PHILIPPINE rice imports have amounted to 1.07 million metric tons (MT) as of late March, according to the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).
Rice shipments during the period were up 33% from 2023’s first quarter total.
Shipments between March 1 and 27 amounted to 304,407.18 MT.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that Philippine rice imports would increase to 4 million MT this year. The estimate, if borne out, would be 11.7% higher than the 3.58 million MT imported in 2023.
However, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said that the imports are unlikely to hit USDA forecast levels due to better-than-expected domestic production. The DA is targeting a palay (unmilled rice) harvest at above 20 million MT.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said that the estimated import number was a “worst-case scenario” in the event that domestic rice output proves to be severely affected by El Niño.
The BPI reported that Vietnam remained the country’s top supplier of rice as of late March, accounting for 59.6% of all imports or 638,989.35 MT.
In January, the Philippine and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding giving the Philippines a quota of 1.5 million to 2 million MT of rice annually for five years.
Thailand supplied 248,618.43 MT during the period, or 23.2% of the total, followed by Pakistan with 119,278.5 MT or 11.1% of the total.
Other top sources of rice were Myanmar and China which shipped 58,060 and 3,900 MT of rice imports, respectively.
The government has also expressed interest in coming to a similar supply arrangement with Cambodia.
Rice shipments from Cambodia amounted to 1,620 MT in the year to date.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has said that such deals would improve supply at a time when the domestic crop is threatened by droughts and dry spells brought on by El Niño.
Agricultural damage and losses topped P2.63 billion with rice and corn as the most affected crops, the DA reported. — Adrian H. Halili
AUTHOR biking through Lopez Jaena People’s Street in Pasig City. — @PASIG RIVER BIKE.MP4
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AUTHOR biking through Lopez Jaena People’s Street in Pasig City. — @PASIG RIVER BIKE.MP4
PHOTO of author and husband on Sumilang Bridge, Pasig City. — BEA BANZUELA PHOTOGRAPHY
SCREENSHOTS from the documentary How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths.
SCREENSHOTS from the documentary How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths.
I was born and raised in Metro Manila. If Cebu is known for its Sinulog Festival and Davao is known for its fruits, Manila is known all over the world for its bumper-to-bumper traffic (Yu 2024). Although my family lived in different cities as I was growing up, we eventually settled in the little triangle east of Manila enclosed by the rivers Pasig, Marikina, the Taytay floodway, and Laguna Lake. Here, bridges and riverbanks come alive with the laughter of children when the sun is low. When the sun is high, old trees provide shade for resting Grab drivers and busy street vendors. Narrow creeks are flanked by people-sized walkways; where there are streets instead of creeks, children’s games take up both lanes. In this small triangle east of Metro Manila, the streets are not just livable, they are alive.
It’s no small wonder therefore that Pasig City pioneered People’s Streets — non-critical streets that are closed to traffic every Sunday. The people, mostly children, made it so de facto, such that the government had no choice but to follow de jure. So, when Ramon Ang proposed to build an expressway above the Pasig River in the name of easing traffic, I joined the ranks of young people who strongly opposed it. We would sooner have parks along the Pasig River than a looming outcrop of concrete that we would never be able to see above. While Cheonggyecheon in Seoul taught us that we can tear down an expressway to revive a river, the Pasig teaches us that we don’t have to build one in the first place. Pasig City also teaches us that children can take up entire streets if they want to.
TO MAKE A CITY LIVABLE MEANS TO DESIGN IT FOR CHILDREN. It isn’t impossible, you know. Amsterdam’s residents weren’t always whizzing around on bicycles. In the 1970s, it took blockades of people lying on the street to lobby for the Amsterdam we know today. But did you know that these protests were not for the sake of bike riders but rather for the safety of children on the road? Known as the “Stop de Kindermoord” or “Stop Killing Children” movement, it was a reaction to the growing number of children who died each year due to motor vehicle accidents. Our good mayors of Metro Manila went to Amsterdam last year to study its world-class transportation system. They must have learned that to make world-class roads means giving those roads back to children and keeping cars as far away from them as possible.
Besides Amsterdam, the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) documented the transformation of public spaces in different cities in the world. In case studies, the roads in front of the schools look just like any other road in Metro Manila today. But simply by protecting the sidewalks and painting the space to make it look more like a school, the Justin Kabwe Primary School in Zambia, for example, was able to reduce average vehicle speed in the area by half, which resulted in the reduction of serious injuries to children by 26% in just six months.
Also, it turns out that when we design a city for children and their caregivers, it becomes a lot more livable for the rest of us. That means build, build, building away from cars and allowing children as small as 95 cm (3’ 11”) freedom of movement and places to rest and socialize. Not surprisingly, it’s a lot cheaper too — for example, building a protected bike lane instead of a new road can save the government P26.79 million per kilometer (AltMobility 2022) and would better protect the 290,000 bike commuting children in Metro Manila (Social Weather Station 2022).
TO DESIGN A CITY FOR CHILDREN MEANS TREATING CARS AS THE LAST RESORT FOR MOBILITY. My husband and I weren’t planning to bike to our wedding. At first, we chose a venue accessible by bike and public transport for our guests’ sake. I’ve been to too many weddings where I could only attend via carpooling with strangers, and we wanted our guests to be free to come and go as they pleased. However, our car was “coding” on the day of the wedding. Fortunately, my husband and I had been bike commuters for longer than we’d been together, so it was natural for us to default to the saddle of our bicycles. After all, the venue we chose was surrounded by the few bike lanes that still existed in “post-pandemic” Metro Manila.
By now, you may have guessed that our little life has always been free from cars. We traveled a lot, which meant our romance was not incubated in the quiet intimacy of a car. We found intimacy instead in trains and buses, even as we were shoulder to knee with other people. Traveling made us realize that all roads lead to Cubao — accessible via public transportation from anywhere in the Philippines — so we eventually decided to build a home here. And although we recently became car owners, we still bike to work and ride the jeep on date nights.
For the wedding, we had our photos taken on one of those Pasig River bridges. Our photographer had us ride our bicycles up and down several times. Although we tried, we could never be alone; in every shot, there were people walking on the road or basking in the golden hour. Just so.
If ever we’re blessed with children, I want them to know that our dream of a livable Manila is one that was built for them.
Tara Abrina is a monitoring and evaluation consultant for the Action for Economic Reforms, an environmental economics researcher with the University of the Philippines, and a bike commuter based in Metro Manila.
LISTED CONVERGE ICT Solutions, Inc. is looking at cloud and virtual reality gaming as possible expansion routes for the fiber internet service provider.
“In the future, maybe virtual reality, we can also enter that, also cloud gaming,” Converge Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dennis Anthony H. Uy told reporters on the sidelines of a media event in Pasig City last week.
“We have started some gaming partners already with some content,” he added.
He noted the gaming industry in the Philippines is exclusive to the high-income segment due to the requirements that games demand to achieve maximum performance.
The internet provider offers the FiberX Gamechanger fixed broadband plan that is dedicated for gamers and gaming enthusiasts. It offers high-prioritization access and high internet speed plans.
Converge saidthat it operates the biggest fiber-to-the-home network in the Philippines, with more than 7.9 million ports as of end-2023.
The network is equipped with 10 gigabits per second passive optical networks (GPON) technology.
“Converge selected the better version of 10GPON called XGS-PON, which is symmetric. The upload and download are done at the same speed. This is important because many of the applications today actually require more upload than download. The reality of the Metaverse for example, requires a lot of bandwidth, data transfer to the cloud, and augmented reality and virtual reality,” Converge Chief Operations Officer Jesus C. Romero said in a separate statement.
In 2023, Converge recorded a 22.3% jump in its net income to P9.1 billion as consolidated revenues climbed by 5% to P35.4 billion.
The internet provided had 2,128,052 subscribers as of end-2023. This is comprised of 2,013,216 postpaid subscribers and 114,836 prepaid subscribers.
Converge shares were last traded on April 5 at P9.23 per share. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
San Miguel Corp.’s Jacob Ang (left) and Velocità Motors, Inc. General Manager Japheth Castillo flank the Ferrari Roma Spider. — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA
Got P29.5 million handy? Ferrari has your next carriage ready
By Kap Maceda Aguila
FERRARI FORMALLY replaces the now-scuttled GTC4Lusso T with another V8-banger front-engine coupe.
That Ferrari is the Roma Spider, said to be a daily driver that possesses F1-car virtues. Speaking to “Velocity” during the model’s recent local launch at the Velocità Motors, Inc. (official Ferrari distributor) showroom on EDSA, Velocità General Manager Japheth Castillo said, “The Ferrari Roma Spider is a GT car. It’s a two-plus-two, with a 3.9-liter V8 engine that produces 612 horsepower. It takes 3.4 seconds to get from zero to 100kph.” Eighty percent of the 760Nm total torque is available at 1,900rpm.
The sports car is positioned as a “take on the chic, pleasure-seeking Italian lifestyle of the 1950s and ’60s,” and adds a soft top — the first in the Ferrari range on a front-engine car in more than half a century after 1969’s 365 GTS4.
The Maranello-headquartered supercar brand reported that the Roma Spider gets best-in-class weight/power ratio on account of not just its soft top but an all-aluminum chassis. Its V8 mill, on the other hand, has been recognized as Engine of the Year four consecutive times. Drivers access the performance via an eight-speed DCT known for fast shifting, and “excellent standards of comfort and mechanical efficiency.”
“This is a vehicle that encapsulates Ferrari’s brand, which offers power and exhilarating driving performance and, at the same time, comfort,” stressed Mr. Castillo. “This car is a good daily driver. The difference between this car and the other vehicles that Ferrari offers is that the others are track cars, while this is one you can use on the road. It’s very comfortable.”
Design-wise, Ferrari went with a traditional long hood, which complements a “spare silhouette of the flanks.” The front fascia gets a shark-nose effect. Mr. Castillo admitted that the rear seating is “very compact.” He added, “You’ll have to move the front seats pretty much forward. Being designed as a sports car, legroom at the back is not generous, but it does allow you an additional two people to enjoy the ride with you and the front passenger.”
The Roma Spider stretches 4,656 millimeters, is 1,974-mm wide, and stands 1,306-mm tall. It’s fitted with a mixed set (245/35 ZR 20s and 285/35 ZR 20) of tires. Maximum speed is rated at more than 320kph.
Ferrari in the Philippines is expected to get a boost with the opening of large facility just a few meters from EDSA — Connecticut corner Florida Streets in Northeast Greenhills, San Juan City, to be exact. “We will be officially inaugurating it this month,” declared the executive. “Then we can invite more people to come and experience Ferrari. It will be a 3S (sales, service, and spare parts) establishment; we can accommodate servicing at the basement of our Velocità building.”
In March, inflation-adjusted wages were 16.7% to 24.2% lower than the current daily minimum wages across the region in the country. Meanwhile, in peso terms, real wages were lower by around P73.25 to P114.20 from the current daily minimum wages set by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.
KIEHL’s posted this photo to its almost 1 million Instagram followers in a form of anti-marketing of skincare products to tweens.
KIEHL’s posted this photo to its almost 1 million Instagram followers in a form of anti-marketing of skincare products to tweens.
WHEN Shai Eisenman and her team at Bubble Skincare launched an exfoliating serum in the US earlier this year, they did something unusual: They advised some of their core customers not to buy it.
The reason? The serum is too harsh for thousands of the brand’s preadolescent fans — the exact demographic that founder Ms. Eisenman said has been buying more in the past six months, helping drive Bubble’s expansion into 12,000 stores in the US and the UK. In posts on both TikTok and Instagram, the brand told younger kids to avoid its products that exfoliate or treat blemishes. They received more than 40,000 likes.
“It’s not a common thing for a brand to come and say, ‘You should not use my products,’” Ms. Eisenman said.
As demand for skin care in the US has surged among teens and tweens, including girls as young as eight and nine years old, beauty brands are navigating how to communicate with their new customers. US households with six- to 12-year-olds spent 27% more on skin care in 2023 versus a year earlier, according to data firm NielsenIQ. Households with 13- to 17-year-olds saw a similar increase. Both significantly outpaced the 13% growth rate across the US.
The shift has forced brands to come up with a playbook to engage with a demographic that was barely interested in these products a year ago — and to the adults who buy them most of the items. Companies are also navigating the potential legal risks of marketing to children.
While youngsters have long tinkered with drugstore makeup, the recent skin-care craze is different: They’re spending more money and buying more sophisticated treatments, mixing products from Christian Dior and Drunk Elephant with lower-cost offerings from brands like L’Oréal SA-owned CeraVe.
The shift is boosting companies that are popular among the group. Demand for Sol de Janeiro’s lotions and $38 body sprays have helped push up shares of its parent company, L’Occitane International SA, by 40% this year, making it among the best-performing personal-care stocks globally.
Shares in e.l.f. Beauty, Inc., whose $8 skin toners and $13 face creams are popular with teens, have almost doubled in the past year. Sales of its skin-care products outpaced cosmetics in the most recent quarter, spiking nearly 90%.
Oshiya Savur, chief brand and marketing officer at Maesa, which develops and runs personal-care and beauty brands, said the speed at which younger kids have seized on the trend has been a “seismic shift.”
“We were focused on Gen-Z and suddenly we’re talking about Gen-Alpha,” Ms. Savur said, referring to the cohort born since the early 2010s.
CLEANSER, SUNSCREEN Many dermatologists agree that most tweens and teens only need a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a sunscreen. But some young people are buying half a dozen or more products, inspired by TikTok videos known as “Get Ready With Me,” which show influencers applying layers of skin care and makeup.
“What is troubling about this interest is how much consumerism is being pushed,” said Ivy Lee, a board-certified dermatologist in Pasadena, California, and “the unspoken message that a complex and expensive skin-care regimen is needed.” Ivy Lee is seeing more young patients with skin irritation and breakouts caused by using too many products.
Brands are also eliciting the ire of some parents. When Drunk Elephant, owned by Shiseido Co., posted on social media a list of more than a dozen of its products it said are safe for kids, one commenter responded: “NONE of this is appropriate for children.” A Drunk Elephant spokeswoman said the brand doesn’t recommend young people use products with a high concentration of active ingredients.
The pushback has led to some of the world’s biggest beauty companies responding with a kind of anti-marketing. Last month, Kiehl’s, owned by L’Oréal, posted a photo of a girl whose face was covered in ice cream to its almost 1 million Instagram followers. “The only anti-aging cream kids should buy,” the caption read. In February, the Ordinary, owned by Estée Lauder Cos., posted, “Teens, you don’t need ten steps,” cautioning young people to avoid ingredients like retinoids and alpha hydroxy acids.
By showcasing that they’re not marketing to children, Kiehl’s and the Ordinary are, by extension, appealing to parents who are concerned and bewildered by the skin-care surge. Brands are keen to keep parents happy partly because they often are the ones buying products for their kids — as well as themselves.
On a recent Saturday at a Sephora store in Manhattan, shopper Tonya Powell described how her young daughters had got her into skin care. The shared interest “brings us closer because now we can talk about different products and what we like and don’t like,” she said. Sephora, owned by LVMH, has emerged as one of the most popular destinations for kids to buy skin care. At two stores in Manhattan, several associates said they’d been told during training to advise teens and tweens to avoid products with active ingredients such as the anti-aging retinol. A spokeswoman for LVMH declined to comment.
The big cosmetics conglomerates are also wary of jumping on the tween skin-care bandwagon because — as publicly traded companies with teams of attorneys — they’re more aware than some of the beauty upstarts of the potential legal pitfalls, according to executives and lawyers. Spokeswomen for L’Oréal and Estée Lauder declined to comment.
If brands say their products are safe for a certain age group, the ingredients should have been tested on that demographic and meet standards set by the US Food and Drug Administration, said Laura Brett, head of the BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division, a watchdog for the US advertising industry. Clinical testing ensures a brand’s safety claims are reasonable, she said.
The self-regulatory agency is considering opening cases with some beauty companies to learn more about their marketing claims, Ms. Brett said. If a company doesn’t cooperate, the watchdog would escalate the case to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). “The FTC is certainly looking at the beauty industry,” Ms. Brett said. “There’s a lot of concern about how social media is impacting teens and tweens.”
In a statement, an FTC spokesman said the agency will use existing laws to do everything it can to protect children.
Brands marketing to those under 13 face even stricter standards, including age restrictions on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram in the US.
“The under-13 set is quite vulnerable,” said Dona Fraser, head of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, another division of the BBB National Programs. She recommended that brands follow the organization’s advertising guidelines, such as not implying that buying a certain product will make a person more popular.
Legal concerns could add hurdles to future dealmaking, said Diana Melencio, a general partner at XRC Ventures who invests in the beauty sector.That could include more due-diligence requirements for major conglomerates considering buying a smaller brand that’s focused on tweens and teens.
Selling to a big corporation has been a popular exit strategy for beauty founders in recent years. Singer and actress Selena Gomez, for example, recently hired advisers to weigh offers for her cosmetics company, Rare Beauty, Bloomberg News reported.
“L’Oréal, Shiseido, Estée Lauder are still a little apprehensive about targeting that specific demographic because of the backlash that would happen if their products proved to be unsafe or have negative side effects,” Ms. Melencio said. Shiseido declined to comment. — Bloomberg
THE Department of Budget and Management said it has approved the release of first quarter funding for crop insurance to compensate for agricultural damage.
“In light of the escalating challenges posed by climate change, which heightens the risks to both our economy and food security, it becomes imperative to prioritize the provision of financial security and insurance to empower our farmers and fishermen,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said in a statement on Sunday.
On March 19, Ms. Pangandaman affirmed the release of a Special Allotment Release Order amounting to P4.5 billion and a Notice of Cash Allocation worth P900 million for the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC).
“This assistance is intended to help them safeguard their means of living, ensuring they can continue their activities despite unforeseen events,” Ms. Pangandaman said.
The PCIC has been allocated funding of P4.5 billion under the 2024 national budget to cover the crop insurance premiums of more than 2 million farmers.
Apart from losses due to natural calamities, pest infections, and plant diseases, the PCIC also provides assistance in the event of the loss or damage of non-crop assets like equipment, transport facilities, and infrastructure.
El Niño has caused agricultural damage worth P2.63 billion, affecting 54,203 farmers and 53,879 hectares of farmland, the Department of Agriculture said last week.
Damage to the rice crop, which accounted for about 65% or P1.7 billion worth of agricultural losses, was also one of the main drivers of this month’s uptick in rice inflation at 24.4%. This was the highest reading since the 24.6% recorded in February 2009.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that 17 areas nationwide declared a state of calamity due to El Niño. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
In business education, there is a subject called “The Agency Problem.”
Modern corporations are owned by numerous stockholders who have neither the time nor the talent nor the inclination to manage the corporation. The solution is to hire professionals called management who will manage the corporation in the best interest of the stockholders. The problem is that the management (the Agent) may not act in the best interest of the stockholders (the Principal), hence “The Agency Problem.” For clearly the interests of the agent do not always align with the interests of the principal. Thus, in matters of executive compensation the interest of the principal is to frugally pay the agent based on the performance of the company while the interest of the agent is to be lavishly paid no matter how well or badly the company performs.
As with the private sector, so too with the public sector, with greater complexity. We the citizens (the Principal) elect politicians (the Agent) who are expected to act in our best interest. Due to the complexity of modern governments, the politicians will in turn appoint unelected officials called bureaucrats (the Agent’s Agent) who will administer the government machinery on their behalf. The Agency Problem arises when our interests (the Principal) conflict with the diverse interests of the politicians (the Agent) and the bureaucrats (the Agent’s Agent).
Contrary to popular belief, politicians, not bureaucrats, are more likely to act in the best interests of citizens as they must be elected while career bureaucrats have security of tenure. Thus, in the case of our traffic problem, we can rely more on our political leaders rather than our transportation bureaucrats who seem to define their interest as stifling the private sector initiatives such as Grab and Angkas to solve our traffic problem. (By the way, they cannot even deliver our car plates on time)
As with our traffic problem, so too with our malnutrition problem.
The World Bank report on patterns of nutrition in the Philippines noted that for nearly 30 years, rates of both wasting and stunting have been nearly flat. Figure 2.1 shows under-nutrition trends in the Philippines for children under age five. Wasting indicates that a child has low weight for his or her age and is a sign of acute, short-term malnutrition. The prevalence of wasting in 2019 (5.8%) was similar to what it was 20 years previously. Stunting, meanwhile, indicates that a child is, loosely speaking, short for his or her age. The rate of stunting fell through the early 2000s but has remained almost flat since then. The rate of stunting recorded for 2019 (28.8%) was only slightly lower than the 2008 level.
The Agent’s Agent designated to deal with our malnutrition problem is the National Nutrition Council chaired by the Secretary of Health. The primary function of the council is to prepare the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN 2023-2028).
To implement this plan requires a chain of agents who must follow the plan. Any break in the chain will mean that the plan will fail. Most often failure occurs at the last link, in this particular case the barangay, which is either unable or unwilling to provide the necessary healthcare for the person in most need of it, the poor or near-poor mothers.
Several NGOs, particularly the Zuellig Family Foundation chaired by Ernesto Garilao, have sought to forge this final chain by programs aimed at developing and institutionalizing the nutritional activities of the lowest Local Government Units, the Barangays.
But another approach is the Indian approach.
In its May 21, 2022 cover story on India, The Economist noted that the Indian government used a direct, real-time, digital welfare system to pay $200 billion over three years to about 950 million people. How did this come about?
In January 2013, the government of India introduced the Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT scheme to streamline the transfer of government-provided subsidies from various Indian welfare schemes directly into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts. This has been one of the most ambitious financial inclusion initiatives ever seen anywhere in the world, bringing over 330 million people into the formal financial sector.
By 2020, 318 subsidy schemes from 53 ministries have been directly transferred to the farmer beneficiaries. And the program is so successful that India is now a wheat and rice exporter.
Using the Indian approach which relies on harnessing the technology of direct access to intended beneficiaries, we could bypass this chain of agents and give aid directly to the poor or near-poor mothers through food stamps, PhilHealth vouchers, or even cash vouchers.
Moreover, we already have the existing framework for successfully bypassing the non-performing agents.
As reported by the World Bank, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program locally known as Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, is a government program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines. The program aims to break the cycle of poverty by keeping children aged 0-18 healthy and in school, so they can have a better future. The program is implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, with the Departments of Health and Education and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as partners.
Households receive cash grants if children stay in school and get regular health check-ups, have their growth monitored, and receive vaccines. Pregnant women must get pre-natal care, with their births attended to by professional health workers. Parents or guardians are required to participate in monthly community-based Family Development Sessions to learn about positive child discipline, disaster preparedness, and women’s rights. Beneficiaries are objectively selected through the National Household Targeting System, also known as Listahanan, which is based on a survey of the physical structure of their houses, the number of rooms and occupants, their access to running water, and other factors affecting their living conditions.
The program has one of the most comprehensive poverty targeting databases in the world today, covering 75% of the country’s population. It has been used extensively to identify poor and near-poor beneficiaries for national and local government programs.
Started in 2007 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the advice of then NEDA Director General Romulo L. Neri, the government expanded the program in December 2016 to reach a total of 20 million Filipinos belonging to 4.4 million households. The program benefits about 20% of the population. The majority of the nation’s 9 million poor children are currently benefiting from the program, 1.9 million of whom are in high school. The program has also achieved almost universal enrollment for elementary age children of 4Ps households.
Social protection programs, Pantawid included, have cushioned the poor from the adverse impacts of various shocks the country experienced over the past six years. A study estimates that the program has led to a poverty reduction of 1.4 percentage points per year or 1.5 million less poor Filipinos. The 4Ps is currently the world’s fourth-largest CCT program based on population coverage. It complements the government’s other development priorities such as generating jobs and creating livelihood opportunities for the poor.
All that is needed is to attach to the 4Ps program, which already has access to the poor and near-poor mothers, the programs that are not presently being delivered by the Barangay Nutrition Action Team.
Dr. Victor S. Limlingan is a retired professor of the AIM and a fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom. He is presently chairman of the Cristina Research Foundation, a public policy adviser of Regina Capital Development Corp., and a member of the Philippine Stock Exchange.
RATES of Treasury bills (T-bills) and Treasury bonds (T-bonds) to be auctioned off this week may rise amid weak demand due to market caution following slower-than-expected March inflation.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will auction off P15 billion in T-bills on Monday, or P5 billion each in 91-, 182-, and 365-day papers.
It will also offer P30 billion in reissued 10-year T-bonds with a remaining life of nine years and nine months.
The T-bond auction was moved to Monday from the usual Tuesday schedule, with the settlement of both T-bills and T-bonds offered that day to be on Thursday, due to non-working days on Tuesday, April 9 (Day of Valor) and Wednesday, April 10 (Eid’l Fitr).
“On Monday, both T-bills and the 10-year bond will be auctioned and we think will be poorly received,” a trader said in an e-mail.
“The GS (government securities) market remains anxious amid a slower-than-expected CPI (consumer price index) print at 3.7% year on year versus the expected 3.8%. Rice continues to soar, which is the main driver for the print,” the trader said.
The trader said the T-bonds to be offered this week could fetch rates ranging from 6.35% to 6.5%.
“The BTr’s borrowing appetite will be closely monitored here … A partial award could be expected,” the trader added.
Headline inflation picked up for a second straight month in March as prices of rice continued to surge, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed the CPI quickened to 3.7% year on year in March from 3.4% in February. This was slower than the 7.6% clip in the same month last year.
March inflation settled within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 3.4-4.2% forecast for the month. This was also slightly below the 3.8% median estimate in a BusinessWorld poll of 17 analysts conducted last week and marked the fourth straight month that inflation was within the BSP’s 2-4% target range.
For the first three months, inflation averaged 3.3%. The BSP expects inflation to average 3.6% this year.
T-bill and T-bond rates may track the mixed movements in secondary market yields last week following signals from US Federal Reserve officials, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.
At the secondary market on Friday, the 91-day T-bill rose by 2.73 basis points (bp) week on week to 5.7527%, while the 182-day and 364-day T-bills went down by 2.39 bps and 6.83 bps to 5.8942% and 6.0057%, respectively, based on PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates data published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.
On the other hand, the yield on the 10-year bond rose by 9.91 bps week on week to end at 6.3313% on Friday.
Last week, the BTr raised P17 billion from the T-bills it offered, above the P15-billion plan, as total bids reached P47.75 billion or more than thrice the amount on the auction block.
Broken down, the BTr borrowed P5 billion as programmed from the 91-day T-bills as tenders for the tenor reached P12.928 billion. The average rate for the three-month paper went down by 0.6 bp to 5.704% from the previous week. Accepted rates ranged from 5.655% to 5.75%.
The government likewise made a full P5-billion award of the 182-day securities, with bids reaching P16.26 billion. The average rate for the six-month T-bill stood at 5.865%, down by 1.5 bps, with accepted rates at 5.845 to 5.885%.
Meanwhile, the Treasury raised P7 billion via the 364-day debt papers, more than the P5-billion plan, as tenders for the tenor totaled P18.562 billion. The average rate of the one-year T-bill went down by 1.7 bps to 5.965% from the 5.982% quoted for the previous P5-billion award. Accepted yields were from 5.945% to 5.985%.
On the other hand, the reissued 10-year T-bonds to be offered on Monday were last auctioned off on March 12, where the government raised P30 billion as planned at an average rate of 6.227%.
The BTr is looking to raise P195 billion from the domestic market this month, or P75 billion from T-bills and P120 billion via T-bonds.
The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at 5.6% of gross domestic product this year. — A.M.C. Sy
SUNLIGHT AIR is targeting to operate international flights in the next two years, its chief executive officer said.
“There are some current discussions, but it is not this year. (For now) everything is still private. Hopefully, in the next year or two years, we can look at international flights already,” Ryna C. Brito-Garcia, Sunlight Air chief executive officer, told reporters last week.
The boutique airline is eyeing China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan for its planned international flights, Ms. Brito-Garcia said.
“If not us serving international flights right away, [maybe] we can look forward to interline collaboration with international airlines. Taking these international travelers to island destinations in the Philippines.” she noted.
Interline agreements between airlines allows one airline to sell its services to a passenger that are provided by another airline.
Sunlight Air, operated by Sunlight Express Airways, flies to Siargao, San Vicente, and Coron in Palawan, as well as Caticlan, Aklan.
Last week, the company launched its Clark-to-Busuanga flight following its hub relocation to Clark International Airport.
The airline said its decision to move its hub from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark is mainly due to the availability of space and the advanced technologies offered by the airport, making it more convenient for passengers. — Ashley Erika O. Jose
Speed of light: A train speeds past a Tokyo station, reflective of how mobility is fast improving — and evolving — amid ‘enabling technology.’ — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA
New technologies are speeding up the future of mobility in ways that go beyond letting car writers use ChatGPT
By Brian M. Afuang
AS THE WAY by which people move around evolves with the transport industry’s transition to voltage-propelled forms of conveyances and to cars that can drive themselves, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as the dominant enabling technology speeding up these developments.
In a recent report, the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility analyzes its own research data identifying which technology trends are potentially shaping mobility. The most relevant ones range from cloud and edge computing, to industrialized machine learning, and even Web3, a new form of decentralized internet seen to offer individuals significant practical benefits. All of these, the report notes, are gaining momentum and making the transition to more inclusive and sustainable forms of transportation easier.
But more companies are focusing on the development of AI than on any of the other technologies. McKinsey asserts AI is most “poised to disrupt multiple aspects of the mobility ecosystem” because of the tech’s influence on R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and to driving itself.
For example, AI can let production-line robots do more than merely weld or paint sheetmetal, as these have been doing for decades. Using cameras and advanced radar systems, AI-controlled robots are now proving useful in ensuring quality during manufacturing. They can identify variances in fitment and consistency of finishes, alerting their human counterparts to correct these. And the role AI plays on the factory floor will only get bigger.
Other AI systems can snitch on OEM suppliers. By monitoring mainstream and social media, these gather and process information to red-flag companies that may not have conformed to certain standards — committing a recent emissions-related violation, for instance. Also, AI is able to mark out suppliers with higher environmental, social and governance risks, factors relevant to car makers’ carbon-reduction goals.
Such a capability is doubly significant in global car makers’ transition to EVs. Responsible manufacturers are taking extra steps to make sure their EVs are emissions-free not only when these are driven, but also throughout the models’ entire life cycle. This requires building a supply chain that is as eco-conscientious as the car makers are.
AI can more comprehensively “train” algorithms controlling autonomous driving cars as well. It can repeatedly simulate millions of scenarios and the appropriate responses to these — then add even more to aid in making such cars as safe and functional in the real world as these possibly can. AI allows sensors and systems to better understand the environment and condition where the car is relative to other cars, infrastructure, and pedestrians. It makes the car’s propulsion system manage energy use smartly so that hybrids and full-electrics operate more efficiently. It allows the car to interact with its passengers by understanding natural voice commands for infotainment and navigation functions, or even respond to their current state of health. As development of AI technology progresses, autonomous driving is seen to become seamless and more prevalent.
All this means AI offers vast benefits to mobility in general, going far beyond enabling motoring scribes to churn out work through ChatGPT.
AUTO CARE fluids specialist Prestone, a brand established in 1927, warns against counterfeit products. “If you aim to protect your car and withstand unforeseen accidents or costly repairs, Prestone emphasizes the importance of using genuine products designed specifically to meet your vehicle’s needs,” said Clorox Southeast Asia Marketing Manager Monique Gonzalez.
The company mentions “3Ps” for the protection of consumers. First is the packaging. While counterfeit Prestone products try to mimic the appearance of the genuine items, there are telltale signs to watch for (see images). Second, beware if the price of the product is “significantly cheaper,” Prestone advised. “If they are marketed as discounts, please double-check if Prestone is having a promotional sale. If not, it’s probably fake,” it said. Lastly, customers are requested to buy only from official Prestone partner stores like Blade, Ace, Handyman, TrueValue, and auto-supply shops nationwide.
For more information, visit https://www.prestone.com.ph/ or like and follow the official Facebook account (prestoneofficial).
