSG) of 8.6%.
It noted that SSSG for the entire group was above target at 6.6% by end-September. The specialty stores segment booked an SSSG of 7.8%, do-it-yourself (DIY) segment at 6.1%, convenience stores at 4.5%, drugstores at 2.9%, and department stores at 2.4%.
SSSG measures the growth of a company’s existing stores, and serves as a guide for investors to make sure that the firm’s growth is not solely driven by the opening of new stores.
RRHI attributed the sales growth to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, which in part increased Filipinos’ disposable income.
“High consumption was sustained through the first nine months of 2018, coming from the rise in take-home pay among salaried workers with the TRAIN Law’s implementation at the beginning of the year,” RRHI said.
The company ended the first nine months of the year with a total of 1,778 stores, excluding the franchised branches of The Generics Pharmacy. Of this, 158 were supermarkets, 51 were department stores, 206 were DIY stores, 496 were convenience stores, 499 were drugstores, and 368 were specialty stores.
RRHI’s portfolio includes Robinson’s Supermarket, Robinson’s Department Store, Handyman Do It Best, True Value, Toys R Us, Ministop, Daiso Japan, Costa Coffee, Savers Appliances, and South Star Drug.
The company’s footprint spanned around 1.2 million square meters by end-September, nine percent higher year-on-year.
Shares in RRHI jumped 0.64% or 50 centavos to close at P78.50 each at the stock exchange on Monday. — Arra B. Francia

Hilton Manila highlights sustainable practices

NEWLY-OPENED Hilton Manila is implementing sustainable practices in its operations, as part of the global hospitality company’s commitment to reduce its environmental footprint.
“We are really directed now to reduce our impact on the planet,” Paul Hutton, vice president for operations in South East Asia at Hilton, told reporters at the sidelines of the Hilton Manila’s formal opening last Oct. 24.
To reduce waste, Hilton Manila is limiting the use of plastics in its operations. Instead of plastic straws, the hotel will provide customers with paper straws or metal straws.
Guests are also provided with water in glass bottles, not plastic. The hotel will also have an in-house water facility that will help them promote the reuse of the glass bottles.
Also, the Do-Not-Disturb and Make-Up-Room signs are already electrically installed in each room. Guests would just have to press the switch for either of these.
“There are a lot of usable commodities that we are very conscious of. …We have taken out nearly every piece of plastic that we can… there are glass bottles in the room and certainly are far more recyclable and friendly products… and within weeks we will start bottling our water… This is a pilot program that Hilton is running within the Southeast Asian region to ultimately remove the small plastic amenity,” Simon McGrath, general manager of Hilton Manila, told reporters at the same event.
Hilton Manila still uses some plastic items, such as the Nespresso machine capsules and toiletry items.
Also, Hilton Manila is looking into recycling used hotel soap, in partnership with Don Bosco.
“The soap that we use in hotel rooms that we use once and then we check out… We are about to kick off a program… with Don Bosco… in regards with working with them on soap recycling. Providing them with the used soap, which is then cleaned and repurposed,” Mr. McGrath said.
Hilton Manila, located within Resorts World Manila, formally opened last week, marking the global company’s entry in the Philippines.
The hotel has 357 guest rooms and suites, with sizes ranging from 40 square meter (sq.m.) to the 180 sq.m. suite. Rooms will have Hilton’s signature Serenity bed, and a digital key “direct-to-room” technology that allows guests to use their devices as their room key, exclusive for Hilton Honors members.
Hilton Manila also has three dining outlets, two bars, meetings and events spaces, ballroom, resort-style free-form pool, fitness center, and a kids’ play area.
The said eco-friendly hotel was developed by Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., a joint venture of Andrew L. Tan’s Alliance Global Group, Inc. and Genting Hong Kong Limited. Travellers International is the owner and operator of Resorts World Manila. — V.M.P. Galang

Rainbow bright

By Menchu Aquino Sarmiento
Movie Review
Billie and Emma
Directed by Samantha Lee
HOW refreshing it is to encounter a coming of age film without the usual adolescent angst and anger! More so when the teen protagonists, both high school seniors, are one committed butch lesbian (Isabelle C. Santos, aka Billie, played by Zar Donato) and the bi-curious, and very accomplished flirt Emma (Gabby Padilla) who cope with their respective personal crisis with humor and grace.
Billie has been exiled to provincial San Isidro, until the minor scandal of her carrying on openly with a classmate in her old school in Manila, and her father’s subsequent rejection of her, blow over. She is temporarily under the care of her maternal aunt Kate Castro (Cielo Aquino), the religion teacher at St. Gerard’s, an exclusive girls’ school where Billie is now a transferee. This creates the opportunity for snarkily pointed classroom exchanges, more like a gay rights debate, between the aunt and her headstrong niece about Gospel teachings on homosexuality and the like.
Apart from the occasionally heavy-handed propaganda for gay rights, there are many light-heartedly delightful scenes of innocent high school fun: playing F.L.A.M.E.S. and Chinese jackstones, making an alphabetical list of the pogi-est boys locally available, learning responsible parenthood by having the girls take care of a raw egg “baby” with a drawn-on human face, and the small town talent show.
Filmmaker Samantha Lee wears her queer advocacy with pride. A copy of Rubyfruit Jungle, the 45-year-old seminal lesbian text by Rita Mae Brown, is a prominent prop in several scenes. The maverick Billie with her butch bob haircut and Doc Martens boots, keeps the book by her bedside, reading it constantly like the Holy Bible. Her closeted aunt gets intrigued and reads it too. She has an epiphany about acknowledging her own queerness, and her niece’s as well, which deepens their familial bond. Immediate family members’ gentle, non-judgmental responses to queerness are the preferred alternative to the conventionally expected harsh hysterics, violent degradation, even rejection with eviction, which usually stem from denial, shame and fear. But even her classmates’ anxiety over Billie’s lesbianism being contagious is only annoying, even amusing, rather than threatening.
Lee may also be acknowledging Rubyfruit Jungle’s inspiration on her film’s plot. In the novel, the protagonist Molly loses her college scholarship when she is outed and expelled for “moral reasons.” These parallel Billie’s exile, and Emma’s losing any chance that her conservative Catholic school will endorse her for a college scholarship when her pregnancy is revealed.
The book-smart Emma and her feckless teenage boyfriend Miguel (Ryle Santiago) were too dumb to use condoms, the most easily available contraceptive device, or even to practice natural contraception. For the last 45 years, exclusive Catholic girls’ schools (in Manila at least) have taught students in the intermediate grades and high school, how to plot one’s menstrual cycle and how to use the Billings Method as part of health education. The honor student Emma never even considered researching on these in the school library (the film is set in 1990s) for her own protection until it’s too late. She herself was the only child of a teenage mother (Beauty Gonzales) who cares more about using her daughter to sell lip gloss than about preparing her so that she doesn’t make the same mistakes.
If this is the film’s way of conveying the message that becoming a teenage mother is plain stupid, then this mother and daughter tandem succeed. Geneticists have found that intelligence predominantly passes through the mother. When Emma goes to the barangay health center for a pregnancy test, her mom decides she’d rather stand outside preening for passers-by along the street, rather than support her daughter during her first OB-GYN exam. Pre-natal care never comes into the picture. Then the mother has the “brilliant” idea of subjecting her young daughter, already past her first trimester, to the dubious pampa-regla (abortifacient) herbal remedies available in Quiapo. The film ends with them on a bus bound for Manila.
Given the film’s worthy advocacy of the right to determine one’s own sexuality and to be left in peace, it is unfortunate that the opportunity was not taken to present a much needed, sobering view of the very real problems which it also depicts, of teen pregnancy, and unprotected sex — both matters which have definitely unfunny consequences. The predominantly youthful theater audience was audibly thrilled every time Billie and Emma made out — just as though they were any other hetero-normative love team. After the film, clumps of young people were overheard in the cinema’s lobby, excitedly wondering what it might be like to be gay. Also, weren’t both actors just so, so cute.
MTRCB Rating: R-13

Gov’t fully awards T-bills

THE GOVERNMENT made another full award of the Treasury bills (T-bill) it auctioned off on Monday, with rates on the longest tenor slipping as investors expect inflation to start stabilizing.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) borrowed P15 billion as planned at its T-bills auction yesterday. The offer was oversubscribed, with total tenders totalling P26.985 billion, climbing from the P24.51 billion recorded at last week’s offering.
Broken down, the government borrowed P4 billion as planned via the 91-day tenor yesterday as bids by investors amounted to P5.936 billion. The average rate rose just 2.7 basis points (bp) to 4.979% from the 4.952% logged in the previous auction.
The Treasury also made a full award of the 182-day papers as it accepted P5 billion as planned out of offers totalling P7.534 billion. The average yield likewise rose 10 bps to 6.159% from last week’s 6.059%.
For the 364-day T-bills, the BTr borrowed the programmed P6 billion out of the P13.515 billion tendered by banks and other financial institutions. The strong demand caused the average rate to slide 7.9 bps to 6.41% from the 6.489% tallied in the previous offering.
At the secondary market prior to the auction, the three- and six-month papers were quoted at 5.83261% and 6.19367%, respectively, according to the Bankers Association of the Philippines’ new set of benchmarks, the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL) Reference Rates — which replaced the Philippine Dealing System Treasury Reference Rates — while the one-year debt was quoted at 6.5951%, according to the Treasury.
At the close of the trading, the BVAL rates for the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day papers stood at 5.926%, 6.276% and 6.586%, respectively.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said it made a full award as bids stabilized yesterday.
“We saw the bids more or less hopefully have stabilized coming from where they were before [at] 30-50 bps increase in the auction submissions,” Ms. De Leon told reporters on Monday. “[It probably came] from the statement that more or less inflation has stabilized last September.”
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier indicated that inflation has peaked in the third quarter of the year and is expected to begin moderating.
Monetary Board Member Felipe M. Medalla said the proposed rice tariffication law — which would remove price import quotas set by the government and allow any private firm to source the crop abroad — will shave 0.7 percentage points of the headline inflation print.
Meanwhile, BSP Assistant Governor Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. said the proposal to suspend the scheduled P2 per liter fuel excise tax in 2019 would also reduce inflation by 0.2 percentage points.
Inflation hit a fresh nine-year high of 6.7% in September, bringing the year-to-date print to five percent.
“Going into next year, they see that possibly, inflation is going to be 4.3% on average,” Ms. De Leon said, adding that the rice tariffication as well as the suspension of additional excise tax on fuel would bring the inflation within the target band.
Meanwhile, a bond trader said the results of the T-bills auction were in line with expectations.
“I guess investors are just looking for higher yields, that’s why the demand was on the one-year [tenor],” the trader said in a phone interview.
The Treasury is raising P270 billion from the domestic market this quarter through auctions of securities, offering P180 billion in T-bills and another P90 billion in Treasury bonds.
The government plans to borrow P888.23 billion this year from local and foreign sources to fund its budget deficit, which is capped at 3% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Meanwhile, Ms. De Leon said the BTr is “closely looking” at the structure of floating-rate notes as it is talking to market makers to monitor the appetite for the instrument.
“We are really interested to be able to issue in the market. We are already talking with our market makers about the appetite, structure, benchmarks and also in terms of the infrastructure in their own systems,” she said.
An FRN or floater is a debt instrument that carries a varying interest rate, depending on a benchmark. However, it yields lower returns compared with fixed-rate papers of the same maturity date.
Ms. De Leon added that the Treasury still does not have any timeline for the issuance, although it is “looking at around two years in terms of the tenor.” — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

PT&T says it no longer has NTC obligations

PHILIPPINE Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) said it has paid all its liabilities with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), ahead of its participation in the bidding for a new major telco player next month.
In a statement on Monday, PT&T said it received a certification from the NTC that it has no uncontested obligations to the Commission as of Oct. 1 — a requirement in the bidding’s selection terms.
“PT&T already paid P20.57 million spectrum users’ fee to NTC from 2003 to 2018 and the uncontested P10.27 million SRF (supervision and regulation fee) for 2018,” the listed firm said.
In the final selection terms for the third telco player bidding, the NTC said among the outstanding liabilities that a prospective participant must settle are the SUF and SRF, including penalties, surcharges and interests.
“Since embarking on its revival, PT&T has been clearing the way to meet all the pre-qualification requirements to bid for the New Major Player or the 3rd Telco bid,” PT&T president and chief executive officer James G. Velasquez said in the statement.
“With its long history of providing telecommunications services to the Filipino people across the nation, we believe we can meet all the stringent requirements to participate, this recent certification is another proof point of that,” he added.
However, the listed company still has an ongoing appeal on its almost P500-million fee from the NTC for SRF from 2002 to 2017.
The case is currently with the Court of Appeals, but Mr. Velasquez earlier said it will not affect the company’s participation in the third telco bidding as it is a contested liability.
PT&T is one of nine companies who have purchased the bid documents from the NTC since it was made available on Oct. 8.
Deadline for submission of bids is scheduled on Nov. 7, as the government eyes awarding the third telco player before Christmas. — Denise A. Valdez

PHirst Park Homes plans 15 communities in 5 years

PHIRST PARK Homes Inc. is planning to launch 15 master planned communities in Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) within the next five years.
In a statement, the affordable housing unit of Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) said it is focused on acquiring land in areas where the government is undertaking flagship infrastructure projects.
“This is a top criterion in our area selection process as it ensures ease of access for our future residents. It also opens more employment and livelihood opportunities for them as major infrastructure sites spur economic growth,” Ricky M. Celis, president of PHirst Park Homes, was quoted as saying in a statement.
PHirst Park Homes is planning to launch new projects in the provinces of Laguna, Bulacan, and Cavite in the near term. This would allow the property firm to take advantage of the growth in the areas where there are several infrastructure projects.
Among these projects are the Skyway Stage 3, the 23-kilometer Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 7, Bulacan International Airport, Philippine National Railway North 2, the Bulacan Bulk Water Project, and the Cavite Laguna Expressway.
“Such projects are a boon to families who wish to enjoy the lower cost of living in the provinces while maintaining their jobs or businesses in the city centers of Metro Manila,” said Loren Sales, vice president for customer management of PHirst Park Homes.
PHirst Park Homes is the joint venture firm of CPG and Mitsubushi Corporation that caters first home buyers. Currently, it has communities in Tanza, Cavite, and Lipa City, Batangas.
PHirst Park Homes Lipa offers around 1,800 units on a 20-hectare property. It will be developed in three phases, with the first phase to include about half of the total housing units.
Among its amenities are a village clubhouse, swimming pools for adults and children, an open-air cinema, and playgrounds. This is in keeping with CPG’s concept of a home-in-a-park experience for PHirst Park Homes Lipa. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Album, mall shows to reignite interest in children’s games, music

IN THE days before television and video games, children played outdoors — patintero, tagu-taguan (hide and seek), and tumbang preso. Those who preferred to stay indoors, could spend time with a game of jackstones, sungka, and joining clapping games with siblings or neighbors.
It was with the notion of reintroducing traditional songs and Filipino games to the youth that lead to Ayala Malls’ launch of Awit at Laro, a project celebrating music and culture, on Oct. 25 at The Gallery in Greenbelt 5.
The project, led by singer Gary Valenciano and interior designer Bambi Mañosa, aims to raise funds for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Tukod Foundation, an organization that supports the advancement of Filipino art and design; and the Shining Light Foundation, Inc., a non-stock, nonprofit corporation that provides resources pastors, church workers, and the underprivileged.
In 2015, interior designer Bambi Mañosa mounted LARO, an art exhibit for the Creative Kids Studio. According to Ms. Mañosa’s statement on the official Awit at Laro website, “The kids were taught how to play patintero, piko, jolens, and tumbang preso, so they could understand the art and designs they had to create. Not only were they able to create beautiful pieces, but they actually enjoyed playing the games of their parents’ youth.”
It was the suggestion of Ms. Mañosa’s father, newly awarded National Artist for Architecture Francisco Mañosa, to add music to the art exhibit turned fund-raising campaign.
This year, various artists, including UNICEF national ambassador Gary Valenciano, recorded an album with 20 tracks — 10 traditional Filipino songs and 10 songs about children’s games.
To get a free download of the album, one must first get a copy of the accompanying songbook (P899) which has a QR code which leads to the redemption of the digital song pack.
The songbooks will be available at a series of Awit at Laro concerts which will tour 21 Ayala malls throughout the country from Nov. 3 to Dec. 22.
Directed by Paolo Valenciano, the shows will feature his father Gary Valenciano, Steps Dance Studio, and artists who contributed to the album, including Kiana Valenciano, Jona, Gab V, Yeng Constantino, and Joey Ayala.
“The concerts in the malls, that’s anything goes. It will be the singing of the songs of Awit at Laro. [I think] there will be games that will be played also to make people experience it whether they know it or not,” Gary Valenciano told members of the press shortly after the launch.
For more information on the album, songbook, and mall tour, visit www.awitatlaro.com. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

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