How PSEi member stocks performed — October 2, 2024
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
Philippines slips in Global Attractiveness Index
The Philippines fell two places to 69th out of 146 countries in the latest edition of the Global Attractiveness Index (GAI) by The European House – Ambrosetti. The index measures the attractiveness of countries using key performance indicators under four subindices: positioning, dynamicity, sustainability, and future orientation. With an overall score of 34.7, the country was categorized under “medium attractiveness.”
Philippines eyes chartered flights to bring home Filipinos from Lebanon
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINE government on Thursday said it was preparing chartered flights to bring home Filipinos from war-torn Lebanon, as it announced a ban on the deployment of workers there.
There were 101 Filipinos in Lebanon who were ready to be repatriated, but the “challenge is that we do not have flights,” Migrant Workers Undersecretary Bernard Olalia told a news briefing.
He said the government was supposed to bring home 15 Filipinos from the Middle Eastern country on Sept. 25, but it did not push through because the flights were canceled due to the conflict.
“And as a consequence, we are trying to provide chartered flights.”
Mr. Olalia said three more shelters have been secured in Beirut in case more Filipinos signify their intention to leave. He added that the Philippines was having a hard time securing landing rights for chartered flights.
“The other challenge is the exit permits of some of our workers,” he said. “Apart from documented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), we have undocumented OFWs who need to secure travel documents.”
“And once they are given travel documents, we will help them in securing exit visas or exit permits from the immigration [office] of the Lebanese government.”
Mr. Olalia said the Department of Migrant Workers is studying the possibility of using alternative routes. “Apart from the air route, we will be assessing the sea and the land route should the case or the situation there worsen.”
He said the Philippine government would no longer allow the deployment of OFWs to Lebanon because the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had raised the alert level to 3.
“When Alert Level 3 is imposed, there is a voluntary repatriation, and under this stage, we no longer allow either direct hire or a returning worker to go back there.”
The DFA earlier said it might declare Alert Level 4 in the war-torn country, whose southern part was invaded by Israel to contain the armed group Hezbollah, which had a month-long war with Israel in 2006.
The tension is the latest in a spate of cross-border hostilities after Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
In a statement earlier this week, the Israeli military said its troops backed by aircraft and artillery had begun “limited, localized and targeted raids against Hezbollah terror targets,” accusing them of posing “immediate threat” to northern Israeli communities.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif on Tuesday said there had been “no direct ground clashes” with Israeli forces, denying that they had crossed into southern Lebanon, based on a Reuters report.
The group was “ready for a direct confrontation with the enemy forces that dare or attempt to enter Lebanese territory and to inflict the greatest losses on them.”
The Philippines last month joined 123 other countries in favoring a United Nations resolution urging Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories within a year.
Israeli settlement activities involved the transfer of its nationals “into the occupied territories, the confiscation of land, the forced transfer of Palestinian civilians, including Bedouin families,” according to the November resolution.
The settlements also involved “the exploitation of natural resources, the fragmentation of territory and other actions against the Palestinian civilian population.”
The Gaza Strip is one of the two territories occupied by Palestinians — the other being the West Bank, which the Israeli government has been trying to invade in recent years.
The two areas, along with East Jerusalem, came under Israeli occupation after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Since the war, Israel has responded to Palestinians’ demand for a homeland through military force.
OFWs IN QATAR
Also on Wednesday, Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel called for measures to better protect the rights and well-being of migrant Filipinos, as she is set to meet distressed OFWs in Qatar who have been victims of abuse and harassment.
In her official trip to the Middle Eastern nation, the senator will meet with at least 50 OFWs who have suffered at the hands of their employers. She will also meet with Philippine diplomatic and labor officials and migrant community leaders to discuss how the Philippine government could ensure the safety of migrant workers, she said in a statement.
Ms. Hontiveros, who heads the Senate committee on women and children, expressed alarm at the acts of physical and emotional abuse, and unfair labor practices perpetrated against Filipino workers in Qatar, particularly domestic workers.
“According to government records, 57% of OFWs deployed in Qatar are household workers, and a majority of them are women who are especially vulnerable to abuse by employers,” she said.
Ms. Hontiveros said migrant workers offices in Qatar and other similarly situated countries should be properly trained to better help distressed Filipino workers, particularly “runaway” workers who are facing threats from their employers.
She also urged the Department of Migrant Workers and DFA to step up their capacity to monitor and reach out to distressed workers.
Seasoned political figures seek Senate comeback
By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter
PROMINENT politicians allied with President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. formalized their bids for the Senate on the second day of registration on Wednesday.
Former Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III, ex-Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, Sr., and action star turned lawmaker Manuel M. Lapid were among those who filed their certificates of candidacy.
The May 2025 elections will be a litmus test of Mr. Marcos’ popularity and a chance to consolidate power and groom a successor, which the influential Duterte family has signaled it is determined to stop after an acrimonious falling out.
Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term.
Though 317 seats at the House of Representatives and thousands of regional and city posts are up for grabs among 18,000 positions, the attention is on 12 spots in the 24-seat Senate, a high-profile chamber with outsized influence and typically stacked with political heavyweights.
Mr. Sotto said he wanted to finish overlooked pet bills including one that seeks to trim the bureaucracy.
“The bill that I filed before that was not acted upon should push through, and that is rightsizing of the government,” he told reporters. He also cited the need to pass an anti-fake news bill, which he proposed in 2019.
Mr. Sotto lost to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio in the 2022 race. He was Senate president during ex-President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s term.
Mr. Lacson, who lost in the 2022 presidential election as Mr. Sotto’s running mate, said he would be a vanguard of the annual national budget. The former national police chief had been against pork barrel insertions when he was a senator.
“I will help President Marcos pursue his administration’s programs to benefit the majority of the Filipino people,” he told reporters “What is right must be kept right, what is wrong must be set right.”
Mr. Lacson said he is running independently despite the President’s endorsement.
Mr. Lapid declined to entertain questions from the media, saying his track record as a politician should speak for itself.
Meanwhile, presidential sister and Senator Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios “Imee” R. Marcos also filed her certificate. She was accompanied by her two sons and her mother, former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos.
Ms. Marcos, who is seeking reelection, earlier declined her brother’s endorsement, which she said was to avoid putting him in a difficult position.
Hansley A. Juliano, a political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, called the familiar names “continuity candidates.”
“They have also tended to be on board traditional legislation, be it business-friendly legislation, additional insertions on preferred budget items, and likely establishing factions in the leadup to the election,” he told BusinessWorld in a Facebook Messenger chat.
Philippines’ Taal volcano shoots plume of steam, but alert level low
THE PHILIPPINES’ Taal Volcano near the capital region erupted on Wednesday, spewing a plume of steam that was more than 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) high, the country’s seismology agency said.
Taal, located about 70 km south of Manila, is one of the world’s smallest active volcanoes, and some of its previous eruptions had affected the capital and air travel.
The agency’s chief Teresito Bacolcol described the eruption as phreatomagmatic, where magma interacts with water and produces a plume of steam.
The volcano sits inside a large lake near the town of Tagaytay in Cavite province.
“This phreatomagmatic eruption was limited at the volcano island,” Mr. Bacolcol said by phone. “We’re looking whether there’s ashfall in the eastern side, but there’s no evacuation yet.”
He added that the alert level remained at the lowest on the scale and there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Despite standing at only 311 meters (1,020-feet), it can be deadly and an eruption in 1911 killed more than 1,300 people.
In July 2021, thousands of people were evacuated after it spewed a kilometer-high plume of gas and steam.
A year earlier, Taal volcano shot a column of ash and steam as high as 15 km into the sky, forcing more than 100,000 people to abandon their homes and triggered widespread disruption in the capital.
The Philippines lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes strike. I also lies along the typhoon belt in the Pacific and experiences about 20 storms each year. — Reuters
Civil society acts as government procurement ‘watchdog’ — World Bank
THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT must increase the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in monitoring its procurement process to help prevent misuse of state funds, the World Bank said in a blog.
“CSOs often act as watchdogs, ensuring that the bidding process is transparent. Their involvement can help to hold government agencies and contractors accountable, reducing the risk of fraud and mismanagement of public funds,” World Bank Senior Procurement Specialist Dominic R. Aumentado and Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Executive Director Rowena Candice M. Ruiz said in the blog.
Monitoring procurement activities can help avoid fraud and misuse of funds, leading to cost savings, the analysts said.
Republic Act (RA) No. 12009, the New Government Procurement Act, allows at least two observers to sit in procurement proceedings — one representative each from a duly recognized private group and a CSO. This was mandated to ensure transparency in the state’s procurement process.
The new law updates RA 9814, the Government Procurement Reform Act of 2003, to help modernize the country’s procurement process and align it with global standards.
The Philippines is also expected to update its Procurement Observers’ Guide under the old procurement law with the emergence of digitalization and recent policy changes.
The guide details the principles, standards, and procedures for monitoring procurement, which would help CSOs with their monitoring.
The GPPB, as supported by the World Bank, launched a Procurement Observers’ Portal. Under which, CSO observers can access key documents, such as bids, budgets, technical specifications, and supplier profiles.
Citing the timeliness of the portal, the Washington-based multilateral lender estimates public spending to reach $140 billion by 2028.
“With this increase in spending, the role of CSOs in overseeing procurement becomes increasingly vital in ensuring the integrity and transparency of government decisions involving taxpayers’ money, loans from multilateral and bilateral agencies, and borrowing from private financing,” it said.
The WB cited the need to improve digital tools to expand CSOs role in identifying “red flags” in procurement to contract implementation. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
Lawmakers ask Roque to surrender
EX-PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson Herminio “Harry” L. Roque, Jr. should surrender to authorities after the Philippines’ top court dismissed a plea seeking to void a House of Representatives’ arrest warrant against him, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
The House’s so-called “quad-committee” ordered Mr. Roque’s arrest and detention after being cited for contempt the second time for failing to submit subpoenaed documents necessary to the panel’s probe in relation to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators.
The Supreme Court junked Mr. Roque’s writ of amparo request on Tuesday, citing the motion as not the “proper remedy against congressional contempt and detention orders,” court spokesperson Camille Sue Mae L. Ting said in a media briefing.
“This is not the time for excuses. Atty. Roque should face the music and respond to the allegations in the proper forum,” Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan S. Fernandez said in a statement in Filipino. “The law must prevail. Roque should not hide behind technicalities or writs that have no basis.”
Mr. Roque’s daughter Hacintha filed the case before the top court alleging the quad committee’s contempt and detention orders threatened Mr. Roque’s rights to life, liberty, and security.
A writ of amparo is a legal remedy reserved for persons whose personal security is threatened or violated, including extralegal killings and enforced disappearances.
Mr. Roque’s daughter also asked the top court to issue writs of certiorari and prohibition to prevent the House quad committee from requiring him to attend future hearings and produce any additional documents requested by the panel.
Mr. Roque said in a Viber message that he is currently “awaiting decision of Court on certiorari and prohibition.” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
20,000 cybersecurity gaps found
THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday said it has identified and addressed 20,144 vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity systems of government agencies as of August this year.
DICT Undersecretary David L. Almirol, Jr. presented the number at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the agency’s proposed P10 billion budget next year.
These gaps in cybersecurity gaps were identified through the DICT’s project SONAR, which scans for these vulnerabilities in state agency networks.
He said his agency is also planning to work with the Civil Service Commission to hire more cybersecurity experts next year to beef up the country’s defenses against hackers.
“Right now, we lack cybersecurity professionals both in the private and public sectors, we don’t even have cybersecurity organizations in the public sector,” he said.
Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian at the same hearing urged the DICT to keep a close eye on critical infrastructure to protect crucial government data.
“Every day we don’t have an audit, we cannot assure the Filipino people that the government is doing its share to protect our critical infrastructure, especially during times of geopolitical uncertainties,” he said.
Mr. Almirol agreed with the senator, saying his agency is considering proposing an executive order on protecting critical information infrastructure.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. this year adopted the National Cybersecurity Plan (NCSP) 2023-2028 to help address the rising number of cyber threats in the Philippines. Crafted by the DICT, the NCSP 2023-2028 outlines the country’s policy direction and operational guidelines for a secure cyberspace.
In 2022, the Philippines only had about 200 cybersecurity professionals compared to Singapore’s 2,000 experts, DICT Secretary Ivan John E. Uy earlier said, noting that 80% of Filipino cyber experts work overseas.
Mr. Uy said cybersecurity experts in the private sector earn about P200,000 a month, while those in the government are only paid P50,000. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
Ilocos Norte under calamity state
BAGUIO CITY — The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Ilocos Norte, through Provincial Resolution No. 341-2024, in an emergency session Tuesday placed the province on a state of calamity due to the devastation brought by Super Typhoon “Julian” (international name: Krathon).
Torrential rainfall brought wide-scale flooding, destroyed bridges and roads, and disrupted power and communication throughout the province.
As of Tuesday, damages to crops were estimated at more than P85 milion, while losses in livestock and poultry were valued at P385,000. Assessments of damages to infrastructure were still ongoing.
Two casualties have been reported — one in Batac City and one in Laoag City, while one villager was reported missing in Paoay town.
The declaration of the state of calamity enables the provincial government to mobilize resources swiftly and efficiently to assist affected residents through the utilization of its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.
Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc urged residents to remain vigilant and heed safety advisories as the state weather bureau forecasts that “Julian” will reenter the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Oct. 2.
The Provincial Government also reminded communities to cooperate with government directives and take necessary precautions to ensure their safety during this critical time.
The Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte, through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, as early as Tuesday had launched relief operations in the hardest-hit municipalities. — Artemio A. Dumlao
PHL’s first ELV dismantler set up
THE COUNTRY’S first end-of-life vehicle (ELV) dismantling facility was established in Mexico, Pampanga to drive the responsible handling of automotive waste, according to Toyota Motor Corp.
Toyota said in a statement on Wednesday that it provided, through its local unit, business development and technical assistance to En Tsumugi ELV Dismantler Corp., together with Japan’s Mitsui & Co., Ltd. En Tsumugi is a pilot project of Japanese ELV dismantler Tsuruoka Co., Ltd. and was funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency.
“The facility, open to various car makes, will serve as a benchmark in further developing the local recycling industry while promoting environmental sustainability and the adoption of best practices and foreign expertise,” Toyota said.
The company said that En Tsumugi plays a part in achieving the target under its “Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers” project that is to establish a network of proper ELV dismantling facilities worldwide.
It added that En Tsumugi is the fourth ELV dismantler it has endorsed in the Southeast Asian region, the others being in Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
Marikina sports dev’t program eyed
A CONGRESSMAN on Wednesday said she’s looking to establish a “comprehensive” sports program in Marikina City to bolster Philippines’ chances to earn more gold medals in Olympic games and other international competitions.
Marikina Rep. Marjorie Ann Teodoro said she’s pushing for improved sports infrastructure and enhanced youth sports programs in the city to help athletes “reach their full potential,” paving the way for increased chances of Filipinos attaining medal finishes in international games.
She’s also looking at establishing sports clinics in schools throughout Marikina City to provide more sports opportunities for students.
“Our goal is to develop more professional athletes from Marikina and, one day, have an Olympic gold medalist who will bring honor to our city,” Ms. Teodoro said in a statement. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
SIAP party in Bangsamoro files COCs
COTABATO CITY — The largest regional political party in the Bangsamoro region hit the news after all of its members in Lanao del Sur aspiring for various elective posts in the province assembled and together filed their certificates of candidacy in Marawi City on Tuesday morning.
The members of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP) Party in Lanao del Sur, led by the reelectionists Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal A. Adiong, Jr. and Vice-Gov. Muhammad Khalid R. Adiong, arrived at a public gymnasium in Marawi City to submit their certificates of candidacy (C0Cs) together, something never witnessed before by the predominantly Maranao communities in the province.
Politicians in BARMM are known for their practice of filing COCs in either the middle of or the last day of the period of such an activity.
Radio reports on Wednesday in Cotabato City and in provinces of the Bangsamoro region stated that provincial officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Lanao del Sur had set up a COC filing center at a public gymnasium in Marawi City, which virtually turned quiet after Adiong and other members of SIAP Party had left.
The SIAP Party is the pioneer and oldest regional political party in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Cotabato, and Marawi.
Two members of the SIAP Party, Congressmen Ziaur Rahman A. Adiong and Yasser A. Balindong of the first and second congressional districts in Lanao del Sur, respectively, are also seeking reelection.
The SIAP Party has more than 700,000 documented members in the autonomous region. The party has peace and security initiatives, and community-empowerment programs focused on promotion of religious and cultural solidarity among BARMM’s Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro groups.
It also has socioeconomic projects meant to boost regional commerce and trade to generate employment for BARMM’s marginalized residents.
Mr. Adiong, who is seeking a second term as Lanao del Sur provincial governor, told reporters that all candidates of SIAP are ready to swear over the Qur’an to abide with the Omnibus Election Code and help the police, the military and Comelec ensure a peaceful electoral exercise in the province in May 2025. — John Felix M. Unson