Philab invests in a US-based genomics company

February 2, 2018 | 7:02 pm

PHILAB Holdings Corp. is investing P500 million in a US-based genomics company in a deal seen to boost the Philippine-listed company’s bid to expand overseas.

In a statement on Friday, Philab said it has signed a collaboration deal with Veritas Genetics which it described as a “globally known genomics innovator” that screens human DNA through myGenome “whole genome sequencing” (WGS) that helps in assessing risks related to inherited diseases, drug sensitivities, traits and ancestry.

“We are excited to embark on this partnership with Philab and integrate our technology to offer our services in the Asia-Pacific. Whole genome sequencing and interpretation will soon be accessible to everyone,” Mirza Cifric, co-founder and chief executive officer of Veritas Genetics, said in a statement.

The deal “covers Philab’s investment of Php 500M in Veritas” with plans to establish a genomics facility in the future, the statement read. It will also support the holding firm’s plan to expand its operations worldwide starting from the Asia-Pacific region.

“Genetics has come a long way and now we are utilizing the power of genomics in disease prevention and individual treatment. Ultimately our goal is to let individuals have knowledge about their genetic makeup, then they would know how to control and better manage their lifestyle choices,” said Hector Thomas A. Navasero, Philab chairman and chief executive officer.

Philab said the partners would launch a new program on Pharmacogenomics, which it called an “exciting innovation which allows doctors to determine how an individual’s genetic makeup will respond to drugs.”

Mr. Cifric said the collaboration would enable the company to further develop and launch its genome sequencing services, while expanding its footprint in Asia.

On Friday, shares in Philab slipped 3.13% to P4.02 each. — V.V. Saulon

Expansion of acceptable collateral could boost PHL’s ease of doing business rank

February 2, 2018 | 7:02 pm

THE PHILIPPINES’ Ease of Doing Business ranking could rise by as many as 100 spots into the top 50 when the Secured Transaction Systems bill is enacted, according to the Department of Finance (DoF).

The proposal, filed as House Bill No. 3682, seeks to establish a legal framework for the use of non-traditional collateral for loans, such as accounts receivable, inventory, and intellectual property, among others.

The measure is expected to “encourage more lending to MSMEs and agriculture” since it would also allow the use of crops, livestock and other equipment as loan security.

“The passage of this bill will strengthen the Philippines’ position in the “Getting credit” indicator in the Ease of Doing Business and boost it by about 100 notches—from rank 142 among 190 countries to 42,” the DoF said.

Currently, most banks only accept real estate as loan collateral.

The DoF said that about 31% of production by Philippine family household businesses and 65% of household businesses have no ability to borrow for their expansion needs.

It added that in countries that carried out the reform, lending to micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) grew by 50-100%.

The DoF noted that China’s acceptance of movable collateral released $3.58 trillion worth of lending for MSMEs over four years.

Movable collateral accounts for 45% of commercial lending in China and 30% in Vietnam, according to the DoF.

The DoF said that of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), seven have secured transactions laws, while five have a universal collateral registries.

The bill is currently up for third and final reading in the House of Representatives, and its counterpart bill in the Senate is set for second reading.

Aside from the legal framework, the bill would also establish a regulated warehousing industry which issues receipts that can be used as collateral by lenders and can be traded by investors and industry players; develop an automated movable collateral registry wherein information on transfers and pledges of collateral can be made and accessed by participants.

The Finance department said that this will “develop the backbone of an efficient commodities market that will stabilize prices and expand transactions.”

Even with the bill pending for approval by Congress, the Land Registration Authority (LRA) has established an automated collateral registry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is also currently drafting regulations on audit systems to check compliance with regulations. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

Globe says nearing two-million broadband line goal

February 2, 2018 | 7:01 pm

GLOBE Telecom, Inc. has deployed one million broadband lines, halfway through its goal of two million lines by 2020.

In a statement, the telecommunications company said it deployed more than one million broadband lines in the last two years, enabling more users to stream video content.

In terms of wired broadband facilities, Globe deployed fiber broadband in 12 cities in Metro Manila as well as in 19 provinces. Majority of the company’s fiber build are located in Quezon City, Sta. Rosa and Calamba in Laguna, as well as in Cebu and Davao.

Joel Agustin, Globe senior vice president for program governance, network technical group, said the company’s deployment of massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology has been working to accelerate the roll out of two million home broadband lines, with speeds of at least 10 Mbps (megabit per second) by 2020.

“The goal is to provide for the growing data service needs of our customers and the company will continue to aggressively roll out broadband lines using latest available technologies such as the massive MIMO,” Mr. Agustin said in a statement.

Globe has set a capital expenditure (capex) of $850 million (around P43 billion) for 2018. — P.P.C. Marcelo

Bargain hunt spurs slight recovery

February 2, 2018 | 7:01 pm

PHILIPPINE EQUITIES recovered on Friday from three straight days of decline to close above the 8,800 mark, with one analyst attributing the week’s positive end to bargain-hunting by investors.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) closed at 8,810.75, up by 72.03 points or 0.82%, while the all-shares index finished 5,181.82, up by 50.90 points or 0.99%.

PSEi was down 2.55% on the week but still up 2.95% from 2017’s 8,558.42 finish.

“The index closed above 8,800 today as local investors picked stocks at bargain prices after the sudden dip in global equities that started on Tuesday,” Jervin S. de Celis, equities trader at Timson Securities, Inc. said in a message.

Thursday saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 37.32 points or 0.14% at 26,186.71, while the S&P 500 Index slipped by 1.83 points or 0.06% to 2,821.98 and the Nasdaq Composite Index sank by 25.62 points or 0.35% at 7,385.86.

“Philippine markets managed to carve out substantial gains after several days of being sold down with US stock indexes, switching between gains and losses as concerns about a pick-up in inflation and rising bond yields fostered emerging volatility on Wall Street,” Mr. de Celis noted, adding that “the all-time high this week was also taken advantage to liquidate shares since our market is already trading at high valuations”.

The PSEi last Jan. 29 marked its ninth peak for 2018 at a 9,058.62 finish before it embarked on a three-day decline.

Major bourses elsewhere in Asia were a mixed bunch, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix Index as well as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipping by 0.90%, 0.33% and 0.12%, respectively, while the Shenzhen-Shanghai CSI 300 Index and the MSCI AC Asia Pacific rose by 0.60% and 0.20%, respectively.

All local sectoral indices ended Friday with gains, led by mining and oil that increased by 212.7 points or 1.79% to 12,083.05, followed by industrials that advanced by 121.04 points or 1.02% to 11,891.59, holding firms that went up by 90.86 points or 1.01% to 9,007.76, property which rose by 36.35 points or 0.91% to 3,993.89, services which added 11.89 points or 0.69% to 1,718.11 and financials which edged up by 3.59 points or 0.16% to 2,223.55.

Friday’s list of 20 most active stocks saw only three that fell: Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc.; Security Bank Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. that fell by 2.90% to P6.70 apiece, 0.73% to P243.40 and by 0.62% to P6.46 each, respectively.

Stocks that gained were led by the likes of SM Investments Corp.; SM Prime Holdings, Inc.; Ayala Land, Inc.; Semirara Mining and Power Corp.; Jollibee Foods Corp.; Megaworld Corp. and San Miguel Corp. that increased by 0.59% to P1,030 apiece, 1.23% to P36.95, 1.10% to P45.85%, 1.74% to P37.90, 2.37% to P294, 1.22% to P4.96 and by 4.90% to P152 each.

Stocks that gained outnumbered those that lost 123 to 72, while 58 others were unchanged.

Friday saw 3.08 billion shares worth P7.851 billion change hands, compared to Thursday’s 2.748 billion issues worth P7.34 billion.

Foreigners remained predominantly sellers for a sixth straight day, marking Friday with P978.262-million net sales that were nevertheless 28% smaller than Thursday’s P1.359 billion. — with inputs from P. P. C. Marcelo

Transition plan approved for independent successor to PEMC

February 2, 2018 | 7:01 pm

A TRANSITION plan for the creation of an independent market operator (IMO) for electricity trading has been approved by the board of directors of the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC).

“This has been long overdue; it has been delayed for more than a decade. Now is the best time to usher in its independence as provided in the law,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said in a statement.

The move is line with Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) that calls for the creation of the IMO.

The new entity will take over from PEMC the management and operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s centralized venue for buyers and sellers to trade electricity as a commodity where its prices are based on actual use, or demand, and availability, or supply.

PEMC said: ““In light of this development, the IMO will be incorporated as a non-profit company which is independent of the government and industry participants. On the other hand, PEMC shall remain as the governing body of the spot market with board of directors composed of participant representatives and independent members.”

The creation of the IMO comes after Mr. Cusi in July created a transition committee that will come up with the way forward for WESM after he called for the resignation of PEMC’s previous board members. He gave the committee seven months from Aug. 1, 2017 to complete the task.

PEMC said the activities for the transition include a special meeting among market participants on Feb. 6, 2018 for the constitution of the corporation’s membership. A special board meeting will also be held to finalize and approve the amendments to PEMC articles of incorporation and by-laws.

It said the selection of IMO company incorporators and initial board members will be based on the submissions of the PEM board and the PEMC transition committee.

“By the second quarter of 2018, PEMC and the IMO shall enter into an operational agreement to formalize turnover of the use of the Market Management System (MMS) and other trading platforms as well as the transfer of market operations functions. Alongside these milestones, personnel placement and employment for the two companies will be completed in June,” PEMC said.

WESM has been operated by PEMC since June 2006. Under its rules, the market operator should have been an independent entity after a year of operation. Electricity trading began in Luzon in June 2006 and in the Visayas in December 2010. — Victor V. Saulon

Peso strengthens on profit-taking, remittances

February 2, 2018 | 7:01 pm

THE peso recovered against the dollar on profit-taking, closing at its high with the US unit’s value taking a hit from surging remittances.

The peso ended yesterday’s session at P51.45 against the dollar, compared with P51.58 on Thursday.

The peso opened weaker at P51.63, falling to an intraday low of P51.76, before rallying at the close.

Volume rose to $1.12 billion from $878.15 million on Thursday.

“Although the dollar was strong overnight, we saw some profit-taking in the afternoon session,” a trader told BusinessWorld over the phone, adding that there was “some good selling from remittances.”

Guian Angelo S. Dumalagan, market economist at the Land Bank of the Philippines, said: “The peso appreciated [yesterday], as investors locked in the dollar’s recent gains ahead of key US labor data.”

January US nonfarm payrolls are due for release late Friday, with the market consensus centered around an increase of up to 180,000 jobs from 148,000 jobs in December.

Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist of UnionBank of the Philippines, said: “It seems investors are looking at other stories like the up and coming strength of the eurozone’s economy.”

Despite the peso’s recent weakness, the central bank has said that the currency is supported by healthy fundamentals.

“The peso is not expected to melt down because the underlying economic fundamentals of the economy are healthy,” central bank governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said, citing the”manageable” balance of payments (BoP) deficit.

The balance of payments (BoP) position was a $917-million surplus in December, a reversal from the $214-million deficit in December 2016, and the $44-million deficit booked in November.

The December surplus trimmed the full-year 2017 deficit to $863 million from the $1.78 billion seen in the previous month.

“The BOP deficit is very manageable and is but a reflection of an economy that’s growing rapidly in a way that is sustainable,” Mr. Espenilla said.

The country’s central banker added that the peso is far from any foreign exchange crisis, given the country’s large gross international reserves (GIR) as well as the investment-grade rating.

Preliminary data from BSP showed the country’s GIR totalled $81.467 billion last December, up from November’s $80.309 billion and $80.691 billion logged in December 2016.

“We are very far from any foreign exchange crisis given our large GIR buffer and secondary buffers as well as investment grade-rating that guarantees ready market access for any official and commercial financing requirement.”

In December, credit rating agency Fitch Ratings upgraded the country’s issuer default rating to “BBB” from “BBB-” with a “stable” outlook, a notch above the minimum investment grade and is aligned with the ratings earlier given by Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

SWS: crime victimization rises to 7.6% but 2017 average a record-low 5.6%

February 2, 2018 | 5:35 pm

VICTIMIZATION by any of the common crimes cited by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) rose 1.5 points from 6.5% in September last year to 7.6% in the polling group’s Fourth Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey.

In contrast, however to this rise in reported crimes, the annual average for 2017 was a record-low 6.1% — 2.1 points below the 8.2% average in 2016. This is due to the record-low 3.7% quarterly victimization rate in June 2017, SWS said.

An estimated 1.6 million or 7.1% of families lost property to street robbery (pickpocket or robbery of personal property), burglary (break-ins), or carjacking — a 1.3-point increase from the 5.8% (est. 1.3 million) in September 2017, and the highest property crime rate since the 10.9% in June 2016.

Yet the resulting annual average on property crimes for 2017 was a record-low 5.6%, due to the record-low property crime rate of 3.1% in June that year.

The December survey also found 0.8% (est. 188,000) of families with members hurt by physical violence within the past six months — 0.3 point above the 0.5% (est. 115,000) in September 2017, and the highest since the 0.9% in June 2016.

STREET ROBBERIES, BREAK-INS
Despite lower 2017 averages, street robberies rose in Metro Manila by 3 points to 10.3% in December and in the Visayas by 1 point to 5%. But street robberies fell in Balance Luzon by 0.3 point to 3.7% and in Mindanao by 1 point to 2.7% in December.

Break-ins also fell 1 point in Mindanao to 2.3% in December, but rose in Metro Manila by 1.3 points to 5.3%, in Balance Luzon by 1.6 points t o 3.3%, and in the Visayas by 2 points to 3.7%.

Despite lower 2017 averages, fear of burglaries rose Balance Luzon (10 points 64% in December), Metro Manila (2 points 70%), and Mindanao (2 points to 47%), and remained steady in the Visayas (52% in September 2017 to 53% in December).

Apart from the figures on street robberies, fear of unsafe streets fell in Metro Manila (10 points to 54% in December) and Mindanao (7 points to 35%), remained steady in the Visayas (52% in September to 53% in December), but rose in Balance Luzon (3 points to 51% in December).

The survey found that among the 4.6% who have been victims of street robbery, 52% are men while 40% are women. Among men, victimization by street robbery rose by 19 points from 33% in September 2017.

Among women, victimization by street robbery fell by 20 points from 62% in September. This brings the 2017 average victimization by street robbery among women to 50.0%, 2.7 points above the 47.3% annual average in 2016. This is the highest since the 52.5% annual average in 2006.

Still more men (61%) than women (11%) have been victims of physical violence, according to the survey. SWS said this has been the trend since March 2005, with the exceptions of June 2011 and September 2016.

Victimization by physical violence among men rose by 3 points from 58% in September 2017. On the other hand, the proportion of women victimized by physical violence fell by 19 points from 30% in September.

FAMILY SAFETY
The December 2017 survey found that 57% of Filipino adults nationwide said the safety of their family is better now compared to six months ago, 36% said it is the same as before, and 6% said it is worse now.

Compared to September 2017, those who said their family safety is better now increased by 7 points from 50%, those who said it is same as before was unchanged from 36%, and those who said that is worse now decreased by 8 points from 14%.

By area, the proportion of those who said their family safety is better now compared to six months ago is highest in Mindanao at 71%, followed by Metro Manila at 63%, Visayas at 59%, and Balance Luzon at 47%. It rose by 11 points in Visayas, 10 points in Metro Manila, 7 points in Mindanao, and 4 points in Balance Luzon.

By locale, it rose by 9 points among urban dwellers to 62% in December, and 6 points among rural dwellers to 53%.

By class, it rose by 12 points among class E to 52% in December, 6 points among class D to 58%, and 2 points among classes ABC to 51%.

By sex, it rose by 10 points among women ,to 58% in December, and 4 points among men, to 56%.

By age group, it rose by 15 points among 35-44 year olds, to 61% in December, 8 points among 45-54 year olds to 53%, 6 points among 25-34 year olds to 56%, 5 points among 18-24 year olds to 61%, and 2 points among 55 years old and up to 57% in December.

By education, it rose by 12 points among non-elementary graduates to 61% in December, 9 points among elementary graduates to 55%, 5 points among high school graduates to 58%, and 2 points among college graduates to 56%.

DRUG ADDICTS, CARNAPPING
The proportion of those reporting many drug addicts in their neighborhood fell by 12 points in Metro Manila, from 62% in September 2017 to 50% in December 2017. However, it rose by 3 points in the Visayas to 43% 3 points in Mindanao to 30%, and 11 points in Balance Luzon to 45%.

For three consecutive quarters since June 2017, none of the sample in Mindanao reported being victimized by carnapping. It was 0.8% in March 2017.

In contrast, carnapping in Metro Manila rose by 1.1 points from zero in September to 1.1% in December. Families victimized by carnapping also rose in Balance Luzon by 1.1 points to 1.5%, and in the Visayas to 1.8% in December after three consecutive quarters of zero reports from March to September.

The survey was conducted from December 8-16, 2017, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±2.5% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao).

Aquino, Abad, Garin charged for election spending on Dengvaxia

February 2, 2018 | 5:34 pm

By Minde Nyl R. Dela Cruz

THE Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and former Department of Health (DoH) consultant Francis Cruz on Friday, Feb. 2, filed a joint complaint-affidavit before the Commission on Elections against former president Benigno S.C. Aquino III and officials of the DOH for alleged election offense in connection with the procurement of the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.

Aside from the Mr. Aquino, former budget secretary Florencio B. Abad and former health secretary Janette P. Loreto-Garin were also named respondents.

VACC and Mr. Cruz said the respondents violated the Omnibus Election Code for using P3 billion in public funds in the procurement of the Dengvaxia vaccine and implementation of the Dengue Immunization Program, 45 days before the 2016 general election.

The complainants accused Mr. Aquino of using public funds “to further the candidacies of his partymates (in the Liberal Party), especially those vying for the presidential, vice-presidential and senatorial post(s), or otherwise influence or entice the voters to throw their support or vote for the candidates for president, vice-president and senator of his party in the May 2016 elections, contrary to sec. 261 (o) of said law.”

Section 261 (o) of the Omnibus Election Code prohibits the use of public funds for an election campaign.

VACC and Mr. Cruz also accused the respondents of violating Section 261 (v) which prohibits the release of public funds 45 days before the election.

“In the case of other DOH officials, they are liable for being involved, directly or indirectly, in the first round of implementation of the Dengue Immunization Program on April 4, 2016 or during the election ban,” the complaint-affidavit read.

The complainants said that “some DOH officials may have conspired with Aquino III, Abad, and Garin in the commission of the aforestated election law violations” and added that they “should also be investigated.”

Other past and present DoH officials also named in the complaint are undersecretaries Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taiño, Gerardo V. Bayugo, Lilibeth C. David, and Mario C. Villaverde; assistant secretaries Lyndon L. Lee Suy, Nestor F. Santiago; financial management and service director Laureano C. Cruz; officer-in-charge directors Maria Joyce U. Ducusin and Mar Wynn C. Bello; DoH directors Leonita P. Gorgolon, Rio L. Magpantay, and Ariel I. Valencia; Philippine Children’s Medical Center director Julius A. Lecciones; retired DoH undersecretary Nemesio T. Gako; resigned DoH undersecretaries Vicente Y. Belizario Jr. and Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go; and resigned head executive assistant to then Secretary Garin, Yolanda E. Oliveros.

The Dengue Immunization Program began in April 2016, aimed at immunizing public schoolchildren aged 9 and above. In November last year, however, Sanofi Pasteur issued a warning that the vaccine should only be administered to patients who have previously contracted dengue, otherwise the vaccine could risk exposure to a more severe strain of the virus.

Sol-Gen: Ombudsman’s impeachment solution to impasse on Carandang’s fate

February 2, 2018 | 5:33 pm

SOLICITOR-GENERAL Jose C. Calida in a statement on Friday suggested Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales’s impeachment as “an obvious solution to the seeming impasse” over the suspension of her Overall Deputy Ombudsman (ODO) Melchor Arthur H. Carandang.

Ms. Morales is defying Malacañang’s suspension last Monday of Mr. Carandang, who had been investigating the alleged hidden wealth of President Rodrigo R. Duterte and his family, partly on the basis of information by the Anti-Money Laundering Council not authorized, however, by the council.

Ms. Morales, for her part, cited a 2014 Supreme Court ruling (Gonzales v. Office of the President) declaring “unconstitutional the administrative disciplinary jurisdiction of the President over deputy ombudsmen,” as she noted.

Mr. Calida in his statement said: “When the Ombudsman inhibited and left her ODO to decide in her stead, a procedural, legal, and ethical vacuum was created. The Constitution states that ODO is not an impeachable officer. The Ombudsman cannot also discipline the ODO for acts committed in a case where she inhibited herself as she will contradict herself. Neither can the ODO be disciplined by the other Deputy Ombudsmen due to lack of legal basis. This legal and ethical vacuum was not contemplated by the Supreme Court’s 2014 Gonzales decision. A deeply divided SC may have favored Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzales then, but who will now discipline ODO Carandang who was acting under Ombudsman Morales’ fiat?”

He added: “There is an obvious solution to the seeming impasse. Section 2, Article XI of the Constitution states, “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.” — with M.N.Dela Cruz

Lawyers say police report on ‘arrest’ of NDFP consultant ‘fake news’

February 2, 2018 | 5:32 pm

HUMAN rights lawyers laughed off as a “false and cheap propaganda stunt” a police claim on Friday, Feb. 2, that they had captured another ranking communist rebel leader, this time in Mindanao, two days after the arrest in Quezon City of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Rafael Baylosis.

News outfits, quoting Superintendent Lemuel Gonda, spokesman of the Northern Mindanao police, broke reports on the supposed arrest of Rommel Durango Salinas, in Barangay Aguada, Ozamiz City, on charges of frustrated murder and destructive arson.

The hitch, according to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, is that Mr. Salinas, who the group said is also an NDFP consultant, “was already arrested way back May 11, 2017” and the warrant had been served on him at the time.

Mr. Salinas was arrested with Bishop Carlo Morales of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, also known as the Aglipayan church, who also remains detained. Both are facing charges of illegal possession of explosives, which their lawyers and supporters insist are “trumped up,” for a grenade supposedly found in their possession at a checkpoint.

Soon after this, NUPL president Edre Olalia said, police “produced and served” the warrant for frustrated murder and destructive arson.

“The status of this case is still on petitions for bail hearings,” Mr. Olalia said.

In a statement, NUPL quoted its secretary-general Ephraim Cortez, who represents Messrs. Salinas and Morales in the illegal explosive possession case, as saying that, after the hearing on Thursday, agents of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group “accosted Salinas and tried to ‘serve’ a warrant for frustrated murder and arson.”

“There is one catch though: This fact is mentioned in the Affidavit of Arrest last year,” the group said.

“Hence, the misleading police spot check report and press release going the rounds of media giving the wrong impression that he was only arrested yesterday in a subdivision is false and a cheap propaganda stunt to sow terror and confusion,” it added. — interaksyon.com

Weekend road repairs in QC and Caloocan

February 2, 2018 | 5:31 pm

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will undertake road reblocking and repairs of roads in Quezon City and Caloocan City this weekend, the department said in a statement Friday.

The road repair and rehabilitation will be carried out from 11:00 p.m. of Friday, Feb. 2, using one (1) day concrete mix so that the affected road lanes will be fully passable at 5:00 a.m. of Monday, Feb. 5.

In Quezon City, reblocking and repair works will be done at the northbound direction of the following roads: Visayas Avenue in front of the National Food Authority (NFA), outerlane; EDSA between Howmart to Oliveros, 5th lane; Congressional Avenue Extension near Tandang Sora Avenue, 2nd lane; Congressional Avenue between EDSA to Cagayan Street, 1st lane; Quirino Highway fronting St. John Beverly Academy, inner lane; and inner lane of A. Bonifacio Avenue between Calavite Street to Mariveles Street.

The Bonifacio Monumento Circle in Caloocan City will also undergo repair works with General Tinio and B. Serrano Road as alternate routes.

Motorists are advised to use possible alternate routes due to traffic slowdown in the affected areas.

Innovation? Game‑changer? What’s that?

February 2, 2018 | 3:31 pm

Let’s talk buzzwords. We’ve talked about the meaning of startup, unicorn, bitcoin and blockchains. Those words have definite, though expansive, definitions.

But not so much when it comes to the words “game‑changer” and “innovation.” Those words get used a lot lately, to the point where you might start wondering if the person who used it even knows what it meant. Perhaps you too wasted too many minutes staring at a bottle labelled “innovative drink” going “what?”

Two speakers from the Spark Series x Far Eastern University last January 26 did their best to define these words for us so that not only will we not misuse them, we can also inspire to be game‑changers and innovators now that what they know what they are.

Francis Peña, the Business Lead for HATCH Campaigns under Voyager Innovations, Inc., turned to the dictionary for help during his talk on empowering future game‑changers. Quoting Merriam‑Webster, he said: “a game‑changer is a newly introduced element or a factor that changes an existing situation in a significant way.

He cited basketball player Michael Jordan as an example of a game‑changer in the field of sports, making the then unknown Chicago Bulls team a household name. (Also not to be mistaken with music legend Michael Jackson, though it could be argued that he too made a significant mark on the pop music scene.) Non‑human examples of game‑changers cited by Peña are email and smartphones. Can you imagine life without email? For all of your ‘90s nostalgia, do you really want to go back to the time when cell phones were the size and weight of aged box tortoises?

Now, what turns a person into a game‑changer? Peña gave us three P’s to live by: “palpak, pasaway and palaban.”

Palpak (failure) doesn’t mean that you should actively seek out failure. It means that you will naturally face failure in your life, but you shouldn’t give up because of it. “Failure will teach you more than success,”Peña said. “You have to look at failures as opportunities to learn, to grow and develop.”

Being a pasaway (non‑conformist), meanwhile, means that you won’t just settle with what you have right now. “Don’t settle for what’s in front of you; seek out and discover whether you can do to make things better,”said Peña, citing Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and Pinoy upcycling artist Paco Pili as examples of pasaways who made it. This is also where younger millennials and the centennials might excel over the older millennials, Peña stated, since they are less bound to tradition. “Older millennials like me have a tendency to be traditional… it’s important to know traditions but don’t bind yourself to traditions. Traditions evolve as the population evolves.”

The final P is palaban (possessing a fighting spirit). “Have the fortitude and persistence to follow through in spite of the challenges,”said Peña, concluding his Three P’s.

Now that we know what a game‑changer is, are you ready to know what innovation means so you can step up your game and become an innovative game‑changer? Tough luck, everyone has a different definition of innovation.

But Iggy Javellana, CEO of Pinoy video game company Muramasa Games, made sure that we’d get close to what innovation generally means through these words of wisdom: “Innovation isn’t just about creating something new. First you have to figure out what challenge you want to solve, then you have to execute your idea. But most importantly it has to add value to your brand and your customers.”

Got that? Being an innovator means not only having value but making others (your customers and stakeholders) see the value in you. They chose you for a reason. Be that reason.

And with that, see you in the next Spark Series! University of Santo Tomas get ready to get sparked up.

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