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Metro Manila Film Festival 2023: An ambitious mythology-based horror

Movie Review
Mallari
Directed by Derick Cabrido
MTRCB Rating: R-13

By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter

LOVE is a curse. This is what this overly complicated horror film boils down to after its promising concept, centered on the Philippines’ first documented serial killer who is a priest, is injected with steroids of multiple ideas.

Mallari refers not just to the surname of 19th-century priest Severino Mallari, but also to his family’s lineage of time travelers: 1940s documentarist Johnrey Mallari and the present-day main character Jonathan Mallari de Dios. The two go back in time to uncover the secrets of the mythical family curse.

Surprised by that summary? You should be, seeing as it is way too much plot to wade through. But it at least utilizes the acting prowess of Piolo Pascual, who plays all three Mallaris. Blood-soaked, long-haired priest? Headstrong wartime documentarist? Lovelorn doctor? He did it all.

Director Derick Cabrido and screenwriter Enrico C. Santos really ran with it, inspired by true events, but even more inspired by tropes of all sorts. The movie spans thriller, sci-fi, folklore, historical, romance, even family drama genres. Many interesting threads woven together, sure, but the design of this script could have been less busy so we could appreciate each one.

(Warning: spoilers ahead.)
For example, there could have been more of a story behind the dark magic stuff so that it would be less of a twist in the final act and more of a creepy world long hidden in the shadows. Also, since Fr. Mallari is a priest, a peek into the social climate of a church-centered 1800s provincial town would have been interesting (though there is already Gomburza in the MMFF lineup to scratch that itch).

It just feels wasted that Pampanga during the Spanish occupation felt like just another setting. Meanwhile, modern-day Pampanga was filled with cringey unnecessary details like a quippy anti-woke priest and a trans prankster TikTok influencer-slash-sex worker (yes, their scenes are as bad as you think).

This is a horror movie with decent visuals, so you’d think the scares should at least be good too. But no, they’re all cheap jump scares carried by a loud, screeching score or sound that don’t have any bearing on the plot except to torment the lead characters and the audience. Being in a packed theater contributes to the viewing experience in this regard, especially if people are really into it and screaming at the right parts, like this writer experienced.

None of it sticks, though. Nothing particularly creeps you out thinking back on the film. Its impact is thanks in large part to the solid cast led by Pascual, and a minor role played by JC Santos.

Tying three generations of Mallaris is not a bad idea per se. Time-traveling shown in vignettes for viewers to piece together along with the characters must be unbelievably hard, so it deserves creative points for that. It is just that cooking up an origin story for the first documented Filipino serial killer, who happens to be a small-town priest, presents an embarrassment of riches when it comes to narrative possibilities.

Turning to time travel shenanigans was a bold choice, leading to lore in various time periods all barely fleshed out. We barely learn anything new about the historical serial killer. An abusive haciendero is killed and nothing else is heard about that particular social struggle. The mini documentary rejected by the Americans in light of the Hukbalahaps’ crusade was nothing but candy sprinkles. There is no distinguishable reason for why one is cursed to be a manananggal versus any other aswang. The moon is always red. Why? Who knows.

Aside from a particularly bad CGI scene, this could have been a decent technical feat for the Philippine horror genre. It presents itself as an exploration of various genres and worlds, but barely dips its toes in any of them. If only it were more focused.

BDO completes deal to fully own SM Keppel Land

KEPPEL Philippines Properties, Inc. said BDO Unibank, Inc. completed the acquisition of all its shares in SM Keppel Land, Inc.

The company said on Wednesday that all of its own and Opon-KE Properties, Inc.’s (OKEP) redeemable preferred shares and common shares, respectively comprising 40% and 10% of in SM Keppel Land, had been acquired by BDO as of Dec. 22.

BDO paid about P6.54 billion to Keppel and about P1.63 billion to Opon-KE Properties for the divestment of their shares, it added.

“This follows the announcement last March 27, 2023 of the Keppel Group’s decision to divest its stake in SM Keppel and BDO’s agreement, as the Keppel Group’s joint venture partner, to buy out the Keppel Group’s 50% direct equity ownership,” BDO said in a separate stock exchange disclosure on Wednesday.

With the completed acquisition, BDO will now fully own Podium Complex, which consists of BDO’s Corporate Center Ortigas, the West Tower, and Podium Mall.

The sale of shares will increase Keppel Properties’ net asset value by P10.90 per share, the company said, as its current net asset value stood at P9.97 per share as of September.

SM Keppel is a company engaged in developing, operating, and managing the Podium Complex. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Top 10 economic news stories of 2023

Merry Christmas, dear readers. This piece is toast to the great economic performance of the Philippines despite an unwieldy and worsening global economic environment.

For the purposes of brevity, we are covering only three important indicators — GDP growth, the unemployment rate, and the inflation rate. Countries covered in this analysis are those that the IMF projects as having GDP size at purchasing power parity (PPP) values for 2023 of at least $700 billion. These are also the top 40 largest economies in the world. Two countries among the top 40, Pakistan and Bangladesh, have no quarterly GDP growth data, so are not included.

These are the top 10 economic stories and trends based on these indicators and data.

1. India, Iran, the Philippines, China, and Indonesia (all Asian countries) are the top five fastest growing major economies in the world in 2023. Their growth ranged between 5.1% to 7.2% in the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of the year. India and the Philippines are interesting because their growth has been high this year on an already high base last year.

2. Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, and Thailand have had modest growth of 2% to 4.3% this year. The slowest growing Asian nations are South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan with growth of only 0.1% to 1.1%.

3. Turkey, Russia, and Spain are the fastest growing major economies of Europe, with 2.6% to 4.6% this year. But Russia’s growth is due to having contracted in 2022, thus is coming from a low base. Other Europeans are either crawling at 0.3% to 0.9% growth (France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK) or are outright contracting (Germany, Sweden, Poland, and Ireland).

4. In the Americas, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, the US, and Canada have had modest growth of 1% to 3.5%. Argentina is the worst performing major economy of South America.

5. Of the five fastest major economies in the world, the Philippines has the lowest unemployment rate. It was only 4.2% in October 2023, versus 7.1% and 7.9% for India and Iran. So, the Philippines has the real job-creating fast growth, followed by China and Indonesia. Vietnam and Malaysia have low unemployment but modest growth.

6. Turkey, Spain, France, Italy and Sweden have high unemployment rates of 7% and up. The only Europeans with unemployment rates below 4% are Switzerland and the Netherlands.

7. Inflation in the Philippines was at a “medium” level of 6.2% in the first 11 months of 2023, similar to the inflation rates in Italy and Germany. Most Asian nations have had inflation below 6%, with China bordering at deflation with 0.3%.

8. Other countries have had horribly high inflation rates of 24% to 52% (Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey), and Argentina is a real outlier with 120% inflation. If the Philippines had this level of inflation, there could be military coups or other serious political instability.

9. Looking at the experience of Europe, degrowth and deindustrialization walk hand in hand with “decarbonization” in energy and economic policies. Meanwhile, the modest to high growth in Asia are consistent with their continued “carbonization” and high-level consumption of fossil fuels.

10. From the above three indicators, the Philippines seems to have been the best performing major economy in the world in 2023. It has had high growth, low unemployment, and modest inflation.

I give my congratulations to the Philippines’ entrepreneurs and workers, and the government economic team for securing economic and business stability in the country. In particular, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman noted that “fiscal responsibility and procurement reforms have helped in raising overall economic productivity of our people.” And with the signing by the President of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) on Dec. 20, she said that the GAA is “our battleplan in fighting poverty, in protecting our homes and securing our border, in keeping our people healthy, creating jobs, and funding livelihoods.”

The Philippine economy has taken the good path. We are hoping for continued and even stronger growth and more job creation in 2024 and beyond. A happy and prosperous new year to us all.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services, and Minimal Government Thinkers. He is an international fellow of the Tholos Foundation.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Shared data centers seen to help individuals, companies compute ‘true’ cost of power

ALEXANDER-JAWFOX-UNSPLASH

DATA CENTERS shared by energy firms can leverage high-level computing to break down the price of electricity and improve consumer awareness of its true cost, an industry player said.

Energies PH, Inc. (EPHI) is looking to launch the Energy Community Digital Platform next year, which consists of Tier 3 colocation data centers for energy firms and use blockchain algorithms to accurately measure electricity consumption, cost, and efficiency, said Antonio A. Ver, EPHI chief executive officer.

“It’s a community of players in the industry that is striving to go digital and compute the real price of electricity,” Mr. Ver said about EPHI in an interview with BusinessWorld.

Their digital platform will help improve power price discovery, he said, as it will also allow people to verify their own meter readings via a website.

“For the benefit of everyone in the marketplace, nobody will be overpriced and you can know the correct amount of your electricity use,” he said.

“Consumers will be given access to the data produced by the data center,” Mr. Ver added.

He said he expects EPHI’s initiative to empower the ecosystem against the rising prices of electricity in the country, fostering awareness about how much one should actually pay for energy.

“Sellers and buyers will be very careful,” he said. “People will also be more comfortable buying renewable energy because they will pay right amount.”

Firms and small electric cooperative resellers can also have a reliable source of prices through shared data centers, he added.

EPHI’s platform includes initial sites in Baras, Rizal and Jaro, Iloilo, with plans to build three more in the second half of next year, including a data center complex in the Mambulao Special Economic Zone, Camarines Norte to cater South Luzon, Mr. Ver said.

He added that the company has already signed an agreement with a telco provider for the data centers’ broadband and fiber networks powered by dense wavelength-division multiplexing.

Peering agreements are in place with tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which Mr. Ver said will allow them to strategically expand operations in the country.

He cited as an example of a scheme akin to EPHI’s Energy Community Digital Platform a partnership between Emirates Water and Electric Co. and Energy Exemplar, an optimization-based market simulation software provider for the energy sector, which was announced last week.

The collaboration aims to improve energy modeling capacity and integrated system planning through techno-economic cloud solutions, Mr. Ver noted. — Miguel Hanz L. Antivola

BSP OK’s BPI capital stock hike

REUTERS

THE CENTRAL BANK has approved Bank of the Philippine Islands’ (BPI) plan to raise its authorized capital stock by P4 billion in preparation for its merger with Robinsons Bank Corp. (RBC) effective next month.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Dec. 21 granted BPI the green light to increase its authorized capital stock to P54.6 billion from P50.6 billion previously, the listed Ayala-led lender said in a disclosure to the local bourse on Wednesday.

“The amendment to the Articles of Incorporation to increase its authorized capital is related to the proposed merger between Robinsons Bank Corp. and the Bank of the Philippine Islands, with BPI as the surviving bank,” BPI said. 

The bank has also submitted its capital stock hike proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The central bank on Dec. 14, approved the merger between BPI and RBC, which is expected to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. The transaction is still subject to the approval of the SEC. 

The merger was approved by BPI’s board of directors in September 2022 and by its shareholders in January 2023.

Upon the transaction’s closing, RBC’s shareholders will hold approximately 6% of the resulting outstanding capital stock of BPI.

BPI will also be taking over RBC’s 20% stake in digital lender GoTyme Bank, one of the six entities granted an online banking license by the BSP.

BPI saw its attributable net income grow by 33.33% year on year in the third quarter to P13.47 billion amid higher revenues.

Shares in the Ayala-led bank went down by 60 centavos or 0.58% to close at P103.50 each on Wednesday. — K.B. Ta-asan

Metro Manila Film Festival 2023: A fascinating modern take on a classic Pinoy superhero

Movie Review
Penduko
Written and directed by Jason Paul Laxamana
MTRCB Rating: G

By Zsarlene B. Chua

AS ONE of the most beloved Philippine superhero franchises, the challenge in remaking Pedro Penduko is how to make it a fresh experience for today’s audience while staying true to its roots as National Artist for Literature Francisco V. Coching’s 1956 creation. This year’s Penduko, an entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival, has adequately checked those boxes.

Written and directed by Jason Paul Laxamana, the film stars Matteo Guidicelli as the titular Pedro Penduko, the son of a local mananambal or a traditional folk healer, Apo Tisot (played by John Arcilla). Pedro, seeing his father heal the people in their village without accepting money for his services all while living in a shack, develops a disdain for his father and his lifestyle so he runs away to seek a better life in the city.

In the city, he lives in squalor, surrounded by disorganized occult materials while using his own powers to scam money at a local perya (fair) to fund his hallucinogenic habit (provided by a group of elves). He is eventually found by Wendy (Phoebe Walker), a recruiter for an organization called Hatinggabi (Midnight) that seeks gifted people to help those who are affected by sorcery — if they can afford to pay for the help.

With this, Pedro thinks he’s found his purpose in life — where he can make money off of his powers — and prove his father wrong. Or will he?

In this Penduko, Mr. Laxamana was able to weave the qualities of the classic Pedro Penduko character with an amazing world-building that’s extremely expansive and full of potential for a multi-film expansion, a Penduko Cinematic Universe, if you will.

Unlike previous Penduko iterations where the setting is in a fantastical world (think Janno Gibbs’ Ang Pagbabalik ni Pedro Penduko in 1994 or Pedro Penduko: The Return of the Comeback in 2000), this film is rooted in Philippine mythology, culture, and practices, not unlike Budjette Tan’s Trese where fantasy is anchored on reality. For example, Hatinggabi is an underground organization operating inside an abandoned building and which works like a call center for people who are under the mercy of a manggagaway or a sorcerer — in other words, Hatinggabi is a telehealth service with home visits for cursed people.

The gifted are divided into healers — mananambal — or sorcerers — manggagaway. But the sorcerers here aren’t portrayed as simply evil as the film makes clear that even sorcerers have roles to fulfill and that there are rules that need to be followed: the most important of which is to never kill a human being or you will fall under a very bad curse that will turn you into no more than a beast.

In a lot of ways, this kind of world-building and storytelling is reminiscent of animé series like Jujutsu Kaisen (2020) or YuYu Hakusho (1992) — where you have a world with strict rules for people with powers and yet is a world where it lets you define what you do with the powers you’re gifted with. It’s easy to see why Mr. Laxamana approached the film this way, as in previous interviews he mentioned that he was a fan of 1990s action animé series, many of which focus on the topics of self-determination and identity, Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), for one.

(I’m not the only to make the connection as a group of teens walking out from the same screening pointed out how the film is like Jujutsu Kaisen, a series about Japanese sorcerers.)

The story also forays into social commentary, including how capitalism is now intrinsic in every facet of human life and even makes a case for the importance of protecting indigenous groups against the encroachment of capitalism to protect invaluable cultural practices. The commentary was neatly folded into the narrative of the entire film.

The ending, too, was satisfying in that there were no compromises and showed how Pedro, until the end, remains a very, very flawed character.

Is this a good movie? Yes.

The film may fall prey to overly dramatic acting from Mr. Guidicelli as he tried to prove that he also has comedic timing. However, his acting does shine through when it counts.

The movie is also good for how Filipino culture is portrayed as something that has so many layers, so many stories — this writer learned so much about folk healing in two hours (and is now eager to learn more!).

The costume design was also a very high point of the film as modern Filipiniana, especially for the women, was front and center. Candy Pangilinan’s terno was a dream with its high-low full skirt, and so was Phoebe Walker’s terno coat with a design reminiscent of a good ‘ol Good Morning towel.

Overall, watch Penduko if you want a film where you can bring your children to (please do guide them during the scenes where Pedro is partaking in hallucinogens) and if you’re interested in learning more about a less-talked-about facet of Philippine culture.

Manila Water unit fined

MANILA Water Co., Inc. told the local bourse on Wednesday that its subsidiary Clark Water Corp. (CWC) paid a P1.06 million fine for violation of the Republic Act No. 9275 or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 and its implementing rules and regulations on effluent standards.

The east zone concessionaire said the Pollution Adjudication Board-Department of Environment and Natural Resources (PAB-DENR) found 106 days of violation of effluent standards from July 7, 2020 to Feb. 23, 2022.

PAB-DENR imposed the minimum penalty of P10,000 per day.

The Philippine Water Act aims to protect the country’s water bodies from pollution from land-based sources.

“CWC has implemented necessary measures and has been compliant with the General Effluent Standards on the Oil and Grease Parameters since 2022,” Manila Water said.

At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares of Manila Water went down by P0.24 or 1.3% or P18.16 apiece.

The water concessionaire serves Metro Manila’s east zone network, which comprises Marikina, Pasig, Makati, Taguig, Pateros, Mandaluyong, San Juan, portions of Quezon City and Manila, and several towns of nearby Rizal province. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Proxy statement

RAWPIXEL.COM/FREEPIK

STOCKHOLDERS’ meetings for corporations as well as village associations and civic clubs allow voting for the incoming directors of the board to be assigned to a designated person “by proxy.” This allows members to vote even when absent from the meeting.

The use of an alter ego too has become a social necessity for busy and in-demand personalities. The supply of high-profile subjects is not only limited and changes with the political tide. Rumors of replacements can become reality once a once-distant event takes place. Why does the highly desired celebrity (or “has been”) need to show up if someone else can take his place to read his message?

Action movies employ doubles or stunt men to fall off moving trains or jump off tall buildings and get set on fire as a substitute for the main star. The use of stand-ins is intended to protect the lead actor who has the less physical job of looking suave and delivering lines to seduce leading ladies.

The proxy (from the Latin word, procurare — to attend to) makes an appearance on behalf of someone more important, usually a boss he cannot turn down. Organizers of events are too polite to show overt displeasure at the absence of their original guest. (Has he been abducted by Martians?)

A substitute, however inadequate, must still approximate the level expected by the host. If the important man cannot attend, he just doesn’t send his driver in a suit to take his place. His substitute must still be of high enough standing, preferably considered important in his own right in another area (say, art critic), and properly attired.

The proxy is introduced as a “worthy representative,” even when he is unknown. He is even seated at the head table, with nobody talking to him, except the waiter. (Sir, cold or hot water?) When delivering his assigned speech, the proxy prefaces with an excuse for the intended speaker’s absence. The proxy assures the audience of the invited guest’s ardent desire to be present at this convention. He fell into a severe depression when the doctors informed him that he could not attend. (So, here I am, whether you like it or not.)

The flimsy excuses can detract from the message of the speech if anybody still cares to listen. Anyway, the representative proceeds bravely on with the speech, speaking confidently in the first person as if he were himself the absent one. He inserts his own warm-up jokes at the start. (I see you expected to see someone more recognizable addressing you. Anyway, I wrote this speech.) The quicker the stand-in gets off the podium, the better — are there any questions?

A proxy feels uneasy with his assigned role. The reception line expecting a VIP to arrive is surprised by a grinning substitute. (Sir, please register at the front.) When the organizers release a photo of the event to media, the stand-in is identified generically as a representative of the one “not in photo.”

A spokesman is a different kind of alter ego. He speaks for his principal. The opinions he expresses and the responses to questions from the floor reflect those of the person or company he represents. This process is meticulously rehearsed beforehand to come up with an agreed narrative. What a spokesperson publicly espouses may be at odds with the opinions he privately holds. He may even be asked to comment on an issue he has not discussed with his principal. (Until all the facts are in, we cannot comment on this issue.)

Substitutes of any kind are viewed with some discomfort. Should you ask them what happened to the original designated speaker?

Sending a substitute only calls attention to an obvious absence. It sends the message that this event is not worth the original invitee’s time. Even the proxy is uncomfortable ending up as a consolation prize, a gate crasher who must dine behind somebody else’s place card, a living disappointment to the host who does not bother to hide his displeasure. (When did you join the company?)

Maybe the alter ego can himself send a regrets message and simply not show up. Of course, this will displease his boss… but probably not the ones who invited him in the first place.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Researchers have a magic tool to understand AI: Harry Potter

MORE THAN two decades after J.K. Rowling introduced the world to a universe of magical creatures, forbidden forests, and a teenage wizard, Harry Potter is finding renewed relevance in a very different body of literature: AI research.

A growing number of researchers are using the best-selling Harry Potter books to experiment with generative artificial intelligence (AI), technology, citing the series’ enduring influence in popular culture and the wide range of language data and complex wordplay within its pages. Reviewing a list of studies and academic papers referencing Harry Potter offers a snapshot into cutting-edge AI research — and some of the thorniest questions facing the technology.

In perhaps the most notable recent example, Harry, Hermione, and Ron star in a paper titled “Who’s Harry Potter?” that sheds light on a new technique helping large language models to selectively forget information. It’s a high-stakes task for the industry: Large language models, which power AI chatbots, are built on vast amounts of online data, including copyrighted material and other problematic content. That has led to lawsuits and public scrutiny for some AI companies.

The paper’s authors, Microsoft researchers Mark Russinovich and Ronen Eldan, said they’ve demonstrated that AI models can be altered or edited to remove any knowledge of the existence of the Harry Potter books, including characters and plots, without sacrificing the AI system’s overall decision-making and analytical abilities.

The duo said they chose the books because of their universal familiarity. “We believed that it would be easier for people in the research community to evaluate the model resulting from our technique and confirm for themselves that the content has indeed been ‘unlearned,’” said Mr. Russinovich, chief technology officer of Microsoft Azure. “Almost anyone can come up with prompts for the model that would probe whether or not it ‘knows’ the books. Even people who haven’t read the books would be aware of plot elements and characters.”

In another study, researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle, University of California at Berkeley, and the Allen Institute for AI developed a new language model called Silo that can remove data to reduce legal risks. However, the model’s performance significantly dropped if trained only on low-risk text such as out-of-copyright books or government documents, they said in a paper published earlier this year.

To go deeper, the researchers used Harry Potter books to see if individual pieces of text influence an AI system’s performance. They created two datastores, or  collections of websites and documents. The first included all published books except the first Harry Potter book; another included all books in the series but the second, and so on. “When the Harry Potter books are removed from the datastore, the perplexity gets worse,” the researchers said, referring to the measure of accuracy of AI models. 

AI studies have cited Harry Potter for at least a decade, but it’s become more common as academics and technologists have focused on AI tools that can process and respond to natural language with relevant answers. With Harry Potter, “the abundance of scenes, dialogs, emotional moments make it very relevant to the specific area of natural language processing,” said Leila Wehbe, a Carnegie Mellon researcher who ran a set of experiments in 2014 collecting brain MRI data from people reading Harry Potter stories to better understand language mechanisms.

On arXiv, an open-access repository of scientific research, recent papers include, “Machine learning for potion development at Hogwarts,” “Large Language Models Meet Harry Potter” and “Detecting Spells in Fantasy Literature with a Transformer Based Artificial Intelligence.”

Even when it’s not central to the research, Harry Potter is also a favorite literary reference for researchers. One study, for example, used Rowling’s works to test the intelligence of AI systems such as those that spawned the chatbot ChatGPT, a topic that has generated much heat in recent debates. Terrence Sejnowski, who directs the computational neurobiology laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, argued in the paper that chatbots merely reflect the intelligence and biases of their users, like the Mirror of Erised in the first Harry Potter book, which reflects a person’s desires back to them

“Harry Potter is popular with younger researchers,” said Ms. Wehbe. “They would have read them as children or adolescents, thus thinking of them when choosing a written or spoken text corpus.” — Bloomberg

Loyola Plans to sell shares in LMCCI as part of liquidation

PRE-NEED FIRM Loyola Plans Consolidated, Inc. (LPCI) will sell its shares in Loyola Memorial Chapels & Crematorium, Inc. (LMCCI) as part of its liquidation process, the Insurance Commission (IC) said in a notice to the public.

The firm is offering for sale 804,898 shares of stock in LMCCI, the notice posted on the IC’s website showed. This is equivalent to 32.19% of the outstanding shares of stock of LMCCI.

Interested parties may send their bids within 30 days from Jan. 7, 2024.

The IC said the sale will be on an “as-is-where-is” basis and the payment must be made in cash.

“The minimum offer price must not be less than its book value or its current market value as determined by IC or other relevant agency, whichever is higher,” it said.

“The sale shall be net of all applicable taxes, transfer costs, and fees which shall be for the account of the buyers, in order to maximize the value for LPCI’s planholders,” it added.

LMCCI will have the right of first refusal and can match offers made by third parties, the insurance regulator said.

The IC placed Loyola Plans Consolidated under liquidation on Sept. 29 this year, meaning it is insolvent or can no longer resume operations and effectively canceling all issued policies and prohibiting it from writing new business.

The pre-need firm was first placed under conservatorship in March as the IC deemed it was financially incapable of continuing to pay benefits to its policyholders. It was then placed under receivership in May.

Parties may file their claims against the company until April 18, 2024.

Claims filed after the date shall be barred from the normal liquidation proceedings and shall instead be referred to the company for reconsideration in its dissolution and winding up proceedings. — L.M.J.C. Jocson

Rapper Ye, the former Kanye West, apologizes in Hebrew for anti-Jewish remarks

THE RAPPER YE, formerly known as Kanye West, issued an apology in Hebrew to the Jewish community on Tuesday for his past antisemitic remarks, saying he sought forgiveness and regretted any pain that his words had caused.

Ye’s apology, posted to X and Instagram, follows reports that the release of his new album, Vultures, has been delayed until January. The release has been pushed back several times from its original date in October. The artist sparked outrage last year after he made a series of antisemitic social media posts, including one that appeared to accuse musician Sean “Diddy” Combs of being controlled by “the Jewish people” and another that appeared to show a swastika symbol inside a Star of David.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) advocacy group, which documents antisemitism, had described the musician’s remarks as inflammatory and conspiratorial. It said he was directly referenced in 59 antisemitic incidents tracked by the group during 2022.

“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unplanned outburst… It was not my intent to hurt or disrespect, and I very much regret any pain I may have caused,” the musician wrote on Instagram in Hebrew.

The ADL welcomed the rapper’s apology on Tuesday while noting the impact of his past remarks. “Ultimately, actions will speak louder than words but this initial act of contrition is welcome,” the ADL said in a statement. Ye’s remarks led to him losing his partnership with Adidas and Gap for Yeezy products, as well as restrictions on his social media accounts at the time.

“I am committed to begin with myself and to learn from this experience in order to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future,” Ye wrote on Tuesday.

“Your forgiveness is important to me,” he wrote, adding that he was committed to making amends and advancing unity. The rapper’s comments on social justice issues have also sparked controversy, including in 2022 when he used a racial slur to describe comedian Trevor Noah. The same year he wore a shirt with “White Lives Matter” on it at Paris Fashion Week. — Reuters

Manila falls in smart centers list

Manila dropped by 11 spots to 75th out of 77 ranked centers in the eighth edition of the Smart Centers Index (SCI) by Long Finance Initiative. The index rates the innovation and technology offerings of commercial and financial centers. With a rating of 637, the Philippine capital placed the lowest in the East and Southeast Asia region.

 

Manila falls in smart centers list

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