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Gov’t to borrow less next quarter

By Karl Angelo N. Vidal
Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT plans to borrow P315 billion from the domestic market next quarter through a mix of short and long-term securities, lower than the amount offered in January-March and in last year’s second quarter.
In a memorandum posted on its Web site on Thursday, the Bureau of the Treasury said it will auction off P195 billion in Treasury bills (T-bill) and P120 billion worth of Treasury bonds (T-bond) between April and June.
The planned borrowing next quarter is lower than the P360 billion the government offered in January-March as well as the P325 billion placed on the auction block in last year’s second quarter.
Broken down, the Treasury plans to raise P15 billion per offer through T-bills — P4 billion in 91-day tenor, P5 billion in 182-day debt, and P6 billion in 364-day bills — which will be sold in five auctions in April and four each in May and June.
This quarter, the Treasury offered P20 billion worth of T-bills weekly, divided into P6 billion each for the three- and six-month debt papers and P8 billion for the one-year instruments.
The government will also issue a mix of T-bonds next quarter worth P20 billion per auction. The Treasury will offer 10- and 20-year papers on April 11 and 25, followed by seven- and 10-year notes on May 16 and 30, as well as 20- and seven-year instruments on June 13 and 27.
The state plans to borrow P1.189 trillion in 2019 to help fund its P3.757-trillion budget. Of the amount, 75% will be sourced domestically while the balance will be from foreign creditors.
The national government borrows from local and foreign sources to fund increased spending — especially on infrastructure and social services — and boost economic activity.
Sought for comment, a bond trader said the preference of the Treasury to offer debt papers with longer tenors “will help the yield curve since the issuance for the second quarter is on the long term… Clients would like to lock in the rates in the long end.”
Another trader said that the demand for longer tenors reflects expectations that inflation will be contained within the central bank’s 2-4% target range.
“Given that view, people would rather lock in rates for longer tenors than have a reinvestment risk when you invest on short-term placements,” the trader explained in a mobile phone message.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which sees inflation continue a softening seen since November last year from a nine-year-high 6.7% clocked in September and October, last week trimmed its full-year forecast average for 2019 to three percent from 3.1% previously.
“The inversion of the yield curve is turning out to be a global scenario. Global growth slowdown is triggering demand for safe-haven assets such as bonds,” the second trader added.
The budget deficit is projected to widen to an equivalent of up to 3.2% of gross domestic product in 2019, from a programmed three percent and actual 3.2% last year, to accommodate increased government spending particularly on infrastructure.

February registrations pull down BoI approvals in first two months

THE BOARD of Investments (BoI) — the government’s lead investment promotion agency — saw total value of projects approved drop in February, which one official attributed to high base effects and one economist blamed on “spillover effects” of fast inflation, government moves to change the fiscal incentives system and a generally trying global economic environment.
Preliminary BoI data showed total project cost dropping 95.21% to P3.848 billion in February from P80.309 billion a year ago, with foreign projects nearly halved to P340.33 million from P669.2 million and local ones falling by 95.6% to P3.508 million from P79.64 million.
Total number of projects was halved to 15 from 34, with projected employment down 61.89% to 1,561 jobs from 4,096.
Projects approved last month were led by the Allied Care Experts Medical Center’s P970-million new general hospital in Tacloban City; Pueblo de Oro Development Corp.’s P835.62-million expansion of its low-housing project in San Fernando, Pampanga; Asian Alcohol Corp.’s P824.82-million bioethanol production project in Negros Occidental; Megaworld Corp.’s P338.18-million tourist accommodation, Hotel Lucky Chinatown, in Binondo, Manila; and Cebu Landmasters, Inc.’s P323.18-million low-cost housing project in Cagayan de Oro City.
BoI-approved projects dropped 22.71% to P101.718 billion in this year’s first two months from P131.611 billion a year ago, with local projects down a third to P90.791 billion from P130.909 billion but foreign projects growing more than 15-fold to P10.927 billion from just P702.28 million.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, BoI chairman, said the decline was due to a “timing issue”, as some projects failed to make the monthly cut and were instead credited to March, and high base effects from last year.
He downplayed February’s drop saying: “Ang mahirap kapag, kunyare, four months ka na in a decline — ’yun ang may problema (What will be worrisome would be, for instance, four straight months of decline — that would be a problem).”
In a press release, Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo explained that “We have key projects in the pipeline, particularly in the area of power, that are still undergoing BoI’s rigorous evaluation process on technical and financial aspects; and equally important, on their compliance with requirements for BoI registration.”
“Given the projected investment costs, we are very optimistic of a renewed surge in total approvals in the next months,” he added.
“We remain optimistic of meeting the P1-trillion target set by our chairman… Secretary Ramon Lopez, for BoI this year. It is a timing issue as we cannot and we do not rush project approvals. The BoI makes sure that every peso of approved investments is qualified and is deserving to be registered.”
Sought for comment, Michael L. Ricafort, head of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.’s Economics & Industry Research Division, said in an interview that the decline may have been caused by spillover effects of last year’s high inflation and interest rates “as investors may wait for borrowing/financing costs to go down further before aggressively borrowing again to finance new investments and expansion projects in able to further save on costs.” Other factors included uncertainty from government moves to change investors’ fiscal incentives and muted global economic prospects due to the Sino-US trade war, among others. — Janina C. Lim

PHL resilient to global slowdown — BSP official

THE PHILIPPINES should be able to weather a US recession and global economic slowdown, a senior central bank official told reporters on Thursday, citing scope for monetary authorities and economic planners to sustain rapid domestic-driven growth.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said robust domestic consumption should carry the economy through a potential US recession and an economic slowdown in Europe and China.
Signs of a possible US recession — as borne by inverted US Treasury yield curves as longer tenors fetched lower rates — and of a looming economic slowdown elsewhere have battered financial markets lately.
“The Philippines has sufficient space to address these important global challenges. In the broader sense, the economy continues to be resilient,” Mr. Guinigundo said in a press briefing yesterday.
“The trend of monetary policy is of course towards easing, and many countries with flexibility, I think, are more sanguine about being able to address these challenges.”
The United States Federal Reserve dialled back with dovish signals in last week’s policy meeting, saying it was no longer eyeing rate hikes for the rest of 2019 in order to support US economic activity. A low interest rate environment is expected to support economic activity by encouraging businesses to invest and households to spend.
For the Philippines, Mr. Guinigundo reinforced signals from newly seated Governor Benjamin E. Diokno that the BSP also sees ripening conditions for interest rate cuts.
“Assuming that inflation continued to come down and is firmly entrenched in the 2-4% target of both the BSP and the government, that will provide some flexibility for the monetary authorities to consider easing monetary policy. But of course, this is something that will require careful assessment of the data,” Mr. Guinigundo said.
The BSP kept interest rates wthin the 4.25-5.25% range in its March 21 policy review, saying that monetary authorities need to observe price trends even as inflation has been on a decline since November last year.
From a nine-year peak of 6.7% in September and October last year, inflation slowed in succeeding months to a one-year-low 3.8% in February, the first time in 12 months that the rate returned to the target band.
Mr. Diokno has said that he sees room to ease key rates, even as he noted that the BSP will first have to watch if the slowdown in price increases will be sustained. The BSP now expects full-year inflation to average three percent, a sharp drop from 2018’s 5.2%.
Mr. Guinigundo also said some $82.78-billion reserves and a “flexible” peso exchange rate provide buffers against external shocks, while a healthy, “sustainable” fiscal balance should help sustain overall economic expansion. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

Coal-fired plant classified ‘of national significance’

By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
GNPOWER KAUSWAGAN Ltd. Co. has secured approval from the Energy department for its application to be certified as an energy project of national significance, making it the biggest Mindanao-based coal-fired power plant to enjoy the benefits of an executive order that assures a faster approval process.
“There were some additional NPC (National Power Corp. or Napocor) projects and then a couple of hydro projects,” said Patrick T. Aquino, a director at the Department of Energy (DoE) and head of the Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC) secretariat.
“From the batch of NPC and NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) the Secretary [Alfonso G. Cusi] endorsed one coal power project, several renewable energy projects — there’s solar, there’s hydro,” he said in a chance interview during a forum on disaster risk reduction on Thursday.
Mr. Aquino was not able to give an enumeration of the renewable energy projects that were approved by Mr. Cusi before he left for China with the government’s economic officials.
A certificate of energy project of national significance (CEPNS) entitles project proponents to all the rights and privileges provided for under Executive Order 30 series of 2017, including action on the application within 30 working days.
Certified projects also enjoy presumption of prior approval, that is, they are presumed to have already complied with the requirements and permits from other government permitting agencies.
It will be deemed approved if no action is made five days after the lapse of the 30 working-day period for processing of the application.
GNPower Kauswagan, a project of Ayala-led AC Energy, Inc., is building a four-unit “clean” coal-fired power plant, each with an identical capacity of 138 megawatts (MW) or a total of 552 MW in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Its certification was granted on March 13, 2019.
Based on data from the DoE, the four units of the power plant are set for commercial operation within the year, respectively in May, July, September and October.
The power plant is listed under the DoE’s “committed” projects or those that have closed project financing. It was able to secure a financial arrangement on May 28, 2014, and obtained and signed commitments from several lenders on Dec. 23, 2014. Documents for additional funding were signed on Dec. 17, 2015.
GNPower Kauswagan has also received provisional authority from the Energy Regulatory Commission for its power supply agreements with 20 participating electric cooperatives.
In January, up to 32 small capacity diesel-fired power plant projects by Napocor and 29 projects by NGCP were issued certification by the EICC, an interagency panel led by representatives from the DoE.
The EICC was created pursuant to EO 30, which was issued on June 28, 2017, in order to spearhead and coordinate efforts to harmonize, integrate and streamline the regulatory processes and relevant forms in the development of nationally significant energy investments.

iflix’ new original movie to be streamed on Twitter

ASIAN video-on-demand (VOD) service iflix has finally launched Mystified, the company’s first foray into creating original content from the Philippines, with a special arrangement for it to be streamed on Twitter tonight.
The fantasy film, directed by Mark Reyes, is about four sorceress played by Maria Izadora “Iza” Calzado, Ana Karylle Tatlonghari-Yuzon, Rosemarie Joy “Diana Zubiri” Garcia-Smith, and Margaret Sunshine Dizon, who were sent to the mortal world to guard a magic portal to protect mankind from an encroaching great evil — all without using their powers.
It is to be noted that the four actresses and Mr. Reyes previously worked in GMA’s original Encantadia series which aired in 2005. Mr. Reyes also directed the series’ remake in 2016 which ran on the same network.
“We have been ‘fantasizing’ (get it? fantaserye) about this project since 2017,” said Sherwin de la Cruz, iflix Philippine country manager, in an e-mail interview with BusinessWorld on March 27. “It’s been on and off thinking of a project with the four girls, mostly because Karylle and Iza are both our celebrity investors who have supported the company and shared the vision since day one,”
It was some time in early 2018, Mr. De la Cruz said, that they “locked on the storyline, agreed on the budget and greenlit the show, pending scheduling with all of them — the four girls plus [Mr. Reyes].
“The decision for [doing Mystified] was super simple — data. Encantadia was a strong performer on iflix,” he said.
STREAMING ON TWITTER
The film will drop today, March 29, on the platform for free and will be streamed via Twitter starting 8 p.m.
“The iflix team is so proud of how Mystified turned out and we want to give the largest possible audience the chance to experience the film for free. Our collaboration with Twitter allows us to cast a wider net so more fans can see the film, with the added bonus of our stars interacting directly with their fans through the platform,” Mr. De la Cruz said in a press statement.
But whether other original content from iflix will also be streamed on the social media platform is still up in the air, although Mr. De la Cruz said that it’s “particularly interesting as this is the first time it has been done in the country.”
He added that they had done this in Malaysia previously and the results were “amazing,” especially because Malaysia is not a “Twitter country.”
Statistics portal Statista expects the number of activer Twitter users in the Philippines to breach the 10 million mark by 2019 from 9.5 million in 2018. In comparison, Malaysia only had 2.2 million active Twitter users in 2018 and this is expected to reach 2.4 million in 2019.
Mystified will only be shown on iflix (and the one-time Twitter stream) and there are no plans to have a theatrical release.
“When we do co-productions, we will be open to it, but depends on the requirements of partners and such,” he said.
In comparison, global VOD service Netflix typically runs a theatrical release with a concurrent streaming option on its app, which is what they did with Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma in 2018.
MORE IFLIX ORIGINALS
Soon, other iflix originals will be available for viewing outside the platform’s pay wall as Mr. De la Cruz said that they will be “going hard on showcasing high production value originals (on top of licensed content) in the iflix free tier.
“We are increasing the funnel to get more people on the platform and locking their attention in with phenomenal content,” he said.
The iflix free tier, called iflixFREE, started in the fourth quarter of 2018 and gives users free access to content such as Encantadia (both the original version and the remake).
Aside from Mystified, iflix Philippines plans to release “15 to 20” original productions including series and films within the year, though Mr. De la Cruz said they have “much more content that hasn’t been greenlit yet” slated in the near term.
“The challenge for us now is [how] to scale productions well given the business climate (i.e. some actors, actresses, and directors have projects or have priority jobs with networks). Now it becomes a decision on timing vs aspiration on the talents we want to cast,” he said. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Century Properties prices 3-year bonds at 7.8203%

CENTURY Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) has set the coupon rate for its P3-billion fixed-rate retail bonds at 7.8203% per annum.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Antonio-led property developer said it will offer the three-year bonds from April 1 to 5, after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved its permit to sell on March 27. The bonds, which are unsecured, will be issued on April 15.
The offering consists of a base size of P2 billion, with an oversubscription option of up to P1 billion. The bonds will mature in 2022.
China Bank Capital Corp., the offering’s issue manager, lead underwriter, and bookrunner, said the bonds are already more than twice oversubscribed.
“The issuance was more than twice oversubscribed and the first corporate Philippine bond deal to price for 2019,” CPG quoted ChinaBank President Ryan Martin L. Tapia as saying in a statement.
CPG Chief Finance Officer and Head for Investor Relations Ponciano S. Carreon said they are “very pleased” with the market reception, given that this is the firm’s first debt capital deal since 2014.
“We priced the deal at the tighter end of the indicative credit spread given significant interest in this offering,” Mr. Carreon said in a statement.
The listed firm plans to use the proceeds to partially finance its affordable housing projects under Phirst Park Homes, Inc., its joint venture firm with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. It will also procure project construction and contract to sell credit facilities in case there’s additional needs for funding.
CPG has five affordable housing projects lined up for 2019, located in San Pablo, Laguna; Pandi, Bulacan; Calamba, Laguna; General Trias, Cavite; and San Fernando, Pampanga.
These projects will deliver a total of 7,026 housing units across a total of 76.5 hectares.
CPG plans to launch 33,000 units valued at about P57 billion within the next four to five years for its affordable segment. Meanwhile, it plans to add 133,000 square meters (sq.m.) to its commercial leasing business in order to reach its goal of have 300,000 sq.m in leasable spaces by 2020.
To support its expansion program, CPG has allotted to spend P8-10 billion in capital expenditures to finance residential and office projects as well as land acquisitions.
The company’s net income reached P1.1 billion in 2018, 72% higher than the P650 million it reported in 2017. This came amid a 60% increase in revenues to P10.7 billion. CPG benefited from its diversification into affordable housing projects and office leasing, since it previously focused only on high-rise residential condominiums in Metro Manila.
Shares in CPG jumped 1.92% or a centavo to close at 53 centavos each at the stock exchange on Thursday. — Arra B. Francia

Chicago mayor demands answers after Smollett hoax charges dropped

CHICAGO MAYOR Rahm Emanuel said on Wednesday he wanted to “find out what happened” to cause prosecutors to abruptly drop charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a hoax hate crime to boost his career.
The saga began in January when the actor, who is black and gay, said two men had attacked him on a Chicago street, putting a noose around his neck and shouting racist and homophobic slurs.
Prosecutors on Feb. 21 accused him of paying two brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, $3,500 to carry out an attack they called a hoax to advance his career but abruptly dropped the charges on Tuesday.
“Let’s get to the bottom of this,” Emanuel said in an ABC News interview. “Let’s find out what happened.”
Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Smollett had “abused” the city of Chicago, a day after the actor walked out of court saying he had been vindicated in insisting he had not staged a racist assault against him in January.
Mr. Smollett, who plays a gay musician on Fox’s hip-hop TV drama Empire, had been charged with 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct alleging he gave false accounts of an attack on him to police investigators.
On Tuesday, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said it stood by its accusation against Mr. Smollett but was dropping all the charges, saying the actor’s prior community service and his agreeing to forfeit his $10,000 bond was a just outcome.
“The state’s attorney’s office is saying he’s not exonerated, he actually did commit this hoax,” Mr. Emanuel said in the ABC interview. “He’s saying he’s innocent and his words are true. They better get their stories straight, because this is making fools of all us.”
Chicago’s chief prosecutor, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, defended her office’s decision in an interview with WBEZ on Wednesday as proportionate to the charges. “There’s some people who were never gonna be satisfied unless Mr. Smollett spent many nights in prison, and then there were others who believed that the charging of 16 counts of disorderly conduct was excessive,” she said in the interview. She said the charges Mr. Smollett faced were unlikely to have led to a prison sentence if he had been convicted. “What I can tell you is that most people who come through the criminal justice system don’t give up $10,000 of their hard-earned money, or engage in volunteer services connected with an alleged offense, without viewing that as a way of being held accountable,” she said.
Mr. Smollett initially earned widespread sympathy from celebrities and some Democratic presidential candidates over his account of the alleged assault.
The Chicago Police Department released what it said were all its records from the case on Wednesday, totaling 61 pages, with some names and other personal details redacted. The records conformed with the information included in court filings, including summaries of interviews with the Osundairo brothers who said Smollett gave them a $3,500 check and $100 in cash to buy the rope, ski masks, gloves and red baseball caps used in the attack.
Mr. Smollett had pleaded not guilty to the charges, and told reporters on Tuesday he had been “truthful and consistent” in maintaining his innocence.
His lawyers said he hopes to move on with his acting career, but it remains unclear whether he will return to Empire after being written out of the last two episodes of the most recent season. — Reuters

TV show on growing passion for tigers

IN 2017, Academy award-winning documentary director Ross Kauffman (Born in Brothels, 2004) and his team worked through extremes of temperature — -27° Celsius in Far East Russia and 35° C in India — on a very different kind of project. For the first time in his career, Mr. Kauffman was filming a documentary about animals — specifically, tigers — a break from telling stories about people and their struggles. The documentary, Tigerland, is meant to raise awareness of a project to create preserves for the rapidly dwindling population of great cat.
In 2016, the Discovery Channel launched Project C.A.T, a fund-raising initiative to preserve acres of land for tigers in partnership World Wildlife Fund US (WWF-US). Its first phase covered nearly 2 million acres of land in India and Bhutan. The project aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. According to a WWF-led study on tigers published in the Climate Change journal, the population of tigers worldwide has declined by 96% over the last century, with poaching and habitat loss as the main causes of extinction.
Discovery and WWF-US have now set their eyes on Russia’s Bikin National Park. The project aims to preserve the local tiger population in the 3.7 million acre site. According to a press release, “Discovery will match donations received through this campaign up to $250,000 through Dec. 31, 2019.”
BALANCE OF NATURE
Mr. Kauffman’s documentary was done to raise awareness for the cause. Tigerland follows two subjects from Russia and India who have dedicated their lives to caring for tigers.
“I had never made a film about animals. Most of my films have to do with people and usually people in difficult circumstances but also films about hope,” Mr. Kauffman told members of the South East Asian media in a phone interview. He added that he was inspired to challenge himself and pursue the project when he encountered his young son working on paper cutouts of tigers and being told how he was fascinated by the species.
“As an apex predator, if we cut out the tiger from the top of the pyramid, the pyramid collapses. The balance of nature shifts and our ecosystem slowly but surely collapses as well,” Mr. Kauffman said of the importance of tigers in the wildlife and ecosystem.
In the film, Mr. Kauffman focuses on the expertise of Pavel Fomenko who leads conservation efforts for WWF in the Amur Region in Far East Russia. From him the director learned that one Siberian tiger needs hundreds of square kilometers to catch prey. He also focuses on conservationist Kailash Sankhala, known as the “Tiger Man of India,” who headed a government initiative called Project Tiger in 1973 to save endangered Indian tigers.
“I learned about what it takes to help start a conservation movement. It really comes down to the individuals who are fighting and who have put themselves on the frontline of conservation,” Mr. Kauffman said.
“I felt that one of the best ways for us to engage in any topic is to engage with people who are passionate about that topic. If I can get our audience to care about the people who are passionate in this cause about the tiger, then hopefully I can get the people to care about the tiger itself.
“I want my audience to know the people in my film and get to understand and become emotionally attached to these people. If I can create an emotional attachment to the people in the film, then my audience will understand what the people in the film care about,” he said.
Tigerland premieres on the Discovery Channel on March 31 at 10 p.m. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

BoI approves tax incentives for Holcim Philippines’ new cement line

HOLCIM Philippines, Inc. has secured tax incentives for its new cement line in Bulacan, it told the stock exchange on Thursday.
The listed cement manufacturer said the Board of Investments approved its application for registration as a new producer of cement with regards to its Bulacan Line 3 plant. The plant will have a capacity of 2.478 million tons per year.
Tax incentives under Executive Order 226 include income tax holidays of up to six years from commercial operations for pioneer firms and four years for non-pioneer firms.
The Bulacan facility forms part of Holcim’s $300-million investment to hike its capacity by 30% in 2020. The total capital spending also involves company’s plant expansion in Misamis Oriental, where it will install new kilns, mills, and waste heat recovery systems.
This is on top of Holcim’s earlier $54-million capital infusion to expand its cement production in La Union and Davao.
At the end of the expansion of these four facilities, Holcim is seen to have an annual capacity of 13 million metric tons.
Holcim reported a five percent drop in its net income to P2.55 billion in 2018, compared to P2.69 billion in the year before. This came on the back of a three percent increase in net sales to P35.62 billion.
The company blamed higher production and financing expenses from its expansion efforts for the slower performance, amid the challenging business environment last year.
Incorporated in 1964, Holcim is part of the LafargeHolcim Group, which is involved in building materials present in about 80 countries. Its cement products include Holcim Premium, Holcim 4X, Holcim Excel, and Holcim WallRight Cement.
Shares in Holcim rallied 1.59% or 16 centavos to close at P10.20 each at the stock exchange on Thursday. — Arra B. Francia

Manila Water taps additional deep wells to address shortage

MANILA WATER Co., Inc. has started operating an additional 13 deep wells in its concession area to address the water shortage.
“As of March 27, 2019, more than 15 million liters of water per day (MLD) have been drawn from these deep wells and is seen to bring more water supply upon full operation of more deep wells in the coming months,” the Ayala-led company said in a statement on Thursday.
Before the activation of the new deep wells, the company said it was able to source more than 9 MLD from five deep wells located in Curayao, Rodriguez.
“It is expected that at least 30 [MLD] from more deep wells will be able to augment supply by the end of March,” Manila Water said.
The current demand of Metro Manila’s east zone concessionaire is about 100 to 150 MLD above its allocation of 1,600 MLD from Angat Dam.
Aside from the deep wells, additional supply is now coming from its Cardona water treatment plant, which now delivers 23 MLD, and from the cross-border flows coming from Metro Manila’s west zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc., which now provides 11 MLD and will progressively increase up to 50 MLD by June.
On Tuesday, Manila Water announced a one-time bill waiver program in March to be reflected in its customers’ April bill as relief to those who were severely affected by the massive water service interruption.
Customers in the east zone, from low-income families to commercial and industrial establishments, experienced water shortage that began on March 6 with the implementation of the scheduled water service interruption scheme to refill Manila Water’s 28 network reservoirs.
On Thursday, shares in Manila Water fell by 4.02% to close at P22.70 each. — Victor V. Saulon

Earth Hour focuses on plastics

PULLING the plug when devices are not in use, avoiding the use of disposable utensils, and recycling and upcycling materials are only a few of the many ways to practice sustainable living.
The World Wide Fund (WWF) Philippines continues to celebrate Earth Hour this year with the theme #Connect2Earth which was first launched in 2018 and brings to focus the issue of single-use plastics.
In a report released by Greenpeace in 2017, the Philippines was named as the third-biggest plastic polluter of oceans after China and Indonesia.
According to the WWF-Philippines website, “Single-use plastics (SUPs), which are used on an average of seven minutes, take more than 100 years to decompose. Worse, they break up into smaller pieces called microplastic. These can be ingested by fish, and make it up the food chain to humans.
“The culture of disposables is difficult. There is no value. It is cheap and so easy to throw away,” WWF-Philippines President and CEO Joel Palma told BusinessWorld shortly after a press conference on Feb. 28 in Discovery Suites in Ortigas.
WWF-Philippines hopes to create further awareness on the dangers of single-use plastics with the #AyokoNgPlastik movement which is adapted from WWF’s “No Plastics in Nature” initiative, and WWF-Philippines believes that Earth Hour 2019 can help send the message for others to act upon plastic pollution and mobilizing future legislations on plastic waste management.
As part of the movement, Gia Ibay, Earth Hour Philippines national director, noted that WWF-Philippines is currently working with different institutions, organizations, and LGUs in their efforts to educate the public about the reduction of plastic waste and resource conservation.
THE SWITCH OFF
Introduced in Australia in 2007, Earth Hour is the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment.
Now on its 12th year, Earth Hour 2019 will hold its main switch-off event on March 30 at the Globe Circuit Event Grounds in Makati from 5 to 10 p.m., with the actual switch-off at 8:30 p.m. The public event will include booths, activities, and live performances. Households are encouraged to switch off their lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in solidarity with millions around the world.
For more information, visit http://bit.ly/EarthHourPH2019 and facebook.com/groups/ayokongplastik.
Aside from the main switch off, there will be Earth Hour celebrations in a number of establishments in the country including:
• City of Dreams Manila, which, in partnership with Bantay Kalikasan, will hold a program dubbed “A Walk to Save the Earth” on March 30 where Sustainability Ambassadors and around 200 employees and a contingent from Bantay Kalikasan will hold a symbolic walk at 8 p.m. around the property. This will be followed by the ceremonial switch off of the lights in its dome.
• SM malls across the country will take part in the symbolic hour-long lights off on March 30. Participating SM malls will come up with their own creative executions and programs in raising awareness about climate change and in getting the community to participate in a collective effort to care for the environment.
• Robinsons Malls shall be switching off their lights on March 30, at 8:30 p.m. Various malls will be marking the event by engaging their patrons in various Earth Hour activities and parties. Check out the pre-event affairs and other Earth Hour festivities by following Robinsons Malls at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Filipinos preferred under Japan’s new special worker program

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said Filipino workers covered by a new bilateral agreement with Japan for workers with specialized skills are assured of better pay because of Japan has decided to extend preferential treatment for workers from the Philippines.
DoLE said in a statement on Thursday: “Filipinos who will work in Japan under its new specified skilled worker residency law will receive pay equivalent to or even better than that their local counterparts.”
On March 19, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Japanese government, specifically the Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Health, Labor and Welfare and the National Police Agency.
The agreement reserves for Filipinos about 30% of the 350,000 jobs available under Japan’s new immigration law, which will admit workers with in-demand skills in 14 industries. They will be deployed under two categories: Specified Skilled Worker (i), who will be allowed to stay for a maximum of five years in Japan; and Specified Skilled Worker (ii) whose tenure is subject to a contract period, plus extensions.
The law will take effect on Monday, April 1, at the start of Japan’s new fiscal year.
Mr. Bello said Thursday that the Philippines was the first country Japan signed a memorandum with regarding the new law because of Tokyo’s high regard for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
“This is why we are very thankful to the government of Japan. Aside from giving preferential treatment to Filipino workers for the requirements of their industries, our workers are assured of better benefits,” he said.
Other countries that Japan is in the process of signing similar memoranda with are Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Mongolia and India. — Gillian M. Cortez

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