The Philippines was among the laggards in the East and Southeast Asian region after it scored 34.3 out of 100 in the latest edition of the Inclusive Growth Index (IGI), released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Using 2023 data, the index assesses an economy’s well-being and inclusivity through its gross domestic product (GDP) with other data on living conditions, equality, and environmental sustainability.
WEREMOTE, a flexible workspace provider, is looking to partner with more startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with limited resources.
“At Weremote, we recognize the growing need for flexible, scalable and cost-efficient workspaces especially among startups, SME, and freelancers,” Jennifer S. Tugade, general manager at Weremote, said in a Viber message.
“These groups are often the most dynamic and innovative, yet they face challenges like limited resources and rapidly changing workspace needs,” she added.
Weremote offers build-to-suit private offices, meeting rooms, virtual offices, co-working spaces and event areas. Its flexible workspaces can have 300 to 500 seats, depending on the location, Ms. Tugade said.
Startups, which typically feature a scalable business model, would be more appropriate for a flexible workspace setting than a traditional office, she said.
“Instead of locking into long-term leases or investing heavily in an office setup, startups can scale up or down easily based on their team size and business needs,” she pointed out. “This kind of adaptability is crucial in the early stages of growth, when things can shift quickly.”
The Philippines had about 1,100 startups in the capital region alone as of 2023, according to Startup Genome, a global policy advisory and research group. It has about 110,000 small enterprises and 4,763 medium-sized businesses, according to 2023 data from the Trade department.
Weremote has three workspace locations in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig — One/NEO, MyTown LA BGC, and myStay BGC East — and three in Makati, namely Villena II Poblacion, MyTown NY Makati and Makati Central Square. It also has one office in Orange Suites Alabang in Muntinlupa City.
Each workspace location has tables and chairs, air-conditioning units, a flat screen TV, unlimited water, coffee and tea, and a glassboard.
It also offers mail handling, equipment rentals, Wi-Fi connection, a shared pantry and daily cleaning and printing services. All working spaces are open 24/7.
“Access to amenities, meeting rooms and professional business support allows startups to project a more established presence without the overhead costs,” Ms. Tugade said.
Demand for flexible workspaces has been driven by many companies’ return-to-office, she earlier said.
Some companies prefer the work-from-home setup, but after the pandemic, employees still demanded to have a more professional-looking environment, she said, adding that an onsite workspace helps improve employee productivity.
Demand for flexible workspaces has grown across Metro Manila, ending 2024 with a 17.5% vacancy rate, according to property consultant Colliers Philippines.
Fort Bonifacio had the most occupied seats at 12,000, followed by Makati City at 10,000, and Quezon City at 7,000.
LIMA — Archaeologists in coastal Peru have discovered the 5,000-year-old remains of a woman who may have belonged to the upper echelons of the ancient Caral civilization, a find they say points to the importance of women in the city some five millennia earlier.
Caral, located some 180 kilometers up the Pacific coast from Lima, is considered the oldest city in the Americas and would have been inhabited at the same time as ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Sumerian civilizations — though unlike these, researchers say it developed in complete isolation.
Aspero, the area in the Caral site where the tomb was found, was formerly used as a municipal dump.
“This is an important burial because it has elements that correspond to a woman of high status,” archeologist David Palomino told Reuters on Thursday, pointing to the way the corpse was wrapped and preservation of her skin, hair, and nails.
The body of the woman, who would have died at around 20 to 35 years of age, was found with a mantle of blue and brown feathers that could come from an Amazonian bird such as a macaw, he said, adding the tomb was surrounded by baskets with offerings, vases, gourds and a toucan’s beak.
Mr. Palomino said the finding showed that “not only men had an important association in this civilization, but this was also complementary with that of women.”
Though researchers do not know the exact date of the burial, the Caral civilization was active around 3,000 BC — Reuters
ROBINSONS RETAIL HOLDINGS, Inc. (RRHI), the retail arm of the Gokongwei group, reported an 85% decline in attributable net income for the first quarter, falling to P760 million from P5.08 billion in the same period last year, primarily due to a high base effect from a one-time gain related to the merger of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Robinsons Bank Corp. (RBC).
Consolidated net sales rose 4.2% year-on-year to P47.8 billion, with growth driven by the food, drugstore, and department store segments, RRHI said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
“Revenues were also supported by new store sales and additional operating days, following the shift in the Holy Week holidays to April this year from March in 2024. These factors helped offset the impact of fewer selling days in February, as 2024 was a leap year,” RRHI said.
Gross profit grew by 6.2% to P11.59 billion, driven by a favorable category mix, continued supplier support, and improved inventory management. Core earnings increased 4.9% to P1.2 billion, largely due to lower interest expenses.
Operating income also saw an increase, rising 2.7% to P1.94 billion, although this was partly offset by higher labor expenses from the full-quarter impact of wage hikes last year and one-time costs related to improvements in the employee benefits program.
Blended same-store sales growth stood at 3%, meeting the company’s full-year guidance of 2-4%, RRHI said.
“This year is off to a strong start, with the ongoing recovery in basket sizes continuing to drive revenue growth. To sustain this momentum, we will further optimize our assortment, accelerate store expansion, and unlock greater operational efficiencies,” said Stanley C. Co, RRHI’s president and chief executive officer.
“As we navigate the dynamic retail environment, we remain focused on creating long-term value for our stakeholders by strengthening our fundamentals and advancing our sustainability agendas,” he added.
Total assets as of March 31 amounted to P168.9 billion, with capital expenditure for the quarter reaching P962 million.
Total liabilities decreased to P72.2 billion from P77.3 billion as of December 31, 2023.
As of March 31, RRHI operated 2,448 stores, comprising 760 food stores, 1,131 drugstores, 50 department stores, 225 DIY stores, and 282 specialty stores. It also operates 2,116 franchised stores under The Generics Pharmacy brand.
RRHI shares closed down by 0.25%, or 10 centavos, at P39.20 on Tuesday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
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FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY company Skyro is aiming to disburse P15 billion to P16 billion in loans this year as it looks to tap underserved provinces and increase its merchant partners.
“In US dollar terms, it’s approximately $300 million that we think that we’re going to lend. That would be approximately P15 billion, close to P16 billion in total loans that will be issued,” Skyro Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer Nasim Aliev said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
Skyro was launched in the country in 2022. It is backed by Singapore-headquartered fintech Breeze Ventures and operates in the Philippines through financing company Advanced Finance Solutions, Inc. and lending company Skyro Lending, Inc., which are both registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Skyro Lending owns the Skyro app.
The company has disbursed P11 billion worth of loans to date as of last week, it said.
Skyro Point of Sale Business Head Lowen Medina said 70% of their loan disbursements are used by customers to buy mobile phones, while the remaining 30% is spent on laptops or personal computers, furniture, TVs and electronics, and home appliances.
Mr. Medina said the company will continue to expand its reach to underserved areas and sectors to grow its client base.
“Even though we are 100% in regional penetration, there are still areas of opportunities for us. In the Philippines, there are some untapped provinces. There are also some untapped sectors that we want to push for, not only for this year, but in the next coming years,” he said.
Skyro is also looking to expand its partner merchants to support its loan disbursements.
“There are a lot of new merchants that we want to onboard, not only offline, but also online. We have the same goal for our cash load partner merchants,” Mr. Medina said.
The company currently has more than 100 online merchants and over 1,600 offline merchants in 5,000 locations. It also has 13 brand partners.
Mr. Aliev added that Skyro will look to raise about $90 million from both local and international banks this year to fund its growth plans.
“I think the banks are more cautious, especially international banks this time. What’s happening in international markets is incredible, but they will be more cautious. But [local] private lenders, they have more of an appetite for risk,” he added. — A.M.C. Sy
THE digital economy’s contribution to the Philippine economy was little changed at 8.5% in 2024 from 8.6% previously, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday. Read the full story.
Should a teacher working for a Christian educational institution be disciplined for engaging in a pre-marital relationship with her boyfriend that led to her pregnancy?
This was the question brought before the Supreme Court in Bohol Wisdom School et al. v. Mabao, G.R. No. 252124, July 23, 2024.
Bohol Wisdom School (BWS), a Christian school, hired Miraflor Mabao as a grade school teacher on June 7, 2007. On Sept. 21, 2016, Mabao informed the grade school principal that she was two months pregnant with her boyfriend. The following day, the school principal verbally suspended her and told her not to report to her classes until she could present documents showing that she was already married to the father of her child.
To BWS, Mabao’s suspension was not illegal as it was an exercise of its management prerogative in keeping with their standard of morality. Considering that there is no absolute standard of morality, the standard must be based on the surrounding circumstances where the questioned action takes place. In this case, Mabao, as a teacher in a Christian educational institution, was obliged to teach and exemplify Christian values.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with BWS and ruled that Mabao was illegally suspended. In the eyes of the law, the standard of morality that binds all those who come before it is public and secular, not religious (Capin-Cadiz v. Brent Hospital and Colleges, Inc. G.R. No. 187417, Feb. 24, 2016).
Jurisprudence has already defined public and secular morality as conduct proscribed because they are detrimental to conditions upon which depend the existence and progress of society (Leus v. St. Scholastica’s College Westgrove, G.R. No. 187226, Jan. 28, 2015).
To the Supreme Court, sexual relations between two consenting adults who have no legal impediment to marry are not immoral. The fact that a particular act does not conform to the traditional moral views of a certain sectarian institution is insufficient to qualify such act as immoral unless it, likewise, does not conform to public and secular standards. It may have been an unusual arrangement, but it certainly was not disgraceful or immoral within the contemplation of the law.
Thus, on a secular level, premarital sex is not immoral per se. Mabao neither had sexual relations with a married man nor was she married at that time. As Mabao’s pregnancy could not be considered immoral, the Supreme Court held that this could not be a valid ground for her suspension.
This was not the first time the Supreme Court had the occasion to rule on the morality of pregnancy out of wedlock as insufficient just cause for termination. In Union School International v. Dagdag, (G.R. No. 234186, Nov. 21, 2018), the Court ruled that there is no issue on immorality with an elementary school teacher getting pregnant even when the father of her child was marrying another woman. What was vital was that at the time of conception, there was no legal impediment to marry between the teacher and the father of her child. As Justice Francis Jardaleza so eloquently writes in his concurring opinion in Union School: “Christine Joy has the right to decide how she will rear her child. If this choice involves being a single mother for now or for good, no law or government issuance may be used to interfere with this decision.”
However, extra-marital relationships per se are considered immoral, hence, a ground for termination of employment due to serious misconduct. In Santos vs. NLRC (G.R. No. 115795, March 6, 1998), the Supreme Court held that when a teacher engages in an extra-marital relationship, more so when the parties are both married, such behavior amounts to immorality. This is especially so because teachers, who are directly charged with rearing and educating students in their formative years, effectively serve as their role models.
Likewise, in Ogalisco v. Holy Trinity College of General Santos City (G.R. No. 172913, Aug. 9, 2007), the illicit affair between co-teachers was considered a just cause for termination after witnesses confirmed the following circumstances between the petitioner and a married co-teacher: “Moreover, respondent through his witnesses has proven that complainant and (his married co-teacher) were no ordinary friends. They were seen holding hands at the Manokan restaurant, seen walking in the street not in a way ordinary friends do, seen many times at Kimball Plaza having refreshment (alone) [sic] and acting like husband and wife, holding hands while riding in the tricycle, holding hands and complainant kissing (her) and putting his hands around her inside the faculty room.”
Finally, while consensual pre-marital relationships between adults without marital impediments are not inherently immoral, contextual factors can render them terminable offenses. Specifically, circumstances warranting termination include scandalous conduct, on-premise immoral acts, or significant reputational harm to the institution and its members.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and not offered as and does not constitute legal advice or legal opinion.
Lance Ryan J. Villarosa is an associate of the Labor and Employment department of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW).
TAXUMO, an online tax compliance platform, has partnered with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Business Banking to help its partner small and medium enterprises (SMEs) gain access to funding.
Through the partnership, more than 100,000 Taxumo-registered users — mostly micro and small business owners and self-employed professionals — could gain access to faster loan processing and exclusive business loan rates under BPI’s Ka-Negosyo Loan portfolio.
“These are businesses that trust us to simplify and manage their tax compliance, and we’re excited to now offer them additional tools like access to business loans that can help fuel their growth,” Taxumo Chief Executive Officer Ginger Arboleda said in an e-mail reply to questions.
Taxumo users may borrow as much as P30 million, with no collateral required for loan amounts of up to P5 million, while loans above that are subject to bank evaluation, she said.
The loan process has become faster and more convenient for Taxumo users who are legitimate and consistent tax filers, as long as they have the documents typically required for business loan applications.
In a statement, Taxumo said the partnership with BPI addresses the common pain point of many SMEs, which is access to financing.
In a report by Dutch cloud banking platform Mambu in 2023, 77% of Philippine micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) “have been unable to secure sufficient or any funding on at least one occasion over the last five years.”
It also found that most local MSMEs fail to get loans due to strict lending requirements, often turning to family and friends for additional financing to sustain their operations.
Ms. Arboleda said under the partnership with BPI, SMEs would have access to the tools and financial support they need to boost their business.
Taxumo users can simply apply for a BPI Ka-Negosyo loan by clicking on the Business Loan tab on their dashboard.
To qualify, the business must be an active Taxumo subscriber with the intention to file, or preferably, has been consistently filing taxes through the platform, Ms. Arboleda said.
The business must also be profitable for two to three years, owned by a Filipino citizen who will be 21 to 70 years old when the loan matures.
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday that the P20-per-kilo subsidized rice program will tap the contingency fund of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
The Office of the President has authorized the release of P5 billion from its contingency fund to Food Terminal, Inc., (FTI) which will distribute rice bought from the National Food Authority (NFA) to local government units (LGUs) and the Kadiwa network of government-supported produce markets, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said at a briefing.
The FTI will spend P4.5 billion to procure the rice, with the remaining P500 million going to logistics and packaging, he added.
The P20 rice program — first introduced in the Visayas on a pilot basis — will also be rolled out in Kadiwa outlets, the DA said on Monday.
The NFA currently sells rice to LGUs at P33 per kilo on the strength of a food security emergency declared in late January. It loses about P12 per kilo assuming a breakeven price of P45. LGUs then resell the NFA rice without a markup or at the slightly higher price of about P35 per kilo.
Mr. Laurel said with the price of NFA rice at P33, the FTI and LGUs will need to pay P6.50 each to close the P13 gap.
This means that in sum, participating LGUs are also expected to contribute around P4.5 billion to the subsidy.
Selling rice at P20 per kilo would yield losses to the government of P10-P12 billion, according to Mr. Laurel.
He said however that NFA stocks are not moving because LGUs are not placing orders for nearly three months after the rice emergency declaration.
He compared the program to a “moving-out sale,” noting that if the NFA stocks — estimated at 370,000 metric tons remain unsold for a long time then it might be forced to sell inventory at even lower prices.
Mr. Laurel said LGUs are reluctant to buy NFA stock in the face of the declining global price of rice, which has pushed some commercial retailers to offer rice at less than the NFA price.
“If we can’t sell them and they rot in our warehouses, they lose value. We tried selling at P33. It did not catch on because rice prices at retail also declined,” he said.
The DA said on Monday that world prices of rice averaged $300 per metric ton, down from a high of over $700.
NFA inventory rose to a five-year high equivalent to 7.56 million 50-kilogram bags of milled rice as of April 24.
Rice prices in Metro Manila markets ranged from P39.99 to P58.17 per kilo between April 21 and April 24, according to DA price monitors.
Mr. Laurel said subsidizing rice is practiced by Malaysia, Indonesia, China Japan, and India, and the Philippines could have done the same as early as 2024 if NFA had enough stock.
Mr. Laurel said the government may roll out the P20 rice program nationwide by January.
A pilot program must run for “at least six months” to determine whether it is feasible for nationwide implementation, he said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had ordered the DA to find ways to sustain the program until the end of his term in 2028.
The pilot run in the Visayas is set to kick off in Cebu on May 1.
Mr. Laurel last week said the Visayas was chosen for the pilot due to its poverty rate, which exceeds the national average of 10.9%.
The program is targeting about 400,000 families for the P20 rice, including some of the most vulnerable segments of society.
An initial eight Kadiwa outlets in and around Metro Manila will also start their own pilot run on May 2.
Mr. Laurel, meanwhile, clarified that while the initiative has been exempted from the election spending ban, participating LGUs still need to request exemptions. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) approved investment pledges worth P4.575 billion in April, down 69.5% year on year.
In a statement on Tuesday, PEZA said it approved 20 new and expansion projects at a board meeting on April 23. The approved investments are expected to generate more than 9,000 jobs and over $300 million worth of exports.
Seven of the projects involve export manufacturing, five information technology and business process management (IT-BPM), four facilities, two utilities, and one logistics. One of the projects is a domestic enterprise.
The projects are located in the National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Central Visayas.
PEZA’s approvals for the month brought the four-month tally to P63.523 billion, up 112.06%.
In the first four months, the investment promotion agency approved 86 new and expansion projects, expected to generate 24,920 jobs and $846.735 million in exports.
“PEZA’s continued upward trajectory reflects our strong commitment towards investment promotion and facilitation,” PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said.
“Despite the geopolitical challenges, this momentum reflects renewed investor confidence in the Philippines as a resilient and globally competitive destination,” he added.
The 86 approved investments include 31 manufacturing projects, 29 IT-BPM projects, eight domestic enterprises, seven economic zone developments, and seven facilities projects.
South Korea was the top source of investment in the first four months, accounting for P10.45 billion. This was followed by the US (P2.53 billion), China (P2.17 billion), Japan (P1.66 billion), Hong Kong (P1.14 billion), and Singapore (P1.1 billion).
Meanwhile, PEZA said that it signed a supplemental agreement with MOOG Controls Corp. for the company’s new facility in Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac.
It also said that the Baguio City Economic Zone Multipurpose Center is now 62% complete and will be running by the third quarter.
“With the current global trade volatilities and uncertainty in the supply chain, we have been receiving more queries about the Philippines and even welcoming several inbound delegations exploring investment opportunities within the ecozones,” Mr. Panga said. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
