Century Properties’ PHirst targets to deliver 10,000 units by mid-2025

May 1, 2025 | 12:07 am

PHIRST PARK HOMES, Inc., the affordable housing brand of Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG), said it aims to turn over around 10,000 units to first-time homebuyers by mid-year.

“As of April 2025, PHirst has successfully completed the construction of around 15,000 units across its various projects nationwide,” CPG said in an e-mail statement on Wednesday.

“Following its construction milestone, by mid-2025 PHirst is looking into successfully handing over more than 10,000 homes to first-time homeowners,” it added.

The housing units are located across PHirst’s 27 active projects in Luzon and the Visayas, particularly in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon Province, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, and Bacolod City.

PHirst Park Homes is the first-home (affordable housing) brand developed by PHirst Park Homes, Inc., a joint venture between CPG and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. CPG is known for upscale developments such as Trump Tower at Century City and Azure Urban Resort Residences, while its partner, Mitsubishi Corp., is one of Japan’s largest conglomerates with diverse business interests spanning finance, infrastructure, and consumer goods.

PHirst said it established its own water services management group, branded as PH20, to help ensure the efficient operation of water facilities and infrastructure in PHirst communities.

The PH20 team began operations in four PHirst subdivisions: PHirst Park Homes Batulao in Batangas, PHirst Sights Bay in Laguna, PHirst Park Homes Tayabas in Quezon, and PHirst Park Homes Balanga in Bataan.

“Through our in-house construction capabilities and water services management group, we not only ensure that we provide quality homes but also enable our residents to experience being part of thriving communities and elevated living standards,” PHirst President Ricky M. Celis said.

CPG also noted its planned expansion efforts through its in-house precast and cast-in-place construction divisions, operating under the PHirst-Build brand.

“To date, PHirst-Build covers various projects in Batangas, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, and Bacolod, and will continue its expansion into more locations nationwide as the company responds to the growing demand for housing with a variety of sizes and design options.”

CPG reported a 31% increase in net income to P2.44 billion for 2024, up from P1.86 billion in 2023, driven by strong performance in both its premium residential and affordable housing segments.

The company’s revenue rose by 15% to P14.64 billion.

Its first-home segment generated P9.9 billion in revenue, a 34% increase from P7.4 billion the previous year. Its premium residential projects contributed P3 billion, while leasing and property management operations brought in P1.31 billion and P464 million, respectively.

Total assets grew by 3% to P55.9 billion, while interest-bearing debt declined by 16%.

Shares of CPG ended flat at P0.64 on Thursday. — B.M.D. Cruz

SMIC sees resilience amid global trade uncertainties

May 1, 2025 | 12:06 am

sm-city-tanza-solar-panel — PHILIPPINE STAR FILE PHOTO

THE SY FAMILY’S listed conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) said it is confident it can sustain stable business performance, driven by strong consumer spending, despite market volatility and global trade uncertainties caused by the US government’s reciprocal tariffs.

“Consumption accounts for over 70% of gross domestic product (GDP), while exports of goods account for only about 15–16%, and manufacturing accounts for less than 30%. This structure gives us a certain amount of protection. We are less vulnerable,” SMIC Chairman Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting in Pasay City on Wednesday.

“We may be less open than other countries. But in this current environment, it provides us some insulation from potential adverse effects from external developments,” he added.

SMIC President and Chief Executive Officer Frederic C. DyBuncio said during the meeting that easing inflation and a robust economy would create new opportunities.

“Our focus on consumer growth mirrors the over 70% of GDP driven by consumer spending. We are a strong group with leading businesses, a trusted brand and heritage, with a very conservative balance sheet, and we have world-regarded leadership,” he said.

“Our geographic expansion strategy — serving more communities and customers — follows the growth of the country,” he added.

For 2025, SMIC is allocating P115 billion for capital expenditures, higher than the P100-billion capex spent last year. SMIC’s core business interests are in retail, banking, and property.

In the renewable energy segment, Mr. DyBuncio said SMIC, through subsidiary Philippine Geothermal Production Co., Inc., has secured five new concessions from the Department of Energy to grow its geothermal portfolio.

“We’re exploring each one of them. But it takes time to be able to drill and be able to make things commercially viable. We actually purchased our own drilling rig, which arrived last September. We bought the rig from Houston,” he said.

“We will continue to drill and really explore geothermal fields to be able to help the country’s renewable drive,” he added.

Meanwhile, SMIC shareholders elected seasoned executive Marife B. Zamora as an independent director on Wednesday. She replaced Tomasa H. Lipana, who completed her maximum term as an independent director.

Ms. Zamora is the second female independent director of SMIC, joining Lily K. Gruba.

“I’m truly honored to join SM’s board. SM mirrors the energy and growth journey of the Philippine economy. I look forward to contributing to a growing company deeply committed to independence and strong corporate governance,” Ms. Zamora said.

Ms. Zamora has decades of leadership experience in telecommunications, insurance, and business process outsourcing.

She is also a known advocate for women in technology and leadership, serving on the Board of Trustees of the FTW (For The Women) Foundation and as co-founder of the Filipina CEO Circle, a network of women business leaders driving positive change.

SMIC shares rose by 1.75% or P15 to P870 per share on Wednesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Offline-first database servers to help PHL companies be disaster-ready

May 1, 2025 | 12:05 am

Flood-rain-commuters — PHILIPPINE STAR/MIGUEL DE GUZMAN

COUCHBASE, INC. is optimistic about its growth in the Philippine market with its offline-first database server that can help enterprises ensure uninterrupted operations during disasters.

“The Philippines sits in a very interesting position geographically because it has a lot of disaster disruptions during the year, which has significant impact on businesses,” Genie Yuan, regional vice-president for Asia Pacific at Couchbase, told BusinessWorld in a virtual interview.

“Our strategy is very simple going into the Philippine market and anchoring on a mission-critical application for the enterprise.”

The Philippines, which experiences an average of 20 typhoons every year, remained the world’s most disaster-prone country, according to the 2024 World Risk Index.

In March, the company launched Couchbase Edge Server, an offline-first, lightweight database that provides data access, consolidation, storage, and processing for applications at a low latency.

“There are a number of instances when I’m trying to find some food after a typhoon or a natural disaster, and a lot of shops say, ‘I can pop a generator at the back of the house, but I don’t have internet, I can’t make a transaction’,” Mr. Yuan said.

Many existing edge applications rely solely on cloud databases that are affected by connectivity issues, especially during natural disasters.

Couchbase Edge Server is designed to work in areas without internet connectivity on the edge device, running on resource-constrained infrastructures with as little as one gigabyte RAM (random access memory).

Once connectivity is restored in the area, data will automatically sync back to the enterprises’ cloud or centralized server, the company said.

“Couchbase is designed to have the database embedded on the edge device. This means as long as you have power or the battery that is available on the machine or on the terminal, it will store the data. It will transact. You will have the compute and storage capability,” Mr. Yuan added.

Couchbase Edge Server is built on the Couchbase Lite core engine, which is designed to power artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications. The latter has a vector capability, which can handle localized knowledge bases to avoid “AI hallucinations.”

The edge server is also capable of horizontal scaling, allowing businesses to add as many workloads as they need, according to Mr. Yuan.

Around 65% of enterprises believe that edge solutions will be critical for deploying generative AI applications, Couchbase said, citing its recent survey of over 1,000 companies across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Turkey.

Mr. Yuan said AI adoption among Philippine enterprises is still in its “early stages,” citing challenges related to compliance, costs, and scattered data.

“It is important to understand that AI is not going to happen only in the cloud. AI can happen in multiple locations — from the edge to the intermediate,” he said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

Weaker business units drag AEV profit in Q1

May 1, 2025 | 12:05 am

san-carlos-sun-power,-solar panels — ABOITIZPOWER.COM

LISTED conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) posted a 35% drop in first-quarter (Q1) net income to P3.2 billion from P4.9 billion a year ago due to weaker contributions across its business units.

“While this marks a temporary decline from the previous year, the group’s strategic investments in renewable energy and infrastructure expansion underscore its long-term vision for growth, resilience, and nation-building,” AEV said in a statement on Wednesday.

Among its business units, power had the largest net income contribution at 62%, followed by food and beverage at 35%.

Net income contributions from the financial services, real estate, and infrastructure businesses were at 17%, -1%, and -13%, respectively.

“While revenues slightly dipped due to lower power selling prices, this reflects favorable cost trends — particularly in fuel and supply. Our focus remains on the quality of earnings, not just topline growth,” AEV President and Chief Executive Officer Sabin M. Aboitiz said.

“Looking to 2025, we see even more opportunities to create value for our shareholders and contribute to national development,” he added.

Net income contribution from power unit Aboitiz Power Corp. fell by 39% to P2.5 billion from P4.2 billion a year earlier.

Beneficial earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization dropped by 8% to P15.1 billion due to lower spot market prices and the upfront, scheduled outages of the Pagbilao, Therma Visayas, Inc., and GNPower Mariveles Energy Center plants.

The banking unit Union Bank of the Philippines contributed P702.3 million in net income, down by 28% from P978.3 million a year ago. Revenue rose by 8% to P19.4 billion on higher net interest income and growth in consumer loans.

Real estate subsidiary Aboitiz Land, Inc. recorded a P58.3-million consolidated net loss, a reversal from the P280.3-million net income a year earlier, due to lower sales and higher forfeitures.

Net income contribution from the food and beverage segment rose by 54% to P1.4 billion, driven by profitability gains, margin and volume growth in the flour and agribusiness segments, and full contributions from Coca-Cola Europacific Aboitiz Philippines, Inc. (CCEAP).

Companies under the segment include CCEAP, Pilmico Foods Corp., Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corp., and Pilmico International Pte. Ltd.

Meanwhile, infrastructure unit Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc. recorded a P207-million net loss due to higher interest expense from increased debt availments for its expansion.

The conglomerate’s share in Republic Cement & Building Materials, Inc.’s loss grew by 48% to P338.1 million on lower sales volume and selling prices due to weak demand.

AEV earmarked P105 billion in capital expenditure this year, of which P78.1 billion will go to the expansion of its renewable energy business.

AEV shares retreated by 2.4% or 80 centavos to P32.50 apiece on Wednesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Term deposit yields end mixed

May 1, 2025 | 12:05 am

YIELDS on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) term deposits ended mixed on Wednesday following the Treasury’s recent issuance of new 10-year benchmark bonds and as the offering was undersubscribed.

The central bank’s term deposit facility (TDF) attracted bids amounting to P91.654 billion on Wednesday, below the P100 billion placed on the auction block and the P162.305 billion seen a week ago for a P140-billion offer. The BSP awarded just P91.154 billion in deposits as both tenors went undersubscribed.

Broken down, tenders for the seven-day papers reached only P42.526 billion on Wednesday, lower than the P50-billion auctioned off by the central bank. This was also below the P78.059 billion in bids for the P70-billion offer seen the previous week. The central bank awarded only P42.026 billion in one-week papers.

Accepted yields ranged from 5.455% to 5.6%, a slightly higher band compared with the 5.45% to 5.585% recorded a week ago. This caused the average rate of the one-week deposits to increase by 1.2 basis points (bps) to 5.5642% from 5.5522% previously.

Meanwhile, bids for the 14-day term deposits amounted to P49.128 billion on Wednesday, lower than the P50-billion offering and the P84.246 billion in tenders for the P70 billion placed on the auction block last week. The BSP accepted all bids submitted for the tenor.

Accepted bids carried rates from 5.53% to 5.7%, slightly narrower than the 5.52% to 5.7% margin recorded a week ago. With this, the average rate for the two-week deposits declined by 1.62 bps to 5.6176% from the 5.6338% logged in the prior auction.

The BSP has not auctioned off 28-day term deposits for more than four years to give way to its weekly offerings of securities with the same tenor.

The term deposits and the BSP bills are used by the central bank to mop up excess liquidity in the financial system and to better guide market rates.

“The latest BSP TDF auction yields were mixed after the recent 10-year local Treasury note issuance siphoned off some of the excess peso liquidity from the financial system,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

The government raised a total of P300 billion from its offering of new 10-year fixed-rate Treasury notes (FXTN), 10 times the initial P30-billion program. The issuance was listed on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.’s fixed-income board on Monday.

The Bureau of the Treasury borrowed an initial P135 billion from the benchmark papers at the rate-setting auction on April 15 and held a public offer that ended on April 23.

The notes fetched a coupon rate of 6.375%. Accepted bid yields ranged from 6% to 6.4%, resulting in an average rate of 6.286%.

The FXTN offer was held under a new issuance format targeting institutional investors like corporates, cooperatives, trust funds, retirement funds, and provident funds.

Mr. Ricafort added that TDF yields were mixed as global markets remain volatile amid the ongoing US tariff policy developments.

Risks are high that the global economy will slip into recession this year, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll, in which scores said US President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs have damaged business sentiment, Reuters reported.

Just three months ago, the same group of economists covering nearly 50 economies had expected the global economy to grow at a strong, steady clip.

But Mr. Trump’s push to reshape world trade by imposing tariffs on all US imports has sent shockwaves through financial markets, wiping out trillions of dollars in stock market value, and shaken investors’ confidence in US assets, including the dollar, as a safe haven.

Showing unusual unanimity, none of the more than 300 economists polled April 1-28 said tariffs had a positive impact on business sentiment, with 92% saying “negative.” Only 8% said “neutral,” mostly from India and other emerging economies.

Three-quarters of economists cut their 2025 global growth forecast, bringing the median to 2.7% from 3% in a January poll. The International Monetary Fund was a tad higher at 2.8%.

Asked about the risk of a global recession this year, 60% — 101 of 167 — said it was high or very high. Sixty-six said it was low, including four who said very low. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson with Reuters

Kiwami reopens with new concepts

May 1, 2025 | 12:05 am

KIWAMI-ATC-ARCHITECTURE-36 — KIWAMI’S new look

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KIWAMI: JAPANESE MASTER Kitchens in Alabang Town Center (ATC) is back after a touch-up and expansion.

The renovation has transformed the food hall’s interiors into those of a traditional Japanese house, complete with an autumnal tree by the entrance, wooden frames and furniture, and warmly lit lanterns. Most importantly, they’ve added concepts that are new to the Alabang branch of Kiwami — contemporary sushi handrolls by Koyo and meals for sharing called Hibachi Large Plates.

“This is a culmination of all our learnings from customers the last three years. We realized there were gaps in our menu. We didn’t have sushi and we didn’t have large plates,” said Nicole Concepcion, product manager for The Standard Hospitality Group (SHG), which brings in Japanese specialties to the Philippines.

“People want the ambiance. They want to dine together as a family and share dishes. That’s why we created Koyo, the perfect appetizer, and Hibachi, providing meals for sharing,” Ms. Concepcion explained.

The Koyo sushi handroll concept was developed by New York-based chef Mark Manaloto. At the reopening of Kiwami ATC on April 21, we got to try two newly developed handheld roll flavors. The unagi tamago (eel with egg) wrap was noticeably fresh and mildly sweet in flavor, winning over those of us who weren’t usually unagi fans. As with all good sushi, the nori seaweed had a crisp and firm texture.

The new chirashi handheld roll is a play on the Japanese-style rice bowl, with raw fish and vegetables scattered on top. Koyo’s take on it contains bits of salmon, tuna, snapper, tamago, salmon roe, and shrimp, with the nori sheet encrusted with sesame seeds. It’s full of color, flavor, and love for seafood, grounded by a delicious kimizu (egg and rice vinegar) sauce.

“I get exposed to things in New York, the mecca of food in the US, then I develop my own stuff and bring it here,” said Mr. Manaloto, on how he comes up with new flavors. “Sometimes it’s a little too advanced, so we [at SHG] collaborate to kinda meet in the middle with the Filipino market, to capture the Filipino palate.”

He added that Koyo sources fish both from Japan and from within the Philippines so that the price range is not too expensive. However, his dream is “to bring New York fishermen’s sustainable methods of processing fish, which they learned from Japan, to the Philippines.”

As for Koyo’s sushi flavors, Mr. Manaloto teased that more items will be introduced at Kiwami’s opening in Mall of Asia (MOA) later this year. “There’s constant development. We’ll have new stuff by the time Kiwami MOA opens.”

The April 21 reopening in ATC also saw a launch of Hibachi Large Plates, this time a partnership between SHG and Sydney-based chefs Max Smith and Douglas Barker. The grilled meat options, ideal for enjoying with friends and family, include charcoal chicken, pork chop, blue marlin, and kampachi (longfin yellowtail).

What was new on the sharing menu was the hanger steak. The medium-well beef slab was an instant hit for the tables that ordered it, the black garlic miso sauce topped with ginger vinaigrette-soaked leeks naturally complementing the Japanese white rice. The protein itself was cooked to perfection.

The concept of Kiwami is to bring various Japanese kitchens, each with its own specialty dish, under one roof. Aside from Koyo and Hibachi, the other offerings are Yabu, known for katsu; Ippudo, serving ramen; Hannosuke, experts at tempura; and Hokkaido Soft Cream, providing soft-serve ice cream for dessert.

On what makes it different from the basic food hall, Ms. Concepcion said, “We try to give customers the best dining experience possible. You can order anything but you don’t have to line up at each kitchen separately like at a food hall. You can sit down and order.”

“It actually all started because my dad was obsessed with this idea of having all the best of Japanese cuisine in one place,” she said. Her father, John Concepcion, known for being the longtime managing director of the Selecta ice cream brand, now leads SHG as its chief executive officer.

“For me, what makes Kiwami so amazing is that it shows our dedication to quality and consistency,” said Ms. Concepcion.

She added that this dedication will continue with the opening of the MOA branch by the middle of 2025. “You can expect another really beautiful space there,” she said.

For now, Kiwami: Japanese Master Kitchens has two branches, in Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa City, and in Bonifacio High Street Central, Taguig City. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

Metrobank books higher Q1 net profit

May 1, 2025 | 12:04 am

METROPOLITAN Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) saw its net profit rise by 2.13% year on year in the first quarter on the back of strong growth in its fee and trading income and the sustained expansion of its lending business.

The Ty-led bank booked an attributable net income of P12.253 billion in the three months ended March, up from P11.997 billion in the same period last year, it said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

This translated to a return on average equity of 12.85% and a return on average assets of 1.4%.

“Our first-quarter performance keeps us on track in achieving our medium-term growth strategies even as global uncertainties continue to persist. Our strong capitalization and healthy portfolio give us and our clients the assurance on our ability to navigate the changing economic landscape,” Metrobank President Fabian S. Dee said.

The bank’s net interest income went up by 2.37% to P29.38 billion in the first quarter from P28.695 billion in the same period last year amid sustained loan growth. Interest income increased by 5.4% to P45.09 billion, while interest and finance charges rose by a faster 11.58% to P15.71 billion.

Net interest margin stood at 3.62% at end-March, down from 4% a year prior.

“Metrobank’s gross loans continued to expand substantially, rising by 16.1% year on year on strong performance across all segments. Commercial loans grew by 16.1%, driven by the sustained rise in corporate capital expenditures. Consumer loans portfolio similarly grew at a robust pace of 16%, driven by auto loans and gross credit card receivables, which jumped 21.4% and 17.9% year on year, respectively,” the bank said.

Despite the growth of its lending business, nonperforming loans (NPL) accounted for just 1.6% of Metrobank’s loan book at end-March, inching down from 1.66% a year ago.

It also set aside P2.61 billion in loan loss provisions in the period, with NPL cover at 150.9%.

Meanwhile, the bank’s non-interest income rose by 31.86% year on year to P8.68 billion in the quarter.

Income from service charges, fees and commissions increased by 10.51% to P4.29 billion, supported by its expanding consumer business, Metrobank said.

Net gains from trading, securities and foreign exchange gains also surged to P2.63 billion in the first quarter from P683 million a year prior.

On the other hand, the bank’s operating expenses increased by 6.96% to P19.25 billion from P18 billion due to higher manpower and miscellaneous costs. This resulted in a cost-to-income ratio of 50.84%.

Metrobank’s deposits stood at P2.23 trillion at end-March, with 64.4% of the total being low-cost current and savings account or CASA deposits.

Its loans-to-deposit ratio was at 82.5% in the first quarter, up from 67.07% a year ago.

The bank’s total consolidated assets expanded by 9.1% year on year to P3.48 trillion at end-March.

Total equity was at P377.19 billion. Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 15.4% and common equity Tier 1 ratio was at 14.7%. Liquidity ratio was at 45.08%.

The bank and its subsidiaries had 962 branches, 1,301 on-site automated teller machines (ATMs) and 975 off-site ATMs as of March 31.

Metrobank’s shares surged by P4.70 or 6.51% to close at P76.90 apiece on Wednesday. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

Fujifilm launches instax WIDE Evo camera in PHL

May 1, 2025 | 12:04 am

FUJIFILM PHILIPPINES, Inc. last week launched its latest hybrid instant camera, the instax WIDE Evo, in the country.

The instax WIDE Evo, priced at P22,599, was officially unveiled over the weekend with an exhibit at the Glorietta Activity Center featuring works of Filipino photographers Jilson Tiu, Geloy Concepcion, Aya Cabauatan, and Issa Barte, as well as workshops, installations, and photo areas.

The WIDE Evo has a wide-angle lens and comes with a 3.5-inch TFT color LCD screen at the rear to allow users to review their shots before printing. It can also print photos from users’ smartphones via the Direct Print function.

It features 10 lens effects and 10 film styles that can be used simultaneously.

“Furthermore, for the first time in the instax series, the lens effects feature a “Degree Control” function, allowing users to finely adjust their photos, such as intensity of light and color gradation in 100 levels, enabling delicate and precise expressions as desired,” Fujifilm Philippines said.

“In addition, the ‘Film Style,’ which frames the photo for a more impressive instax print, and the ‘Wide Angle Mode,’ which allows for a dynamic shot with a wider range, further enhance the appeal of WIDE format film. The combination of these effects results in more than 100,000 possible expressions, making every shot a masterpiece.”

The camera weighs approximately 490 grams and has a body with a black base and silver metallic materials. It is designed similar to an analog film camera, allowing users to select effects using its dials and to print shots via a crank.

It has a 1/3-inch CMOS sensor with primary color filter, f2.4 aperture, automatic switching shutter speed of 1/4 second to 1/8000 second and ISO100 to 1600, and exposure compensation of −2.0 exposure value (EV) to +2.0 EV. It also features a self-timer of up to 10 seconds.

It comes with a built-in lithium-ion battery that is chargeable via USB-C. It also has internal memory, with additional storage available via a microSD or microSDHC memory card.

The WIDE Evo also has a dedicated app that has a Discover Feed function that lets users view images taken with the camera and posted on social media along with the various effects used for these photos. Users can then replicate the combinations on their own cameras via the app. — B.V. Roc

Raslag inks deal to supply 15-MW solar power to Pampanga

May 1, 2025 | 12:04 am

LISTED renewable energy developer Raslag Corp. has entered into a power supply agreement (PSA) with Pampanga I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (PELCO I) to provide 15 megawatts (MW) of electricity for 10 years.

Under the agreement, Raslag will deliver electricity to PELCO I from a portion of the renewable energy generated by its 36.65-MW Raslag-4, the company said in a stock exchange disclosure on Wednesday.

“This partnership aims not only to strengthen the local energy supply but also to reinforce both parties’ commitment to promoting energy security and sustainability in the region,” the company said.

The parties will jointly file an application to seek approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission for the PSA.

In October last year, Raslag energized the solar farm located in the municipality of Magalang in Pampanga. It is designed to produce 53 gigawatt-hours of electricity and power 24,000 homes annually.

Raslag develops, owns, and operates solar power plants to provide utility-scale renewable energy to on-grid customers.

To date, the company has a total installed capacity of 77.84 MW from four facilities in Pampanga. It is currently developing the Raslag 7 and 8 solar projects, with a combined capacity of 140 MW.

Raslag has estimated an investment of up to P37 billion to achieve its goal of expanding its portfolio to 1,000 MW by 2035. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

‘A good cocktail reflects a good life’

May 1, 2025 | 12:04 am

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Tiziano Tasso turns philosophical at The Pen’s bar takeover

APRIL was just one hot day after another, so we were thankful to meet the Pirata Group’s Beverage Director Tiziano Tasso in The Peninsula Manila’s refreshingly cool and elegant The Bar. Mr. Tasso had flown in from Hong Kong for a bar takeover at the hotel on April 25.

Mr. Tasso was a bartender for over 30 years, and his father, a bartender himself, got him started. “I do this for fun,” he said since he now works with one of Hong Kong’s trendiest restaurant groups.

For his takeover at The Bar — sponsored by Volcan Tequila and Hennessy Cognac — Mr. Tasso made four drinks: the Tropical (Hennessy VS, tropical tea cordial, lime juice, palm sugar, and guava foam), Blossoming (Vanilla, Hennessy VS, chocolate-infused Volcan Blanco, white port, lemon juice, and egg), Hennessy Garden (Hennessy VSOP, Timur pepper cordial, eucalyptus essence, and bitters), and The Eruption (Thai rhubarb-infused Volcan Blanco, orange Curacao, pear and peach cordial, lime juice, and bitters).

In keeping with the mixologist’s heritage, the bar chow was decidedly Italian.

The Blossoming, served in a tall glass, proved to be filling and tasted almost nutritious, like a spiked breakfast smoothie. The Tropical was pleasantly fruity, with a taste that reminded one of berries, and felt like a nice poolside cocktail.

The Hennessy Garden was served with some ceremony inside a glass box on a bed of leaves with a bite of chocolate on the side — it was refreshing and mild, but still with a kick, the pepper cordial leaving its trail on all the ingredients. The eucalyptus essence gave it a cooling and slightly medicinal taste, like a nice cup of cool herbal tea.

Finally, the Eruption was a real show: it was served in a little clay pot with basil, but atop it was a bowl of steel wool, lit aflame resulting in an eruption of glowing embers. The drink itself (once the smoking steel wool was removed) proved to be very refreshing; the tickle on your nose from the basil was a pleasant bonus.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COCKTAILS
Mr. Tasso has a few principles when it comes to making drinks: “I think a good cocktail needs to reflect what is a good life — and a good life is a balance of life. If you have too much of anything, even positive things, it’s no good.”

As an Italian in Hong Kong, he gave us an impression of the place and how it influences how he makes his drinks. “Hong Kong, it’s a place of contradictions. It’s beautiful in a way that you have access to nature. It’s very multicultural, but on the other side, it’s quite closed. Local people are very into their own thing. It’s very fast-paced in a way, and very slow in another way,” he explained.

“They don’t drink too much alcohol. There’s an incredible up(take) on zero-alcohol,” he says about his customers. “They really like the idea to have innovation,” he says, adding, “They don’t drink much, but when they do, they want something different; something unique.”

Of the drinks he made for The Pen’s bar takeover that evening he said: “Cognac is very strong and rich. Not many people drink it. So I wanted to have three drinks that are completely different from one another, and give you access to a spirit that is strong.

“You always try to create a story. It’s not just a list of drinks on a piece of paper,” he said.

The first bar takeover this year featured Awarzed Awarra, an Ulan Bator-based mixologist from the Nomad Bar whose drinks for the night of April 9 featured Mongolian vodka and absinthe.

Upcoming bar takeovers at The Pen seem to be hush-hush surprises: the next one will be on June 13, and will feature a female bartender from Japan. The next one will be in August and a final one in October. — Joseph L. Garcia

Canada just got the crisis manager it desperately needed

May 1, 2025 | 12:04 am

Mark-J.-Carney — MARK J. CARNEY, a former central banker and the leader of the Liberal Party. — FLICKR-WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

By Robert Burgess

CANADA’S Liberal Party is projected to win a fourth consecutive national election in a race that largely came down to which party would better stand up to US President Donald Trump. “We are over the shock of American betrayal,” Mark Carney, a former central banker and the leader of the Liberal Party, said in a victory speech early Tuesday morning. “But we should never forget the lessons.”

Indeed, there were many lessons, not the least of which is that Trump’s provocations on tariffs and musings about making Canada the 51^st US state probably would have been easier to laugh off if the country’s leaders had taken steps to shore up its woeful productivity. Generally defined as the amount of output per hours worked, productivity is a bedrock of any strong economy, boosting competitiveness, helping to restrain inflation and raising living standards.

Productivity is Canada’s Achilles heel. It’s so bad that the 1.8% drop in labor productivity in 2023 was the worst among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to an October presentation by Jonathan Barr, senior director at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The poor performance, which carried into 2024, erased all productivity growth since 2017. The Deutsche Bank Trade Weighted Canada Dollar Index, a measure of the nation’s economic performance compared with trading partners, has plunged 9.44% over the past four years. A similar measure for the US dollar surged 11%.

No wonder the OECD predicts that growth in Canada’s gross domestic product per capita will rank last among its member countries over the next 40 years. “A positive change in productivity could be the most significant factor in lifting economic growth, and the prosperity that goes with it,” RBC Capital Markets noted in a recent report.

Luckily for Canada, Carney is more economist than politician. Bloomberg News describes him as “a consummate crisis manager,” having steered the Bank of Canada through the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Bank of England through the UK’s highly disruptive decoupling from the European Union in 2016. (Carney was the chair of Bloomberg, Inc. until January, when he resigned that post to enter politics.)

Comments by Carney on the campaign trail suggest he understands the challenge, promising a capital spending budget that would allocate tens of billions of dollars to investments in productivity-boosting infrastructure. “It’s said there are no atheists in foxholes. There should be no libertarians in a crisis,” Carney said at a news conference in Whitby, Ontario, earlier this month.

More spending is a start, but more is needed. Canada needs to reduce its notorious bureaucracy and the stiff internal trade barriers between provinces that impede the flow of goods, services, and people. It also needs a system to match education and skills with jobs to accommodate its immigrant-fueled population boom. Here, a little could go a long way. RBC notes that businesses in Canada invest about half as much per worker as those in the US, a trend that has only become worse since the 2008-09 global financial crisis. Lower taxes, especially for businesses that embrace worker training, should be an immediate priority.

Carney can also help the cause by adopting a policy championed by Pierre Poilievre, head of the defeated Conservatives, to boost housing in a nation that doesn’t have enough supply by tying municipal grants to a requirement that cities increase home construction by 15% a year. Carney may have no choice given that his party had about 43% of the national vote, falling short of the 172 seats needed for a majority in the House of Commons. This means the government will be forced to work with other parties to pass budgets and other legislation, according to Bloomberg News. Carney is already talking about “working constructively with all parties across parliament.”

Although Canada’s tax burden isn’t bad relative to other advanced economies — with tax revenue amounting to 34.8% of GDP in 2023 as measured by the OECD — it’s meaningfully higher than the US’s 25.2% of GDP. Bringing the tax burden down would go a long way to spurring growth and productivity. It’s not like Canada doesn’t have the fiscal space to accommodate lower taxes, with a budget deficit of around 2% of GDP versus 7% in the US. In its 2025 outlook, the OECD recommended that Canada could make its tax system more growth friendly by switching the burden from direct taxation to indirect and environmental taxes. Canada could also incentivize research and development, which the OECD notes is “a key driver of a country’s innovation capacity.” Carney has already promised to run deeper budget deficits to cut income taxes and grow spending on infrastructure.

Fixing what ails Canada’s economy won’t be easy or quick. But Carney’s credentials and comments about never forgetting “the lessons” suggest he understands the root of the problem.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Trump officials eye changes to Biden’s AI chip export rule, sources say

May 1, 2025 | 12:03 am

NEW YORK — The Trump administration is working on changes to a Biden-era rule that would limit global access to artificial intelligence (AI) chips, including possibly doing away with its splitting the world into tiers that help determine how many advanced semiconductors a country can obtain, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The sources said the plans were still under discussion and warned they could change. But if enacted, removing the tiers could open the door to using US chips as an even more powerful negotiating tool in trade talks.

The regulation, which was issued in January, is aimed at dividing up access to the most advanced AI chips and controlling certain model weights in order to keep the most sophisticated computing power in the United States and among its allies, and away from China and other countries of concern.

The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, as the rule is called, was issued by the US Department of Commerce in January, a week before the end of the administration of former President Joseph R. Biden. Companies must comply with its restrictions starting on May 15.

Currently, the rule has the world divided into three tiers. Seventeen countries and Taiwan in the first tier can receive unlimited chips. Some 120 other countries are in the second tier, which leaves them subject to caps on how many AI chips they can get. And countries of concern like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in the third tier are blocked from the chips.

But Trump administration officials are weighing discarding the tiered approach to access in the rule and replacing it with a global licensing regime with government-to-government agreements, the sources said.

“There are some voices pushing for elimination of the tiers,” Wilbur Ross, who served as Commerce secretary during the first Trump administration, said in an interview on Tuesday. “I think it’s still a work in progress.” He said government-to-government agreements were one alternative.

Such a structure would likely tie in to President Donald J. Trump’s broader trade strategy of making deals with individual countries, one of the sources said. That would make it easier for the US to use access to American-designed chips as leverage in other negotiations.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at a conference in March that he wants to include export controls in trade talks.

Other possible changes include a lower threshold for an exception to licensing. Under the current rule, orders under the equivalent of about 1,700 of Nvidia’s powerful H100 chips do not count toward country caps and only require the government be notified about the order. No license is necessary.

The Trump administration is considering making the cutoff orders under the equivalent of 500 H100 chips, one source said.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department declined comment. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For months, Trump administration officials have suggested they want to make the rule “stronger but simpler,” but at least some experts believe removing the tiers will make the rule more complicated.

Ken Glueck, executive vice president at Oracle, a critic of the current rule, said that the tiers did not make sense, noting that Israel and Yemen were both in the second tier.

“Wouldn’t surprise me they’re going to take a new look at this,” said Mr. Glueck, who said he did not know the Trump administration’s plan but expects the rule to be modified in a significant way.

Oracle and Nvidia were both outspoken in their criticism of the new rule when it was issued in January.

Industry has argued that by limiting access to the chips, countries will buy the technology from China. Some US lawmakers have agreed. Seven Republican senators sent a letter to Mr. Lutnick in mid-April asking for the rule to be withdrawn.

The restrictions would incentivize buyers, especially in Tier 2 countries, to turn to China’s “unregulated cheap substitutes,” the letter said. — Reuters