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Know your BP numbers

One in four Filipinos aged 21 years and older has high blood pressure. It is called a “silent killer” for a reason: hypertension often has no symptoms, and most people are not aware that their blood pressure is elevated. Worldwide, high blood pressure causes around half the fatalities attributed to stroke and heart disease, which are two of the leading causes of death in the country.
May is Hypertension Awareness Month, and May 17 is World Hypertension Day with the theme, “Know Your Numbers.” Knowing your blood pressure (BP) numbers, especially as you get older, leads to early diagnosis of hypertension and its prompt treatment. This is important because optimal treatment of hypertension can cut the risk of stroke by 40% and heart attack by 15%.
For adults, normal BP is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure of 80 mmHg. A person has hypertension if his or her systolic blood pressure is equal to or above 140 mmHg and/or the diastolic blood pressure is equal to or above 90 mmHg. The proportion of people with hypertension increases with age: one in 10 people in their 20s to 30s and five in 10 people in their 50s develop high blood pressure.
A healthy lifestyle is the most effective way to prevent or control high blood pressure. Eat a low-salt, low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Engage in physical activity/exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Drink alcohol moderately, and, if you smoke, the advice is to quit. Maintain a healthy weight and manage stress — regular exercise can help you do both.
A low-salt diet is particularly important in controlling high blood pressure. Avoid or limit your intake of foods high in salt such as processed meat products and salty condiments, among others.
If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, your doctor will prescribe an oral anti-hypertensive medication or a combination of two or more maintenance hypertension medications.
According to the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), research companies are developing 200 medicines for cardiovascular diseases in efforts to help patients better manage their condition. The medicines in development for cardiovascular disease include 42 for heart failure, 23 for stroke, 20 for peripheral vascular diseases, 13 for thrombosis, 25 for lipid disorders, and 14 for hypertension. If left unmanaged, high blood pressure can cause damage to the circulatory system, contributing significantly to heart attack and stroke.
Although high blood pressure is mainly an adult problem, a sedentary lifestyle fixated on fast food and electronic gadgets is sowing the seeds of hypertension and other chronic diseases among Filipino children. The 2013 National Nutrition Survey of the Food and Nutrition and Research Institute shows that the number of obese Filipinos rose from 14.5% in 1993 to 31.1% in 2013. Keep in mind that excess weight is a risk factor for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, among others.
To prevent or manage high blood pressure, know your BP numbers and adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. Check your blood pressure regularly, whether at home, at a clinic or hospital, or at a pharmacy. Indeed, knowledge empowers us to make the right decisions in caring for our health.
Teodoro B. Padilla is the executive director of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP). Medicine Cabinet is a weekly PHAP column that aims to promote awareness on public health and health care-related issues. PHAP and its member companies represent the research-based pharmaceutical and health care industry.
medicinecabinet@phap.org.ph.

7 basic rules for boss-subordinate relations

I’m a newly promoted supervisor tasked to manage 11 workers who used to be my co-workers in our department for the past five years. My appointment started two weeks ago, and during that brief period of time, I’ve already experienced certain issues which if not corrected could make work life miserable. Can you give me some basic guidelines that I can use in starting my journey to a successful relationship with people? — New Road.
You’re not alone. Many new people managers who are situated just like must be feeling like blood-thirsty mosquitoes at a nudist camp. You’re excited and when you look around, you know it’s wonderful to be in the company of totally nude people all over, except that as a mosquito, you don’t know when and where to start biting.
As a supervisor, you need to gradually feel and understand the whole situation. It should be easy as you’ve known your co-workers for some time. You need only a little adjustment to ensure a smooth transition from being one of the gang to someone a “little above” the rest.
An adjustment is needed to achieve a healthy balance between managing people and achieving department goals at the same time. It’s not easy. There will be a constant struggle to satisfy both ends. And to avoid those “certain issues,” you need to learn and understand some broad rules to ensure sound working relationship with people.
With that in mind, the following should help:
1) Understand the strengths and weaknesses of people. This can help you determine what to assign the workers on the basis of their interests, capability, past performance, and career goals, among others. It doesn’t mean, however, that you should only give assignments to those capable of doing it, but to give opportunities to others who are willing to be trained.
2) Treat everyone equally with dignity and full respect. As a supervisor, there will be time when you’re tempted to play favorites, especially with hardworking and non-complaining people. Whatever happens, avoid any situation when you would be perceived as someone giving the slightest hint of favoritism.
Instead, give everyone every opportunity to shine and prove their worth.
3) Show concern for your subordinates. Be proactive. Try to understand those issues from the perspective of everyone, and not only from your interest or certain individual. There’s no harm in asking people how you can be of help to make their work easy. Know what company resources would be available for use, but without burdening the organization with additional expenses.
4) Promote co-ownership in achieving department goals. This includes defining the target, the manner by which to achieve it, choosing responsible persons to manage it, identifying resources to use, and the timeline to be followed. If you do, it would be easy for everyone to contribute doing his or her share knowing that they’re part of it all from the beginning. Otherwise, it would be difficult to seek cooperation.
5) Have a regular feedback session with everyone. This includes having a frank and honest discussion with people about their work performance. Whatever happens, criticize with utmost care. Remain positive and impersonal. This means having a private meeting with those concerned if it involves poor performance and giving praise in public when they deserve it.
6) Be a friendly mentor, not a toxic, dictatorial boss. Do this while maintaining a certain degree of distance so you won’t be perceived as either too soft or too hard on people. You can show leadership by helping people on the best way to do a job, defending them against unjust criticism from other departments, and lending a little of your personal money under certain emergency cases, if warranted.
7) Celebrate small wins with the team. Take a break whenever possible and practical. Even if the company doesn’t have a budget, create an atmosphere where you recognize individual or team effort for achieving something. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Among us Filipinos, an inexpensive pizza or noodle meal, even if it comes from the company cafeteria, will surely be a delight.
You really can’t become an overnight management sensation for doing all of these. Sometimes, despite observing these basic rules, you may still experience a recurrence of those little issues that leave you disappointed. If that happens, make adjustments according to the demands of the situation.
It’s easy to moan about losing your grip on the situation. Whatever happens, don’t blame the workers or even your boss. It’s an exercise in futility. Instead, take stock of your situation. Do whatever is necessary. Sometimes, your situation may need an adjustment of the layout of your work area to create an open and positive work environment.
Don’t be a perfectionist. At least not yet. When your workload is excessive, you can end up focusing on your own assignments and tend to miss out on your relationships with people. You have to achieve some balance in your work life by making time for leisure activities, whether it’s bowling or just relaxing with your co-workers in your favorite restaurant.
If you believe that hard work alone will do the trick, then you’re wrong. It’s not enough.
ELBONOMICS: Ordinary workers working together are better than superstars working individually as superstars.

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Rey Elbo is facilitating a one-day workshop on “Lean Office: Creating Value in Offices and Services” on July 11, 2018 at Dusit Thani Hotel. For details, contact Ricky Mendoza at (02) 846-8951 or 0915-406-3039 or e-mail operations@kairos.com.ph
elbonomics@gmail.com

How PSEi member stocks performed — May 10, 2018

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Thursday, May 10, 2018.

Gross domestic product quarterly performance

THE Philippine economy grew in the first quarter on the back of double-digit growth in government spending, but could have performed better if it were not for the nagging inflation that tempered household spending, the government reported yesterday. Read the full story.

TRAIN needed to fund infrastructure, free tuition, salary hikes — Dominguez

MOVES TO suspend the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law amid claims it worsens inflation will compromise other key economic programs introduced this year, the government’s economic managers said.
“Suspension of the Tax Reform program will certainly tend to slow down the Build Build Build program, and possibly negatively affect the government’s ability to fund the free tuition fee program as well as increase in salaries of the police and the military,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters in a mobile phone message yesterday.
Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV on Thursday filed Senate Bill 1798 seeking the suspension of the excise tax increases under the TRAIN law, or Republic Act No. 10963, when inflation exceeds the government’s target band for three months, noting that about 10 million Filipino families will “struggle” to purchase basic needs.
Headline inflation rose 4.1% in the first four months after coming in at 4.5% in April, breaching the central bank’s 2-4% target.
TRAIN is expected to generate about P82.3 billion this year.
According to the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s 2018 fiscal program, the government hopes to spend about P699.3 billion this year on infrastructure — which will be 70% funded by TRAIN revenue.
About P50 billion is needed for free tuition at state universities and colleges for the next school year, as provided by Republic Act No. 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, a measure originally authored by Mr. Aquino.
About P39.6 billion will go to the military and police pay increase, which became effective in January.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, meanwhile, said separately during a press briefing yesterday that the legislators are “showing their concern especially for the poor. So that’s a normal expectation,” while noting that the 2019 mid-term polls are coming up.
Aside from Mr. Aquino, Senators Joseph Victor G. Ejercito and Sherwin T. Gatchalian are also seeking to freeze the tax increases provided by the TRAIN law.
The law took effect on Jan. 1, reducing personal income, estate and donors tax rates, but removed some value-added tax exemptions; raised excise tax rates for automobiles, minerals, tobacco and fuel; as well as imposed new excise levies on sugar-sweetened beverages and cosmetic procedures.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno has said that suspending TRAIN will “do more harm than good,” especially for the government’s fiscal position. He noted that the country’s tax bureaus have been beating their collection targets.
Mr. Pernia said that the government is fast-tracking the disbursements of the P200 per month unconditional cash transfers for the poor affected by higher prices. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

NEDA sees food logistics as possible counter for inflation

A POLICY RATE hike may not address rising inflation, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said, with the authorities looking at “more robust” solutions on the supply side such as building food terminals to serve highly urbanized areas.
“Actually, a lot of inflation we’re seeing is due to supply constraints, supply issues. So the strategy to address this has to do with supply, not demand, which cannot be addressed via an increase in interest rates,” NEDA Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon said during a briefing yesterday on the economy’s performance for the first quarter.
Headline inflation averaged 4.1% in the first four months of the year after peaking at 4.5% last month, breaching the central bank’s 2-4% target band. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia called the rise in prices a “spoiler,” adding that gross domestic product growth would have been within the government’s 7-8% target after a 6.8% expansion in the first quarter if it weren’t for the uptick in inflation.
Nine of 11 economists polled by BusinessWorld said that they expect the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to tighten its policy stance at its May 10 meeting.
Apart from alcoholic beverages and tobacco Ms. Edillon noted that the “problem in inflation” was due to higher prices of food, particularly the “rice, fish, meat, and vegetable subsector.”
“Therefore you are looking at inefficiencies post-harvest. Inefficiencies in the processing, in transport, logistics, and trade even,” she said.
Ms. Edillon said economic managers are looking at the possibility of setting up food terminals outside metropolitan areas to streamline the movement of goods.
“So I think in the immediate term, what we need to do is to study the feasibility of putting up food terminals in the outskirts of highly urbanized cities because the problem is really this problem of trucking, the truck ban, the traffic,” she said.
“If we have food terminals where food cargo from large container trucks can be transferred to smaller vans and they can be distributed across the city 24/7 not constrained by the truck ban, that would make for more efficient logistics,” she added.
Ms. Edillon said possible locations outside Manila, Cebu, Davao, and Baguio are being considered.
The NEDA Board approved last month a P1.09-billion agri-industrial food complex in Davao to improve value chain development. But Ms. Edillon said NEDA is considering similar, but relatively “scaled-down” projects, to hasten the implementation process.
“If they’re very small projects, in fact even LGUs (local government units) could do it. Even the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and the DA (Department of Agriculture) have funds for shared service facilities,” Ms. Edillon said.
She said food terminals would complement efforts to move rice to a tariff system, allowing the private sector to import the staple grain.
Amendments to Republic Act (RA) No. 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act are currently at committee level in the Senate and will go before the plenary in the House. This measure is expected to lower retail prices of rice by about P4-7 per kilo.
Ms. Edillon also said one more approach could be to resolve legal hurdles to land ownership, to make idle land productive.
“If you go around the country, and even here, in the vicinity of Metro Manila, you see a lot of idle land in subdivisions. The problem is there’s so many regulatory constraints with respect to the use of the land,” she said.
“So these ones will have to be addressed so they can be brought to cultivation… The surest way to address food inflation is to have more food. But the problem is available land. That means looking at the regulatory framework,” Ms. Edillon added — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

PSALM budgets P264M for Malaya plant O&M

STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has approved a budget of P264 million for the one-year contract to operate and maintain the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant.
PSALM said the operation and maintenance (O&M) service contract will be awarded via a competitive bid open to local and foreign bidders, subject to eligibility conditions.
“To date, eight companies have expressed interest, three of which bought bid documents,” the agency said in a statement.
It said a pre-bid conference was held on May 2 to give interested bidders “the opportunity to clarify any concerns they have on the bidding documents, the scope of work and other details” relating to the contract.
The eligibility conditions are provided in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184, also known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.
PSALM said to clarify queries from bidders, the deadline for submission of bids had been moved to May 30, after close of which the opening of the bids will start at 10:15 a.m.
“This extension will encourage and provide bidders ample time to secure bid documents at the PSALM office in Diliman, Quezon City,” PSALM said, adding that a nonrefundable fee of P50,000 is required.
The Malaya power plant is being managed by PSALM through an operation and maintenance service contract. The current operator of the power plant is STX Marine Service Co. Ltd. whose contract will expire on Aug. 24.
It was rehabilitated in 1995 by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.
The plant in Pililla, Rizal was designated in 2014 as a “must-run” unit by the Department of Energy.
A must-run plant “is compelled to run and provide the needed power supply as deemed necessary to ensure reliability of power supply in the Luzon grid, especially in times of supply shortfall, system security and voltage support,” PSALM said. — Victor V. Saulon

Rice import auctions to feature safeguards against collusion

THE National Food Authority Council is planning to conduct an auction for rice imports in cooperation with the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), a Department of Agriculture (DA) official said.
Outgoing Agriculture Undersectary for Administration, Agribusiness and Marketing, and Regional Engagement Bernadette R. Puyat said she wants to tap the BTr for the auction process to head off any suspicion of collusion.
“We’ve been meeting with the Bureau of Treasury, because if you do the open auction with DA personnel, people will think that it’s been fixed. But you can’t do that with the Bureau of Treasury,” she added.
The NFA Council will be meeting today to discuss the parameters and the target date for the auction, which covers the import of 850,200 metric tons of rice.
Ms. Puyat, who oversees rice imports for the DA, also said that pre-qualification for the auction will also be supervised by an interagency council so that “there’s transparency, no collusion.”
“I’m not saying that the NFA’s corrupt but what I want is for the public to have trust and to do it with the Bureau of Treasury,” she said. The process will be open to the media, she added.
“We’re still fixing the parameters. We’ll be talking about it [today] because that’s what the President wants.”
Ms. Puyat, who was named successor to Tourism Secretary Wanda T. Teo late Tuesday, said that she will still be working on the auction until she changes departments.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said that he will assign Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo R. Serrano to take up Ms. Puyat’s NFA duties once she transfers to the Department of Tourism. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

BPO demand for office space to remain buoyant for 5-10 years — Colliers

THE BUSINESS process outsourcing (BPO) industry remains positive about expanding in the Philippines despite the removal of tax incentives in the proposed second package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN 2) law, according to real estate consultants Colliers International Philippines.
Colliers Senior Research Manager Randwil Dinbo U. Macaranas said that while BPO firms may take a hit from the approval of TRAIN 2, the sector takes into account more than just cost efficiencies when selecting locations.
“They do recognize that tax reform has a significant impact, but there are lots of other factors that come into play such as cultural affinity, skills, comfort, how well established they already are in the local market,” Mr. Macaranas told reporters after the company’s first-quarter property market briefing in Makati City yesterday.
Under the proposed TRAIN 2, economic zone locators will be taxed 15% of their net taxable income, compared with the current 5% tax on gross income earned. Income tax holidays will also be limited to four years with no extension, against the current regime of four years, extendable to six years.
Mr. Macaranas noted that as far as Colliers clients are concerned, the BPO industry will continue to drive demand for office buildings in the next five to 10 years.
“They’re continuously expanding even over a 10-year timeline… And it will really be a more diversified tenant mix. Previously the market was basically overly reliant on BPOs but today there are also lots of other industries that are also driving the market,” Mr. Macaranas said.
Last year, fears of the removal of tax perks under the tax reform law resulted in a slowdown in the expansion of BPO firms. It was the entry of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) that helped fill out the space intended for the BPO sector.
Colliers also noted that it closed deals with local units of multinationals Amazon, Google, Accenture and ING, among others, in the first quarter of 2018, representing 28% of office transaction volume for the quarter.
Colliers’ first-quarter property report showed that a total of 470,000 square meters (sq.m.) of office spaces were completed for the first three months of the year, the highest recorded in history. This is close to the 525,000 sq.m. of new office space expected to be completed for the rest of 2018.
The consulting firm said a majority of the space to be completed for 2018 has been leased out.
At the end of March, Metro Manila’s total office stock was 10.2 million sq.m.
Vacancies were at 5.8% for the quarter, rising half a percentage point from the fourth quarter of 2017.
An average of 900,000 sq.m is expected to be added every year from 2018 to 2020, most of which will be located in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. By then, vacancies may rise to as high as 9%, according to Colliers.
The rate of office completion is expected to normalize at the end of that period, with around 560,000 sq.m to be completed in 2021. Vacancies will also correct back to around 6% by this time. — Arra B. Francia

Danish construction firms keen on landing ‘Build, Build, Build’ deals

DENMARK is hoping its construction firms can win a share of the infrastructure contracts on offer under the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Brian Mikkelsen “expressed interest in bringing construction firms to participate” in the government’s aggressive infrastructure program, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a statement.
Mr. Mikkelsen also expressed interest on behalf of Danish companies in the renewable energy and affordable pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Mikkelsen was quoted as saying that Danish companies “want to be part of the development” happening in the Philippines.
Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said “unsolicited proposals are welcome.”
“The current economic growth momentum, rating upgrades, and aggressive infrastructure programs offer a lot of business opportunities for foreign investors particularly with technology-oriented services and systems,” Mr. Lopez said.
“President Rodrigo [R.] Duterte guarantees that your investments will be protected from corruption,” he said.
The two officials met to discuss trade and investment opportunities between the Philippines and Denmark, with much of the talks revolving around infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the DTI said it is planning to promote Filipino food in Scandinavia, as well as a road show in Denmark next year.
The Philippines currently enjoys Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus privileges granted by the European Union. Under the scheme, tariff rates for over 6,000 products shipped to the regional bloc are levied lower or zero import duties. — Janina C. Lim

Clark O&M pre-bid conference set for May 21

THE GOVERNMENT on Thursday invited potential investors to participate in the May 21 pre-bid conference for the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for Clark International Airport.
In a statement, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said that, along with the Department of Transportation, it will hold the pre-bid conference for the airport’s P5.61-billion O&M contract.
The concession involves the management, operations and maintenance of the airport including its existing terminal; and the completion, fit-out and management, operations, and maintenance of the proposed new terminal building.
On April 30, the government opened the prequalification phase for the hybrid public-private partnership project. The deal is structured to give the government responsibility for financing the construction of the new terminal in Clark, with the O&M contract to be auctioned to the private sector.
“Procurement of the O&M Concessionaire will follow a competitive bid in accordance with the build-operate-transfer law,” the BCDA said, adding that it intends to partner with “a world-class international airport operator.”
The International Finance Corp., a member of the World Bank Group, serves as BCDA’s technical advisor for the project.
Bid documents are available at the project’s Special Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat. The contract is expected to be awarded on Aug. 30.
The consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd. has expressed its intent to join the auction.
The consortium late last year won the bid to build the new Clark terminal.
The government intends to develop and market the airport as a major gateway to Northern and Central Luzon.
The modernization program for the Clark Airport is expected to raise the air transport system’s overall capacity and ease congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. — Janina C. Lim

Airport in northern Palawan opens for commercial flights, seen boosting tourism

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation (DoTr) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) have officially opened to commercial flights San Vicente Airport (SVA) in northern Palawan Thursday.
In a statement, the DoTr said the P62.7-million airport’s passenger terminal building can accommodate up to 150 passengers at any given time, bigger than the typical capacity of a community airport, which is 50 persons.
Attractions in San Vicente, which is between Puerto Princesa and El Nido on the South China Sea coast, include a 14-kilometer white-sand beach said to be the longest in the Philippines.
“Then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced the construction of a new airport in San Vicente (in 2006) to jump-start tourism development not only in San Vicente, but in other parts of Northern Palawan,” DoTr said in a statement.
In June 2017, the airport was opened to light aircraft. Chartered flights were eventually launched in August that year.
“Over the years, funding was allocated for the construction of the airport, along with enhancement of facilities and concreting of various areas in preparation for SVA’s commercial operations,” DoTr added.
The inauguration ceremony at SVA was led by Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, CAAP Director General Jim C. Sydiongco, Finance Undersecretary Garry V. de Guzman and Palawan Governor Jose C. Alvarez.
“There is nothing more basic at stake than the future of Palawan to play on a global stage of tourism. If the province can figure out how to invest in its future, all Palaweños will prosper through education, improved quality of life, and jobs. And, the generations to come will see and benefit from all of these beautiful things we’ve done in our lifetime,” Mr. Alvarez was quoted as saying. — Denise A. Valdez

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