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Arts & Culture (08/28/24)

Female narratives on view at ARTablado

NOW on view at ARTablado in Robinsons Antipolo are works of six female artists. The exhibit, titled “Her Art, Her Story: Celebrating Women’s Narratives,” explores themes of identity, resilience, and the pursuit of dreams. The participating artists are Aed Solis, Dolores Van, Elizabeth Esguerra Castillo, Mary Joy Ann Cruz Tuaño, Maxi Cajayon Tungol, and Yam Tamayo. All six are members of the ARTipolo Group. Pol Mesina, head of ARTipolo chose them for their distinct styles and their surprising use of color. “Her Art, Her Story: Celebrating Women’s Narratives” runs until Aug. 31 at ARTablado in Robinsons Antipolo.

Lopez Museum spotlights Mindanao gongs

THE Lopez Museum and Library has announced the opening event for part two of the Cultural Intersections series, focusing on Mindanao music. The Gongs of Mindanao: Local & Global Resonances by Dr. Felicidad A. Prudente is a lecture-demo that explores the unique sounds of the Mindanao gongs and their evolving significance from traditional to modern contexts. The event will allow participants to experience the music of the gongs and play some of the instruments. It will be held on Aug. 31 at Hidalgo Place, Rockwell Center, Makati, for a regular entrance fee of P400. Seniors, PWDs, students, cultural workers, and Rockwell Club members can avail of it for P320. Register via https://bit.ly/gongsofmindanao.

Joy Rojas holds exhibit at ArtistSpace

THE 8th SOLO exhibition of Filipino visual artist Joy Rojas, titled “IPSO FACTO,” is currently on view at the ArtistSpace in Greenbelt, Makati. In collaboration with JRFII Studio and The Saturday Group of Artists, the exhibition presents a diverse collection of works, including mixed-media creations and sculptures. Mr. Rojas delves into the intrinsic nature of objects, producing abstraction as a distillation of ideas into their most self-evident forms. The artist reception is on Sept. 1 at 5 p.m. The exhibition runs until Sept. 3 at the ArtistSpace, located at the ground level of Ayala Museum Annex, Makati Ave. corner De La Rosa St., Greenbelt Park, Makati City.

CCP digital products available online for free

TO support Filipino artists and make their works accessible to the public, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) has shared its digital resources free of charge to readers and enthusiasts. Filipinos can learn about Jose Corazon de Jesus, better known by his nom de plume Huseng Batute, via https://josecorazondejesus.home.blog, which contains materials written by notable Filipino poets and writers on the life and works of Huseng Batute. A video performance of the King of Balagtasan is also available on the CCP’s YouTube channel. The Festival of Plays by Women held in 2020, with staged readings and performances by women, can be found at https://festivalofplaysbywomen2020atccp.wordpress.com. For children, the book Sa Pagbabasa, Hindi Ka Nag-iisa has been launched as an e-book containing artworks for children. To read about mothers’ experiences during the pandemic, the CCP put together a book titled In Certain Seasons: Mothers Write in the Time of COVID, which is now available online as well. Meanwhile, the CCP official literary journal, Ani, is going digital, starting with its 41st edition. For more information on these and many more CCP products, visit the CCP’s social media pages.

Exhibit on contemporary prints from PHL, Singapore

IN a joint presentation organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The M) and STPI — Creative Workshop & Gallery, the exhibit Chances of Contact: Contemporary Prints from the Philippines and Singapore has opened at The M. It was done in collaboration with the Singapore Embassy in Manila and co-presented by Singtel Group in time for the 55th anniversary of bilateral relations between Singapore and the Philippines. It brings together the works of 16 artists from both countries, including National Artist Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, Goh Beng Kwan, Han Sai Por, and Ronald Ventura, and offers new ways of appreciating the art of print and papermaking through how each artist pushed boundaries in these mediums during their residencies at STPI.

Businesswomen-led workshops at Yuchengco Museum

THE GREAT Women Engaging series of lectures is will be helmed by businesswomen. The first three sessions feature Alma Rita Jimenez, Marilen Gonzalez-Elizalde, and Jeannie E. Javelosa. The series will kick off on Aug. 31 with Ms. Jimenez’s talk on building a transformative workplace in the face of an evolving business landscape. The talk will be held at 10 a.m. at the YSpace at Yuchengco Museum, ground floor of RCBC Plaza, Makati City. The subsequent talks will be on Sept. 14 and Oct. 26, featuring Ms. Gonzalez-Elizalde and Ms. Javelosa, respectively. The regular entrance rate is P1,000, with a discounted rate of P800.

Food banking to alleviate hunger: The Global Foodbanking Network, Hunger Free Philippines, and the Zero Hunger Alliance

HUNGERFREEPHILIPPINES.ORG

(Part 3)

It is the hope of the officers of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation, Inc. that its modest operations would be replicated all over the Philippine archipelago, especially in those regions where the poverty rate is much higher and, therefore hunger is more widespread, especially among children. In this regard, it would be enlightening to be acquainted with the objectives and activities of the Global Foodbanking Network. As its President and CEO, Lisa Moon, remarked, “Increasingly food banks are using innovation and technology to feed more people and in this way, they aren’t just feeding people; they’re transforming food systems.”

As can be read on the website of the Global Foodbanking Network (GFN), data from its 54 members in 45 countries found that global demand for food relief remained high in 2023, with food banks responding by providing food and grocery products to 40 million people, nearly 10 million more people than 2022.

Despite expectations that the demand for food would decrease after the pandemic, food banks in the network reached nearly the same number of people as they did in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The increased expansion of service is largely driven by the high level of demand from conflict and disasters: In all countries where GFN works, there was at least one natural disaster, and 71% of countries experienced civil unrest.

In the Philippines, there should be food banks that address the food security of victims of floods and other natural calamities in the same way that there are plans to build more permanent evacuation centers.

In 2023, food banks increased distribution by an average of 25%, delivering about 654 million kilos of food and grocery products, or the equivalent of 1.7 billion meals. Much of the expansion was from food banks in emerging and developing countries, where hunger rates tend to be higher. These countries represented about 60% of total Network distribution by volume in 2023. Over the last six years, GFN members provided food to five times the number of people, from serving nearly 8 million to 40 million in 2023.

Food banks in the Accelerator Program distributed 27.5 million kilograms of food and grocery products in 2023, 50% growth over the previous year.  Fruits and vegetables — crucial for proper nutrition especially for the poor — made up nearly 40% of the food distributed. GFN saw an increase in the use of agricultural recovery to source food for school feeding programs to ensure that schoolchildren receive more nutritious food. In Africa, for example, less than 1% of the food that Food for All Africa recovered came directly from farms. A year later, that number was 28%. Much of that food was used to support Food for Africa’s school feeding program.

In the Philippines, food banking is in its early stages.

Hunger Free Philippines is a faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing food and other resources to those living in poverty. Each year on Mother’s Day, this NGO organizes the “Meals for Moms” program, with priority given to feeding pregnant and nursing mothers, thus addressing the first 1,000 days of the existence of children, starting from the womb.

First, donations are gathered to purchase groceries. Volunteers — sometimes entire families — prepare and pack groceries. This NGO promotes the principle of subsidiarity in addressing the problem of hunger. Individuals, families, and small communities are encouraged to go beyond giving cash donations by actively establishing a food pantry that offers direct meal services and distributes groceries to the economically depressed communities nearest their homes.

Those who are better off in life are helped to create a learning center that combines literacy and education with skills training in planting fruit and vegetable gardens so that some members of the low-income households can grow their own food in designated areas. Here, the assistance of seed companies like East West Seed and Harbest can be very valuable in sharing the most advanced technology and products in the field of vegetable and fruit gardening. 

Hunger Free Philippines goes beyond promoting immediate relief from hunger by also developing leadership skills and imparting religious principles, empowering individuals to achieve sustainable personal and economic growth, transforming their lives and livelihoods.

On Aug. 6, the province of Iloilo, in partnership with the Zero Hunger Alliance, organized the Zero Hunger Summit in order to address food security, which was assigned the highest priority by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), and to promote sustainable agricultural practices. The event gathered local government officials, non-government organizations, community leaders, and representatives from the private sector to forge actionable solutions to achieve zero hunger. 

The summit featured keynote addresses and panel discussions focused on local and national initiatives to solve the problem of malnutrition. Since hunger and malnutrition directly impact on the health of the population, especially children, it was incumbent on the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Maria Socorro Quinon, to give an overview of the fight against hunger in the province of Iloilo.

One of the strategies being implemented by the provincial government is the ART RESPONSE program. ART stands for adequate food production; rehabilitation of malnutrition; and training and capacity building of nutrition workers. RESPONSE stands for reactivated nutrition committee; education to promote good nutrition and behavior change; social marketing for nutrition support; people empowerment; outstanding performance in nutrition program and implementation through awarding; networking and linkages with government agencies and NGOs; scaling up nutrition; and emergency response or nutrition in emergencies.

The agriculturists will contribute through programs of agri-tourism in which Iloilo province has a competitive advantage.  Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Ildefonso Toledo described a program that will create agri-tourism destinations by blending ornamental gardening, landscaping, and high-value crop production.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor echoed the statement of President Marcos Jr. in the last SONA: “When we talk about our nutrition program, before you ask the question of what kind of food you eat, let us first ask do you have enough food?  Nutrition is a food security issue. That is one of the basic premises of our nutrition program.”

The answer is clear: we do not have enough food because we have sorely neglected and mismanaged our agricultural sector for decades. We have a long way to go before we can say that our country is food secure. That is why talk about Zero Hunger will sound like motherhood statements for some time.

We have to look for emergency solutions like food banking. That is why the President of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation, Rafael “Itong” Torres, who attended the summit in Iloilo, felt even more convinced that what this NGO is doing now will be in great demand as an emergency or stop-gap measure to ensure that the present generation of poor Filipinos do not suffer from hunger, especially the children — our most vulnerable citizens.

It may take at least a decade, if not more, before we can attain Zero Hunger. That is why we have to replicate what the Philippine Food Bank Foundation has been doing over the last seven years in as many Philippine regions as possible.

(To be continued.)

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

PHL Senate urged to take up the cudgels for MSMEs

PNA PHOTO BY JOEY O. RAZON

By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter

THE Philippine Senate should ensure that a bill that seeks to lower the income tax on both local and foreign companies would also cut the costs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to boost jobs and productivity, according to economists.

“Implementing fiscal and tax incentives is critical in the current economic context to stimulate investment, drive economic growth and create jobs,” Jonathan L. Ravelas, senior adviser at professional service firm Reyes Tacandong & Co., said in a Viber message.

“These incentives can significantly impact MSMEs by reducing their operational costs and improving their financial stability.”

MSMEs account for more than 99% of businesses in the Philippines.

Senators are in the period of amendments for Senate Bill No. 2762 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) bill, which seeks to lower taxes on domestic and foreign companies to 20% from 25%.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill on final reading in March.

It also removes the value-added tax on goods and services to essential services such as janitorial, security, financial consultancy, marketing and human resources.

Under the priority bill, registered business enterprises will be entitled to a 100% additional deduction on power expenses in a taxable year, up from 50% under the Tax Code, to address high power costs.

“By reducing the tax burden on businesses, the bill could incentivize increased investment, job creation and higher productivity,” Robert Dan J. Roces, chief economist at Security Bank Corp., said in a Viber message.

“To ensure that these benefits — economic growth, increased government revenues, better living standards — are realized, the bill may be designed with careful consideration of efficiency and additional targeted support for MSMEs.”

The measure also allows local companies to implement a work-from-home setup for up to half of their workforce to cut costs.

It also allows the President to give fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to enterprises without the need for a recommendation from the Fiscal Incentives Review Board.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who sponsored the bill, said Congress should clarify the tax incentives under the original CREATE law passed during the previous government.

“It is not merely an update of policies; it is about creating a more dynamic future that is more responsive, more supportive and more capable of fostering growth and innovation in the Filipino people,” he told the Senate floor in his sponsorship speech earlier this month.

But Leonardo A. Lanzona, who teaches economics at the Ateneo de Manila University, said Congress should abandon CREATE MORE and focus on fostering innovation in local industries.

“Creating an environment of learning by doing and producing more for the same inputs would be a better option,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

“It is obvious that the fiscal and tax policies are not enough to push structural transformation,” he added.

Philippine Sanjia Steel says its products are not  substandard

FREEPIK

PHILIPPINE Sanjia Steel Corp., a manufacturer and distributor of steel products, has denied allegations that it manufactures substandard steel products.

“Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. categorically denies accusations that it produces substandard and non-conforming steel products, including rebars,” the company said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.  

It said that the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI), a nongovernment organization, in a recent press release, cautioned consumers against substandard reinforced steel bars (rebars) allegedly found in 16 hardware stores in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Isabela, and Nueva Vizcaya.

“Among the producers of substandard rebars, the PISI press release identified the Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. as one of them,” the company said.

The company said that its manufacturing plant is located in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

It also said that its products have passed Philippine national standards testing by the Bureau of Philippine Standards of the Department of Trade and Industry.  

In a statement on Aug. 17, PISI said that 13 samples out of the 33 it bought from hardware stores last month failed to meet the minimum standard requirements for mass variation and elongation.  

“It is possible that the samples PISI bought in the Luzon provinces that were found to be substandard do not belong, or were not manufactured by Philippine Sanjia,” Philippine Sanjia Steel said.  

“While the samples may have the brand of Philippine Sanjia, the samples are certainly poor counterfeits of true or genuine products, if it is indeed true that they were tested and found to be substandard,” it added.

The company said it is willing to have its products tested again. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

Peso hits near 5-month high on dovish Fed

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

THE PESO appreciated to a near five-month high against the dollar on Tuesday after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell signaled a September rate cut.

The local unit closed at P56.281 per dollar on Tuesday, strengthening by 5.2 centavos from its P56.333 finish on Thursday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed.

This was the peso’s strongest finish in almost five months or since its P56.255 per dollar close on April 1.

The peso opened Tuesday’s session stronger at P56.222 against the dollar. Its weakest showing was at P56.31, while its intraday best was at P56.17 versus the greenback.

Dollars exchanged inched down to $1.587 billion on Tuesday from $1.59 billion on Thursday.

The peso was supported by a generally weaker dollar on Tuesday amid dovish signals from Mr. Powell over the weekend, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

“The peso strengthened after Fed Chair Powell hinted of a potential US policy rate cut next month in the Jackson Hole Symposium last week,” a trader likewise said in an e-mail.

For Wednesday, the trader sees the peso moving between P56.20 and P56.45 per dollar, while Mr. Ricafort expects it to range from P56.20 to P56.40.

The dollar and yen eased on Tuesday, paring some of their safe-haven gains from the start of the week in the wake of a major missile exchange between Israel and Hezbollah that stoked fears of a wider escalation, Reuters reported.

Imminent US rate cuts also remained at the top of investors’ minds and further pressured the greenback, though currencies were mostly rangebound on the lack of major news in the Asian session.

Most currencies were holding near milestone highs and the dollar near its lowest level in more than a year, helped by the likelihood of a US rate cut in September after Mr. Powell more or less nodded to such a move in his Jackson Hole speech on Friday.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly also said on Monday a quarter-percentage point reduction in borrowing costs next month was likely.

Against a basket of currencies, the greenback dipped 0.03% to 100.82, languishing near a 13-month low of 100.53 hit in the previous session. — A.M.C. Sy with Reuters

Notting Hill Carnival celebrates London’s diversity after racist attacks

COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

LONDON — In 1959, Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones organized a Caribbean carnival in St. Pancras Town Hall in London in response to race riots, planting the seeds for Notting Hill Carnival, one of the world’s largest street parties.

Revelers on Monday, the second day of this year’s carnival, said Ms. Jones’ message of unity had never been more important, after racist riots in late July were sparked by false information online about the suspected killer of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England.

“Everyone comes together (at the carnival). You see people from different countries just flocking together on the streets,” said Jocelyn Kuyaziwma, 28.

“I feel like (the carnival) is a step in the right direction in terms of what I would like Britain to be on a daily basis,” said Ms. Kuyaziwma, who lives in Wales, and came to London to be part of Mangrove Mas, one of the carnival’s oldest masquerade bands.

Matthew Phillip, the Notting Hill carnival’s chief executive, told Reuters the event was Britain’s biggest celebration of inclusion — “of the things we have in common, rather than focusing on our differences.”

The 56th edition of the carnival was expected to draw a million people to the streets of west London to celebrate the city’s diversity and its Caribbean community.

The carnival traces its roots to the hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Caribbean, known as the “Windrush” generation, who came to Britain between 1948 and 1971 to help rebuild the country following World War II.

Their arrival was accompanied by racial tensions and the unfair treatment of Black people, with riots breaking out in 1958, including in the London district of Notting Hill, where many Caribbean migrants lived at the time.

“Notting Hill Carnival was born in response to racist riots,” race equality think tank Runnymede Trust said. “These events, and the divisive rhetoric which fueled them, feel painfully relevant today.”

Jhen-I, a DJ at one of the carnival’s sound systems, said London was one of the most diverse cities in the world.

“So it is all about celebrating each other (…) and always respecting each other,” he said.

‘IT’S ALL LOVE’
Over the years, the indoor event organized by Ms. Jones has developed into the vibrant celebration it is today of multiculturalism and of how generations of migrants and their descendants have contributed to British society.

“It is important for us to celebrate our culture and where we have come from and for everyone to be together,” said 41-year-old Ramzan Bacchus, who was wearing a Guyana bandana.

“It does not matter where you come from (…) everyone is here to celebrate, together, as one people,” he added.

London police deployed around 7,000 officers at the event, which it said was seen by a minority of people as a chance to commit crime.

It said three people were stabbed on Sunday — a 32-year-old woman, who was in a critical condition in hospital, and two men, aged 29 and 24. A total of 103 people were arrested, and 18 officers were assaulted on Sunday, police said.

Monday’s celebrations featured trucks draped in colorful materials, carrying bands and sound systems playing soca and reggae songs, surrounded by people in bright festival costumes.

Many brought flags of Caribbean nations.

Jama Elmi, 50, a Londoner originally from Somalia, said the recent riots had not changed anything.

“The carnival (signifies) togetherness, happiness, good food, good culture,” he said. “It’s all love.” — Reuters

The national budget is the key to unlocking our economic and social goals

BW FILE PHOTO

Government leaders can promise to make certain issues a priority, or commit to supporting a particular sector. Beyond mere rhetoric, however, the national budget is the true test of what the government believes is important.

If we are to go by the proposal of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the 2025 budget will be in the amount of P6.352 trillion, which is 10% higher than the approved budget of P5.768 trillion for this year.

The education sector remains the top priority of the government, set to receive P977.6 billion. This amount is an P8.7-billion increase from this year. Public works is next at P900 billion, with the budget slightly lower from its P997.9 billion allocation this year. Other priority sectors are health (P297.6 billion), interior and local government (P278.4 billion), defense (P256.1 billion), social welfare (P230.1 billion), and agriculture (P211.3 billion).

From a sectoral view, the social services sector with P2.21 trillion accounts for 33.4% of the total, followed by economic services with 29.2%, general public services with 17.1%, defense with 6.6%. Finally, the DBM allotted P876.7 billion or 13.8% of the total for the debt burden.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that the Philippine economy remains stable and resilient. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.3% in the second quarter, picking up from the 5.8% growth observed in the first quarter. The major economic sectors Industry and Services grew by 7.7% and 6.8%, respectively, compensating for the 2.3% contraction in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing sector. In addition, the Philippines’ GDP growth was second only to Vietnam’s 6.9% in the region.

Unemployment in June 2024 declined to 3.1%, meaning there are now 1.62 million fewer unemployed Filipinos compared to the previous period. However, underemployment — the percentage of Filipinos with a desire to put in additional hours of work in their current job, to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours — increased to 12.1%, representing 6.08 million of the 50.28 million employed individuals.

One gut issue that should be of immediate concern is the uptick in the inflation rate, which increased to 4.4% in July 2024 from 3.7% in June. The PSA said this was because of the higher year-on-year increases in the indices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages. Specifically, food inflation at the national level rose slightly to 6.7% in July 2024, from 6.5% in June 2024.

The government has set economic, social, and national security as its priority. Key themes include developing and protecting the capabilities of individuals and families, the transformation of production sectors to generate more quality jobs and competitive products, and the creation of an enabling environment for business and investments to thrive.

Given these challenges amid the relative resilience of the economy, we should be mindful of how the national budget is crafted. Filipinos — not just lawmakers who hold the purse strings or the Executive that actually implements government programs — need to look closely at how the budget is crafted and whether the items in it are aligned to the country’s overall direction and vision. Now, more than ever, we must scrutinize how public funds are being spent, and whether projects are implemented as planned and in a timely manner.

This is the essence of several pending bills — 12 at the House of Representatives and two at the Senate — all falling under the Progressive Budgeting for Better and Modernized (PBBM) Governance. It boggles the mind why, given their centrality to the Marcos Jr. Administration’s agenda, they are not among the priorities of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) and as such, will likely not be approved during the 19th Congress.

Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman is urging lawmakers to pass this PBBM Governance Bill. This aims to institutionalize three best practices in public financial management. It is important to note that these initiatives are not new — instead, they were begun in previous administrations.

The institutionalization of the Treasury Single Account, from the Aquino III administration, will rationalize agency bank accounts leading to a more economical cash management system. It will provide a holistic view of the cash position of the government. A direct benefit would be a reduction in borrowing costs that arise from cash shortages.

Another initiative from Aquino III — in fact, an Executive Order on this was issued in 2011 — is the adoption of an Integrated Financial Management Information System. This is an IT solution that organizes digitized government financial information to improve the preparation, management, execution, and financial reporting of the budget.

Finally, the institutionalization of the Cash Budgeting System for fiscal discipline was first implemented in 2018 by the Duterte administration, under then-Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno. This system limited the validity of the budget to a year in order to force agencies to practice fiscal discipline. With the shorter period of implementation, agencies are forced to ensure that only properly planned programs, projects, and activities were proposed for budgeting.

We echo the call of Secretary Pangandaman. Let’s make the budget really work for the people.

 

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

Three PHL startups make it to Forbes Asia list

THREE Philippine startups made it to Forbes Asia’s annual 100 to Watch list this year.

The list, in its fourth year now, showcases small companies and startups in the Asia-Pacific region that grabbed investors’ attention — and their checkbooks, Forbes Asia said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.

The Philippine startups were financial management platform Lista, digital bank Zed and Mober Technology Pte., Inc., a construction and logistics firm.

Lista, whose app has had 2.5 million downloads since 2021, has raised more than $5 million in funding. The app gets 75% of its revenue from selling credit scores to consumers, while the rest comes from referral fees from financial institutions.

Another financial startup, Zed, offers credit card services and instead of charging interest or annual fees, it collects a share of network fees that merchants pay with each purchase.

In March, Zed raised $6 million in seed funding, led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Forbes Asia said.

Meanwhile, Mober, headed by Chief Executive Officer Dennis Ng, operates a fleet of electric vehicles to help businesses achieve their sustainability goals for last-mile delivery. The startup aims to increase its fleet to 238 electric trucks by early 2025 from 60.

Forbes Asia said the 100 to Watch list came from 16 countries and territories, and industries such as enterprise technology and robotics, finance, manufacturing and energy.

Forbes Asia solicited online submissions for the selection process. It also invited accelerators, incubators, universities and venture capitalists to nominate companies.

To qualify, companies must be based in the Asia-Pacific region, privately owned for-profit ventures and have no more than $50 million in annual revenue and no more than $100 million in total funding through Aug. 7, it said.

“Startups on our fourth annual Forbes Asia 100 To Watch list have collectively drawn over $2 billion in total funding to date, with 83 of these companies raising capital since the start of 2023,” Rana Wehbe Watson, editorial director at Forbes Asia, said in the statement.

She said the influx of investment was driven by their innovations, spanning some of the “world’s hottest industries” such as space technology, biotechnology and robotics. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante

SMGP board approves $300-M securities issue

SAN MIGUEL Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMGP), the power arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., said that its board of directors recently approved the offer and issuance of up to $300 million in senior perpetual capital securities.  

The proposed issuance will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd., SMGP told the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. on Tuesday.  

The company noted that the amount of the new securities may also be “based on prevailing market conditions and as may be advantageous to the corporation.”  

SMGP has tapped Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, DBS Bank Ltd., Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd., and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead managers.  

It also appointed DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Ltd. as trustee and Deutsche Bank AG, Hong Kong Branch, as paying agent, calculation agent, transfer agent, and registrar; and Latham & Watkins as listing agent.

SMGP said that it intends to allocate part of the proceeds to the costs and expenses related to the offers, and to the predevelopment costs of solar energy projects.

“For the avoidance of doubt, net proceeds will not be applied to finance any of the company’s existing and planned coal-fired power assets,” the company said.

SMGP issued $492.11 million in perpetual securities in November 2019, and another $723.9 million in October 2020. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

With Fed’s shift to job market done, policy now has to catch up

REUTERS

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — In 2022, when the Federal Reserve’s focus shifted to combating inflation, it had to ratchet up interest rates fast to get monetary policy caught up with fast-rising prices.

Two years later, the focus has changed again – this time to protecting the job market, as outlined in Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell’s speech on Friday at the US central bank’s annual Jackson Hole conference in Wyoming. A policy catch-up again appears to be needed – in the other direction, albeit at a likely less frantic speed.

Mr. Powell’s signal of coming rate cuts completed a Fed shift that began in January when it acknowledged emerging job market risks, and now it has made countering them its top job.

The open question: Is a weakening job market and rising unemployment rate evidence of an economy settling into a healthy place of steady growth with little upside risk to the jobless rate or part of a slide that will gather speed?

The answer will appear in upcoming employment reports and shape how far and fast the Fed will have to cut rates to prevent what Mr. Powell called an “unwelcome further weakening in labor market conditions.”

“We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions,” Mr. Powell said, remarks that seemed to set the current 4.3% unemployment rate as a level he would like to defend as he made the sour admission that “conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic.”

The jobless rate was 4.1% and falling when Powell became Fed chief in 2018, falling as low as 3.5% in 2019 without raising inflation concerns — conditions Mr. Powell said he hoped he could recreate after COVID-19 threw the economy into a tailspin.

The current 5.25%-5.5% Fed policy rate is seen as restricting the economy and putting jobs at risk and is well above officials’ median estimate of 2.8% for the longer-term “neutral” rate. Assuming inflation continues ebbing towards the Fed’s 2% target, job market changes will determine how fast officials head toward that neutral level and whether they need to go even lower to restore full employment.

“We’re definitely cooling, but are we cooling to a point where we’re going to level out … or is this just a pit stop to a stronger cool down?” Nela Richardson, the ADP Research Institute’s chief economist, said on the sidelines of the Jackson Hole conference.

Ms. Richardson, along with many Fed officials and others in attendance, argues the economy remains strong and is likely just settling to its underlying trends — “normalizing” from the pandemic’s extremes. But the sense of urgency around employment has intensified.

THE SHIFT
The Fed’s two-year battle against inflation saw rates rise to a quarter-of-a-century high without any appreciable job-market fallout. Fed officials will next meet on Sept. 17-18 on a very different footing than just a few weeks ago as they prepare to cut rates and debate whether the job market is just slowing or at a precipice.

The Fed’s language around risk began steadily changing this year.

Until January, Fed policy statements said officials were “highly attentive” to inflation risks. Then that month it said “the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are moving into better balance.”

They said in June that the risks had “moved toward better balance” and in July that the risks “continue to move into better balance,” adding they were now “attentive” to both the job market and inflation.

Mr. Powell’s remarks completed the journey, saying “the balance of the risks to our two mandates has changed” and policy makers would “do everything we can to support a strong labor market.”

Now comes the catch-up.

In September, officials will update interest rate projections showing their sense of the pace of cuts to come. As recently as June they were still worried about sticky inflation, saw the unemployment rate steady at 4%, and anticipated just a single quarter-percentage-point rate cut this year.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who has been predicting a job market slide, called Mr. Powell’s tone “startling” relative to June’s outlook, taking it as evidence the Fed had “waited too long” to shift.

Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, meanwhile, frets that with layoff rates remaining low, the Fed may still court inflation risk if it cuts rates too fast.

‘VERY DIFFERENT PICTURE’
The Fed is having its own data battles.

The gain of just 114,000 jobs in July was noticeably weaker than the pandemic-era average, but in line with what before the pandemic was considered a reasonable pace to match population growth.

Another closely watched metric, the ratio of open jobs to unemployed persons, has fallen from a historic high of 2-to-1 during the pandemic to 1.2-to-1, akin to pre-pandemic levels in another sign of the economy normalizing.

Mr. Powell on Friday even somewhat downplayed the 4.3% unemployment rate, regarding it as a result of rising labor supply and slowed hiring, not outright job losses.

There is “good reason to think that the economy will get back to 2% inflation while maintaining a strong labor market,” he said.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said in an interview she sensed there was an “overall resilience” in the labor market, with the unemployment rate possibly about to level off.

“What I have seen is some evidence of plateauing,” she said, “not a ‘blowing through.’”

Still, there are concerns the labor market may be weaker than it seems, risks that could play out in coming months and push the Fed towards faster or deeper rate cuts to defend its “maximum employment” objective.

Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, a career labor economist, said at one of the conference research discussions that both sides of the openings-to-unemployed ratio may be mismeasured — with fewer vacancies than reported in the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and more unemployed people if alternate measures of joblessness that include discouraged workers, for example, are considered.

She estimates the jobs-to-unemployed ratio is actually down to 1.1, already near break-even, and perhaps even lower.

“There are many more layoffs now going into non-employment as opposed to standard measures of unemployment,” she said. If other measures of unemployment were included, “you may get a very different picture” of the job market. — Reuters

Ancient ram from naval battle between Rome and Carthage found off Sicily

REGIONE.SICILIA.IT

ROME — An ancient Roman relic from the almost 2,300-year-old naval battle in which Rome defeated its archenemy Carthage has been recovered from waters off western Sicily, regional authorities said on Friday.

The 3rd-century BC bronze ram, which was put on the bow of warships to attack enemy vessels, was found at a depth of about 80 meters in the area of the archipelago of the Aegates Islands, the Sicilian regional government said in a statement.

The Battle of the Aegates Islands, in 241 B.C., was the final naval clash between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic during the First Punic War and marked a turning point for the two powers.

Carthage, located near Tunis in modern-day Tunisia, went into decline after its defeat.

The ram was retrieved this month by divers from the Society for the Documentation of Underwater Sites and taken to Favignana, one of the Aegates Islands, where it is being studied by archaeologists, the Sicilian government said.

The front of the battering ram has a relief decoration with a Montefortino-type helmet with three feathers at the top, while seaweed and shell deposits make it impossible for the moment to see any inscriptions, regional authorities said.

The relic is the 27th ram from the naval battle to have been found underwater since the 2000s, along with more than 30 ancient Roman helmets, two swords, and several coins and amphorae, they added. — Reuters

Politics is again becoming a family business in Southeast Asia

FREEPIK

POLITICS is increasingly returning to being a family business in Southeast Asia, despite its large and vibrant democracies. It’s a worrying trend. Power is at risk of being concentrated in the hands of an exclusive club of entrenched clans. That will disproportionately disadvantage the region’s dynamic youth who are getting more frustrated with nepotism.

While Southeast Asia is not an isolated case — political dynasties are prevalent in the West (think Bushes and Trudeaus, among others)* — the difference is just how many of the familiar names are making a comeback, since unrest and financial crisis in recent decades upended the Old Order in many places.

Take the Philippines, where clans have controlled money and wielded influence dating back to colonial times. Their privilege allowed them to buy land in the post-independence era, after Manila broke free of US colonial rule in 1946. This enriched and propelled them further up the economic ladder. Wealth proved useful in their attempts to succeed in politics.

Six of the country’s last nine presidents have belonged to the Macapagal, Marcos, and Aquino families. The current president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., is the son of the former autocrat Ferdinand Marcos. During a reporting trip to Manila for the 2022 election, I was struck by the number of ordinary Filipinos who had conveniently forgotten the corruption and avarice of his regime, toppled amid street protests in 1986 after two decades in power. Instead, they chose to believe in a social media narrative that the younger Marcos would bring back a perceived golden era of prosperity and stability.

Tapping into family lore helps with this generation’s allure for voters. The child of a formidable political force has been elevated in Thailand, too. The former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s 38-year-old daughter, Paetongtarn, was appointed earlier this month to his old job (which he lost in a coup in 2006). Her aunt and Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, previously served in the role before being removed by the Constitutional Court in 2014.

Political dynasties aren’t just confined to raucous democratic systems like the Philippines. In Cambodia, it has been a year since strongman Hun Sen handed over power to his son, Hun Manet, after almost four decades as leader. (For all intents and purposes, he is still running things behind the scenes as president of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and a lawmaker.)

And then there’s Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country and economy. Last week, widespread protests suspended parliamentary moves to potentially grant the outgoing president’s son an easier path to political power. The sprawling archipelago had until recently been held up as a model for democracy in a region where corruption and nepotism — which never really went away — seem to be making an increasingly brazen comeback.

When Joko Widodo was first elected in 2014, he was viewed as a breath of fresh air. With a humble demeanor and origins as a furniture maker from a provincial city, he came from outside the usual ranks of generals and elites that have run the country.

But Jokowi, as he is popularly known, has used his second term to ensure that his legacy lasts beyond his departure from office in two months. “Jokowi has built a coalition with so many parties in parliament that he is getting to the point where he cannot be challenged, because of the power base he has created,” Elisabeth Kramer, a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, told me. “This allows him, and by extension his family, to protect their privilege and exclusivity, to ensure that only a certain club of people actually run for election and win.”

Indonesians are used to strong leaders with dynastic ambitions. The archetype was Suharto, whose 32-year dictatorship ended amid violent protests during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998. Among grievances was how the former general turned a blind eye to the growing greed of his children, and how they used their position as his progeny to exploit the resource-rich nation’s economy, at the expense of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.

Some Indonesians see parallels. A popular news magazine recreated a cover from the Suharto era, only this time with Jokowi’s face on it — calling him “Raja Jawa” — the King of Java. The not-so-subtle insinuation is that Jokowi and his family are out of touch with everyday Indonesians, living a lavish lifestyle. This is a far cry from the man-of-the-people image he so carefully cultivated when he was first elected.

For now, at least, Indonesian protesters have managed to keep their democracy safe. The outgoing president and others in Southeast Asia with dynastic ambitions would be wise to look at Sheikh Hasina. The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father was forced to make a hasty and humiliating exit earlier this month, after 20 years of on-and-off rule that became increasingly autocratic, and dismissive of human rights.

In the past, kings and queens would fight wars to ensure their children would inherit the throne. But they were not elected leaders, and their subjects had no choice but to put up with them. That is not the case in democracies today. Eventually, the people will make sure their voices are heard. Leaders would be wise to leave their families where they belong: At home.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

*A 2018 study published in the Historical Social Research journal showed that, on average, one in 10 world leaders comes from households with political ties. The list included former US President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

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