By Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral
Reporter

LAST QUARTER saw more Filipinos believing the quality of their lives will improve in the next 12 months, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) report that nevertheless showed optimism over economic prospects was weakest in two years, though both readings were deemed “excellent.”

For the survey, SWS interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide from June 23 to 26. The latest poll has sampling error margins of ±3 points for national percentages, ±4 for “Balance Luzon,” as well as ±6 each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.

QUALITY OF LIFE AHEAD
Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they expect their quality of life to improve in the next 12 months (“optimists”), while four percent expected it to worsen (“pessimists”), yielding a net personal optimism score of +40, classified by SWS as “excellent.”

That was one grade up and four points more than the “very high” +36 (43% optimists, six percent pessimists) logged in the preceding quarter.

SWS noted that net personal optimism had been “excellent” for five consecutive quarters before the March 2017 survey.

All geographic areas saw marginal increases in this regard.

“Balance Luzon” edged up five points to +42 in June from March’s +37, even as this upgraded the reading to “excellent” from “very high” previously.

It stayed “excellent” in Metro Manila, edging up just three points to +46 in June, as well as “very high” in Mindanao and the Visayas, inching up five points to +37 and by just two points to +36, respectively.

In terms of socioeconomic groups, net personal optimism edged up three points into “excellent” category to +41 in June from March’s “very high” +38 among respondents in class “D”; rose by eight points to a “very high” +37 in June from a “high” +29 in March among those in class “E,” and stayed “very high” among those belonging to “ABC,” inching up just two points to +39.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ‘EXCELLENT’ BUT DOWN
The same survey showed 39% of respondents bullish that the general Philippine economy next year will improve, while 12% feeling it will deteriorate.

June survey readings yielded a net optimism score of “excellent” +27 that was nevertheless 11 points less than the first quarter’s “excellent” +38 and was the lowest since June 2015’s “very high” +15.

Net scores stayed “excellent” in all areas despite declines led by Mindanao which gave up 15 points to +34, Metro Manila that lost 12 points to +27, “Balance Luzon” which dropped 10 points to +23 and the Visayas, whose reading declined by seven points to +27.

It also steadied in “excellent” territory across socioeconomic classes despite a fall of 27 points to +22 among “ABC” respondents, 11 points to +27 among those in “D” and seven points to +25 in “E”.

QUALITY OF LIFE STEADIES
Asked on change in personal quality of life from 12 months ago, 37% of respondents said their lives improved (“gainers”) while 19% said they’re worse off (“losers”), yielding a “very high” +17 net gainers score that, SWS said, was “similar to March’s +16 and just two points less than the record-high +19 in September 2016.

SWS attributed the national net gainers score increment to increases in “Balance Luzon” which saw its reading gain nine points to an “excellent” +20 in June from March’s “very high” +11 and in the Visayas where the score stayed “very high” as it gained five points to +19. These gains offset Metro Manila’s 12-point drop to a “very high” +14 in June from March’s “excellent” +26, and Mindanao’s eight-point fall to a “very high” +13 from an “excellent” +21.

Net gainers reading remained “excellent” among respondents belonging to class “ABC”, though just four points up to +27 in June from +23 in March; “very high” among “D” respondents whose reading edged up a point to +18 and “high” in “E”, steady at +9.

SWS said it revised its response classifications as scores in recent surveys have been testing upper thresholds.

“Up to the previous quarter, ‘very high’ has been the highest category for net personal optimism, net economic optimism and net personal gainers, used when their scores are +30 and up, +10 and up, and +10 and up, respectively,” the report explained.

“This was due to the very rare occasions for the said indicators to go as high as the said borderlines.”

The second-quarter survey added the open-ended “excellent” category, applied when net optimism score is at least +40, as well as when net economic optimism and net personal gainers readings are at least +20.

“Very high” now applies to net personal optimism scores of +39 to +39, as well as when net optimism about the economy and net gainers scores range from +10 to +19.

The other categories of “high,” “fair,” “mediocre,” “low” and “very low” stay with their original ranges, SWS added.

Commenting on the survey results, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in mobile phone message that while Malacañang is “pleased” with SWS findings, “what we need are truly institutional changes.”

“We have significant strides in the first year to ensure the inclusion of the marginalized and disadvantaged sectors,” Mr. Abella said.

“The government has certified as urgent a comprehensive tax reform package that would boost economic growth and infrastructure development while raising spending for the poor,” he added.

“This would lay down a strong foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth to enable our people to achieve their aspiration of a matatag, maginhawa at panatag na buhay.”

University of Santo Tomas political science professor Edmund S. Tayao said in a telephone interview, however, that perceptible drops in net optimism about the economy among geographical areas and socioeconomic classes may be due to uneasiness with the declaration in the last week of May of martial law across Mindanao as militants aligned with the Islamic State took over Marawi City.

“Of course, people expect that, among others, the tourism industry will be the most significantly hit by the declaration of martial law apart from the expected impact on the net production of the region again also resulting from martial law,” Mr. Tayao said.

He also cited “doubts and questions with regard to the proposed tax reform program, which is expected to hit the day-to-day… [life of]… the ordinary worker… optimism definitely will be affected as a result.”

TAX COLLECTIONS picked up by double-digit pace last month but fell short of targets, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raked in P134.18 billion in July, up 14% from P117.61 billion a year ago but still a tad short of a P134.72-billion target for last month. “… BIR… performance is marginally slower than target. Actually, we are only short… by about P500 billion,” Mark Dennis Y.C. Joven, assistant secretary for revenue operations, told reporters at the DoF head office in Manila on Friday last week.

He attributed BIR’s collection hike to the P3.44-billion initial payment of a P25-billion tax settlement which Japan Tobacco International made on July 20 on behalf of Mighty Corp. as part of a deal to acquire the latter’s assets.

The Bureau of Customs (BoC), Mr. Joven said, collected P34.82 billion in July, up 12.35% from the year-ago P30.99 billion but 11% short of a P39.18-billion target.

July took year-to-date collections to P987.790 billion for BIR, 9.65% more annually and 54% of its P1.829-trillion target this year, and to P246.980 billion for BoC, 11.48% more than a year ago and 52.78% of its P467.9-billion full year goal. — Elijah J. C. Tubayan

By Janina C. Lim
Reporter

THE Department of Agriculture’s (DA) announcement last Friday of the country’s first avian influenza outbreak in a poultry farm in San Luis, Pampanga did not see only chicken and egg prices in wet markets promptly fall — it sent big food firms scrambling on Monday to assure that their products are safe.

Monday’s top 20 losing stocks included Vitarich Corp. and San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc. that saw share prices fall 5.88% to P1.92 apiece and by 3.17% to P305 each, respectively. Others like Max’s Group, Inc. and Universal Robina Corp. (URC) lost 0.56% to P17.90 apiece and 0.49% to P142.30 per share.

But shares of Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC), which yesterday reported net income attributable to majority equity holders grew 18.1% annually to P1.956 billion last quarter, gained 2.59% to close P222 each.

Those compare to the 0.33% rise of the industrial sectoral index to which their shares belong and the Philippine Stock Exchange index’s own 0.43% increase yesterday.

Reynaldo D. Ortega, Vitarich vice-president and general manager for poultry and foods, said yesterday the outbreak should have “no impact at all” on operations. “Ang aming (our) operation is located in Bulacan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. Ang bulk ng aming production nanggagaling sa (is from) Nueva Ecija because all our tunnel-ventilated buildings are located there,” he said by phone.

DA’s temporary ban under Memorandum Circular No. 09 on the transport of poultry products from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao, Mr. Ortega said, “doesn’t affect our operations because we have our own breeding farm operation in Mindanao and Visayas.”

Aside from feeds, Vitarich supplies, among others, chicken to hotels, restaurants, institutional clients, as well as supermarkets and wet markets.

Vitarich, which exited corporate rehabilitation in September 2016 and is poised for quasi-reorganization next year, yesterday bared unaudited financial results showing net income rising to P49.8 million last quarter from a year-ago P2.747 million. Operating profit edged up 1.66% to P57.534 million from P56.596 million, while gross profit (sale of goods less cost of goods sold) grew 35.51% to P188.846 million from P139.360 million.

Its report said Vitarich has lined up various thrusts for this year, including expanding the poultry business by increasing breeder capacity, widening its contract grower base and continuous monitoring of dressing plant compliance with good manufacturing practices to assure good meat quality.

In a separate statement, San Miguel Pure Foods said its Magnolia Whole Chicken comes from poultry farms free of avian flu. “The company’s poultry houses utilize state-of-the-art climate controlled system and not conventional housing, that protects broilers from contact with wild birds,” the firm said. “The cool environment inside the houses provides broilers greater protection against respiratory infection and increased resistance to viruses. “

It added that, “[u]pon immediate testing,” its “farms and its broiler flocks within the vicinity of the affected area yielded negative results for avian influenza.”

URC said in a statement that its poultry layer farms are far from the affected area in Pampanga. “Nonetheless, we continue to implement strict biosecurity measures in our farms and submit our eggs to industry and government standards of testing and quality control,” URC said.

Restaurant operators JFC and Max’s separately assured customers that their products remain safe for consumption. “Our chicken supply is sourced outside Pampanga,” Max’s Deputy Compliance Officer Paul C. Cheah said via text, while JFC said in a statement that it “sources its local poultry product requirements only from accredited and reputable suppliers in the Philippines that employ the safest food practices in sourcing, manufacturing, preparation and delivery.”

Max’s yesterday reported that total comprehensive net income that went to the parent’s equity holders grew 15.2% to P149.29 million last quarter from P129.594 million a year ago, buoyed largely by a boost in restaurant sales. Income before tax rose 7.98% to P218.127 million from 202.002 million. Gross profit increased by 4.39% to P838.032 million from P802.805 milllion, as total revenues rose by 13.58% to P3.136 billion from P2.757 billlion and cost of sales climbed 17.61% toP2.298 billion from P1.954 billion. Restaurant sales alone increased by 18.46% to P2.62 billion from P2.212 billion in the same comparative quarters.