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Petron completes sale of P20-billion fixed-rate bonds

PETRON CORP. has completed the sale of the P20-billion second tranche of its peso-denominated fixed rate bonds last week, the listed oil refining and distribution company told the stock exchange on Tuesday.
The bond offering, which the company completed on Oct. 12, is the remaining portion of its P40-billion shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The first tranche was offered about two years ago.
The second tranche was divided into P13.2 billion Series C bonds and P6.8 billion Series D bonds. They were listed and traded at the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp., for which a certificate of permit to offer securities for sale was issued by the SEC on Oct. 4, 2018.
Petron previously said BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. had been appointed as joint issue managers and, together with China Bank Capital Corp., as joint bookrunners and joint lead underwriters, including other banks that may be invited to join the group.
When the first tranche was offered in 2016, Petron said the proceeds would be used mainly to refinance existing debt and fund working capital requirements. That year, the company commissioned its $2-billion refinery upgrade, increasing its capability to produce more high-value fuels and petrochemicals.
The first issuance, which was Petron’s first listing at the bond exchange, was twice oversubscribed over the base offer and was priced at the tight end of the marketing range, the company had said.
On Tuesday, shares in the company slipped by 0.60% to close at P8.28 each.
Petron, the country’s largest oil refiner and marketer, earlier reported a 16% increase in its first-half net income to P9.5 billion from P8.2 billion a year ago as sales volumes in its Philippine and Malaysian operations were sustained while prices of petroleum products during the period had come out higher. — Victor V. Saulon

Bring on the pain: strategists say go defensive in Southeast Asian stocks

SINGAPORE — With a little less than a quarter left of a year that’s already witnessed a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, higher oil prices and a still ongoing emerging-markets rout, what’s an investor in Southeast Asia to do?
For Morgan Stanley, DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Nomura Holdings, Inc., the answer is simple: double down on defensive trades in Singapore and Thailand as the rest of 2018 may see more hiccups. The MSCI ASEAN Index, which tracks markets across the region, sank to its lowest level since March 2017 last week as a rout ravaged equities worldwide.
“In ASEAN, we face the same challenges with trying to pick safer markets, particularly with the Fed tightening,” Sean Gardiner, a Southeast Asian equity strategist at Morgan Stanley said in an interview. Singapore and Thailand have better balance of payments and will be able to work through that, he said.
Higher interest rates in the US have sent the dollar surging — triggering a slump in currencies from the region’s nations. The Indonesian rupiah is hovering around its weakest level since 1998, while the Philippine peso has plunged as the nation faces its fastest inflation in more than nine years.
Mr. Gardiner favors banks in Singapore, which have seen net interest margins expand with rising interest rates, and Thai energy stocks that can benefit from higher oil prices. Even after a jump this year, major oil trading houses are predicting the return of $100 crude for the first time since 2014 as OPEC and its allies struggle to compensate for US sanctions on Iran’s exports. Tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia may also ratchet up a notch after the disappearance of a journalist working for the Washington Post.
Thai shares may also get a lift from upcoming elections expected to be held in February, according to Joanne Goh, an equity strategist at DBS who has overweight ratings on Singapore and Thailand for the quarter.
Looking to 2019, Nomura’s regional strategist Chetan Seth says investors can reconsider markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Their benchmark indexes have fallen more than 9 percent this year, with the Philippine Stock Exchange becoming one of the world’s biggest decliners among equity gauges.
“At some point in time in the fourth quarter, all these issues get priced in,” he said by phone. You’ll want to be in markets with higher earnings growth rates, he said. — Bloomberg

PSBank looks to raise P8 billion via stock rights offer in Q1 2019

By Karl Angelo N. Vidal, Reporter
PHILIPPINE SAVINGS Bank (PSBank) is set to raise approximately P8 billion through a stock rights offer (SRO) next quarter to support its growth.
PSBank, the thrift lending arm of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday it will issue a maximum of 184.7 million common shares equivalent to its remaining unissued shares through an SRO as approved by its board of directors on Oct. 15.
The bank targets to conduct the rights offer in the first quarter of 2019. However, the timing and transaction size, including the offer price, are still subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions.
PSBank has tapped First Metro Investment Corp. as the issue manager and underwriter of the offer, while Metrobank’s Trust Banking Group will serve as the stock transfer agent. Meanwhile, Picazo Buyco Fider and Santos Law Offices will be the legal counsel.
In an e-mail, PSBank President Jose Vicente L. Alde said the objective of the stock rights issuance “is to support the projected growth of the bank.”
In a previous interview, he said the thrift bank has been preparing for expansion as it is growing its consumer business.
“We have been growing our consumer business for the past years, and we still expect the consumer business to be robust in the next years. We’re preparing for that expansion,” he told BusinessWorld in July.
Last month, the Ty-led savings bank announced it will issue medium-term notes amounting to P10 billion, to “give PSBank an opportunity to access medium-term and stable funding as the bank further expand its consumer banking business.”
Prior to this, it raised P5.08 billion in August through the issuance of long-term negotiable certificates of time deposits which carry a 5% coupon.
Local banks have been conducting various fund-raising activities ahead of tighter risk management requirements by the central bank under the international Basel 3 standard, which will take effect next year.
Aside from PSBank, other banks have raised additional capital through SROs this year, such as its parent Metrobank, UnionBank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., and Bank of the Philippine Islands.
PSBank saw its net profit climb to P1.35 billion in the first half of the year, up 14.7% from P1.18 billion booked in the same period in 2017, supported by strong net interest income and service fees.
Shares in PSBank closed at P74.50 each on Tuesday, down P2.25 or 2.93% from the previous session.

Quantifying the arts

ART HEALS, literature enriches vocabularies and our sense of empathy, and theater helps children develop their imagination and creativity. But these truths aren’t quantifiable — or not quantified yet — which makes it hard for the government to see the positive impact and contributions of art and culture to economic development.
But this may be changing.
On Oct. 3, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) held the second International Conference on Cultural Statistics and Creative Economy, which aimed to quantify the impact of arts on society with the goal of providing a “platform for the discourse on quantifying contributions of culture to [our] development,” said Marichu Tellano, NCCA deputy executive director.
She said that the other reason of the conference was “to be exposed to different methodologies, processes, and tools of building cultural statistics and utilization of the cultural statistical framework.”
But what are “cultural statistics” and why do we need to quantify arts?
According to the NCCA book Bilang Filipinas, A Primer on Philippine Cultural Statistics, quantifying arts is “a means of formalizing what is currently viewed as an informal sector in spite of its considerable contribution to economic and social well-being. The collection and analysis of cultural statistics will help promote the growth of cultural industries and main-streaming culture into economic and social policy.”
The cultural domains, or industries, that are included in this sector are the country’s tangible and intangible heritage; performances and celebrations (e.g. theater, festivals, dance, literary performances); visual arts and artisan products (e.g. painting, industrial design, photography); books and press; audio, visual, broadcast, and interactive media; and creative services (e.g. fashion design, jewelry design, advertising, culinary arts).
Under Republic Act No. 7356, it is part of the NCCA’s mandate to “undertake a systemic collection of statistical and other data, which reflect the state of cultural conditions of the country, to serve as essential qualitative and quantitative basis for formulating cultural policies.”
For Pangasinan fourth district representative Christopher “Toff” V.P. de Venecia, who is also the managing creative director of the theater company Sandbox Collective, culture should count and should be seen as a good investment rather than a liability.
“I strongly believe that wider use of cultural statistics that highlight the economic benefits of the creative arts will somehow change our government’s perspective on prioritizing the arts and cultural endeavours. No longer would our cultural pursuits be seen as luxuries, or only of second importance to other sectors, but as the new prime movers of our economy. The new frontier where culture and the arts should not be seen as luxurious expense, but rather, an investment,” he said when he delivered his speech as the conference’s keynote speaker.
He pointed to how South Korea has been utilizing its creative industries — from K-pop to food, fashion, and cosmetics — to bolster its economic growth and soft power. South Korean government invested in the creative industry through the creation of its Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Mr. De Venecia added that prioritizing and seeing the importance of our creative economy will also translate to the protection of our creative workforce.
“Many of our Filipino artists are world class — from Lea Salonga, Jose Llana, Red Concepcion, Rachel Ann Go, Shiela Francisco, and Christine Allado in the West End… or Kris Aquino in Crazy Rich Asians. The Philippines is never without talent that can make waves both locally and abroad. Yet, here in our own backyard, many of our so-called ‘artists’ remain disadvantaged in terms of social security, labor, medical, and legal conditions. It’s not a rarity that we hear of fund-raisers for artists who are bogged down with medical bills, those who bring pride to our country yet end up by the wayside. It is a debilitating cycle that has likened itself to the plight of most of our farmers in the agricultural sector that suffer from the stigma of poverty and thereby discourage future generations from emulating their trade. I question and challenge the assumption that to be an artist in a country that doesn’t provide enough support to this special category of workers means to prepare yourself for a life of poverty,” he said.
Besides working for long hours, Filipino creatives juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. According to the study “Assessing the Needs of the Filipino Creative Economy Workforce” by Glorife Soberano-Samodio of the De La Salle University Culture and Arts office, “the employment and income situation of the creative workforce shows both promising and unfavorable scenarios.” She said that while creatives have a high level of commitment, the data show that most of the people surveyed said their welfare as workers is not given much attention by employers “as most of them are recruited on a per-project-basis and might not be aware of their rights.”
This study is part of the NCCA book Bilangan, which is a compilation of selected papers from the 2018 International Conference on Cultural Statistics and Creative Economy.
There are engineers and scientists, but the economy and society also need the editors, writers, composers, philosophers, and photographers.
“There was a film recently. The premise was this: when an asteroid was about to hit the earth, scientists and engineers scrambled to launch a ship, just like Noah’s Arc, to bring the best of 160 of our generation. One-hundred-sixty is the number required for a population to flourish. You would expect that the 160 humans would be the legalists, the geniuses of hard science. Yet, in this film — thankfully it was just that, a film — the government chose creative geniuses. After all, they believed that what makes us human is our heart: our culture, our art, our music, our history, our heritage. And in matters of past, present, and future, that alone was worth saving, and hopefully, in our case, worth spending,” said Mr. De Venecia. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

BSP tightens standards for savings, loan associations

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas is tightening its standards for non-stock savings and loan associations. — BW FILE PHOTO

By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
THE CENTRAL BANK is tightening rules covering non-stock savings and loan associations (NSSLAs) by capping service fees and requiring risk management protocols to enhance oversight.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued Circulars 1013 and 1016 to raise the standards on NSSLAs, with the regulator seeing the need to elevate standards to “promote the safety and soundness” of these groups’ operations.
NSSLAs collect the savings of its members and provide long-term financing for home development and personal loans. This is usually formed by employees and officers in one country, government employees in one agency including member-retirees, and immediate family members.
These firms will soon be subject to stricter standards similar to those imposed on banks.
“The compliance risk management system shall be designed to specifically identify and mitigate risks that may erode the franchise value of the NSSLA, such as risk of legal or regulatory sanctions, material financial loss, or loss to reputation, an NSSLA may suffer as a result of its failure to comply with laws, rules and regulations, and codes of conduct applicable to its activities,” the issuance read.
In particular, an NSSLA must designate a chief compliance officer to ensure that their operations meet provisions of relevant laws and BSP issuances. The officer shall regularly report to the board of directors and police potential risks that may result in possible regulatory sanctions as well as reputational or financial losses.
Circular 1013 issued by BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. last month also prescribes additional rules that which set minimum standards on the “judicious utilization of credit,” in order to “maximize the protection of members of NSSLAs.”
The measure specifically prohibits charging steep service fees as well as the non-disclosure of borrowing costs for financial services.
“For this purpose, service fee is considered unreasonably high if the service fee rate exceeds fifty percent of the annual nominal interest rate charged on a loan,” the BSP said.
Other unfair practices include recognizing unused insurance premiums as income, limiting capital contributions or concentrating control to family and relatives, granting unauthorized salaries, and handing out new or additional loans with poor credit history, among others.
The central bank has been tightening rules on non-bank firms as they seek to tighten its watch on the financial sector, as they seek a stronger hold on parallel markets.

Hans Brumann: The jeweler as an artist


HANS BRUMANN is a jeweler first and a visual artist second, but this is a pragmatic stance. “Jewelry making is my bread and butter, but I multitask now — everything that has to do with design, I love,” he told BusinessWorld.
He talked with BusinessWorld on Oct. 4 at the Makati Shangri-La during the opening of his latest exhibition, Paysage, where the pieces on view and on sale have much in common with the earrings and bracelets he makes: they are pretty, decorative, and highly collectible.
Like the accessories he’s known for, which complete an outfit and make it stand out, his watercolor paintings and sculptures — which use mother of pearl and hardwoods like molave, kamagong, and narra — are decorative and statement pieces meant for bare walls.
Mr. Brumann said he is most proud of his work called Broken Circles, a 100 cm x 100 cm sculpture that used kamagong, narra, molave, yakal, mother of pearl, oak, tangile, and resin.
“That is, in my opinion, my best [work in this exhibition]. For me, it’s my latest one. I am going to that direction more because I want to experiment and go with other look,” he said.
Another piece, Broken Series, is a mash-up of woods cut in different sizes and shapes, with mother of pearl inserts. Some wood was colored red for contrast. The work has texture. The artwork is so pretty it can be wearable — miniaturized it would work as a pair of earrings.
The artist has been using mother of pearl in his work for the last 15-18 years. “I am known now for working with hardwood and mother of pearl,” he said, adding that all his materials are locally sourced. He designs the sculptures and someone else executes it for him. “I make the design and supervise, but I have my craftsmen to do that,” he said.
The title of his ongoing exhibition is Paysage, which is a French term that means landscape in English.
Save for the Broken Series and Spiral (which is a simpler version of the former because it uses lesswood), the rest of the pieces are abstract urban landscapes of Metro Manila, primarily barong barong (small houses) and esteros (canals). The piece Esteros, he said is a view of an estero in Makati where “there are shanties on the sides and high-rise buildings at the back.”
The artist is a purveyor of anything of beauty. He said: “there’s beauty in that (shanties), while maybe the real one is not beautiful,” he said, laughing.
He added that he wanted the audience to feel happy looking at his works. “I think when you look at things it’s not sad. Today when you look at the young artist — it’s not a criticism — they make ugly things and they think it’s good. I don’t want to name but among the good ones are also good designers, they know how to draw well.”
Paysage is on view at the Makati Shangri-la hotel until Oct. 31. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

ABS-CBNmobile to shut by end-Nov.

ABS-CBN Corp. is shuttering its mobile services brand next month, saying its business model was “financially unsustainable.”
In a statement, ABS-CBN Convergence, Inc. said all ABS-CBNmobile prepaid, postpaid, and SkyMobi subscribers can use text, call and data services until Nov. 30.
This comes after the company announced in July it is no longer renewing its contract with Globe Telecom, Inc. that allows ABS-CBNmobile to use the latter’s network.
ABS-CBNmobile is a mobile virtual network operator that the network giant launched in 2013 in partnership with Globe.
“After a thorough assessment, ABS-CBN Convergence deemed its current mobile business model to be financially unsustainable. As a result, ABS-CBN Convergence and Globe have reached an agreement not to renew their mobile network sharing contract,” the company said.
ABS-CBNmobile and SKYmobi promo offers will also no longer be offered to subscribers starting Oct. 25.
“As the mobile network sharing winds down, ABS-CBN and Globe Telecom continue to bank on their competencies and focus on new synergies to serve their customers better, such as the promotional bundling of ABS-CBN TVplus boxes with Globe At Home prepaid Wi-Fi and making ABS-CBN TVplus’ KBO (Kapamilya Box Office) and iWantv over-the- top services available to all Globe subscribers,” the company said.
Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis A. Limlingan said the closure of ABS-CBNmobile “will probably free up cash which can be allocated to one with stronger cash flows.”
“I think most investors already saw it wasn’t lucrative for a while then so I think shutting it down might do them well so they can concentrate on more profitable business units,” he said in a mobile message.
In its first half financial report, ABS-CBN said its mobile business incurred P81 million in interconnection costs for the first half of 2018.
As of end-2016, ABS-CBN said its mobile unit had more than 930,000 subscribers.
ABS-CBN’s mobile business is part of its Digital and Interactive Media segment, which posted a net loss of P209 million in the first half of 2018, a 20% drop from P262 million in the same period last year.
In June, ABS-CBN also closed its remittance business in United States, Canada and United Kingdom due to losses that reached P16.18 million ($310,233). — Denise A. Valdez

Getting loans still difficult for China’s small firms

BEIJING — Beijing is keen to show results after four rounds of policy easing, so China’s big banks are playing along, highlighting their efforts to boost lending to cash-starved small firms, offering collateral waivers and setting loan targets.
But in reality, banks’ loan eligibility requirements for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain stringent, making it too difficult or too expensive for them to borrow, according to bankers and company executives.
That has forced some small firms, including exporters, to simply give up on borrowing and put investment plans on hold.
The health of millions of small firms, most privately owned, is crucial to China’s efforts to ward off a sharp slowdown and mass job losses while fighting a bitter trade war with the United States.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has cut the amount of cash commercial lenders must hold as reserves four times since January. The latest reduction in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) effective Oct. 15 added more than $100 billion to the financial system, the biggest net injection this year.
To guide lending to small firms, authorities have issued directives to banks, arranged meetings between executives of banks and private firms, and doled out tax breaks for banks’ “micro-loans”.
Big banks are keen to show they are heeding the call.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s biggest state-controlled lender, says it has opened 230 centers nationwide dedicated to serving small business borrowers.
Interest rates on ICBC’s loans to small business averaged 4.64% in August, it said. That is below the average corporate lending rate of 5.97% in the second quarter.
China’s monetary policy transmission mechanism is working, as corporate lending rates have been falling month-on-month since June, PBoC Governor Yi Gang was quoted by Chinese financial magazine Caixin as saying in an interview published on Saturday.
Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), the country’s third-largest bank, has put a cap on lending rates at 7.5% above the benchmark lending rate in Wenzhou, according to a local bank official.
AgBank has also set a target on loan issuance to small firms in Wenzhou, while some companies do not need to offer collateral if they have sound tax records, the official said.
Wenzhou, a bustling port city in Zhejiang province, is known for its entrepreneurs. Other provinces with a high concentration of privately owned small companies include Guangdong, Jiangsu and Fujian, all on the coast.
Yet, many small firms say financing conditions remain tight, and official data showed 5.04 million businesses went bust in the first half this year.
“There are many ways a bank can make it look as though it’s lending to SMEs to meet targets, like lending to multiple smaller subsidiaries with a big parent company, or lending to the supplier of a material to a big company,” said a senior banker.
NOT ENOUGH, NOT WANTED
Indeed, official data shows new bank loans have surged.
Total new loans in the first eight months jumped nearly 19% from a year earlier to 11.76 trillion yuan, the latest central bank data showed. That is well on track to set a new full-year record, eclipsing last year’s 13.53 trillion yuan.
But the increased lending barely compensates for shrinking “shadow” loans, one of the major targets of regulators as they seek to curb systemic financial risks.
Off-balance sheet loans used to be a major source of funding for small firms traditionally shunned by the big state banks.
Annual growth in outstanding total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit which includes off-balance sheet forms of financing, slowed to 10.1% in August, a record low.
“We have indeed issued much more loans now (to small companies), but in reality, the majority of them still cannot meet our requirements,” said the AgBank official.
The weakening in domestic demand and increasingly uncertain export outlook have also dented corporate appetite for funds.
A lamp factory owner in Guangdong surnamed Cai told Reuters he wouldn’t consider taking on more debt given the slowdown in the economy, even with banks offering much lower rates.
“Banks want us to borrow more when they are flush with money, but they would recall the loans in advance in less than a year,” said Cai.
“What use is that to business owners? No industry can turn in profits in one year. Debt is a scourge.”
The PBoC in August urged lenders not to recall loans blindly, especially to small firms facing operational difficulties.
SMEs are viewed as risky by lenders as they have limited quality collateral or government backing in case of default. Cash-flows are often not sufficiently stable to cover interest payments.
“In the past, for a big bank like China Construction Bank and ICBC, it was hard enough to provide 10 or 20 billion-yuan loans to small businesses,” CCB Chairman Tian Guoli said at an industry event in Beijing last week.
“That came at a great cost, with non-performing loan ratios of 5-6%, or 7-8%, or even higher. So banks have no resources or motivation to do so,” Tian said, though CCB will try.
LIMITS OF EFFECTIVENESS
The outlook for the world’s second-biggest economy has been further threatened by the escalating Sino-US trade war.
“Most Chinese SMEs are export-oriented and their exports will be affected by the China-US trade frictions,” said Cao Yuanzheng, chief economist at Bank of China in Beijing. “That means they are unlikely to invest, and therefore unlikely to borrow funds.”
Some economists say the PBoC’s RRR cuts may have reached the limits of their effectiveness, and big tax cuts may be more effective at boosting growth.
Analysts say there is ample scope as tax revenue growth remains high — up 13.4% in the first eight months of 2018, according to data from the finance ministry.
“Lowering the RRR is good, but it doesn’t cure all illnesses,” Financial News, a newspaper run by the PBOC, said in a recent editorial. — Reuters

Langgam Performance Troupe rolls out acting workshop series

THE Langgam Performance Troupe (LPT), a contemporary performance company and research lab established in 2012, has unveiled its acting workshop series designed to enhance the creativity of participants which could be used on stage and off.
The acting workshop series consists of three distinct but interrelated modules: the Personal Spectacle (Nov. 10, 17, 24, and Dec. 1); Bodies as One (Feb. 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2019); and, Subjectifying the Object (May 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2019).
The workshop program comes on the heels of the return of Jenny Logico-Cruz, Langgam founder and artistic director, from the United Kingdom where she took up her Master’s Degree in London’s Theater and Performance: Viewing, Making, and Writing at the University of Roehampton. She graduated as a Distinction Awardee.
“The workshop series forms part of LPT’s education program. The three modules were developed over a period of two years through the examination of existing performance practices,” Ms. Logico-Cruz said. “Our acting workshops focus on the collective, cooperative, creative, and, above all, collaborative,” she added.
The first module, Personal Spectacle, goes beyond the introduction to the art of solo performance to a more experimental laboratory.
The second module, Bodies as One, incorporates LPT’s own ensemble work processes, experiments with the movement and physical possibilities of the ensemble.
The third module, Subjectifying the Object, reconsiders a performer’s interaction and relationship with an object to elevate the status of the latter to become a character or a persona of its own.
The classes will run from 1-5 p.m. at the Langgam headquarters in Taguig City with a culminating performance at the end of the workshop. For workshop fees and other details, call 0917-548-1985 or e-mail langgamperformancetroupeinc@gmail.com.

Megaworld adds 3rd hotel to Iloilo Business Park

MEGAWORLD Corp. is continuing to expand its homegrown hotel brand, as it revealed plans to open a Belmont Hotel within the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
In a statement, Megaworld said the Belmont Hotel Iloilo will be the third hotel in the business park, after Richmonde Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott. It is targeted to open in 2023.
The 12-storey hotel will have 405 suites, targeting tourists attending events at the Iloilo Convention Center which is within walking distance.
“We have seen the huge potential of Iloilo as a tourism destination. With the Iloilo Convention Center as a main facility for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE), there is no doubt that Iloilo City needs another world-class hotel. And we are bringing another Megaworld homegrown hotel brand, which has gained popularity among business travelers since Belmont Hotel Manila opened in 2015,” Jennifer Palmares-Fong, vice-president for sales and marketing of Megaworld Iloilo, was quoted as saying in a statement.
In 2017, around 1.08 million local and foreign tourists visited Iloilo City.
Megaworld opened its first Belmont Hotel at Newport City in Pasay City. It is planning to open the second one at Boracay Newcoast next year, while another is being planned at The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-lapu City, Cebu.
Shares in Megaworld went up by five percent or 0.21 centavos to close at P4.41 apiece at the stock exchange on Tuesday. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Arts & Culture (10/17/18)

BM stages Le Corsaire

KATHERINE BARKMAN will be performing in Ballet Manila’s Le Corsaire.

BALLET MANILA is staging one of the most thrilling classic ballets, Le Corsaire — a volatile cocktail of love, adventure, and heart-stopping action. It follows the story of Conrad and his band of pirates as they rescue harem girls from slave traders and the sleazy Sultan Pasha. Le Corsaire will be headlined by three of the company’s most decorated dancers: Resident Guest Principal Katherine Barkman, Joseph Phillips, and Nicole Barroso. Le Corsaire is scheduled to run at the Aliw Theater on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. and on Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. Details on the shows, including ticket prices and schedules are available at www.balletmanila.com.ph. Tickets are also available through all TicketWorld outlets (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

Two hands concert

RAUL SUNICO and Natascha Majek will be performing in Duo Piano Concerto on Oct. 24, 7 p.m., at the Maybank Theater, 26th St. cor. 9th Ave., BGC, Taguig. For the benefit of the Museo Pambata Foundation, the concert tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph)

PPO family concert

KIDS CAN COME in Halloween costumes, inspired by their favorite book characters, and enjoy a fun-filled afternoon at the Tricks and Musical Treats: A PPO Family Concert, slated on Oct. 28, 3 p.m., at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater). Now on its fourth year, Tricks and Musical Treats will take its audience to a “Journey to the Kingdom of Books,” featuring an afternoon concert with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), under the baton of Herminigildo Ranera. The orchestra will perform a selection of popular classical masterpieces made for children’s ears including Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Third Movement), Brahm’s Hungarian Dances 5 and 6, Chabrier’s Spanish Rhapsody and other surprise numbers. One of the highlights will be the Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, a “symphonic fairy tale for children” where the narrator tells a children’s story, while the orchestra “illustrates” it with different instruments, representing characters in the story. Pre-concert activities will include the musical instruments “petting zoo” at the lobby of Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater). There will also be storytelling sessions by theater actress Liesl Batucan as well as Trick or Treats at the Main Theater lobby. Tickets are priced at P500, with 50% discount for students and children below 13 years old. For tickets and other inquiries, call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or visit the CCP website, www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.

Pag-IBIG’s housing loan disbursements up as of Sept.

STATE-RUN Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) saw its housing loan releases climb in the first nine months of the year, in line with its goal of higher disbursements.
In a statement on Tuesday, Pag-IBIG Fund said its housing loan releases totalled P51.76 billion in the January-September period, up 14% or P6.4 billion from P45.36 billion in the same period a year ago.
The housing loans benefitted 62,665 families. Out of all the houses financed by the agency, 31% or 19,189 of which are socialized housing units, or homes within the affordability of low- and middle-income earners, with an aggregate amount of over P7.44 billion.
Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti, Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer, said its members can continue to avail of low interest rates from its housing programs supported by the agency’s performance.
“Current rates are pegged at only 3% per annum for loans up to P450,000 under Pag-IBIG Fund’s Affordable Housing Program, while our regular housing program offers as low as 5.375% per annum for loans as high as P6 million,” Mr. Moti was quoted as saying in the statement.
Pag-IBIG Fund is eyeing to end the year with P73-75 billion worth of housing loan disbursements, higher than the P71.5 billion it previously targeted.
If fulfilled, this will also be higher than the P65.1 billion in loan releases in 2017, which benefitted 80,964 families.
For his part, Pag-IBIG Fund Board Chairperson Eduardo D. Del Rosario said the agency’s performance contributes to the anti-poverty thrust of the government.
“Under the BALAI Filipino (Building Adequate, Livable, Affordable and Inclusive Filipino Communities) program, we are committed to bringing housing opportunities to every Filipino family,” said Mr. Del Rosario, who is also the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. — KANV

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