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Need for upskilling agribusiness executives: Lessons

WATHANYU CHOMCHUEN-UNSPLASH

(Part 2)

On March 16, the UA&P academic authorities awarded some 20 agribusiness executives with certificates of participation in the six-month Agribusiness Executives Program described in the first article of this series. I was asked to give some remarks to the graduating executives who completed six months of online and face-to-face sessions of lectures, case discussions, live-in workshops, and field trips related to their management responsibilities as executives of agribusiness enterprises, large and medium-sized. I was glad to see among the graduates some top and middle-level executives working not only for the large companies, but also self-employed entrepreneurs engaged in farming, transport and logistics, trading and agribusiness financing.

I am reproducing here the remarks I made which I am now addressing to all Philippine and foreign managers and entrepreneurs involved in some way or another with the Philippine agribusiness sector.

I started by reminding them of what the strategic planning process that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. must have gone through with his high-level board of advisors, composed of the most experienced businesspeople in the Philippines in food security. I know a good number of them and am impressed with the quality of these private sector advisors. I am also gratified to see evidence that President Marcos Jr. not only has chosen the most experienced and successful agribusiness advisors but also actually listens to their advice, as can be seen from his initial successes in moving the agricultural sector forward.

The year 2023, his first full year as President, saw the reversal of the negative experiences of the last five or six years of the Philippine economy as regards agricultural production. In the six years preceding the Marcos Jr. Administration there was no year in which agricultural production did not drop during one or more quarters. In contrast, in 2023, there was not a single quarter in which we saw a decline in agricultural production as a whole. In fact, the whole 2023 saw a small increase of 1.2% in annual agricultural production. Because of the large investments being made by both the public and private sectors in agribusiness, I see the great possibility that from 2024 to 2028, we can expect an annual growth rate of at least 3% in agricultural production, boosting the chances that the Philippine GDP can see accelerated growth at 8% annually in the last years of the Marcos Jr. Administration.

On his part, Secretary of Agriculture Francis Tiu Laurel — a hands-on and street-smart executive — is well qualified to carry out the primary responsibility of helping the small farmers and fisherfolk improve their meager incomes by providing them with better infrastructure and more inputs to improve their productivity. The role of the public sector today in agriculture is mainly geared towards the most important goal of poverty reduction while that of the private sector is the significant increase in productivity through the strategies described below.

To help the graduating executives identify very specific ways in which they can fully support through their agribusiness operations what the officials led by President Marcos Jr. would like to attain during their term in office, I simulated for them (and for all the agribusiness managers and executives who are reading this article) the strategic planning process which I surmise the President, his advisers, and Department of Agriculture staff must have gone through to make agriculture one of the economic engines of growth of the Marcos Jr. Administration. The Vision is easily stated as “A Philippines that is food-secure.” The Mission is to increase the productivity of all the factors of production used in the agricultural sector: land, labor, and capital through the appropriate entrepreneurial and innovation activities of both the public and private sectors.

I also know for a fact that the four strategic directions identified by the President, working with his advisors from both the public and private sectors, are farm consolidation, product diversification, digitalization, and industrialization. These were the strategies contained in the Transition Report given to the President by the former Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar. It was providential that one of my co-speakers in the “Graduation ceremonies” of the AEP participants was agribusiness expert, Dr. Fermin Adriano, who served as Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and Research under Secretary Dar. Dr. Adriano was one of those primarily responsible for formulating that Transition Report received by President Marcos Jr. from former Secretary Dar.

Land consolidation refers to undoing some of the harm done by the failed agrarian reform program of past Philippine Presidents. Although the intention to provide each farmer with a small-sized farm he could call his own was a good one, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Unlike in our neighboring countries like Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam in which land fragmentation was aggressively accompanied by the building of farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, post-harvest facilities, and the provision of such inputs as farm credit, fertilizers, pesticides, etc., Philippine small farmers were left completely on their own after they received their small farms and thus ended even poorer than before.

At least when the large landowners monopolized the ownership of land, they provided their tenants with the necessary inputs and facilities to make their farms productive.

Today, it would be imperative to re-consolidate some of the millions of hectares of land through cooperativism or the nucleus estate model to reach the necessary economies of scale needed for increased land and labor productivity. This land consolidation is especially urgent in the coconut sector which represents some three million hectares of farmland. With significantly improved productivity of land in coconut farming, a good portion of these three million hectares can be diverted to other high-value crops as described below.

Product differentiation refers to replicating the success story of pineapples and bananas in providing both the domestic and export markets with these high-value fruits which are increasingly in demand as a country transitions from being a low-middle income economy to a high-middle income economy.

China, even with a much reduced population because of very low fertility rates resulting from very aggressive birth control programs in the past, will have huge demand for high-value products like fruits, vegetables and livestock as most Chinese join the middle class, which will happen in the next decade or so, even if the Chinese GDP growth has slowed down significantly. We could be one of the potential suppliers of these food products to China, as Vietnam and Thailand already are.

Like Malaysia, we should have not put all of our resources in trying to be self-sufficient in rice but rather diversified into many other high-value crops like coffee, cacao, avocado, mango, durian, palm oil and other high-value crops. We can use the revenues from exporting these products (together with bananas and pineapples) to import whatever rice we cannot cost-effectively produce from Thailand and Vietnam that have a great cost competitiveness in producing rice because of their almost unlimited supply of water from their ocean-like rivers. As an archipelago, the Philippines can never accumulate as much water as these two ASEAN neighbors of ours.

The other strategic directions adopted by this present Administration in the agricultural sector are digitalization and industrialization. By the first, we mean the application of all forms of IT or digital technology at the various links of the agribusiness value chain, from using drones and robots in farming to digitalizing warehousing, storage, logistics, and transport, to the use of data analytics in retailing and marketing. Industrialization means avoiding as much as possible the export of raw materials. If we are going to produce a lot of cacao or coffee beans, for example, let us go all the way to the finished products of chocolate candies and coffee drinks. We already have some anecdotical examples of chocolate candies manufactured from cacao beans produced in Bohol or Mindanao that can equal the quality of European chocolate products. What we have to do is to scale up these MSMEs to the equivalents of Nestlé and Hershey’s.

(To be continued.)

 

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

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

ACEN secures $150-M green term loan for projects

AYALA-LED ACEN Corp. has secured a $150-million green term loan from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Singapore Branch (SMBC) through its subsidiary ACEN Renewables International.

“This strategic financial move is in line with ACEN’s ongoing efforts to finance investments in renewable power projects across the region,” the energy company told the local bourse on Tuesday.

The loan has a tenure of five years and was arranged by SMBC, which serves as both lender and green loan coordinator, the company said.

Through the loan, the energy company seeks to expand into several key international markets, including Australia.

“This benchmark deal not only lends support to our momentum in expanding our international business, but is also a testament to the faith our banking partners place in our ability to execute on our vision,” ACEN Group Treasurer Cecile T. Cruzabra said.

“This facility is a strategic addition to ACEN’s portfolio of Green Financings aimed at fulfilling our contribution to achieving Net Zero commitments,” she added.

Zia Azeez, head of renewables, utilities, and infrastructure sector of Sector Banking Asia, said: “This financing is a continuation of our partnership with ACEN across multiple renewable projects in the region, commencing with their first overseas project in Indonesia some years back.”

“We look forward to continuing this journey with ACEN as they march towards 20 GW (gigawatts) of green power by 2030,” she added.

To date, ACEN has around 4,800 megawatts of renewable energy capacity in operations and under construction across its key markets in the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Dining hall with Trojan War decorations uncovered in Pompeii

POMPEIISITES.ORG

ROME — A black-walled dining hall with 2,000-year-old paintings inspired by the Trojan War has been discovered during excavations at the Roman city of Pompeii, authorities said last week.

The size of the room — about 15 meters long and six meters wide — the quality of the frescoes and mosaics from the time of Emperor Augustus, and the choice of characters suggest it was used for banquets, Pompeii Archaeological Park said.

“The walls were painted black to prevent the smoke from the oil lamps being seen on the walls,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, head of the park, said.

“People would meet to dine after sunset, and the flickering light of the lamps had the effect of making the images appear animated, especially after a few glasses of good Campanian wine.”

Pompeii and the surrounding countryside was submerged by volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius exploded in AD 79, killing thousands of Romans who had no idea they were living beneath one of Europe’s biggest volcanoes.

The site has seen a burst of archaeological activity aimed at halting years of decay and neglect, largely thanks to a €105-million ($112 million) European Union-funded project.

The dominant theme of the newly discovered paintings is heroism and fate.

One fresco depicts Paris and Helen, whose love affair caused the Trojan War, according to classical accounts. Another one shows doomed prophetess Cassandra and the Greco-Roman god Apollo.

According to Greek mythology, Cassandra predicted the Trojan War after receiving the gift of foresight from Apollo, but no-one believed her. This was because of a curse Apollo put upon her for refusing to give herself to him. — Reuters

Fruitas Holdings net income rises 37% to P113 million

LISTED food and beverage kiosk operator Fruitas Holdings, Inc. recorded a 37% increase in its consolidated net income to P113 million in 2023 from P82 million in 2022, led by higher revenues across its subsidiaries.

The company’s revenues rose by 37% to P2.47 billion in 2023 from P1.8 billion in 2022, Fruitas Holdings said in a stock exchange disclosure on Tuesday.

Fruitas attributed the higher revenues to the same-store sales growth and expansion of its e-commerce business.

“Revenue growth was broad-based across our subsidiaries, led by Balai ni Fruitas and Fruitasgroup. Balai ni Fruitas is anchored by Balai Pandesal, while Fruitasgroup houses our beverage brands. We also completed the acquisition of Ling Nam in March 2023, which significantly contributed to our revenue growth and profitability,” it said.

Fruitas saw a 42% increase in its gross profit to P1.49 billion from P1.05 billion in 2022. Gross profit margin also rose to 60.5% from 58.5% in 2022.

Fruitas has 817 stores as of end-2023, up by 44 from the 773 stores recorded as of end-2022.

The company’s brands include Fruitas Fresh from Babot’s Farm, Buko Loco, Balai Pandesal, Buko ni Fruitas, De Original Jamaican Pattie, Johnn Lemon, Juice Avenue, Black Pearl, Friends Fries, Sabroso Lechon, Ling Nam, and Fly Kitchen.

On Tuesday, Fruitas Holdings shares dropped by 1.28% or one centavo to 77 centavos. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Friends, partners, and the values we all share

NOORULABDEEN AHMAD-UNSPLASH

The much-awaited trilateral summit among the Philippines, United States, and Japan finally took place last Thursday, April 11, at the White House in Washington DC. The top-level meeting could not have happened at a better time — just when the Philippines is facing increasing aggression from China in the West Philippine Sea.

On the day before the summit, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and United States President Joseph Biden met and agreed to strengthen their security and economic partnership. During the one-on-one, President Biden reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the US to the defense of the Philippines, as embodied in the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951.

Moreover, Mr. Biden requested the incorporation of an additional $128 million for infrastructure projects in the nine sites of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement for fiscal year 2025. Five sites were originally designated in 2016, but four more were added last year. The additional funding will enable the sites to become hubs for humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and other crisis responses.

During the summit proper, the three leaders issued a joint statement that it was a gathering of equal partners united by the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and a rules-based international order. Together with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Mssrs. Biden and Marcos expressed serious concerns on the increasingly aggressive behavior of China in the West Philippine Sea.

Japan and the US reiterated their support for the Philippines’ 2016 victory before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Security and stability in the West Philippine Sea, they said, has direct effects on the economic security of the Indo-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, China has continued to dismiss the arbitral body’s decision and its jurisdiction over it, even as it is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It has also used different tactics in justifying its acts in the West Philippine Sea, twisting the Philippines’ legal victory and the basis for such, even modifying its claim of a nine-dash line into a 10-dash line.

During the summit, President Marcos Jr. called the United States and Japan our friends and partners.

On the following day, the US and the Philippines held an inaugural 3+3 meeting, consisting of the top State/Foreign Affairs, Defense, and National Security officials of the two countries. US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo, Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro, and National Security Advisor Eduardo M. Año discussed the situation in the South China Sea and underscored the interest to increase support for the modernization of the Philippines’ armed forces.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
In these perilous times, complicated by the situation in the Middle East, what does such a summit mean for the Philippines and for its people?

First, we have the US’ and Japan’s word. There have been countless instances where these like-minded nations and their leaders have expressed their commitment to the rules-based order. But now that there is an actual case of threat and doublespeak from China, which is even claiming to abide by the law, it is reassuring to think that the lofty principles we speak of will be put into practice. We are, indeed, in good company.

Of course, we will not stop at mere pronouncements and reiteration. Concrete actions such as increased assistance or joint activities are all tangible manifestations of our friends’ commitment.

This is not about any single player, or the supremacy of one power or two or several. Rather, what we are asserting is the supremacy of the rules-based international order that every nation, big or small, commits to uphold.

The Philippines is proud to belong to the community of nations that recognizes the supremacy of international law and lives by the values that ensure balance, security, respect, and prosperity. This community will certainly not tolerate any attempt to upset the order.

Citizens of all nations have the right to security, to sleep soundly at night, trusting that their way of life would not be disrupted or that they would wake up to find their territory usurped by another country.

Economic security is just as important, because without the assurance that they would have enough to eat or have all their basic needs covered, people will also not feel safe enough to go about their daily existence. Thus, support in the form of investments from other countries will go a long way in generating a virtuous cycle that upgrades infrastructure, empowers people, improves their quality of life, and gives them dignity.

Finally, while there are numerous multifaceted threats, traditional, nontraditional, and emerging, that confront the Indo-Pacific region, the more important thing is that there are also numerous avenues for cooperation to address and meet these threats head-on.

The just-concluded trilateral summit gives us reason to be optimistic, albeit with caution. We are always grateful for our friends and partners.

 

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

PBCom posts 16.3% increase in net earnings

PHILIPPINE Bank of Communications (PBCom) saw its attributable net income rise by 16.3% in 2023, it said on Tuesday.

The lender’s attributable net income stood at P1.898 billion last year, up from P1.632 billion in 2022, the bank’s financial statement disclosed to the local bourse showed.

This translated to a return on average equity of 11.42% and a return on average assets of 1.39%.

PBCom’s net interest income went down by 2.25% year on year to P4.7 billion from P4.81 billion amid higher interest expenses due to an elevated rate environment.

As a result, PBCom’s net interest margin declined to 3.96% from 4.8%.

Total operating income grew by 7.21% to P5.96 billion from P5.56 billion on higher earnings from services charges, fees and commissions and better trading and foreign exchange gains, among others.

Meanwhile, the bank’s operating expenses inched up by 0.54% to P3.42 billion last year from P3.41 billion in 2022.

This brought its cost-to-income ratio to 57.82%, higher than the 56.05% in 2022.

PBCom’s loans grew by 19.31% to P91.77 billion in 2023 from P76.92 billion a year prior.

The bank ended the year with a nonperforming loan ratio of 2.4%, lower than the 3.23% seen in the previous year.

On the funding side, deposit liabilities stood at P116.7 billion, up by 17.59% from P99.44 billion in 2022. PBCom said this was mainly driven by time deposits.

The bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio went up to 78.74% from 77.88%.

PBCom’s assets stood at P147.48 billion at end-2023, up by 18.1% from P124.88 billion a year ago. Total equity rose by 13.42% to P17.66 billion from P15.57 billion.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.55% last year, down from 17.07% in 2022. Its liquidity ratio also went down to 19.69% from 21.41%.

PBCom’s shares declined by 42 centavos or 2.35% to end at P17.46 apiece on Tuesday. — A.M.C. Sy

PetroEnergy income down 6% to P515 million

PETROENERGY Resources Corp. (PERC) saw a decline of 5.99% in its attributable net income to P515.65 million for 2023, the energy company said on Tuesday.

The company’s gross revenues rose by 22.3% to P3.35 billion from P2.74 billion in 2022, PERC said in its regulatory filing.

PERC reported a 9% increase in its consolidated net income to P944 million for 2023 from P863 million a year ago due to higher electricity sales.

“The increase in Consolidated Net Income is attributable to the higher electricity sales of its RE projects and higher interest income generated by the proceeds from Kyuden International Corporation’s 25% equity investment in PGEC,” the company said in a statement.

Consolidated assets during the period increased by 30% to P21.9 billion due to the acquisition from EEI Power Corp. of 20% direct equity interest in PetroWind Energy, Inc., a 44% direct equity interest in PetroSolar Corp., and an additional 7.5% equity interest in PetroGreen Energy Corp., the company said.

It said that the acquisitions have been funded through term loans from local banks.

“Another reason for the increases is the start of the funding and construction of PWEI’s 13.2 MW (megawatts) Phase 2 of the Nabas Wind Power Project in Aklan (6.6 MW is now under testing and commissioning),” PERC said.

Electricity sales rose largely due to the full-year operation of the 32 MW Maibarara Geothermal Power Project Units 1 and 2 compared to 2022 when scheduled major plant preventive maintenance activities was conducted for close to one month.

Meanwhile, Basic Energy Corp. reported a 54.9% decrease in its attributable net income to P42.69 million for 2023 from P94.63 million the previous year.

In a stock exchange disclosure, the energy company said that its gross revenues declined by 14.2% to P64.07 million from P74.64 million in the previous year. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Filipino portal capitalizes on online gaming gap

By Patricia B. Mirasol, Multimedia Producer

BRYLLE CESARE J. UYTIEPO, 25, had no intention of monetizing Axies Alerts PH, a project he started in June 2021 to share updates on the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.

“I am a gamer at heart,” Mr. Uytiepo said in a Zoom interview. “My family was playing Axie [at the height of the pandemic] when we thought: ‘How come no one is updating people on the Axie servers being down?’”

He opened a Facebook page for family and friends to address the information gap, and the page had 500,000 followers in just four months.

The news alert portal drummed up enough attention to get sponsorships from companies like PDAX, a cryptocurrency exchange, after four months in operation.

Web 3.0 startup Yield Guild Games bought a 51% stake in Axies Alerts — now known as YGG Alerts — in January 2022, and the rest of the company a year later.

Yield Guild Games has a market capitalization of $151 million and was ranked No. 257 on the CoinMarketCap website.

Today, YGG Alerts shares news on cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens — digital representations of real-life objects like art — and other related technologies to its more than 1 million followers on social media.

The Philippines was No. 6 in the 2023 Crypto Adoption Report of analysis firm Chainalysis, four spots down from its 2022 ranking.

Mr. Uytiepo said YGG Philippines and Axies Alerts collaborated in 2021 to help in disaster response for Typhoon Odette. He met Luis Buenaventura, country head of YGG Philippines, and said: “Our goals are aligned, so why not just work together?’”

Mr. Uytiepo now serves as the creative lead of YGG Alerts. His Axies Alerts co-founders James Patrick Pebenito and June Philip “Phee” Tejada, have also been absorbed by the organization as account manager and people and business development lead, respectively.

Axies Alerts was initially met with skepticism when it started, said Mr. Uytiepo, an Italian cuisine-trained chef who graduated from culinary school in 2019.

Mr. Uytiepo turned down job offers after graduation so he could open a restaurant, only to shelve his plan and turn to gaming when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Axie Infinity, which combines entertainment with financial speculation, drew about 2.7 million active daily users at its peak, according to Cryptogambling.tv. Half of the game’s players came from the Philippines.

These gave rise to gaming guilds — communities of players who help one another within and outside a specific game.

“We had to earn the trust of our community,” Mr. Uytiepo told BusinessWorld. “In our space, we have a lot of bad actors and exploiters.”

“We don’t just advertise about cryptocurrencies,” he added. “We take the time to research before we post.”

Technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency can make life easier “but with proper regulations,” Mr. Uytiepo said.

“Having good regulation for this industry is essential,” he said. “I believe in balanced regulation so the space can grow.”

Singapore is facing a dangerous world without Lee

MARK STOOP-UNSPLASH

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to deputy Lawrence Wong on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November 2025.

Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — will need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom, and experience as he writes the island’s next chapter. The world that confronts it is far more precarious than at any other time in the nation’s history, except for the upheaval caused by Singapore’s decision to break away from Malaysia in 1965.

The global landscape was then, as it is today, dangerous and uncertain. The Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union was at its peak. A nuclear missile crisis was just barely averted and much of what we call the Global South today had just emerged from the ugly grip of colonialism. Singapore, a tiny dot at the bottom of the Malayan peninsula, with no natural resources and a largely illiterate and unskilled workforce, was about to find out what it meant to strike out alone as an independent nation, without the benefit of a vast hinterland.

The first prime minister and founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, famously cried on national television when he made the announcement of the island’s separation from its neighbor, because of the difficult path he knew lay ahead. Such tears are unlikely this time around, but the small nation is entering uncharted waters yet again and Wong’s ability to navigate will be a key gauge of his leadership.

The new prime minister will have to deal with an increasingly acrimonious relationship between the US and China. Singapore has consistently said it wants to be friends with all and enemies of none, and this has helped the city-state go from a developing economy to Asia’s richest country. It has benefited from decades of globalization, a world where borders were erased and goods and services flowed freely, lifting incomes and stock market valuations.

As Beijing has cracked down on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and imposed harsh security laws, foreign companies and talent have sought haven in Singapore. The city-state will need to manage relations between Washington and Beijing delicately, even as it seeks to calm tensions and soothe nerves on both sides.

That won’t be easy. The handover comes at a time when the US’ legitimacy has taken a hit in the Global South over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. It has become a key focal point, not just for Asia’s Muslims in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, where the majority of citizens follow Islam, but also for citizens in Singapore who sympathize with Palestinians and have condemned the human suffering. A recent survey conducted by the ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, showed that more than half of the Southeast Asians asked would now prefer to align with China over the US if forced to choose between the rivals, reversing last year’s trends.

So as Wong steps up to the seat of power, it is best he gets all the help he can. Singapore’s leadership succession is a carefully telegraphed event that’s been years in the making. Even though the 51-year-old is known to be sincere and hardworking, that won’t be enough to get him out of tricky diplomatic tussles. A clear political vision is missing, says Ian Chong, non-resident scholar at Carnegie China and a political scientist at the National University of Singapore. “We know the hobbies of the new prime minister, but we don’t know what he has planned for the country,” he told me. “It’s a bit strange that the person taking over, and has had ample time to lay out a path, has yet to do so. Perhaps what that tells is you that no one in the government knows yet.” Wong’s guitar skills have made him a favorite on social media, but are unlikely to come in that handy as he takes on the top job.

It is not clear yet whether Lee, like his father before him, will serve as a minister mentor in Wong’s cabinet. It would certainly be useful to have his knowledge and expertise, as well as the relationships he has built as a global statesman of more than two decades. But the new prime minister should also be ready to listen to fresh ideas, not just from his own overwhelmingly dominant People’s Action Party, but also from the opposition, including leaders like lawyer and author Pritam Singh, who have proposed novel ways to address pressing domestic issues like the income gap, as well as gender disparities in the workplace.

These are not insurmountable challenges, but they require a deftness in managing both foreign policy and the domestic agenda. Singapore has always managed to stand out as the little country that could. The new leader has big shoes to fill.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

BSP looking into BPI downtime

REUTERS

THE BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking into the unscheduled service disruption experienced by clients of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) on Tuesday, a senior official said.

“At this point, the BSP is looking at the root cause of this occurrence,” BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said in a Viber message on Tuesday.

BPI’s services were unavailable early on Tuesday as its system was unable to process an “unusually high” volume of transactions, it said in an advisory.

“Please be advised that ATM (automated teller machine) withdrawals, CAM (cash acceptance machine) deposits, Debit Card purchases, BPI app, BPI online, and use of BPI online credentials for payments and loading using third party apps are currently not available,” it said on Tuesday morning. “Our system is still processing the unusually high weekend transactions due to tax payments.”

BPI was able to restore the affected services as of 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday. It had hoped to resolve the issue by 12 p.m. that day, but the bank said in another advisory that processing the affected transactions took longer than expected.

The listed bank’s attributable net income rose by 61.13% year on year to P54.82 billion in 2023.

BPI’s shares went down by P1.50 or 1.28% to close at P115.50 apiece on Tuesday. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

Russia adds director and playwright to ‘terrorists and extremists’ list

EVGENIA BERKOVICH — WIKIPEDIA

LONDON — Russian theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have been added to an official list of “terrorists and extremists” as they await trial on charges of “justifying terrorism.”

The pair were arrested in May last year. The charges against them relate to an award-winning play about Russian women who married Islamic State fighters.

The “terrorists and extremists” register is published online and run by Rosfinmonitoring, a state agency which is empowered to freeze the assets of people and entities on the list — even if they have yet to be convicted of a crime.

Ms. Berkovich, 38, and Ms. Petriychuk, 43, are among many thousands of people and entities who have been similarly designated in a crackdown on perceived subversive activity that intensified after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Kremlin does not comment on individual cases but says Russia is engaged in an existential struggle with the West and needs to robustly uphold its laws and defend itself.

The play Finist the Bright Falcon was written by Ms. Petriychuk and premiered in 2020 under Ms. Berkovich’s direction. The case arising from it has become a focus for fellow artists, human rights defenders and free speech campaigners.

In a court appearance in January, Ms. Berkovich addressed the judge in verse, satirizing the repetitive and slow-moving pace of proceedings and describing the pain that she and her family were going through.

In the speech, a version of which was later released by Russian artists in a rap-style YouTube video with music and graphics — Ms. Berkovich said, in part:

“I’m in Russia, under investigation’s net/Nowhere to escape, nothing to gain./I still have two sick kids, don’t forget,/Whose childhoods are stolen, once again.” — Reuters

Robinsons Retail Holdings notifies shareholders of virtual annual meeting on May 10

 

 

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