Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube
Home Blog Page 12292

Nation at a Glance — (07/06/18)

News stories from across the nation. Visit www.bworldonline.com (section: The Nation) to read more national and regional news from the Philippines.

Should we worry about the peso depreciation?

By Victor A. Abola
AS THE peso-dollar exchange rate crossed the P53.00/$1.00 on June 11th, a lot of people, including foreign analysts, raised their “worried” flag. Indeed, the next days thereafter the peso slid further to some 5.8% higher than the P50.40/$1.00 average in 2017.
But should we worry?
The answer should depend on the factors that are driving the peso’s weakness.
First, the US dollar has been strengthening since the end of Q1-2018. There are several reasons for this. IMF projects that the US economic growth to accelerate 2.9% this year compared to 2.3% in 2017.
Apart from the growth momentum, the Trump’s tax cuts get to be felt by individuals and corporations starting Q2 2018.
Next, the same tax reform tries to attract back to the US some $2 trillion of cash held by US multinationals abroad. Even if half of that returns, that would add significant demand for the greenback.
Finally, we have the Fed raising policy rates now to 1.75% and so 6-month T-bills yield 2.06% while in Germany the 6-month yield is -0.63% on June 13th. It becomes attractive for German institutions to invest in US Treasuries because of the large differential.
Second, foreign stock and bond investors are selling off their peso-denominated financial assets as they stand to lose with a peso depreciation. Foreigners have been net sellers in the local stock market by a total of P52.6-B (~$1.0-B) from February to May this year.
Third, the Philippine balance of trade has been deteriorating and has reached a record -$3.6-B in April 2018.
For the first four months, this amounted to $12.2-B which if multiplied by 3 (simple annualization) yields $36.6-B which will be more than 20% higher than a year ago. However, this may not be viewed too badly as imports of capital goods (additions to productive capacity) have shown robust growth (+14.1% YTD April vs. 10.5% YTD for total imports, and accounted for 1/3 of total imports for the period).
On the other side of the issue, we can look at the fact that if we take a longer view, the peso has actually appreciated by 4.6% from 2004 to June 13, 2018, while our neighbors Indonesia and Vietnam had large cumulative depreciations in excess of 47% during this period. Malaysia also shows net depreciation during the period.
Besides, there are positive effects of the peso depreciation. The most obvious effect of this would be to discourage imports and prod more exports, thus, reducing the trade deficits over the medium term. And because more production is done locally, it will boost employment generation.
The second positive effect is that it will increase peso incomes of OFW families, exporters and those that supply raw materials to exporters. With an estimated 10 million OFWs and with an average family size of 4.6, the peso slide benefits some 46 million families. Add to that the number of families dependent on exports, which account for some 30% of GDP, plus those that supply raw materials to exporters, and we easily obtain the conclusion that a vast majority of Filipino families benefit from the higher peso-dollar exchange rate.
Finally, both our research and that of BSP would show that a 10% peso depreciation adds only around 0.5% to inflation. If the FX rate averages some 6% higher for the year, the resulting additional inflation would only be 0.3%. Besides, the consumers of imported goods are the higher income classes rather than the poor.
In short, while the current weakness of the peso might seem negative, its impact both for the short and medium term is net positive.
 
Victor A. Abola is a senior economist and assistant professor at the School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific.

Destroyer of worlds

In a far from modest and less than truthful description of itself, the Philippine government, said a Malacañang statement, is “headed by someone who has strong political will, decisive leadership, and compassion for his fellow men,” hence the “fruitful” first two years of the six-year Rodrigo Duterte presidency.
How “fruitful” have the past two years of the Duterte regime been?
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in the same statement that the government is winning the “war” on drugs, as evidenced by, he said, the number of police anti-drug operations (91,704 from July 2016 to March 2018), the arrest of 123,648 suspected drug pushers and users, the dismantling of drug dens and laboratories, and the government’s seizure of billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs and laboratory equipment. There’s also the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) declaration of over 6,000 barangay as being “drug free.”
In addition are the “economic feats” — Roque’s words — of the administration and its “independent foreign policy.” The first includes the 6.7% growth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, while the second has “resulted in billions worth of investments that are expected to create thousands of jobs for Filipinos.”
Those “feats,” however, are not of any consequence to the imperative of ending the poverty of nearly 25% of Filipinos to which Mr. Duterte said he was committed. Only 1% of the population benefit from economic growth, while the remaining 99 million Filipinos don’t because of the skewed system of wealth distribution that’s one of the worst in Asia. Rooted in the archaic land tenancy system that has defied abolition for centuries, that system has kept millions desperately poor.
But Roque’s statement was nevertheless echoed by former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who said — without, however, specifying anything — that Mr. Duterte has made good on all his election promises except three. Special Assistant to the President Bong Go said basically the same thing, but was similarly short on the specifics.
None of these three regime worthies mentioned Mr. Duterte’s pre-election promise to enrich funeral parlor owners by killing 100,000 drug pushers and users, which, with four more years to go in his term, he can handily fulfill, 20,000 mostly poor Filipinos including women and children having been killed by the police and their surrogate assassins in only two years since 2016.
Roque’s celebration of his president’s “political will” and “decisive leadership” no doubt refers to his being true to that threat. It certainly doesn’t apply to his promise to pursue “an independent foreign policy,” despite the pledges of billions in investments and aid he has managed to extract from various countries, primarily China.
Those pledges — most are yet to materialize — hardly qualify as either proof or fruit of an independent anything. China’s promise of high interest loans are in fact a trap likely to condemn succeeding generations to indebtedness.
Meanwhile, despite his early rants against American intervention and its sordid human rights record in the Philippines, his promise to end Philippine involvement in US war games, and his declaration of “separation” from the US, the country remains bound to US economic and strategic interests. The Mutual Defense Treaty is still in force, and so are the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) despite Mr. Duterte’s control over the majority in Congress, which could have enabled him to have all three abrogated.
As glaring as that reality is, even more flagrantly obvious is Mr. Duterte’s downplaying, and at times even justifying, Chinese imperialism’s brazen violation of Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea, where it has built military bases on the artificial islands it has constructed within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, barred Filipino fisherfolk from their traditional fishing grounds, and even seized the catch of those who had initially managed to evade its coast guard cutters.
Mr. Duterte’s “compassion for his fellow men” is as mythical as his “independent” foreign policy. It apparently doesn’t include the poor, the marginalized, women, priests, and the Lumad against whom his various other “wars” have been directed.
An Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines, and De La Salle University study has documented and established the anti-poor character of the killings that have primarily characterized the misnamed “war” against drugs, which has spared drug lords while focusing on small-time drug pushers. Mr. Duterte has even promoted government officials suspected of involvement in the P6.4-billion drug smuggling scandal, while reappointing others he had fired for corruption or made to resign, demonstrating thereby how serious his pledge to end both the drug problem and government corruption has been.
Over the last two years, instead of making an alternative world possible through the initiation of the social and economic reforms the country so desperately needs, Mr. Duterte has laid waste the world — as insecure, problematic and terrifying as it already was — of the widows and orphans of the breadwinners murdered in the course of his selectively anti-poor campaign against illegal drugs.
A humanitarian crisis created by those murders is developing, as thousands of wives and children are made even more destitute by the loss of their husbands and fathers.
His order to arrest “istambay” is similarly savaging entire communities. Potentially productive young men — those looking for work but who are unable to find it, as well as those between jobs — are being hauled off to prison together with ne’er-do-wells and petty thieves. Their families are in the process deprived of the help and support of their sons who, among the poor, are their best hopes for survival in a country where the loss or absence of a family member can mean the difference between having food on the table or starving.
As distressing as all of these are, what’s likely to be one of Mr. Duterte’s lasting impacts on Philippine society is his relentless assault on the Constitution and the system of checks and balances which has made authoritarian rule beguiling and democracy repugnant to the uninformed. There is as well his and his minions’ demonization of the media, of the Church, of dissenting and critical women, and of individual clergymen in his apparent belief that they’re potential or actual instruments in a conspiracy to remove him from the power he claims to disdain but in reality so desperately craved.
His rants, ravings, profanities, and tirades against critics, human rights defenders, clerics, women and God Himself have further divided a society already fragmented by economic, social, and political inequality, and have made rational and informed discourse the subject of scorn among those sectors of the population that need it most. Mr. Duterte’s enshrinement of abuse, impunity, violence, lawlessness, and intimidation as State policies and as substitutes for informed debate and discussion is creating a generation of cynical, ignorant, brutal, and mindless citizens and civilian and military bureaucrats who even now venerate, propagate and uphold the very opposite of the values of respect for others and the truth, and the right to free expression necessary in the making of a society of equals in which no one need sleep in fear or under bridges. This is how “fruitful” his first two years in power have been.
 
Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro). The views expressed in Vantage Point are his own and do not represent the views of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.
www.luisteodoro.comwww.luisteodoro.com

Of ‘shall,’ ‘may,’ ‘quo warranto,’ and ‘snoots’

*[“Snoot /snüt/, n. (2001): A person who cares intensely about words, usage, and grammar, and who adheres to a kind of enlightened prescriptivism that assesses language for its aptness, clarity, succinctness, and power.”

(Bryan Garner)]

Had the good fortune to come across Garner’s new book entitled Nino and Me: My Unusual Friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia in Totus Bookstore’s University of Asia and the Pacific outlet.
It’s a gem and, for those like me considering themselves originalist disciples of Justice Scalia, an illuminating portrait of the human personalities behind the law and law’s stock in trade: words.
For the book is essentially about three “snoots” — the novelist David Foster Wallace (who invented the word “snoot”) and the two lawyers he fortuitously brought together: Garner (editor of Black’s Law Dictionary) and Scalia.
Indeed, lawyers must care about words because through them ideals, values, and purposes are captured and then realized.
There was this marvelous exchange in the 2001 HBO movie Conspiracy (starring Kenneth Brannagh and Stanley Tucci), where a law professor (Kritzinger) was talking to a young Nazi SS officer (Lange), the latter just admitting to murdering thousands of Jews:
Kritzinger: This is… more than war. There must be a different word for this.
Lange: Try “chaos”.
Kritzinger: Yes… the rest is argument. The curse of my profession.
Lange: I studied law as well.
Kritzinger: [incredulous] How do you apply that education to what you do?
Lange: It has made me distrustful of language. A gun means what it says.
Because, cynicism aside, in the public square the alternative to words has always been violence and one should utterly be careful that words are not distrusted due to its careless or — much worse — reckless use.
Hence, the necessity of snoots.
Going back to Garner’s book, there was this interesting point about the word “shall.” Here’s what he says:
“I was asked to revise the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States — not quite by the Court itself, but by an arm of the US Judicial Conference. I had just played the lead role in revising the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and some of the federal judges, appreciating my work, ‘volunteered’ my services to the Supreme Court. One major feature of my revisions had been to eliminate the word shall from the rules: it is notoriously ambiguous in legal drafting and therefore a frequent source of argument and even litigation. I apportioned its various responsibilities among must, will, is, and may, depending on context and meaning.”
“Today, shall has been almost entirely removed from the various sets of federal rules — except for those of the US Supreme Court. I never use the word myself.”
And, finally, this: “At least half the shalls in US statutes don’t mean ‘is required to.’ They’re not mandatory at all.”
The reason for bringing this up is because in my controversial(?) BusinessWorld article “Quo vadis quo warranto?” (11 May 2018), the following legal contention was proffered:
“Yet, it can also be argued that said Art. XI.2 merely mentions one mode of removal, hence “may be removed from office, on impeachment.” Note the presence of “may” (in the 1935 and 1973 constitutions it was “shall”) but the absence of the word “only.” The language thereof doesn’t preclude other modes of removal.
A practical and textual reading of the Constitution, in its entirety, backs up this interpretation.”
Turned out, ‘twas the first to bring it up, with political scientist Antonio Contreras quickly catching on as well.
Gratifyingly, the decision in Republic vs. Sereno (aka., the quo warranto case), penned by Justice Noel Tijam, seemingly confirmed my position:
“The language of Section 2, Article XI of the Constitution does not foreclose a quo warranto action against impeachable officers. The provision reads:
Section 2. The President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment. (Emphasis ours)
It is a settled rule of legal hermeneutics that if the language under consideration is plain, it is neither necessary nor permissible to resort to extrinsic aids, like the records of the constitutional convention, for its interpretation.
The provision uses the permissive term “may” which, in statutory construction, denotes discretion and cannot be construed as having a mandatory effect. We have consistently held that the term “may” is indicative of a mere possibility, an opportunity or an option. The grantee of that opportunity is vested with a right or faculty which he has the option to exercise. An option to remove by impeachment admits of an alternative mode of effecting the removal.”
At least in that case, thank heavens, Justice Tijam was a snoot.
 
Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.
jemygatdula@yahoo.com
www.jemygatdula.blogspot.com
facebook.com/jemy.gatdula
Twitter @jemygatdula

Open-plan offices are making us less social

By Leonid Bershidsky
IN recent years, a number of big companies — IBM, Bank of America, Aetna, Yahoo! under former chief executive officer Marissa Mayer — cut back on their telecommuting programs in the name of more interaction and cooperation between employees, supposedly fostered by being stuck together in an office. The business model of companies providing co-working spaces, such as $20-billion “unicorn” WeWork, is also based on the proposition that if people find themselves in a shared space, they’ll network and cooperate more.
It doesn’t quite work like that, though, recent research shows. At the office, be it a corporate one or a WeWork-style environment, workers these days are housed in vast open spaces designed to break down barriers.
But in a just-published paper, Harvard University’s Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban showed, on the basis of two field studies of corporate headquarters, that the modern open office architecture tends to decrease the volume of face-to-face interaction by some 70% and increases electronic communication accordingly. With such a communication pattern, the workers might as well be anywhere.
The two companies Bernstein and Turban studied, both Fortune 500 multinationals, were transitioning to more open, modern office environments. One of them removed all the walls on one of its office floors. The researchers fitted workers from functions as varied as sales, technology, finance, and human resources with high-tech tracking devices, so-called sociometric badges, for 15 days before and 15 days after they moved from walled offices to the new architecture.
In the “walled” period, the employees spent an average of 5.8 hours a day interacting face to face; in the open space, that shrank to 1.7 hours. At the same time, they ended up sending 56% more e-mails and 67% more instant messages, which became 75% longer, too.
The second company was moving from cubicles to an open space design for its entire international headquarters. The 100 employees fitted with sociometric badges traded their seats, located some 2 meters (6.6 feet) apart but separated by cubicle walls, for workplaces located just as densely but without any barriers, in groups of six to eight desks. This decreased face-to-face interactions by 67% and increased e-mail traffic. Counterintuitively, the physical distance between the communicating employees had no significant effect on how they interacted. Physical proximity, it seems, is overrated as a cooperation enhancer.

Open offices, Bernstein and Turban wrote, tend to be “overstimulating.” Too much information, too many distractions, too many people walking around or even just staring at their monitors — all that “appears to have the perverse outcome of reducing rather than increasing productive interaction.”
“While it is possible to bring chemical substances together under specific conditions of temperature and pressure to form the desired compound, more factors seem to be at work in achieving a similar effect with humans,” the researchers concluded. “Until we understand those factors, we may be surprised to find a reduction in face-to-face collaboration at work even as we architect transparent, open spaces intended to increase it.”
The authors don’t psychoanalyze their results.
One possible explanation is that placing people in an enormous fish tank in which they have no personal space makes people cringe rather than make them more gregarious. The corporate world pushes extroversion on people, most often through a relentless meetings culture. Some find that not only uncomfortable — they unconsciously try to minimize human contact and resort to less personal electronic communication. There could be other explanations: For example, it’s easy to see in an open space that someone is busy, so people may be reluctant to interrupt a colleague in the middle of a pressing task.
But no matter what’s going on psychologically, the changes in the communications mix can hurt the business. Bernstein and Turban noted that the first company’s executives reported to them “that productivity, as defined by the metrics used by their internal performance management system, had declined after the redesign to eliminate spatial boundaries.” That, they noted, was consistent with research that shows that declines in media richness — that in, in the involvement of all our senses in communication — adversely affect productivity.
Freelancers and small company founders should be mindful of this effect when they trade their home officers for WeWork subscriptions.
In a WeWork office, one gets 60 to 80 square feet of space, compared with the US corporate standard of about 200 square feet. Though some can use the proximity and the ingeniously designed common areas for networking, many could end up putting less effort into work while still communicating electronically rather than face-to-face. Recent research shows work effort to be higher at home than in any office environment. Even if a full-time telecommuter gets a little claustrophobic and begins to neglect personal care these can be reasonable sacrifices to make for higher engagement and productivity, not to mention the benefits of eliminating the commute to work.
For bigger companies that value human interaction and old-school face-to-face collaboration, eliminating open-plan offices altogether is not the answer of course. And there is no indication that people are working less productively or effectively just because there is less face-to-face interaction; quite the opposite might be true. Many employers already offer flexible working so that employees can work from home at times. There is no academic research yet into what such a mixed regime would do to the quantity and quality of interactions, but I suspect employers might find workers will develop a hunger for more human contact, not for more e-mails and messenger chats, while they’re cloistered at home.
Modern technology allows employers to test out all the options using the same kind of equipment as Bernstein and Turban. If the goal is to maximize productivity, they should do it rather than rely on intuition and anecdotal evidence.
BLOOMBERG

From hospitals to agribusiness—investors are setting their sights on Western Visayas: DTI

According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Western Visayas has become a hotbed for investor interest, with businesses keen on investing in water transport services, hospital services, agribusiness, mass housing, and agro-processing in the region.
Prospective investors expressed this “strong interest” during the series of investment promotion activities conducted by the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) in Region 8, which promoted new economic opportunities under the 2017-2019 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).
“The Philippines has a growing economy,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said in a statement. “In fact, our country is projected to grow more than five times its current economic size and become the 24th biggest economy in the world by 2030.”
“Together with this growth, we see stronger demand for many projects such as these not only in the Eastern Visayas but also in the other parts of the country,” he said. — Janina C. Lim

World Cup big guns primed for quarterfinal shoot-outs

MOSCOW — The World Cup hit the pause button on Wednesday as the eight remaining teams geared up for the quarter-finals after England became the final side to qualify following a penalty shoot-out win against Colombia.
Neymar’s Brazil are the favorites to win a record-extending sixth World Cup at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on July 15 but France, Belgium and Uruguay are all in their side of the draw.
Gareth Southgate’s England are the only former winners in the bottom half of the draw, along with host nation Russia, Croatia and Sweden.
England’s victory against Colombia on Tuesday takes Gareth Southgate’s team into what looks like a winnable match against the Swedes, who edged out Switzerland 1-0 in the last 16.
On a dramatic night in Moscow’s Spartak Stadium, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made a key save from Carlos Bacca before Eric Dier’s spot-kick gave England their first-ever win on penalties at a World Cup at the fourth attempt — ending a jinx that has dogged them for so long.
The Sun tabloid coined his save the “Hand of Jord,” harking back to Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” incident in 1986, when the Argentine used his hand to put the ball into the net against England.
“It’s the headline we have waited a lifetime to write… England win on penalties (Yes really!),” the paper said.
The largest British audience for a live sporting event since the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics watched the shoot-out — 23.6 million viewers tuned in.
Southgate said he was already looking forward to Saturday’s quarter-final against Sweden in Samara, with a last-four clash against either Croatia or Russia up for grabs.
“This was special but I want us to go on,” said Southgate, whose own penalty miss saw England lose to Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 96 at Wembley.
“Sweden is another team we have a poor record against. We have underestimated them for years. They have created their own story and made history. I don’t want to go home yet.”
England captain Harry Kane leads the goalscoring charts in Russia with six strikes, two clear of Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku.
Janne Andersson’s Sweden have recovered well from a heartbreaking group-stage defeat by Germany, edging out Switzerland 1-0 in the last 16 thanks to a goal from RB Leipzig midfielder Emil Forsberg.
In the other match in England’s half of the draw, host nation Russia — riding a wave of euphoria after their shock win against 2010 winners Spain — face a Croatia side inspired by Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric in Sochi on Saturday.
NEYMAR SCRUTINY
For all the drama around England, the winner of the tournament is more likely to come from the top half of the draw, where the teams can boast a combined eight tournament wins.
Favorites Brazil will come up against Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ in Kazan on Friday while an exciting young France side spearheaded by the lightning-quick Kylian Mbappe take on a shrewd Uruguay outfit in Nizhny Novgorod.
Much of the focus surrounding Brazil’s challenge has inevitably been on Neymar.
But the world’s most expensive player has hit the headlines as much for his perceived play-acting as for the on-pitch performances that have helped his side ease into the last eight without ever being seriously troubled.
Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio said the stoppages caused by Neymar’s antics stalled his team during their 2-0 last-16 loss to Brazil, claiming the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s reaction to Miguel Layun stepping on his leg was a “shame for football”.
Belgium’s Eden Hazard, Lukaku, Dries Mertens and Kevin De Bruyne are likely to give Brazil’s defense the biggest test of their campaign so far, although the South Americans have only conceded once in four matches.
“This is the sort of game you dream about as a little boy and we can enjoy it from the first second,” said Belgium coach Roberto Martinez.
France never got out of first gear in easing through the group stage, but turned on the style as Mbappe dazzled in a classic 4-3 victory over Argentina to set up the clash with Uruguay.
Uruguay’s success has been built on a solid defense led by Atletico Madrid pair Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin, with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani doing the damage at the other end with five goals between them. — AFP

Canada topples Batang Gilas at U17 World Cup

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter
THE run of Batang Gilas at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup came to an end on Thursday when it was routed by Canada, 102-62, in their Round of 16 encounter at the at Newell’s Old Boys in Rosario, Argentina.
Showing the form that made it the world number 2-ranked team, Canada proved to be too much for the Philippines (#34) as it dominated from start to finish en route to the huge win that thrust the team to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The Canadians raced to a 14-0 lead early in the opening quarter to set the tone for how the contest would go.
Gerry Abadiano broke through for Batang Gilas with three free throws made at the 5:18 mark to make it 14-3 before the team saw Canada build a 26-7 lead at the end of the first period.
The second quarter saw Batang Gilas scoring better but unfortunately so did its opponent, outscoring the former, 25-19, to create further distance, 51-26, by the halftime break.
With the team pretty much in control, Canada spent the rest of the way staving off the fightback attempts of the Philippines, and successfully did so, limiting Batang Gilas to just 36 points in the third and fourth periods combined as compared to its 51 points.
Abadiano had another solid game for the Philippines with 19 points with Kai Sotto adding 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe paced the victorious Canadians with 22 points followed by Benjamin Krikke with 13.
Luka Sakota is the other Canada player in double digits with 10 points.
With the win, Canada advanced to the quarterfinals where it will face world number 9 Australia.
Batang Gilas, for its part, slumped to its fourth defeat in as many games and exited sans a win to show for.
Apart from Abadiano and Sotto, other Batang Gilas players were Rence Padrigao, Terrence Fortea, Mclaude Guadana, Jose Miguel Pascual, RC Calimag, Yukien Andrada, Carl Tamayo, Joshua Lazaro, Shaun Chiu and Raven Cortez.
Coaches were Michael Oliver and Josh Reyes.

San Beda ready to make another go at title

THE defending men’s basketball champions San Beda Red Lions are ready to go make another run at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title when Season 94 unfurls this weekend.
Champions in the last two years, and seven in the last eight years, the Red Lions said they are not about done and can only be expected to battle all comers.
San Beda is coming back with practically an intact lineup led by Robert Bolick and Javee Mocon.
Also part of the team are Clint Doliguez, Franz Abuda, AC Soberano, Jomari Presbitero and rookie Evan Nelle.
Looking to give further aid to the defending champions’ push are foreign players Donald Tankoua and Toba Eugene, a pair of big men who would man the paint for the Mendiola-based squad.
Tankoua was the finals most valuable player last year while Eugene impressed in the preseason so much so that he supplanted Arnaud Noah, the 2016 finals MVP, for the last foreign player spot in the team.
While they are confident of where they are coming from heading into the brand-new NCAA season, San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez said they still have to put in the work and perform accordingly on the court amid what they expect to be a tough field.
“Yes, we have the experience and we’re almost intact. But I still think it will be tough this season because teams have beefed up,” said Mr. Fernandez at the press conference for NCAA Season 94 early this week at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“Nonetheless, we are ready,” he added.
San Beda opens its campaign against Season 94 hosts Perpetual Help Altas, now handled by former Lions coach Frankie Lim, in the opening game on Saturday, July 7, at 2 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Following suit at 4 p.m. is the Lyceum Pirates against San Sebastian Stags.
Opening ceremonies have been set at 12 noon.
All NCAA Season 94 games will be shown live on ABS-CBN S+A and S+A HD. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

GlobalPort, Barangay Ginebra shoot for outright playoff spot

THE GlobalPort Batang Pier and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings collide in a key Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup game today at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City with an outright playoff berth at stake.
Both sporting 5-5 records with their 7 p.m. encounter left to play in their elimination-round schedules, the Batang Pier and Kings look to get the better of the other to advance to the next round complication-free.
A win notch for the protagonists a sixth victory, the magic number to move to the quarterfinals, while a defeat could see them needing to play in a do-or-die match for the last quarterfinal spot in the event the Phoenix Fuel Masters (4-6) beat the Alaska Aces (7-3) in the scheduled 4 p.m. today.
GlobalPort comes into the contest fresh from its 133-115 victory over also-rans Columbian Dyip on June 22 where All-Star guard Stanley Pringle fired off 50 points to tow his team to the win.
Mr. Pringle also had six assists, five rebounds and three steals in a brilliant all-around game.
Malcolm White finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds while Jonathan Grey added 16 markers of his own.
“This is a big win for us. I told the players that we couldn’t afford to lose this game as we are going to a crucial game against Ginebra. We’re still not safe and we have to be ready to play,” said GlobalPort coach Pido Jarencio following their win over Columbian.
CAUTIOUS
The same cautious stand is being taken by Barangay Ginebra, this notwithstanding its string of four wins in a row of late.
“We’re really on a good groove. I really don’t know why. I don’t know what we’re doing that is making us play as well as we are but it’s working. I really don’t know what it is but we hope to continue doing it,” said Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone following their 105-86 rout of Alaska on June 24.
“We’re really playing well. Guys are sharing the ball. Our defense has really, really stepped up. But we’re not out of the woods yet. We are not in the top six. We need to get one more and we have GlobalPort next… We are playing good basketball and we want to keep our momentum going but we’ll see what happens,” added the Kings coach.
Justin Brownlee led the way for the Kings over the Aces with 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
LA Tenorio had 12 markers while Sol Mercado tallied 10.
Meanwhile, Phoenix tries to keep its playoff hopes alive with a win over Alaska in the opener.
The Fuel Masters won over GlobalPort in their last game, 135-108, on June 20 to stay alive, something they hope to build on.
“I guess we are still alive. But more than that, I hope this is a start of something big for us moving forward,” said Phoenix coach Louie Alas after their win.
For Alaska, a win will also be big as it not only affords it a bounce back after two straight losses but also could secure for them a top two finish in the eliminations and earn for the team a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Federer, Serena in master class act as Wozniacki crashes

LONDON — Roger Federer extended his flawless winning streak at Wimbledon to 26 consecutive sets as the defending champion crushed Lukas Lacko, while Serena Williams powered to her 16th successive win in Wednesday’s second round action.
While Federer and Serena strolled, Caroline Wozniacki suffered fresh Wimbledon woe as the world number two suffered a shock 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 defeat against Ekaterina Makarova.
Federer delivered a Centre Court master class lasting 89 minutes as the Swiss star hit 48 winners and 16 aces in his 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 victory.
The 36-year-old is now on his joint second longest streak of sets won at Wimbledon — his best was 34 between the third round in 2005 to the 2006 final.
Next up for Federer is a third round tie against German world number 64 Jan-Lennard Struff who came back from two sets down to defeat 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic 13-11 in the final set.
In his 20th Wimbledon appearance, top seed Federer, a 20-time major winner, is bidding to become only the second player to claim nine singles titles at the All England Club after Martina Navratilova.
On the evidence of his ruthless demolition of Slovakian world number 73 Lacko, it will take something special to stop Federer making more Wimbledon history.
Federer wasn’t the only former champion in peak form on Centre Court as seven-time winner Serena routed Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-4.
Williams brushed aside Tomova in just 66 minutes with 24 winners and four aces to extend her streak of consecutive match wins at the All England Club.
‘EATING BUGS’
The 36-year-old, whose winning run encompasses her Wimbledon titles in 2015 and 2016, missed the grass-court Grand Slam last year while she prepared to give birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September.
Serena, seeded 25th after her return from maternity leave, faces France’s Kristina Mladenovic for a place in the last 16.
Wozniacki, plagued by an invasion of flying ants during the Court One clash, saved five match points but has now failed to get past the last 16 in 12 visits to the All England Club.
It was a bitter defeat for the 27-year-old Dane, who was expected to challenge for the Wimbledon title after winning her maiden Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open in January.
With flying ants stuck in Wozniacki’s hair and dive-bombing her throughout the match, the former world number one asked the umpire if there was something that could be sprayed to keep the bugs away.
Five-time champion Venus Williams battled into the third round with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru.
Venus reached her ninth Wimbledon final last year, but the American star was denied a sixth title by Garbine Muguruza.
Making her 21st Wimbledon appearance, 38-year-old Venus is the oldest woman in this year’s tournament.
But she didn’t look her age in making it 89 career match wins at Wimbledon by demolishing Dulgheru in the final two sets.
Asked if her wealth of Wimbledon experience was a key factor, Venus said: “I’d love to have that extra advantage. If that’s working for me I’m all for it.
“It’s just about winning the match. If that’s your best or not doesn’t matter.”
Venus next faces Dutch 20th seed Kiki Bertens, who beat Russian world number 107 Anna Blinkova 6-4, 6-0.
Former world number one Karolina Pliskova finally made it to the third round on her seventh visit to Wimbledon after seeing off two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3.
Former finalist Agnieszka Radwanska lost 7-5, 6-4 to Czech world number 66 Lucie Safarova. — AFP

Iniong doing it step by step towards world title

WITH an eye on becoming a world champion mixed martial arts fighter, Filipino Gina “Conviction” Iniong is doing everything she can to develop her game, but in a step-by-step manner, knowing that only through it can she be better prepared.
Next step for Ms. Iniong’s fledging career is a fight with Brazilian Istela Nunes in a women’s atomweight encounter at ONE Championship’s “Battle for the Heavens” event in Guangzhou, China, on Saturday, June 7.
A win could potentially set up Baguio native Iniong (7-3) to a title fight with currently undefeated champion Angela Lee.
While she is excited of the what could be in store for her moving forward, the Filipina said she is not getting ahead of herself and instead is focusing on taking it one challenge at a time.
“I don’t want to rush things. I have to keep training to keep my edge. I know I can be a world champion. I know that in my heart, so I have to work very hard to achieve that dream,” Ms. Iniong said.
Adding, “If I can keep getting better and keep winning, I know I will reach the top sooner or later. I am willing to do it step-by-step.”
Ms. Iniong is coming off a unanimous decision win over Jenny Huang of Chinese Taipei in April this year and is angling to make it back-to-back victories.
Ms. Nunes (5-1), for her part, lost to Ms. Lee in their title fight in May last year.
Headlining Battle for the Heavens is the Super Series Kickboxing Atomweight World Championship between Yodcherry Sityodtong of Thailand and Kai Ting Chuang of China.
Co-main event is the flyweight clash between Tatsumitsu Wada of Japan and Reece McLaren of Australia.
Joining Ms. Iniong in representing the Philippine flag in the event is strawweight Robin Catalan against Adrian Mattheis of Indonesia. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

1...12,29112,29212,293...14,202Page 12,292 of 14,202
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube