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MPIC’s mWell expands digital healthcare product line

MWELL CHAIRMAN and MPIC Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan

MWELL, the digital healthcare arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), announced on Monday its expanded line of digital healthcare products.

This includes the Mind Health Score feature and the new generation of mWell watches and rings.

“The number of hospitals in aggregate in this country is about 2,000 hospitals. We represent only about 1.2% in number… but that’s still not enough to adequately cover the healthcare requirements of our people,” mWell Chairman and MPIC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said during the launch event.

Mr. Pangilinan said that this is why the company deploys technology to expand the reach of Metro Pacific hospitals and services.

“People’s health actually determines the country’s economic progress. We think that health is the basic right for all, equal to clothing, shelter, food, because health enables all of those things to be enjoyed,” said mWell CEO and President and MPIC Chief Finance, Risk, and Sustainability Officer June Cheryl Cabal-Revilla.

The mWell application is an integrated platform that allows online consultation, daily health tracker, financial wellness, laboratory, pharmacy, home care and emergency quick response.

According to the company, the Mind Health Score feature serves as a “personal compass as you go on a self-guided journey towards enhancing emotional, social, and cognitive well-being.”

The user can evaluate their thoughts, emotions, decisions, and goals with full awareness.

It also helps to understand the person’s triggers to help reduce stress and even offers a playlist featuring guided meditations for stress relief, relaxation, and better sleep.

The mWellness Score can also pull in data from both Apple Health and Google Fit.

Meanwhile, the mWell watches let users track their workouts, physical activities and overall wellness. The watch includes 100 exercise modes, heart rate, and blood oxygen.

“Paired with the mWell app, it allows app users to view daily mWellness Score based on exercise, light activity, sedentary time, and step count,” the company said.

mWell also introduced its light and smart mWell ring that tracks sleep and important health metrics, including heart rate, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and average oxygen saturation.

“Using the mWell Ring paired with the mWell app, one will be able to view Total sleep report, light sleep, deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — all in one tracker,” mWell said.

The ring is built with Titanium and comes with a seven-day battery life. It is also water resistant, lightweight and scratch free.

In terms of prices, the Power Smart Watch and Prestige Smart Watch retail for P2,499 and P2,999, respectively.

The rings have a special introductory price of P8,999 with free shipping. The available colors are silver, black, and bronze, in sizes 6-13 inches.

Metro Pacific Health Tech Corporation (MPHTC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPIC.

MPIC is one of the three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority share in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs apologizes after video depicting attack on ex-girlfriend

SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS apologizes on an Instagram video after the release of hotel surveillance video that appeared to show him attacking his ex-girlfriend. — INSTAGRAM.COM/DIDDY

MUSIC mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs posted an apology to social media on Sunday, two days after the release of hotel surveillance video that appeared to show him attacking his ex-girlfriend.

“I’m truly sorry,” Mr. Combs said in a video post on his Instagram page. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

Addressing the camera directly, Mr. Combs said he had sought therapy and gone into rehab.

In the surveillance video from 2016, which was released by CNN on Friday, the rapper appears to grab R&B vocalist Casandra Ventura as she waits by an elevator in a California hotel. Clad only in a towel, he throws her to the floor, kicking her repeatedly before dragging her toward a hallway, the video shows.

A representative for Mr. Combs could not be immediately reached for further comment.

Ms. Ventura, who performs under the stage name Cassie, sued Mr. Combs in 2023, accusing him of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery, and rape during a 10-year professional and romantic relationship in which he controlled her through intimidation, drugs, and alcohol. The parties settled the matter the following day for undisclosed terms. Representatives for Mr. Combs said at the time the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”

Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit was one of at least four civil complaints that recently leveled sexual assault allegations against Mr. Combs.

Attorney Meredith Firetog, who represented Ms. Ventura, said Mr. Combs’ apology on Sunday does not vindicate him.

“Combs’ most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt. When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday. That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words,” Ms. Firetog said in a statement.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in March it had opened an investigation into the hip-hop star and searched his homes in the Miami area and in Los Angeles; it provided no details of the nature of the investigation.

Local television images of the search showed an armored vehicle and officers carrying rifles outside Mr. Combs’ Los Angeles home. Authorities detained some people at the property with their hands bound by zip ties. — Reuters

America is joining its frenemies back in the Fossil Fuel Club

GEOGRAPHY, it’s often said, is destiny.

The paths nations follow though history are written like a script on the patterns of their rocks, rivers, plains and coasts, in ways that often confound the views of the people who inhabit them. It’s rare for a country to escape that geological fate.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen dramatic examples of this happening in five countries covering more than a third of the planet’s land mass.

Most notable has been President Joe Biden’s brutal round of tariffs against Chinese clean technology imports. At a time when core inflation in the US is at its highest level in nearly 30 years and disposable income growth is sputtering, pushing up the cost of consumer goods such as solar panels and electric vehicles seems perverse.* It makes more sense when you look at the other side of the energy picture. In December, US crude oil output reached 13.3 million daily barrels, the highest level of any country in history. Natural gas hit a similar global record of 106.5 billion cubic feet per day.

Biden’s justification for the tariffs is that they’re a pro-climate initiative, which will buy the US time to scale up and compete with China’s formidable clean-technology industry. You should take that with a pinch of salt, given how Washington’s wavering commitment to clean technology has seen it squander early leads in solar panels and EVs. It’s America’s strength as a fossil fuel producer that allows it to be so lackadaisical about cleaning up its act — and so will-ing, now, to suppress alternative technologies.

For most nations, the energy transition isn’t just sought for climate reasons: It’s also a strategic and economic necessity, reducing dependence on foreign exporters and the burden of imported fuel spending on the budget and balance of payments. The US, as by far the world’s biggest fossil-fuel producer, sees things differently.

The same dynamic explains why China has been so much quicker to exploit the energy transition. Switching to battery-powered vehicles makes a lot more sense when you have to import some 90% of your petroleum. Max-imizing your output of cheap renewable power seems an obvious move when domestic gas reserves are minimal, and coal resources appear to be declining in both quality and affordability. Would-be exporters see China’s shortage of indigenous energy supplies as an opportunity. In Canada, the C$34 billion ($25 billion) Trans Mountain Expansion crude oil pipeline was scheduled to load its first cargo, bound for China, on Sat-urday. The federally funded project, the most expensive in Canadian history, might seem an odd investment for the government that introduced one of the world’s most stringent carbon taxes. And yet Canada is the world’s largest oil ex-porter after Saudi Arabia, the US, and Russia.

If you believe geography (rather than the popular will) is destiny, it shouldn’t surprise you that North America’s two liberal democracies are now making common cause with authoritarian petrostates. In Australia, meanwhile, the government laid out a natural gas strategy that envisions a role for the hydrocarbon “through to 2050 and beyond.” Canberra bills its plans as consistent with a path toward net zero, but that’s a triumph of wishful thinking over reality. Such a world will see demand for gas that lacks carbon capture and storage fall nearly 90%. Australia’s LNG — a premium product that costs more to produce than about 95% of all the gas produced globally — is unlikely to survive such a shift.

Piped gas is usually cheaper than LNG, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was in Beijing touting Power of Siberia 2, a proposed line that would feed China from the same fields that were destined for Europe until the Ukraine war cut that route. President Xi Jinping, however, seems reluctant — in no small measure because China’s domestic renewables and green hydrogen potential, combined with its aggressive contracting of LNG supplies and piped gas from smaller, more easily manipulated Turkmenistan, means it now has little need of Russian methane.

That sounds like a world where fossil fuels are on the march — but it’s not quite as simple as that. Demand for such products is peaking, or has already.

Petroleum was the cheapest, most useful form of power in the 20th century, and the countries best-equipped to access it became the preeminent nations of that era. Most of the world, however, is fundamentally short of en-ergy. Alongside China, that’s true of the 10 developing nations who’ll account for about half the world’s population growth between now and 2050, including most of Asia and Africa. They have far more to gain from cheap, locally produced clean power than from fossil fuels that damage the health of their citizens and put them at the mercy of wealthy exporters, who seem more keen than ever to throw their weight around.

Beneath Washington’s fear of Beijing’s clean-technology success, that’s the deeper worry. Just as Britain’s early lead in coal made it the indefatigable power of the 19th century, and US dominance in oil made it a hegemon for the 20th century, China’s advances in green energy give it a formidable position in the 21st. Oil-rich America has found itself strangely entangled with crude-exporting frenemies in the Middle East through their common interest in petroleum. In the decades ahead, a decarbonizing China will find many allies whose interests are just as well-aligned with its own.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

 

*The tariffs won’t directly affect the price of EVs in the short term, since the Chinese cars being targeted are barely exported to the US. Still, they’ll make it much less likely that prices are driven lower by the threat of cheaper imported vehicles coming onto the market.

Discovery World’s Elize Point targets completion by 2026

LUXURY HOTEL and resort operator Discovery World Corp. (DWC) said its inaugural residential development Elize Point in Davao is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

The 11-hectare Elize Point luxury subdivision is situated in the Matina district with views of the Davao Gulf and Mt. Apo.

“Per technical team, completion of site dev end of 2026,” DWC Vice-President Mary Jean D. Codiñera told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed statement last week.

Ms. Codiñera added that amenities are set to be completed by the end of 2027, with turnover expected in the same year.

It has 61 designed lots, with sizes ranging from 600 to 1,000 square meters plotted on an elevated area. This provides residents with lush surroundings and a balance between urban living and countryside calm.

The development is a legacy project, one that sets out to honor the landscape while elevating the standards of high-end living, Ms. Codiñera said.

The company also noted that 43% of the 11-hectare expanse is dedicated to open spaces and amenities.

Ms. Codiñera said that open spaces can also be in the form of a landscaped garden, wellness zones with walking or cycling tracks, and playgrounds.

Among the features of the project include underground cabling, a clubhouse, mini theater, and an air-conditioned basketball court.

“Having amenities in the development allows residents a chance to de-stress. From a swimming pool to multi-purpose courts to a gymnasium, to a theatre, and more,” Ms. Codiñera said.

According to DWC President Jose C. Parreño, Elize Point prioritizes sustainability through the utilization of rainwater catchment areas, solar panels, and water treatment facilities.

Elize Point’s Sales Pavilion broke ground at a ceremony held on March 21, attended by Ms. Codiñera, Executive Director Chris Tiu, Sterling Structures Manuel Ching, and the In-House Sales Team Head Ed Sonoy.

Elize Point is the flagship residential venture of Discovery World Corp., owned by its subsidiary, One Davao Townships Corp. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante

PLDT says ready to negotiate with union ‘at the right time’

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/PATRICKROQUE01

TELECOMMUNUCATIONS GIANT PLDT Inc. said it is willing to start collective bargaining negotiations with Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), the exclusive representative of the company’s rank-and-file employees, “at the right time.”

“The time to sit down and start collective bargaining with Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas is in September 2024, not today,” PLDT said in a statement to the stock exchange on Monday.

“This is the position of PLDT Management, referring to the demand of MKP…, with which PLDT has an existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA), to commence negotiations now,” it added.

The company said the CBA will expire on Nov. 8 this year.

PLDT said the union sent PLDT Management on Feb. 20 its “Notice to Negotiate & Submission of Statement of Proposals.”

“This was followed by MKP’s filing of a notice of strike on April 5, 2024 on the ground of PLDT’s alleged refusal to bargain. The members of MKP reportedly conducted a strike vote on May 14 and 15, 2024, with a majority voting in favor of the strike,” the company noted.

PLDT cited the Labor Code, saying that both parties must meet and negotiate the renewal or modification of the CBA terms at least 60 days before it expires.

“The so-called freedom period… will begin in the first week of September, or more than three months from now and almost seven months from the time they first sent the notice to negotiate,” it said.

“Until then, the Labor Code obligates both PLDT and MKP to respect the current CBA to preserve industrial peace,” it added.

PLDT said it is “willing and able to negotiate with MKP at the right time…, (and) that is during the freedom period.”

“It is PLDT’s position that a strike conducted on this ground has no valid basis. This is supported by law and the parties’ rich bargaining history over the past 30 years.”

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Credit growth in PHL to post ‘declining trend’

REUTERS

CREDIT GROWTH in the Philippines could see a declining trend in the coming months, Bank of America (BofA) Global Research said on Monday.

BofA Global Research said in a report that while the Philippines has seen “faster recovery” in credit growth, it still shows a declining trend due to external factors.

Based on its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Credit Growth Indicators, the Philippines was the only one to show a declining trend among five countries.

The indicators aim to “identify directional trends and key turning points for credit growth across each of the ASEAN-5 countries.” It also helps “gauge how banks’ loan growth is likely to shape up over the next one to two quarters.”

“Directional trend remains on a declining trend, unchanged due to decrease in import growth, auto sales and number of visitors. But actual credit growth has been recovering led by the return of capex (capital expenditures) spending,” it said.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed outstanding loans issued by big banks jumped by 9.4% in March from 8.6% in February.

Loans released by big banks rose to P11.8 trillion as of end-March from P10.8 trillion in the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the report showed that Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand all posted flat trends.

“This suggests that credit growth in these countries is likely to remain stable around current levels after seeing some recovery post-COVID,” it added.

BofA Global Research said it expects “tepid” credit growth in the region amid a weak economic environment.

“Our economists expect a bumpy road ahead in 2024: ASEAN-6 is forecast to grow its GDP (gross domestic product) at a below trend pace in 2024 on account of a patchy near-term exports outlook and uneven recovery in tourism,” it said.

The Philippine government is targeting 6-7% GDP growth this year. In the first quarter, the economy grew by 5.7%, better than the 5.5% a quarter prior but slower than the 6.4% in the year earlier.

BofA Global Research also noted upside risks to inflation in the region, such as high food and energy costs, imported inflation and subsidy removals.

In the Philippines, headline inflation accelerated for a third straight month to 3.8% in April.

The BSP expects inflation to settle at 3.5% this year. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

Actor Dabney Coleman, villainous boss in 9 to 5, 92

Dabney Coleman in a publicity still for the 1980 film 9 to 5, along with (L-R) Jane Fonda, Lilly Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. — IMDB

DABNEY COLEMAN, a character actor who brought a glorious touch of smarm to the screen in playing comedic villains, mean-spirited bosses and outright jerks in films such as 9 to 5 and Tootsie, has died at age 92.

Mr. Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely” in his Santa Monica, California home on Thursday, his daughter Quincy Coleman said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family.

While best remembered for his arrogant, unctuous, and uncaring characters, Mr. Coleman said it was all an act.

“It’s me kidding around,” Mr. Coleman once told the New York Times.

“That’s just a guy that I’m playing, just to fool around, you know,” he said.

Not all of Mr. Coleman’s characters were cads. He won an Emmy playing a lawyer in the 1987 television movie Sworn to Silence and played Jane Fonda’s decent dentist boyfriend in the 1981 film On Golden Pond and a federal security official in 1983’s War Games.

His final screen credit was playing John Dutton, Sr. in the TV series Yellowstone in 2019.

Mr. Coleman was born on Jan. 3, 1932, in Austin, Texas. He studied law and served in the US Army before trying acting.

His early work in the 1960s and 1970s included one-off roles in a variety of television shows, as well as a semi-regular part as Marlo Thomas’ neighbor in That Girl.

His first movie job was 1965’s The Slender Thread, directed by his acting teacher and friend, Sydney Pollack, who would later hire him for Tootsie.

Mr. Coleman’s breakout role — and the one he said was his favorite — came in 1976 on producer Norman Lear’s TV series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. He played Merle Jeeter, the creepy mayor who has an affair with the title character, in that soap-opera spoof and in spinoffs Fernwood Tonight and Forever Fernwood.

His first big movie role — and the one that established his acting persona — was in 1980 as Franklin Hart, the sexist, egotistical business executive who harasses underlings played by Ms. Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlin until they take him hostage and boost corporate productivity in 9 to 5.

Mr. Coleman was no more likeable two years later in Tootsie as a soap opera director who runs afoul of Dustin Hoffman’s dressed-in-drag title character.

In 1983, he took the comic villain role even further in his first starring television role. In the short-lived sitcom Buffalo Bill, he played a radio talk show host whose idea of a tender marriage proposal was: “You’re better than 90% of those bimbos out there.”

“It is fun to play those characters because they are so well-defined,” Mr. Coleman told People magazine in 1983.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he also starred in the sitcoms The Slap Maxwell Story as a sportswriter, Drexell’s Class as a corporate raider turned teacher, and Madman of the People as a magazine columnist working for his daughter. None of the shows lasted more than two seasons.

More recent roles included HBO’s Boardwalk Empire in 2010-11 as the man who once controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey. His part had to be rewritten when Mr. Coleman was diagnosed with throat cancer, which left him unable to speak at times.

A devoted tennis player, Mr. Coleman was twice married and divorced. He had four children with his second wife, actress Jean Hale.

“My father crafted his time here on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart, and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” the statement from his daughter said. — Reuters

How well does the Philippines balance energy needs with environmental sustainability?

The Philippines fell by two notches to 72nd spot out of 126 countries* in the 2023 World Energy Trilemma Index by the World Energy Council. The report takes a look on the countries’ energy systems in terms of their performance in balancing the “trilemma” of ensuring energy security, providing access to affordable energy, and achieving environmental sustainability. The country scored 56.9 out of 100 and placed the fourth lowest in the East and Southeast Asia region.

How well does the Philippines balance energy needs with environmental sustainability?

PSEi member stocks performed — May 20, 2024

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Monday, May 20, 2024.


Onion import ban extended until July

PHILIPPINE STAR/WALTER BOLLOZOS

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will extend the suspension of onion imports until July, following an increase in domestic production.

I-e-extend natin ’yung ban sa onion imports, puno ang mga cold storage sa onion producing areas, (We will extend the ban on onion imports, cold storage facilities in onion producing areas are full),” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. told reporters on Monday.

He added that the DA sees no need for more imports as onion prices have remained stable.

According to DA price monitors, the average retail price of domestically grown red onions was between P70 to P160 per kilogram, while white onions sold for between P60 and P130 per kilo as of May 17.

The national average retail price of red onions in early May was P123.75 per kilo, against the P125.76 per kilo in  late April.

“If there is a spike in price, and that means there is probably a lack of supply or there is an unscrupulous trader, then we will activate our imports whenever, but only when necessary,” Mr. Laurel said.

In January, the agency ordered a temporary halt to onion imports to halt the decline in farmgate prices.

The DA has said that shipment delays resulted in the arrival of 99 metric tons (MT) of onions ordered in December between Jan. 1 and 15.

He had said that once the supply of onions softens, the DA will approve imports, particularly if El Niño affects onion production.

During the first quarter, onion production was 201.25 thousand MT, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. This was 36.8% higher from a year earlier.

The DA attributed the production growth to a 40% increase in the land planted to onions. — Adrian H. Halili

More local price councils set for reactivation — DTI

PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is working on the reactivation of more local price coordinating councils (LPCCs) to ensure effective oversight of the market during disruptive climate events such as La Niña.

“We are intensifying our efforts to ensure even more effective oversight, particularly as we brace for the impacts of La Niña,” Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said in a statement on Monday.

“In addition, we are working closely with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to reactivate the LPCCs, which are crucial partners in our price monitoring initiatives,” he added.

According to the DILG, 1,335 or 78% of the 1,716 local government units have reactivated their LPCCs.

LPCCs are tasked with coordinating and rationalizing programs to stabilize prices and supply, recommend suggested retail prices or ceiling prices for certain basic necessities, and conduct in-depth analyses of price fluctuations in their respective areas.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pascual said that the Department of National Defense has committed to supporting agencies involved in price monitoring of basic necessities and prime commodities at the recent Presidential task force meeting on El Niño response.

“This collaboration underscores the government’s unified approach to safeguarding the public against exploitative practices,” he said.

“We remind the public that in areas declared under a state of calamity due to La Niña, automatic price control comes into effect,” he added.

Under Republic Act 7581, or the Price Act, prices of basic necessities are automatically frozen at their prevailing levels for up to 60 days in areas declared under a state of calamity.

“The DTI is steadfast in enforcing these regulations, and any individuals caught engaging in illegal price manipulation will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mr. Pascual said.

PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration), the government weather service, said there is a 60% change in La Niña occurring between June and August as El Niño weakens.

In 2024, the DA said that it is preparing for a “more destructive” La Niña, which it expects to affect crops late in the year. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

ARTA set to issue streamlining rules by June 10

THE Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) said it is confident it will complete the guidelines to implement Executive Order 59 (EO 59), which simplifies the approval process for flagship programs, by the June deadline.

“By June 10… we should be able to finalize the implementing guidelines for approval by the heads of agencies concerned and for submission to the President,” ARTA Secretary Ernesto V. Perez said at a briefing on Monday.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. issued EO 59 “to fast track the permitting process. And not only streamlining the process, but even to use the digital platforms,” Mr. Perez said.

The President has ordered the National Economic and Development Authority’s Board Committee on Infrastructure, ARTA, and the interior and local government department to oversee the implementation.

“We hope to follow (the business permit one-stop shop model) in terms of big-ticket infrastructure projects,” he added.

EO 59 also ordered a review of agencies’ citizens’ charters “to remove redundant and burdensome procedures and requirements” and ensure the accessibility of the revised procedures.

Mr. Perez said ARTA is consulting with various government departments to finalize the draft.

“What we’re doing is we’re meeting with concerned government agencies regularly, at least once a week, if not twice a week, to be able to meet the deadline,” he added.

“We are optimistic that we should be able to meet the deadline of June 10,” he said.

The private sector advisory council has also offered to aid in the drafting of the implementing guidelines. — Adrian H. Halili